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!!"

Comments

Here's Google Groups' thread/copy...

[antdude]

I hope this link works for everyone. If not, then just do a search for "David X. Cohen here Futurama" (without quotation marks) on http://groups.google.com. :)

Re:I like the show

[alexmogil]

I'll hate to see the absolute thrashing you'll get for this comment, but by God, you're right. How many times to we need to see that certain Anime DVD titles *might* come out on DVD, yet... where's the Simpsons Season 1 DVD review? Not that the review would be terribly *good* mind you.

Oops! "Here" shouldn't be in the key words!

[antdude]

"David X. Cohen Futurama" (I have no idea how "here" got in there). :)

Decoding the Alien Alphabets

[hyyx]

I welcome anything new from Matt Groening. The Simpsons is still the ultimate classic, despite its similarities with CmdrTaco.

I am still missing the discussions of the decoding the alien alphabets at The Futurama Outlet (content has been down for some time). Does anyone know of any other forums where this is being discussed? Is anyone even following me here?

Re:Decoding the Alien Alphabets

[Zocalo]

You could try the revamped Cant Get Enough Futurama site at http://www.gotfuturama.com. They have pretty much the entire old CGEF site back on-line now, including the Alien Language codecs - it's in the "Interactive" menu section.

Bad timing

[ajuda]

I think that December 9th is a bad time to air the premier. The popularity of Futurama probably rests highest amongst the college crowds... Won't they all be too busy with finals and papers to notice and remember that Futurama is on?

Re:Bad timing

[steeef]

fuck that. there's no way i'm not taking time out from writing my term paper for scifi to watch futurama.

Re:Bad timing

[Rob Simpson]

I dunno. But I've got only 3 finals this term (as opposed to 7 last year...ugh), and my last one is on December 7. Hah!

Re:Bad timing

[petree]

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.

Re:Bad timing

[Trepidity]

Most college students I know just download the episodes and watch them whenever they want. There's one guy on campus here with a TV capture card who regularly records some of the more popular shows, so everyone knows where to get them off the local network...

Re:Bad timing

[uslinux.net]

I'd have to vehemontly disagree, here. When I was in college (about 3 years ago), EVERYONE would stop what they were doing to sit around the TV to watch the Simpsons. Furutama didn't attract as many people (probably because its more techy/sci-fi oriented), but it had the same effect. I think both shows particularly attract the 18-24 crowd.

Re:Bad timing

[colmore]

yeah, even though the simpsons is in the shitter, i don't know of a single student organization that schedules meetings for 8:00 on sundays here. but then again, this is an excessively nerdy college.

Re:Bad timing

[rnturn]

``When I was in college (about 3 years ago), EVERYONE would stop what they were doing to sit around the TV to watch the Simpsons.''

I'm sure that if I were in college now, Futurama would be the sort of show that we'd take breaks for. When I was in college the show was Monty Python. If the TV in the normal viewing location wasn't working, there would actually be roving bands of us knocking on the doors of dorm rooms that we knew had TVs and commandeering their room to watch the show. We made a lot of converts, too.

And it's not just for college-age folks. I suspect that mainly us old farts would get the humor in something like `Bachelor Chow' and dog food (``Makes it's own gravy!'' [cringe]). I have to explain some of the humor to my daughters because they're way too young to remember those ancient commercials, shows, etc., that Matt G. is poking fun at. I like taping the show so you can slow it down to see the jokes in the signs and billboards that you otherwise miss.

Glad to see that it's still in production. The Fox affiliate in Chicago has the annoying habit of pre-empting the show for just about anything.

Re:I like the show

[Sarcasmooo!]

Am I missing something? 10 comments in, most of which are 'frst post d00d!' and it's the most poorly received Slashdot story you've seen?

Waiting for the Futurama Season 4 premiere.

[z-man]

To quote Fry's brother (Yancy) "I'm dying of ooold aaage.." :)

Quote from Episode: Luck of the Fryish

Re:Waiting for the Futurama Season 4 premiere.

[SuzanneA]

To be honest, I'd rather wait the extra few weeks, and NOT have to put up with 'this weeks episode of Futurama has been pre-empted by game X of the NFL season' - which is the reason WHY they delayed the season premiere, from what I've read.

I am *still* puzzled over this weeks simpsons being bumped for Star Wars: Episode 1, sure its an OK movie, but bumping Simpsons for it? come on, surely someone could have thought out the scheduling a little better...

Re:Waiting for the Futurama Season 4 premiere.

[woodstok]

Damn right, Homer beats Obi-Wan without a doubt and Barney slaps Luke Skywalker in a bar fight anytime anywhere.

Re:Waiting for the Futurama Season 4 premiere.

[glwtta]

"Scheduling... think out? Unpossible!"

Re:Waiting for the Futurama Season 4 premiere.

[z-man]

True enough, but to be honest I wouldn't doubt for a second that fox will continue to bump Futurama episodes this season like they did a dozin times during the airing of season 3. They'll find some excuse... Their is always some sport event going down in the world.. Hey, we got the olympics coming up, I'm sure they can find something there :).

Re:Waiting for the Futurama Season 4 premiere.

[SuzanneA]

Well, FOX ought to be careful. I've heard lots of rumors about various production companies considering ditching FOX if they don't get their act together, due to pre-emption and lousy timeslots.

The way things are going, FOX could lose Simpsons, King of the Hill, Futurama, Family Guy, etc. I suppose if they put sports above all of those anyway, which they seem to, they won't care that much...

Btw, if sports are so important to FOX, why don't they leverage their FOX Sports network more? I find it hard to believe that the hardcore sports fans out there are all still watching OTA, heck, I find it hard to believe that even a reasonably sized minority of hardcore sports fans are still OTA.

To illustrate the insanity of FOX pre-emptions, last week a football game ended early. Instead of carrying on with regular scheduled programming (if the game had finished on time, it would have been King of the Hill), they decided that they'd fill the extra 10 minutes, and the next hour, by bringing in an unscheduled game, hence pre-empting King of the Hill. Pre-emption for a game that wasn't supposed to be aired anyway? How insane is that?

Futurama is rising, Simspsons is declining

[mcarbone]

perhaps it should watch an episode or two of _The Simpsons_

Not if you watch an episode or two from the last few seasons. I think it is pretty clear to all Simpsons fans that the last 3 or 4 seasons of The Simpsons show signs of aging. Compared to these recent seasons, Futurama is a far superior and funnier show. However, Futurama still does not surpass Simpsons during its height; i.e., seasons 4, 5, and 6 (maybe 3).

Then again, Futurama's very first season was about as funny as an above-average Simpsons season. So if it has a season 4 comparable to the Simpsons' season 4, we're in for a real treat.

Re:Futurama is rising, Simspsons is declining

[thesolo]

Not if you watch an episode or two from the last few seasons. I think it is pretty clear to all Simpsons fans that the last 3 or 4 seasons of The Simpsons show signs of aging.

Funny, Season 12 had the highest ratings since Season 6...There goes that theory.

P.S. My favorite season was definitely 4 ;)

Re:Futurama is rising, Simspsons is declining

[Corporate Troll]

Ratings have nothing to do with the quality of a show, it is all about the popularity of the show. The Simpsons are popular, mainly because of the quality of the earlier shows, and I suppose many people are like me: they watch the Simpsons because they used to be good, and you hope that a good episode will come along. Of course I am really disappointed every time I watch and I don't even know if we are watching the latest season here (Europe is always at least one season behind)

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

Re:Futurama is rising, Simspsons is declining

[Talanvor]

"So who knows how long Simpsons will continue. "

Until the show becomes unprofitable - Troy Maclure.

Re:Futurama is rising, Simspsons is declining

[BrotherPope]

I will agree with you about The Simpsons, especially the re-hashed "Flaming Moe's" episode where Moe makes his bar into some trendy place and alienates Homer, etc... Sounds all too familiar :)

A useful observation, and I'm sorry to see it marked down as flamebait <RANT>I suppose it's because of the negative opinion of Futurama. Note: This is Slashdot. Negative opinions are not tolerated in general. If you can be long-winded about it, you'll get mega-ratings even if (or especially if) you don't make any real sense. Please conform or confuse.. it's your only real hope of getting along here.</RANT>

Another episode came to mind when I saw this same episode. The one where Moe turns his bar into a family restaurant. Perhaps this recycled crap is the result of a cut-n-paste session with old episodes. Or perhaps earlier generations of Simpsons writers have left Mad Libs for the current team. Either way, I find it grimly amusing when 'worst episode ever' is mocked by the exact people who make it apply week after week. Gallows humor from the writing team, I guess. It seems they'd rather take potshots at the rabid fanbase they used to have instead of making the show watchable again.

Re:Futurama is rising, Simspsons is declining

[uslinux.net]

I think it is pretty clear to all Simpsons fans that the last 3 or 4 seasons of The Simpsons show signs of aging.

I'd have to say that there are one or two episodes each season that I don't find funny (the recent one where Moe changes his bar to a post-modern bar is one that comes to mind), but I still think the Simpsons is as funny (or funnier) than when it started. The writing has changed somewhat, since they hire a new writer every few seasons (anyone remember 89-91 when Conan O'Brian used to write for them?)

What I'm surprised about is that Futurama has lasted so long. Don't get me wrong, I love the show, but it targets a smaller audience - namely, the technology/sci-fi savvy. The Simpsons has survived so long because the show targets a wider audience. As kids, we found it funny because we could relate to Bart. As we've grown up, he show has changed its focus to Homer, and now that we've all got jobs, we can better relate to him. After all, Homer is a big slob who's family doesn't respect him, he hates his job, and loves beer. My parents (who are almost 50) watch the Simpsons and find it just as funny as I do, but I don't think they feel the same about Futurama.

Of course, the crappy timeslot Fox had it running in last season didn't help either. What genius schedules a show for 7pm, expecting a football game to end on time, and then comes in to the show IN THE MIDDLE of the NEW episode. Fscking genius scheduling.

Sure, they'll be studying

[barzok]

But most mortals take study breaks. You can't do everything in one marathon session.

Clever Nick Name, where are you?

[John Harrison]

in an episode that will likely be our season finale in May, all of the following: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, George Takei, Walter Koenig, and Nichelle Nichols

Wil,

Maybe you should sign up for this. I am sure that you could have lots of fun on Futurama. Besides, it seems that you've been ignored in your quest to be on The Tick, or anything with Bruce Campbell or at least to have your questions answered. It seems that Futurama has a guest star every other week or so, same with The Simpsons so your odds should be good.

Re:Clever Nick Name, where are you?

[Black Parrot]

> in an episode that will likely be our season finale in May, all of the following: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, George Takei, Walter Koenig, and Nichelle Nichols

Is that the reality TV episode, where we vote them off the Enterprise one at a time?

Re:Clever Nick Name, where are you?

[Legion303]

Remember Sesame Street? The part where they showed four objects and sang about which one didn't fit?

Moderators: read the parent and this again if you think this is offtopic.

-Legion

Re:Clever Nick Name, where are you?

[John Harrison]

Sorry, should have been less specific. I didn't mean that he should sign up for that particular episode. Though there could be some humour ing being the odd man out.

Yeah right... Re:Bad timing

[PsychoKiller]

Coming from someone who was up at 2:00am watching Ultimate Fighting Championship when his Phys 170 final was at 8:30am last year, I must say that this will be perfect for me to procrastinate.

Thanks Futurama, I'm probably going to fail EECE 356 because of you!

And the show loves all of us.

[fireboy1919]

Offtopic for a moment: perhaps others had trouble logging in so couldn't post, as I couldn't about ten minutes ago, and thats the problem.

Back on track:

I've heard it said that love makes the world go round.
After countless hours of research sitting in front of the TV, I've learned that CARTOONS MAKE THE WORLD GO ROUND. I know because I once saw a cartoon where a bunch of them where actually pushing the earth along its axis. Can you believe it? Love makes the world go round, and so do cartoons. Cartoons must be love. I suppose that means if I behave like a cartoon, I'm showing the love.

'Scuze me. I'm going to go spread the love, Bender style. Has anyone seen my liquor and my mallet?

Let's face it, people...

[Murdock037]

"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.

Re:Let's face it, people...

[Greyfox]

It's good, but I think Invader Zim has a slight edge, especially for us folks who appreciate those twisted, surreal plot lines. If you haven't checked it out yet, you really should.

Re:Let's face it, people...

[Hector73]

"Futurama" is the best animated show on television today.

What does everyone think about Family Guy?

In my opinion (I'm not trying to troll), it has replaced the Simpsons as the best cartoon in primetime TV. FOX has graced it with a dreadful timeslot as well (Thursdays at 8) and it seems that the time slot has caused the writers to revolt and push the decency envelope as much as possible (to which I am very happy). I hope FOX doesn't kill it.

Re:Let's face it, people...

[Masem]

I disagree; Futurama's better than the Simpsons currently, but as others pointed out, there's a lot of Simpsons rehashing going on too, and some of the plots are just boring.

IMO, the best animated cartoon as made in the states currently is 'Samurai Jack', on Cartoon Network; it's created by Genny T. of Dexter's Lab and Powerpuff Girls fame, but his focus on this show is on the style and feel, and not the jokes. It is very visual, and the music in the background is very important; neither of the main characters speak much, and dialog is only subsidary to make the visual elements work well. If you haven't caught this yet, definitely set aside time to do so: it's on at least at Mondays at 9pm EST, with repeats on Saturaday and possibly Sunday.

Re:Let's face it, people...

[Falcula]

I'm most of the way with you on this, but occasionally one slips out that restores my faith long enough to keep me glued to the tv on sunday evenings... or at least in front of the vcr late sunday nights...

Last night re-ran one of my favorites, "Trilogy of Error" Where it shows a day in the life of Bart, Lisa and Homer all intertwined. The whole show rolled along pretty good and the jokes were really funny. Plus you get the added benefit of feeling really superior by understanding the homages to lesser known films like "Run Lola Run".

Re:Let's face it, people...

[Deosyne]

FOX has tried to kill it a couple of times, but they always get a barrage of letters from fans so huge that they drop it back in to the rotation, although always in another shitty time slot. I don't care, as long as they just keep making them. :)

Re:Let's face it, people...

[dinivin]

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.

That may be, but it's still one of the two best TV shows currently running (Buffy being the other).

Dinivin

Just thought I would get ready. . .

[Newt-dog]

If you are in anticipation of the kick off of a new season - Here's a place to catch up on the latest gossip and even download a wallpaper for your puter. For those of you into ASCII art, they even have a few pics for you. If you are looking for a few original sketches or cells you might want to look Here.
But if your a real die-hard, you can download a few MPEG episodes Here at around 220 meg per episode (also 56k'er versions available for the bandwidth impaired)
I for one like the snappy comebacks and the semi-adult humor. My personal favorite is Bender drinking and smoking cigars!

Newt-dog

Re:Just thought I would get ready. . .

[DickPhallus]

But if your a real die-hard, you can download a few MPEG episodes Here [palmy.net.nz] at around 220 meg per episode (also 56k'er versions available for the bandwidth impaired)

You just trying to get that site slashdotted?!

Have you no mercy? The man is giving away episodes! Show some pity...

Re:Just thought I would get ready. . .

[Newt-dog]

Yea, I guess your right -- shouldn't give away the really cool links on slash. I guess everyone is hooking up to the trough sucking down the poor guys bandwith. I hope he's not on a pay-per-gig overage type plan.

Newt-dog

Re:people are also stupid

[Sarcasmooo!]

I don't see what's wrong with friends. Seems to me like it's a modern, wholesome, realistic portrayal of a New York City where people of color are never around in any capacity.

Re:Hello?

[satanami69]

Even so, I know I set my VCR to record it every week. Heck, I had MLB world series recorded. Whether I'm stuck in the library or out celebrating finishing the term paper with my good friend Jack D. I'll be sure to catch the episode one way or another.

I had to work tonight and wasn't able to catch the Family Guy, but you'd be damn sure to find me watching it as soon as I get off work. Heck, I don't even have a Tivo.

The backside of futurama

[pacc]

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.

Re:The backside of futurama

[neosnooze]

"'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."

This year's world series was the best ever played. With 39 Million viewers tuning in to watch game 7 (http://tv.zap2it.com/news/ratings/networks/011104 network.html, the series blew Titan 'Friends' out of the water. I have been looking through the archives and I don't even see Futurama rounding out the top 20.

Re:The backside of futurama

[Masem]

You also have to blame the football double headers on FOX. Games are scheduled for a 3 hr block of TV time but notoriously go over; FOX has yet to complete it's coverage of a second game (save for last week, they didn't show a second game, opting for the Phantom Menace) by 7pm EST, and typically will bounce to other games they are covering if any are still being played when another game is over. Plus their 'team' has to get in their last words, so not only has Futurama not been seen (save for West Coast), but poor King of the Hill has been pre-empted nearly every week too (and IMO, this show is getting too little respect; it's not laugh a minute, but is very close in the combination of laughter and human emotion that Simpsons had in seasons 1-6.)

Re:The backside of futurama

[grimarr]

It seems to me that Fox finally realized this, and has been scheduling football until 7:30, not even trying to show something else from 7:00 to 7:30. Good move.

Also, I share your pain about King of the Hill. It's one of my favorite shows. I wish it wasn't used so often as a placeholder in the schedule....

Re:The backside of futurama

[phillymjs]

With 39 Million viewers tuning in to watch game 7

Well of course, half of them were Yankee fans hoping to see 'their' team win, and the other half were Yankee-haters, hoping to see the arrogant bastards lose what they think they deserve every year just because they're the New York Fucking Yankees. I fall into the latter category (could you tell?), but I didn't watch Game 7.

What really chapped my ass was how the D'backs weren't even viewed as a match for them, like the Yankees should've been given the World Champions title after winning the ALCS. I distinctly remember one FOX promo's voiceover after the Arizona was leading the series 2-0: "NOW it's a Series!" Like the Yankees threw the first 2 games to make it a challenge for them to win it all. Dicks.

Back on topic, I, too, hated the World Series and continue to hate the football shit disrupting my viewing habits. I have workdays when I *need* to come home and see an hour of The Simpsons to unwind, and nothing inflamed me more than clicking on the TV at 6:30 only to find the stupid fucking World Series pregame show on.

I can only hope that when the time comes to renew these stupid TV contracts to carry sports, FOX gets outbid by someone whose shows I don't give a shit about. Maybe ABC, since they have killed all interest in 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire' by giving it Vanilla Ice-level overexposure. One headline The Onion never used: "ABC proposes eight-day week to allow more airings of 'Oprah', 'Millionaire'."

~Philly

Bah!

[Yakman]

That sucks, here in Australia we haven't even had Season 3 shown yet. I've resorted to downloading DivXs from Morpheus to feed my habit. Although I just noticed the next story down from this one is about Kazaa shutting down, I wonder how that will affect Morpheus.

Anyone know if/when 7 plans to show Season 3 here?

Re:Bah!

[Yakman]

Ah crap. Just got an email from my brother (who also happens to be a Futurama fan) who said that Season 3 is starting on Foxtel (cable) this Sunday.

Which doesn't help those of us without cable.

Hopefully it'll be on free-to-air in the new year.

Re:Kwanzabot?

[AgentUmino]

Well, I'm pretty sure Kwanza bot will be like the robot santa, but for Kwanza.

Kwanza is an African American holiday celebrated from December 26 to January 1. (It's not a religious holiday or meant to replace Xmas or anything, a mistake many people make.)
If you want more info, check out: infoplease.com

Re:Kwanzabot?

[Sid67386]

Maybe something to do with the Afro-American holiday Kwanzaa that's celebrated from Dec. 26 - Jan 1?

Slashdot is powered by Fry and Bender

[scrutty]

Check the http headers

506 $ lynx -source -head http://slashdot.org | grep X-
X-Powered-By: Slash 2.003000
X-Bender: There's nothing wrong with murder, just as long as you let Bender whet his beak.

There's either a X-Fry or an X-Bender with a random quote each page.

Re:Slashdot is powered by Fry and Bender

[Manes]

I get:

X-Fry: Hardy Boys: too easy. Nancy Drew: too hard!

80% of the time, must be something wrong with their random number generator :)

Anyways, how do I add my own custom http headers in a easy way?

printf "X-foo: bar\nContent-type: text/html\n\n" would work offcourse, but how do I go ahead and do it if i want i in every request?

Re:Slashdot is powered by Fry and Bender

[scrutty]

use a mod perl handler

Re:Slashdot is powered by Fry and Bender

[poot_rootbeer]

Hooray for wasting bandwidth with pointless HTTP headers!

in the UK

[squaretorus]

Here in the UK c4 shows Futurama at about 6pm on seemingly random weeknights - and sometimes earlier!

I've probably only seen about 6 episodes ever because of this. I know I could tape it, but I'm not that organised, and anyway, I probably don't care enough to bother!

If it was on later, anywhere between 7:30 and midnight, it would get a bigger audience. Unfortunately, those hours are reserved for chick programming like Allie McBeal, Make over shows, and soaps!

I think it goes out first on Sky or e4 at a better time but because I've got a posh old house I'm not allowed a minidish because I have an evil neighbour who puts in planning objections... bitch! And the Monkey signal is too weak on my street.

Re:in the UK

[lord_humungous]

You get Allie McBeal in the UK? Nasty. I secretly hoped that the worst American TV had to offer never made it across the pond. I live in the US(GMT -6:00) and Futurama is on Sundays at 6:00PM. Which means that it's never shown due to overtime football games, infomercials, re-runs of 1980's sitcoms, etc. I think Fox is trying to kill the show.

I really liked Futurama until...

[Captain Zion]

... I watched the Lucy Liu episode, which has some heavy RIAA-aligned propaganda against P2P file sharing. It was somewhat disturbing to see that in such a cool show.

Re:I really liked Futurama until...

[tshoppa]

... I watched the Lucy Liu episode, which has some heavy RIAA-aligned propaganda against P2P file sharing. It was somewhat disturbing to see that in such a cool show.

I don't think it was heavy-handed - I think it was hilariously funny. Sure, they portrayed us "computer geeks" in a manner similar to The Simpson's episode Homer Goes to College, but if I can't take some ribbing about my friends then I've lost my sense of perspective. And the portrayal of "nappster.com" in the Futurama Episode you're talking about I Dated a Robot shows how those in the entertainment industry really do feel about the "threat" of file-sharing services. (Hint: Most of the real world doesn't recognize any particular right to share arbitrary streams of bytes.)

Re:I really liked Futurama until...

[gazbo]

Rubbish. That was the most blatant piss-take I've ever seen - hardly propaganda.

It's a little like one of the episodes (can't remember which) where the text at the start of the credits reads Coming soon to an illegal dvd near you

While they may not like their work being pirated, they know who their fans are. It's an in joke, not serious propaganda.

Re:I really liked Futurama until...

[Ozan]

... I watched the Lucy Liu episode, which has some heavy RIAA-aligned propaganda against P2P file sharing. It was somewhat disturbing to see that in such a cool show

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.

Re:I really liked Futurama until...

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Re:Kwanzabot?

[DoorFrame]

Kwaanza was a holidy invented in 1966 by a professor somewhere out in California. I'm not entirely clear what the point is, it has something to do with agriculture as I recall. Basically it's a holiday custom created for African-Americans to celebrate in December (because we didn't have enough with Christmas and Hanakkah?).

"guardians of good taste at the Fox Network"

[sharkey]

Some more sentiments in the same vein:

Military Intelligence
Bureaucratic Efficiency
Microsoft Quality
George W. Bush's Oath of Office

Re:"guardians of good taste at the Fox Network"

[gazbo]

I believe the word you're looking for is 'oxymoron'

Re:"guardians of good taste at the Fox Network"

[MrFredBloggs]

American culture

Re:"guardians of good taste at the Fox Network"

[Anonymous Coward]

Insightful slashdot comment
President Al Gore
Enterprise Linux

Re:"guardians of good taste at the Fox Network"

[sharkey]

Humble America

Re:"guardians of good taste at the Fox Network"

[Wyatt Earp]

English Food
French Beer

Re:"guardians of good taste at the Fox Network"

[Anonymous Coward]

I believe the third one should be Microsoft Works ;)

Re:"guardians of good taste at the Fox Network"

[sharkey]

Irish Sobriety

Thank god!

[BillyGoatThree]

Week after week of homoerotic "sports" were beginning to make me think Futurama wasn't coming back. Unfortunately it won't be THIS Sunday. *sigh*--another Junkyard War rerun it is, I guess. I wish they'd kill off that idiot Tyler and bring back Robert.

Bad schedules? TiVo is your friend

[mccalli]

I'm reading a lot of comments along the lines of "Can't watch it, bad timeslot".

I've recently got a TiVo, and it's definitely improved the quality of my viewing. It's not perfect - has a really irritating tendency to miss the start or very end of longer programmes, but on the whole I find it works well.

Cheers,
Ian

Re:Bad schedules? TiVo is your friend

[Wyatt Earp]

I don't know about TiVo, but on a ReplayTV under Other Options when you are recording, you can have it start a few minutes earlier or later.

Re:Bad schedules? TiVo is your friend

[spudnic]

You can do the same thing with Tivo.

------
Adding stuff to beat the lameness filter.

Re:Bad schedules? TiVo is your friend

[sinster]

Erm. Maybe I'm being a little bit antiquated, but it isn't necessary to have TiVo or Replay or anything like that in order to catch shows that are in bad timeslots. I have this amazing device called a VCR. It does this just fine.

Suggestion to Slashdot: Interview with David Cohen

[Masem]

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.

The Family Guy

[superdoo]

I'd have to say that The Family Guy is funnier than the Simpsons or Futurama right now. It is fresher in every way, animation, humour, pop-culture ripping, relentless cynicism. Doesn't anyone else agree?

Re:The Family Guy

[Jaycatt]

I definately agree... I still enjoy the Simpsons, and occasionally they have something completely unexpected (my favorite part of animated shows since that kind of thing is very hard for live action to accomplish). Futurama more so, for the same reason (being set in the future leave open all sorts of possibilities for weirdness). However, Family Guy has surprised me almost every single episode with something like Stewie suddenly breaking into a Broadway dance number or one of the characters carrying on in some sort of odd tirade... Just last night I laughed my head off at Peter being in a small glass enclosed box and struggling for air as he lets one go. Sure, it's just a fart joke, but who would've expected that? I even had to rewind at the end of the episode to watch it again right away.

Re:The Family Guy

[DigitalDragon]

Damn right! Family Guy is much funnier than Futurama. I've been a fan of Simpsons for a long time, was very excited when Futurama came out, but then I've discovered Family Guy, and I think the humour is much more original. Futurama is still good.

Re:The Family Guy

[chragaku]

I agree. Nothing could touch the Simpsons in its prime, but currently it pales compared to Futurama and withers before Family Guy. Sure, a lot of the Family Guy's jokes rip off the Simpsons, but Family Guy can't be touched right now with its manic pacing and obscure, irreverent humor.

Re:The Family Guy

[Deosyne]

I love Futurama and have been jonesing most severely for the premiere, but I do have to agree that Family Guy is by far the best animated show out. I'm a nut for satire, though, and that's where Family Guy really shines. Well, that, and the completely irrelevant but hysterical tangents that they aren't afraid to shoot to.

Best line ever was from Petey the Pistol in the National Gun Association commercial while being held by the kid: "If you squeeze me, I make make bad people go away." :)

Re:The Family Guy

[drwiii]

You are correct sir. Catch the episode with Bill Gates and his Windows chopper last night?

troll?

[poemofatic]

Moderators be damned I think the Simpsons have just been boring recently. Unfortunately, I don't think Futurama is that funny. Cool and on topic, but not very funny. And I don't like the drawing. Does anyone like the drawing? The Simpsons had a cool frantic dishevelled look to go with the mile a minute jokes and hurried dialogue. Futurama looks well, wierd. Nowadays, if I do watch it, I often start nodding in agreement and end up looking at my watch.

P.S. Anyone with metamod points -- how about starting a "Crusade for Boorish Dignity" -- let's look back over those Linux Rulez! posts to see if they were really that insightful.

Re:troll?

[10Ghz]

"And I don't like the drawing. Does anyone like the drawing?"

I LOVE the way Futurama is drawed! Basically, it's same style as Simpsons, but with alot more refinement. The animation seems considerably smoothers and it has a "3D" feel to it.

Re:troll?

[uberdave]

That "3D" feel is probably from the 3D animation software that they use to generate those scenes.

air time

[Scrameustache]

I loved futurama, back when I knew when it was on.
But Malcom in the middle came and the lil' bastard bumbed futurama to the null-zone of tv schedules: It was moved to the football overtime slot (it played about 2 every 3 months...I hate football!) and now it moved again, and I have -no- idea when its on.

I think its a conspiracy to stop us from watching something good on tv...

But I was affraid it had been cancelled (they can't get good ratings when noboy knows when its on, can they?)...of course, it might have been cancelled HERE...local tv stations like to play evangelical specials and not play sci-fi.

Guess I'll have to wait for the DVDs

Tick tick...

[glowingspleen]

After doing a quick Google search, it sounds like 65 episodes is the generally agreed-upon minimum for weekday syndication.

There have been 72 produced so far, so with any luck we might be getting a daily dose of great animation in a year or two!

Re:Tick tick...

[tregoweth]

I've always seen that the magic number is 100. But I can't see anyone other than the Sci-Fi Channel or Comedy Central picking up Futurama in syndication. A UHF station going from Roseanne to Futurama might blow someone's mind.

Help Save FAMILY GUY!

[glowingspleen]

Guys, it sounds like Family Guy is getting some less than stellar ratings this season (then again, its timeslot sucks). Fox should be making a decision on its future in the next month or two.

Help Save Family Guy is a link I found skimming through Google. They'll print out your comments and mail hard copies to Fox directly.

Re:Help Save FAMILY GUY!

[dinivin]

Maybe it's getting less than stellar ratings because it sucks!

Dinivin

Re:Help Save FAMILY GUY!

[dinivin]

Flamebait!?! Have you ever seen the show? Piss poor animation (the baby's head looks like a freaking football, for crying out loud). Stupid story lines. Juvenile humour.

Face it people: the show sucks.

And just because you might disagree with my opinion, that doesn't make it flamebait.

Dinivin

FOX Sucks and I haven't seen Futurama all year

[sootman]

Here on the East Coast, I haven't seen futurama in forever. First, they pre-empted every episode with baseball then, the week after the world series, it was football. If anything, they should dump the Simpsons or Malcom and run Futurama at 8 or 830.

futurama in canada ?

[getafix]

Anyone know what channels carry it ? Ottawa area (rural Ottawa).

Re:futurama in canada ?

[Pope]

Your handy local Global station carries it and other Fox Sunday night programming. Get a television programme from your local newspaper and look at the 7pm to 8pm timeslot.

Re:Suggestion to Slashdot: Interview with David Co

[poot_rootbeer]

You seem to imply that Groening himself is not accessible or net-savvy. He's lurked on Usenet for a while now, and has even posted on occasion.

Then again, he DOES have an AOL account...

Step aside NERD!!!

[Kalabajoui]

That's the impression I get from Fox and the shitty way that regular Sci-Fi shows take a back seat to baseball and football on their stations. Fox wipes their ass with the loyalty of Sci-Fi viewers for the sake of double dipping the sports ratings. "Fuck it, there's more sports fans than geeks anyways", they say. So, I get set to watch Futurama or a syndicated episode of Startrek or the Simpsons, only to find that 'lick my baseballs' has preempted the show. It pisses me off if I visit a friends house to watch a scheduled season premier, only to see the sports-hype introduction come on the screen. (I don't own a tv anymore, but I do like to keep up with the Simpsons.) Just once I'd like to see a message on the tv, "Sorry, but the scheduled game has been preempted for a special presentation of Star-Trek!!!". I'd relish the thought of sports fans getting a taste of their own medicine, oh how they'd bitch and cry.

Re:I beg to differ.

[colmore]

Family guy is a decent attempt at combining the best aspects of all of the Simpsons eras. It is very story based, every episode sets up a conflict, lets it get complicated, and then resolves it. Yet it also has the Simpsons late-seasons insane breaks from reality. And it hasn't gotten repetitive yet. Now it doesn't have the pure genius of Simpsons circa 1994, but, what does? Also Stewie is hilarious.

Futurama is really nothing like the Simpsons (other than being an animated show based on Groening's bizarre imagination). It's a parody of the office sit com, rather than the family sit com, and so has never really had "touchy feely" episodes. (Michael Jackson anyone?) The humor is a good deal denser than an average episode of the Simpsons (much more going on in the background) and it is much more geek-oriented. Come on, they had Gary Gigax on there!

King of the Hill needs to die a swift and painful death. It was funny for about 1.5 seasons, and now is just repetitive schlock. Southpark is truely the Simpsons of this time, it outlasted the initail hype and T-Shirt binge (which I'll admit turned me off to the show for years), and has continued to put out fantastic original content (did anyone else catch the Radiohead episode this summer, sweet Jesus)

Re:Kwanzabot?

[colmore]

Festivus?

best TV show, ever.

[geekoid]

Futurerama is THE geek show. secret codes, alien languages, robots, good parody of technology, bitchen spaceships, hot chicks, great animation.

Any show thats had Gary Gygax on it gets an immediate nerd rating. todays generation of geeks and nerds will look back on Futurama like yesterday geek look back on the Original ST.

I love the apartment numbering system in bender and fry's building. Not to mention the robot perspective of the world is pretty damn funny.

Any show with an anti-chrysler building has got to be good.
One of the principle characters is named after the inventor of Television, probably one of the first Technology geeks.
"that was in 2150, just before Jesus second coming" Farnsworth

Re:Invader Zim ROCKS! :)

[jiminim]

I have been singing the Doom song constantly since I saw the first episode of Zim :)

doom, do do do doom, do DO DO DOOM, do do do, doom,
do doom

Feel free to experiment with your 'doom's and repeat as long as you can keep people in the general vicinity from causing you bodily harm.

Re:Copied from PHP

[cornjones]

ok except that this has been in email headers since the dawn of time. especially noted the "X-" prefix denoting that this is actually a useless header, present only for extra info. Lotus notes adds a bunch of these and sendmail allows you do put in what ever you like.

I like it, definitely

[zrk]

Which episode was he in? I know there was that one scene at the veternarian's where there was the Rust Monster...

Fear of a Bot Planet was one of my favorite single episodes on tv, of any show, ever.

Re:Hello?

[10Ghz]

Simpsons USED to be awesome! Not anymore though. For the last couple of seasons, the quality of The Simpsons has gone DOWN. Basically, the show sucks these days. Before, I taped every single episode that they showed. A bit over years ago I stopped taping them. And soon after that I stopped watching The Simpsons. It's a shame that they keep on beating a dead horse. That show should have died a long ago. I did watch last couple of episodes just to see that has it got any better. Nope. It still sucked.

It just happens that they show Simpsons right after Futurama. I tape & watch Futurama (only show I tape these days), and when the Simpsons start, I just turn off the television.

The Simpsons should die already.

people are stupid, but robots are diputs

[WillSeattle]

I don't see what's wrong with friends. Seems to me like it's a modern, wholesome, realistic portrayal of a New York City where people of color are never around in any capacity.

They have people of color in NYC?!? Man, how did I miss that!

Next thing you know you'll be telling me that each non-human character on Futurama represents an ethnic stereotype, and that Leela is really J.Lo done up for anime ...

-

Re:The Family Guy & Simpsons are mutual ripoff

[Sebastopol]

For example:

1st season family guy: peter griffin goes back to school as a greaser and shreds his hand when he tries to smack a jukebox into operation.

Last week's Simpsons: same thing.

Family Guy a few weeks ago: they husbands go to a lesbian bar and make crude jokes.

Simpsons: Homer searching for a new bar to hang out at stumbles into the She-She lounge, similar.

There are more occurances like this, but my feeble short-term memory can't keep them all inside my head.

It bothers me that the two are ripping each other off, but IMHO The Family Guy is much more crass, which is a good thing.

Woot

[Legion303]

I'm glad "Luck of the Fryrish" was nominated for best writing. I was stunned by the depth and power of that episode, something you don't expect in a cartoon.

-Legion

Hello.

[Robotron2084]

Considering 'Futurama is the best animated tv show' is obvious trollbait, I don't mind replying to someone else's trollbait to my trollbait! I actually never really cared for Simpsons myself. Not a Groening worshipper at all, and find it hard to really compare a lot of Futurama with the Simpsons. Simpsons is a family-oriented(as in they are a family)show, and a lot of 'eyeball injuries' as Groening once put it.

Futurama doesn't have that family slant at all. Where most Simpsons episodes would have Bart worrying about hurting the ones he loves, and in the end come to his senses, there's no guarantee in Futurama what side Bender's on!

I would't necessarily say one's funnier than the other, but Futurama's subject matter is what I like. Violent internet ad banners, drunken robots, sexy alien babes, robosexuals and cyclopses are much more exciting, and in a strange way more relevant, to me than the off-beat slice of Americana that Simpsons offers. Simpson's really pushes the limits of what a family sitcom can be, but that's all it will ever be, a family sitcom. Futurama doesn't try to be that at all. Futurama is Futurama, any attempt to say,'it's kind of like this or that' will fail miserably. It's the most unique, well written, beautifully acted, and exceptionally animated show on tv.

The animation is the best quality I've EVER seen on television. The blending of the 3d and 2d, the character designs, and the fantastic storyboarding and cinematography of episodes like Parasites Lost and Time Keeps on Slippin' blow Simpsons, and every other show, away.

So, hey, if you like Simpsons better, great, like it. Most people like it more than Futurama, for some reason I'll never know. But Futurama's the best, and I hope that the over-popularity of the Simpsons doesn't destroy my favorite show.

Re:I like the show

[Miguelito]

People seem to forget that the first season of the Simpsons contained some pretty risqué humor, even by today's standards. And back then, the episodes actually had real storylines, instead of today's stupid sketch comedy and movie parodies.

Agreed. There were a few times during the commentary on disc 1 where even Groening said he was surprised at what they got away with at times (and that he'd forgotton most of it). Sure, it'd be easy today, but 10 years ago, things were a bit different.

I find the Simpsons DVD set to be great fun. It's entertaining to hear the creators having fun watching their own work, because they've forgotton a lot of what they did.

Another good comment was Groening noticing that you could see the entire credits, and saying something like "oh yeah, this was back in the day before every show's end credits were squished off to the side." You can tell they don't like the fact that the people who create shows don't seem to get their due credit anymore as networks squander every second of air time they can to sell more of their crappy shows.

Family Guy ... tries to hard to be offensive

[Kaenneth]

They try so hard to be offensive, showing Hitler, and etc.... but it's to forced, so I didn't laugh once at the first episode, I love offensive humor, but Family guy, just, well, sucked, without even being offensive, like a 3 year old grl in a pink dress shouting 'F-ck! F-ck! F-ck!' over and over... they don't really understand why they are doing it.

Try out IRC then

[Chetwood]

Well, like always here in Germany we had to wait about a year for Futurama to show up at all and then the translation and dubbing sucked big time.
Fortunately I came across Futurama on IRC when I was downloading an episode in VCD format. Since then I burned all of them and I'm eagerly awaiting to get my hands on the R2 DVD that's coming out this February (R1 will be late due to syndication).

So if you haven't seen all 44 eps aired so far (check my URL) then go to #FuturamaVCD on EFnet and ppl will help you out to get em.