Jurassic Bark

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Lore & Background

When Fry takes Bender to a museum exhibit, he is shocked to find a fossilized dog on display, which he recognizes as his pet from the 20th century, Seymour Asses. For three days, he protests in front of the museum by dancing to "The Hustle" by Van McCoy, demanding they give him Seymour's body, which proves successful. Professor Farnsworth then examines Seymour's body, and concludes that, due to his unusually rapid fossilization, a DNA sample can be made to produce a clone, and it would even be possible to recreate Seymour's personality and memory. Fry begins to prepare for the dog, and Bender becomes jealous. Just when the Professor is ready to clone Seymour, Bender arrives. Angry that Fry will not spend time with him, he grabs the fossil and throws it in a pit of lava, believing that destroying it will restore his friendship with Fry. Fry is furious at Bender and upset at having lost Seymour. Bender realizes how Fry could love an inferior creature and apologizes for what he did. The professor explains that the fossil may not have instantly melted, as it was made of dolomite. With this in mind, Bender, claiming to be partly made from dolomite, dives into the lava and recovers the fossil. The Professor begins the cloning process, and his computer informs him that Seymour died at the age of 15, meaning he lived twelve years after Fry was frozen. Fry has a change of heart and aborts the cloning process, believing that Seymour must have moved on with his life, found a new owner, and forgotten about him. A flashback then shows that, contrary to Fry's assumption, Seymour faithfully obeyed his last command, waiting in front of Panucci's Pizza for Fry to return.

In Their Own Story

When Fry takes Bender to a museum exhibit, he is shocked to find a fossilized dog on display, which he recognizes as his pet from the 20th century, Seymour Asses. For three days, he protests in front of the museum by dancing to "The Hustle" by Van McCoy, demanding they give him Seymour's body, which proves successful. Professor Farnsworth then examines Seymour's body, and concludes that, due to his unusually rapid fossilization, a DNA sample can be made to produce a clone, and it would even be possible to recreate Seymour's personality and memory. Fry begins to prepare for the dog, and Bender becomes jealous. Just when the Professor is ready to clone Seymour, Bender arrives. Angry that Fry will not spend time with him, he grabs the fossil and throws it in a pit of lava, believing that destroying it will restore his friendship with Fry. Fry is furious at Bender and upset at having lost Seymour. Bender realizes how Fry could love an inferior creature and apologizes for what he did. The professor explains that the fossil may not have instantly melted, as it was made of dolomite. With this in mind, Bender, claiming to be partly made from dolomite, dives into the lava and recovers the fossil. The Professor begins the cloning process, and his computer informs him that Seymour died at the age of 15, meaning he lived twelve years after Fry was frozen. Fry has a change of heart and aborts the cloning process, believing that Seymour must have moved on with his life, found a new owner, and forgotten about him. A flashback then shows that, contrary to Fry's assumption, Seymour faithfully obeyed his last command, waiting in front of Panucci's Pizza for Fry to return.

Reader's Guide

The plot follows Fry discovering a fossilized version of his dog Seymour from before he was frozen. Fry seeks to have his pet brought back to life. Key characters include Philip J. Fry, who drives the emotional arc, and Professor Farnsworth, who provides the cloning technology. The episode is notable for its emotional climax and the flashback showing Seymour waiting faithfully for Fry. It contains continuity with later episodes: Bender's Big Score, produced five years after "Jurassic Bark", revisits Seymour, and puts the closing scene of the episode in a much happier context. A time-traveling duplicate of Fry arrives in the year 2000 and reunites with Seymour, caring for him until 2012 when Bender blows up Fry's apartment; the blast kills and fossilizes the dog. The episode was nominated for the 2003 Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming Less than One Hour) but lost to The Simpsons episode "Three Gays of the Condo". In 2006, IGN ranked this episode No. 7 in their list of the top 25 Futurama episodes, with critic Dan Iverson remarking that the climax was "one of the saddest endings to a television program that I have ever seen". In 2013, fans voted "Jurassic Bark" as the No. 1 episode of Futurama during the "Fanarama" marathon. In 2018, Paste ranked it third in their list of the top 50 Futurama episodes. In 2017, NME included it in a list of the series' ten best episodes. In 2019, Nerdist included it in a list of the show's eleven best episodes. The episode topped Variety's 2022 list of "Top 10 'Futurama' Episodes, Ranked", with author Katcy Stephan calling the episode "the series' most heartbreaking".

Did You Know?

• According to the DVD commentary, the last part of the episode where Seymour is waiting outside on the sidewalk was originally set to "Gayane's Adagio" from Aram Khachaturian's Gayane ballet suite, famously used in 2001: A Space Odyssey, but was replaced with "I Will Wait for You" from The Umbrellas of Cherbourg as sung by Connie Francis.
• According to the DVD commentary, the original idea for the episode was to have Fry's mother fossilized instead of Seymour, but this idea was scrapped after it was thought to be too upsetting to the audience.
• Before settling on a dog, Fry's father being fossilized was also discussed, but it too was scrapped for the same reason.
• When Fry delivers the pizza to the cryogenic lab in this episode, Nibbler's eye stalk can be seen peeping up through trash in the wastebasket, and Nibbler's shadow is visible when the floor is shown, foreshadowing events of "The Why of Fry".
• Bender's Big Score, produced five years after "Jurassic Bark", revisits Seymour and puts the closing scene in a much happier context: a time-traveling duplicate of Fry reunites with Seymour, caring for him until 2012 when Bender blows up Fry's apartment, killing and fossilizing the dog.