Slashdot Mirror
David X. Cohen Talks About Futurama's New Season
joelkeller writes "I spoke to David X. Cohen, executive producer of Futurama, about the upcoming season, which premieres on June 24 on Comedy Central. He talks about the season finale (!) and how the show is always on the precipice of cancellation."
Don't forget to set your DVR's for the new episodes starting tomorrow...
The reason why Fox ruined the original airings of Futurama was because they slotted it at 7:30pm on Sundays... a time slot that got murdered by NFL runovers in the Eastern and Central time zones. Fans couldn't reliably tune in because they didn't know if the episode would air, if the episode would be joined in progress, or if the entire airing would be deleted by an overtime NFL game. Fox's policy of running Sunday primetime as soon as possible... either at 7pm sharp if there was no NFL game, or as soon as it concluded if there was one, made whether Futurama's slot would air and when dependent on which NFL game your city saw that afternoon.
What a mess... since getting the NFL, Fox never had a successful Sunday 7pm hour. A few years after repeated throwing good shows into a bad time slot, they finally got the clue. Fox Sports now produces a postgame show called The OT (a play-on-words based on The OC, which this show has outlasted) that is joined like the halftime show as each game concludes, and can show bonus coverage of games still going to stations that get stuck with an early finish, and always ends at 8pm ET sharp. Thanks for watching Fox NFL Sunday, The Simpsons is next.
The last time the Simpsons was funny was in.. oh 1999?
Fry, it's been years since medical school, so remind me. Disemboweling in your species, fatal or non-fatal?
The Simpsons has a broad appeal to the typical soccer mom family. Futurama is a nerdy show which was a Leela/Fry romance about as awkward as The Big Bang Theory with a lobster from outer space. Futurama has to hit home runs with their target demographic because it's small, the Simpsons haven't done that in years. They keep being sufficiently successful because they don't age, every year there's a new year's worth of children identifying themselves with Bart and Lisa. Live actors won't be the same, for example right now we have the Harry Potter generation, people that grew up alongside the actors but the next generation will find someting else. They might still watch the Simpsons though.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I completely agree, the Simpsons hasn't been funny or clever for many years and should have been canceled many, many seasons ago. The writing was once above average, now it is just pathetic to watch to anyone who isn't a simpleton (average sitcom writing). Futurama, however, is actually really funny.
a Leela/Fry romance about as awkward as The Big Bang Theory
I'd say the exact opposite there. The big bang theory has romances that are awkward because they don't fit. There's no reason for the people dating in that show to be dating. There's no chemistry, and the writers just never seem to know what to do with them together. Fry/Leela are great because the characters are well written. Each has issues of abandonment and isolation within the greater society at large which act as a common bond.
Everything will be taken away from you.
Death,
By snu snu!!
Carry on.
I was going to mod you down, but instead I wasted your time by making you read this and the original poor post.
Morpheus, God of Dreams.
I agree the second was better than the first, though I also thought the double take by the guys *after* Amy's reaction was even better ("Oh wait, will you guys be there too? Ummm maybe not!").
I love Futurama, but not just for the intellectual side. How many comedy cartoons have had really good tear-jerker moments? Fry's dog, the story of his five-leaf clover, Leela's parents, etc. That's a damned rare thing for me, and like most guys pretty hard to admit, but Futurama's been able to pull it off more than a couple times.
So the problem remains that the general public doesn't get it. The general public won't get anything with more depth than the Simpsons, unfortunately.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
You, and whoever modded me troll, seem to misunderstand me. I'm in no way saying that Futurama will never be good again.
What I'm saying is that it died a good death. Perhaps it died far too early, but it had the best death imaginable.
I know that we all are left wanting more, but it ended at exactly the right time.
Right, she's a one-eyed mutant with an ancient alien for a pet, and he's his own time traveling grandson. You'd think they'd have more to talk about.
That's no fair you changed the number by counting them.
Yeah, I really don't get this. With the relative sophistication of fios set-top boxes, you'd think they'd gather every channel change, data link is taken care of, and Verizon would be frothing at the mouth to sell some of this data, no?
Not sure why the world is still relying on Nielsen ratings in this day and age.
When I launched, I checked it out. I was a Simpson's fan at the time so made sense. I was amazed at how good it was. Very rare to have a show that polished out of the gate. If you watch the first season of most animated shows you'll discover that it takes awhile for the voices to get in their groove, for the animation style to solidify and so on. Not Futurama, it was dynamite out of the gate.
However, I found it very hard to keep up on. The fucking thing was never on when it was supposed to be. I'd try and tune in and it wouldn't be on the air. Then they seemed to start shuffling it around. They'd move it to a time slot, I'd learn that, and it'd vanish and move.
I finally gave up.
I suppose it makes less difference now what with DVRs but pre DVR and pro digital cable, it took some effort to track down a show that got moved all the time, and it was real annoying to be on the correct channel at the correct time according to the guide and not see what you want.
Futurama definitely takes a much keener intellect to really appreciate.
I know what you mean. Like when Bender's drinking a beer, at first I'm like "WTF, robots drink beer?!? That does not make sense!" But then after subsequent viewings, I come to the realization that his internal power source must be some sort of combustion engine, so really he's just refueling, but sometimes the waste water from his internal distillation process leaks onto his circuitry, which makes him behave erratically. Only then do I really appreciate the joke.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
Bender goes into his "drunk" mode when he isn't drinking enough... it's part of the running gag.
The key part is how to work them into an episode without killing the flow. I can watch an episode of Futurama with my GF, and while I enjoy the show because of the clever in-jokes, she can enjoy it despite the clever in-jokes. So long as the joke's not laboured, everyone wins.
To an extent I agree. I always find it interesting that British comedies tend to have 6-episodes per series, and most of the greatest comedies have only done a few series. My favourites like Blackadder, Fawlty Towers, Black Books, The IT Crowd, Fast Show, League of Gentlemen etc. have as many episodes in their entire run as one series of Scrubs, but most are remembered as being brilliant. I would of course love to see more episodes of each, but as you say, it would a be a terrible shame if they did more episodes for the sake of it and in doing so ruined the memory of how brilliant the existing episodes are.
No soul? Nothing to say about the people? Okay, it doesn't force the sentimentality down your throat like some shows (and that's a good thing IMO), but there are many moving moments - the four leaf clover episode gets me no matter how many times I watch it with subtle overtones of sibling rivalry overruled by brotherly love spread over a thousand years, and with comedic intervention throughout to stop it becoming too cloying. It's an incredibly clever piece of television because of the human insight.
Futurama never had a soul. -Which is a shame, because it could have done. It offers a huge and fun world to explore, but it never gets serious for even a second
Are you fucking *kidding* me? Have you never watched "Jurassic Bark", "Luck of the Fryfish", or "The Sting"? The Simpsons had some brilliant, emotional moments in it's golden years, but Futurama is easily its equal.