Less about the foibles of Everyman and more about the failure of gadgetry, Futurama, the new animated sitcom from the zany folks who brought us The Simpsons, pales next to its superlative sibling. But it may still prove to be a big success for cybergeeks and future-philes, as well as hard-core Simpsons loyalists.

This Sunday (March 28), FOX premieres the promising, if not exceptional, new cartoon with a half-hour episode that sets the premise and introduces us to a throng of human and non-humans who inhabit the future. Set in Y3K, the show is a cynical, thinking person's Jetsons, created by The Simpsons genius Matt Groening. A certain savvy enhances this tale of a gaggle of losers and misfits who fumble through space and time only to find out the future is far less than Utopian.

In the absence of Homer Simpson, we meet Fry (voice of Billy West), a twentysomething underachiever who leads a pathetic existence delivering pizza. It's New Year's Eve 1999 and Fry is muttering his mantra "I hate my life, I hate my life," forced to work while the world counts down to midnight. On his way to a delivery, his girlfriend dumps him and he sinks deeper into a colossal funk.

Delivering pizza to an "Applied Cryogenics" office, he accidentally falls into a cryogenics freezer scheduled to defrost in the year 3000. As we watch the years tick by on the counter, we bear witness to the future history of the universe through the nearby window. In this wry comic nugget, night turns into day, several intergalactic wars ensue, buildings crumble, forests emerge, the medieval ages reoccur and finally a Jetsons-like skyline appears and Fry arrives in the 31st century.

Before he can drink in all the future shock, Fry must flee to avoid being implanted with a career chip that will brand him as a delivery boy forever. Persuaded by his fate assignment officer -- a sexy, one-eyed alien -- Fry dashes through the future city (built atop the remains of old New York) and befriends a crusty robot named Bender (voice of John DiMaggio) who smokes and drinks. Pop culture references and celebrated voices still abound as Fry and Bender seek shelter in a "head museum" where the heads of the likes of Leonard Nimoy, Richard Nixon and (if you can catch it) Matt Groening swim around in fishbowls and are fed with fish flakes.

Leela the Cyclops (Katey Sagal's voice) pities poor Fry, who, she explains, is from "the stupid ages." Before long she joins Fry and Bender as the kooky crew takes refuge on a space ship crafted by Fry's great-great-great-great-great..nephew. The nephew, now a very old man, offers his great-uncle Fry employment as an intergalactic delivery boy, a classically Homer-esque "duh!" moment. Future episodes will no doubt follow this trio of misfits as they encounter multifarious alien life forms while zooming through the cosmos.

As of yet, Futurama does not display the wicked humor, dead-on parody and witty social commentary that made The Simpsons classic comedy for adults and kids alike. Instead, slapstick runs rampant as Fry is forever getting caught in automatic doors or crashing into walls thanks to the modern transportation services. Much like the annual Halloween Simpsons episodes, Futurama is a bastion of weirdness with more sight gags than heady humor or comic wisdom.