Philip J. Fry is the central character of the television series Futurama. Although he is the progenitor of the central drama for the show, many episodes feature him only as a minor character.
History
Fry, as he is called, was a New York pizza delivery boy on December 31, 1999. It was on that New Year's Eve that he walked into a cryogenics lab while on a prank delivery for "I.C. Weiner". While leaning back in a chair Fry fell into an open capsule where he remained frozen until December 31, 2999. Needless to say, upon reawakening, he found himself in a world very different than the one he left at the turn of the 21st century--a fact that is the source of much dramatic irony during the show, especially the earlier episodes in which Fry is featured more heavily.
After situating himself in the 31st century, Fry gains the friendship of a cyclops, Turanga Leela, and a bending robot named Bender. Together, they find Fry's next of kin, the ancient Professor Hubert Farnsworth, who agrees to employ each of them in his delivery service, Planet Express.
Character
Another great source of humor is Fry's lack of intelligence and unabashedly pathetic lifestyle. He lives like a pig with his best friend, Bender, rarely thinks more than five minutes into the future, and frequently injures himself.
According to the episode "My Three Suns", he is twenty-five years old (not including the time he spent cryogenically frozen).
Even though Fry is far from the paragon of male figure, form, or virtue in any century, he does manage to accrue some romantic experiences. At one point, he reunites with his girlfriend from the 20th century, and also experiences one episode pairing with Amy Wong, the intern at Planet Express (see "Put Your Head on My Shoulder"). At one point he also dates a robot version of Lucy Liu (despite the protests of the other characters), but the relationship does not last long and at the request of the real Lucy Liu, Fry deactivates the robot, just as the real Liu is falling in love with Bender (see "I Dated a Robot").
Fish-out-of-water Fry often tries to recapture his past. He came into a large sum of money through a millennium of interest accrued in a bank account and furnished an apartment in a style befitting his twentieth-century era. He discovered the preserved corpse of his dog Seymour in "Jurassic Bark", and was all set to bring him back to life with the Professor's help--until he realized the dog lived twelve years after his disappearance. Deciding Seymour had lived a full life without him, Fry abandoned the project. In a flashback we see Seymour, like Ulysses' dog, waited all those years for his master to come home, never leaving that spot or giving up hope, until old age took him. Many fans consider this to be the series' most touching episode.
Throughout the series, Fry maintains an interest in Leela, which eventually builds to a frequently rejected love, especially in later episodes.
In the episode "Roswell That Ends Well" Fry returns to 1947 and becomes his own grandfather (he "did the nasty in the past-y"). Because of this he has a genetic anomaly that causes him to lack the delta brainwave. This helps him save the universe from a malicious race of disembodied brains, dubbed the "Brainspawn" (see "The Day the Earth Stood Stupid"). So in some way he may even be the most important person in the universe!
Fry is the deciding factor in the galactic conflict between the Niblonians and the evil Brainspawn. In fact, the Niblonians were responsible for Fry being frozen: they knew he would be needed to defeat the Brainspawn in the 31st century, but he would naturally have died long before then.
While traveling through time, Fry was present at the time of his past self's freezing. However, Nibbler gave Fry the choice this time, and for Leela's sake, Fry froze himself. Nibbler's and Fry's shadows are visible in a view from underneath the table Fry is sitting at when he falls backward into the cryogenic tube -- both during the series premiere, and in the episode where this takes place. Because of this, it is speculated that the creators planned the details of Fry's fateful night from the conceptualization of the show. On the DVD commentary for the first episode, Matt Groening and David X. Cohen noted "Secret!" when Nibbler's shadow was visible.
In return, Nibbler helped Fry get together with Leela by giving him a flower, which Fry then gave to Leela after she had a bad date. (see "The Why of Fry")
