Futurama, on FOX (s1-4) / Comedy Central (s5-7)
A.V. Club; BCDB; Comedy Central; IMDb; Retro Junk; SadGeezers; Sitcoms Online; TV Tango; TV Tropes; Wikia; Wikipedia
streaming sites: Amazon; Google Play; Hulu; iTunes; Vudu; YouTube
For more links see cartoon links.

From Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons. Philip J. Fry was a pizza delivery guy with a crappy life in 1999, then he accidentally fell into a cryostasis chamber and was revived 1000 years later. He got a job working for this old guy named Professor Hubert Farnsworth who is distantly related to him. The professor has a delivery company, Planet Express. Also working for him is Dr. Zoidberg, a neurotic crustacean; Amy Wong, the daughter of wealthy Martian ranchers; Hermes Conrad, the accountant; and when Fry joins the company, so do Leela, a cyclops (the only one of her kind); and Bender, a selfish and sarcastic robot. There are also lots of recurring characters in the series, including Zapp Brannigan, the obnoxious, vain, incompetent captain of the starship Nimbus, and his assistant, Kif Kroker, whose life he makes miserable. Also, Leela has a pet named Nibbler, who we eventually learn is far more important than he seems. And... there's tons of other characters, too numerous and potentially spoilery to mention, so look at Wikipedia if you're interested.

Anyway, all kinds of weird stuff happens on this show, and it's really funny and sometimes it even gets kind of deep, or at least pseudo-deep. It can also touch the emotions, particularly when dealing with Fry's unrequited love for Leela. In fact some of my favorite episodes are the ones that are as touching as they are hilarious. I wish I could think of more to say; there were lots of plot developments over the years, but basically it was just a weird and cool and funny show, so... if you haven't seen it, just do so, okay?

The show originally aired on FOX for four seasons (1999-2003), then reran on Adult Swim for several years, before moving to Comedy Central. Then there were four direct-to-DVD movies (2008-09), including Bender's Big Score, The Beast with a Billion Backs, Bender's Game, and Into the Wild Green Yonder. After being released as DVD movies, they were broken up and aired as season five on Comedy Central, which also aired a sixth and seventh season in 2010-13. And that was the end. Except that in 2014, there was a crossover episode in season 26 of "The Simpsons." In 2023, Hulu rebooted the series for an eighth season (which they call season 11).