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Futurama: Can it be True!?
foolinator writes "Wired News has reported that Futurama could be making a comeback! From the article: "Last year, Futurama and Family Guy reruns did so well that it's likely both shows (which Fox killed in prime time) will produce new episodes."
" Now if only I could get more Firefly, TV might be worth watching again.
I truely hope that they both come back, particularly Futurama.
Ah, Zoidy, what are we doing without you?
I still think we're headed for an all-cartoon prime time. It's so much cheaper to make cartoons compared to other shows, and the jokes can be so much clearer, plus you can fly under the FCC's crazy censorship witch-hunting by being "just a harmless cartoon".
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It seems like too much of a coincidence that while the Simpsons actors are holding out for $8 Million / season that Fox suddenly takes an intrest in Futurama? Say it aint so!
In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet, and say to us, "Make us your slaves, but feed us." - Dostoevsky
I really am since we all know fox are evil. (Score 1, insightful)
What about new FG episodes on DVD? I heard some rumour about that...
Do the executives ever watch these programs if they did they would realise what a bad idea killing them off would be. Most programs that have a large audience in there first series usually trail off by the second and third (think of most reality shows). Most quality series build up a fan base slowly by word of mouth, which is what has happened with the re-runs.
Message to SKY/FOX please stop repeating the same Simpson episodes in the same week it's boring and putting me off the Simpson's.
Saying Apple is better than MS is like saying Botulism is better than rabies.
During Futurama's last season there was a two-month stretch where no Futurama was shown at all (even though it was in the schedule).
Due in no small part to the fact that they're able to create episodes in a week, if need be.
I dunno, I'm as big a South Park fan as anybody but season 8 has been consistently bad so far.
Anyway, when these shows come back, I'd be concerned about the voice talent, the writers, the desire of the studio to just crank out some crap hoping the title of the show keeps people watching. I mean, have you seen the Simpsons lately? Definately past its prime.
Maybe, and I hope I'm wrong, these shows were cut down in their prime for a good reason: to avoid jumping the shark.
Now here's a show I'd love to see brought back, but it'll never happen... Invader ZIM. Too bad, the creative genius of the show has gone on record saying he'd rather die than animate.
OK, now we've got the second best science-fiction comedy cartoon of all time un-cancelled, a concerted effort must be made to rescue Invader Zim from Nickelodeon. Irkan dominance must not be denied!
SoupIsGood Food
I don't know if anyone else remembers what Futurama was replaced with. Oliver Beane. One of the shittiest shows ever. People joke about Fox executives being a bunch of monkeys that have no clue about programming, but it's really true. Every single truly good show Fox gets it cancels. What is it replaced with? Midgets, people injuring themselves, TV bloopers, weddings, police chases, reality shows, absolute shit. The ratings may be high for those shows, but they are only high because they are extreme. Once people become censatized they must become more extreme. It's an arms race. Just look at the wedding shows of 3 years ago compared to todays. There's nothing about these shows that have lasting value or anything that's fundamentally entertaining about them.
Zoidberg, now he's entertaining. The rubber band is on the other claw now!!
FOX executives know as much about entertainment, as FOX News execs do about news. You'd almost think they ran Sci-fi, I know! Let's replace Farscape with Tripping the Rift (aka Proof that Quebec is the humorless wasteland everyone thinks it is).
What I would wish, is that we all get neilson boxes. And those boxes control one candy dispenser for, and one cattle prod rectally inserted inm each network executive. But the small amount of voltage contributed to either the candy machine or cattle prod is multiplied by the average IQ of the household where it resides.
Here's the new Fox lineup starting at 8pm, 7 central:
8:00 = The Simpsons
8:30 = Futurama (Oliver Bean was funnier when it was called "The Wonder Years")
9:00 = The Family Guy (Malcome in the Middle should be Malcom in the Unemployment line)
9:30 = Arrested Development (this is a GREAT show, please keep it idiots)
Please note, there are no laugh tracks in any of the above shows...as you don't need to tell us when something is funny. (Animated before a live audience?)
Also, Fox WILL stop from the idiotic news teases such as "Alarming news about a certain new food you could be eating right at this very moment that could instantly kill you...we'll tell you about it at 10pm".
"Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it." - John Lennon.
You're telling me you didn't laugh at let's fighting love? and butters getting a throwing star in his eye? or "you got served"?
I'm very glad they're making more. "It's a jackal!"
Hello... "Do the executives ever watch these programs...?"
Well, yes... they probably do. But, since they're executives, there's a slim chance that they're also geeky enough to "get" Futurama. Futurama was packed with side jokes related to programming, physics, linguistics, etc. No executive worth his washroom key would understand any of that...
Now, Family Guy, on the other hand, has a shot - I've seen articles about its possible revival thanks to strong DVD sales.
Everyone, put your CSS and region-control concerns behind you, and buy a fuckload of Futurama DVDs.
Karma: Excellent (fuck, even in the future moderation doesn't work!)
Now if only Fox would bring the back The Tick. (The animated version! The animated version!)
The only thing that we learn from history is that nobody learns anything from history.
If you don't like Futurama you probably didn't get the jokes. :)
The Anti-Blog
I was a huge Simpsons fan, until I got tired of 50% of all the writing being a parody of something else. But it was a great show, regardless. Futurama...well, I tried to watch it a couple of times, and I didn't get it. I saw how it was trying to be funny, but it was so forced.
Now King of the Hill...there's a slickly written and funny show. It has lines which are completely brilliant, without just being throwaways or parodies of other shows or movies.
Yeah, that's why Jeff Foxworthy isn't popular at all....NOT.
Chris
excuse me! I think you'll find it's daffodil! :)
dave
Isn't it? How something has to be canceled before anybody notices it was doing well? Someone needs to figure out what it is about middle management that makes them insist on canceling/firing/destroying as a first alternative for everything.
Profits down? Fire people. Ratings down? Cancel it. Not making seven figures pure pocket-stuffing profit a day? Destroy it. What if these guys worked in agriculture? They'd probably bulldoze the whole fucking farm because they weren't shipping truckloads of wheat bread and salsa by Thursday.
Business isn't willing to pay for products, innovation and careers, so we get brands, mortgage commercials and layoffs.
Not a chance. Probably got promoted and given a bayside apartment and six-figure bonus because the next quarter's numbers were up 20%. (Then down 40% the following quarter, after the bonus check was cashed).
Management can't lose. If they cancel it and fire everyone, they take credit for the cost reduction. If they keep it on the air and it doesn't get the ratings, they fire everyone (because it was their fault) and take credit for the cost reduction. If they keep it on the air and it gets good ratings, they take credit for the increased ad revenue and the success of the show (it was their idea, of course), and they wait unti the end of the season to fire everyone, and take credit for the cost reduction. It's the perfect job.
Business isn't willing to pay for products, innovation and careers, so we get brands, mortgage commercials and layoffs.
Which can hurt them, too. Spike TV's "This Just In" tries the same thing with very little success. Even jokes that SHOULD be funny aren't funny when they do them.
It takes a special show to become more than the sum of its collaboraters. Adult Swim has it a lot of the time. Family Guy had it. South Park had it, lost it, and last season regained it. And Futurama has it in droves...in fact, as The Simpsons slowly became an exercise in self worship, Futurama started slicing at the bleeding edge of parody, with some of the most hilarious dialog on TV.
Hey freaks: now you're ju
You are one hundred percent wrong.
Decent cartoons actually cost far more than the crap reality shows to make. Alledgedly Futurama cost something like $1 million dollars an episode to produce, due to it's high quality animation.
Thats why Fox canned them in the first place - they did it to bump their short term profits.
However quality shows like Futurama and Family Guy have much greater long term value - they can be shown on TV for years and DVD sales are also very great - whereas who gives a rats ass about last years reality shows ? And who wants to watch repeats of them for years on end ?
"Free software as in beer, copy protection as in racket" - Telsa Gwynne
It also takes a steady time slot. Both Futurama and Family Guy, if I recall correctly, were victims of FOX bumping it around their lineup a whole lot trying to find where it'd work best, but inevitably just screwing with their audience's head by not letting them get settled with when the show was on.
Proof positive that the jumping of the shark has commenced. Seriously, stick a fork in it, it's no longer funny. What used to be the greatest sitcom of "ALL TIME!" is now pretty weak and is painful for me to watch.
God Bless America. Why? Did it sneeze?
You know, if Fox were to bring back all the great shows they've cancelled over the years, they could singlehandedly wipe out reality TV (largely because they wouldn't have any time to show it).
"If English was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for everyone else."
The thing is, Futurama was one of those shows that was driven by one character's unrequited love for another. (Although I suppose there are some who'll argue that it was driven by comedy. Pshaw!) It ended with a story where it looked like Fry and Leela were finally getting together, though the writers left some wiggle room. Now, what would happen in a new season? Either:
1. The writers take advantage of that wiggle room -- no, Fry and Leela didn't really get together; he's still pining for her, she's still turning him down. That's depressing, after everything that happened in the finale. I don't want to see that.
2. They DO get together, and live happily ever after. I'm glad for them, but I don't want to watch that. It's boring. That's why "happily ever after" is always at the end of the story. It's a nice place to live, but you wouldn't want to visit.
Alternatively, they could get together, and then have it not work out. That's even more depressing than the first option.
OK, so I'm a hopeless romantic.
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" Now if only I could get more Firefly, TV might be worth watching again."
FUCK that. Instead Firefly coming back, the Sci-Fi channel shoul bring back FARSCAPE!!!! Damn you insensitive clods!
When I want your opinion, I'll beat it out of you