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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.
Good news everybody!
Futurama could follow in the footsteps of Family Guy and re-enter production more than two years after it was axed.
Well, i'm waiting... what did they ax it?
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
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.
--Chag
lackluster ratings and broken scheduling on broadcast network Fox.
How much did the latter cause the former?
...about the resurrection of Farscape and Firefly for an "F" trifecta!!!
Futurama is being resurrected and you're talking about Ariel Sharon?! You disgust me!
Life is hilariously cruel.
...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.
Is will the original writing staff be re-hired, this is what really made the episodes in the first place, I remember reading somewhere about the high number of PH.ds and MBAs they had working on the writing staff, not that degress automatically mean anything, but I thought it was interesting given the type of jokes that I would often laugh at but my wife would have no clue what was funny about them...
Yeah, it's kind of a bummer that the only choice for right-wing comedy on the air right now is Fox News.
Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
-- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.
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.
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.
The series revolved around Fry, a pizza delivery boy, who is accidentally frozen for a thousand years. He wakes up in the year 3000 and befriends sassy one-eyed pilot Leela and cranky robot Bender, who both work for an intergalactic delivery service run by a distant nephew of Fry's.
Leela worked at the Chrionics lab, getting her job with the delivery service at the same time as Fry.
Bender was ending his carrier as a bender, rather drastically, when he met Fry. Also joining Planet Express at the same time as Fry and Leela.
My last shred of faith is shattered. How are we ever to trust the news media again!?
Fox would never allow something like that to happen.
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.
I mean, the voice talent alone. You have to get the people that do the voices of Philip J. Fry, Professor Farnsworth, Dr. Zoidberg, Zapp Brannigan, Leo Wong, and various other people. I mean that's 5 people right there you have to re-hire!
Can they find all these guys again? They could be anywhere! They may all have scheduling conflicts or something...
waiting for someone to state the obvious about this of course
"Leo Fender was in a 'state of grace' when he designed the Stratocaster." -- Paul Reed Smith
You've absolutely hit the nail on the head. I used to live (aswel as attend school) in a small town where... erm, the general population was as confused about anything beyond farming as Fry was when he witnessed his first game of Blurnsball. A friend of mine and I used to spend our spares in the "cafeteria" watching Futurama and just talking about whatever. Sometimes a few people would join us in watching Futurama and at every nerdy joke, or technical joke, or anything above and beyond the mainstream there failed to be anything out of them. Not even a snicker. Of course they got the slap stick side of it. If Fry got hit, burned by eating Bender's sterno-nicoise, or if Kif was forced to look up Brannigans, uhh skirt? Or if Kif falls off the roof after an Amazonian pokes at him.. They laugh. There were even people who called us losers for watching Futurama, because it wasn't funny. Regular people couldn't see the true hilarity of it. Part of me wishes new episodes would go straight to DVD instead of being aired on tv. No one can screw around with their timeslots then, those that truly appreciate the series will be able to watch them over and over again with no worry about a football game taking valuable Futurama-Time. I dunno, I'm kinda off on a tangent here. Fact is you've got it completely right, the humour is just too intelligent for the mainstream. Kind of saddening, isn't it.