Comedy Central Confirms 26 New Futurama Episodes 259
e9th was one of several readers to write with an update to the Futurama rumors we discussed earlier this week:
"TVWeek reports that 20th Century Fox Television and Comedy Central have officially confirmed a deal for 26 new episodes of Futurama, due to the strong ratings of its reruns and feature-length specials. Matt Groening is quoted as saying, 'We're thrilled Futurama is coming back. We now have only 25,766 episodes to make before we catch up with Bender and Fry in the year 3000.' According to the press release, the episodes will begin to come out in mid-2010."
Re:Huh wha...? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:More Than Deserves a Second Chance (Score:5, Informative)
And Futurama is animated so you're not limited by budgets and CGI.
Futurama is animated using digital ink and paint techniques. So, yes, by its definition it would be CGI.
Re:More Than Deserves a Second Chance (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Awesome... (Score:2, Informative)
The success of Family Guy on Adult Swim played no small part in its resurrection by Fox. But yes, this might be the first series Comedy Central itself has commissioned new episodes of.
Re:More Than Deserves a Second Chance (Score:3, Informative)
And Futurama is animated so you're not limited by budgets and CGI.
I'm certain all the artists they have animating the show would be happy to hear that they're all working for free, since they're obviously not included in your budget plan.
And Futurama DOES use a lot of CGI effects (i.e. the New New York skyline shots). They're just not too obvious and they fit in with the hand-drawn stuff.
Re:Can Futurama unjump the shark? (Score:5, Informative)
3 and 4 disappointments? Leela's Homeworld, Jurassic Bark, The Why of Fry, Roswell that Ends Well, Godfellas, The Sting, The Farnsworth Paradox... plenty of episodes in those seasons that make them worthwhile...and I could probably come up with more if I had an episode list handy.
Now, if only they'd establish a track record... (Score:3, Informative)
... for not giving up on everything else...?
Re:Can Futurama unjump the shark? (Score:4, Informative)
Series four gave us The Farnsworth Parabox, The Sting, 300 Big Boys and The Devils Hands are Idle Playthings, all of which were awesome.
Also, more importantly, which writers dropped off the show in seasons three and four that you think were funny and sharp? Given the writers credits in Wikipedia suggest that almost all contributors in the first two seasons wrote episodes in three and four I'm not really sure who you're referring to:
List of Futurama episodes with writers [wikipedia.org]
Re:Awesome... (Score:2, Informative)
You say 'Comedy Central itself' as if Comedy Central is somehow associated with Adult Swim and Cartoon Network. It isn't, well, not beyond being basic cable (Viacom owns Comedy Central, Time Warner owns Cartoon Network, by way of Turner).
Re:Can Futurama unjump the shark? (Score:3, Informative)
The Farnsworth Paradox
Actually, it's The Farnsworth Parabox [wikipedia.org]. It had boxes! And a PAIR of them! HA! And then there were more than two boxes, but let's forget about that for the moment.
Re:More Than Deserves a Second Chance (Score:3, Informative)
Hover dolly.
Loss of 100 geek points and 1000 pedant points.
Re:Hope they warm up before starting (Score:2, Informative)
But the professor's plan worked! Planet Express ship is now running on low cost, clean burning whale oil!!!
Re:Not true, this is a result of ratings (Score:3, Informative)
It takes MASSIVE amounts of energy to send things back through time. You can't just send things or people willy nilly. Deciding to send something or someone back is a last-ditch effort, and is tactically a very risky thing to try.
Skynet and the machines have a much better handle on it than the humans do. It is likely that the human resistance seized time travel tech from the machines, and reverse engineered it.
The machines decided to send the T-800 back to kill Sarah Connor, as the human resistance led by John Connor had started to turn the tide. The humans found out they did this, and rushed to send back someone to defend her.
The goal (of Kyle Reese) in T1 was not to prevent Judgment Day, but to ensure the survival of Sarah Connor.
In T2, the machines send back a T-1000 to kill John Connor. Having captured and reprogrammed a T-800, the human resistance sends one back to protect John Connor. Sarah attempts to prevent Judgment Day by killing Dyson (which she doesn't go through with, instead they go for Cyberdyne and the arm) after learning about the who and where of Skynet's beginnings.
This information wasn't available to the human resistance in T1. In T2, we learn Skynet started from the busted up T-800 in T1. This information was available because the human resistance had captured Ts.
T3 further reinforces this (even though T3 doesn't exist) because the events of T2 affect the T2->War time line, turning them into the time line we are presented with in T3.
In T3, John Connor is told that the origins of Skynet lie in some bullshit internet AI military program, and some robots they built on the side (T3 doesn't even make an attempt to link the two massive projects. Maybe the machines and the AI are related to the same project, maybe they're just in the same installation, I dunno.).
In T1, we don't know how Skynet started. Kyle Reese tells us as much as he (and the human resistance) know. We never see the beginning of Judgment Day based on the events of T1. At the end, we know that Judgment Day will still happen.
In T2, the humans only learn how Skynet was started by capturing and reprogramming a T-800. T2's Skynet was started by T1's T-800 (and this was hinted at at the end of T1.) We never see the beginning of Judgment Day based on the events of T2. At the end, we think that Judgment Day has been stopped.
In T3, the humans are again able to send back a T-800 and again have information relating to Skynet's beginnings. We see the beginning of Judgment Day this time, and learn that the origins of Skynet have shifted to the military AI bullshit thing. At the end, we know that Judgment Day has occurred and why.
I gave T3 a chance and it was shit and it doesn't exist. I will not be seeing T4.
Re:More Than Deserves a Second Chance (Score:1, Informative)
Hell, I'll bet there's some pulp sci-fi series in nickel paperback form long ago that used the idea that the universe has an uncountable number of planets so there's an uncountable number of plot lines to keep my readers entertained and me employed.
I do not think that word means what you think it means...