Futurama has long been known as one of the smartest shows ever made. When it was canceled, fans mourned, claiming the show ended too soon. Futurama would come back and be canceled two more times; despite its cancellation, the show still has 24.7 million followers on Facebook and a devoted fanbase who rewatch classic episodes on streaming platforms like Hulu.

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One of the reasons fans loved Futurama was its ability to not only make audiences laugh, but also cry. The show had a way of pulling the viewer in, creating relatable characters, and inventing storylines that really struck a chord. Here are 10 times Futurama made us cry.

Fry's Lonely New Year (Space Pilot 3000 – Season 1)

Fry in the Futurama Pilot Episode

On December 31, 1999, a deadbeat pizza delivery guy, Fry, delivers a pizza to a cryogenics lab in New York City. Upon entering the lab and seeing it empty, he realizes the order was a prank call. As the entire world celebrates the New Year outside, Fry sits down, dejected and lonely.

After rocking back in his chair, he accidentally falls into a cryonic pod, being frozen until the year 2999. Despite this being the very first scene of the pilot, something about it hits a nerve, and the viewer automatically feels for Fry.

Slurms MacKenzie's Death (Fry and the Slurm Factory – Season 1)

Slurms Mackenzie parties in a tie and sunglasses in a tunnel as it caves in around him

The finale of season 1 mashed up the plotlines of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory with Soylent Green. After a new soda is unveiled, called Slurm, the population becomes addicted. The Planet Express crew end up winning a tour of the Slurm factory, where they meet party dude Slurms MacKenzie, the Slurm's spokesman.

After taking a few wrong turns, the crew discovers the secret ingredient in Slurm is the (cough) "waste product" of a giant queen slug. When the queen attempts to kill the crew, Slurms MacKenzie sacrifices himself to save them by partying hard.

Fry's Opera (The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings – Season 4)

Fry and Leela on a Holophonor

Hoping to profess his love to Leela, Fry agrees to trade his hands for the Robot Devil's in order to perform an opera on the holophonor.

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The opera turns out to be beautiful and moving, proving to be a highlight of the fourth season (this was also the original Futurama finale). However, at the end of the episode, Fry is forced to give the Robot Devil his hands back and becomes unable to play the holoponor ever again.

Fry & the Time Machine (The Late Philip J. Fry – Season 6)

When Fry, Bender, and the Professor hop in a time machine, they inadvertently can't get back to the present, making Fry late for his date with Leela.

As the episode progresses, the guys keep trying to return to the present, while Leela is forced to reconcile with the fact that Fry has gone missing. It's a heartbreaking yet often hilarious episode that keeps viewers guessing until the very last scene.

Mutant Discrimination (The Mutants are Revolting – Season 6)

In one of the more politically charged episodes of Futurama, the plotline focuses on the mutants that are forced to live underground in Old New York because of segregation.

In the episode, the Planet Express crew has to live in the sewers of Old New York for two weeks as punishment for harboring a mutant (Leela). The episode mirrors racial inequality, class struggle, and the ongoing impacts of discrimination.

Don't You Forget About Me (The Luck of the Fryrish – Season 3)

The Late Philip J Fry episode of Futurama

As revealed in flashbacks, Fry's brother Yancy is always trying to outdo Fry out of jealousy. In the future, Fry learns of a "Philip J. Fry" who was a millionaire astronaut, and the first to go to Mars. Fry, convinced his brother stole his name to live out all of his dreams, decides to go rob Yancy's grave.

At the end of the episode, when Fry arrives at the cemetery, he learns that Fry was actually his nephew, and Yancy named him after his brother out of respect. As the episode comes to a close, the song "Don't You (Forget About Me)" begins to play.

Life is Meaningless (Naturama – Season 7)

The first act of the anthology episode Naturama depicts the mating cycle of animals whose lives are pointless.

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Many species, like salmon, die after mating, making their life cycles appear to be absolutely useless. The episode hilariously (yet tragically) points this out, forcing the viewer to ask...is there actually a point to being alive?

Wake Up (The Sting – Season 4)

The Crew Find the Old Planet Express Ship

After a tragic accident at a space beehive, Leela believes Fry has died...until she starts seeing him everywhere, as he tells her to "wake up." Leela tries to tell the crew, but they soon begin to think she's lost her mind.

At the end of the episode, in a surprise turn, it's revealed that Leela was actually in a coma the whole time, and Fry had been sitting at her bedside pleading with her to wake up.

Waiting Until Death (Jurassic Bark – Season 4)

Trigger warning – this is horrendously painful. In a series of flashbacks, audiences discover that before being frozen, Fry had a dog, Seymour. On the night when Fry was frozen in the cryopod, he told Seymour to wait at the pizza shop until he got back.

Naturally, Fry never returned, and the episode reveals that Seymour sat outside the pizza shop for 12 years – through, rain, snow, hunger, and cold – waiting for Fry. At the end of the episode, Seymour dies.

The End (Meanwhile – Season 7)

Fry and Leela in Meanwhile

In the series finale (the third series finale), Fry accidentally gets stuck in a time-loop where he's forced to re-live falling off the Vampire State Building over and over again. Finally, the crew comes to save him, with Leela getting stuck in the time-loop as well. At one point, Fry accidentally breaks the device that repeats time, freezing the entire universe, except him and Leela.

The two grow old together and live a long happy life until the Professor announces he's actually alive, and that he has made a new time device that will reset everything to the way it was and no one will have any memory of what has happened. Fry and Leela hold hands and decide that they're ready to go back and grow old together all over again.

NEXT: Futurama: 5 Things That Are Scientifically Accurate (And 5 That Make No Sense)