Slashdot Mirror
Concerning The Cancellation of Futurama
Andie Similon of gotfuturama.com writes: "We have recently heard from 4 reliable sources that fox did not pick up the 5th season of futurama. So it's going to get cancelled. We (the fans and webmasters of cgef and other websites) have set up a letter campaign to Fox,' but we need some big sites to spread the word. There are two possibilities of saving futurama A) some other network picking it up B) Fox realizing its mistake (I don't count on it), but the only way we can realise this is that we can get a very big amount of written letters to Fox." Go read the online petition
and/or
sign it. They've temporarily removed other content on anything else from the site -- there are priorities, after all. Futurama is one of the few shows that make me glad for the invention of television.
I love the Simpsons, but never got into Futurama because there was never enough promotion of the show to make me remember to turn it on. I've seen a couple of episodes of Futurama, but I couldn't tell you what time it's on, or for that matter which day.
My other sig is extremely clever...
X-Files - last season
The Tick - Cancelled
Futurama - Cancelled
The Chamber (which they fought so hard to get it out before the chair) - cancelled (thank God)
just what in the hell are they going to replace these shows with? Its not like a lot of quality material is knocking down the door at FOX
(that 80's Show?... uggg)
Thanks to file sharing, I purchase more CDs
Thanks to the RIAA, I buy them used...
But like the "Tick" guy said in his interview, the whole letter-writing campaign thing has been played to death. Especially when a show has been on the air for four years, you can't exactly expect the network to "just give it a chance to build an audience". If they haven't got their audience already, I'm afraid a couple hundred people writing and saying "but, but, it's cool!" isn't going to change their mind.
*shrug* Sorry, but that's the way it is...
I loved the Simpsons in it's "prime" (circa seasons 2 through 7), but lately it has become tired and predictable. Futurama is laugh-out-loud funny and clever and ways that the Simpsons once promised but have stopped even trying to achieve.
If you need to kill something Rupert, put the Simpsons to bed and move Futurama to the 8E/7C time slot. Having it at 7E/6C time slot is worthless considering FOX is a football network and football games never finish before then. I can't recall seeing a single episode that I actually sat at the TV waiting for.
"More organs means more human." - Zim
A real shame that the Simpsons continues to be milked long past it's prime (let's not kid ourselves; Simpsons has been in a steady decline for some time now) while Futurama gets neglected despite a noticable superiority in both animation quality and humor (the recent Anthology ep, for example).
I think Futurama might have gotten more of a chance to build a fan base if it weren't always pre-empted by FOX NFL games.
Not to be a picky little bitch, but if you are going to submit a petition to a major network begging them not to kill your favorite TV show, and then ask thousands of others to sign along with you, take a minute to run it through your spell checker.
-Rothfuss
Well. I guess we can't get rid of all people who make uninformed judgements.
"You know you don't act like a scientist, you're more like a game show host." Dana Barret
Many good shows have been cancelled before. And maybe it's better that way. Once they reach their peak, they start to degenerate rather fast - just look at the Simpsons, which should have been dropped after season 7.
Many other excellent shows have been cancelled before hitting their prime, (My So-called Life and Freaks And Geeks come to mind), but this isn't the case here - Futurama is terrific, and I don't think it can get any better, only worst.
I've always enjoyed Futurama, that is when I got a chance to watch it. Unfortunatly, on the East Coast, if Fox is showing any NFL game, it will inevitably run over the time slot for Futurama. This happened even with the SEASON PREMIER. So, as far as I'm concerned, I didn't watch it because they didn't air it. I seem to recall the same thing happening at back home in Miami with a Time Cop show. I never got to see it because the local ABC affiliate decided they should talk about monday night football instead.
Pretty cool thing...you can see the Slashdot effect in real time. Hit reload and the signature #'s on the page increase by about 2-3 a second.
"I'll just chip in a bit for RedHat: I actually have that installed on my university machine." - Linus, '95
Perhaps FOX should switch the timeslots of Futurama and Malcolm in the Middle for, say, a month.
FOX seems to have a history of trying to prop up weaker timeslots by relegating popular shows to crap times when no one is watching (or when everyone is watching other channels). Even the Simpsons got this treatment for a season or so, back when FOX didn't have as much strong programming to fall back on. The lack of good content to replace it on Sunday night at that time may be what saved the show from being cancelled; FOX just moved it back to the original 8 pm timeslot.
If all else fails, perhaps the creators could see about getting the Comedy Channel or the Cartoon Network to fund and pick it up, something not unheard of for cult hits that get chopped by their original network.
Someday, you're going to die. Get over it.
If Fox didn't prempt it every other week for some game or another maybe it could get itto a groove that would make people watch all the time. How can you expect to develop a following if you only air the show once every other month. Constantly prempting a show is as bad as changeing its time slot 6 times over the season, and then blame a lack of rateings for the cancelation.
doesn't carry Futurama unfortunately (i have no idea why, the simpsons and m in the middle are on every sunday)....so i've been missing out anyhow
...Does anybody know how this would affect the planned upcoming DVD sets?
Fox did pretty well for themselves by the Season 1 DVDs of "The Simpsons," and I remember rumblings that "Futurama" would follow not too far behind.
It'd be a shame if these disappear, too; the commentaries on the Simpsons discs were as amusing as the shows themselves, and the Futurama crew has always struck me as being a bit sharper in their wit.
At least Fox is still putting out quality programming like "That 80s Show" and "Temptation Island 2," right? I mean, right? Who's with me?
Instead, petition UPN to pick it up. They have a history of picking up other networks' shows (Buffy, Roswell, etc.) and this one would fit in well with its lineup.
The address:
UPN Entertainment
11800 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90025
IMHO, this is the show's best hope.
Why is it called COMMON sense when so few people have it?
I won't lift a finger to help save it though. I leanred my lesson trying to save Mystery Science Theator 3000.
You can't fight the man.
I've hit Karma 50 and gotten a Score:5, Troll... I win!
Well gee yeah that's incredible... people protest the closing of shows they like while ignoring the passing of shows that they don't like! What bias! How unfair! Boo hoo!
...and "The Family Guy"...? Just when exactly did you have your sense of humour surgically removed? Were the "All in the Family" reruns too heart-stoppingly chucklesome for you?
You know they call 'em fingers but I've never seen 'em fing. Oh, there they go.
As of now the number of signers on the petition is rising at about 100 sigs a minute.
:)
Cool
So there's 4 seasons. Isn't that enough?
Some of the best things come in small doses - take Fawlty Towers, for example, one of the funniest sitcoms ever, and they only made 12.
John Cleese said he put everything it needed in those 12 episodes.
If you can live with 'only' 4 seasons of Futurama, perhaps the writers will come up with something better.
Please, have somebody go through and fix all the spelling errors, and generally edit the petition. It looks sort of sloppy.
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
WATCH the damned thing. Shows, even shitty ones, don't get cancelled if people WATCH them. If the show gets cancelled, it's because you aren't putting your viewing habits where your mouth is!
I am as big a "fan" of Futurama and Family Guy as the next person. But when push comes to shove, there's other things on TV I'd rather watch more.
That's why they've been cancelled. Fox needs shows that people will watch, and that means being BETTER than the stuff on the other two (three, counting CBS) networks.
I wonder how many people are signing the petition to save Futurama, who don't watch the show.
Consider, best case scenario:
- 80 gazillion people sign the petition.
- FOX says, "Great Googly-moogly! We didn't know we had all these viewers. Keep Futurama on the air!"
- Futurama stays on the air
- After a year, ratings, surveys, etc. reveal that, as FOX originally thought, only 80 people actually watch Futurama.
- FOX yanks Futurama.
- FOX never listens to a petition again.
If you are signing the petition, but have not and will not watch the show, you're really not helping.
ShoutingMan.com
great idea!! lets slashdot the petition!
Skiers and Riders -- http://www.snowjournal.com
Even when they do tell you it's on, you'll wind up watching about 20 minutes of post-game football followed by 10 minutes of Futurama "already in progress".
They probably want the space for "that 90s show".
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
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X-Fry: It's like a party in my mouth and everyone's throwing up.
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There aint no pancake so thin it doesn't have two sides.
...has a history of murdering its good shows (Family Guy, Futurama, Get a Life) while letting once-good shows languish (X-Files, the Simpsons, Ally McFucking Beal).
People wonder why they're still the number 4 network; I don't.
- A.P.
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
You can't fight the man.
I'm going to be half-serious here...
Dammit, that's what The Man wants you to think! The Man wants you to just sit down, shut up, and take whatever you get fed. You're not supposed to stand up with others who agree with you and say you want something to change, or stay the same. That would be interaction - and Big Media can't have that, beyond what little scraps the plebes get thrown with "online polls", "bulletin boards", and stupid contests.
Try, man! Stand up and try! MST3K fans may have failed, but that doesn't mean they'll always fail.
Hey, a mass letter-writing campaign worked for Star Trek. I'm sure us Futurama nerds can come up with some contemporary equivalent.
FIGHT THE POWER!
Someday, you're going to die. Get over it.
Fox turned into a hard core porn channel so gradually no one even noticed.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
So how is slashdoting an online petition any diferent from Microsoft rigging a poll? Slashdot is reaching new lows.
(relax it's a joke)
Pedro Côrte-Real.
So how much does it cost to make an episode of Futurama, anyway? That is probably one of the key questions in determining if Cartoon Network or possibly Comedy Central picks it up.
Also, there may be legal issues. Some shows are made by outside companies and can switch networks when contracts expire or are terminated (e.g., Buffy). Others are made by the networks themselves, and don't have a prayer of ever moving to a channel not owned by that network. Is there any confirmation that Futurama is produced under a contract that will allow them to go to another network?
Just questions. Too bad I can't post the answers.
7 PM EST sunday night? Talk about a toss it and forget it time slot! Half the episodes get preempted(and cancelled for the night) by sports events, award shows that we don't care about, etc
If you gave Futurama the 8:30 slot(currently in use by Malcom in the Middle, directly after the Simpsons), Futurama would do a lot better ratings wise.
-Henry
"Useless organic meatbag" -HK-47
I guess I just wanted to write about it. I kinda had the feeling this would happen. I and many with me loves this show, but they haven't ordered more. I don't like many shows, and most I start to find boring before I come to the 10th episode. I still get all excited when there is a new Futurama out. I've seen them all, I ordered my Futurama DVD Box today (already got the Simpsons one of course) and I hunger for more. And this is what happens. I hope they move both Simpsons and Futurama to a nicer network, but I do wonder what will happen with the DVDs then.
Life is unfair...
-John
It's dubious how much a network pays attention to these sort of online petitions, but it would greatly improve your chances if you spellchecked the petition first. And then have 10 people proofread it.
happyness?
quantitiys?
possibilitiys?
inivative?
funnny?
entertaing?
unfinnished?
interupting?
And "Simpsons" should be capitalized as well. The networks probably won't listen anyway, but you might as well not give them specific excuses for discarding your petition.
If Futurama is getting low ratings, it's for two reasons:
;)
1. Fox plays it at 7 PM. I'd always figured it would slip into the 8 PM spot when the Simpsons ended and quickly jump in ratings.
2. Futurama viewers are not "average enough" to become Nielson viewing households. College students and Slashdot readers aren't "average" citizens. The "average" people are the ones that keep shows like "The View" and "WWF RAW" on the air.
People shape laws. Not the other way around.
And it goes on like that, night after night! Why would they want to air a clone of a successful Fox show like The Simpsons, when they can air "That 80's Show"? And have you seen the fan base behind "Grounded for Life"? You can't do a single search on Morpheus without tripping over DivX episodes of that runaway hit. And let's not forget the lucrative DVD revenues from "Titus"!
Basically, there's no place for Futurama in the Fox lineup anymore. Saturday night is locked down with "Human Scum TV", craftily filling in the space between COPS and America's Most Wanted with COPS reruns! So what are they going to do? If only Fox was running three other humorous adult animation shows to fill out the rest of two hours, perhaps they'd be able to create some sort of thematically unified lineup, but where would they find three shows like that on short notice?
Just putting in my 2 cents. Save Futurama. The more geeks that reply to this story, the better.
------
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I honestly feel that part of the reason why Futurama hasn't built up a huge fan base is because FOX never gave it a chance.
To start things off, when Futurama was created by Matt Groening, FOX was joyous. The Simpsons were a huge hit, and FOX thought anything else by the hand of Matt Groening would be just as big a hit...as long as it was just like the Simpsons. The problem was that Groening didn't want that.
I wish I had remembered what magazine it was, but there was an article back in 1998 which explained the creation of Futurama. When Groening told FOX that it was either his way or no way, FOX was real close to saying no, but the ratings they were getting from the Simpsons was too good to let go. Even then, there was a lot of clash between FOX and Groening in the development of Futurama, mostly because FOX wanted a Simpsons knockoff.
When Futurama hit the air, guess who first watched it? Simpsons fans, and pretty much ONLY Simpsons fans, because FOX advertised it that way. "From the creator of the Simpsons..." was emphasized more than "A New show...". Many Simpsons fans who were expecting a knockoff stopped watching it when they realized it wasn't, and many others left because they wern't used to a different kind of comedy (Simpsons had the same problems during the first two seasons, but they won it out).
Well, when you have a drop in the original fan base, and no increase in a new fanbase, ratings fall. When ratings fall, the show gets preemted for shows with higher ratings. The third season of Futurama didn't start until the second week of November, and this season didn't start until the third week. Even then, we've only seen four-or-so new episodes, since as Cheesemaker said, NFL has otherwise preemted Futurama.
FOX is making a big mistake if they cancel Futurama, especially because they just haven't made the effort to promote it to new people (rather than just Simpsons fans). When I visited Norway last summer, I found out that many of the teenagers (at least in southern Norway) love Futurama, even more than the Simpsons, because Fry's character reflects that of a typical 20th century high school kid.
Just for the record, I hope everyone realizes that each decade has at least one show that the TV execs thought was a failure, but instead became a big hit in syndication. The Brady Bunch made it only through five seasons, Giligans Island only survived for three, and need I remind everyone that Star Trek only sailed the skies for four?
My only wish is that FOX doesn't give the same fate to Futurama.
Don't cancel it, just rename it to match the other fine, fine programming on FOX.
Some potential winners:
- Temptation Spaceship 5
- When Aliens Attack
- Who Wants to Marry a One-Eyed Woman?
- Bender in the Middle
- That 2970's Show
Just to be rational, I'd like to know two things:
1) What is the highest total of online signatures a TV show has recevied on this or similar websites.
2) Did it matter?
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Sigh, I'll miss Futurama - one of the few things I can be bothered to watch.
But look on the bright side - if anyone ever does decide to cross Fear Factor with hentai, FOX will air it ;-)
I watched "Futurama" for a while. I have to admit that it was (usually) funnier than "The Simpsons" was at the same time. (But, let's face it, my old college roommate after a few beers is funnier than "The Simpsons" has been in the last few seasons.) And sometimes, usually when it was making fun of some current or not-so-current event, it achieved a cockeyed kind of greatness (e.g. the _Titanic_ parody, or the episode where Bender does a Joe Hazelwood, only by not drinking.)
But "Futurama" was a mean, nasty little show in comparison to "The Simpsons" at its best. "The Simpsons" in its early seasons was wicked, but it never lost sight of the essential humanity of its characters. Homer was dumb and often small-minded, but he'd occasionally come through and do the right thing. Lisa was there to remind us that even the worst of families can sometimes produce something right. Hell, even Bart had his moments.
But "Futurama" had nothing but contempt for its characters. Fry has never been anything else but an idiot. Bender is...well, Bender; if he ever deviates from his cruel, mean-spirited ways, it's for the sake of a cheap joke. Leela provides some counterbalance, I suppose, but more often than not the show seems bent on finding some way to humiliate her (qq.v. any episode with Zapp Brannigan, the "Married with Children" parody episode.)
Hey, but if you get your kicks from cruelty masquerading as comedy, then you'll be sorry to see "Futurama" go. I won't be.
hyacinthus.
Ummm... dude. 3rd Rock was cancelled last year. Not to mention that 3rd Rock was an NBC show.
:)
And Futurama and the Simpsons are both Fox shows. It would be a little difficult for Fox to schedule a show against another show on the same network.
But don't let the fact get in the way of your rant...
let me be the wet blanket that says Futurama should be let go quietly. It was past it's due date, and well, sometimes you have to let go.
-dB
"It if was easy to do, we'd find someone cheaper than you to do it."
i hate tv. if you tape one of these shows and watch it in fast forward you'll know what i mean. 30 minutes show means 20 minutes of ads and 10 minutes of what is on the tv guide. no thank you. that's why i don't bother with cable/satallite/what-have-you. just news please. recently i've even stopped watching the news even. it's nothing short of cliffhangers full of sansationalism -- "an area women gives birth to seven headed green baby; news at 9". or "investigative reports!! 25 lifers are on the loose -- your life may be in danger -- news at 10". if my life was in danger, i'd really fucking appriciate them telling me now. who knows i may get my throat slit before 10. what a bunch of retards. TV has become an updatable billboard that people pay to get into their homes. someone's gonna have to pay me to get one of these things into my living room.
and greg the bunny... problem is, like futurama and company, they are also "edge" shows
Thanks to file sharing, I purchase more CDs
Thanks to the RIAA, I buy them used...
I felt it important to do because my tastes are not mainstream and if I don't make my interests known no one will cater to me. I did watch Futurama on Sunday night and it did go in my little log. I bring this up because I wonder how many Slashdotters watch Futurama, enjoy Futurama, but blew off a similiar caller because they didn't want to deal with the hassle or privacy issues.
>>Or in this case, a million blind monkeys at work on a million typewriters can produce the entire Fox fall lineup.
What do you mean "can"? They *did*.
To be quite honest, while I love shows like The Family Guy and Futurama, I question how much petitions like this do. True, they gave it a terrible timeslot, but the real "petition" is to watch it (although without a Nielsen box it doesn't do much).
I mean, looking through the petitions on petitiononline.com, we see:
1337 sp3ak in 5(}{00l !!
A petition to the WWF in honor of the Undertaker
Let's Import Japan
A bit hard to take this seriously, especially considering how little effort it takes to sign a petition. A bigger noise would be made by sending postcards, that would fill their mailboxes.
"I have not failed. I've simply found 10,000 ways that won't work." --Thomas Edison
who else thinks Leela is sexy?
I'm trying to remember all the torture scenes in movies and that one seems to evade me... damn.
I liked how they beat Sean Penn's character around with the phone book in 'Falcon and the Snowman'. Best use of 'Reach out and touch someone' I ever saw. The guy he was playing was such a jackass.
"You know, Fox turned into a Hard core sex channel so gradually, I didn't even notice."
- Marge
no comment
I love the smell of Karma in the morning
Reservoir Dogs.
I still get the shivers from the song they played during it, "Stuck in the Middle With You".
An interesting analysis on that I found when doublechecking the song title:
http://www.redstone-tech.com/gerry/res_dogs.htm
No geek content in Family Guy.
Tons of geek content in Futurama.
This is a geek site.
Now, I've given you the pieces, can you figure it out?
There were a lot of save family guy sites.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
That's Babylon 5, isn't it? When the interrogator is working him over on Earth.
It's doubtful that Futurama or Family Guy could make the transition to cable using their current production methods. According to one Family Guy FAQ, the average production cost of each episode is $1.1 million (U.S.). While that's peanuts for network television (for example, Friends' 6 primary cast members are almost making that much an episode per 'Friend'), 1.1 mil is still outside the reach of most cable outlets. In all probability, Futurama probably costs more due to the 3-d effects employed in its animation, and also has a higher profile voice cast (Billy West, Katey Sagal, and John Dimaggio [who won the Annie this year for best voice actor]). So the only chances of Futurama's survival are Fox or another network.
You're only as smart as your brain.
Yea verily, there is a place for canceled animated satire. It is called Adult Swim, and it is on Cartoon Network on Sundays, and already it has become a home for Baby Blues, Home Movies, Mission Hill, and the Oblongs. Unfortunately...
1) Cartoon Network is part of Time-Warner, which isn't on good terms with Fox. (Same problem with Comedy Central though).
2) Cartoon Network and Adult Swim are not well known with the mainstream adult audience, although they should be.
3) Cartoon Network doesn't have the cash for expensive shows, hence their reliance on low budget original shows and syndicated cancelled ones. They could afford to pick up existing Futurama episodes, but probably not make new ones.
---If you can't trust a nerd, who can you trust?
Bite my Shiny metal ass....FOX
The problem is FOX has major sports, thats where they believe the money is.
Hopefully another station will start doing what FOX did to get its rating up, and that is running cutting edge, and chancy, tv shows.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Hmmm, it was... oh wait, I offered that guy a bagel after I hooked his genitals up to the crank phone in my field pack. So it wasn't that.
Was it a Monty Python skit? Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition! I never did see that one in completion.
Maybe we should all agree the day to send the letters to fox? That's what the Roswell guys did, we'll have to see if that works. But, the idea of having all the letters arrive all at once so they look all the more impressive strikes me as quite a nifty one :)
Hey, I'm no Anglo-centrist, but it seems to me that a petition like this would be taken more seriously if it wasn't loaded with spelling and grammatical errors. "What kind of people would think something like this is important?" you might ask. The kind of people who would cancel a great show like Futurama. Seriously, good spelling and grammar will get you a lot further.
Its kind of funny... theres a quote from the simpsons xfiles episode where homer goes "Yeah and people don't believe me, we can just sell it to the fox network." and Bart follows up with "yeah they'll buy anthing". Haha... the sad thing is fox always cancels their best shows... the family guy is the best cartoon since simpsons and southpark. Hilariously random. Futurama was alright, I wasn't a big watcher... but alot of people swear by it. The critic was awesome, thank god ccentral picked up it on syndicate. The tick was alright... i watched one episode and it did make me laugh. Anyway, the point as if i had one... i think fox doesn't know whats good on its channel. They seem to be trying please all demographics except the 15-35 year old white male one, which lets be honest is definitly what adult cartoons are more aimed for. Its sad...
can't sleep slashdot will eat me
Unfortunately, being among the majority of people in the known Universe, I don't get 1000 channels to choose from, so unless it's going to be on terrestrial or Sky One (which already has constant reruns of The Simpsons, 3-4/day ffs) or so, the closest me and 10 million other Brits are going to get to seeing it is a dodgy DivX :(
.rm format, and about 3 DivXed episodes after that.
So far I've seen the first series cut very badly on Channel 4, the first two in crappy
Yeah but it was corned beef not roast beef.
HERE
Futurama
P.O. Box 900
Attn: Futurama
Beverly Hills, CA 90213-0900
Send those letters! Snail mail is the only thing they listen to. Not online petitions or e-mail!
Contrary to popular belief, I don't actually make my website for other people to look at.
...I went and signed the online petition to save Futurama, and while I was there put my name to the ones for Family Guy and Undeclared as well.
Anyone noticed that Fox seems to always cancel its good shows, while keeping unfunny shit like Malcolm in the Middle on along with voyeur crapola like Temptation Island?
When they finally do away with *all* the shows I love, I'll have to start referring to Fox as "the good taste takes a holiday" network.
~Philly
If it's so unpopular then why are they making a DVD box set for season 1, which appears to be already available in Europe And also info from the FOX Germany site I guess I need to get a Region 2 DVD player
http://www.kubuntu.org/
Network exec #2: Yeah, and that Groenig guy's from Portland, anyway... Who the hell comes from Portland, for God's sake? And he can't even draw!
Network exec #3: The numbers are sucking, too. That ironic thing is tired. But before we cancel it, we gotta come up with a show for that slot.
Network exec #2: Well, the market surveys say that sincerity and wholesomeness is hot right now but, somehow, bringing back the Osmonds just doesn't seem right.
Network exec #1: But people still like cartoons. I got it! The Family Circus Hour. We could do production in Japan and keep costs down...
Network exec #2: Yeah, but it still has to be a bit edgy. You know, send the mom back to work...
Network exec #3: As a stripper!!! Those Japanese cartoonists could do some nice stuff to Mom's cleavage!
Network exec #2: The stripper's a good touch! It'll get the 14-25 YM demographic.
Network exec #1: Boys, I think we got a real winner here. We'll call it "The Family Circus - Mom's a Stripper - Hour. That's just the working title, of course. Joe, call legal to get us the rights; Jim, call Eddie Johnson to hack us a script together; Bill, call Okutaka-san to set up the anime contract. Marvin, go ahead with the press release saying that we're cancalling that Futurama turkey and get the press rolling for TFCMSH. This new show is going to be ratings heaven!!!!
That is all.
The difference is:
Family Guy gets cancelled after every season
It's kind of like their replacement for the season finale I guess.
Even as a poor impoverished student I'm sending letters (signed by a few of us) to fox, and I like in europe.
it was pen and paper that brought back the original series of star trek, not a 30 second petition signing.
First Family Guy, now Futurama. Fox seems hell-bent on making sure I never watch their crappy network again. I have religiously watched both of these shows since their inception despite constant preemption, horrible timeslots (Family Guy went up against both Survivor *and* Friends), and lackluster promotion. I even have every episode in MPEG and my friends and I watch them all the time when we can't see new eps/reruns on TV. When people come over and I show them the shows most of them have never even *heard* of Family Guy (or sometimes even Futurama) yet when they leave they love it. I'm tellin' ya, there ain't no justice (tanj!).
(ob 9/11: why hasn't anyone arrested Stephen King for writing about a plane crashing into the network skyscraper?)
well, for 1 it was Stephen King who wrote a book similar to what happened on 9/11
for 2, the author that did did so because its was a common theory that the future of warfare would go that direction.. there are numerous books on terrorist activities that discuss such a possibility.
I'm gonna start my own network! With blackjack...and hookers! In fact, forget the network!
(with all apologies to Futurama)
I heard an interview with a man that worked for a valley (Phoenix) radio station, and he was talking about public feedback. The most surprisingly thing he said was that, in general, stations tend to ignore mass-petitions like the one in the article. The logic behind this was that the people who set forth the petition are making a significant effort to save a show, and this may sway people's opinions. On the other hand, viewers or listeners who take it upon themselves to write into a station are given a significant weight. The amount of weight depends on the number of overall listeners and probably some deep statistical reasoning, but I do know from the anecdote he gave that for 910 KFYI (now 550 KFYI) one individual writing a letter is considered to represent 8,800 people.
Remember, an unsolicited opinion is always better than a solicited opinion. This is the same principle.
So instead of signing the petition, WRITE A LETTER (not e-mail, the old kind of letter where you put a stamp on). If everyone who had signed the petition had written a letter, I can almost guarantee you Fox would put FR back on TV.
Futurama is pur genious, all packaged into a 30 minute spot for our consumption. Its an awesome cartoon, with some really deep humor, especially for us geek types.
I can't believe they're canceling it!! Christ, they haven't had it on the air in any regular schedule for the past year! Of course its probably had poor numbers, nobody ever knows when its going to be on!!! Are things not this obvious to the clowns over at Fox?
I don't watch much TV... it sucks anyway.
Skiers and Riders -- http://www.snowjournal.com
They also axed the family guy.
The futurama and the cable guy were the best shows on TV!
I never missed an episode.
"Who Wants to Marry Temptation Island Millionaires in the Chamber... While Animals Attack?"
But the truth is that Futurama really is extremely similar to the Simpsons. The type of animation is exactly the same. The music's very similar. The voices are similar. The jokes are similar. The whole style, soul and idea of the show is the same. The only thing that's different is the period in time they're supposed to take place. Don't agree? Consider a hypothetical show by the name "Simpsons 3000". Can you imagine such a show not being very very similar to Futurama?
You can argue all you want that Futurama is a great show that should be kept on the air - and I'm all with you - but don't tell me it's not a Simpsons knockoff. Believe me, it is, and it's worth saving anyway.
"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance" - Derek Bok
How can it get bad ratings when they never show it?
Thanks - you just provided insight into why it's been cancelled - so it can never get bad ratings!
By cancelling it, they not only make sure that it never gets bad ratings, but they don't have to pay for it either!
(I'm laughing as I write this, but it scares me that it just might be what's going through some Fox executive's head.)
Move Futurama and The Family Guy to the soon-to-be vacated 9:00 sunday night slot. Just more proof that entertainment-by-committee just doesn't work.
I have it on good authority that Fox is replacing Futurama with the XFL.
Hooray!
(Please browse at -1 to read this comment.)
I survived the Dick Cheney Presidency 7 to 9 AM 7-21-07
Fox TV and weak ad market weigh on News Corp
Thanks to file sharing, I purchase more CDs
Thanks to the RIAA, I buy them used...
Comment removed based on user account deletion
People like me watch Family Guy and Futurama. We don't care about the timeslot because we have Tivos, so we don't miss episodes. But, since we have Tivos, we don't watch commercials. Ergo, making stuff I want to see, doesn't pay.
People who watch Temptation Island, do watch commercials, and they download and excecute the code that tells them what to like and buy -- that's the whole reason those people watch that crap in the first place. Ergo, it pays to make crap.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
I'll produce my own Futurama-show... With black jack... And hookers!
:(
In fact, forget the show.
And the black jack.
Aehhh... screw the whole thing!
Opinions stated are mine and do not reflect those of the Illuminati
Hey Bender, will the futurama references be cancelled
from the next version of slashcode too? (gotta stay current!)
/home/person>telnet slashdot.org 80
Trying 64.28.67.150...
Connected to slashdot.org.
Escape character is '^]'.
HEAD / HTTP/1.1
host: slashdot.org:80
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2002 03:20:08 GMT
Server: Apache/1.3.20 (Unix) mod_perl/1.25 mod_gzip/1.3.19.1a
SLASH_LOG_DATA: shtml
X-Powered-By: Slash 2.003000
X-Fry: I'm gonna be a science fiction hero, just like Uhura, or Captain Janeway, or Xena!
Connection: close
Content-Type: text/html
Connection closed by foreign host.
I used to love this show, then I started missing it when fox started to juggle it around.
Then they had that terrible xmas episode this last year. After watching that episode, I decided I'd never watch the show again. It was just wrong, and this is coming from someone who loves the original south park (the 5 minute short).
Slightly off-topic, but since the subject has come to the Simpsons, I must say this.
... "of events?"
HOMR is from last season, probably the last half-decent season the Simpsons will ever see. While Season 12 had more than the normal share of not-very-good episodes, this season has been truly awful. The reason is simple, and his name is Dana Gould.
For those of you who don't know, Dana Gould is a failed stand-up comic who is now taking his lowest common denominator humor to the Simpsons and is singularly responsible for it's current lackluster -- hell, let's just be honest, god-awful humor. Homer getting raped by a panda? Homer finding a corpse as a child? The constant rehashing of previous plot-lines and characters? Say thank you to Dana.
I now find myself tuning in every Sunday night with my fingers crossed, repeating a mantra of "Please don't suck... please don't suck" and for this entire season I have been disapointed. Certainly there were funny jokes. But the Simpsons has turned into stringing forced "big-laughs" into loosely-woven plotlines than generally tend to revolve around celebrities or Homer being an idiot. If you check the 2/10/02 episode, you'll count almost twenty-five producers. 25 producers. Management is strangling the life out of this wonderful series while Dana Gould stomps on its putrifying corpse with his steel-toed jack-boots.
I think Lisa's hypothetical question at the end of the 1/6/02 episode says it all: "Is this the end of our series"
A slashbot actually complaining that there isn't enough advertising.
Hang on while I scrape this ice off satan's windshield.
I am a young, educated professional with pretty hefty chunk of disposable income. Most of my friends are young, educated professionals with a hefty chunks of disposable income. Most of my friends enjoy the same shows I do (things like futurama, family guy, adult swim, and others). Now, as far as I know, young professionals with disposable income is a pretty choice demographic.
So why is it good shows that people like me watch always seem to be going off the air just when I start to enjoy them, while shows that seem to appeal to a, er, less desirable demographic seem to succeed? Something like 'Temptation Island' may get a large viewer base, but from what I've experienced (and I don't claim to be an expert), those types of people would be of little interest to advertisers, save places like Wal-mart or used car dealerships with a large inventory of pickup trucks.
I'm not trying to be elitist, I'm sure at one point I'll get married and the drudgery of work and family will stretch my mind so much I'll take solace in the soothing simplicity of bad TV, while stretching my wallet to the point where sales at Wal-Mart will become interesting. But for the time being, well, I'm not.
So I've been trying to figure out why Fox has handled Futurama the way they have, and this is what I've come up with.
1. The ratings system is really, really off base. Somehow, the companies who track ratings are giving incorrect numbers back to the networks, or the advertisers are reading them wrong. In college I was an account executive for a radio station (meaning I sold advertising). I found extensive frustration in the fact that our numbers were always very low while our ads always had such good direct feedback. I remember once a failed pitch I had with the owner of a bicycle shop, who would buy ads from a competitor (a country and western station) that cost 10 times as much as ours. Why? Because their ratings were higher. While I'm sure people who like country buy bicycles, after years of advertising the stores prime clientele appeared to remain the sort of people who preferred rock.
2. The networks are full of idiots. I don't mean their stupid because the shows are so bad; It's been decades since quality was a priority, only money matters now. (Rupert Murdoch even admitted years ago in an interview that the only show he really enjoys watching on his network was the 'Simpsons'). But even with money a priority, they still manage to muck it up. If you have a show with promise that's starting to catch on, you don't run it in a timeslot opposite a highly popular show on another network, then shrug your shoulders thinking 'oh I wonder why the ratings went down'. They make programming changes that succeed more in alienating viewers then to expose new shows. They seem to over promote the sort of stuff that just won't catch on, and ignore shows that might attract viewers.
3. The advertisers are idiots. Television is a for-profit business, and in all fairness, they will do whatever it takes to accommodate their revenue stream. On the other hand, it's the job of the people in marketing to get their message out to the largest number of potential customers for the least amount of money. So why then do I see ads for tampons during reruns of 'The A-Team'? Sure, woman watch 'The A-Team', but it seems to me they could have spent the cash for the A-team spot on another show that would reach a larger number of potential customers for the same amount of money. So many times I see an ad on TV and think 'I can't of anyone who would watch this show that would buy this product'.
For all the money advertisers spend on research and production, they so often forget about actually reaching their target demographic when it's time to buy ad space. A show like Futurama may only get 150,000 viewers (I'm making these numbers up for the sake of example), but if 75% of those viewers are likely to spend more then $1,000 a year on electronic equipment, you have a pretty solid demographic for the electronics based industry. .
4. People are idiots. We put up with poor programming. We pay extra for cable so we can receive more channels with more advertising. We holler and scream when our favorite shows are canceled and beg networks to let us make money for them. It could be that all my armchair analysis above is wrong. There is some deep logical reasoning for the seemingly asinine behavior of the networks and advertisers that maximizes profits. It could be this model will continue to be used so as long as we put up with it despite the fact that no viewer is ever really satisfied.
I'd like to think it's some sort of combination of the first three, but there is this sad, nagging voice that tells me it's all 4.
The Internet is generally stupid
See the #futurama IRC channel on Dalnet.
~shiny
WILL HACK FOR $$$
The characters were great. The interaction was great. The animation was great. But for the love of God, don't you think you should be able to be funny in the year 3000 without winding the clock back? Geez, it's even worse than those Star Trek TOS and TNG time-travel-to-old-earth episodes.
I'll miss Futurama, especially Bender, but I'm sure that Matt's twisted mind can come up with something equally good, if not even better, sometime soon. Farewell Zoiberg, I hardly GLLLBBLBBLLBLBL!!! ye.
Mr. Ska
Could someone with a Gimp talent make a banner and a button to put on web sites? I think that would be a nice idea, now if we could just figure out a link we could point it to. :)
Click Here
Life is the leading cause of death in America.
I hate Futurama. I guess I'm the only one. But I can't believe people have a letter writing campaign for this, but nobody did anything about The Lone Gunmen. That was the funniest show I've seen in a long time. Sure the pilot wasn't that good (did anyone besides me notice how eerily similar the plot of the pilot was to the September 11 attacks? or am I the only one who actually watched it?), but it got better.
Sigh.
Secession is the right of all sentient beings.
Guess what? Fox has no idea whether I watch Futurama or not. They only know aggregate data collected from Nielsen participants.
... well, they need to watch less TV.
The point is -- they already know how many people watch it. Maybe they just need to know how many rabid fans there are...
But anyway, I actually do hope these petitions for TV shows go away. I like TV sometimes, but anybody who's in love with a show so much to make a petition about it
Perhaps FOX should switch the timeslots of Futurama and Malcolm in the Middle for, say, a month.
Futurama came on after the Simpsons for at least the first full season. And guess what? No one watched it.
Just face it: more people like Malcolm in the Middle, for God knows what reason. And more people like That 70's Show, and more people like Boston Public, and more people like Ally McBeal, and more people like to watch football. Futurama is a niche show, and regardless of how good it is, Fox doesn't have to show it if no one is going to watch it.
Futurama wasn't killed by its bad time slot; it died well before that. We were lucky that they kept showing it as long they did...
-Mike
Futurama isn't BAD, I just don't find it nearly as funny.
It's not our fault that you have no sense of humor.
Dinivin
It seems that fox has a back log of 30 futurama episodes, that is why it chose night to sign to make more for next year.
Also, Matt owns the series, not FOX, so if fox cancel, there is always hope that it will get pick up else where.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on