"The Cyber House Rules" is the ninth episode in

season three A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

of the American animated television series '' Futurama''. It originally aired on the

Fox network The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by Fox Corporation and headquartered in New York City, with master control operations ...

in the United States on April 1, 2001. The title comes from the

John Irving John Winslow Irving (born John Wallace Blunt Jr.; March 2, 1942) is an American-Canadian novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter. Irving achieved critical and popular acclaim after the international success of ''The World According to ...

novel ''

The Cider House Rules ''The Cider House Rules'' (1985) is a novel by American writer John Irving, a ''Bildungsroman'' that was later adapted into a 1999 film and a stage play by Peter Parnell. The story, set in the pre– and post–World War II era, tells of a youn ...

''.

Plot

Leela is invited to a reunion at her old orphanarium. She initially dreads seeing the people who made fun of her eye as a kid, but she decides rubbing her success in their faces would be very satisfying. Leela attempts to wave her impressive lifestyle in the other orphans' faces, but they quickly resume making fun of her eye. But Adlai Atkins (voiced by guest star

Tom Kenny Thomas James Kenny (born July 13, 1962) is an American actor and comedian. He is known for voicing the titular character in ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' and associated media. Kenny has voiced many other characters, including Heffer Wolfe in '' ...

), the only other success story from the orphanarium, shoos them away. Adlai, now a phaser eye surgeon, offers to rework Leela's face to make her look normal, and she jumps at the chance, in spite of Fry's objections. Meanwhile, Bender adopts twelve orphans for the $100-a-week-per-child government

stipend A stipend is a regular fixed sum of money paid for services or to defray expenses, such as for scholarship, internship, or apprenticeship. It is often distinct from an income or a salary because it does not necessarily represent payment for work p ...

. The operation is a success, and Leela adapts to her new, normal-looking life. Adlai asks the two-eyed Leela out, which causes Fry to exhibit signs of jealousy. In short order, Adlai tells Leela that he is ready to settle down and have kids. A receptive Leela suggests that they should adopt, and Adlai agrees. They go to Bender, who is now selling the twelve children because the government stipends are not a good

get-rich-quick scheme A get-rich-quick scheme is a plan to obtain high rates of return for a small investment. The term "get rich quick" has been used to describe shady investments since at least the early 20th century. Most schemes create an impression that part ...

. Leela wants to adopt

Sally Sally may refer to: People *Sally (name), a list of notable people with the name Military * Sally (military), an attack by the defenders of a town or fortress under siege against a besieging force; see sally port *Sally, the Allied reporting na ...

(voiced by guest star Nicole St. John), a girl with an ear on her forehead and a tail. Adlai objects, and then suggests that the child have an operation to remove the ear and make her "acceptable". Leela, horribly offended, finally realizes that she was better off abnormal and physically threatens Adlai into removing her prosthetic eye. Bender, having been arrested by child services for "child cruelty, child endangerment, depriving children of food, selling children as food and misrepresenting the weight of livestock", returns the orphans to the orphanarium (which is subsequently named after him, though later episodes do not reflect this). After the children give Bender a drawing of him and the orphans, Bender expresses distaste for it and crumples it up and throws it in his chest as the orphans sadly walk off. Bender then sneakily pulls the drawing back out, smooths it out, and places it on the inside of his chest door with a magnet. The children notice this and mob him with hugs.

Cultural references

* The bandages wrapped fully around Leela's head, and the gradual removal of them as seen through her perspective is a reference to ''

The Twilight Zone ''The Twilight Zone'' is an American media franchise based on the anthology television series created by Rod Serling. The episodes are in various genres, including fantasy, science fiction, absurdism, dystopian fiction, suspense, horror, sup ...

'' episode " Eye of the Beholder". * The title of the episode comes from the

novel ''

''. * Bender paraphrases a line from Irving's novel when he says to the children: "Goodnight, you princes of Maine, you kings of New New England."

Broadcast and reception

In its initial airing, the episode received a

Nielsen rating Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rati ...

of 3.9, placing it 79th among primetime shows for the week of March 26 - April 1, 2001.

References

External links

* The Cyber House Rules at

The Infosphere ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cyber House Rules, The Futurama (season 3) episodes 2001 American television episodes