Professor Farnsworth is Fry's great to the thirtieth power nephew. It was he that Fry, Leela, and Bender sought out while on the run from the Cop-Bots on New Years' Eve 2999. The professor hired them to replace the late crew of the Planet Express Ship, then used the ship to escape from Nixon and the cop bots.

The Professor is an established scientist and inventor. He keeps a collection of doomsday devices in his lab to generate the level of fear that a first class scientist deserves. He is also the CEO of Planet Express, using revenue from the delivery service to fuel his research.

In spite of his advances age, the Professor still finds opportunities for contact with the opposite sex. He's had an on/off relationship with evil industrialist Mom for more than a century.