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Futurama to be Resurrected?
KingDaveRa writes "Futurama could follow in the footsteps of Family Guy and re-enter production more than two years after it was axed. The animated series, brainchild of Simpsons creator Matt Groening, ended after four produced seasons amid lackluster ratings and broken scheduling on broadcast network Fox." From the Reuters article: "Reps for 20th Century Fox have declined to comment on the news, but Variety says initial negotiations have begun. If revived, it's unclear exactly which network would air the new episodes. While Fox housed the original series, the show found new life once reruns began showing on the Cartoon Network. Comedy Central subsequently snapped up the off-air rights and will exclusively air the repeats beginning in 2008. " A follow-up to Groening and Cohen's recent comments.
Fuck them. It's a pity Fox ends up with such draconian ownership of shows, or Groening could have brought new Futurama episodes to a better network. Now he's once again at the mercy of their idiotic policy on show cancellations.
lackluster ratings and broken scheduling on broadcast network Fox.
How much did the latter cause the former?
I wish they could just resurrect shows on Cartoon Network. Unfortunately, that's probably not possible.
Dark Reflection
Compared to the Simpsons at Season 4 or the Simpsons now? I've watched all of season 17 of the Simpsons so far and it's just not funny any more - it's become a vaguely amusing sitcom.
Maybe if Futurama is brought back and becomes a sucess, Fox can finally kill off the dying cash cow that is the Simpsons and put it out of its misery.
We have our priorities here . . . if we cared about politics, trapped miners or egregious violations of law by our elected officials, we'd all be surfing CNN.
You must be related to Zapf Brannigan!
...a provision stating that Futurama will NEVER be scheduled anywhere near the timeslot of a God damned football game.
I don't know how many times I sat down to watch a TiVo'd episode of Futurama, only to discover that what was recorded was the last 20 minutes of some stupid NFL game.
THAT is why it got poor ratings, because the FOX idiots stuck it in the 7pm Sunday death slot.
~Philly
I think the episode was carefully crafted to be "good enough" for a final episode, but also appeal to both fans and Fox that cancelling the show would be immature. Witness the last line of the last episode: "Please don't stop playing, Fry. I wanna hear how it ends."
There are many, many more stories screaming to be told about the Futurama universe. Fox were fools to stop playing. We wanna hear how it ends!
"Oppression and harassment is a small price to pay to live in the land of the free." -- Montgomery Burns.
Firefly, Farscape, Family guy, Futurama
What do these shows have in common? These are great shows that were killed before their time due to poor decisions of TV execs. Everything from showing the series out of order to playing musical timeslots to abruptly killing the series without advanced warning, these shows were actively campainged against by the execs ( although I can't imagine why you'd want to mess up a money maker ).
This is why I don't watch TV anymore ( in fact, I don't own a TV ). I purchase DVDs, and I get to watch things ad free through liberal use of dvd decrypter and dvd shrink.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
I respectfully disagree. I place Futurama above Family Guy, Simpsons, ATHF, Sealab, Robot Chicken, and Home Movies. Superior to all in animation, writing, acting, and plot. And it had an amazing mix of emotional moments and hilarious comedy. And an absolutely stunning number of tie-ins, in-jokes, frame-jokes, etc.
I don't understand how Family Guy was re-lauched when Futurama wasn't. While I enjoy Family Guy, I think Futurama is an overall better show. The humor is more developed, the artwork is cleaner, and the concept is fun. Family Guy just feels like a dumber Homer Simpson combined with acid flashbacks. Which I do find funny, but not mroe than Futurama. Granted, I'd like to see Bender and Stewie in a cameo scene. From each show, they are my favorite (if not the best) characters.
I think it was because of people like me.
They kept moving it around and putting it in times like after football games. I never knew if it was on or not, and just couldn't keep up with it. I'd set the VCR and it might or might not get it, even if it were on -- or might get the first x minutes of it because the game delayed it. I'd set the VCR for longer time, but that didn't always work because there were other shows I'd tape.
So, after a while, I couldn't tell if it was on or not and, after one time where it wasn't on for several weeks, I thought it was cancelled. I don't watch a lot of tv, so I wouldn't see ads for it, even if they were shown.
If Fox had just given that (and Family Guy) a real timeslot where you could see it every week, maybe they'd have made more money off it.
But, then again, this is the network that told Joss Whedon they were going to start showing Firefly without the pilot movie, then couldn't figure out why it got low ratings and also cancelled John Doe after one season.
I avoid shows on Fox (and anything on sci-fi other than Stargate and Galactica for the same reasons) because I know if it is at all interesting, it'll take 2nd billing to all the crap they *think* will get high ratings, they'll never give it a real chance or promote it much then wonder why nobody watches and cancel it.
If networks want to play games like that, I've got other things to do in life. I'll wait and catch the series in re-runs or buy it on DVD so the producers and not a crappy network (like Fox or SciFi) gets money from it.
As long as it doesn't turn into a partisan political mouthpiece like "Family Guy" has. If I want to see one-sided political humor, I'll read "Doonesbury."
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
I think you're very much mistaken.
Simpsons has been on a very steady decline since about the time Futurama cmae out (even before than, perhaps). The SImpsons was very much running out of steam and while Futurama channeled some of its style and wit, it also brought a lot of fresh ideas to the table. I feel like the first few episodes are a bit slow, but after that I feel pretty much the entire run compares very favorable with even the Pax Simpsona (say seasons two through six).
As far as Family Guy is concerned, during both program's initial runs I might ahve agreed with you. But especially when they are put back to back, it is obvious how much intellectual humor is in Futurama. It ages well becaues in someways it is a standard sitcom, but with a sharp sense of humor and intellectual writing. Family Guy mostly relies on shock value and easy jokes. While they were funny, its not a show I personally can watch over and over again (and this is discounting the post cancellation Family Guy, which lacks even the heart of the original). Family Guy simply does not stack up well - Futurama's humor is smarter, better written, and ages much better. Care was taken with Futurama and it shows.
Furthermore, Futurama had some of the best animation on TV. Unlike the poor art of Family Guy (the creator of Ren and Stimpy lambasted FG for it's art style, saying any 10 year old can do it, according to FG's wikipedia page), Aqua Teen (which I love, but still, is no prize pig as far as animation is concerned), Futurama was extemely well done and even the first season looks good these days.
The Simpsons is a bit of a send up of the family sitcoms of its periods, while Futurama riffs on Friends and Seinfeld style shows of the 1990s. The sense of humor is far more bizarre, but its grounding in some sort of reality means it pairs up really well on adult swim with shows like Aqua Teen.
"There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter," Jeeves, (Jeeves and the Impending Doom)
A Futurma comeback has been mentioned before and every time I've found myself thinking "Oh how kick ass is this gonna be?!!!" But then I have to wonder if it'll be the same Futurama that we've all come to love. Besides a heaping helping of cash, what else is there to motivate Groening into continuing the series? He's always been vocal about his dismay of the Fox execs cancelling the show in the first place. That seems like a big chip to carry on one's shoulders, though I suppose a few extra 0's on a paycheck can put a smile on anybody's face. I just hope his love of the characters and fanbase are enough to ensure the series returns to it's former glory.
If big boobed women work at Hooters do one legged women work at IHOP?
Speaker: And the winner is ... Number 3, in a quantum finish.
Farnsworth: No fair! You changed the outcome by measuring it!
I'm sure the masses just don't get this kind of stuff. I'm surprised it made it as long as it did. But here's hoping *Raises glass of Benderbraü*
-- Thou hast strayed far from the path of the Avatar.
* When a show's schedule changes, let one last show air in the old time slot, with "we're moving!" notices every time the show goes to or comes back from commercial.
* Support their own programming by cutting down on informercials and re-airing episodes of prime time shows late and early, with "if you missed it..." plugs.
* Put them online or on iTunes and let people share them x number of times, so they can spread shows around.
(As for Arrested Development, I love the show and have watched every episode numerous times. Afternoon Deelite is still hard to beat. At the same time, I wonder what kind of staying power it has or if it *should* go on for more than two seasons-- a lot happens on the show, so why does the end have to be doom and gloom? I'd love to a LITERAL shark-jumping moment (maybe Buster, in a leather jacket, loses a foot?) in the second to last episode, with Henry Winkler there to save the day (and get hired back as the family attorney).)
you forgot their timeslot to.
Sundays at 7 (6 central), perfect time for a show to fail, seeing as how Football always seems to run over that time.
Let's not forget fox's wonderfull advertising of the show aswell, I saw all of 2 commercials for the show during it's 4 year run.
Whereas your post was a model of brilliance, wit and insight.
News flash: his post was not intended to be a model of brilliance, wit, or insight.
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
My view is opposite. Yes, I agree that Family Guy isn't as strong before it was cancelled, but I seriously can't stand American Dad. I've completely given up on American Dad and no longer watch it. Frankly, I'd rather that they stop American Dad and focus their attention and strength on Family Guy.
Nonsense! Futurama is like Shakespeare and Ibsen; it works on all levels. Well, not quite like Ibsen, but still, I did read somewhere (here, I think) that while they do try to cram in as much "high-brow" jokes as possible, they won't let it detract from the story.
Most of the humor in Futurama is of the "everybody gets it" variant. I can't immagine Zack Brannigan being anything less than hillarious even if you've never heard of Star Trek. And then you get the "No fair! You changed the outcome by measuring it!" lines that really are the icing on the cake, and makes Futurama rather unique in the field of humorous cartoons. Where else do you get pinball references, Titanic parodies, quantum physics jokes and booze and hookers in such a neat package?
In a fair world, refrigerators would make electricity.