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Katz v Taco: Futurama
When Richard Nixon's head falls out of a jar 1,000 years into the future, growls, and bites the arm of Fry, the hero of Matt Groening's new TV show "Futurama," it was clear Groening has another hit on his hands.
"Futurama" isn't much like Groening's "Simpsons," except for its bug-eyed (or in this case, sometimes one-eyed) characters.
This time, the target is us - nerds, geeks, the power of computing, the sci-fi culture and the insanely-hyped Millenium. In "Futurama (8:30 p.m., Sundays on Fox)," Groening's target is the hi-tech future, and if it isn't pretty, it's sure funny as hell.
Our hero Fry is a pizza delivery boy with higher aspirations who, through a series of mishaps, is catapulted 1,000 years into the future, where he hooks up with a shoplifting robot named Bender and a lonely Cyclops who was originally supposed to be his "fate" counselor - that is, it was her job to make sure he had as crummy a job in the future as he'd had in the past, because that's what the compute program chose for him.
When he thinks about it, Fry is delighted to be free of his former family, girlfriend and job. But he wants a better life for himself, running afoul of future regulations, which are centered on the universal principle that "You gotta do what you gotta do." With Bender's help, he runs from the police - who beat people of the future with wimpy "Star Wars" Jedi laser swords rather than guns and clubs.Fry takes refuge in the Hall of Heads, a repository for still-talking, important heads from the past.
Appropriately enough, the first head he runs into is that of Leonard Nimoy, who's being fed fish-flake food in his jar. Asked by the incredulous and worshipful Fry what he's doing there, Nimoy declines Fry's request that he do "Spock" talk. He tells Fry that he's leading a life of "quiet dignity." (Groening's head is one of those lined up in a row of jars).
The second head Fry encounter's is that or Richard Nixon, whose jar breaks in the tussle and who vengefully clamps his teeth into Fry's arm and won't let go.
Like the "Simpsons," "Futurama" is subversive, rebellious and scathing. In an upcoming episode, Fry - who ends up being an interstellar pizza delivery boy despite himself - meets a race of aliens who happen to spend part of their time in liquid form.
Fry gets along with them fine, until he accidentally drinks the emperor.
"The 10-year-old Simpsons" was a landmark in the bland history of commercial television. It defied almost every conventional wisdom about demographics and market research. No network executive believed that America was interested in a dysfunctional cartoon family led by an addled Mom in a bee-hive hairdo and a fat, bald wreck of a father. Only Fox, struggling to invent itself as a new network, dared to put it on. By May, there will be at least eight mostly iconoclastic cartoons on television, including "King Of The Hill", and "Family Guy", another Fox show that takes aim at families.
"Futurama isn't as revolutionary as "The Simpsons," mostly because the idea of the satirical non-kid TV cartoon isn't as original anymore. But judging from the first episode, it's as funny, and for the sci-fi worshippers, geeks and nerds it targets, hits even closer to home.
CmdrTacoMatt Groening's "The Simpsons" is an icon. Its a hard act to follow, but he's actually done it with Futurama. Don't kid yourself- its not as good as "Peak Simpsons" (which I define roughly as Season 3 through 6 or so, give or a take several episodes on either side) but this is television we're dealing with. Its a cespool guys, and this show doesn't stink, so its good simply because of what its surrounded by.
The show is simply "Guy From Present Winds up in Future". (like Back to the Future 2, or The Time Machine, or maybe Planet of the Apes, and, well, thousands of other books and movies with the same premise). In this case, The Future that "Fry" (our hero, a pizza delivery boy) is a mishmash of every future you've seen or read about. It steals from Trek, Star Wars, 1984, and warps them appropriately through Groening's artistic and humourist perspective. In short, its worth seeing just to see the stunning parody of every sci fi you've ever seen, and done well.
Last nights episode suffered from the same problem as every premiere episode of every show: to much time spent introducing the characters and environment. On one hand, the environment is fascinating- the charachters look like Simpsons characters of course, its Matt's trademark style. It's just like Life in Hell. But the backgrounds have much more depth, and many of the objects are actually 3D objects. Its much more advanced then The Simpsons would ever try (outside of a halloween episode anyway), and it all works. It looks good. It feels right.
The advantage of a sitcom in its 3rd season is that you know the exactly how and why charachters operate, so you can simply enjoy their wacky misadventures. The struggle of a new show is to set the characters up. The first few seasons of The Simpsons struggled as the writers tried to find the angles that worked. As the shows focus shifted from Bart's wise cracking, to the "Family", with the major emphasis on Homer, the show improved. Likewise, Futurama has to find its footing.
Its got a good start. The characters aren't bad. Bender is especially interesting. But as with The Simpsons, the guest appearances are what really make the show shine. In this case, the Heads of famous people appear in jars and are quite funny (this weeks episode included the heads of Leonard Nemoy, Richard Nixon, and even Matt Groening himself).
Futurama suffers from the same flaw as modern Simpsons episodes though- the end of the show almost tried to have a moral. The best of the Simpsons never tried to preach, it simply did its thing- and while there often is a moral, it doesn't sit down and scream it at you like a minister on a roll in his Sunday Sermon. South Park has it right- the "Moral" is terribly overdone- a parody of the crappy sitcoms that it strives to mock. Early Simpsons had it right too- the "Moral" simply isn't summarized at the end of the show. Futurama blew that one with a cheesy little dialog about being free to choose your own destiny.
Some things are obvious guys. You don't need to say them. But this is a minor nitpick relative to the number of good gags and jokes (and yes, social commentary) scattered throughout the show.
Anyway, I'll tune in again. Its visually pleasing, and as long as its in a sweet time slot (between Simpsons and X-Files for example) I won't run off to check my email. And I'll give it a few episodes to find its footing.
Kind of reminds me of Siskel and Ebert
Will they show this one again any time soon?
Mark
Anonymous Lazy Man.
When he sh*t a brick...I almost fell off the couch I was laughing so hard...
It's amazing what Groening got past the censors. When the trio were in the old guy's lab, and the police came knocking, Bender (the robot) actually shit a brick. A brick falls out of his rear. Way funny.
Some cool sight gags I noticed: among the heads in jars was not only Matt Groening, but also Apu. Bender was drinking "Olde Fortran" beer!
I thought the Pinchy episode was hilarious. But the funniest episode I've seen in a while was the cameo by John Waters. Damn, that one was funny.
"Dedicated to the Steel Workers of America. Keep reaching for that rainbow".
I didn't worry about it. After 1000 years and all the things that have gone on during Fry's freezing (the destruction of old New York, the construction and destruction of 'midevial' New York, and the construction of the futuristic New York), it would be amazing that the timer was off by only about a day!
Q1: simple, next year they decide to have the leapyear, then later they decide to take that day out. leaving him to defrost newyears day.
they being, MJ12.
Q2: alot.
I'm sure the show was written and produced WAY before this last trial started...
There are plugins for 3DSMax, Lightwave, SoftImage, Wavefront, Maya, et. al. That do non-photorealistic rendering. To be able to render in a cell-animation style with a 3D package is only as hard as figuring out the settings for the plugin.
Just go to a big library and pull up an old book of the _original_ Buck Rodgers cartoons. Same story only Buck fell asleep in a cave. I'm sure Groenig loves them because the art's pretty cool. The ships in Futurama owe a lot to the original Buck Rodgers.
Actually, the Simpsons won't last too much longer, which is another reason the creation of Futurama. It's been rumored that this is THE last Simpsons season. Hence, the 7pm Sunday time slot will be open for, none other than Futurama. The 7:30 Sunday night time slot was the worst. It was always filler for the time between Simpsons and Xfiles. (That is, when X-Files moved to Sunday)
While I will not especially like to see the Simpsons retire, it's obvious that there isn't much oomph left in the show. Last night's episode was one of the worst episodes I have ever seen. Admittedly, the only reason I watched it was because I had to get the timing of the taping of Futurama just right.
Maybe because not enough people remember the book.
If you're making meaningless observations, why hasn't anyone brought up that the building fry was in wasn't zapped by aliens?
...of how art, is pretty much random, and then later has some twisted meaning imposed on it so that it is shown to "imitate life".
twas the best gag of the show.
What can I say, I laughed I cried it was better than cats!!!
Actually, much more like "Red Dwarf"
How could you not know that line? Most people that actually watch Fox saw it three times daily for over a month.
But regardless, it's good that Katey Segal (Peg Bundy) is actually doing something these days.
Maybe it's because I grew up in the 70's.
Also, the 70's show doesn't shy away from teenagers having sex...they do in this show.
And they also don't preach about how bad drugs are...as it's obvious they smoke pot in the show. The one episode where Eric is stoned and his father is giving him some speech...but the only thing Eric notices is the wallpaper behind his father is shifting and warping is great.
I found it ironic that suicide booths played an
important part of the first episode while Jack Kevorkian was convicted of
second-degree murder the day before
I think the bit on suicide booths is adapted from a Kurt Vonnegut book. As I recall, they are all painted like Howard Johnson's.
MC
Here's my meaningless observation to add to the list... When they are counting down to new years eve in 1999 they show people simultaneously all over the world counting down at the same time. Doesn't this ignore the fact that people in other countries live in different time zones and would thus celebrate the new year at different times?
Douglas Adams is currently working on the movie version of the Hitchhiker's guide. I read this in a review of his Starship Titanic movie.
How anyone could say though that Futurama was making a social commentary is beyond me. Looks to me like it was making fun of Gattica. And the suicide booth? Come on, the robot was killing himself because all he could do was make the beams for the suicide booth.
Hilarious.
The reference was to Katz's review. Katz didn't mention that she is an alien, just refers to her as Cyclops.
She's not a Cyclops, she's a one-eyed alien.
I believe you need to learn how to spell. "Akbar" is a Matt Groening character. "Admiral Ackbar" is the Mon Calamari character in Return of the Jedi.
Who wouldn't be pissed about moving the time.
Smack between Simpsons and X-files is perfect
for this show. They could guarantee they own
Sunday night.
the 'slaughterhouse' restaurant was a PARODY. I don't think the Simpsons writers were trying to convey how great it would be to have a restaurant where the menus are printed on flattened chicken carcasses. On the contrary, I think they were trying to ridicule the excessive preponderance of meat-eating found here in america. Make sense?
I was most impressed with Futurama's animation. they really packed a lot of complex animation into that episode, with all the city scenes and such. Heavy use of computers, looks like. They've got their work cut out for them to crank out animation of that quality every week.
Compare this debut with the animation in the early simpsons; there's a _huge_ difference.
As a vegetarian, I thought the "Slaughter House" concept was funny, and good satire (if a bit over-the-top). It certinaly wasn't "pro-meat". As for suspension of disbelief, that is a Simpson's trademark... After all, can big-rigs REALLY drive themselves?
:)
I thought the whole episode was funny, PC or non-PC.
When Homer pulled the cord to blow the horn, but detatched the trailer, I laughed heartily.
You mentioned the critic. A great show that is now gone (and never really had a chance.) Look at all the crap that made it when the critic failed, Sigh!!!!!
moral, schmoral. the lobster ending was nothing but funny. i had a hard time writing this message from laughing so hard!
Sigh, not at the office or home, and dunno my pw.
Anyways, I believe Billy West was the voice of Bender(he also voiced Stimpy of Ren & Stimpy, no to mention seveal other cartoon voices..)
C
Learn to read, people. He means that Katz made no mention of the fact that she is an alien.
Them's some pretty harsh words, there parder!
I will agree that The Simpsons have had better seasons, but they have also had worse. That hasn't kept me from watching, though. This show has been on for NINE years. I doubt a few bad episodes should spoil the hours, the years of entertainment Matt Groening has supplied for us. Plus I see a trend where episodes that I thought were the hideous on first viewing were a heck of a lot funnier the second time around.
Actually, it started on Sundays, moved to Thursdays after a year or two, then moved back to Sundays a couple of years ago.
And before that, The Great Mouse Detective (climactic scene in the clock tower)...
I stopped watching two years ago...its getting lame and old. Its time to let it go into the late night timeslot behind gilligan's island.
Well yes anyone that went to http://www.fox.com/futurerama knows that. It will have one more at the timeslot it is at then move to its premier slot at 8 on tuesdays
I read the Cmdr, then skimmed Katz, coz it didn't hold water.
rob, it's time to ditch that loser.
AC2, out!
I clearly remember that he was working on the movie back when 1200 baud modems cost almost as much as 10 meg hard drives. I wouldn't start counting the days just yet, although Zaphod is probably more "do-able" now than he was then.
Katz [less than] geek
:O
Taco, next time just post yours.
Dump Katz
Did people catch the "Bender reattaching his arms" gag?
If you missed it, he picks up his left arm with his right hand, screws it back into his shoulder, then promptly grabs his (unattached) right arm and screws _that_ back into his shoulder. Fry comments "I don't know how you just did that."
Well, I thought it was pretty funny.
I'm a vegetarian, and I wonder how that Simpsons could possbily be considered to be "pro-meat" or the previously mentioned KOTH. As for Homer eating his pet lobster, the moral was that when we eat meat, we have a remarkable talent to disassociate ourselves with what we are actually doing. Actually I get a chuckle out of those episodes, but the theme is getting a little old.
Barbera Streisand next to Matt Groening
Censors fell down? I probably saw that gag 300 times in the last month... they must be blind and deaf also
Anyone notice that in 2999 countdown, the French are speaking english?
Look, The Simpson's is the greatest show ever. The character's are perfect, the timing of the humor makes u bust a nut laughing, and the plots are perfect. Admit it, anything that has ever happened to ANYONE has a related plot on the simpsons. Some people say "oh, the characters are too predictable now-a-day's"...u moron! Do you want homer to have a new personality every episode!? The show has achieved what few other shows have...a perfect set-up. All the characters are developed, and now matt just has to work on the plots...the show is perfect, quityourbitching!
Well did you notice that homer had real trouble driving the 18 wheeler at first he couldnt even get the thing in gear. They even showed him driving side to side over the yellow line. He also had that autopilot thingy too:) But I admit that wasnt till later on
Is the slang use of the word "bender" only relevant to English people or something?? How can they get away with calling a robot BENDER? It's like calling the hero "Swerver" or "That guy that looks both ways before crossing the road". Very dubious.
I was thinking, Katz's review looked more like a
recap of the show than an opinion.
After the first dilbert show, there were several mpeg/realvideo versions available within hours of the show. It was great for those of us stranded in the little country over here known as Europe. :-)
But this sounds even better than dilbert, and yet I haven't seen one link to a crudely scanned MPEG or realvidiot version. Thats all we need, something to see what we are missing.
1 B D I - My god, I had to think about that for about 30 seconds before getting it. Wow!
You're so cool man.
Glad your mother didn't have enough money to get that abortion she wanted, or the world would have been deprived of your wit and insight!
Yea hes like
"I'd like to read the following statement.But I do so *CLICK* under my own free will.It has come to my attention that NBC sucks.I apologize for misleading you and urge you to watch as many FOX shows as possible.So , in summary, NBC bad.Fox, good."
I rewound that over and over, funny shit...
That and the musical doorbell episode.
the 2 jehova's witnesses come up to the simpsons door.
"You know bob, maybe we're irritating people by trying to get them to change their religion."
"you're right. Lets go get real jobs."
It will normally air on Tuesdays, not such a sweet time slot.
Actually, it'll be in that sweet time slot next week, but after that will move to Tuesday nights.
I actually liked the show much more than I thought I would based on the commercials (which looked pretty stupid, actually), so I may be able to tune in on Tuesdays. Supposedly Groening was pissed that it wouldn't be on Sundays, though...
Anonymous Coward
It felt like Simpsons had a car accident with The Jetsons. It's a wacky future that has no attempt at being any sort of predictor of what might actually be like, it's just a different setting.
Good show, but unfortunatly, if it replaces That 70's Show, it'll mean I won't have a free half hour after watching The Simpsons before seeing how the X-Files could sink to even new heights of idiocy. There's a race of aliens bent on our destruction... but enough about that, lets go see why this little girl can rotate her head 360deg, oh, oh and I hear there is a werewolf in Arkansas! I'll get your coat, you start the car!
I'm surprised no one noticed that when Fry and Bender are getting drinks in the bar, Bender is drinking a bottle of "Ol' Fortran".
Robots have screws, people have bones. Thus, Bender saying "We're boned!" is analogous to a person saying "We're screwed!"
"This time, the target is us - nerds, geeks, the power of computing, the sci-fi culture and the insanely-hyped Millenium."
Us?! Katz != geek.
I await the censors.
The only things I found amusing were spock, the suicide booth, and the robot shitting a brick. I hope next week's is better.
----------------- ------------ ---- --- - - - -
----------------- ------------ ---- --- - - - -
Your honor is perfectly understandishable.
"I dont want anyone to think were robosexual, so if anyone askes, your my debugger" funny. I like the robot
Actually, it was "Doomsayers Cautiously Upbeat"...
</nitpick>
do the obvious if you want to email me
It is said that Futurama will most likely take place of King of the Hill on Tuesdays at 8PM, followed by The PJ's.
Sorry, CT.. it's not gonna be on Sundays before the X-Files..
You should never take life too seriously - You'll never get out of it alive.
That was pretty funny, because I really am pretty sure that was a bull =)
Brian Fundakowski Feldman
Last night's Simpsons wasn't too bad, either. Especially the part with that Heimlich Maneuver Machine where the lady spits out the food, walks down, then trips and falls on it.
Question, if he went into the time thingamabob 1000 years on Jan 1, 2000 (new years countdown already happened), how could he have come out on Dec 31, 2999?
Question, how much wood could a wood chuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood?
These questions demand answers!
--
The world is neither black nor white nor good nor evil, only many shades of CowboyNeal.
Star Wars LightSabre: Chop off his hand, cauterizing the wound. Deflect laser shots. Leave bad scorch marks.
Futurama LightSabre: Good only for beating someone on the head, and not terribly well either. Subject remains conscious. Very flashy, yet no better than a billy club from the Stupid Ages.
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
He mentioned in his Wired magazine interview that he was going to be placing all sorts of weird codes and hidden messages throughout Futurama, so that the geek contingent has something to latch onto for culture-effect.
Sorta like the way Klingon became a developed language, but I'm guess it'll be a lot less droll...
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
And didn't Agent 1BDI's boss seem to be a descendent of Apu?
I wish I'd taped the show, because I really want to go back through the sweep of the Head Museum and see what other heads were in the pickings... I'm sure Groening added a few subtle ones, just for us retentive nerds...
:)
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Anyone remember what it was? I laughed my ass off when Bender used the phrase, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was... "something" tube...
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Am I the only one who saw the heads of Mulder & Scully in the Museum? When the camera pans around to find Bender and Fry "hiding" behind the head shelf, you can see them.
I loved the new show. Of course, I'm not someone who says Simpson's is anything but hilarious now. It's hard to do a show for 10 years and Groening and company do a fine job. Unfortunately Futurama's regular time slot is going be on Tuesdays so I'll have to keep not watching That 70s Piece Of Crap.
Posted by Pushkin:
The first episode of FutureRama was interesting. I hope that the seris actually goes somewhere (unlike most fox shows which are total flops). Now if Fox would only kill Family Guy...
Posted by DonR:
Anyway, did anyone see the Matt Groening head? It was right next to Fry and Bender when they were trying to hide as heads on the shelf. I bet in low motion there are a lot of neat heads. The opening scene of the Simpsons shows almost every character sitting on a lawn. It's just too fast to see."
Apu's head was there, on the left side of the wall.
---
Donald Roeber
Posted by Ydeologi:
Is he supposed to revise his opinions on a subject simply to make them original for a different medium or forum? If he did, you'd surely complain that he couldn't make up his mind...
-YDeO
"It's not down on any map;
true places never are."
--Melville
Posted by Fleeno:
I was disappointed. The only time I laughed out loud was when I saw Spock. In a couple years when Matt stops writing and Conan O'Brien starts, it could be as funny as The Simpsons.
Posted by Stanks:
Here we go again with another round of Katz... Notice how he skitters away from taking ownership of his opinions by the repeated use of the word, "our."
Katz, I am not happy with your attempt to group us all together like a hippy commune. If you're going to state your opinion, take ownership for it. Isn't this the basics of journalism?
I originally thought, "huh?", but now I'm ROTFL. :)
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
Reagan was there too...
...end of transmission...
You have to love a show where the opening ... I couldn't stop laughing.
line for a cute retro tin-toy looking robot
is "Bite my shiny metal ass, meat bag!"
Bender got in at least 4 more very funny lines
during the whole episode.
I loved it. I hope it stays in the
same sweet time slot so I won't be forced to
have a life on Sunday nights.
It's been a long time since I laughed that
hard watching the Simspons.
Noticed and laughed out loud.
No one else I was watching it with got it, even when I told them.
Bah.
Yeah.. that was good, but I thought the doctor had some of the best lines in that episode :)
It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
I missed that one.. that's why I taped it. I need to watch it again just for that sort of thing ;)
It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
Disney's new Tarzan adaptation looks like it's 100% CGI, rendered to appear like conventional 2D cell animation.
No mention that she is an alien.
Well, apart from that bit where she said "I'm an alien."
But I suppose that's subject to interpretation.
>Its Taco vs. Katz.
$25 on PPV, over-under is three rounds. Straight up is 2:1 for taco.
A minor technical glitch is expected due to the GPL'ing of the fight, which requires you to share your television with RMS and that forever more, all commercials on your set become GPL'd, requiring the advertisor to fork over the product^H^H^H^H^H^H^H source code.
*sigh* time to get to work.
Started the VCR a few minutes before the simpsons, put the board back in front of it to keep the toddling twins away, and let the kids finish watching the ballons on disney.
Sent them to bed, reemoved the board, and somehow they'd manage to stop it 20 minutes into the simpsons. . . . argh
I won't watch a TV show until I can recompile it from the source footage!
If you're going to be picky, you could also ask why it was daytime instead of being a few seconds from midnight. Here's a couple reasons: The earth's rotation is slowly decreasing (hence some 7 leap seconds over the last couple decades). The timer in the cryofreezer wasn't exactly accurate for a span of 1000 years (that's off by 1 in 2*10-06!).
If you want to be more picky, the first time old New York was rebuilt, you see some buildings (castles?). Why weren't they underground instead of the original New York?
was when the guy says,
"Stop, we have you partially surrounded!"
And the brick falls out of Bender's ass. I rolled on the floor laughing.
Of course, like any PHB, I'm easily distracted by shiny objects....
-Randy
- Kate
"DNA is life. The rest is just translation."
Elvis lives on in our hearts, in his music, and in a trailer park outside Milwaukee.
Last week I got a copy of "3001 The Final Odyssey" and I started reading it on Saturday. It's all about Frank Poole who wakes up after 1000 years in the interplanetary deep-freeze, and all of the technological developments and cultural changes that have occurred in the interim. Sunday there's a new show called "Futurama" about a guy that wakes up after 1000 years in the deep-freeze, and all of the technological developments and cultural changes that have occurred in the interim.
Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement.
- W. Wriston, former Citibank CEO
Not so! It's going to be contiguous with The PJ's. Lotsa cheap humor and good animation for your Tuesday night supplementary nacho worship.
Beer recipe: free! #Source
Cold pints: $2 #Product
So please be more judicious next time, and post your and Katz's articles separately. I was hoping never to see this guy's name again, let alone to have to wade through his regurgitated spoo to read something decent by Cmdr. Taco. Globbing Katz in with others defeats the purpose of filtering by author.
Beer recipe: free! #Source
Cold pints: $2 #Product
Just out of curiosity, how do you "sink to new heights?" Do you do it in the same manner by which you "center around?"
Hmm, in terms of being pro-meat, at least last night's Simpsons wasn't nearly as bad as some KOTH episodes I've seen. The most recent KOTH, with the photo of Hank's "beef filled colon", which mentions the (real) Texas law against "defamation of beef", was particularly disgusting.
If you're going to be politically correct, though, I'm not so sure what to make about the recent theme that Homer and Bart get to go on cool adventure while Lisa and Marge stay home and install a new doorbell. As others have noted, the episodes where Marge gets to kick ass and take names are often the funniest for me (like the recent episode where she saves Homer and family from the rhinos at the zoo in her new "F-series" Canyonero).
I know there's such a thing as "suspension of disbelief", but I just can't see how they could explain away Homer being able to drive an 18-wheeler (not to mention a train!) with no prior experience. It would have been just as bad if Fry was able to fly the spaceship perfectly with no prior experience, and notice how Groening doesn't try to do that in Futurama.
Again, for Homer to keep getting stupider in each new episode, while simultaneously gaining unexplained new skills, is a really poor effect.
--
Jake
He'd chuck as much wood as a woodchuck could - if a woodchuck could chuck wood.
Answered.
-- There is no sig line, only Zuul.
Lisa's character has changed from the show's confused manifestation of Matt himself into some fruity new-age stereotype. Homer is just stupid anymore in very predictable ways. I can hardly bring myself to watch it anymore. I hope Matt stays on the Futurama project a lot longer than he stuck with the Simpsons.
--
As long as each individual is facing the TV tube alone, formal freedom poses no threat to privilege.
"Reactionaries must be deprived of the right to voice their opinions; only the people have that right." - Mao
'member "Akbar and Jeff"? I doubt it's a Star Wars reference.
--
As long as each individual is facing the TV tube alone, formal freedom poses no threat to privilege.
"Reactionaries must be deprived of the right to voice their opinions; only the people have that right." - Mao
Not that I'm complaining, I always thought it would make a good cartoon.
--
As long as each individual is facing the TV tube alone, formal freedom poses no threat to privilege.
"Reactionaries must be deprived of the right to voice their opinions; only the people have that right." - Mao
They don't call it the Left coast for nuttin'.
--
As long as each individual is facing the TV tube alone, formal freedom poses no threat to privilege.
"Reactionaries must be deprived of the right to voice their opinions; only the people have that right." - Mao
ROTFLMAO!
--
As long as each individual is facing the TV tube alone, formal freedom poses no threat to privilege.
"Reactionaries must be deprived of the right to voice their opinions; only the people have that right." - Mao
I think the little "preachy" part at the end of the
episode was intentially ironic. Remember, Fry
wanted freedom of selfdetermination because he
did not want to be stuck being a delivery guy the
rest of his life. And what did he end up as at
the end of the episode? a delivery guy.
Enquiring minds want to know!
-----
I mean, who do you think fits the Siskel model the best and who fits the Ebert model?
-----
I agree... but she did get me to start watching the show...
There are hidden "alien" messages all over the show... If you take a look at the "Slurm" Advert, you will see an alien language/code those "letters" translate to the word Slurm. In theory more hints will be in each episode so we can all look forward to decoding the messages
Blocklevel: Practical Information Architecture
I really liked one scene near the beginning of the episode. Fry was delivering Pizzas to the Cyrogenics place, and he passed a newstand on his way there, and the newspaper headlined: "Milinnieum Doomsdayers Cautiously Optimistic" :)
I could not justify my existence if I were a turkey farmer. Would I terminate myself? Undoubtably, yes.
Bender is definitely the best apt of the show.
Did you notice that when they were inside Fry's great-great-great....great nephew's house, that when the cops were pounding on the door, Bender shat a brick? I thought that was hilarious. And when he took the three bottles of booze out, and drank them all himself. That was truly excellent. I'm pretty impressed, considering that was the first show. I just know that show is going to be sooo funny!!
(he shat a brick! hee-hee!)
| "a lonely Cyclops"
:)
| No mention that she is an alien. With Xena on
| prime time, you might point out her purple hair
| and non-human species. Cyclops is a greek myth.
Huh? The character herself said she was an alien in that whole speechlet about how she understands what Fry is going through.
[lightsabers]
| And they aren't wimpy.
They were in Futurama. That's why that gag was funny in the first place.
-- Rick
Frankly my expectations for Futurama weren't all
that great... the media hype had me a little worried there,
but on the whole I'd say it was consistantly funny,
even for a premier. It had a lot of geek appeal
(Light saber police batons. A riot!) Let's just hope we'll
see the tongue-in-cheek satire that made The Simpsons so great.
I also hope to see a variety in the episodes...
no one wants to see a "Fry goes to Planet X and screws something up" story every week.
The sci-fi genre gives Groening incredible freedom in what he can do.
keep up the good work, and I look forward to another big hit!
Adam "Fogie" Fogler -- Professional Paid College Student
But a Space Delivery guy, much cooler :)
This Signature does Not Exist !! FNORD
I thought Bender was very similar to Marvin the Paranoid Android in the Hitchhikers Guide. He's very depressed and suicidal. But he's also quite like Kryten, the mechanoid in Red Dwarf, who breaks his programming so that he can think for himself. As far as the entire premise, I don't think that it tried to copy either one, but they all create a setting in which the main character feels very out of place. They are also 3 of the best examples of sci-fi humor.
Software sucks. Open Source sucks less.
Sure but now he is a delivery guy with a SPACE SHIP! I think that's where the nerd factor comes in.
STFU about slashdot bias.
Marge: Homer, it's the thought that counts. The moral of the story is a good deed is its own reward.
Bart: Hey, we got a reward. The head is cool.
Marge: Then... I guess the moral is no good deed goes unrewarded.
Homer: Wait a minute. If I hadn't written that nasty letter, we wouldn't've gotten anything.
Marge: Well... Then I guess the moral is the squeaky wheel gets the grease.
Lisa: Perhaps there is no moral to this story.
Homer: Exactly! Just a bunch of stuff that happened.
- "Blood Feud"
Jamie McCarthy
Jamie McCarthy
jamie.mccarthy.vg
Sounds good... shame about the 'Great Big Hammer of Morality (tm)' though... anyone have any idea if/when the series might get aired in the UK?
Personally, I always liked the 'wheel of morality':
Wheel of morality , turn turn turn, tell us the lesson that we must learn... and the moral of today's story is...
-- fsck -f -b 8193
I enjoyed Futurama thoroughly, and I think it has a lot of potential to be a great show. Simpsons is unfortunately getting a bit long in the tooth and this season has not been particularly good, IMHO. I hope that Groening is able to revive the level of humor that the Simpsons used to have with this show - and the art is definitely significantly more polished.
My one beef would be that I was sad to see this take the time slot of 'That 70s Show'. I realize that it'll be back over the summer, but I hope that they give it a good time slot and keep it around - I thought it was a pretty funny show with some brilliant moments. And I'm not saying this just because the redhead was awfully darn cute.
Anyway, good reviews guys. (You know, I just realized I'll probably never see this response because my comment threshold is too high. Oh well...)
No. All the Good Writers stayed away from OFF after about Season 6.
--
--
Me spell chucker work grate. Need grandma chicken.
I heard there would be many references to Star Wars in Futurama. I didn't believe it until I saw the name of a bar in Fry's home time (1999) called "Akbar." That had me rolling for a few minutes.
That part was hilarious; probably the best part other than Leonard Nimoy and Richard Nixon.
Sorry, but I didn't crack a laugh once during the premiere episode which was full of tired, lame gags and stupid slapstick. Peak Simpsons are great, and I still manage to get a few hearty laughs out of the new ones, but Futurama just didn't cut it at all. I can see the whole "Nineties Loser Meets The Future" growing really tired, really fast.
I'll watch a couple more episodes before never bothering to watch it again, though. Not worth my time at all.
ian.
ian
How about a /. Poll over Katz v. Taco?
Also, did anyone else notice that Leela (or whatever, the one-eyed alien) was Agent "1BDI"? Say it out loud... It's subtle stuff like this that's going to make the show a hit.
Why can't I moderate something "Wrong" or at least "Grossly Misinformed"?
AFAIK Jon Katz is not Jonathan Katz, TV's Dr. Katz. Although Jonathan Katz is a bit of a geek, as he did go on Conan O'Brian and show off his PalmPilot Pro.
Why can't I moderate something "Wrong" or at least "Grossly Misinformed"?
hmm I guess I won't tell Jon Katz about this!
---
An ex-newspaper journalist, now net-journalist once explained to me the biggest difference between the media. In newspapers, you always write to the lowest common denominator, the stupidest reader that would be likely to read the piece. On the web, you could write at the level that was most applicable for the article.
This is still the case with TV. The TV execs haven't yet realised that although its great to get as many people as possible watching your show for the exposure of advertising, it would be just as useful to target a smaller, smarter, more economically active segment of the population.
Thats why TV sucks. Its targeted at the moron next door.
Late Breaking news: The new Octium XIII processor from Intel is know to have a few bugs adding "1000" to its date field. All applications and hardware should be throughly tested for this latest in a stream of bugs plaguing Intel from its early Pentium days.
"Dogs and cats, living together...it's mass hysteria!"
But the distortions in Groening's work are quite strong. I'm still floored that they were able to take 3D objects and make them look like Life in Hell.
Schwab
Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
As someone with limited amateur-level experience in creating 3D art and animation, Futurama is simply incredible. They took "real" 3D objects and made it look like a forced-perspective 2D cartoon.
Simply amazing!
Schwab
Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
You can teach an old dog new tricks, but you can't teach Madonna to act :-]
I read 3001 and was very disappointed.
Nowhere near as good as the other three.
ebw
I hate to nitpick here, but Katz only used the word "our" once, and that was in the phrase "our hero"
Maybe you are mainly referring to his other articles (which I usually ignore).
The great thing about the early Simpsons was not that the moral was subtle, it was that the show didn't take sides. They'd show the good and bad aspects of both sides of an issue, and lampoon both equally.
Using "real 3d" to make 2d characters, floating around and occasionally folding themselves.
"It's OK, my sheet's got a hole in it!"
I dunno, I think Bender is funnier than Homer already. The "meat bag" line was beautiful.
You're right about the spock thing, of course.
And I think his point was that The Simpsons was better when it didn't preach. The lobster episode's a good example. One of my favorites. Whereas most of the ones with Lisa on a soapbox got old really fast.
The toon-like look of the 3D objects comes from a software plug-in to whichever 3D renderer they used. A lot of programs have them now, they've been around for years.
This isn't the best use I've seen of the technique: the 3D objects didn't seem flat enough, and their signature CGI motion made them stick out too much when they were background details. It was distracting.
If you want a truly magnificent integration of CGI and conventional animation, see "Princess Mononoke" when Disney releases it. Where's the CGI? YOU WON"T BE ABLE TO TELL!
Jon Acheson
All opinions expressed herein are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled.
unrelated: is our Katz the same as the one who created Dr. Katz on Comedy Central?
-- adraken
If I recall correctly, Bender quit because he found out he was working for the company that made the suicide booth. Anyone with a better memory (or a tape) care to confirm?
fwiw, I thought the suicide booth (and the rest of the episode) was quite funny.
Drink! OHBC >O+
No, darn - there were way too many heads to catch them all. I was frantically trying to take in as many as I could. The best one, though, was Matt Groening's - it was just to the right of the gap that Fry and Bender were posing through...
I can see the fnords!
Thanks to JabberWokky for writing the review of the review I wanted to write. Now I can go to lunch on time. All I wanted to add is in my title.
I can see the fnords!
Gene is the one in a wooden box, six feet under. Roger is the fat one, roaming around, thinking of what to do next.
--Ivan, weenie NT4 user, Jon Katz hater: bite me!
--weenie NT4 user: bite me!
"Computers are nothing but a perfect illusion of order" -- Iggy Pop
In the suicide booth, Bender uses a quarter tied
....31.
..uh.. officer ID number?
to his finger to pay for it, then yanks the
quarter out--even though he's committing suicide
and won't be able to use it again.
In the bar, Bender talks about how he could bend
girders to any degree... 30, 32,
Bender's 'Olde Fortran' Malt Liquor
In "Old New York" after Fry talks about never
seeing anyone he knows again, Blender
says "there's someone you know!" (Refering to
Leela, who at the time was hunting them down)
This is the best: When Fry and Leela have
their "moment" Bender puts his hand on top of
both of theirs, stealing Leela's ring. Leela
quickly notices and Bender gives it back. Then
he says "Well, that solves the case of the
missing ring! This calls for a drink." He then
pulls out 3 beers, and instead of giving one to
each person, chugs them all.
Another part, that everyone knows, is when they
are partially surrounded, he $h*ts a brick.
One other thing, I wasn't sure if it was
intentional or not... After he $h*ts the brick,
he says "We're Boned!" The first time I thought
he said "Doomed" but after playing it through
over and over I discovered it is "Boned." Can
they not say "screwed" on television, or was it
just something stupid that I took way to far?
One footnote--Another thing I noticed (not about
Bender) was Leela's
When she called for backup, she said this is agent
"1 B D I". Just something small and stupid that
I overlooked the first time thru.
__________________
~enucite~
Bender! As you've noticed, he drinks. Ever heard of the expression "Going on a Bender"?
The moral of the story was we should be free to choose what we do? Fry spends most of the show dodgeing the cops to prevent becoming a delivery boy. He wants more in life and doesn't want his fate determined for him. Then in the end, fate steps in and he ends up a cargo handler (delivery boy). Was the system right all along? But, WHOO HOO, it's on a spaceship so who cares! Funny stuff...
OK I usually dont step on Katz toes, but atlease Rob wrote an original artical, I cant help thinking I read Katz's artical before, oh wait I did, it was in Wired a month ago. Atleast you took out the interveiw with Groening. Anyone find this funny since Katz worked for Wired?
Guster~Honest is easy, fiction's where genius lies.
I once heard about how sitcoms could be measured
i jokes/minute, and how Seinfeld had one of the
largest numbers of all shows. The Simpsons has a
pretty high jokes per minute rate, but what makes
it interesting is the intertwining of chuckles and
the general abstraction that the show has developed.
Futurama didn't seem to have as many jokes. And
the ones it did have were annoyingly in the
background. (well, maybe I just missed a lot of
them because of that) I guess it needs time to
develop it's own pace (if it isn't crushed first)
of course, the funniest show in the world is The
Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin.. and these
shows just don't compare. imnsho.
Characters saying hell, damn, ass, homers indecent exposures, implied sex in a mini-golf windmill, spoofing the X-files, if you are too sensitive to things the Simpsons can always offend or alienate someone, if not everyone.
More than being offended by the Slaughterhouse restaurant, you should consider that being the Simpsons it was not so much praising steak houses, but satirizing them, no matter how good an Outback steak tastes. (mmm aussie chips...)And if that doesn't help, remember that no animals were actually harmed by the filming of this weeks episode.
Is is just me, or should Senior DingDong get his own spin off?
Matt Groening has always done social commentary - on a smaller scale with the simpsons, but much more overtly in his "Life in Hell" strip. And suicide is a solution to all life's problems, by definition. Duh. ;) Anything Groening wants to shove down my throat is ok with me.
-lx
Heh, right on...hope you get your homepage back up...:)
-lx
yeah, except this time there's actually a producer laid out(maker of austin powers :P I was kind of hoping for Michael Nesmith, who had been mentioned for the job earlier), the script under production, and a major company making it(caravan, I believe). The things that have changed since the original musings about a movie are that several Sci-fi comedy movies have actually been able to make it big, convincing major production companies that they can make money, whereas before, it hadn't been done.
-lx
Maybe I missed something but...
From Katz:
"Asked by the incredulous and worshipful Fry what he's doing there, Nimoy declines Fry's request that he do "Spock" talk."
I thought the joke was because Fry wanted him to do the trademark Spock hand sign (not talk), and, of course, he couldn't. He's only a head. I laughed.
Anyway, did anyone see the Matt Groening head? It was right next to Fry and Bender when they were trying to hide as heads on the shelf. I bet in slow motion there are a lot of neat heads. The opening scene of the Simpsons shows almost every character sitting on a lawn. It's just too fast to see.
Hopefull these episodes will get better. At least half of what's funny about the Simpson's is Homer. And there's no Homer. They need to make one quick. I don't mean carbon copy that character onto this show, but make an equally funny character. It seems like they're all straight men. Maybe it's just me.
Ok. I have to admit, this is one of the only times I have seen something in a /. article I never thought I would see... Different views!
/. articles could have this type of time taken with them. I find that too many times the articles are written from just one view and usually a little to biased for my taste.
./! You did this well...
Whatever people may think of the actual articles, this is by far two very different views on the same subject and I am glad I had the chance to see both views!
Katz and Taco did a wonderful job at taking two different directions while wondering the same path. I just wish more
Thanks
DavonZ
...the answer my friends is blowing in the wind, except in New Jersey, where what's blowing in the wind smells funny.
-matt
99% of the humor in the simpsons flies by in about 1 frame. Another question, was the nephew supposed to be sam simon? He looked a lot like the sam simon character from the simpsons 138th episode spectacular.
-matt
speaking of signs and stuff in the background, anybody else notice the billboard advertising Bachelor Chow? only old fortran made me laugh harder.
I hate that idiotic focus effect in cartoons. Why try to emulate a stupid flaw in another medium? When you look at real objects, do you notice an "out of focus" effect? NO. It may be there, but you don't see it. We're just used to cameras distorting images and we think introducing the same familiar shotcomings into cartoons makes them more "real". If you can have infinite depth-of-field, DO IT! Just ask Ansel Adams about that one.
-=Julian 'f64' Haight=-
I think many (if not all) of the simpson's character's heads were there.
-=Julian=-
Best thing EITHER of you have done.
It helps that Futurama "doesn't suck." Neither does "It's Like..."
What happened?? Two good new shows in one week? The Millenium must be nigh . . .
--------
Bill Gates Is My Evil Twin.
It's only in that 70's show timeslot for another week or two. As fox does with every show, they're sandwiching it in between Simpsons and X files to give it a following before they send it off to a lesser night. Hopefully they wont treat it like the critic and doom it to fight a show it could never beat.
Even earlier, there was the turning point in American sitcom families: The Bunkers in "All in the Family" (1971)
Lengths of wire rule.
-tak
I suppose you've never compared a point-and-shoot picture to a wide-open SLR shot. A busy background can totally screw up an otherwise good picture.
And, yes, when I look at something close, I notice how out-of-focus the far away objects are. Eyes don't have infinite depth-of-field. You cannot focus on objects 1 foot away and 100 feet away simultaneously. Whether it's a camera or an eye, a lense is a lense.
-tak
Yup.
Nothing else needs to be said.
Just "Yup."
Okay, fine -- I'll add my own summary: It's the general theory which matters; not the details. The details can be fixed later, if desired.
Dwindling into superfluous inanity,
-- Aderack. Usually.
Thank you! I just shook my head when I read that line of Katz's!!! Talk about missing the point!
...
I taped the episode and can see myself wasting too much time just going through the "heads"
"Arrr! The laws of science be a harsh mistress." -- Bender
Hehe, I *thought* I saw Duchovney's head! I really have to watch that part again in slo-mo ...
"Arrr! The laws of science be a harsh mistress." -- Bender
There were waaay too many gags to catch the first time around. I actually hope they slow down the pace of the show. Like a typical pilot the characters were introduced rather clumsily and quickly, and I hope they don't burn out from trying to cram in too many jokes every episode. I really like this show and wanna see it last.
This comment could also be called
"Why Bender is in the Show"
The reason the censors allowed Bender to Shit a Brick and do other things in the future is that He is not a role model. I believe the only way censors can actually censor chracters is if they have a bad influence or are a bad role model for someone. And who is gonna be a Steel Bending robot when they grow up. I heard thats the whole reson behind Bender, he is also gonna do more stuff that can get by the censors that you wouldnt normally have seen.
-Forge5
I sometimes think that people just might try too hard to get anything out of some of these shows. Television, aside from Discovery Channel, PBS, etc. is rarely for learning and more for humor and entertainment. While I have been a Matt Groening fan from pre-simpsons (during the tracy ulman show) i have never looked to his cartoons for learning- more for satire and humor.
This is the same concept I believed Matt had when creating the show- if you don't agree check out _all_ the billboards at the beginning of the show...
Gene Siskel was the skinny one, until he died of brain cancer earlier this month. Roger Ebert is still hosting the show, with some other fat guy who says the same things that he does. Can we say "inbreds".
Followed by the inevitable "No need to use Force."
But then again, I could be wrong.
ROTFLMAO! :)
Moderators, bump that one up a few notches.
What about the bottle of "Old Fortran" he was drinking in the bar? Or the brick he shat (hope that clears the censors) when the cops burst in?
Love the sight gags!
Hey, I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought that's what it said! Freon Tuesdays... how funny is that?
Oh, and I suppose a bottle of Olde Fortran Malt Liquor is featured in ALL the shows you watch? And where but in animation will you see a robot shit a brick...literally? Was the humor too Lobrau for you? Don't you like agent 1BDI's call sign? Oh yeah, all of that has been in the Simpsons. Slapstick, fine. Tired gags, not really.
As for plot, I agree. There wasn't much there that hasn't been done before, but what do you want from 30 minutes with brand new characters? It's not going to be Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie in a different setting. You gotta develop the characters somehow.
Also worth noticing was the apparent-bar named, ironically, "Akbar", and the beer that Fry was drinking back in 1999 - Lobrau (there's an umlaut in there but I don't care enough to put it in). And if you don't get it, just pronounce it a few hundred times.
Now, who's going to start translating the "hidden letters" that Groening talked so much about in the press?
Wow, I never would have guessed. Besides the fact that if indeed a transposed digit can cause a rocket to crash, (Which I suppose theoretically can happen) wouldn't there again be an army of trained proofreaders and syntax checks out of the wazoo just because of this?
If this has happened more then once due to a typographical error, please cite instances, I, for one, am interested to know that this is accepted with multi billion dollar equipment taxpayers pay for.
Once I thought I was wrong...I was mistaken.
And the opening (America Onlink) had me dying of laughter. I used to be (when I was like 11) an AOL user (Remember DOS AOL? I do.), so I can sympathize.
Mike
--
Mike
--
"Wi nøt trei a høliday in Sweden this yër?"
Mike
--
Mike
--
"Wi nøt trei a høliday in Sweden this yër?"
Mike
--
Mike
--
"Wi nøt trei a høliday in Sweden this yër?"
And this is not NASA software we're dealing with, this is more along the lines of a "friendly letter." I'm sure Taco is careful in proportion to the importance of whatever he is working on.
-Begin Evan's Dumb Signature.....
rooooar
I don't remember where (maybe the faq), but Rob has said that he's a programmer, not a writer. I mean, come on; all the thousands of lines of code it takes to run a joint like Slashdot and you're going to fault him for some silly spelling mistakes? Have you ever noticed that the mistakes are generally always the same ones? For example, "to" and "too" are often switched, and the "charac(h)ter" example already mentioned. This probably means that this is how he thinks the word is spelt, in which case the mistake would not be detected upon rereading.
The emphasis on spelling is completely overdone in our society. We have all these spelling bees which really serve no purpose. The national spelling bee is broadcast on ESPN to give the kids a sense of importance, but honestly, spelling is one of the more useless talents a person can have.
Spelling is, of course, important. Proper spelling is necessary in major publications, such as the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times in order for them to be taken seriously. But such publications have armies of editors who proofread articles for a living, and are trained to pick up typographical, spelling, and grammatical errors. Would you suggest Rob employ such a person? What a waste that would be.
There was a guy in my eleventh grade English class who had atrocious spelling. I can't recall any illustrative examples right now, but I remember that it was pretty terrible. The teacher told us repeatedly that spelling had nothing to do with writing ability, and that some of the best writing she had ever seen was riddled with egregious ($5 please) spelling errors. I, being of the old "if-you-can't-spell-you-can't-write" school of thought, scoffed at her claims. But as the year progressed and I read more of Steve (the bad speller)'s writing, I began to see that she was correct. Despite the errors, his was some of the most beautiful writing I had ever seen. The Educational Testing Service agreed, awarding him a 5 (out of 5) on the English Language and Composition AP Exam.
And though it's true that spell- and grammar-checkers are available (if not ubiquitous [$5]), who actually writes up their Slashdot comments in Word (or whatever word-processor you prefer), spell-checks them, then cuts-and-pastes them into the Comment box? ANYBODY?
If you do, sir/madam, you are almost as anal as the guy I met freshman year who refused to make web pages because they didn't look "exactly" the way he wanted, and instead included links to
So in short what I am trying to say is lay off the spelling issue. If it bothers you that much, maybe just email Rob a version sans-errors that he can repost if he wants. I don't really know. I usually pride myself on correct spelling (not to say I don't make frequent mistakes) but I rarely come down on anyone else for their spelling ability (or lack thereof). It's rather petty and doesn't affect the quality of the content. Would you rather Rob stop to examine every "to" or continue writing splendid content? Hmm?
Right.
Number of errors in this post: _____
Ha!
PS - regarding the moderation, if a post is marked with a -1, how can people see the replies to it if their threshold is +1? Just wondering. I keep mine at -1.
-Begin Evan's Dumb Signature.....
rooooar
Is the slang use of the word "bender" only relevant to English people or something?
I dunno... I've never heard the expression before...
--
- Sean
It's a fine line between trolling and karma-whoring... and I think I just crossed it.
- Sean
Oh god no!
It was all I could do to keep from spewing...!
--
- Sean
It's a fine line between trolling and karma-whoring... and I think I just crossed it.
- Sean
To this day, starting around 5 years ago, the only TV show I watch consistantly is the Simpsons. Nothing has every compared, including Futurama although I will give it a little more time. In the more recent episodes I have seen the humor slip a notch closer to South Park and Bevis & Butthead with the sexual jokes and swearing though. This is sad, because although I love the low-base humor in stuff like Married w/ Children and Bevis & Butthead, I find the Simpsons are better then that, or should be at least. Oh well.. I hope it stays great!
Corndog
--
Okay, I got Linux installed. So where's the free beer everyone keeps talking about??
Bender started drinking because he found out he was bending girders for the suicide booths, I think. And I don't think he COULD quit, which is why he was trying to kill himself. Then he got zapped by the light socket and was able to override his programming.
I think. Just going from memory.
Anyone have an MP3 of the theme song yet? I like it. =)
--
Okay, I got Linux installed. So where's the free beer everyone keeps talking about??
Remember what Seinfeld did for Thursday nights?
I saw that too.
This is a show that encourages to really watch closely. A lot of quick little gags that whiz by that are easy to miss.
And the animation is beatiful too. Very smooth with a much better 3d feel to it. Objects coming into and going out of focus with distance from the camera. Things moving and changing size according to their proper perspective. Excellent show.
I was lucky to catch it. I had the TV on that channel when it happened to start. I didn't even know it was on. I'll be looking for it every week now though.
It's just an effect used by the creaters of the cartoon to draw attention to something on the screen. That's all. It can have dramatic effect as well. And yes, if I look at my phone sitting on the edge of the desk 2 feet away, the chair behind it at 4 feet away is out of focus. Not only that but we don't get depth perception on TV so the effect can add an illusion of depth.
I would encourage anyone to be creative and use all the visual effects they have access to.
glen
If anyone else noticed, when Bender was first met by Fry, he was in the bar drinking his pains away. But did you notice his drink of choice?......
...
...
yep you guessed it, ye ol' Fortran, our favorite archaic computer language!
----
eclip5e
eclip5e@ici.net
ICQ #2567792
"I can't wait until Windows 1900 comes out!"
home.ici.net/~eclip5e/
"Charging a man with murder in this place is like handing out speeding tickets at the Indy 500" -Apocalypse No
I'm going to be a proud robosexual when they are released in the near future. I didn't find that joke funny.... :(
sorry
----
eclip5e
eclip5e@ici.net
ICQ #2567792
"I can't wait until Windows 1900 comes out!"
home.ici.net/~eclip5e/
"Charging a man with murder in this place is like handing out speeding tickets at the Indy 500" -Apocalypse No
plus that thing about us losing a quarter second a year or whatever....yup.
"a shoplifting robot named Bender"
Shoplifting? Maybe in future episodes... they foreshadowed with the "swipe the ring" bit at the end. But you couldn't get that from this episode. The rest of the article has this problem - it sounds like he's reviewing the press releases than the actual episode.
"a lonely Cyclops"
No mention that she is an alien. With Xena on prime time, you might point out her purple hair and non-human species. Cyclops is a greek myth.
"beat people of the future with wimpy "Star Wars" Jedi laser swords"
They are lightsabers. "Jedi laser swords"? Think of your audiance when you write, Katz. We know and recognize the term "lightsaber".
And they aren't wimpy.
"the first head he runs into is that of Leonard Nimoy, who's being fed fish-flake food in his jar. Asked by the incredulous and worshipful Fry what he's doing there, Nimoy declines Fry's request that he do "Spock" talk. He tells Fry that he's leading a life of "quiet dignity." "
Wow, he beat this great scene all to hell. First off, Fry asked Nimoy to hold his hand in the Vulcan "V" hand gesture (a la "Live long and prosper". Nimoy indicates that he can't -- no arms. I don't see what the heck this has to do with "Spock" talk. (Actually it was that "Spock" talk phrase that made this rant occur).
The "quiet dignity" occurs just before the food is dropped in the jar. That makes it much funnier than the implication above - that Nimoy is being fed when Fry encounters him.
"No network executive believed that America was interested in a dysfunctional cartoon family led by an addled Mom in a bee-hive hairdo and a fat, bald wreck of a father."
Yeah, there was nothing like "All in the Family" (a predecessor), "Married with Children" (another FOX original series that set the tone of the network), or the proven sucess of the Simpsons as a regular segment on the "Tracey Ullman Show".
--
Evan "Maybe it was that coffee I brewed with Water Joe... I seem to have very low tolerance, and I can't even type SQL statements today" E.
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
I wouldn't quite say stank, but it did only score about a 55/100 on my do-I-watch-it-again meter.
But I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt, because in a 30-minute slot (less c. 15 for commercials), they had to introduce the world and the characters, which didn't leave room for much by way of satire or humor other than the animational equivalent of one-liners. They should have made a 60-minute pilot, which might have left room to do something more interesting (plus the side possibility of generating a classic).
The next couple of episodes should give us a better idea of how it's going to go.
I do like the sort of hidden things that people are mentionining, but if I have to record it and spend 2 hours going over it in slo-mo to spot them, then there doesn't seem to be much point in it.
As for sight gags in general, they can be a lot of fun, but if that's all the show has to offer, then MG will have degenerated to the same level as those who've given us the recent crop of sci-fi movies that are all special effect and no binding material.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Yeah, that was funny and easy to miss. My fave was when all 3 main characters were together, and Bender says, "this calls for a drink", procedes to pull 3 bottles out of his chest, and instead of handing out bottles, drinks them all himself!
Groening has ALWAYS been irreverent in his work. You think he shouldn't make a suicide joke? Get over it.
What dreck. (IMHO :) An overused laugh track that gets belly laughs out of every sentence....and the episodes I saw didn't even remind me of the 70's.
I prefer "The Conan Years"
minor point, but historically important.
-t
It's only the first episode. You really should give it more time before pass such a harsh judgement on it. I think it has potential. It wasn't nearly as good as most Simpsons episodes, but it could be.
Personally, I think Bender is cool. The part where he says something like, "Lets celebrate," pulls out three beers, pauses for a second (making you think he's going to hand them out to his new friends), and proceeds to chug all three bottles. That was funny!
--
InstantCool
I thought it was funnier with Fry just calling Nimoy "Spock." If Nimoy had responded, I just don't think it would be as funny.
--
InstantCool
I can see the show bombing out after a few months, or it could do really well.
It depends if they can dig a little of that Simpsons humor out of the back files and successfully port it to Futurama.
I mean, if I see old Simpsons stuff appearing, I'd get tired but if I see stuff on par with the Simpsons, I'll be content.
I mean, any group that came up with Homer Simpson and Ralph Wiggum should be able to take this show to the top.
But it would be just as easy to fail miserably, if the wrong things are done...
Well, Fry would have to get that elusive shaving cream element somewhere... :) Oh, wait... Planet X was blown up by Duck Dodgers and Marvin in the 24th and a half century... :)
I believe it's a reference to Admeral Akbar, the fish looking guy who commands the battle on the Death Star in Jedi.
-B
Matt G, the shows creator says that there lots of "VCR moments" or subtle things that you might not get unless you tape the show..I think he said it in the Wired interview....
There seemed to be a lot of signs and stuff in the background, you couldn't get to read unless you'd taped it... I should get A VCR....
This is similar to the simpsons which has (ie when bart cheats on his aptitude test, there is a picture of him next to einsteins picture in the principals office.) hard to see unless you've seen the episode many times.
And at the bar it was Freon Tuesday.
While I enjoyed Futurama. Did Matt Groening need to shove the social commentary down our throats? I found it ironic that suicide booths played an important part of the first episode while Jack Kevorkian was convicted of second-degree murder the day before. I personally hope that Matt isn't promoting suicide as a solution to life's problems. While it looks like the series could be a huge success I hope Matt Groening will leave the social commentary out of future episodes or at least try not to shove them down our throats.
Didn't anyone else think that was just as bad as the Simpsons is these days? They made a major mistake by obviously gearing the show to the average moron sitting in front of the TV rather than the people Katz thinks it actually was geared to. Most of the sci-fi references were shallow and trite. I'm going to keep watching in the hopes that it gets better, but I'm afraid I'm the only one who hasn't been brainwashed by the hype.
Did you notice, while Fry was in "deep freeze" the two alien attacks that trashed every building in sight? I found that amusing.
I sort of expected that Fry's "nephew" will be like granpa Simpson, but suprisingly, he was mostly all there. Nice twist on my opinion.
As far as the Taco vs. Katz showdown goes, interesting concept, but I hope it doesn't turn into another siskel and ebert. ^.^
~Mina~
I came, I saw, I deleted everything. ~slashdot tagline
I'm out of my mind, leave a message.
From memory:
Nimoy wrote a book in the 70s (?) titled "I am not Spock" and within the past ten years he wrote another titled "I am Spock."
The simpsons started it's era on fox on Thursday nights.
Indeed, the Conan years were the best. Those were the days...
--------------- "Well HELLO MR FANCY PANTS! I've got news for you bub, you ain't leadin' but two things, Jack, and
Now if Fox would only kill Family Guy...
What the one whole episode of this they showed so far was that bad? I liked it myself.
DrLunch.com The site that tells you what's for lunch!
i agree....the best ending i can think of, is when homer receives a basket of fruit after almost killing mr.burns - when questioned by lisa why he received the fruit, followed by "did mr. burns live?",
homer replies, "what do i look like, a doctor?"
perhaps the best ending i can remember. cracks me up everytime...and definitely no preaching...
Yup...the Simpson's on Thurs. night, IMO, helped dethrone the Cosby Show's stronghold on Thurs. nights.
...hilarious how Monty picked beef as one would pick lobsters in a restaurant.
When he changed his mind to a glass of milk instead, was it a bull that he picked? or a cow?
lighten up...please
anyone notice the Slurm billboards and the funky symbols on 'em?
Is this what Groening mentioned as possible keys to unlock hidden messages in the future?
just wondering...
That was good, but the _best_ gag of the show, and the most Slashdot-relavent, was the scene in the bar where Bender throws back a bottle of Olde Fortran Malt Liquor. Yeah.
The most popular TV shows are always on Thursday nights. Seinfeld wasn't always on Thursdays, after all. Remember the original Cosby Show? For that matter, remember when the Simpsons went on Thursdays for a while?
Apparently, Thursdays are statistically the nights when people have the least stuff to do, and that's why the more popular good shows are on then.
You're a suburbanite.
That 70's Show wasn't very good when it started, but lately it's improved quite a lot.
Yes, but did you notice the newspaper headline on the eve of 1999?
"Year 2000 here, doomsayers upbeat"
Plus, there was a billboard for Implant Hut, which is an Akbar and Jeff venture if I've ever seen one. Which I have, but only in Life in Hell! :)
Who knows if the calendars/clocks were even right anymore? You saw how many times the aliens came along and zapped everyone, didn't you?
--
--
Jason Eric Pierce
and all viewers must release the source to their dna and all derivative products
-- your knees hurt, don't they?
And speaking of the doctor...have you ever seen The Simpsons before? Have you ever paid attention to the character of the doctor? He's never been anything but a disgusting two-bit quack who doesn't really care about people's health. Sheesh...if you're going to be this offended by what you watch, then I assure you: television and the Internet are most certainly not mediums you should be getting involved with.
-- Wonko the Sane
http://wonko.com/
--
Wonko the Sane
That was hilarious! One thing Im surprised
got past the censors was the suicide booth. That
was also quite funny, if not slightly with a
bit of lack of taste with the whole Kevorkian
trial going on. But then again, Groening has
the right to do that, since he himself is from
Portland, Oregon. 8:o)
Help us build a better map!
I was amazed at the stuff that made it past the network censors:
- A hard-drinking robot named Bender (hee hee hee)
- The line "I don't want people to think we're robosexuals... just tell people you're my debugger."
- Bender actually shit a brick when he was scared.
Anyone catch anything else sneaky?
Mulder and Scully were on the shelf o' heads too. I have the episode on tape, I'll try to figure out what some of the other heads were.
Please, for your own sake, find an Anime club
that still has the subtitled version and watch THAT.. Disney will butcher the sound and voices. Probably have some stupid moralistic song as the theme
Also, look for Laputa - Castle in the Sky, it's excellent, as are all Miyazaki films.
OK, so I'm Otaku....
Starman97@Gmail.com (bring it on spammers)
Are what make the Simpsons still worth watching...
On the list of '10 codes' the one below 'Blabber mouth telling secrets' was a 10-39 'I love you gay buddy'
Starman97@Gmail.com (bring it on spammers)
You know what is really funny... If Katz had made even a single spelling or punctuation error, the AC's would be all over him. Now if Taco makes a dozen, it's 'oh, but he isn't a writer, accuracy isn't necessary' 'scuze me? He's a coder, accuracy is EVERYTHING.. A single transposed digit can make a rocket crash, this has happened more than once.
Starman97@Gmail.com (bring it on spammers)
How many times does the word `our' appear in Katz's piece? Once, and it's not even used in the sense you describe. He did pick an angle that I don't really agree with, that being that the show is targeted towards geeks. And while there is an overall sense that the review is targeted towards the same group, leading to the conclusion that we are supposed to be that group (since the review was written specifically for /.) I don't think it's a major issue.
/. readers in it.
I didn't really like the review overall but I don't see any explicit lassoing of
Perhaps its becuase of the good shows that people schedule less things to do? Or mabye it's just the white mice (screwing with us)
;)
I think Fox is making a mistake moving the show to Tues. They have to help out Hank after he bombed by moving to Tues. My, that Castillo was a strong show. I would have loved to have a 2-hour Fox fest (Simpsons, Furama, X) Aahh well. Guess I'll still have to smoke two times a week
+&x
One of the better jokes from the show. Cops pull out sticks turn em on, get the cool buzzing/powering up sound...then proceed to beat Fry with the glowing batons. Very nice.
+&x
(~Troy McClure~)(paraphrase)
"...and hopefully we'll have many more wonderful seasons between now and when the show becomes unprofitable."
I think they're still making money. The Simpsons get some of its highest ratings in the 12-17 year-old category, a.k.a. those who don't think it's quality is failing.
+&x
Didn't I read that Katz is somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 years old or something. Not to back the sterotype, but maybe those old neurons just ain't firin' like they used too.
+&x
best bits of the S episode...
The sign outside the truckstop "Now aware of camp value", priceless. And the self-drive module, talking like HAL and then abandoning truck, very nice.
Good hour of funny drawings.
+&x
Best ending was this season. I don't remember the whole episode but at the end, they are all talking about all the good shows that are on NBC, maybe right now...Then after the screen fades to black, Homer issues an at-gunpoint apology, finishing off with, I believe, "ABC kicks ass" or some such, followed by a gunshot. I was laughing at that for the next 5 years.
+&x
I think they spoke spanish....
+&x
They set it up for Nimoy to say it, but didn't. Why?
"Oh, I'm a janitor. I used to be a computer geek, but I got wacked in the head". --Dave um... "Smith"
Indeed. With a setup like that, how could they have resisted? Would Nimoy not do it? With the Groening/Harvard Braintrust one of them must have at least HEARD of the book, if not read it.
I'm baffled.
"Oh, I'm a janitor. I used to be a computer geek, but I got wacked in the head". --Dave um... "Smith"
I was quite surprised to see the good reviews on slashdot after being very disappointed with Futurama. I was so psyched to see new Groening that I even interrupted a dinner party to force everyone into the living room to watch Homer do the trucker thing (cute, but not as good as Simpsons has been) followed by the new, incisive and insightful dystopia of AD 3000.
As a diehard Simpsons fan, I have been consistently amazed at the ability of the crew to address every sector of society. A world-famous literary critic from Britain tells me that Simpsons is the last great satire, the only redeeming quality in American culture. My Russian friends tell me of the great popularity of "Semejka Simpson", and the 14-year old thugs that make me vaguely nervous on my way to work love that Bart says "Damn" and Homer says "suck".
I have been drawn to the careful, often sophisticated exploration of our cultural context and a playful but cricical lackadaisy.
Futurama kept the gags and random cultural references but seems to have lost anything more than that. Suddenly it's that ridiculous King of the Hill, but now a-la Sci Fi. I was actually embarrassed that I had interrupted the dinner party.
My only hope is that Futurama will, as the Simpsons did over two years, mature and become something more than a bunch of loosely concatenated not horribly interesting gags. For now, I'm going to turn the TV off after Simpsons on Sunday night.
Actually, Fox is considering releasing the source footage under the FCPL (Fox Cartoon Public License). It allows you to view, edit, and redistribute the original footage, but any gags you add must be reviewed for humor and approved by Fox.
Currently the license is in limbo due to the (somewhat obscure) US Cartoon Encryption Restriction Act of 1997. This may make it difficult to redistribute the raw footage outside US boundaries.
ESR, RMS, Bruce Perens, Linus, Alan Cox, and Dorothy The Linux-Hacking Dachsund all had no comment.
(Aw shoot. I should've sent this to segfault.)
Save the whales. Feed the hungry. Free the mallocs.
I loved the one:
"At least here you'll get decency and respect, now strip naked and get on the probeulator"
What a riot,
It might not be a perfect quote, my memory isn't perfect.
With Katz, it's always geek-this and geek-that. I don't think Futurama is a parody of computers and technology. It's much more Sci-Fi-oriented. The distinction is slim, but it's real: in the first episode, the world was destroyed by aliens, not by the Y2K bug.
Could anyone who taped it convert it to RealVideo, MPEG, or QuickTime? I'd love to see the pilot episodes of (IMHO) good shows on the web (remember South Park?).
-----
Ping? PONG!
All I have to say to this is if they only did a Family Guy spinoff of just the baby. I mean, "Damn you, vile woman, you've interrupted my work for the last time." was classic. Pure and unadulterated.
Zen
-Zen I'm gonna make the _world_ my bitch.
To me, personally, I found the latest episode of Simpsons to be revolting, irresponsible and rude. Being a strict vegetarian, I loved the old "peak" episode of Simpsons when Lisa first became a vegetarian herself (it had good, down to earth, humour on eating animals and such), but this one was just sickening, it just expected me to sit down and watch the show while a doctor I liked (the long-lost brother of a saxophone player I liked too!) was a disgusting two-bit doctor who didn't really care about people's health. Sure, it's a comedy, but Simpsons is just getting more desperate for toilet humour then ever before.
As for Futurama, of course, it was good, albeit slow (with a good reason though). It was sure as heck better then a lot of other premiers I remember (I dunno why, but ST:DS9 comes to mind). I actually liked the characters (Fry seemed like a character I might actually want to watch for a while), Leela and Bender, too, were nice... The "nephew", though, was a bit much, but oh well... I guess like CmdrTaco said, I'll give it a chance, a few shows, and I'll decide then.
If social commentary were completely removed, it
would live banal toilet humour... And I doubt we
need another Married With Children...
I didn't write about that specific episode because that specific episode offended me alone, I'm talking about all the latest episodes... The Simpsons satirized things like meat-eating by, say, making Lisa a vegetarian and having Bart and Homer fight over a pork chop, they would never have had Marge, of all people, go into a butcher shop..
... I could keep going...
:)
And yes, I've watched the Simpsons since the beginning... The doctor USED to be a good person, as a matter of fact... Cases in point: 1) Bart wants to jump the Springfield chasm with his skateboard, and the doctor attempts to honostly stop him... 2) "How about a wowwypop?" to Lisa, being a good family doctor, 3) Does a heart transplant for Homer, and wants him to eat better (hinthint)
My point: Simpsons shouldn't attempt to change characters so drastically... As someone else said, attempting to make Homer seem stupider, but know more technical things, is a bad idea... Same goes with everyone else, sure, characters have to change, but they should change over TIME, and not all of a sudden in one episode (except for special ones, like Halloween Specials, etc.) (Like, say, Bart changing into a "nicer" brother over time, or Lisa turning into a more overt person, and a vegetarian)...
I'll shut up now..
I can hardly remember the preaching in simpsons..
maybe its just becase i'm usually laughing so hard by the end of the episode i just seem to miss it.
Oh well if they preach. the rest of the episode usually has my sides splitting... the lobster episode among many others, including the trucker one had me laughin till i hurt.
What would really be interesting is a `tag-team' style review of new stuff like Futurama (which Malda and Katz seem to have some really different opinions about), but I suppose that would seriously slow down the process of getting these reviews posted at all.
"No network executive believed that America was interested in a dysfunctional cartoon family led by an addled Mom in a bee-hive hairdo and a fat, bald wreck of a father"
katz -- so maybe the cartoon part was new, but the dysfunctional, loser family was already being exploited a year before the simpsons with that 'smash hit' comedy Roseanne (1988). Two big fat funny bloated parents, messed up kids and relatives with an ugh-index to rival even patty and selma.
i don't think network executives deserve all the credit you're giving them, pal!
--
Rare Window - free your photos
Yeah, that was one of the ironies of the episode,
Bender felt so depressed about what he was doing,
making bent bars for the suicide booth, that he
decided to kill himself in one of them. Classic
Groening paradox, if you ask me.
I taped Futurama and when they screen panned by all the heads in the museum to arrive at Groenig's (sp), I watched it again frame by frame and saw Gillian Anderson, David Duchovny, Elizabeth Taylor, and Groening was next to Barbara Streisand.
Spiffy!
Roseanne? Hell, I thought it was the Tracy Ulman Show.
But if that happened, it'd be an awfully short show. Intentional gaps of logic are part of what makes things like this funny.
Actually, there were a few scenes in The Little Mermaid. . .
nobody mentioned that the beer Bender was drinking in the bar was called ``Old FORTRAN''.
Now that's something you'd never see in The Simpsons!
--
The Simpsons definitely preached. Even in its peak, it would have an occasional episode where Lisa would stand in front of SimpsonTV and tell everyone what (I guess we're censored now)s they are. Then they all feel bad and go home. Then there was the episode lately that ended with homer eating his pet lobster. I missed the moral of that one....
d
...
Anyone notice that the one-eyed alien chick has the voice of Peg Bundy?
What Would Jesus Do
(for a Klondike bar)?
Talk about the issues which the show is willing to broach, if you want. I don't care what it is able to get past the censors (after all, it's on Fox). I can't stand the show because it's blatantly unfunny.
And I also consider laugh tracks insulting to my intelligence, especially when they are used after every single line.
What Would Jesus Do
(for a Klondike bar)?