Comedy revels in references to old sci-fi films

In the new sci-ficomedy “Future Man,” Josh Futturman (Josh Hutcherson) works as a janitor by day but is an amazing gamer at night.

A pair of warriors from the future pick up on Futterman's gaming skills and recruit him to travel through time to save humanity.

Executive producers Seth Rogen and Kyle Hunter describe it as “The Last Starfighter” meets “Terminator” meets “Children of Men” meets “Back to the Future” meets “Quantum Leap.”

“It’s inspired by a lot of the science-fiction movies that we grew up (with)," Rogen said of the 14-episode series, available on the streaming service Hulu.

"Pretty much any science-fiction movie from the last 35 years, roughly, influenced the show,” he said.

“But more than anything, it’s kind of like a journey from a janitor to potentially the savior of mankind and the story of two future warriors slowly humanizing in our world, which is a weird thing to say out loud.

“But that’s kind of the emotional core of the show and all these science-fiction (movies) are the plot of the show.”

The series begins in present-day Los Angeles but makes major leaps back in time where the travelers must deal with various iconic moments, music, people and locales.

The second episode, for example, has the travelers visiting 1969 at the exact moment a historical moment is happening.

All Futturman can do is try to work with Tiger (Eliza Coupe) and Wolf (Derek Wilson), the pair who came from a future where life is so bad that they see nothing wrong with eating rats.

The fact that “Future Man” has been inspired by a variety of popular movies is something the executive producers promote, even mentioning many of the films in the series.

Rogen, who was born in the early 1980s, has a deep passion for the movies of the ’60s, and he loved the idea of trying to reflect that period through the show.

“It was a fun area to take the show, both visually and narratively. The music, the style of it, the different themes that are exactly the same themes that are happening now, basically, and have probably been happening forever and will continue to happen until the world ends,” Rogen said.

“I think sometimes it’s nice to use old older times as metaphors for current times.

“They’re not that thinly veiled often.”