Groening Confident on Futurama Relaunch

friedo writes "Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons and Futurama, says there may yet be hope for a renewed Futurama series, thanks to high DVD sales and syndication ratings. Comments from David X. Cohen: 'Three months ago, I would have said we were going to start tomorrow ... And one month ago I would also have said we were going to start tomorrow. So...my current estimate is that we're starting tomorrow.'"

Comments

Firefly?

[Burianski11]

So does this mean we can expect Firefly to be resurrected as well?

Re:Firefly?

[Blublu]

Sure, we can get ALL the dead TV shows.
Starting tomorrow...

Re:Firefly?

[th1ckasabr1ck]

According to the article, Futurama is getting resurrected because of high syndication ratings and a large number of DVD sales.

I love Firefly, but it doesn't have either one of those going for it.

Re:Firefly?

[Crudely_Indecent]

I haven't heard much about the success of the Firefly movie (Serenity)...but I liked it completely... They didn't need to kill **** and the ******, but what the hell..it was still good.... They left it wide open for continuation.

(Above names censored for those who haven't seen Serenity yet...by the way, it's out on DVD TODAY....Someone is giving it to me for Christmas, so I have to wait 'til Sunday)

We can hope.

Re:Firefly?

[Flaming Babies]

Thanks for that....I'm not a big fan of seeing movies in the theatre...
This is a movie I expected to see this week.

Re:Firefly?

[VitrosChemistryAnaly]

Well, if you saw the movie, it seems the series would be short 2 characters. One major character (Walsh). Though I think Jayne is priceless in the whole series and in the movie....

...and if you saw the movie, then you would know that the characters name is Wash.

Re:Firefly?

[ericdano]

yeah yeah yeah. Still, he be dead.

Re:Firefly?

[99BottlesOfBeerInMyF]

According to the article, Futurama is getting resurrected because of high syndication ratings and a large number of DVD sales. I love Firefly, but it doesn't have either one of those going for it.

Firefly was (at one time) in the top 10 DVDs on Barnes and Noble and in the top 50 on Amazon, the only two major retail outlets to publish their sales statistics. I'd say that is pretty popular for the series. The movie did alright at the box office, but nothing spectacular. It certainly did well enough so that Whedon can get funding for another if he is so inclined. I doubt we'll see a revival of the series, but it is certainly not out of the question.

Re:Firefly?

[Sebastopol]

Just one comment:

Firefly --> ~12 episodes
Futurama --> 72 episodes (or 36 1-hour episodes to be fair)

This may be a reason why futurama is more lucrative.

Re:Firefly?

[colenski]

mmmmMMMmmmm Jewel Saite ....


....I'll be in my bunk.

Re:Firefly?

[EvilMonkeySlayer]

Hasn't Joss Whedon given up on Firefly? (link lifted straight from digg)

Re:Firefly?

[CrazyTalk]

No - since the movie "Serenity" was pretty much a failure at the box office.

Re:Firefly?

[MrRogers2]

So does this mean we can expect Firefly to be resurrected as well?


Maybe, maybe not: Recent Whedon quotes about the future of Firefly

Re:Firefly?

[Rude Turnip]

"They didn't need to kill **** and the ******, but what the hell..it was still good...."

Snape and Dumbledorf? Yeah, I didn't see that coming, either.

Re:Firefly?

[Kazzahdrane]

Serenity is currently sitting at #1 on Amazon.com's DVD sales chart. The Firefly series DVD set is at #6. Not bad for a cancelled TV show that by all account "nobody" saw. Joss Whedon has said time and again that the DVD sales for Serenity will decide on the fate of the universe the movie and series are set in. I'm a pretty pessimistic Browncoat, but #1 on Amazon for a film that had almost no marketing seems pretty encouraging to me.

Re:Firefly?

[Kurt Granroth]

[Serenity] did alright at the box office, but nothing spectacular. It certainly did well enough so that Whedon can get funding for another if he is so inclined.

I'm interested to know where you got this idea. Did Whedon say it somewhere? Or some other figure that would be in the position to know?

By all accounts that I've heard and read, Serenity was a bit of a bomb. According to Box Office Mojo, Serenity had a production budget of 39 million and hasn't even broken even yet. That counts world-wide sales and it's effectively done with its theater run. Marketing costs aren't factored in at all. Not breaking even doesn't sound like "doing alright" to me!

It's coming out on DVD very soon and it historically does very well in that market. I don't know enough about the movie industry to know if that counts when they decide on financing new movies, though. I'm crossing my fingers...

I am as much a Serenity fan as any other non-Browncoat Firefly fan, but until somebody in the know tells otherwise, I'm going to have to conclude the the movie was a flop.

Re:Firefly?

[Hellboy0101]

There are some serious discussions going on right now over at fireflyfans.net of raising money for a straight to DVD series. This is not like the SaveEnterprise campaign, sine the fans are not very keen on getting the series back on to network TV.

The idea was born out of a (I believe) New York Magazine article, where Firefly was singled out as a series that had the ability to make this happen. The method is similar to to how some OSS programs operate. Once the creator of the program gets X amount of money, they release the program. Same would apply here. Sixteen episodes budgeted at 2 million USD a piece, plus creation costs for the DVDs, shipping etc. Ballparking it at $40 million USD to produce, and charge another $29.95 USD to sell it.

It's unclear whether or not Fox has the rights to a straight to DVD release, since they hold the broadcast rights to new episodes. But, since these are not being broadcast, this may be able to be sidestepped, or possibly royalties or some such would need to be paid to them. It's all in the wording of the contract. There has also been talk about rasing the money to purchase the rights from FOX, if they are willing to sell.

Mal: "What happens when the money's good enough?"
Jayne: "Well, that will be an interesting day."

Yes it would.

Re:Firefly?

[Leiterfluid]

I'm pretty sure it was Frodo and Gollum

Re:Firefly?

[MrPerfekt]

As much as I enjoyed Firefly and Serenity, the movie can be considered a commercial failure sadly. According to here at imdb, the film was budgeted at around $40 million USD and only took in around $30 million USD worldwide. That's not to say they won't make it up in DVD sales and actually make a tiny profit but it certainly doesn't bode well for a future movie or a continuation of the series.

Re:Firefly?

[pappy97]

"The only problem with Firefly being revived is that Whedon never wants to work with Fox again, so another network would have to buy the copyright from Fox, which would be hell of course since this is Fox we're talking about."

Actually this isn't a problem. When FOX canned "The Simple Life," E! was able to purchase the show and broadcast new episodes. They also have rights to continue the "franchise."\

Firefly's problem is that nobody likes it. Serenity was a failure. If Serenity earned 100 million at the box office, then maybe there would be a reason to bring it back.

But there isn't enough popularity in the sub-par show.

Joss Whedon needs to just stick to Astonishing X-Men (The comic book he is writing now, if you are TRUE Whedon freaks, you would have ALREADY READ year one of Whedon's run in Astonishing X-men)

Re:Firefly?

[blork101]

Both the series and the film are currently in the top ten selling items on Amazon.com. The film is above Star Wars III, which, considering it's heritage, is a mighty achievement. Okay, so the DVD of the film was only released today, so it may very well quickly disappear, but the series has been a consistant seller for 2/3 years now - really, the reason a film was made.

Re:Firefly?

[99BottlesOfBeerInMyF]

According to here at imdb, the film was budgeted at around $40 million USD and only took in around $30 million USD worldwide.

Their numbers look a little out of date, as the production budget was 39 million and the total gross, worldwide is at 38 million right now. Still, your point is well taken. While this film will likely break even and make a small profit in the next few years of DVD sales, it is by no means a sure thing to find funding for another medium-low budget film like this one.

I actually wonder about this movie. I know the series has a large, cult following. Several friends of mine, however, expressed frustration that the movie was not playing anywhere near them. One friend lives in a typical medium sized town with a six screen theater, that never showed the film. The other lives in a slightly larger town with three theaters and a very large engineering university. They also did not have the film come to any of the theaters. This makes me wonder about the cause and effect. Did the movie perform poorly, and thus was not brought to many theaters, or was it not brought to many theaters, and thus did poorly?

Re:Firefly?

[fodder69]

The replays on the SciFi channel are getting pretty decent ratings last I saw.

The movie grossed $38M worldwide, which is pretty close to the original budget.

Theater grosses account for about 18% of a movies income these days. DVD, pay channel fees, and tv airing fees all count a whole lot more than theater now a days.

So the movie is not a loss for Universal, they will make some money on it. How much is something we will never know. I have no idea if they would ever greenlight a sequel, but it's not exactly a done deal that they won't.

Re:Firefly?

[xrobertcmx]

Really? I never would have known, I didn't get to see it until the third week it was out in the theaters here and even then the theater was full.

Re:Firefly?

[Browncoat]

Several fans from overseas reported that the movie was unavailable to them. I think the problem there was that theaters were grappling with the issue of demand. If they didn't see a demand for Serenity, they wouldn't spend time to place it in a theater.

I drove home from college, just to see it. I couldn't guarantee the theaters in town were going to play it, or for how long, so I drove home and caught the 12 am showing on Saturday.

Re:Firefly?

[Lillesvin]

Not exactly... I know I'm being pedantic, but the Futurama eps are approx. 22 minutes each, so more like 24 1-hour eps.

But yeah, Futurama is popular and I really hope that Fox will soon get their heads out of their asses and realize that one of their biggest mistakes (next to that of their existance and probably some others I don't know about) was to cancel Futurama.

It's ridiculous that a show can be held hostage in such a manner. I'm sure some other network would have loved having the Futurama crew on board.

And, let me just point out that for the first time ever, my sig is actually on-topic! :-)

Re:Firefly?

[Browncoat]

Taking into account the type of movie it is and the complications of the entire thing....it did pretty well. 38 million dollars well. The show ended years ago, found life on DVD. The DVDs, however, aren't rented in most Blockbusters so people have to go and buy them, or find someone they can borrow them from. Considering its original run on Fox, where the episodes were aired out of order and were often pre-empted, a lot of people who tried giving it a chance during its run probably didn't want to revisit the show later, or had preconceived notions.

After several years of cult fandom, it's safe to say that there are millions and millions of Browncoats out there. The problem is, not all of them have access to the movie and that is a blunder by the studio. The wider the release, the worse the numbers are going to look if the movie doesn't perform well overall. "Oh, it only made ___ million in 3,000 theaters?" The movie only played in 2,189 U.S. theaters (according to boxofficemojo.com).

But it did open as number 2 on the opening chart. That's very important and will make a studio pay a little bit more attention.

Re:Firefly?

[chrish]

Just wait long enough and Hollywood recycles them as big-screen remakes.

Re:Firefly?

[The Spoonman]

It's coming out on DVD very soon

Not very soon, very NOW! It's out today! W00T! First stop on the way home is Best Buy to pick it up..

Re:Firefly?

[Ced_Ex]

Really? I can't wait till they make Knight Rider the movie, only have K.I.T.T be a Honda Civic and Michael Knight played by Vince Vaughn.

Re:Firefly?

[brentodd]

Joss Whedon says NO. http://arstechnica.com/staff/palatine.ars/2005/12/ 20/2154

Re:Firefly?

[Binestar]

Not exactly... I know I'm being pedantic, but the Futurama eps are approx. 22 minutes each, so more like 24 1-hour eps.

Interesting, last time I watched Firefly from the Sci-Fi channel on rerun there were commercials. Where did you find these magical 60 minute cuts of firefly without commercial?

So not only are you being pedantic, you're completely off-base at the same time!

(Good thing it's freedom day!)

Re:Firefly?

[Kuros_overkill]

Serenity... Well, I guess that means the turn over time has shrunk to the point where the original cast, crew, and creators are involved in the big-screen remakes... [obvious tag]

Re:Firefly?

[Boronx]

They would have made more money if they'd have let Serenity be Firefly.

Re:Firefly?

[weg]

Not bad for a cancelled TV show that by all account "nobody" saw.

Well.. who would buy the DVD of something that he already watched on TV ;-)

Re:Firefly?

[nuremon]

Myself for one (Original series Star Trek, Original Series Outer Limits, X-Files, Dr. Who, Firefly (but I didn't watch it when it came out), etc.).
My wife, for another (Friends, Futurama, Simpsons, etc.).

Of course we only have DVD's, no cable or satellite.

Re:Firefly?

[Lillesvin]

I was only talking about Futurama. I've never seen Firefly (or even heard of it before). I just wanted to correct the claim that a Futurama ep was ~30 minutes.

Re:Firefly?

[tooth]

And if wishes were horses we'd all be eating steak.

Re:Firefly?

[Binestar]

The claim at a Futurama Episode was 30 minute is correct, from the standpoint of it started on TV at X time and at X+30 minutes it was over. It is that standpoint that anyone comparing 2 TV shows would compare. Aqua teen hungerforce was released in 15 minute episodes, but likely the running time is only 10 minutes. Doesn't mean we say it's a 10 minute show.

Firefly started at X time, and X+60 minutes later it was over. 1 hour show. So putting a 22 minute non-commercial TV show up against a 60 minute (including commercials) TV show is a bad example.

Re:Firefly?

[Lillesvin]

I didn't compare them - I merely stated that a Futurama ep lasted ~22 minutes and not ~30 as claimed.

Sure, if you include commercials, teasers for other programs and stuff, then you're probably right. But since the length of commercials/teasers may vary (e.g. here in Denmark Futurama was aired without commercials, so the running time was closer to 20 minutes than it was to 30), you can't really use that for comparison.

Again, I didn't try to compare anything, I just stated that the running time of a Futurama ep was ~22 minutes. I never compared it to the running time of Firefly (including or excluding commercials)... And I never intended to.

Re:Firefly?

[Binestar]

You did, when you "corrected" the information given by the original poster.

Re:Firefly?

[Browncoat]

What is love? Love is standing in a godforsaken line at Best Buy, in front of screaming toddlers whose parents just can't win the fight, for a freakishly long period of time, just -- to -- buy -- Serenity.

But it's so worth it.

Re:Firefly?

[Kazzahdrane]

My fandom has nothing to do with it. You're saying that Serenity had as much marketing for it as Flightplan (launched around the same time in the USA)? Certainly not here in the UK where I saw a Serenity poster once and Flightplan ads all over town, and I've heard from fans in the US that Universal made no attempt to market the movie to people outside the very core market, the very people who could probably be expected to check out the movie anyway based on it being sci-fi/Joss Whedon etc. I don't download TV shows at all (I'm actually a law-abiding /.er), in fact I actually don't watch TV anymore since if anything is worth watching I hear about it and check it out on DVD, that's what happened with Firefly. Universal believed that if they marketed the film to the fans then the fans would market it themselves, and that worked a little but nowhere near as much as some decent marketing would have. I personally told a lot of friends about it and they all enjoyed it to varying degrees, almost all without having seen Firefly, they just didn't know about the film in the first place. You're right though, not having any big name actors didn't help, though I think Universal should have capitalised on this since they didn't have to spend huge amounts of money on hiring huge stars and could have spend more on marketing. We're obviously in disagreement about the whole thing, but I'd ask that you kindly avoid making random assumptions about me just because I'm a fan of the franchise.

Re:Firefly?

[Lillesvin]

*sigh* Sure, whatever...

Interesting though, that you dumped your point about running times but start to focus on metadiscussion. But nevermind...

Re:Firefly?

[Binestar]

Sure, if you include commercials, teasers for other programs and stuff, then you're probably right.

You conceeded the running times point to me. That discussion was done.

Re:Firefly?

[rekoil]

Oh, as if that's never happened before...

Re:Firefly?

[NulDevice]

No, not for 10 years.

That was one of the stipulations of the contract that got the movie made - no television series until the rights revert.

Re:Firefly?

[Lillesvin]

Oh yeah, sure, let's pull quotes out of context...

I said that you were probably right about a Futurama episode lasting ~30 minutes if you include teasers/commercials... I then said: "But since the length of commercials/teasers may vary (...), you can't really use that for comparison.". Hence, you argument about comparing the running times of the two series (which I wasn't even doing in the first place!) was flawed and poorly thought out.

Anyhow, unless you put forward another attitude to this discussion you'll see nothing more from me. You seem to be just looking for a discussion - any discussion - but don't really care to actually read or think before you answer. Right now you're just wasting my time.

Re:Firefly?

[The Spoonman]

Too right, my brother. Just got home with it and pissing off the S-O by watchin' it. hehehe

Re:Firefly?

[Browncoat]

Good for you for buying it, except I'm a girl.

Re:Firefly?

[name*censored*]

If you must know, the approximate running time of each "hour" show is 42 or 42-and-a-half minutes, whilst "half hour" shows are approximately 21 or 21-and-15-seconds. For example, futurama ran for an average of 21:35. I don't know about firefly, I don't think it aired in my country.

Re:Firefly?

[/ASCII]

Wonderfalls is wonderfull and I highly recommend it. But as a series it has very little to do with Firefly.

Re:Firefly?

[AgentSmith]

To Spoonman:

  Ha Ha!

Re:Firefly?

[cloudmaster]

What? As far as I can tell, Serinity isn't on the top of any lists at Amazon, and sure isn't in the top 20 by sales (though Firefly is #16 - not #6). In fact, going through all of the top 100, Serinity isn't even in the list, let along on top. I can't imagine that there was a run on all of those (Carmen Electra's Fit to Strip and Chappele's Show?) in the less-than-24-hours since this was posted, so I'd sure appreciate a pointer to the "sales list" that Serinity is topping at Amazon... The only list I found it on was the "SciFi editors picks" list, where it's just #4, right above "Star Wars: Clone Wars, the animated piece of crap" - and that's just what the Amazon editors liked, regardless of sales. Well, it's also on "sec127's 'Movies I will buy on DVD'" list, but it's not even top of that list. Titanic is above Serinity there.

Re:Firefly?

[cloudmaster]

No, I'm not sure why I misspelled Serenity at least 4 times. I'm gonna blame cold fingers, since I spelled it correctly in the "find" dialog... Weird.

Re:Firefly?

[operagost]

Two new buttons will be added to the dash. Next to "Turbo Boost" and "Pursuit Mode" will be "Fart Pipe" and "Type R".

Re:Firefly?

[Anonymous Coward]

You're looking at the total sales charts for the year. I was talking about the daily sales charts. Y'know, the one you see if you click DVD on the main page.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/130/ ref=two_tab_d/002-8538762-7860861

Right hand side right there. Sales for the whole year tend to be a little low for films released 10 days before the year ends, after all.

This is Kazzahdrane, btw. At my mum's and it seems I've forgotten my /. password...

Re:Firefly?

[The Spoonman]

See, I get what I deserve for being a sexist pig. :)

Good news everyone!

[eldavojohn]

Space. It seems to go on and on forever. But then you get to the end and a gorilla starts throwing barrels at you ...

Re:Good news everyone!

[SamSim]

I really don't know why they bothered featuring that game in the show at all. Monkey Fracas Junior was horribly inferior to the original Monkey Fracas.

Re:Good news everyone!

[leonmergen]

Huh? I thought they were referring to Donkey Kong...

Re:Good news everyone!

[lucky130]

You stink...loser! :)

Re:Good news everyone!

[DJTodd242]

Hand in your union card. You are so fired from being a Futurama fan.

Re:Good news everyone!

[ari_j]

...out of a cannon. Into the sun.

Re:Good news everyone!

[leonmergen]

Haha, oh well, it probably was equally funny to me anyway... :-)

In the words of Zapp Brannigan

[Crudely_Indecent]

"If we hit that bullseye, the rest of the dominos will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate."

Re:In the words of Zapp Brannigan

[snowballs]

I'm glad that they decided against flying the white flag of war.

Re:In the words of Zapp Brannigan

[samkass]

"In the game of chess, it's important to never let your opponent see your pieces."

Re:In the words of Zapp Brannigan

[Surt]

I thought the author of that line in the show clearly had never played blind chess, where the rules are all the same, but indeed you are not allowed to see your opponents pieces. Every time you commit a move, a moderator does the following:

1) if the move is illegal, the moderator makes you take it back and tells you why (ie exposes your king to check)
2) if the move captures an opponents piece, he tells you which one
3) if the move puts your opponent in check he tells you so
4) if the move achieves checkmate he congratulates you

It's fun. Chess fans should try it.

Re:In the words of Zapp Brannigan

[kertong]

"She's built like a steakhouse, but she handles like a bistro!"

Re:In the words of Zapp Brannigan

[n0dalus]

Damnit Gravity, you win again!

Re:In the words of Zapp Brannigan

[Jonny_eh]

I'll play you, as long as you play blind too, or else might not be fair.

Re:In the words of Zapp Brannigan

[chainsaw1]

Kiff, prepare to take the blame in 3...2...1...

Re:In the words of Zapp Brannigan

[10Ghz]

Well the line was talking about "chess", not "blind chess". Blind chess is not the typical game of chess, in typical game of chess you certainly do see the opponents pieces. Who cares if there is some semi-official obscure variant of chess? Fact is that that variant is not "chess", in this case, it's "blind chess". two different things.

Re:In the words of Zapp Brannigan

[cloudmaster]

"You sunk my Battleship!"

Re:In the words of Zapp Brannigan

[Surt]

Yes, of course both sides play blind, that's why you have to have a 3rd person (or computer program, i know there are some out there) to moderate.

Bender!

[ericdano]

Yes! More Bender in the world is a good thing.

Re:Bender!

[Oleksandr]

Bender is awesome as we all know. Robot with balls is something hard to come by. How many times have you waited for Bender's comments on various events in the series? Hearing his comments is indulging our beast-like nature that can't stand any more soup operas.

Re:Bender!

[kimvette]

-- Robot with balls is something hard to come by.

Heh, referring to C3PO I take it? I love Bender. Bender is the anti-3PO.

Let's compare:

C3PO: Human cyborg relations, a pussy, high-strung, but cares about his master and does his work, sexless

Bender: Wants to kill all humans (except one), megalomaniac, couldn't give less of a shit about anyone else, to the point where the only thing that upsets him is lack of beer, womanizing

Re:Bender!

[Cpt_Kirks]

Whoo-Hoo! plop Whoo-Hoo! plop Whoo-Hoo! plop...

Re:Bender!

[disk42]

Bender should not be allowed on TV! -- Proude member of FART

nice.

[joemawlma]

The Family Guy came back because of the demand of the fans. Futurama can do it too! Too bad FOX wasn't smart enough to realize they should have never cancelled either of them. But what can you do? It's FOX.

Re:nice.

[FraggleMI]

I don't know. I think that cancelling them increased their appeal and popularity.

Re:nice.

[Council]

The Family Guy came back because of the demand of the fans. Futurama can do it too! Too bad FOX wasn't smart enough to realize they should have never cancelled either of them.

Fox cancels Family Guy, Futurama, and Firefly, each of which is critically acclaimed and later brought back in some way.

Perhaps they should just realize that they should never cancel shows beginning with "F".

Re:nice.

[timeOday]

Everyone else is watching whatever goatspew fills the other 6 nights of their schedule.

Are they? Does Fox currently have some big hits I'm not aware of?

Re:nice.

[MagicM]

"House" is good.

Re:nice.

[joemawlma]

Yeah, and Futurama doesn't suck, so there's that much more reason to bring it back.

There's no way you just went there. Considering the Family Guy is one of the funniest most intellectually humorous shows EVER, I find your comment to be a troll.

Re:nice.

[Cerberus911]

one word House

Re:nice.

[PhotoBoy]

Yeah, I don't understand why but everyone seems to hate the new Family Guy episodes. Personally I think it's funnier than ever, but I guess there must be something different about it that is putting some people off. I can't see a difference myself though.

The recent episode that had cameos from Soundwave and Cobra Commander was the funniest ever in my book.

Re:nice.

[jimbolauski]

I for anything as long as they get ride of american dad, or what ever other crap they have lined up on sunday with the simpsons besides family guy.

Re: nice.

[EddieBurkett]

Considering the Family Guy is one of the funniest most intellectually humorous shows EVER

What??? I say this as a Family Guy fan, but there is no way that show can be considered intellectually humorous. True enjoyment does require a broad knowledge of pop culture (especially from the 80's), and a healthy appreciation of fart jokes, but intellectual? Futurama is intellectual. Family Guy... not so much. Intellectually??? I do not think it means what you think it means...

Re:nice.

[joemawlma]

I'm not all that suprised about some people disliking the new episodes. I guarantee there will be the same type of people complaining about how much better the old FUTURAMA episodes are compared to the new ones as well whenever they're released.

Re:nice.

[drsquare]

Family Guy has been awful since they restarted it. Be careful what you wish for.

Sometimes it's best when programmes are killed at their peak. Otherwise you end up with a slow, steady descent into medeocrity like the Simpsons.

Re: nice.

[joemawlma]

Seen all the episodes? There are simplistic jokes like farting, but when I say "intellectual", I mean they make jokes out of things you don't expect. Futurama does the same thing. And this is a very intelligent way to make people laugh in my opinion.

But when Peter mentions that "someone lost an eye at bingo" followed by a flashback of the bingo caller dropping "I-17" on the ground (which is funny by itself); and then followed by the bingo caller bending over to pick up the bingo ball and smashing his eye into the corner of the table. I'm sorry, but that's just some smart humor.

Yes, my idea of "intellectual humor" may not be the exact same as yours, and I may even be a little off by making that claim, but their jokes ARE very thought out and smart.

Plus, I always hated "FRASIER." Just for the record. Not funny.

Re: nice.

[Deagol]

What, you mean Dennis Miller style obscure references aren't intellectual? :)

Still, they crack me up. And they go much further back than the 80's. I saw a rerun a few months ago (the one where the son goes to NYC to become a painter), and when Peter and the daughter were walking down the street to the background music similiar to the Flintstones (soon followed by an actual background like that of the Flintstones -- killed the subtlety, IMO), I just cracked up.

Re:nice.

[jaredbpd]

You forgot Fastlane!

Re:nice.

[The-Bus]

You do realize that it means that "Futurama" will remain cancelled, but the'll have no problem re-greenlighting "Fastlane" and "FreakyLinks" right?

TV Execs...

Re:nice.

[pappy97]

I'm truly sorry the Dennis Miller-esque comedy of the Family Guy escapes you. But hey, I think you can still get your cheap chuckles from Will & Grace, According to Jim, George Lopez Show, The King of Queens, and until this May, Joey.

Re: nice.

[mkw87]

Intellectually??? I do not think it means what you think it means...

Your statements are all so true about family guy. Southpark on the other hand, requires a lot of prior random knowledge, but can also be intellectually funny.

Re: nice.

[Anonymous Coward]

That's physical comedy (well, the animated equivalent). Intellectual humor is Pinky and the Brain parodying the entirety of The Third Man because the guy who voices Brain sounds so much like Orson Welles.

Re:nice.

[ion_ash]

Perhaps they should just realize that they should never cancel shows beginning with "F".

Of course, by that logic, we'd still be living with:

Fastlane, Freakylinks, Fortune Hunter & Flying Blind... to name a few.

I'm just sayin'...

Re:nice.

[waterlogged]

You Forgot Farscape! I think you may be on to something. And yes..... I know it wasn't Fox that cancelled it, but I can still be bitter darn it.

Re: nice.

[joemawlma]

your opinion matters. /sarcasm

Maybe we should actually add something to the discussion instead of just stating your likes and dislikes.

Re:nice.

[voorko02]

Actually, I don't think Family Guy was "critically acclaimed". I recall plenty of harsh reviews calling it a cheap Simpsons knock-off (which is funny because by that point the Simpsons themselves had already become that).

Full Disclosure: I like the Family Guy the least out of the three shows you mentioned, so thats probably why I remember the negative reviews. I still think its funny, but not nearly as funny as it thinks it is.

Re:nice.

[loquacious d]

Fox's Arrested Development is probably the greatest television sitcom ever... but no one watches that either.

Re: nice.

[absinthminded64]

I liked the inaccurate view of the plaza hotel in that episode! The flintstones reference was pretty funny too. Kind of like the 'beyond' section at bed bath and beyond in one of the more recent episodes.

In a past episode of the Simpsons the italian book of criminals had a picture of Peter with a caption of "plagiarist".

I'm betting the FOX execs are wondering why they pay so much for inaccurate ratings.

Re:nice.

[bedroll]

The new episodes do seem to be a bit more derivative than the old though, so maybe that's what's putting some people off. Case in point, both the Soundwave and Cobra Commander cameos aired within a few weeks of the same '80s cartoon characters being featured in skits on Robot Chicken. Same thing with a number of Simpsons gags as well... Family Guy usually manages to give these mini-plagarisms their own, sometimes funnier twist, but recent "borrowing" from other animated shows have seemed a bit more contrived and less amusing to me.

I can see the Robot Chicken gags as being related. Seth Green works on both shows. Although the difference is that Robot Chicken tends to cameo characters that are action figures simply because, well, it's all shot using dolls and cheap claymation. However, your assertion of "mini-plagarisms" is pretty funny. How long do you think it takes to storyboard, draw, ink, voice, edit, and master one of these shows? Are you insinuating that they have spies in the Simpsons' production unit or something?

I also think that American Dad might have put some people off. I generally find American Dad to be about as funny as the new Family Guy episodes, but it feels like a slightly altered rehash of Family Guy a lot of the time.

Well, Seth MacFarlane actually admitted that it is basically the same show on The Late Show last year. Honestly, it is very similar and it has it's moments, but it's just not quite as good.

As an aside...
My favorite new Family Guy moment was when Brian hit Peter and you expect him to say something like "That's for being stupid", but instead he says "That's for rolling up the window on the General Lee." Most shows don't bother to self-reference from one episode to the next, but this one made a joke that you'd only get if you'd watched an episode from a couple years ago.

Re:nice.

[Otter]

For that matter, the last season of Futurama (where it turned into Friends with a talking lobster) was also awful. I'd missed them all when they were originally on, but having seen them in reurns, it's like watching Ross and Rachel break up for the eleventeenth time.

Re:nice.

[brxndxn]

You bastard!

Family Guy has been sitting around with three years of re-runs and DVDs for the original episodes and newly-aired NEW episodes.. Of course the old episodes seem better because we've all seen them five times each. But, after a few years, the new episodes will seem funny too - like last Sunday's episode that made me crap in my pants and spit pizza cheese all over the TV. (because it was funny)

Yet, King of the Hill, which has always sucked, continues to suck... And, it will never seem funny no matter how many times you watch it.

Re:nice.

[Skroggtar]

From what I remember, that season had some pretty hilarious moments, and unlike Friends, when the writers wanted to tug at heartstrings it didn't seem desperate. Despite it being an animated show about a robot, a lobster, a cyclops et al, the emotion was far more natural than that on Friends.

Re:nice.

[X86Daddy]

Family Guy has been awful since they restarted it. Be careful what you wish for.

I've also noticed the show being more... shallow and repetitive, like it has lost something. However, I still tune in and still get some laughs out of it, because a crappier Family Guy is a whole lot better than most shows at their best, IMHO. Fox has to air *something*. I do miss Andy Richter Controls the Universe though...

Re: nice.

[LordSkippy]

Yeah, the guy doesn't really understand the difference between slap-stick and smart humor. 5 to 1 he thought Dumb and Dumber was comedy genius.

Futurama, however, had lots of smart comedy, along with slap-stick and bathroom humor. One of those rare shows that's a great mix of humor styles.

Re:nice.

[arctan1701]

King of the Hill is a drama you insensitive clod!

Re: nice.

[RobNich]

Brain is voiced by Maurice LaMarche, the voice of H.G.B., Kif, Morbo, and the announcer. "You watched it, you can't un-watch it!"

Re: nice.

[piper-noiter]

Exactly. Southpark, Futurama, The Simpsons(not the new stuff), etc show intelligences. Family Guy shows a joy of pop-culture, irony, slap-stick and just pure randomness but it isn't smart humor. What Family Guy really lacks is any sort of meaning. There is never any real deeper message. There are no ideas presented beyond the humor, and the copying and splicing of plots from popular culture.

Oh and the Farthest I've seen Family Guy humor go back is a musical number taken from The Road to Morocco('42). Most of Stewie's references are older than the rest of the cast.

Re: nice.

[mkw87]

Most of Stewie's references are older than the rest of the cast.

Of course they are, he is much more intelligent than the rest (except Brian), which adds to the wittiness of the humor, but not the 'intelligence' of the humor.

Re: nice.

[moonbender]

The Family Guy humour might be random and not smart, but nobody does random, non-smart humour anyhwere near as good as Family Guy.

Re:nice.

[That's Unpossible!]

Long live Farrested Development!!!

Re:nice.

[ejp1082]

Otherwise you end up with a slow, steady descent into medeocrity like the Simpsons.

I've been re-watching the Simpsons in order, trying to figure out exactly when it started to suck. As near as I can figure it happened somewhere in season 9, which is likely the last season I'll get on DVD.

It's interesting to note though that the Simpsons didn't really start to rock until season 4, and didn't peak until seasons 5-6. Seasons 1 and 2, with a few exceptions (Bart the Daredevil) were pretty lame. Notably it seemed to get a lot better in season 3, when it seemed to move from being Bart-centric to Homer-centric.

I don't think that Futurama is very analogous though, as it was pretty consistent in quality throughout. I'd like to see what they could do with a few more seasons.

Re:nice.

[drsquare]

Things don't get funnier the more you watch them. The original 3 series of Family Guy were funny the first time. The new ones aren't.

And what exactly is the point in American Dad? It's like Family Guy but with less interesting characters and no jokes. Even the voices and jokes are recycled from FG.

Re:nice.

[Bastian]

I recall plenty of harsh reviews calling it a cheap Simpsons knock-off (which is funny because by that point the Simpsons themselves had already become that).

Also because about the only thing Family Guy has in common with The Simpsons is that it's animated and the male lead is a doofus.

Which also makes Family Guy a knock-off of Goofy cartoons.

Re: nice.

[piper-noiter]

Most definitely. Family Guy is the master of the random. It doesn't go to far like some of the shows on Cartoon Network, completely de-attaching themselves from reality. Some of the Adult Swim shows go to far and it becomes impossible to relate to the situation.

Re:nice.

[Jugalator]

I, for one, welcome our new overzealous Irefly overlord!

Re: nice.

[cojerk]

"Kittens give Morbo gas."

Re:nice.

[drsquare]

Yeah, but they've probably done everything they're going to do. The programme's got nowhere to go, it'll just be more of the same.

Even some of the later Futurama episodes went down in quality, too much sentiment for a start, which is one of Groening's main flaws.

Re:nice.

[nege]

Fine! I'm go make my OWN Futurama. With blackjack! And Hookers! In fact, forget the Futurma!

Re:nice.

[Chaos Continuum]

What would you rather have:

1. 26 new Futurama episodes, where only 1/2 of them are good.
2. no new Futurama episodes.

I for one am all for the former.

Re: nice.

[geekoid]

" I'm sorry, but that's just some smart humor"
not really, no.

It was surprising, and delivered with great timing, and funny. It was neither Smart, not intellectual.

Family guy can also be insightfull, again, not intelectual.

And for the record, Frasier is fucking funny. It is also intellectual.

Re:nice.

[Minna Kirai]

Notably it seemed to get a lot better in season 3, when it seemed to move from being Bart-centric to Homer-centric.

That's when they decided to make it a comedy, instead of a tradegy. And I mean "comedy" in the original sense: "story with a happy ending". In the first 2 seasons, the Simpson family was unhappy, and it was their own fault. Afterwards, they were changed to flawed-but-good-natured, and lovable in spite of their failures.

The original Simpsons was somewhat like The Office (now on USA TV), in that it was supposed to be painful to watch such distressingly wrong characters.

Re:nice.

[xjerky]

I think by now the Family Guy folks know that they have a certain formula that they repeat over and over again, with variation of such. I doubt they think that they are fooling anyone.

Re:nice.

[TClevenger]

That was my problem with the new show for a couple of episodes. They seemed to keep dragging up old stuff instead of writing new material. There's the old pervert, the closet monkey, the fight with the chicken... and they seemed to be just thrown in there to have them there--not because they're at all relevant to the plot.

That said, it went uphill FAST after those first few episodes of the relaunch.

Re:nice.

[ConceptJunkie]

Intellectually humorous? You have GOT to be kidding. I watched it a few times and the only thing I found funny was stuff they totally ripped off from "The Simpsons". Sometimes literally the same gags. I found the characters other than Homer, er, Peter to be completely predictable and uninteresting.

Nothing against you if like the show... I like Gilligan... but it's hardly "intellectual".

Re: nice.

[toddestan]

I never got Family Guy. The whole premise of the show seems to be "Hey, look at what we just referenced! Aren't we clever?". To me, it just ends up being too contrived. Atleast the Simpsons tries to be somewhat witty about it.

But each to their own.

Re: nice.

[nwbvt]

"There are simplistic jokes like farting, but when I say "intellectual", I mean they make jokes out of things you don't expect."

Is the word on the tip of your tongue 'irony'? Thats a very old comedic technique that has been used over and over again by virtually every comedy. I wouldn't consider it sufficient to make the program 'intellectual'.

For instance, your use of 'Family Guy' as an intellectual comedy could be an example of (possibly unintentional) irony, as 'Family Guy' is lowbrow carbon copy of the Simpsons. That doesn't make your post in any way 'intellectual'.

Re: nice.

[nwbvt]

Like hell he is. He is voiced by Seth MacFarlane, hence why he sounds exactly like virtually every other character in either Family Guy or American Dad.

Re: nice.

[SonictheHeadshot]

He wrote Brain from "Pinky and the Brain" not Brian from "Family Guy"

Re:nice.

[Richard_at_work]

Most of the writers left when the show was cancelled and committed to other projects. When the show was given the green light for another season, they couldnt recommit and thus the later seasons of the show were done with a different writer pool.

Re: nice.

[nwbvt]

I see, the AC comment bringing them up was filtered out of my view.

Re:nice.

[drsquare]

2, definitely.

Making bad episodes just ruins the programmes reputation and dilutes the quality. At least you know now that if an episode of Futurama comes on, it's going to be good. You don't want it like the Simpsons where you've got a 50% chance of getting one that's embarassingly bad.

One of the main problems with American TV is that they never know when to call it a day.

Re: nice.

[camg188]

Have you ever seen another cartoon that did a joke about Benjamin Disraeli?

Re:nice.

[Thing 1]

The Simpsons did a nice treatment of the recycling recently: the episode "The Italian Bob" where Homer (and family) go to Italy to bring back Mr. Burn's new car, the Lamorgotta Fastarossa (IIRC).

They meet Sideshow Bob, who is now mayor of a small town in Italy. They out him as an ex-con, and the Italian police look him up in their American convicts book.

They see Snake (forgot the heading), Mayor Quimby ("Drivus Drinkus"), a few others (?), then Peter Griffin ("Plagarismo"), then the dad from American Dad ("Plagarismo di Plagarismo"), and then Sideshow Bob (again, forgot the heading).

Re: nice.

[ConceptJunkie]

I liked Frasier a lot, but it wasn't intellectual at all. It was _about_ intellectuals, but that doesn't make it intellectual. That's a big difference.

Funny? Yes. Intellectual? Hardly.

I took the liberty...

[n0dna]

of fertilizing your caviar. -Dr. Zoidberg

Re:I took the liberty...

[Like2Byte]

My favorite:

{Prof Farnsworth holds up egg-size pill}
PF:Fry, take this pill. It will allow you breath in space.
Fry: {Shocked}What!? I can't swallow that!
PF:{Excited}Good news! It's a suppository.

Re:I took the liberty...

[SquadBoy]

Under water. It was under water. The ep where they discovered Atlanta after after Hermes got a mandatory fishing license and Bender used the unbreakable diamond tether....

Oh god I really am a sad lonely fuck... /me starts sobbing in the corner.

Re:I took the liberty...

[SpaceAdmiral]

My favorite line:

"My folks were always on me to groom myself and wear underpants. What am I, the pope?"

Re:I took the liberty...

[jandrese]

"How many atmospheres of pressure can the ship handle"
"Well, it's a spaceship, so between 0 and 1"

Classic.

Re:I took the liberty...

[Like2Byte]

YOU'RE LONELY!? I just said to myself, "Yup! He's Right."

Re:I took the liberty...

[drummerb0y]

It was under water, but the suppositories were to keep them from being crushed under the weight of that much water. Remember, Fry went out first with Bender and Zoidberg and was carrying a bag of air with a silly straw on the end?

Re:I took the liberty...

[HolyMoto]

At last, the sandwich heavy portfolio pays off for the hungry investor...

Cancel

[kevin_conaway]

I always questioned the decision to cancel Futurama, it just seemed so...neutral. I wondered what made them do it. Lust for gold? Power? Perhaps they were all just born with a heart full of neutrality.

Either way, I'd be happy if they brought it back. I do wonder what the new episodes would be like though. The last episode kind of "wrapped" up the series.

Re:Cancel

[Psykechan]

I always questioned the decision to cancel Futurama, it just seemed so...neutral.

What makes a TV Network Execubot turn nuetral anyway?

Re:Cancel

[Tumbleweed]

What makes a TV Network Execubot turn nuetral anyway?

Extra-Strength Neutronium Robot Breakfast Cereal! It's mm-mm-good!

Re:Cancel

[geoffspear]

It was cancelled because the 60 year old former football players talking about nothing and 15 minutes of commercials they had sharing a timeslot with the last 5 minutes of each episode got, for some reason they couldn't figure out, really bad ratings.

Don't get me wrong, I love football. I'd rather see the end of a good football game then the start of Pollyanna. Or even Futurama. But almost every week, the late Fox game would end before Futurama was scheduled to begin on the East Coast, and they still insisted on doing a meaningless postgame show afterwards. CBS, on the other hand, has been showing games that ended after 7:00 for years, and have always begun 60 Minutes immediately after the end of the actual game, without even cutting any of the show.

I was actually shocked this week when Fox managed to show all of it's Sunday night programming despite the President's address. I really expected the local news to come on at 10:00, forcing me to wait for Cartoon Network to air the end of American Dad in 2 weeks. Some idiot at Fox must have gotten replaced with a trained monkey or something.

Re:Cancel

[cmburns69]

Tell my wife "hello".

Re:Cancel

[nuigi]

I didn't know President Bush ran Fox.

Re:Cancel

[HunterZ]

I didn't know President Bush ran Fox.

Yeah, I think it's part of the PATRIOT Act.

Re:Cancel

[Salvo]

I'd rather see the end of a good football game

I'd rather see the end of all televised Football.

Instead of watching overpaid Morons beat each other up, why not go down to the park and have a game of Kick-to-Kick with the neighbourhood kids?

The only Football I watch is the AFL Grand Final, and that's only because my Brother has a Grand Final Party every year, and afterwards, we have about 20 drunk guys and girls playing Kick-to-Kick in the Park.

Re:Cancel

[BigCheese]

Just plain old internal politics.
As it was explained to me:
If you're the new programming executive you need to prove your predecessor was an idiot. So, you take a show, move it around and preempt it until it tanks then replace it with something of your own.
Now you're the hero for replacing that "bad" show.

Re:Cancel

[Jackmon]

Replaced?

Re:Cancel

[cheezitmike]

I'd rather see the end of a good football game then the start of Pollyanna.

Heidi?

I was actually shocked this week when Fox managed to show all of it's Sunday night programming despite the President's address.

If only my TiVo were smart enough to handle this... now I must wait for the repeat on Cartoon Network.

Re:Cancel

[EggyToast]

If they cancel the show, tell the fans... Hello.

Re:Cancel

[frieked]

Seriously... interupting Family guy should be considered an impeachable offense.

Re:Cancel

[damsa]

You got it backwards, Fox runs President Bush.

could be grand or really lame

[rubycodez]

would have to keep that humor fresh, the worst thing a cartoon or animation can do is start to repeat itself. I think think of a few huge ones that have fallen into that trap and should have been put down years ago.

Re:could be grand or really lame

[Council]

the worst thing a cartoon or animation can do is start to repeat itself. I think think of a few huge ones that have fallen into that trap and should have been put down years ago.

I went back and watched most of the run of Futurama recently when my little brother got into it, and I noticed something interesting: the final season is by a good margin the best. A lot of the memorable episodes are there. The Sting, where Leela gets stabbed by that bee, Fry dies, and then Leela starts to lose it -- was it just me, or was that actually a real trip of an episode? I remember stumbling out of that one feeling a little freaked out. And I'm a fan of weird.

And Requiem for a Dream, Monster, Boys Don't Cry -- I thought those were sad and depressing to watch. But they don't hold a candle to the end of the episode with Fry and his dog.

Re:could be grand or really lame

[Gulthek]

Jurassic Bark. :-(

Re:could be grand or really lame

[Cpt_Kirks]

You remember it, don't you?

Jeebus, I get a chill just thinking of the ending...

Re:could be grand or really lame

[Anixamander]

Yeah, I would really like to see them do an episode where somehow they go back and "fix" this. That episode was the saddest cartoon I have ever seen. I generally dislike revisionism, but maybe Fry can go back in time and pick him up or something.

You are not supposed to cry while watching Adult Swim.

Re:could be grand or really lame

[ScottyH]

I completely agree. I choked up a bit on the last scene. Even thinking about it gets me a bit choked up. :)

What is that song called? Something about "always waiting"?

Re:could be grand or really lame

[tiny-e]

(N. Gimbel - M. LeGrand) The clock will tick away the hours one by one And then the time will come when all the waiting's done The time when you'll return and find me here and run Straight to my waiting arms If it takes forever, I will wait for you For a thousand summers, I will wait for you Till you're back beside me Till I'm holding you, till I hear you sigh Here in my arms Anywhere you wander, anywhere you go Every day remember how I love you so In your heart believe what in my heart I know That forever more I'll wait for you If it takes forever, I will wait for you For a thousand summers, I will wait for you Till you're here beside me Till I'm touching you And forevermore I'll wait for you I will wait for you Yes, I will wait for you I will wait for you This was truly the saddest TV show I have ever seen.

Bender Quote

[waterlogged]

First thing I want bender to say when he comes back....

"Fox can bite my shiny metal ass"

Re:Bender Quote

[Tackhead]

> First thing I want bender to say when he comes back....
>
>"Fox can bite my shiny metal ass"

X-Bender: Yeah, well I'm gonna build my own slashdot posting about Futurama! With blackjack! And Hookers! Actually, forget the slashdot post. And the blackjack. Aaaawww... forget the whole thing!

Re:Bender Quote

[Jerf]

I agree; I hope they are able to follow through on the last "laser placard" (or whatever they call it), which IIRC was "See you on another channel."

Re:Bender Quote

[NitsujTPU]

I don't remember the exact text, but the subtext, was actually along the lines of "in reruns."

Re:Bender Quote

[Ubergrendle]

That sounds like something Flexo would say!......

.....

BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Who am I kidding? You guys are allll-right!

Re:Bender Quote

[powerlord]

I thought it had something to do with the rumors of Futurerama being picked up by either CN or SciFi (at the time).

Re:Bender Quote

[whyde]

That wouldn't be too hard, given that he's "hecho en Mexico."
Vicente Fox's head in a jar could provoke the comment, making it just that much more subtle.

Re:Bender Quote

[NitsujTPU]

Nah, I have the DVD at home. I'll look it up when I leave the lab tonight.

Re:Bender Quote

[SySOvErRiDe]

Oh god I could see it right now, the very first episode to return would start with:

Bender, standing smoking a cigar.
"Fox can bite my shiny metal ass."
Cut to Futurama opening theme.

Matt Groening NEEDS to do this.

Re:Bender Quote

[freeze128]

There will be nothing to bite! Bender traded his shiny metal ass to the robot devil in the final episode for an air horn. Maybe he will have to say "Fox can bite my lightweight, non-existent ass!"

Re:Bender Quote

[Cappy Red]

You stole my post! That's it, Cappy Red should not be allowed on Slashdot! Let's march to Hollywood!

Whew!

[mister_llah]

I have to say, this is a relief, if it actually happens, there may be hope that Arrested Development, too, may be saved from the fires!

Too bad it doesn't seem to work for sci-fi (see also: Firefly, Farscape) ... :/

Re:Whew!

[wiggles]

I thought I heard that Arrested Development was being shopped to Showtime or HBO. Anyone else hear anything like this? That would be an excellent pick-up for either one of them, IMHO. If they can get good ratings from Curb Your Enthusiasm, they can get good ratings for AD.

Re:Whew!

[fatalwall]

uhh dude Farscape had an ending. He died at the end of the last show. If you really want a scifi show to come back to life though you have to look to the scifi channel. They have brought many canceled shows back to life. The reason Fox ends so many shows is because there not the right channel for a lot of shows they play. When I want a show like Futurama or Family Guy I think cartoon network. When I think Firefly I think of scifi channel. Each channel has an expected type of show just as Fox has the expectation of putting really bad shows on that its views tend to hate.

Re:Whew!

[circa1979]

You heard correctly.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?typ e=televisionNews&storyID=2005-12-14T084755Z_01_SCH 431622_RTRIDST_0_TELEVISION-ARRESTED-DC.XML

Though I don't have Showtime, I and a lot of people I know would gladly change that for this show.

Re:Whew!

[milkman_matt]

IMHO. If they can get good ratings from Curb Your Enthusiasm, they can get good ratings for AD.

Used to be the only thing that could get me to subscribe to HBO was the begining of a new season of Sopranos, but with Carnivalle, 6'Under (which I never saw, but everyone says is great.. I'd probably try it out if I resubscribed) Deadwood and Rome (which I've heard mixed things about) among others, it seems HBO has quite a run of good shows that combined actually make it worth $10/mo that Cox wants for it. I recently threw CYE onto the TiVo and was hooked, that show alone almost has me subscribing, but if they added AD, combined with the other shows mentioned above, they may regain me as a subscriber! ...now if only they could steal P&T:Bullshit from cinemax or showtime or wherever it ended up I would hardly need any other channels!

Re:Whew!

[FrozenOrb]

So many rumours regarding the future of Arrested Development--the cleverest comedy on TV at the moment imo. Here's hoping what you say is the case.

Re:Whew!

[Browncoat]

I am all for subscribing to Showtime if they were to pick up AD. I just bought the first season box set today, mostly because I think it's hilarious and I want to support the show, but I would gladly get Showtime if they were going to pick up AD. I loved Six Feet Under also, and Showtime and HBO are generally the leads when it comes to innovative television.

What's left now is to email or call Showtime and let them know that there are people willing to pay on the decision to add AD.

Re:Whew!

[enantiodromia]

I wouldnt mind seeing Arrested Development move to a premium cable channel. That might get me to actually get one of them premium cable channels I hear so much about. Or maybe Arrested Devcelopment can go Bit Torrent only!

Re:Whew!

[johnMG]

Arrested Development is such a good show that I refuse to degrade it by watching it on TV. I just wait all season until the DVD comes out.

Can't wait for the season 3 dvd!

Re:Whew!

[Colonel Blimp]

Last night's Arrested Development was so painfully funny, I was wheezing and choking from laughing so hard. BoyFights! "Crybaby Buster: I don't want to be in this Video!"

Good news everyone....

[LOADLETTER]

We are getting flogged...

Oh man

[_pi-away]

don't get my hopes up only to dash them.

Come on Futurama!

New season of futurama will premere ...

[Ostien]

the day that Duke Nukem forever comes out.

Good News Everyone!

[Anonymous Coward]

Good News Everyone!

Fox? or...

[zenneth]

I'm hoping that if the show does get resurrected, that it will return to it's home on Fox. I think that's the only way it can grow as a show again, is to be prime-time on a real network.

...and syndication ratings.

[IAAP]

If it wasn't for the syndication, I would never have seen it. The syndicated show is on at a time when I can watch it and when there are other shows that I don't want to watch. As a result, I've become a fan.

Maybe the reason it "failed" the first time was when Fox was airing it.

Re:...and syndication ratings.

[TheRaven64]

Maybe the reason it "failed" the first time was when Fox was airing it.

You misspelt 'that'.

Re:...and syndication ratings.

[hwyengr]

Not only was the timeslot changing, but during the 7:00 Sunday timeslot, it kept getting bumped by football.

One down...

[hellfire]

...now just Firefly and Farscape to go.

Re:One down...

[Dengarhunter]

Well, with Firefly they can always show some more adventuring between when the show ended and the movie, thereby keeping the characters alive and intact. Farscape has already seen its end with The Peacekeeper Wars mini-series.

Re:One down...

[zenneth]

BAHAHAHA! Yeah, I'm a troll. I only watched Firefly from the fucking beginning. This moderation system sucks. Too many idiots with power. Someone needs their face smacked for trying to mod me down. Fucktard.

Re:One down...

[kimvette]

They can bring the characters back through a couple of mechanisms:

"It was all a dream"
"It was a parallel universe"
"The time-space continuum was all fuxx0red up!"

Re:One down...

[C0rinthian]

This isn't Star Trek.

I'm all for the 'episodes that take place before the movie' plan. Although it would be hard to adjust to River being just mysterious again...

Re:One down...

[Browncoat]

I am all for both returning. Farscape did really well as a miniseries, so I'd like to have one of those, if not a movie.

Now, if Ben Browder and Claudia Black can take a little time off from working together, to continue working together, but on Farscape, that'd be great.

HEY TACO!!!

[eno2001]

Why don't you get Groening for a Slashdot interview?? Then we'd have the inevitable "I'd like to subscribe to your newsletter" posts for a month.

Re:HEY TACO!!!

[dr_dank]

Yes, the torrent of cliches would be too much. Almost as much as if Slashdot sponsored a Natalie Portman grit-a-thon to benefit St. Goatse's Home for Wayward Anuses.

Re:HEY TACO!!!

[ari_j]

Cohen would be another good one to interview.

Re:First my shiny metal post!

[Crudely_Indecent]

How about we 'Second' your shiny metal post? Nice try though. You did better than me, I got 4th....but I didn't put "First" in my post :P

In the words of Hermes...

[The_Rippa]

This would make me happier than a green snake in a sugarcane-field!

Re:In the words of Hermes...

[ajlitt]

Zoidberg, requisition me a beat.

They

[stunt_penguin]

should start the announcement with the Professor saying 'Good news everyone'. /injoke

I'm bloody glad to see futurama back- the show is waaay underrated next to the Simpsons. I've always thought Futurama was funnier, but then I am a /.tter.

Obligatory Futurama Quote

[PulledPorkNacho]

NIXONS BACK!!!!

Re:Obligatory Futurama Quote

[Eli Gottlieb]

/me plays Hail to the Chief Techno Remix.

*A building explodes in the background.*

Woohoo!

[kimvette]

Woohoo! Behold my glorious golden ass! :D

Adult swim strikes again

[squison]

Yet another Fox series brought back from the dead by Adult Swim.

You heard the man

[2008]

Ask Santa to warm up his DVD-boxset gun and we might get some new episodes.

Tomorrow?

[OverDrive33]

So, starting what tomorrow? New shows? Starting to hire new writers/animators? Starting to distribute the new episodes?
I always find myself saying "I'll start that tomorrrow". Just like I tell my creditors that "The cheque's in the mail".

The only cancellation that I mourn more...

[komodotoes]

...than Futurama's is that of Turbo Pascal.



NeverEndingBillboard.com

Re:The only cancellation that I mourn more...

[skintigh2]

Delphi forever

Interesting if true

[craigritchie]

This makes me happy. Fut fans will recognise this subject line too. Awesome. Happy.

Bring back Futurama!

[October_30th]

The last episode kind of "wrapped" up the series.

Uh. I'm not really sure what you mean by that? What did "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings" really wrap up?

Anyway, what I'm more worried about is the cast. Will all the wonderful voice actors be willing/available for a new series?

Re:Bring back Futurama!

[kimvette]

It didn't tie things up, it left things open. There are plenty of story lines still open, plus Leela and Fry are still a question. Groening intentionally left it that way in case the show would be continued, because he expected FOX to pull the plug but knew the show had enough of a following to warrant continuation later.

Re:Bring back Futurama!

[Slightly Askew]

Anyway, what I'm more worried about is the cast. Will all the wonderful voice actors be willing/available for a new series?

I just checked IMDB and all of them seem to be doing well, as far as voice actors go (Phil LaMarr seems to be the go-to guy for replacing black actors in the video game version of big movies -- Chris Rock as Marty in Madagascar and Will Smith as Oscar in Shark Tale). However, with the exception of Katey Sagal (is 8 simple rules still airing?), I doubt any are so busy that they couldn't sign on to this production.

Re:Bring back Futurama!

[nofx_3]

I think Billy West is busy trying to bring back Ren & Stimpy.

Re:Bring back Futurama!

[MagicDude]

I thought Ren and Stimpy was already brought back at the premeir of Spike TV, but it had lousy ratings due to the episodes revolving around nothing but gay jokes.

Beige Alert! Beige Alert!

[Inf0phreak]

Futurama is coming back. Or maybe it doesn't. Either way I'm indifferent about what happens. ... or so you thought! YIPPIE!

Pizza Delivery for I.C. Weiner

[OSUJamesC]

This is great news, now my wife can stop telling me that we've already seen this one as I playback what the Tivo gives me. I [heart] AdultSwim

thank you adult swim

[carchiba]

thank you adult swim

Well I don't have anything else planned for today,

[digitaldc]

...let's get drunk!

Now, strip naked and get on the probulator!

Career change

[this great guy]

'Three months ago, I would have said we were going to start tomorrow ... And one month ago I would also have said we were going to start tomorrow. So...my current estimate is that we're starting tomorrow.'

IMHO he should change career. He would definitely do a great job managing software projects in the IT world.

If FOX decides to bring back Futurama...

[antdude]

... what day and hour is FOX going to put it on? I know Sunday nights are the domination animation night (or whatever they called it) with The Simpsons, Family Guy, and American Dad. Maybe FOX can put it after The Simpsons (Matt Groening's hour)? Is Futurama going to be at 7:00 PM again like before? That is why it got killed because of east coast with sport games (e.g., NFL). It didn't help when overtimes occurred! :(

Re:If FOX decides to bring back Futurama...

[Politburo]

Overtimes are pretty rare in the NFL, and when they do happen, they're usually not that long. The fact of the matter is that the TV stations only schedule 3 hours for NFL games, when the average game length is over 3 hours. On top of that, the games never start exactly at 4:15. It's a recipe for disaster, but it's no one's fault except for the networks.

Re:If FOX decides to bring back Futurama...

[raoul666]

Cancel the War at Home, put it there. Whatever ratings it gets is only because people are too lazy to get off the couch between simpsons and family guy. It worked on me once, then I saw how terrible it really was.

Re:If FOX decides to bring back Futurama...

[antdude]

Yeah, I agree that show stinks even though I never watched an episode fully. It would be a good place for Futurama. And it will be a truely FOX's animation domination on Sunday nights. ;)

Re:If FOX decides to bring back Futurama...

[gozar]

Overtime games in the NFL has been increasing. In fact, 2002 had a record setting 25 overtime games in the regular season.

And surprise, surprise, that was Futurama's last full season... There were only 5 new episodes released after that season, two in June, two in July, and one in August.

Re:If FOX decides to bring back Futurama...

[skintigh2]

Overtimes are indeed rare.

Not running over time is even rarer.

Of the football I watch - the occasional Patriot's game that is not scheduled when some terrible "local" team is playing here in Texas - at least half have run over their scheduled time. I know this because I record the "3" hour game and then watch it in 45 minutes thanks to the auto commercial skipping and 30-second skip (almost the exact time between plays) on my ReplayTV. Very early in the season I discovered what happens when you record the first 3 hours of a 3:45 game. You get to see the first 3 quarters, and then cry yourself to sleep when you hear it was one of the greatest comebacks.

But then you find some kind soul made a bit torrent of the directv game summary and your world has color again. I wish that kind soul would do it for every game.

Re:If FOX decides to bring back Futurama...

[Skroggtar]

Ain't that a fact. The War At Home has no longevity, no personality and an annoying lead. I've watched a couple full episodes (just to give it a chance), but determined it's pretty much worthless. ...As is every other non-animated Fox series, the sole exceptions being Firefly and Arrested Development.

Good news... hopefully?

[Zrith]

I'd be quite happy to see more episodes of Futurama (I'd probably even get cable service to watch the new episodes), but I do have to wonder if they'll be able to get all of the original cast back. One of the reasons (true or not) that I've heard about why the show wasn't getting back together was that the cast was mostly elsewhere and unavailable. Has this changed? The voices really work with the characters, and it'd be rather jarring to have them change.

On another note, one thing Futurama did a lot of was somewhat dated humor; the celebrities they used were popular while the show was going, which makes it seem slightly out of date now (but only in certain episodes). While this can make for a very funny show (who else here would like to see certain current political figures come up as heads-in-jars?), I wonder if they'd continue the practice? Not that it really matters; some of my favorite episodes involved little to no influence of "historical" figures.

Re:Good news... hopefully?

[Kazzahdrane]

I know that Billy West and John DiMaggio have said frequently that they would love to make more Futurama, they said a few times in the DVD commentaries that it was seriously the most fun gig they'd ever had. Billy West voices a LOT of the main cast, as long as Katey Sagal and DiMaggio were on board too they'd have all the main actors. If they couldn't get Lauren Tom back on board the show could survive without Amy, and Phil LaMarr (Hermes, and others) and Maurice LaMarche (Kif, and others) are *always* working and by all accounts enjoyed working on Futurama too so one would hope they'd be able to provide their voices. I also trust David X Cohen with the show, as long as he and Groening were working on it I think they'd find the right people to write for it.

MOD PARENT DOWN for **SPOILER**

[Dr_Barnowl]

Please. For the people who've not seen the movie yet. Which include me, because I was too busy to see it in the theatre at the time.

I spent a couple of seconds working out who "Walsh" was. And then I felt hugely let down.

Grr.

Timely

[scottennis]

I think it is great that we could get a Futurama posting right after a posting on Intelligent Design.

I think Slashdot may be influenced by a Higher Power.

*Angelic Voices*

"Oh stop groveling!"

Place your bets!

[Guppy06]

"So...my current estimate is that we're starting tomorrow.'"

Alright, Slashdotters, which will come first?

1. Flying cars
2. Fusion power (cold or otherwise)
3. New Futurama

Re:Place your bets!

[Anthony]

4. Duke Nukem Forever

Re:hmmm...

[SamSim]

All existing Futurama episodes have been released on DVD. If you own all four seasons, that's the lot. There were four productions seasons. Fox spread them over five years of television and used "We've still got enough leftover episodes for a whole fifth year, we don't need more" as a partial excuse to halt production on the show.

Re:Why don't they know when to quit?

[TheRaven64]

Although by the 4th season it was kind of looking that way.

Some of the episodes aired at the end of the fourth season were ones that had originally been discarded because they were not up to the quality of the rest of the show. The final episode, however, was by far the best of the entire run.

Relevant:

[SamSim]

Firstly, why are the words "Good news, everyone!" nowhere in the summary? Secondly, here are some potential future plot lines which were opened in the first four seasons and could yet stand to be resolved: * The Fry/Leela love story arc * Fry is the single most important person in the universe and still needs to help the Nibblonians save it at least once more * Morbo's people have yet to live up to his threats and invade Earth * Scruffy - Who is this guy? Seriously? * How and when exactly did New York become New New York? * etc. Another important point is that the characters of Futurama seem to properly age, and time does pass in the Futurama world, advancing from 1999 to 3000 to 3004 by the end. Will we return to find the characters all two or three years older? If so, will they look any different, and what will have happened to them in the meantime? Of course, the main thing this means is: more of the best DVD commentaries ever!

Re:Relevant:

[LittleLebowskiUrbanA]

Relax. We can fight over it when we're drunk.

Re:My heart... (Zim)

[GodfatherofSoul]

OMG I loved this show, but it was gone before it had a chance (bought all the DVDs though). The quality of the animation is practically unmatched (Futurama is close) especially for a "kids' show". There are some great satirical episodes too like "Voting of the Doomed" and "The Girl Who Cried Gnome."

Manic woman in crowd: "Oh my God! That little girl is trapped in a hole. Someone call the media!"

If you are truly ambivalent, then why post?

[StressGuy]

One does not typically go out of thier way to show that they are not interested.

Happy Xmas

[BorgCopyeditor]

-- Fry's still outside? He'd better watch out!
-- Why?
-- I'm telling you why: Santa Claus is coming to town!

Re:Happy Xmas

[Kazymyr]

He knows when you are sleeping.
He knows when you're on the can.
He'll hunt you down and blast your ass from here to Pakistan.
Ohh.
You better not breathe, you better not move.
You better off dead, I'm telling you dude,
Santa Claus is gunning you down.

Re:Happy Xmas

[infinidim]

Christmas is supposed to bring people togther, not blow them apart!!!

Re:My heart... (Zim)

[WhatAmIDoingHere]

Jhonen says no. He hates the assholes at Nick, and they pretty much hate him for being so anti-social. Google around a little.

My head almost exploded!

[Daath]

I simply LOVE that series! I put it at the very top of my "best animated series"-list!
I feel a quote from professor Farnsworth is in order:

- Everyone, I have a very dramatic announcement, so anyone with a weak heart should leave now. Goodbye!

I can't wait!

About time

[Ramble]

Well, it's about damn well time..
I still watch Futurama on Sky One most weeks, and it's still a fantastic show.

Or maybe..

[Turn-X Alphonse]

Or maybe we're tired of the last decade of Simpson style jokes set in different places(Family guy, American dad, Simpsons and Futurama) and they should try something new?

I'm surprized people haven't noticed that animation can be more than slap-stick with a morale tale attached, or a rip off of Japanese cartoons with the same depth as the 80s action figure whoring shows.

Re:Or maybe..

[stonecypher]

Or maybe we're tired of the last decade of Simpson style jokes set in different places

Or maybe we aren't. You've got other channels. Use them. Don't take futurama away.

Re:Or maybe..

[99BottlesOfBeerInMyF]

Or maybe we're tired of the last decade of Simpson style jokes set in different places(Family guy, American dad, Simpsons and Futurama) and they should try something new? I'm surprized people haven't noticed that animation can be more than slap-stick with a morale tale attached, or a rip off of Japanese cartoons with the same depth as the 80s action figure whoring shows.

The Simpsons has remained popular for so long because it is funny, and because it is funny on multiple levels. The writers make a specific effort to write jokes that will last, and the majority of the humor does not depend upon knowledge of pop culture. Futurama makes that same effort, and combines it with a very scientific oriented intellectualism. When was the last time you heard jokes during prime time that relied upon the audience understanding the basics of quantum physics or for that matter even knowing what "pi" is? The family guy seem to be variations and/or attempts to discover the "formula" behind the Simpsons, but it is not a formulaic show; and I don't think it is fair to claim that because Futurama is animated, and shares many attributes with the Simpsons that it is unoriginal. Compared to the reality TV show of the week, or the latest sitcom about a family or a bunch of pretty and hip young people in the city, Futurama is a breath of fresh air. I just wish there was more television that was intellectual, rather than dumbed down for the least common denominator or reliant upon pop culture. Shakespeare's work is timeless because it was written to appeal to multiple audiences. He made sure to have his "high" humor witticisms and historical settings and references to appeal to his first run, patronage. He also made sure to include a fair share of physical comedy/action and "common man" type characters to broaden the appeal for presentations to the rest of the people. In 100 years people will still be able to laugh about quantum physics and pi, but they won't know or care who Ashlee Simpson is.

Re:Or maybe..

[ejp1082]

Or maybe we're tired of the last decade of Simpson style jokes set in different places(Family guy, American dad, Simpsons and Futurama) and they should try something new?

The best part of Futurama was that it was something new. The Simpsons was a satire of the "Family Comedy" that dominated TV in the 80's and early 90's - a formula featuring a classic nuclear family that focused on the antics of a clueless dad, a reality-grounded wife, a couple of kids and a zany neighbor. Unfortunately, The Simpsons was just a continuation of this formula, although a satirical one. And when you look at Family Guy and American Dad - they're the same thing. Different jokes, but the same premise that's been on TV since the 50's.

Futurama was at least a departure from that: there were no analogs to a nuclear family. No father figure, no lessons learned. It was science fiction satire, but it didn't follow the formula of a typical science fiction/fantasy show. Soap Opera drama was present but used sparingly, and IMHO only when it contributed to the plot. It wasn't completely original (it borrows a lot from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), but it was a hell of a lot different than the majority of TV fare.

Celebrate!

[hunterx11]

Congratulate /. for bringing us this story by giving it some good HEAD:

lynx --dump --head http://slashdot.org/ | grep "\(X-Fry\|X-Bender\)" | sed 's/^X-//'

You are right, but...

[mister_llah]

I realize they did the Peacekeeper Wars, but it all felt so rushed...

It was like the Serenity movie as the "cap" to Firefly... cramming a year or two of plot into a few hours doesn't really feel good as an ending, ya know?

The Invisible Hand

[99BottlesOfBeerInMyF]

I disagree. In most markets the popularity of a product drives sales, which in turn determines if an item will continue to be available. Up until the publishing of series on DVD became popular, however, this mechanism was completely absent from the television market. Since no one could buy just the shows they wanted, decisions about whether or not to cancel a show were made based upon guesswork and Nielson ratings. In most cases this is still true. Now, TV executives are starting to get feedback via DVD sales indicating that they have been making really crappy decisions, including canceling some of the most popular shows. This is just the invisible hand of the market using greed to give people what they want. If we really want better quality shows, the answer is simple. Move to a model where shows are purchased individually and let the market decide. Personally, I'd much rather that greed drives TV executives to give people what they want, rather than greed driving them to make arbitrary guesses without any feedback.

As an aside, guess how many of the ten most popular TV series of all time were cancelled, or scheduled to be cancelled, and then saved at the last minute by some random event? TV executives tend to cancel anything different or novel, since it seems risky. DVD sales, like those of Futurama, are just a way for them to be told not to cancel something different, since it is in demand.

Re:The Invisible Hand

[Anonymous Coward]

I disagree. In most markets the popularity of a product drives sales, which in turn determines if an item will continue to be available. Up until the publishing of series on DVD became popular, however, this mechanism was completely absent from the television market. Since no one could buy just the shows they wanted, decisions about whether or not to cancel a show were made based upon guesswork and Nielson ratings.

You clearly do not understand how mass media works. The invisible hand is always there, but you have the positions all wrong. You are not the customer and the shows you watch are not the products being sold. The customers of the TV networks are the companies that buy advertising during their shows and the product being sold is you and your time. The shows are just a way of luring you and me into being a product for them to sell. If we were the actual customers of the networks then they'd be sending cute sales chicks around door to door asking us to pay them some money.

With that in mind, decisions about what shows are on a network are based solely on ad dollars and have nothing to do with DVD sales. If a show is doing well on DVD then those cute sales chicks who go around asking for dollars from advertisers can point to the sales figures and say "hey, a lot of people like this show and if you pay us money to show it then all those people will see your ad" but that is as far as it goes. And excellent DVD sales will not keep a show on the air if sponsors are not willing to keep paying for ad space.

Re:The Invisible Hand

[Jonboy X]

So clearly, the best way to save a show is to give the networks a better chance of selling it to advertisers.

Not a Nielson family? Just buy every product advertised during your favorite shows.

Re:The Invisible Hand

[99BottlesOfBeerInMyF]

You clearly do not understand how mass media works. The invisible hand is always there, but you have the positions all wrong. You are not the customer and the shows you watch are not the products being sold.

First, yes the viewer is the consumer in the television market. Most people pay for cable or satellite TV in the U.S. Everyone pays for television either by paying a subscription fee (HBO), enduring commercials (over the air TV), or both (most other TV). It is true that there are also advertisers who are consumers in this model, but it is a secondary role in that sales people are not consuming the television programs and are not concerned about the quality. Advertisers don't care if ever show sucks so long as they get people to buy things, but end consumers do, and DVD sales reflect the opinions of end users. That is why both advertisers and distribution houses are paying attention to those sales. The Sci-Fi Channel can charge a lot more money for advertisements during an episode of Firefly than they can at other times, because advertisers know that it is the number one selling TV series on DVD and that influences their opinion about its popularity.

Jack Paar

[Tiger4]

When Jack Paar came back on the Tonight Show after a "hiatus" forced by NBC execs. His opening line was "As I was saying before I was interupted..." Futurama should do some riff on coming back from a time warp / black hole.

Appropriate Family Guy Quote

[glennrrr]

Peter: Everybody I've got bad news. We've been cancelled.

Lois:Oh no Peter! How could they do that?

Peter: Well unfortuantely Lois, there's just no more room on the schedule. We just gotta accept the fact that FOX has to make room for terrific shows like Dark Angel, Titus, Undeclared, Action, That 80's Show, Wonder Falls, Fast Lane, Andy Richter Controls The Universe, Skin, Girl's Club, Cracking Up, The Pitts, Firefly, Get Real, Freaky Links, Wanda At Large, Costello, The Lone Gunman, A Minute with Stan Hooper, Normal Ohio, Pasadena, Harsh Realm, Keen Eddy, The Street, American Embassy, Cedric The Entertainer, The Tick, Louie, And Greg The Bunny....

Lois:Is there no hope?

Peter:Well I suppose if ALL those shows go down the tubes we might have a shot.

Re:Appropriate Family Guy Quote

[Viper Daimao]

I seem to remember him talking to Chris, not Lois. And Im all for bringing back Firefly, Titus. Undeclared had its moments. Never really watched the others. Except for the Pitts, my God that was a horrible horrible show.

Re:Appropriate Family Guy Quote

[nightsweat]

Brisco County, Jr.

Re:Appropriate Family Guy Quote

[Browncoat]

I love Firefly...Titus was such a riot, I can't believe it got cancelled.

Re:Appropriate Family Guy Quote

[parcanman]

what about Fox news without the extreme right wing christian conservitive bias? that got canceled too

Re:Appropriate Family Guy Quote

[Faw]

Of those shows the good ones were Wonder Falls, Firefly, Keen Eddy. If you like good but stupid Andy Richter Controls The Universe, The Tick. Yes, The Pitts sucked, as much as The 80s show.

Re:Appropriate Family Guy Quote

[cloudmaster]

Titus probably would've done better if it had started *after* the American Chopper / Monster Garage / Rides / American Hotrod / etc shows got real popular. Maybe. *I* liked it, anyway...

Re:Appropriate Family Guy Quote

[Sarcasmooo!]

Funny tidbit: the original episode leaked onto the internet prior to the FOX premiere had Peter say "if all those shows tank, we might have a shot."

Never could figure out what made that worth changing....maybe 'tank' isn't as ubiquitous.

Business Data for Serenity

[westlake]

I haven't heard much about the success of the Firefly movie.

There isn't much to be said:

Production costs: $40 million US. Gross: $25 million USA. Business Data for Serenity

Re:Business Data for Serenity

[Silverlancer]

Add in international gross, and it breaks even. Add in DVD sales, and you make quite a bundle.

Re:Business Data for Serenity

[westlake]

Add in international gross, and it breaks even. Add in DVD sales, and you make quite a bundle.

You break even only if your net (not gross!) return equals your production costs, marketing and distribution expenses.

Amazon is offering Firefly-The Complete Series and Serenity for $47. Firefly

Re:Business Data for Serenity

[Kjella]

Add in international gross, and it breaks even. Add in DVD sales, and you make quite a bundle.

You're kidding me, right? I was on opening night here. You can bet 99% of those people (not counting those dragged along by the previously mentioned) were people that had downloaded the sci-fi series online. The ratings were breathtakingly medium. Already over the weekend sales were dropping down to nearly nothing. And when push comes to shove, I don't think the movie was stellar on its own. River was a huge mystery, in the movie there's no real intrigue. The crew, particularly the lost members seem very odd without introduction. Mel doesn't fit well in a movie format, he seems borderline psychotic with his rapid good cop - bad cop one man act. And Mr. Universe is just so... copvienient, I mean you know this guy who can broadcast everywhere?

I saw many glimpses of greatness in that movie. I'm sure he envisioned a great story about how they would reveal the truth about River, the secrets of the Alliance and become some sort of hit-n-run guerilla with the Alliance forcing the confrontation. But in going to a movie, I think he just couldn't let go. Somehow I got the felling I was seeing episode 14-26 crammed into one long episode. Don't get me wrong, I loved it. It was full of references to the series, continuations of storyline (Inara, Brooks, Kaylee/Simon's relationship and so on) and so on. If any of you saw the Farscape mini-series, it reminded me far more of that than a normal movie. As endings go, I think it was a good one. Anything more is just another ending.

Re:Business Data for Serenity

[vandon]

Amazon is offering Firefly-The Complete Series and Serenity for $47

Sounds like an Amazon bundling rip-off to me.

Firefly, the complete series---Price: $29.96
Serenity, widescreen edition--Price: $16.98
            The total comes out to: $43.94
Both the bundle and these two products(on one order) qualify for free shipping, so there's no extra shipping costs.

I guess there are people still out there that think *all* bundles are going to save them money.

Re:Business Data for Serenity

[evilned]

Walmart has Firefly for less than $20 right now. Just picked it up myself.

Re:Business Data for Serenity

[Knightking]

Uh...

29.96 + 16.98 = 46.94

The price is the same for the bundle and non-bundle.

"The Other"

[Conspiracy_Of_Doves]

In "The Why Of Fry", when Fry confronts Nibbler back in 1999, Nibbler talks about a prophecy where Fry saves the universe (what he is doing at that moment) and mentions that Leela must be "the other".

They have to do something with Leela's part of the prophecy!

</ubergeek>

Re:"The Other"

[genner]

They did.

The last episode (The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings)
implied that Fry and Leela got together.

All hail the new UberGeek.

Re:"The Other"

[Eli Gottlieb]

Perhaps she has an extra brainwave that lets her fight evil dumb-creatures that wish to destroy everything they can't understand.

Re:"The Other"

[Conspiracy_Of_Doves]

I meant more than that. Leela and Fry need to save the universe together.

Wait... Not the universe... All the universes. Yes!

Re:"The Other"

[Webs 101]

It didn't work on Fox.

Re:"The Other"

[EvilIdler]

BOTH the universes. There are only two, as you can see in
an episode.

Re:"The Other"

[Conspiracy_Of_Doves]

"Professor Farnsworth's Parabox" was on last night on Adult Swim.

Re:"The Other"

[Skroggtar]

There are the two alternate universes (the regular one and the one with cowboy hats) and then there are those that came out of Farnsworth's universe machine, most of which were forgot about or likely rendered moot.

Re:"The Other"

[Conspiracy_Of_Doves]

Information taken from various episodes tells us that Bender is composed of

30% Iron
40% Zinc
40% Titanium
40% Dolomite

Something tells me that continuity is not formost on Mr Groening's mind.

Re:"The Other"

[Blondie-Wan]

I suspect that mix is deliberate, though, along the lines of how "Vergon 6 was once filled with a superdense substance known as dark matter, each pound of which weighs over ten thousand pounds." I'm sure plenty of writers on the staff were / are fully aware of what they'd previously stated some percentage of Bender's composition to be, and had / have no intention of refraining from adding more to it whenever opportunities to do so arise.

Re:or A

[Council]

Long live Arrested Development!

My friend got me to watch that for the first time last night, and I have to admit it's pretty good.

However, as it doesn't begin with an "F", it's obviously not gonna be one of the Fox shows that are in one way or another brought back.

A shame.

Re:Why don't they know when to quit?

[fir5t psot!]

Agreed. If Groening could create Futurama and the Simpsons, lets see him do it again with something else fresh.

In the words of Fry

[ari_j]

(excessively optimistically) May yet?!?

-- Jurassic Bark, I believe

Will the new episodes...

[NeuroManson]

Be broadcast on Cartoon Network as well? Seems like every show that's been resurrected from Fox has been carried by Adult Swim, but it would be nice to have something other than the 60 or so reruns.

Wonder if Time/Warner gets a huge cut or something as well, since when Fox kills a show, it usually stays dead (unless it's called back after fans appeal).

NO! they need to tell Fox to F themselves.

[Lumpy]

Futurama is the perfect show to prove to the content providers that TV is a useless medium for selling content. they need to make futurama available as a pay per episode download on itunes and in a higher resolution format. I would gladly subscribe to individual shows Monthly than pay Cable Tv to shovel 900 channels of garbage at me.

Futurama would be one of those shows that even at $3,99 a download would sell at insane levels and make mattand company vastly more money than they could ever get on a TV network and in the same setup become the pioneers that pavedthe way for the future of television.

Re:NO! they need to tell Fox to F themselves.

[corbettw]

Futurama would be one of those shows that even at $3.99 a download

Yes, because I'd much rather spend $4 per episode than $50 a month for hundreds of channels with thousands of shows with several episodes each. That makes sense. After all, since ISPs dropped flat monthly fees years ago in favor of per minute charges, why wouldn't the same model work just as well with TV?

Re:NO! they need to tell Fox to F themselves.

[stonecypher]

Actually, it isn't. The bulk of the fans which care enough to do something like that already bought the entire series on DVD years ago for a sum total of $70. The perfect show to broach the topic of packet content provision shouldn't already be available in its entirety on a far cheaper, far more convenient medium.

And, um. Four dollars an episode? I wouldn't pay that for almost anything, and Futurama might very well be my favorite TV show ever.

Re:NO! they need to tell Fox to F themselves.

[dotwaffle]

At 99c, you'd probably buy it rather than download it. At $1.99, you might get 50% downloading it. Either way, there's money to be made there... And Fox will screw it up by releasing it TV only or downloadable in 320x240 ubercompressed RealMedia 45MB per hour downloads.

Then again, in the UK, it'll just either not get played at all or at some stupid hour unadvertised.

Re:NO! they need to tell Fox to F themselves.

[cebarro]

OR.... here's an idea... They can wait for it to get picked back up by fox and make an assload of money without having to go through all that crap and take the risks.

Just shows that Fox doesn't have a clue ...

[Hellasboy]

Just shows that Fox doesn't have a clue in marketing and keeping good shows.

I remember that I could never find Futurama on the air because they kept shuffling the time slot and then when I did find its timeslot, it would appear in its timeslot sometimes. Not to mention that they quit advertising the show on their station. Fox kept on showing advertisements for Oliver Beene and John Doe (I think, it's been a few years).

Now Fox is doing the same thing with my favorite show, Arrested Development. I heard they had changed it to Monday, so I waited to watch it on Monday. Oh wait, not *that* Monday. The monday it did appear, I missed it because I didn't know. You would think that then on the following monday it would be shown... nope, something else was on. I think it's been on Monday for the last two weeks but it's hard to plan to watch it on a regular basis (on TV) when they keep on changing the timeslot. I don't think any of the other networks do this, they'll show a rerun if they don't have a new episode in that timeslot. We'll, hopefully Showtime will pick it up. If that happens then I just might get cable.

It just shows that Fox isn't looking for good shows but for instant hits.

Re:Just shows that Fox doesn't have a clue ...

[Darth_brooks]

The reason you can't find arrested development is because it's being dumped. The show isn't being renewed, and they're throwing out the remaining episodes wherever they can. No new episodes are being produced.

For as much of a critical sucess as Arrested Development was, it never really drew big, prime time ratings.

Re:Just shows that Fox doesn't have a clue ...

[kimvette]

Typical FOX logic:

It's getting poor ratings, so don't promote it.
It's getting poor ratings because they don't promote it despite great critical reviews.
When fans who discover the show find the timeslot, move it.
Fan's can't find the show, leading to poor ratings.
Move the timeslot again, citing poor ratings.
Piss off fans by preempting it with an idiotic reality show.
Release show on DVD, see seasons 1 and 2 become #1 and #2 sellers.
Preempt show again with a rerun of another show, during sweeps.
Cancel show, citing poor ratings. Brush off ABC and Showtime inquiries.

Since we're doing it

[Sylver Dragon]

Personal favorite:
Speaker: "And the winner is ... Number 3, in a quantum finish."
Farnsworth: "No fair! You changed the outcome by measuring it!"

I Had.....

[Mr Sausage]

"....SNOO SNOO"

Re:I Had.....

[NanoGator]

"I Had..... SNOO SNOO"

Sorry to be pedantic, but technically you only had SNOO. There has to be 2 people for it to be SNOO SNOO.

Re:I Had.....

[geekoid]

umm, how do you know there was only one person?

Re:I Had.....

[SPY_jmr1]

Do you really want to be told the answer to that? HINT: Think "Who, what, and where".

Re:I Had.....

[Mr Sausage]

Plus with my multiple split personalities there was at least 5 of us!!!

Re:or A

[kimvette]

Either Showtime or ABC will pick up Arrested Development, and either of those will promote the show heavily rather than the single token billboard Fox put up for the show. The other networks also won't play musical timeslots with the show either, and won't intentionally put it in a spot where it would get continually preempted.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Adult Swim's influence really does amaze me.....

[ShyGuy91284]

I think the driving force behind this and Family Guy being resurrected was Adult Swim, because it's got a unique and growing audience (while Futurama and Family Guy were originally on at times aimed at everyone). It's intriguing as it seems to have become a popular thing, kind of becoming an "outcasts MTV"..... Although this is from a college student, so idk just how popular it is in HS at the moment. The humor in it seems like it may be beginning to catch on with the masses more.

Uh...

[carrier lost]

Robot House!!!

MjM

FOX & Cartoons...

[linuxlover]

FOX has a pretty bad reputation when it comes to cartoons. Futurama airing times were screwed up because of baseball telecasts ran over time. And I know there were some troubles with Simpsons.

Given all this, why do Cartoon makers turn to Fox? For example Seth MacFarlene(sp?) given Fox 'Family Guy' and 'American Dad'. And Family Guy was almost killed. I haven't seen a new episode of American Dad in a long time.

Why can't the cartoon producers go to other networks (ABC, CBS ...) ? Can some body throw some light on this?

thanks

Re:FOX & Cartoons...

[Browncoat]

Sometimes it has to do with who is willing to pick up the series. You've got a good product but if Fox is the only one biting, that's your choice. Groenig had one up on McFarlane because he was already established with Simpsons. MacFarlane was that kid that came in and showed the old guys he could do something new, and he sold it well enough to get a spot on tv. Unfortunately, Fox finds a bigger demand in sporting events and often lets their commentators rant on and on while a good show is waiting.

Re:FOX & Cartoons...

[transiit]

1) Fox is more prone to picking this format up, even if they are willing to bury it before (or during) its success.

2) Other networks? Think about how long ABC held on to the animated version of Clerks? It got what, half a dozen episodes before being cancelled?

!?amarutuF lecnac ot evah yeht did yhW

[Eli Gottlieb]

And the Loser Teen zooms back to the top of Old Man Rock, the girls boyfriend is never killed and Homer finds another way to make fun of himself.

Amusing out of context quote

[Brian Boitano]

the DVD sales for Serenity will decide on the fate of the universe !!

You watched it! You can't unwatch it!

Re:Amusing out of context quote

[Kazzahdrane]

DVD commentary quote: "You wrote it, you can't UNwrite it!"

Re:Amusing out of context quote

[milkman_matt]

DVD commentary quote: "You wrote it, you can't UNwrite it!"

Hah! Tell that to Lucas!

Yay!!!

[SilverJets]

Nice to see that they are seriously considering bringing back this show. I love Simpsons and I am collecting all the seasons on DVD, but in all honesty the Simpsons should have been cancelled instead of Futurama. It has had a good run and is getting a little worn around the edges. Futurama was fresh and funny as heck.

Run for your life! Santa Claus is coming to town!

[Bushido Hacks]

Twas the week before Xmas and all through the city
The killer Santa Claus Robot was running a muck without pity.
Those who had not sheltered would be filled full of dread
As the murderous machine would ensure they would be dead.

His bolts screwed too tight, his software malfunctioned.
Now Santa seeks a bloodlust consumption.
The children would scream with nightmares in bed
Fearing that psycho Santa would put a pike in their head.

"The world has been naughty!" The automation replied
"Merry Xmas you all! Now you're all going to die!"

With that said the machine ended the speech he had made
And turned his whole body into a pipebomb grenade!!
The sound of sharp nailes protruding out of his robot shell from his head to his toes
Was a sign that santa's incendiary carcass was going to explodes!

He spoke not a word as the city incinerated in an atomic white light
Robot Santa destroyed it all and he did it in one night!

Re:or A

[Premo_Maggot]

Fox already put Arrested Development back on the air.

Re:hundreds of channels with thousands of shows

[zmollusc]

................. how many of those thousands of shows suck? How many new, good things are there? $3.99 a download for something i know i like and haven't seen? Form an orderly queue behind me.

I'd pay for a net based subscription

[jhines]

I'd subscribe to an online delivered subscription, if it was cheaper than having to get cable and it's bundle of programs.

25 dollars or so for a seasons worth, compared to a minimum of 50/mo for cable, and no waiting for a dvd's to be pressed.

Re:Why don't they know when to quit?

[kimvette]

- Although by the 4th season it was kind of looking that way.

The fourth production season (seasons 4-5 broadcast) actually has many of the best episodes of the series. There were a couple of duds (which show doesn't have duds now and then?) but overall I'd have to say season 4 (production) is the best season of Futurama, and the general trend was the show was getting better and better with each episode.

How about Firefly?

[Ruvim]

If we could ONLY get them to bring a "Firefly" back!

Ignorance is not bliss

[xant]

Try knowledge instead: http://www.bartleby.com/61/80/X0008000.html

He BETTER make a Jurassic Bark sequel

[skintigh2]

I cannot believe how he ended that episode. That is the saddest cartoon I have seen in my entire life, if not the saddest story ever. I get misty just thinking about it. And I thought "Feed the Kitty" was a tear-jerker.

I DEMAND he remedy the situation NOW.

Re:He BETTER make a Jurassic Bark sequel

[ctid]

Jurassic Bark: Oddly enough, I saw this episode today for the first time. I thought it was wonderful in pretty much every way. I loved the ending even if it was very sad in its way. Some of the writing on Futurama is just extraordinary - "The Sting" is a case in point. I watched that episode transfixed and never once guessed what the ending would be.

Crying Wolf?

[kertong]

I can't believe how many times I've read rumors of Futurama's return. Last I heard, there was a 'possibility' of a straight-to-dvd futurama feature.

I was incredibly excited at reading this snippet on slashdot - until I read the article. There seems to be nothing substantial in the article that indicates a probable return of Futurama.

Re:Why don't they know when to quit?

[Anthony]

I disagree. The reason the DVD sales are so high is because Futurama is side-achingly funny.

I am such a nerd

[skintigh2]

I found an error in the article:

"Signing on with Planet Express, a space courier service, he befriends a one-eyed alien, Leela (Katey Sagal)..."

She's not an alien, she's a mutant. DUH.

Re:I am such a nerd

[TheRealFixer]

It wasn't until later in the series that they discovered that. Originally, they called her an alien.

Re:I am such a nerd

[skintigh2]

Are you trying to correct me or out-nerd me?

Re:I am such a nerd

[StrawberryFrog]

Well, that's the first three seasons ruined for me, spoiler-boy!

Sleep is for the week

And party all weekend?

Re:I am such a nerd

[geekoid]

First, the befriend each other before planet express.
Second, Hello! spoiler boy, you just ruined a good episode. For that, you can bite my Glorious Golden Ass

Re:I am such a nerd

[taernim]

Can't it be both? :)

Ooh! But, the downside...

[Phil Urich]

I, for one, cannot wait for Space: Above and Beyond. Who knew they would be making new episodes?

Or wait, was S:AaB a Fox show? I'm assuming that this only applies to shows cut short by Fox. Fuck, they'll have to create a whole new TV station just to accomodate all the awesome TV shows cancelled before their time! On the downside, while some geeks have escaped being sucked into WoW, add in this "all shows that don't suck, all the time" station and I'm not sure any geeks will have any time left . . .

Imagine that. Sure, we'll all be in entertainment heaven, but no one will even read /.! Not even the editors! Well, okay, nevermind, that last bit isn't anything new.

But still, the question remains: If news for nerds posts on a webpage and no one makes a hit, does CowboyNeal remain a poll option?

Re:hundreds of channels with thousands of shows

[Senzei]

So when you get tired of futurama, or if it starts to suck, or any of the vast array of other reasons why you might decide to watch something else, how will you find it? Pure channel surfing lead me to futurama, house, mythbusters and farscape all before anyone I knew had heard about it. How would that happen in a subscription system?

Re: Endings

[old_fortran]

For all the ranting about the Firefly movie being a "bomb", I was happy with both show endings. Farscape and Firefly were "post-Star Wars" / "post-Star Trek" sci-fi, with good casting, reasonable story arcs, and somewhat original 'verse settings. While I could see additional extentions, they were both good endings in my book.

Restarting "Futurama" seems like a much easier time, however. Much of the magic to both live shows were the casts; the longer they remain apart, the less the energy of the original show would remain. Here's where I offer Star Trek movies I to VI as evidence; "ST-IV / Save the Whales" was the last one with any real energy and style for me, before the TNG cast took over. And they are having the same problem at this point.

Finally, I find I watch the "Futurama" reruns on the Comedy Channel more than the "Simpsons"; the humor seems gentler, less harsh somehow. So adding more shows to the pile is a "good thing" for me, if the group that put the first shows together are still able to recapture the "team spirit" that made me want to watch in the first place.

old_fortran

Re:or A

[geoffrobinson]

Good point. Family Guy started to get traction during Season 3 and then they put it up against Survivor (when it was really big) and Friends. Then, they blame the show and cancel it.

I always wondered what was going on with that move.

Next resurrection -

[Brett Buck]

"Everybody Loves Hypnotoad"

    We can only hope...

    Brett

Re: Endings

[nuremon]

The big "but" that you left unstated is that they can't fall into the trap that the newly restarted Family Guy has found - rehash all the old jokes ad naseum. What was funny as an original joke will always be funnier as a running gag! What a bunch of morons. Running gags only work when you tie their hands and put a handkerchief in their mouth... oh wait, that was the Muppet Show...

There's no justice

[AlvySinger]

Firefly and Futurama both get cancelled early.

The X-Files stops four years too late.

Re:There's no justice

[kimvette]

It just goes to show that FAUX execs don't know quality when they see it.

Fox will screw it up...

[jofi]

Adult Swim for teh win.

Reminds me of the Time...

[Mendy]

I think it's pretty obvious that they're struggling to think of new material for the characters, as evidenced by the increasing frequency of the "Reminds me of..." sequences to allow them to fit in anything they happen to think of.

I used to like both Family Guy & Futurama as examples of shows that had been killed off at the right time, rather than being run into the dirt like Red Dwarf. I guess that dvd boxed sets have just given an extra incentive to milk a series for all you can get.

Emotional Extortion

[man_eleven]

I smell a new marketing ploy in our television future: emotional extortion. yank the good shows just as they get a following, then force the fans to vocalize their love or never see a new episode again...

WHO modded parent insightful!?!?

[cataclyst]

Just 'cause you don't get the intelligent jokes doesn't mean they're not there... take 99% of what Brian says, for example.

Re:WHO modded parent insightful!?!?

[geekoid]

What brian says is 99% wit. This is different then intellectual.

Re:My heart... (Zim)

[C0rinthian]

I'd love to see animated versions of JTHM show up on Cartoon Network. Hell, just gimmie 'Meanwhiles...' at commercial breaks.

Irony?

[Beer Moon]

So FF/Serenity is dead, before even one day of DVD sales are in (#1 on Amazon first day of release, FYI), and yet this series may be brought back due to DVD sales.

This just goes to show how far DVD sales have brought the industry. If crappy marketing and the limits of non-on-demand show viewing don't kill a series, then the networks will. Later, after a few million copies of the DVDs go flying off the shelves, the network execs then turn around and say "Hey, I guess we had something there, huh?".

At least now there's a way to correct idiot studio execs. Arrested Development shouldn't be cancelled either. I don't see DVD sales of Two and a Half Men anywhere near the top 100, and yet that show seems secure enough. AD has been in the top 50 for how long now? MORONS!!

old news

[Mirzabah]

Call me a troll, but what the hell is up with slashdot these days? Seems every other story is old news. The article referred to here is over a week old. I read it last Thursday in PRINT for crying out loud.

Re:or A

[zippthorne]

That show was awesome. How could you not love someone who loved that many puppies.

Screw futurama

[Kelz]

I'm waiting for them to bring back Gumble to Gumble!

Sweet Zombie Jebus!

[slashbob22]

Bender: "Well, unfortunately, Fry, there's just no more room on the schedule. We've just got to accept the fact that Fox has to make room for terrific shows like Dark Angel, Titus, Undeclared, Action, That '80s Show, Wonderfalls, Fastlane, Andy Richter Controls the Universe, Skin, Girls Club, Cracking Up, The Pitts, Firefly, Get Real, Freakylinks, Wanda at Large, Costello, The Lone Gunmen, A Minute With Stan Hooper, Normal Ohio, Pasadena, Harsh Realm, Keen Eddie, The $treet, American Embassy, Cedric the Entertainer, The Tick, Louie and Greg the Bunny." -- Family Guy S4E1

Slashdot link from the future!

[Kelz]

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/12/20/205021 4&tid=129&tid=97&tid=214

Damn!

[geekoid]

I need to run out and get my surface to Santa missle!

Futurama direct to DVD movie!

[Chris Tucker]

Five Words:

Amy Wong full frontal nudity.

The time has come to convert the un-believers

[tiny-e]

...To radioactive vapor!

Seriously, I really, hope FOX has the horse sense to pick Futurama back up. But I'm not betting on it. http://bringbackfuturama.com/

YEEEEEEEEHAW!

[JohnnyLocust]

I think I just soiled myself :)

Re:Relevant!

[kimvette]

* Fry is the single most important person in the universe and still needs to help the Nibblonians save it at least once more *

And Leela is the other. . . she has a part in saving the Universe!

Not as long as you think....

[SvnLyrBrto]

> your assertion of "mini-plagarisms" is pretty funny. How long do you think it takes to storyboard,
> draw, ink, voice, edit, and master one of these shows? Are you insinuating that they have spies
> in the Simpsons' production unit or something?

Long ass time ago, I read an interview with Matt or Trey or both, of South Park. They mentioned that, on several occasions they knocked shows together in a half-assed manner, and at the last minute. I forget the exact amount of time they cited for each episode, but it was *FAR* short of the oft-cited "six months to a year" figure you hear thrown around about The Simpsons.

But a little research can give a clue. "Osama Bin Laden has Farty Pants" was first aired on November 7, 2001... about seven weeks after 9/11. So there we have a lower limit, at least. The difference is, Comedy Central is happy to be timely with their episodes, where fox likes to have everything wrapped up and to sit on them and plan out a schedule months in advance.

So, with a much bigger budget, and on a network with more resources, than South Park, do you really think that if the Family Guy people *REALLY* wanted to copy something, they couldn't likewise knock it out on the rush?

cya,
john

Re:Not as long as you think....

[bedroll]

You do know the difference between the animation used in early South Park and the animation used in Family Guy?

Early South Park was done in flash. It's always been done very cheaply with simple shapes that do very little, if any, bending or movement. The whole style of that show is that it's kinda cheap and shotty, but up yours because if you don't like it then you can go sit and spin.

Family Guy is, to the best of my knowledge, a hand animated/inked deal done in a similar style to old Looney Toons, and, well, most other cartoons. Instead of drawing a shape on the screen and saying that over the span of 120 frames you want it to rotate 180 degrees (as South Park would have done) you have to draw 120 frames with slight movement in each one. Then you have to ink those frames. Of course, to get the best results you normally want to have the voices done first and then try to have the animators sync to the voices.

As for Fox vs. Comedy Central.. Well, the big difference is that Fox has to deal extensively with the FCC when they put something on air. They have to be sure that the content isn't going to get them fined, etc. Comedy Central, on the other hand, is cable-only. That means that they don't have to adhere to the same decency regulations that apply to broadcast television (Fox).

Family Guy does take small pieces of content from other shows, but normally it's done in a way that someone will get the reference, not just trying to steal the gag outright. Also, it doesn't happen in such a short time span. I mean, if a gag done on Family Guy is similar to one done on the Simpsons then perhaps that's simply because the topic was recently infront of writers for both shows, or it could just be that great minds think alike.

Re:or A

[damsa]

I think it was because the lack of control by Fox over the show. Seth McFarland had much more power than Matt Groening did over the Simpsons. Groening also had much more control over Futurama than he had with the Simpsons. There wasn't as big of an incentive for network execs to promote these shows as their own baby projects.

Re:New Episodes?!?!?

[kimvette]

It's an animated show. What difference does it make? Sure, you'll get a few less jaggies on the rendered portions of animation, but really how would HD vs. NTSC improve the show any?

Nah, last season is rather good

[leoPetr]

The last production run had some very good episodes, including Jurassic Bark, The Sting, The Farnsworth Parabox, and Three Hundred Big Boys. It had its share of stinkers -- what on Urectum were they thinking when they made Bend Her? -- but overall I think it's solid.

In the words of Al Gore

[conan776]

Not all missions can be solved with chess Deep Blue. Someday you'll understand that.

Season five not good? You sir, are no fan.

[clintp]

My favorite two episodes (and those of many fans) were in the last season. The Devil's Hands and Jurassic Bark weren't just good Futurama, they were great television.

Re:Season five not good? You sir, are no fan.

[Otter]

You sir, are no fan.

Probably not -- Jurassic Bark is precisely the sort of Very Special Episode that obsessive fanboys love but which the rest of us find completely cringeworthy.

Note to self...

[randomizer9]

Don't forget to set the VCR++

HBO/AD cancellation references in the show

[caitsith01]

Apparently in an upcoming AD there is a 'Save Our Bluths' drive (mirroring the fan driven 'Save Our Bluths' campaign in real life) where the Bluth Company appeals to the Home Builders Organization to save the company... I love it.

In Season 2 Michael Bluth also referred to an order for houses to be built being cut back from 22 to 18, which at the time was a comment on the fact that Fox had just reduced the order for S2 from 22 to 18 shows.

However, I have heard in several places that HBO has expressed an unwillingness to pick up someone else's leftovers.

On a related note, let's not forget Bender in Futurama: "Another classic science fiction show cancelled before its time."

Re:My heart... (Zim)

[WhatAmIDoingHere]

They cut his budget. They didn't cancel the show, just the funding. They finished the episodes that they had almost done, and that's it. The 3rd DVD has them. That's why in the Worst Christmas Ever, when Zim is asked about MiniMoose, he looks at the camera and says "he's been here all along. yup." because they didn't get to finish the episode they introduced him in. And if you listen to the commentary on the First DVD, Jhonen and the crew admit to hating children and really hating the fact that the kids love Zim so much. They insult the children for pretending to be Irken. And that made me laugh.

I'm not sad

[Cappy Red]

because I finally found someone as great as me. It's like I always say, "Make new friends and keep the old. One is silver..."

YES

[Mika24]

first family guy and now this. Yes! hopefully fox will replace american dad with futurama