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Futurama Voices Could Be Recast
Svippy writes "According to reports surfacing on the Internet, Futurama may be recast. The animated series is due to return next year on Comedy Central, but may not be the same as we once knew it. 'As part of the announcement, the show's producers said stars including West, Sagal and DiMaggio had all signed on to return. Turns out that wasn't true. The stars had all expressed interest in returning. But with the budget for Futurama dramatically slashed, the salary offers came in well below what the thesps were asking.' Phil LaMarr posted 20th Century Fox's request for auditions on his Facebook page. However, some are skeptical about whether it's a real casting call or purely a stunt to reduce the salaries of the voice actors."
Bite my shiny metal ass!
How effective would it be if thousands of fans submitted MP3 via email stating, "Leave the cast alone!" in varying degrees of passion and vernacular?
I want to point people to the following articles as well:
Both making very compelling cases.
Clicked pie.
During the commentary's for the both the movies and the season DVDs all the voice actors always said that it was their favorite show to work on. It was hard to tell if this was simply pandering but they sounded genuinely sincere. Especially Billy West and John DiMaggio who seemed to be to big fans of the show. And I don't think Katty Segal is being flooded with job offers. The only ones I see moving on are the greatly talented Maurice Lamarche and Tres McNeil who do a lot of work other than Futurama and only play secondary characters on the show. Read More... 3 comments top tags
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I absolutely will NOT watch it without the original cast. I can't imagine anyone other than Billy West voicing Fry.
You know, when a new voice appears on an old show playing an existing character (memory escapes me at this moment for an example, but I know this has happened), I always wonder why folks generally don't just make the new voice sound like the old voice. This happened to at least a couple childhood cartoons of mine - the voice suddenly changed and ... WTF?
Let's hope they decide to bring in folks that sound the same (or very similar) if they do recast. Having different voices would be pretty lame.
If you can read this... 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011
I just felt a great disturbance in the force...
In just about every anime, cartoon series, and live-action where they've tried to swap one actor's voice for another, the series usually tanks not long after the switch is made. The only thing worse for a series is to get someone pregnant, involve a baby, or suddenly tack on a female lead or support role when one previously wasn't present. Or a consult with Joss Whedon.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
Wait, this isn't good news at all.
Seriously, the voice actors in Futurama gave their characters heart and soul. It's not just that the actors are good (they are, of course) but the characters have grown along with the actors, such that in my mind, and in the mind of many fans I am sure, the two are inseparable.
Without the original cast, I won't be watching, simple as that.
It's going to cost more money in the long run to produce an abject failure than to put more money into the show from the start and hoping the fanbase comes back.
"There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter," Jeeves, (Jeeves and the Impending Doom)
if someone knows the amount send me a message! i can probably pull some strings somewhere, i hope it isn't in the millions because that many strings i don't have :)
Obviously the executives didn't take the Torgo's Executive Powder jokes all that well...
I've invented a device which makes you read this in your head, in my voice!
Which is a good thing because you won't actually be hearing my voice while you watch the show! Better turn subtitles on, mwa?
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
They have what, 100+ hours of speech recorded for Futurama, presumably the original masters as well? Probably 1,000 hours of speech for each character on The Simpsons on masters. Not to mention accurate closed captioning for the voicings. How hard would it be to write an algorithm to cut and paste the correct words (picking the correct word inflection based on word placement in the sentence/context - presumably there are angry, happy, elated, monotone versions of most words, and the sound files can be edited to convincingly make them sound in context) together? Sure, you'd have to hand-synthesize the occasional odd word or celebrity-head-in-a-jar's name, but we're probably not very far off from being able to fire the voice actors after the third season of a dialog-driven cartoon.
moox. for a new generation.
Sweet gorilla of Manilla!
...they are going to go back to those talking upsidedown chin characters.
I predict success.
Go ahead, submit more interesting stories then.
I work in the business and I saw a casting notice for this go out yesterday. Right now (if you're a member) you can see the notice on a site called Actor's Access here and the sides are up on Showfax.
Casting notices for shows like this almost never appear on a site like that (it's a step above Craigslist), so my best guess this is a negotiation tactic to convince the cast to accept contracts that pay less, in line with the reduced budget for the show.
It just won't be right without Wakka as Bender :)
I don't care if they cast satan himself as a voice actor... seriously i just want futurama back.... I could give a sh*t less about who dose the voice acting.
In theory, it wouldn't really bother me as long as the characters sounded the same - that's one of the benefits of cartoons - that the "actors" never age on screen, so you can repeatedly recast the voices and keep the show going for decades... but in reality, the voice actors have grown into the role and provide numerous nuances that make up part of who the characters are. Replacing them all at once would certainly be noticeable, IMO.
People need to settle down though. Pretending that they're never going to watch if one one the voice actors is replaced doesn't fool anyone - you will still watch (at least at first), and you know it. Yes, I'm worried - but the voice actors aren't the whole show. Painting the producers as the big greedy corporates playing hardball is a bit one-side - the voice actors are playing the same game, which is as it should be... I suspect they will come to some agreement in the end.
They could replace ... the kids, the rasta dude, the japanese chick, etc.
They could find an even sexier Leelaaaah... Leeluuuhh... Lee-Laaa.
'Once scientists, even the dim-witted social scientists, get muzzled, the Western Civilization is finished.' - oldhack
Farnsworth: Well, it looks like I'll be needing my heroic bureaucrat back. At severely-reduced pay, of course. [The staff cheer.] LaBarbara: It's better than nothing. Fry: What about me? Can I come back at severely-reduced pay? Hermes: You got it, mon! In fact, severely-reduced pay all around!
If they all have East Indian accents, then the question is answered.
Table-ized A.I.
NNNNOOOOOOOOoooooooooo! (It was supposed to be "yes", but I gave it a little twist)
Come play free flash games on Kongregate!
on the show? The crew gets into a horrible accident that requires them to get voice box transplants, and Bender's voice gets erased and he is programmed with a different one.
This is almost as bad in a TV series when an actor or actress is replaced with a different one, and it usually happens to Soap Operas and really Cheesy TV shows. The only TV show to do this on a regular basis and still survive was Saturday Night Live, who kept reinventing themselves with new comedians.
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
Congrats. Your IP has now been logged. I would laugh if something came of this.
She's in "Son's of Anarchy", plus she's married to a producer, and the MWC royalties come in. Trust me, she isn't hurting for spending money or worrying if she'll miss the next slashdot dupe because the IP bill is overdue.
99 to 1 odds that this is in fact *another* Fox negotiating stunt. A few years back, when Family Guy went off the air, they held a "contest" to find a new animated sitcom. Like a moron I entered with a friend. Our submission wasn't epic or anything, but they quietly sent it back to us. No new animated show came from the contest and then Family Guy came back with American Dad bringing up the rear (Now THAT'S a sitcom title: "Bringing up the Rear". It could be a family friendly spinoff of Assy Mcgee). The whole contest was PHONY. YOU'RE A PHONY, FOX NETWORK! HEY GUYS... THIS NETWORK'S A PHONY! That said, I do a few voices, so let me review some old clips....
.....And yet, FOX slaughters yet another potential cash cow.
Honestly, what is with companies that take great ideas and totally ruin them in the name of "improving" them?
I could talk about such epic fuck-ups ad nauseum, but I'll limit my post to.....
FUCK THAT. Futurama will lose the vast majority of what it has built up over the years because those asinine morons at the network can't realize a potential major cash source.
Good job FOX. You are about to destroy something very valuable.
Knowing Google's lust for data collection, the Soviet Union is still alive and well inside the psyche of Sergey Brin....
Maybe this (or the more normal work schedule of a normal series rather than the "movies"), will get some of the voice actors to return to their original form.
I think that some of the actors (particuarly Phil LaMarr, interestingly) never quite got the hang of their old characters again.
Losing the old cast would still be a death blow to the show, though.
Listen to the first season? His voice is more deeper and sad sack sounding, compared to the zanier version we all know. Which would you rather have?
Seriously, Futurama has been rerun more than anything except for Family Guy in recent history. Then account for DVD sales, 360/PS3 sales, and licensed junk you find at Spencer's. Then consider how much the show would suck if they replaced the voices. They would loose all of that money. So the way I see it, the voice actors deserve to get paid a premium. Hell, Seinfeld is like a gazillionare and you don't see NBC or ABC or whoever originally ran it complaining. They offered him more to continue!
"From the depths of my skeptical and rationalist soul, I ask the Lord to protect me from California touchie-feeliedom."
>The animated series is due to return next year on >Comedy Central,
So yeah, Im pretty sure FOX dont want to pay actors for a show thats NOT on their network.
As for voices, youre insane.
You can pull it off for a minor character like Meg in Family Guy but think of Stewie, Brian, Hank Hill, Dale Gribble, Bart, Lisa, Cartman and so on. Would they be the same characters without the voices we know and love? No.
Hell, most younger people I know still get freaked out when they hear the original Homer voice Dan C.used at the beginning.
Sure, they MAY be letting it go to their heads but you have no proof, no inside knowledge, nothing but a gut feeling.
Did you have mexican for lunch?
THat feeling is probably just gas waiting to escape..
Anyone can do voice overs (heck, cameron diaz speaks english like its a foreign language) just like any moron can 'act' but doing it well is an art in both cases.
Billy West might do the same job as Diaz but that;s like comparing TV stars Matt Leblanc with Mandy Pantinkin/Hugh Lauries of the world.
Fox is still trying to kill Futurama... or keep it dead.
They only paid me to say it once, then they doubled it up on the soundtrack. Cheap bastards
...many moons ago, I cannot see DiMaggio demanding $75k PER SHOW... The man was a really nice guy. We used to hang out at the same pub in Hollywood... In the unlikely event John (or one of his friends) is reading this.... Jager Dave from BB says hey :)
Check out Vocaloid 2, the Japanese singing synthesizer. This does a nice job. Here's a sample.
Setting up Vocaloid for a new voice is a big job; the current version requires that the performer sing a long, standardized set of training syllables. Once you have the voice configured, you feed in a MIDI file with lyrics, pitch, and timing info, and singing or talking comes out.
Clearly, the next step is the ability to train the system from unstandardized speech and singing samples. Once that technology is developed, it should be possible to automatically generated cover versions of any desired song with any desired performer. At last, the computer industry will be in a position to crush the RIAA.
(Remember, under US copyright law, anyone can make a cover version of any song and just pay the statutory royalty to the songwriter, a modest fee. The songwriter cannot refuse.)
new cast is bs man! it won't be the same. futurama is one of my favorite shows, not just because it's funny, but because of the character development. changing the voices will destroy all of that. even matt groening want simpsons canceled long ago to make way for futurama.
...it's wrong sounding Muppets all over again.
Actually, I couldn't help noticing earlier this week that Richard Feynman sounded an awful lot like Bender does. Too bad he's dead or he could take over the role!
I think he has a point. Futurama wasn't that good. It only has a following because Fox killed it before it got really bad.
Now it'll have a chance. And once it gets awful everyone will be complaining that they should have killed it earlier. Every smartass will say that they let it get that bad because those evil greedy bastards wanted to milk every penny out of it (just before they start ranting about how evil the RIAA/MPAA is and how it's all their fault).
fortune favors the lucky
It's not as if they will incur the wrath of Xenu if Bender joins an adventure club.
Personally, I would like to see some more changes. Too many dysfunctional Euro-Alien-Robot relationships. How about replacing them with a nice healthy nuclear North American family? With income derived from providing a non-fossil fuel based energy. And get rid of those robots, we need more diverse ethnic types for comic relief. And tone down all that unrealistic slapstick stuff. In fact, set the whole show in present day, not a thousand years from now. It might offend people living a 1000 light years from here.
very funny
sexiga underklÃder
Yours too.
BLASPHEMY! Burn the heretic!
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Of course with increased points on the back-end, basically a increased cut of the gross from episode sales and merchandising from ALL futurama episodes not just the new ones.
New episodes with the original voice actors increases the value of the repeats.
Id like to just say if you the simpsons into wikipedia, you'll see the cast members have had three or four pay rises! Initially they were getting less than the Futurama guys!
I've started a petition for anyone interested in signing! http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/futuramarecast/