The Series Has Landed - Cultural References

Cultural References

During the sequence where Bender attempts to retrieve the keys for the Planet Express Ship from the vending machine, an arcade game titled Gender-Neutral Pac-Person can be seen in the background, a reference to the Namco arcade games Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man. Also, The Goophy Gopher Revue is said to have been sponsored by Monsanto, a bioengineering conglomerate from the United States. Crater Face, the Lunar Park mascot, is a reference to the moon from the 1902 French silent film A Trip to the Moon. Bender also impales Crater Face in the eye with his beer bottle after Crater Face attempts to confiscate his alcohol, which is another reference to the film as the astronomers' capsule (which resembles a bottle) hitting the moon's eye when it crashes. The title of the episode itself is a reference to the quote "The Eagle has landed" said by astronaut Neil Armstrong when he and Buzz Aldrin immediately touched down on the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission. Fry nearly makes a reference to Neil Armstrong's quote "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind".