Summary
- Futurama and The Simpsons share a number of voice actors, with Dan Castellaneta, Nancy Cartwright, Jan Hooks, Hank Azaria, Kevin Michael Richardson, Tress MacNeille, Frank Welker, and Maurice LaMarche all contributing to both shows.
- Several cast members from The Simpsons have made guest appearances on Futurama, including Dan Castellaneta as The Robot Devil, Nancy Cartwright as a Bart Simpson doll, and Jan Hooks as both Manjula and Angleyne.
- The crossover between the two shows goes beyond voice actors, with numerous guest stars appearing as themselves on both Futurama and The Simpsons, and even some fictional characters from The Simpsons being depicted on Futurama.
When Matt Groening launched Futurama in 1999, it was very much viewed as his follow-up to The Simpsons. The show opted to stay away from comparisons to The Simpsons in some ways such as avoiding Halloween specials and embracing a new animation style that would enhance its hand-drawn animation with occasional CGI flourishes (something The Simpsons would start doing in 2007). In other ways, it directly invited the viewer to see the shows as spiritually connected, with Blinky, the iconic three-eyed fish from The Simpsons making a cameo appearance in Futurama’s pilot episode, and, of course, the crossover between both shows’ casts.
Technically, the entirety of the main cast of Futuramaappeared on The Simpsons in season 26, episode 6 “Simpsorama.” The 2014 Futurama crossover episode saw the show’s characters traveling back in time to Springfield. However, a huge number of The Simpsons‘ cast had already appeared on Futurama, but some of these appearances are far more obvious than others. Additionally, Futurama is constantly adding to its list of guest stars thanks to its current Hulu revival.
10 Dan Castellaneta As Homer Simpson And The Robot Devil
Dan Castellaneta is the top-billed cast member of The Simpsons for a reason. As well as Homer, he voices Grampa, Krusty the Clown, Barney Gumble, Mayor Quimby, Groundskeeper Willie, and more. Wanting to include a little bit of connective tissue with The Simpsons when launching the show, Castellaneta was brought in as a special guest star in season 1, episode 9 “Hell Is Other Robots” where he produced a voice unlike anything he’d done on The Simpsons up until that point. His performance as The Robot Devil is based on the actor, Hans Conried. To date, he’s reprised the role six times.
9 Nancy Cartwright As Bart Simpson
Nancy Cartwright’s voice is heard in season 1, episode 8 “A Big Piece of Garbage,” where Bender picks up a Bart Simpson doll. It says, “Eat my shorts!” to which Bender replies, “OK!” before doing so. Unlike the others, the voice clip used was an archive recording, hence why Cartwright didn’t receive a credit on the episode. The show’s staff still included her when listing The Simpsons cast members to have appeared on the show during the audio commentary for season 3, episode 8 “That’s Lobstertainment!,” however.
8 Jan Hooks As Manjula And Angleyne
Apu’s wife, Manjula Nahasapeemapetilon, was properly introduced in The Simpsons‘ ninth season, and Jan Hooks went on to voice the character a total of six times before her death in 2014. The character was taken over by Tress MacNeille and has made countless non-speaking appearances beyond that, making her a character that most fans would instantly recognize. Hooks appeared on Futurama in season 3, episode 6 “Bendless Love,” where she was part of a love-triangle between Bender, Flexo, and her character, Angleyne.
7 Hank Azaria As Moe Syzlak And Harold Zoid
Hank Azaria does a huge number of voices on The Simpsons, including Moe Syzlak, Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, Lenny, Cletus, Comic Book Guy, and Chief Wiggum. As revealed on the audio commentary for “That’s Lobstertainment!,” Azaria ran into Futurama‘s showrunner, David X. Cohen, while both were at the recording studios shared between Futurama and The Simpsons. Telling Cohen how much he loved Billy West’s performance as Dr. Zoidberg, he asked to guest star as a relative of the character. This led to “That’s Lobstertainment!,” though Maurice LaMarche took over the role when the character made a brief appearance in Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs.
6 Kevin Michael Richardson As Dr. Hibbert And URL
Following the backlash surrounding Apu in The Simpsons, Kevin Michael Richardson took over the role of Dr. Hibbert in 2021. Pre-empting a similar potential backlash, Futurama recast several roles for its Hulu revival. Replacing John DiMaggio on both counts, Kevin Michael Richardson is now the voice of Barbados Slim and URL. Incidentally, Dawnn Lewis did the same thing in reverse, being the voice of LeBarbara on Futurama before The Simpsons drafted her as the new voice of Bernice, Dr. Hibbert’s wife.
5 Tress MacNeille As Agnes Skinner And Mom
The supremely talented Tress MacNeille is a regular cast member across both shows. As well as Agnes Skinner and Manjula Nahasapeemapetilon, she provides countless voices on The Simpsons such as Dolph, Crazy Cat Lady, Lindsey Naegle, Bernice Hibbert (prior to the aforementioned recast), Cookie Kwan, Mrs. Muntz, Brandine Spuckler, and Shauna. On Futurama, she’s the voice of Mom, Linda, Hattie McDoogal, Ndnd, Turanga Munda, Dr. Cahill, and pretty much every time a computer speaks. To date, she’s appeared in 134 episodes of Futurama and an astonishing 623 episodes of The Simpsons.
4 Frank Welker As Santa’s Little Helper And Nibbler
Frank Welker is likely the most prolific voice actor in the world with an incredible 889 acting credits on IMDb at the time of writing. As well as voicing Fred in all but a few iterations of Scooby-Doo, he’s Hollywood’s go-to actor for animal noises, leading to credits on films like Raiders of the Lost Ark, Independence Day, and Jumanji. He voiced Abu, the monkey in Aladdin, the gremlins in Gremlins, and Slimer in the Ghostbusters cartoons. He frequently voices animals on The Simpsons and Futurama, and after revealing that Nibbler could talk in season 3, episode 7 “The Day the Earth Stood Stupid,” Futurama retained him as Nibbler’s speaking voice.
3 Maurice LaMarche As A Couple Of Burps And Calculon
Just as Welker is Hollywood’s go-to animal noise guy, Maurice LaMarche is the go-to actor when you need a good burp. As such, he appeared in The Simpsons season 6, episode 18 “A Star Is Burns,” where he was enlisted to do the gargantuan burps that both Jay Sherman and Eudora Welty give. While there, he also did his George C. Scott impression for them. Years later, LaMarche was hired on Futurama to voice numerous characters including Calculon, Kif, Lrrr, Morbo, Horrible Gelatinous Blob, Hedonismbot, Walt, and The Borax Kid. LaMarche has gone on to make a further 27 appearances on The Simpsons since Futurama started.
2 Numerous Guest Stars As Themselves
The Simpsons and Futurama both frequently feature celebrity guest stars voicing themselves. Both shows having starred Dick Clark, Leonard Nimoy, Conan O’Brien, Stephen Hawking, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, Penn Jillette, Snoop Dogg, Matt Groening, Buzz Aldrin, Robert Wagner, Adam West, and Burt Ward. Further actors have appeared as fictional characters, such as John Goodman, Parker Posey, Karen Maruyama, Sarah Silverman, Lucy Liu, Bob Odenkirk, Mark Hamill, Patton Oswalt, Patrick Stewart, Wanda Sykes, Seth MacFarlane and Kathy Griffin. Additionally, while not providing a voice, The Simpsons has depicted numerous people such as Al Gore and William Shatner, who have gone on to actually appear on Futurama.
1 Phil Hartman Was Supposed To Voice Zapp Brannigan
Fan-favorite character Zapp Brannigan is one of Billy West’s many roles on the show, but originally, the plan was for Futurama’s Zapp to be voiced by Phil Hartman as a means of giving him a similar frequent guest role to the ones that had on The Simpsons, where he appeared in a total of 52 episodes playing characters like Troy McClure, Lionel Hutz, and Bill Clinton. After his death in 1998, Groening decided to name Philip J. Fry in his honor.
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