Friday Favorites: Is Conan O'Brien also the Seed of Philip J. Fry?

With the release of the new Futurama DVD this week, along with the season premiere of 30 Rock last week and the effective retirement of Tina Fey from the Sarah Palin role this week, the week following Halloween, this post seemed fitting in for so many reasons.

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You know when you have those moments where a bunch of little pieces all of a sudden just fall together and something seemingly makes a lot more sense? I just had one of those moments.

You see, I was just watching Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and he was interviewing Tina Fey and they were discussing Halloween and what their kids are going to be wearing and he just happened to mention that when he was a kid, all he ever wanted to be was a robot, and it is like it all of a sudden just clicked.

I mean, Conan was a long time writer and producer on the Simpsons, which like Futurama, was a Matt Groening creation. Both are lanky red-haired characters with odd hair and goofy personas. I am not saying that Fry is an approximation of Conan... but that perhaps he was some inspiration for the character.



Of course, it probably doesn't hurt my case that Conan's sister Jane is a writer-producer for Futurama either.

Tags: conan o'brien, futurama, philip j. fry, jane o'brien, simpsons, writer, producer, halloween, bender, robot, costume, 1999