1ACV08: A Big Piece Of Garbage First UK airing: Sky One, 8:00pm, 9-11-99 "Who's the gross nerd?" This was actually the first ever episode of Futurama I ever saw. I was in Los Angeles for the 1999 E3 videogame show (which is nowhere near as much fun as it sounds, and LA is bloody horrible as well) and I was looking forward to seeing Matt Groening's new show. I wasn't impressed. To be honest, viewing conditions were not ideal. I was in a crap hotel in downtown LA (the Stillwell, if you're ever in LA and looking for a hotel to avoid), sharing a very small room with my then-boss, who while a decent enough guy is also one of those people who makes a lot of noise when they breathe. Because the room was swelteringly hot the air-con was on, very loudly, and the TV seemed to date from the era of the Kennedy assassination. I watched the show, smiled a couple of times at the movie references, and ended up thinking "Well, it was all right, but it was no Simpsons." How times change, eh? Watching the show again at home, on my comfortable couch, on a big-screen TV, with a decent speaker system and beer -- and more importantly, after having seen all the earlier episodes and getting familiar with the characters -- it was a lot better. It wasn't just a matter of home comforts influencing my judgement, either -- I also saw Family Guy in LA and didn't think much of it, and my opinion stayed the same even when Sky showed it right after Futurama. Apart from one joke about carbonite which cracked me up, Family Guy did nothing for me. Futurama, on the other hand, is currently my number one, must-see, 'phone me up while it's on and I will kill you!' show. But getting back to 'Garbage'; while not one of the best shows, it was still pretty funny. "Dibs on his CD player!", Simon the fish, somebody finally taking up the challenge and eating Bart Simpson's shorts, the 'Welcome back, losers!' banner and the Internet 'pornumentary' were the highlights. More to the point, the episode actually gave some characterisation to the Professor, who along with Hermes has been one of the most under-used people on the show. Maybe there'll be a Hermes show along soon. Hey, whaddya know? Rating: