Fry (Futurama) - Production

Production

The name "Philip" was given to Fry by Matt Groening as a homage to the then-recently deceased Phil Hartman, for whom the role of Zapp Brannigan was created.

According to Groening, Fry's character developed over time while still keeping his qualities as a loser and the characteristics which writers hoped would make him appeal to the target young male audience. Fry's character is essentially a bungling, stubborn slob with a heart of gold that cannot get ahead in the world, yet he does have a slight glimmer of hope. Fry's clothing of a red windbreaker jacket, white t-shirt and blue jeans is based on James Dean's outfit from Rebel without a Cause.

Fry is voiced by Billy West, who also voices Doctor Zoidberg, Hubert J. Farnsworth and various other characters in the show. Although West auditioned for the part it was originally given to Charlie Schlatter; however, after a casting change he was offered the job. The voice West uses for Fry has been described as that of a "generic Saturday-morning good guy". West admits that he intentionally made Fry sound similar to his own real voice claiming that keeping the "cartoony" aspects out of it would make it harder for someone else to imitate the same voice. He notes that the voice is higher than his own and that he tried to duplicate the voice he had at age 25 which he describes as "this whiny, complaining voice — this plain vanilla voice". West also voices Lars Fillmore in Futurama: Bender's Big Score, who is a time travel duplicate of Fry with an injured larynx, and therefore, a slightly altered voice. The producers initially considered having a different voice actor do Lars' voice in order to keep viewers from guessing his true identity, but ultimately decided it would not make sense if anyone besides West did the voice.