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Matt Groening Talks About Futurama's Comeback

Posted by Zonk on from the you-seem-malnourished-are-you-suffering-from-internal-parasites- dept.

Joel Keller writes "When I was at the Television Critics Association press tour earlier last month, I briefly talked to Matt Groening about Futurama's comeback. I posted the interview to TV Squad a couple of days ago. The man behind the Simpsons and Futurama talks about the latter's comeback, the fun of doing sci-fi in a comedy format, and a few words about the first episode to air on Comedy Central."

7 of 156 comments (clear)

  1. Why, Fry, Why? by tomcode · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Is there a single Sci-fi movie, book, or TV series they DIDN'T lampoon in the first four seasons? The Fry-Leela love story ran its complete arc. Every character did everything people do in their 20s. Even the hottie trust fund chick is spoken for. Did I miss something?

    --
    f u cn rd ths u cn gt a gd jb n cmptr prgmng
    1. Re:Why, Fry, Why? by DamnStupidElf · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Is there a single Sci-fi movie, book, or TV series they DIDN'T lampoon in the first four seasons? The Fry-Leela love story ran its complete arc. Every character did everything people do in their 20s. Even the hottie trust fund chick is spoken for. Did I miss something?

      Is there anything Futurama can't lampoon? As long as the characters keep their clichés funny and not annoying, they can time travel or visit alternate universes or just old new york to lampoon whatever they want. It's a funny and scathing social commentary like any of the great satirists have done, but with animated characters to do it because exposition doesn't work quite so well on TV as it does in books.

  2. Re:It Died Because It Was Boring by odasnac · · Score: 5, Insightful

    it died because:

      it wasn't given a consistent timeslot
      it was constantly preempted by sporting events
      it was NEVER promoted by fox
    fox is stupid

    i don't need to cite sources, as all of these are fairly well established (or i'm lazy)

  3. Re:All I ask by dbIII · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I haven't seen a lot of Family Guy, but I saw it as "joke on the horizon flashing it's lights wildly - joke arrives but you already know what it is - joke stays for an extra agonising minute as the character sings the second verse of the song the initially funny reference was to so that everyone will catch the pop reference". To me it seemed as pointless as "Man In The Moon" which seemed to be about how funny racist jokes are if you pretend it's about a country that doesn't exist - there's something in some brands of US humor I don't get. Simpsons, Futurama, Marx Bros, Chaplin and most of Mel Brooks is the stuff I can see as funny.

  4. Re:All I ask by dangitman · · Score: 4, Insightful
    You're all wrong. The funniest joke is when Stewie imitates William Shatner singing "Rocket Man" like he did in that 1978 clip. With the multiple Shatners and the cigarette-smoking.

    And I'm going to be ... high ... as a kite by then.
    I'm a... Rocket Man... Rock-it man.

    To have Stewie covering Shatner was the Best. Homage. Ever.

    --
    ... and then they built the supercollider.
  5. Re:Both by pipingguy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It was too smartish for the perceived audience?

  6. Re:All I ask by drsquare · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The problem is, that was only funny the first time they did it, not the next fifty. I'm convinced that they only made Family Guy series 4+ because they were told to, rather than because they had any ideas.

    Similarly, the Simpsons has outstayed its welcome by around a decade. I don't think Futurama should come back, there's a lot to be said for ending a show when it's still good.