page_title: Hell Is Other Robots
section_title: Production
hierarchical_section_title: Hell Is Other Robots / Production
caption_attribution_description: David X. Cohen at the 2009 Comic Con in San Diego.
context_page_description: "Hell Is Other Robots" is the ninth episode in the first season of the American animated television series Futurama. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on May 18, 1999. The episode was written by Eric Kaplan and directed by Rich Moore. Guest stars in this episode include the Beastie Boys as themselves and Dan Castellaneta voicing the Robot Devil.
  The episode is one of the first to focus heavily on Bender. In the episode, he develops an addiction to electricity. When this addiction becomes problematic, Bender joins the Temple of Robotology, but after Fry and Leela tempt Bender with alcohol and prostitutes, he quits the Temple of Robotology and is visited by the Robot Devil for sinning, and Bender is sent to Robot Hell. Finally Fry and Leela come to rescue him, and the three escape.
  The episode introduces the Robot Devil, Reverend Lionel Preacherbot and the religion of the Temple of Robotology, a spoof on the Church of Scientology. The episode received positive reviews, and was one of four featured on the DVD boxed set of Matt Groening's favorite episodes: "Monster Robot Maniac Fun Collection".
context_section_description: "Hell Is Other Robots" lampoons drug addiction and religious conversion. In the DVD commentary for the episode, David X. Cohen, Matt Groening and Eric Kaplan all agreed that they felt comfortable enough with each of the Futurama characters to begin to take them in new and strange directions. Cohen noted that Bender's addiction is a perfect example of something they could do with a robot character which they could not get away with had it been a human character. One person at the studio refused to work on this episode because they did not agree with the portrayal of some of the religious content. Cohen also noted that the writing team had begun to loosen up during this episode, which gave it a feel similar to the series' later episodes. Kaplan claimed that before editing, there was enough material to make a three-part episode.
  Cohen and Ken Keeler traveled to New York to work with the Beastie Boys for their role. They waited three days for the Beastie Boys to call and say they were willing to record but eventually gave up and returned to the studios in Los Angeles. The audio tracks were recorded later. Adam "MCA" Yauch was unavailable at the time of the recording so only Adam "King Adrock" Horovitz and Michael "Mike D" Diamond voice themselves in the episode, with Horovitz also voicing Yauch. The Beastie Boys perform three songs in the episode: their 1998 hit single "Intergalactic", "Super Disco Breakin", and a brief a capella version of "Sabotage". It was initially requested that they perform "Fight for Your Right" but they declined. The episode also contains Futurama's first original musical number. The lyrics to "Welcome to Robot Hell" were written by Kaplan and Keeler and the music was written by Keeler and Christopher Tyng. When praised for his performance in the audio commentary, John DiMaggio, the voice of Bender, noted that the most difficult part of the performance was singing in a lower octave rather than keeping up with the song's fast pace.
caption: David X. Cohen
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