Mars University begins when the Professor (Billy West) tells the Planet Express crew that their next assignment is for him. He’s got a special delivery for his office at Mars University. When Fry (Billy West) asks if whatever’s in the box is safe, the Professor says it is. However, the crate begins to shake and rattle. Something inside growls as the Professor loads a tranquilizer gun, and shoots whatever beast is inside.
The crew heads out for the Red Planet, and once they arrive, Fry exclaims that back in the 20th century, nobody knew a university was even on the planet. Professor replies that the planet only became livable once they founded the school.
As the crew tours the campus, they come across the Wong Library with the largest collection of literature in the universe—a two disc set—fiction and non ficrtion. Next we come to Epsilon Rho Rho which is Bender’s (John DiMaggio) old frat house. He’s sad to find only nerd robots live there now. They ask him to show them how to be cool. He agrees.
Fry nostalgically remembers his college days at Coney Island Community College. There he studied physics in their College Booth before he dropped out. When he shows them his college dropout certificate, Leela (Katey Sagal) replies that by 31st century standards, he’s nothing more than a high school dropout. This revelation angers Fry, and he dedicates himself to enrolling in classes at MU, so he can drop out and get the respect he deserves.
The student registration has lines organized by last name. Of course the letter “Z” has the longest one. Amy (Lauren Tom) is enrolling as well, and she asks Fry what classes he’s going to take. He doesn’t have a clue, and asks the Professor what he’s teaching. The Professor replies, “The Mathematics of Quantum Neutrino Fields.” Even though Fry can’t pronounce it, he chooses that one. The Professor is slightly annoyed with Fry as he made up the title so that no student would dare to take it. He claims professors don’t know how to teach—especially him.
That night, Bender and his new Fratbot firends: Gearshift (Billy West), Oily (John DiMaggio), and Fat-bot (David Herman), spy on a human Sorority House. While they find sexy blondes pillow fighting in skimpy underwear, it’s not until one of them uses an old Apple Macintosh that the boys overload their processors. Once its front panel accidentally pops off, the robots stare at its naked circuits before falling backwards and off the ladder. The result is them destroying the Snooty House’s servant quarters—and some servants. When the members rush out, Robot House takes off.
By now, Fry arrives to his room at the financial aid dorm. There he shows Leela his place with two beds. He’s slow to realize that he has a roommate. Turns out his roomie is the contents of the package the Planet Express crew delivered to Mars—a cute little monkey named Günter (Tress MacNeille). The Professor’s latest invention is called the Electronium Hat, and when Günter wears it, he becomes super intelligent. Fry is immediately jealous of his new roommate—hates him—but the Professor made them roomies so he didn’t have to remember two new phone numbers, and they are going to need to get along.
The first day of classes has Fry, Amy and Günter together in a 20th Century History Lecture Hall. The lecturer tells them to look around as one in twelve of them will not pass the class. He then asks what device was invented in the 20th century that allowed people to view broadcast programs in their own homes. When Fry replies it is a Lite Brite, the teacher electrocutes him for stupidity. Günter answers the question correctly, which makes Amy reply that he’s smart AND cute. Fry gets jealous once again.
Elsewhere on campus, Bender and Robot House find themselves in more hot water. This brings on the ire of Dean Vernon, and he places the Robot House members on dodecatupple-secret probation. When Fat-bot gets nervous, he eats, and this causes him to nervously devour the Dean’s precious model spaceship. This makes him even angrier.
After class, Fry tries to hit a girl in a cafe, but she rejects him in favor of Günter who gets her number. We next cut to parents day at the university. Amy presents her parents to the dean who thanks them for their generous donation. The Professor greets Günter with a surprise—his primitive parents in a cage. Günter’s horrified to see them, and Fry makes things worse when he jealously opens their cage to free them. They destroy everything in the room, and throw something at the Dean. You know what it is.
On their way back to Fry’s financial aid dorm room, Leela tells Fry that what he did to Günter was cruel. Fry opens his door to find Günter eating bananas even though he previously claimed to only eat banana nutrition bars. Günter actually loves bananas, but he’s sad because his hat doesn’t make him happy. When Fry says he should just go back to the jungle, Günter won’t because he’s the professor’s prize experiment—he wouldn’t do that to him.
We return to the 20th century history class, where the students take a test. However, Günter can’t concentrate, and decides to take Fry’s advice, and return to the jungle. He removes his hat, and jumps out a window. Once Fry tells the Professor he told him to escape to it, the professor laments that he should have broken his leg before. He, Fry, and Leela then go looking for him.
Meanwhile, the fraternities have a rafting contest, and for the last hour, Bender’s team has taken a shortcut which leads them racing past Fry, Leela and the Professor as they try to get Günter to put his hat back on. The raft’s wake splashes the three into the river.
Bender’s team goes over a waterfall to win the race, but now Fry, Leela and the Professor cling to a tree trunk that’s headed for it too. Günter has to figure out how to put the hat on before he can save them, which he does. However, he falls over instead which crushes the hat. Now mangled, the hat only works at half its capacity, but Günter thinks that’s the right amount of intelligence. He then decides to transfer to Business school.
Since Robot House won the race, Dean Vernon must lead them in a parade in their honor. Everyone dances in the street as captions show the future of each character. Fry drops out successfully, and returns to his dead-end delivery job. Günter gets his MBA, and becomes President of the Fox Network. Fat-bot catches a computer virus in Tijuana, and has to be Rebooted. Leela goes on a date with Dean Vernon, but he never calls again. Bender, with his job done, he steals everything of value from Robot House, and run off.
Season 1 – Original Air Date: October 3, 1999