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Futurama Season 4 Update from David X. Cohen
Robotron2084 writes "Just goes to show that the best animated tv show around has some of the savviest producers around. Futurama producer/co-writer David X. Cohen posted this message on alt.tv.futurama recently. Interesting tidbits for futurama addicts to munch on while we await the season premiere on Dec. 9th. David talks about the prestigious awards they've received, upcoming guest appearances, and the banned christmas episode. I guess the fox executives were a bit scared of 'kwanzabot' at first, but they'll finally be airing a double-Xmas dose on Dec. 23rd!!"
But most mortals take study breaks. You can't do everything in one marathon session.
"Futurama" is the best animated show on television today.
Tough to swallow, I know. And this is coming from a guy with over a dozen Simpsons tapes. And I don't think anybody could argue against the fact that The Simpsons is probably the best animated show to ever hit the airwaves-- but even the die-hard fans realize deep down that the show today is a pale imitation of what it once was.
Most of the key creative minds behind the best seasons of The Simpsons-- seasons three to five or six, or so-- have moved on. I've read that even Matt Groening devotes most of his energy these days to Futurama, only keeping a vague guiding hand over his original creation and sitting in on script readings.
Futurama is marvelous. It's clever, consistently fresh, and it's got the spark and bite that The Simpsons has lost. The fact that there was a censored Christmas episode demonstrates a lot-- not that the show is any better for having material worthy of being censored, but simply that the writers are obviously trying to do something different from the norm.
Fox effectively screwed the show when they dumped it to the Sundays-at-7pm slot a few years ago. Most everybody I know who liked the show stopped watching, because it's just an inconvenient time. The ratings are probably abysmal, and Fox probably keeps the show on just to keep Groening happy-- but as long as it's out there somewhere, I'm happy, too. The DVDs should be marvelous.
Let's just hope they don't fall prey to the temptation to overuse celebrity guests like The Simpsons has; at least the Futurama writers tend to use their guests in ways that kinda sorta fit into the story, instead of bland and obvious ass-kissing. With the list that Cohen supplied, at least they're keeping some variety, but it's something worth a little bit of concern.
We all know how reflexive Simpsons fans are, because anybody reading Slashdot either is one or at least knows one. I'm hoping this isn't going to start any sort of flame-war or be seen as pissing on hallowed ground. I'll admit I'm wrong if anybody can describe a Simpsons show from the past three years to me that made them laugh half as hard as the classic, say, Homer Goes to College episode.
What did they send on Futurama's slot
the last three months?
"World" Series Baseball? - That's almost as sad as the choice of Hollywood action movies that are running months at my local cinema, blocking anything worth seeing.
Although you might think that the primary audience for Futurama is college students, I would tend to disagree. Most college students I know watch television, but they rarely watch it with the kind of consistancy you look for in a target group for a once-a-week show. If I only have a 30minute window in which to catch a show, and that window happens to fall sometime when I would likely to be out (8-10ish) I very likely won't catch the show.
Shows that are truly geared towards college students (Southpark for example) would be aired many times a week, at normal (10pm) an strange (12 and 2:30) timeslots. This is a tactic that I haven't seen show up elsewhere too much in the TV world. Finally, I feel like a network is working it's schedule around me, rather than vice-versa.
Someone in this thread mentioned X-Files being bad and being milked, but I actually like the new character which took the place of Scully's partner (I forget the new one's name all the time). It brings some fresh air in the series (which was dying, really). Of course this is personal meaning
Given that Futurama (and by collarary, the Simpsons) are much watched shows at Slashdot, why not arrange for an interview with him? He's probably much more accessable and net-savvy than Groenig, and as they should be in the final editing process for this season of Futurama, probably has a sufficient amount of free time to do so.
"Pinky, you've left the lens cap of your mind on again." - P&TB
"I can see my house from here!" - ST:
American culture
Heh heh, you didn't get the greatest meta-humour the show ever had. Do you remeber the 'Don't date robots!' propaganda when Fry had the idea to download a celebrity? The story of the whole episode is in the same style as the small clip, made up as a propaganda against file sharing. The space-pope-propaganda was obviously overdrawn in its ridiculousness while the whole episode was not. It is just a big, subtle piece of meta-humour, showing that the modern propaganda do not need to be as obviuous as one might think.
Dammit.
Did you know there are massive, streaming, analog downloads of Futurama? Yeah, it's called live television! People download the show on their primitive analog streaming video receivers (known as Tele-Visions because the Visions of things come from great distances) and use their Analog Tele-Visions Recording Devices w/ Magnetic Tapes to retain the analog signal. These are called Video Casette Recorders! Amazing technology.
Can't Get Enough Futurama got shut down for redistributing FREE CONTENT. I'm tired of big media bitching that technology has passed them up. If they wanted to be ahead of the ball game they'd make Futurama downloadable from some high-bandwidth servers. Leave the commercials in! Get your own revenue from the ad-banners (however small it may be)! Futurama fans get good quality video. Fox gets revenue from advertising. Everyone is happy.
orb