The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings story
"The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings" is the final episode in the fourth season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the finale of the original run. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on August 10, 2003. The episode was written by Ken Keeler and directed by Bret Haaland, and it guest stars Dan Castellaneta, who reprises his role as the Robot Devil. Keeler was nominated for an Emmy Award for this episode, while the song "I Want My Hands Back" was nominated for an Annie Award. Directed by: Bret Haaland. Story by: Ken Keeler.
13 total · 8 major · 5 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| deal with the devil | major | Fry and others made deals with the robot devil. |
| humanoid robot | major | Fry swapped hands with the robot devil. Hedonism-bot was also featured. |
| music | major | Fry was learning the holophoner and bargained with the devil to get the skills. |
| opera | major | Fry wrote and performed a holophoner opera. |
| romantic love | major | Fry apparently won Leela's heart by the end of the episode. |
| the entertainment industry | major | The Planet Express team attended Fry's performance at an opera house. |
| true beauty comes from within | major | Zoidberg said this then changed his mind. In the end Leela was impressed with Fry even though he was inept at playing the holophoner. |
| unrequited love | major | Fry struggled to make Leela love him. |
| artificial body part | minor | Fry got the robot devil's hands. [hand] |
| body part transplant | minor | The Robot Devil hacked off Fry's hands with a meat clever and replaced them with his own robot hands. [hand] |