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"That Darn Katz!" is the eighth episode in the sixth
season 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 axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...
of the American animated television series ''
Futurama ''Futurama'' is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company and later revived by Comedy Central, and then Hulu. The series follows Philip J. Fry, who is cryogenically preserved for 1 ...
'', and the 96th episode of the series overall. It first aired on
Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American Cable television in the United States, cable television channel, channel owned by Paramount Global through its Paramount Media Networks, network division's Paramount Media Networks#MTV Entertainment Group, MTV Ente ...
on August 5, 2010. In the episode, Amy's rejected doctoral dissertation—a device to harness the Earth's
rotational energy Rotational energy or angular kinetic energy is kinetic energy due to the rotation of an object and is part of its total kinetic energy. Looking at rotational energy separately around an object's axis of rotation, the following dependence on the ob ...
—is used by evil invading space cats to fix their own slowing planet. Since the invention will cause the Earth to stop turning, Amy and Nibbler must team up to stop them while their co-workers have fallen under the thrall of the cats' cuteness. The episode was written by
Josh Weinstein Josh Weinstein (born May 5, 1966) is an American television writer and producer, known for his work on the animated comedy series ''The Simpsons''. Weinstein and Bill Oakley became best friends and writing partners at St. Albans School; Weins ...
and directed by Frank Marino. This was the first episode since "
Rebirth Rebirth may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Film * ''Rebirth'' (2011 film), a 2011 Japanese drama film * ''Rebirth'' (2016 film), a 2016 American thriller film * ''Rebirth'', a 2011 documentary film produced by Project Rebirth * '' ...
" to use the full intro sequence, and as a result, includes a classic cartoon before the opening credits. "That Darn Katz!" was generally well received by critics, who enjoyed another unexpected pairing, this time between Amy and Nibbler, and the character development for both that arose from it.


Plot

Amy prepares to defend her
doctoral A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...
dissertation in
Applied Physics Applied physics is the application of physics to solve scientific or engineering problems. It is usually considered a bridge or a connection between physics and engineering. "Applied" is distinguished from "pure" by a subtle combination of fac ...
: a machine capable of harnessing the
Earth's rotation Earth's rotation or Earth's spin is the rotation of planet Earth around its own Rotation around a fixed axis, axis, as well as changes in the orientation (geometry), orientation of the rotation axis in space. Earth rotates eastward, in progra ...
and magnetic field to produce energy. Nibbler confronts Leela, displeased with her treatment of him as a pet and desiring to be treated as a crewmember. At Amy's defense her proposal is rejected, mostly due to Professor Katz' pet
cat The cat (''Felis catus''), also referred to as the domestic cat or house cat, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species of the family Felidae. Advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the ...
, who distracts her and stimulates her
allergy to cats Allergies to cats, a type of animal allergy, is one of the most common allergies experienced by humans. Among the eight known cat allergens, the most prominent allergen is secretoglobin Fel d 1, which is produced in the anal glands, salivary glan ...
. The crew return to Planet Express, unknowingly accompanied by the cat. The crew—with the exception of Amy, who remains resentful, and Nibbler, who is jealous of Leela's affection for the cat—finds the cat endearing. Amy and Nibbler become suspicious, rationalizing that no creature could behave so cute without an ulterior motive. They discover that Professor Katz was a puppet controlled by his cat, Katz, the entire time, who is part of an alien race of talking cats that invaded Earth during 3500 BC in
ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...
. The space cats' home planet,
Thuban Thuban (), with Bayer designation Alpha Draconis or α Draconis, is a binary star system in the northern constellation of Draco. A relatively inconspicuous star in the night sky of the Northern Hemisphere, it is historically signifi ...
9, began losing its rotation, and they discovered that Earth had the correct orientation and magnetic field to harness its rotational energy. They built the
Great Pyramid of Giza The Great Pyramid of Giza is the largest Egyptian pyramid. It served as the tomb of pharaoh Khufu, who ruled during the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt, Fourth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom of Egypt, Old Kingdom. Built , over a period of about 26 years ...
—an energy transfer antenna—and planned to send Earth's energy to
Thuban Thuban (), with Bayer designation Alpha Draconis or α Draconis, is a binary star system in the northern constellation of Draco. A relatively inconspicuous star in the night sky of the Northern Hemisphere, it is historically signifi ...
9, but became distracted by their worship by the Egyptians, forgetting their technology over the centuries. Amy's thesis provided the cats with their lost technology, allowing them to begin again. Katz and his colleagues place the crew under their influence with "hyper-cuteness", forcing them to build Amy's invention. Imprisoned by the space cats, Amy and Nibbler watch helplessly as the device stops the Earth. Katz transfers the stored rotational energy to Thuban 9 and departs, leaving the Earth in disarray and freeing the crew from their hypnosis. Earth begins burning on its sun-exposed face while the opposite face freezes. The crew attempt to reverse the machine and restore Earth's rotation, but find it can only turn in one direction. Lamenting that her invention doomed Earth, Amy realizes that by continuing to turn it, they can restart the Earth's rotation, albeit in the opposite direction. The plan works and the machine reclaims Earth's rotational energy from Thuban 9, now spinning in the opposite direction. In recognition of her achievement, Amy receives her doctorate, now "Doctor Wong". She remains with Planet Express because the job market is poor while Nibbler reconciles with Leela, appreciating that she cares for him.


Production

The episode was written by ''
The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening, James L. Brooks and Sam Simon for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It is a Satire (film and television), satirical depiction of American life ...
'' veteran
Josh Weinstein Josh Weinstein (born May 5, 1966) is an American television writer and producer, known for his work on the animated comedy series ''The Simpsons''. Weinstein and Bill Oakley became best friends and writing partners at St. Albans School; Weins ...
and directed by Frank Marino. Weinstein had previously worked as a
show runner A showrunner is the top-level executive producer of a television series. The position outranks other creative and management personnel, including episode directors, in contrast to feature films, in which the director has creative control over th ...
for ''The Simpsons'' along with his writing partner Bill Oakley during seasons seven and eight. "That Darn Katz!" marks the first episode written by Weinstein, who had previously served as a consulting producer for ''Futurama'' since 2001.


Cultural references

The episode largely references the
Lolcat A lolcat (pronounced ), or LOLcat, is an image macro of one or more cats. Lolcat images' Idiosyncrasy, idiosyncratic and intentionally grammatically incorrect text is known as lolspeak. Lolcat is a Compound (linguistics), compound word of the ...
phenomenon, imitating posters and phrases such as " I Can Has Cheezburger?".


Broadcast and reception

"That Darn Katz!" originally aired on August 5, 2010 on
Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American Cable television in the United States, cable television channel, channel owned by Paramount Global through its Paramount Media Networks, network division's Paramount Media Networks#MTV Entertainment Group, MTV Ente ...
and was viewed by an estimated 1.950 million viewers receiving a 1.3 rating/2% share in the
Nielsen ratings 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 rat ...
and 1.0 rating/3% share in the 18-49 demographic, going down slightly from the previous week's episode. The episode received mostly positive reviews from critics. Zack Handlen of
The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was created in ...
enjoyed the episode, rating it an A−, stating that the jokes were strong throughout the episode. Handlen felt the episode was "a return to pure wackiness" and found it a nice change of pace from the more emotional issues of the season. He particularly praised the season's continuation of unlikely pair-ups in Nibbler and Amy, feeling that both received good character development from the episode. Danny Gallagher of
TV Squad Weblogs, Inc. was a blog network that published content on a variety of subjects, including tech news, video games, automobiles, and pop culture. At one point, the network had as many as 90 blogs, although the vast majority of its traffic could b ...
gave the episode a positive review, also praising the focus on Amy away from her relationship with Kif and the exploration of Nibbler's relationship with Leela. Alex Zalben of UGO.com likewise enjoyed the use of both characters, feeling that "it paid in such great character dividends. Amy manages to prove she’s not just a bunch of eye candy, and Nibbler finds out it’s not so bad to be cared for by Leela after all." He concluded that " That Darn Katz!'may not have pulled on the heart strings like the last two episodes, but this one was firing on all cylinders – and we need episodes like this, just silly larks about cats taking over the world, to give us breathing time between the crying jags." Though he was disappointed with the episode's plot similarities to season three's "
The Day the Earth Stood Stupid ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...
",
IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...
critic Robert Canning rated the episode 8/10. He felt that the episode's cuteness and funny moments allowed him to "forgive this small weakness." Sean Gandert of Paste rated the episode 9.3/10 and called it an "instant classic", particularly praising the character development for Amy and Nibbler. Merrill Barr of ''
Film School Rejects Film School Rejects is an American blog devoted to movie reviews, interviews, film industry The film industry or motion picture industry comprises the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking, i.e., film production company, prod ...
'' gave the episode a more mixed review, calling it " very well structured episode of Futurama despite it not being that funny." He stated that the episode lacked the laughs of previous episodes, but felt that overall it was better than the first five episodes of the season.


References


External links

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"That Darn Katz!"
at MSN {{Futurama episodes, 6 Futurama season 6 episodes 2010 American television episodes Television episodes about cats Fiction set in the 4th millennium BC