Together, they are employed by Fry's distant nephew, the senile and demented old scientist Professor Farnsworth, as the crew of his delivery company Planet Express.

Later seasons, however, depicted them as much closer and, while still dysfunctional, more loving and attentive, with Fry's father treating him harshly to ensure he grew up tough.

Despite his below-average intelligence, Fry has a soft and tender heart, frequently going the extra mile to help his friends, even if he is oblivious to their problems; he is the only other staff member aside from Professor Farnsworth who genuinely enjoys the company of the ship's doctor, Zoidberg.

He has even proved to be a competent fighter in "Law and Oracle" and "Fun on a Bun", the latter episode showing that Fry is skilled enough to hold his own against Leela in direct physical combat.

Due to a time-travel incident in "Roswell That Ends Well", Fry became his own grandfather, but this genetic defect also means that Fry lacks the Delta brainwave that enables conscious thought, his mind instead consisting of an apparently random assortment of other waves that function as a working mind (Leela compared it to a dress made out of carpet remnants).

As a result of this defect, Fry can withstand the intellect-draining onslaught of the evil Brainspawn and is immune to the Dark One's mind-reading in Into the Wild Green Yonder as well as the mind-controlling power of the Hypnotoad.

Through prediction (on the eve of 1999, as the Nibblonians lack the ability to travel through time), they guessed that Fry would be the one to save the world from the evil Brainspawn.

Because his natural lifespan would not extend to the right millennium, however, Nibbler is sent to make the aforementioned delivery call to push an unsuspecting Fry into the cryogenic tube, to re-emerge December 31, 2999.

Leela initially sees Fry as a friend and nothing more, but deeper affection for him appears occasionally, such as on the numerous occasions when he risks his life for hers ("Love and Rocket", "The Sting", "Lrrreconcilable Ndndifferences").

In "Time Keeps on Slippin'", Fry moves the stars to write a love note to Leela, but the message is blown up before she can read it.

When Fry returns the Robot Devil's hands to prevent him from forcing Leela to marry him, the opera deteriorates, causing the audience to leave.

In the film Futurama: Bender's Big Score Leela falls in love with a seemingly perfect man, Lars, and they soon become engaged.

Through this, he then reveals that he is in fact the time paradox of Fry, who had undergone physical changes due to an explosion and become more mature through 12 years of age and experience.

The audience is never shown the contents, but through their facial expressions, it is clear that while the journey for them may be bumpy, Fry and Leela will ultimately end up happy.

In later episodes, such as "The Butterjunk Effect" and "Fun on a Bun", Fry and Leela are shown to be in a relationship, though the events of the series precipitate frequent arguments and breakups.

When Leela is late, he thinks she has rejected him and attempts suicide by jumping off the building; he sees her arriving just in time, however, and presses the reset button over and over again to keep from hitting the ground.

The first part of the eighth season, picking up ten years after time was frozen, shows a young-again Fry and Leela continuing their relationship.

During a trip on the luxury starliner Titanic, Amy Wong passes Fry off as her boyfriend to avoid being set up by her parents with an unattractive potential husband.

In "The Deep South" after the Planet Express crew discovers the mythical underwater city of Atlanta, Fry starts dating a mermaid named Umbriel.

After an accident with a microwave caused the crew and the professor to be thrown back into time, Fry meets his paternal grandparents in the year 1947 on the Roswell, New Mexico air force base.

After realizing that his existence depends on his paternal grandparents having children, Fry tries to protect his grandfather by locking him into an abandoned house in the desert.

During the events of "Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs" Fry meets police chief Colleen O'Hallahan while observing the tear in the universe and soon begin dating.

Professor Hubert Farnsworth is the distant nephew of Philip J. Fry and his only living family member in the 31st century aside from Cubert and Igner.

He runs a small delivery service to fund his scientific research and gives Fry, Leela, and Bender jobs.

He and his wife often express how much they miss Fry after his disappearance despite numerous flashbacks where they are seen making light of it or suggesting that they made little effort to find him.

Although she often joins in on the jokes about his disappearance, she has expressed sadness over his loss and is able to tell him how much she loved him when Nibbler allows Fry to enter into her dreams and say goodbye.

He has a horrible realization that the grave he was robbing was that of his nephew and not his brother when he clears the headstone and it reads "Here lies Philip J. Fry.

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.

[6] Fry's character is essentially a bungling, stubborn slob with a heart of gold who cannot get ahead in the world, but still has a slight glimmer of hope.

[14][15] West admits that he intentionally made Fry's sound similar to his own, claiming that keeping the "cartoony" aspects out of it would make it harder for someone else to imitate the same voice.