"Good news, everyone!" More Futurama on its way
Good news, everyone! Futurama's makin' a real, honest to goodness, not-just-a-rumor-anymore comeback!
At least, I think so.
Direct text from Variety (requires registration). Also can be found on Rotten Tomatoes.
"Futurama" may live to see the year 3000 after all.Talks have begun at 20th Century Fox TV to revive the animated skein, which takes place in the next millennium, much in the same way "Family Guy" found new life after cancellation.
The studio is in early discussions to put "Futurama" back in production and create a limited number of episodes of the Emmy Award-winning skein -- although it's too soon to tell where those segs might end up. A reprep for 20th Century Fox TV declined comment.
The final original episode of "Futurama" aired on Fox in August 2003. But since then, the skein has found new life -- and fans -- via DVD releases and repeatedly high-rated airings on the Cartoon Network.
"Futurama" remains popular enough that Comedy Central even stole away off-net rights to the show's repeats late last year; it will switch to the laffer cabler in 2008.
A similar resurgence in interest for "Family Guy" persuaded 20th Century Fox TV to revive that show, which has produced two seasons of new episodes and a DVD since coming back from the dead. "Family Guy" now resides as Fox's Sunday 9 p.m. tentpole.
"Futurama" scored three Emmys in its five-season run, including the 2002 award for animated series. But it lived an unusual existence on Fox, with short seasons, late launches and long gaps between airings. That allowed Fox to air five seasons of "Futurama," even though technically only four were produced.
"The Simpsons""The Simpsons" creator Matt Groening and "Simpsons" vet David X. Cohen were behind "Futurama," which bowed on Fox in March 1999. The animated skein revolved around Fry, a pizza delivery boy who's accidentally frozen for 1,000 years. He wakes up in the year 3000 and befriends cyclops Leela and cranky robot Bender -- all of whom work for the intergalactic delivery service run by Fry's distantly descended nephew, Prof. Farnsworth.
Before "Futurama" comes back into being, however, 20th first must secure deals with the show's production team, as well as voice stars including Billy West (Fry), Katey Sagal (Leela) and John DiMaggio (Bender).
Meanwhile, even after the cancellation new "Futurama" stories have continued to be churned out via the "Futurama" comicbook, published by Groening's Bongo Comics imprint.
*edited to take out the weird double words.
Note that this is different from previous rumors in that it promises talks for a set of new episodes, rather than a direct-to-DVD movie. Also, the scoop does not promise a date for the new content, nor does it specify on which channel (if any) that it might appear--only that 20th Century Fox is in 'talks' about the show.
Still, pretty cool, no? Honestly, I'd take the episodes over a movie, myself, especially since I think the comics are still so funny. So, without further ado... YAY!
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skeinskeinskeinskeinskein.
Seriously, wtf?
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Bah humbug. I thought the thread was about a solution to world hunger or a cure to cancer...
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Better than that: it's about death by Snoo-Snoo!
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Good news! It's a suppository.
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I guess I better hurry up watching all my friends' DVD season sets!
Brian says:
I started laughing until I cried
both that they approved it
and that we have something called wang resin
Which one was the last episode? The one where Fry does the opera using the devil's hands?
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Correct, The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings. My 2nd personal favorite episode.
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Can someone explain to me why Fox does this crap? They did it with the original episodes of Family Guy, and continue to do so with the new ones.
I can't see it being beneficial to their ratings... if you want people in front of their TVs at a certain time every week, you should make it consistently worth their while.
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I had to do with a conflict with Groeing. Basically, he refused to give Fox the rights like he did with Simpsons (and who can blame him?). It's a bit more complicated then that overall, but that's the gist of it.
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Here I am thinking that DS and Kat were finally getting hitched or that you guys were expecting.
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That skein has yet to be told.
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God, it's not enough that I get it from my father: "Why haven't you got married yet? Why don't you get married? The two of you should get married." Or, my favorite line of interrogation: "Where's my grandchild? I want my grandchild! Gimme a grandchild, dammit, you ungrateful, lazy spawn!"
Now I have to get it from you people too? Et tu, Goodjers? I give you Futurama, and you give me a guilt trip. I quit.
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Awesome news! Thanks, Kat, not only for the news but for getting me back on a Futurama kick with your joke quote in the quantum mechanics thread
A TV show does stay for long if people don't watch it. Low ratings pretty much kill shows, at least until DVDs changed the whole nature of TV in the last few years. It probably wouldn't have lasted as long as it did if the Simpsons wasn't so successful.
If you watch the show, you'll find those answers
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Wonder if this'll throw gasoline upon the fires of the Groening vs. McFarlane feud going on.
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I'm crossing fingers hoping that this goes better than the Family Guy revival. The new Family Guy episodes have been fun, but they just don't have the magic of the original three seasons.
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My point exactly.
What does Fox try to accomplish by moving a show around all the time? When the original episodes of Family Guy were airing, I could hardly figure out when it was on they moved it so much. The new ones are at least always on the same date and time, but they break up the seasons in such a manner as to make it damn near impossible to guess if it's worth my time to sit down and watch.
If you're trying to convince people to routinely watch a show (especially when the show will eventually come out on DVD), it doesn't make any sense to mix it up all the time.
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And here I was hoping this thread was about Kat announcing DS wasn't secretely a transvestite from Translvania or that she wasn't pregnant or she saved money on her insurance by switching to Geico....
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There is a feud?
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Well, we're in a transition period, so DVD sales or only now beginning to affect the networks. I think Family Guy is the first show of its kind to be revived because of DVD sales. As for moving the show around to different time slots, that sounds like the same game networks have been playing for decades. It got moved because it wasn't drawing the audience for the value of the time slot it was in, ie, money and probably politics.
We shall grapple with the ineffable, and see if we may not eff it after all.
Did no one read Drunkensleipnir's post? He said exactly why the show was moved around so much: Matt Groenig and the Fox Producers had a spat over the rights to the show. Groenig refused to sign them over, due to his experiences with the Simpsons. The producers retaliated by moving around his beloved baby so that it wouldn't gain an audience. Groenig has said this much in interviews. It's no secret.
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Congratulations you two!
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THEY ARE STILL NOT MARRIED?! A new page in "The Good Jew: Instruction Manual" handbook!
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ZING!
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This thread has quickly convinced me that my father's network of spies stretches farther than I thought. You are all obviously in his employ. Well, I hope you enjoy that dirty money he's giving you, I hope it buys you some small happiness, before you all rot in a Hell conspiciously devoid of singing robots.
"Today's Tom Sawyer, he gets high on you, Kat. You." - Haakon7
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I don't know the answer, but this happened with the show Newsradio on NBC some years back, and that show had a small but hardcore audience. See the same thing now with Arrested Development. They don't seem to understand that with a cult show the audience will always follow the show, but to add new people you have to keep it on one night.
How do you tell someone how great a show is, then when they say, "Sounds cool- when is it on?" you have to say back, "Uh- I don't know. It used to be on Monday nights, but then they took it off during playoffs, but they're advertising a special double show for next Tuesday . . . the 29th I think it is. You can see it then. Maybe. I think."
I informed my assistant manager that I love Futurama but hate the Simpsons. He looked at me like my face was on fire.
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If a show is getting moved around from time slot to time slot it's usually an indication that it isn't getting good ratings or isn't seeing ratings growth in spite of advertisement. The network people look at that and compare it to the critical praise or focus group data, see that the numbers don't jive with what they're expecting and move the show to a different time slot in hopes that the time slot that they originally picked was just a bad one for the show's audience.
It's a network's Hail Mary play and usually means death for that particular show.
Was this before or after Phil Hartman died? Because after that, the show was just awful. It had to rely on Andy Dick, who, honestly, needs to die for being more annoying than the love child of Fran Drescher and being stabbed repeatedly in the face.
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damn, that means that My Name Is Earl is going to die soon. They just moved it from Tuesday to Thursday, and since I pretty much never watch tv, I couldn't figure out why. And it's one of the first shows in a decade I actually liked enough to tape so I could watch it later.
Brian says:
I started laughing until I cried
both that they approved it
and that we have something called wang resin