Slashdot Mirror


Futurama Rumored To Return On Comedy Central

avajcovec points out a brief note on Collider.com that Comedy Central has ordered 13 new episodes of Futurama. Quoting: "Though still technically a rumor at this point, word is that 'Futurama' production offices have already opened and that casting is about to move forward. This should be a welcome surprise to fans of the show who have already gone through the series' cancellation and resurrection as direct-to-DVD movies."

33 of 259 comments (clear)

  1. Obligatory... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Good news everyone!

    1. Re:Obligatory... by derGoldstein · · Score: 5, Funny

      Puny Humans Rejoice!

      --
      Entomologically speaking, the spider is not a bug, it's a feature.
    2. Re:Obligatory... by Tokerat · · Score: 3, Funny

      NEWS DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY!

      --
      CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?
    3. Re:Obligatory... by Forty+Two+Tenfold · · Score: 5, Funny

      I am looking forwAll glory to the hypnotoad!

      --
      Upward mobility is a slippery slope - the higher you climb the more you show your ass.
    4. Re:Obligatory... by BizzyM · · Score: 5, Funny

      Sweet llamas of the Bahamas

    5. Re:Obligatory... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Here, put on this hat

    6. Re:Obligatory... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      How i hate that hypnotoad meme, do you have nothiALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTOAD!

    7. Re:Obligatory... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I wonder what would happen if a brain slug were to implant itself on hypnotoad, would it be like an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object, or thermite & ice? (that was a cool Mythbusters episode)

    8. Re:Obligatory... by thhamm · · Score: 4, Funny

      All glory to the hypnotoad!

      This show is going downhill since season 3!

    9. Re:Obligatory... by Drakkenmensch · · Score: 4, Funny

      Warning: The enema you are about to receive is extremely hot!

    10. Re:Obligatory... by jackharrer · · Score: 3, Funny

      Bite my shiny metal ass!

      --

      "an experienced, industrious, ambitious, and often, quite often, picturesque liar" - Mark Twain
  2. "Have you ever tried just turning off the TV by Norsefire · · Score: 4, Funny

    sitting down with your children

    and hitting them?"

    1. Re:"Have you ever tried just turning off the TV by Kratisto · · Score: 5, Funny

      Oh great! A lesson in history from Mr. I'm-My-Own-Grandpa!

      --
      Conscience is the inner voice which warns us that someone may be looking.
  3. Brought to you by: by derGoldstein · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Brought to you by: Torgo's Executive Powder! "a million and one uses!"

    --
    Entomologically speaking, the spider is not a bug, it's a feature.
  4. Casting by Tokerat · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Though still technically a rumor at this point, word is that 'Futurama' production offices have already opened and that casting is about to move forward.

    Let's hope it's all the original cast. Wrong-sounding Muppets where no picnic, either (to paraphrase Family Guy).

    --
    CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?
    1. Re:Casting by Svippy · · Score: 3, Informative

      Sounds unlikely they are going to change actors though.

      All of the actors are still very much alive, and not to mention are still very interested in Futurama, so doubting the return of the actors is not very justified.

      But even if they can't get an actor back, remember what the writers of The Simpsons did when Phil Hartman died? Yeah, they retired his characters, in his honour.

      Billy West, for instance, who voices Fry, Farnsworth, among others, have since the release of Into the Wild Green Yonder (well, and before) spoken out about the possibility of a return of the show. And have mention on occasion that Futurama was the best gig he ever had.

      I recommend reading this article, for a timeline of what happened since Bender's Game with the possibility of a return.

      --
      Clicked pie.
    2. Re:Casting by Culture20 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Amy could probably be replaced and the rastafarian guy, but most of the others cannot

      But don't replace Amy's voice with Hermes', because that would be weird.

  5. Absolutely wonderful by Jarlsberg · · Score: 4, Insightful

    As long as they get the original cast and no restrictions imposed on the show with regards to somebody thinking about "the children" :)

    1. Re:Absolutely wonderful by Lord+Bitman · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Some of the best jokes in the show were only there because of the censors forcing re-writes. What do we get the moment they have some wiggle-room? Bender's Big Score. I may hate censorship, but these writers don't seem to work well without it.

      --
      -- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
  6. Re:Who gives a fsck... by wintermute000 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I can't believe you equate Robot Chicken (or any of seth macfarlane's work) with Futurama

    They're both goofy but robot chicken is a sequence of short attention span non-sequiteurs ditto w/ family guy.

    Futurama has tonnes of very intelligent and subversive themes, and actual plots.

  7. Funny? Bah! by Norsefire · · Score: 4, Funny

    Emotions are dumb and should be hated.

  8. Re:Let's hope the Family Guy effect holds true by daniel_mcl · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Admittedly, "The Beast with a Thousand Backs" or whatever it was called did more to creep me out than to amuse me. That being said, as a literary critic I can't agree with the assertion that a single second of any episode of "Family Guy" could be classified as "meh." For thousands of years comedy has not developed past Aristophanes -- indeed, fewer than a hundred years ago the great cultural historian Edith Hamilton compared the popular entertainment of the previous generation to his oeuvre. The cutaway scenes in Family Guy represent the first departure from classical comedy I've ever been aware of. In my (professional) estimation Seth McFarlane is the single most important writer in the English language since the time Shakespeare, Coleridge, and Blake.

    So there's that.

    --
    I used to read Caltizzle. I was a lot cooler than you.
  9. Re:I hope it's funny! by Rogerborg · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Now that you explain it that way, it seems so obvious: I just think it's funny because I enjoy watching it and it makes me laugh by respectfully parodying beloved memes. But since you don't get it, it must be objectively un-amusing, therefore I'm obviously just mired in cognitive dissonance.

    Now that I think about it, I nearly busted a gut laughing at Galaxy Quest, so I guess by your measure that must suck harder than a Thai ladyboy trying to fund her final op.

    --
    If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
  10. Re:Who gives a fsck... by LMacG · · Score: 4, Informative

    For homework, please write an essay comparing and contrasting Seth McFarlane with Seth Green; be sure to compare and contrast their respective television productions.

    Extra credit may be available for extended treatises on Greg the Bunny.

    --
    Slightly disreputable, albeit gregarious
  11. The movies didn't work by abigsmurf · · Score: 4, Insightful

    From the first film they seemed to get progressively worse, both in terms of story and in terms of jokes. I know they had fewer writers working on them but the jokes weren't as snappy the plots didn't flow properly (Benders Game was the worst for that) and they relied too much on references to previous jokes and stories, one of the worst things about post season 10 Simpsons was how insular the humour became.

    If it was because they struggled to fill the running time than a new series could be brilliant. If it's because the current writers aren't a patch on the original team, it could go the family guy route of being stale almost immediately after it returned to screens.

    1. Re:The movies didn't work by VShael · · Score: 3, Interesting

      it could go the family guy route of being stale almost immediately after it returned to screens.

      I'll agree that Family Guy was a shadow of its former self, once it returned from cancellation.

      It took some time, but the show *has* returned to something like it's former levels of comedy though.

  12. Re:Let's hope the Family Guy effect holds true by meist3r · · Score: 5, Insightful

    For thousands of years comedy has not developed past Aristophanes -- indeed, fewer than a hundred years ago the great cultural historian Edith Hamilton compared the popular entertainment of the previous generation to his oeuvre. The cutaway scenes in Family Guy represent the first departure from classical comedy I've ever been aware of. In my (professional) estimation Seth McFarlane is the single most important writer in the English language since the time Shakespeare, Coleridge, and Blake.

    So there's that.

    Oh so you haven't heard? I was under the impression that everybody had heard that latest news of a certain avian variety.

    And just to break your stride ... there are several episodes that are just un-funny. Just because you cut to something completely apeshit crazy during a sketch doesn't mean it's fun to watch or entertaining. Yes I go "what the fuck?", yeah I think "that was brilliant" but I don't laugh. If I see a joke and go "That was good" but no smile ever crosses my face ... it's not that good. I've seen every episode of Family Guy and American Dad ... high, drunk and completely sober. Some of them are just awfully bad. Painfully predictable and can't be saved by a two second cutaway to a giant chicken beating a guy. Then again ... the entire last season of Simpsons didn't have more than a handful of good jokes in it. Maybe I'm getting a little overfed and/or spoiled.

    As for the Futurama movies I thought most of the plot was too irrelevant and merely spooned in to stretch it out to 90 minutes format on all four occasions. Had they told two distinct stories per 90 minutes instead of shoe horning all of them into one I thought it would have been much more enjoyable but who am I to argue. Still love the movies.

  13. Re:Who gives a fsck... by xororand · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Futurama Season 1, Episode 5 "Fear of a bot planet" is based on a short story by Stanisaw Lem. David X. Cohen, the head writer of Futurama, acknowledged that Stanisaw Lem is among his favorite Sci-Fi writers.

  14. For fuck sake... by GeorgeStone22 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Kill the simpsons already.

  15. Too late by MobyDisk · · Score: 5, Funny

    How many years has it been? By now, all the actors will be older and they won't look the part. It will be worse than Harry Potter or Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey.

  16. Re:Let's hope the Family Guy effect holds true by Lord+Bitman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Family Guy's use of cut-away humor is the same tired old "Let's insert a random fantasy!" crap that's been going on in every prime-time |/FOX\| comedy, and to a large extent many comedies on other networks, since at least Ally McBeal. (Why was Arrested Development cancelled? the cut-away humor was done in flashback/callback form, rather than fantasy)

    Funny things can happen in cut-away humor, but the cut-away itself is lame.

    --
    -- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
  17. Re:Let's hope the Family Guy effect holds true by arb+phd+slp · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Family Guy's use of cut-away humor is the same tired old "Let's insert a random fantasy!" crap that's been going on in every prime-time |/FOX\| comedy, and to a large extent many comedies on other networks, since at least Ally McBeal. (Why was Arrested Development cancelled? the cut-away humor was done in flashback/callback form, rather than fantasy)

    Funny things can happen in cut-away humor, but the cut-away itself is lame.

    This was painfully obvious to me in the first few weeks of [adult swim] after the switch to Family Guy from Futurama. The cutaways have funny things in them, but the show as a whole is inferior to Futurama is so many ways. It's just so forced.

    --
    There's a perfect xkcd for my sig but I'm too lazy to look it up. sudo someone go find it.
  18. Dear G-d, No! by Amazing+Quantum+Man · · Score: 3, Funny

    Just think of the horror... Everyone you meet in this cowboy universe is CowboyNeal!

    --
    Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.