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."
Sounds like Fox has finally got its act together. (Score:5, Insightful)
Lessons learned:
Thinking like this is what saved Dollhouse.
Hot Diggity Daffodil! (Score:5, Insightful)
It's been said before and is worth repeating: The movies were 45 minutes of material crammed into 90 minutes of airtime. The 22 minute format is the best way for the series to continue.
Now, if they can just treat the movies as non-canon, all will be right with the world. New Futurama is always welcome.
Dear Mr. Groening (Score:1, Insightful)
Not true, this is a result of ratings (Score:5, Insightful)
For some odd reason, they had only been looking at DVR rating in three day blocks. Some smart person decided, hey, why not 5 day blocks so we can look at the weekend.
Lo and behold, a lot of people in this demographic watch the shows at odd times during the weekends.
This is why despite low Nielson rating Dollhouse was renewed.
I suspect a couple of things are being learned right now.
1) People like to watch on their own terms.
2) Ad skipping isn't as bad as they had thought.
Re:Hot Diggity Daffodil! (Score:3, Insightful)
Now, if they can just treat the movies as non-canon
Seriously? I love the show, but it's a cartoon. It's not exactly a coherent work of fiction.
Re:Sounds like Fox has finally got its act togethe (Score:3, Insightful)
Unfortunately, Dollhouse is crap. Firefly, on the other hand...
Re:Hot Diggity Daffodil! (Score:4, Insightful)
Now, if they can just treat the movies as non-canon, all will be right with the world. New Futurama is always welcome.
The end of Green Yonder has them SPOILER move into another universe /SPOILER, with just the ship and crew.
They can therefore ignore pretty much everything done before.
Re:Can Futurama unjump the shark? (Score:1, Insightful)
Jurassic Bark is one of the best episodes to ever have been shown on TV.
I can barely think about it without getting teary-eyed.
Re:Hope they warm up before starting (Score:5, Insightful)
Two movies? Try four:
Bender's Big Score
The Beast With A Billion Backs
Bender's Big Game
Into The Wild Green Yonder
And I wouldn't say the writers were out of practice, so much as they weren't used to writing a 90-minute feature-length piece (the same problem is evident in the Simpsons movie). Futurama excelled in 22-minute installments. It'll be nice to see them return to that format.
Let it die. (Score:4, Insightful)
I really like Futurama; I have all four DVD sets and the four movies. However, I think this series should rest in peace. It's over.
The series was great and got progressively better as time went on. However, if the movies are any indication the revived series will be crap. Each movie was worse than the last. They weren't particularly creative with the stories and overall the writing overwrought and not compelling. There was so much untapped potential in the series but instead the movies degraded into pathetic, poorly executed fan service. Some jokes were quite funny but otherwise I felt like they were trying too hard to recreate Family Guy and Adult Swim's brand of humor. And probably the most obnoxious part was the constant environmentalist proselytizing. Some episodes used Al Gore and that theme to great effect but Bender's Game, in particular, was about as subtle as a sledgehammer to the crotch.
However, I am a sucker for Futurama, so I'll definitely watch. But if it ends up being the same kind of crap I saw in the movies I wont be watching for long.
Re:Hope they warm up before starting (Score:3, Insightful)
Bender's Game was awesome and hilarious. Most Futurama "fans" who say they don't like this aren't actual Futurama fans. They're the "fans" that came along after the show was canceled, and who have only watched the show selectively. These people do not get/appreciate the many, many nerdy references. This movies was pure Futurama.
The weakest of the four is The Beast with a Billion Backs.
Re:Huh wha...? (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:More Than Deserves a Second Chance (Score:4, Insightful)
Blue Harvest was shit, actually.
Family Guy's references are so fucking dialed-in that they actually offend me.
They copy scenes from movies so often, with nothing added, and for no reason other than to fill time that I don't see how anyone could consider them a reference, tribute, or homage. It's fucking plagiarism.
They drag out "jokes" so long and so often that "dragging out a joke way too long" has BECOME their new joke, and they've dragged THAT joke out way too long.
And internet memes? Really?
And taking pot shots at the Simpsons? Stealing Chuck Mangione and Feels So Good from King of the Hill (AND not referring to Chuck Mangione by name at all, AND calling the instrument a trumpet when it's NOT a fucking trumpet!)?
Seth McFarlane is a fucking hack who talks just to hear the sound of his own voice. We'll have three shows by him soon.
Here's how it goes.
SCENE: Writers sitting around a table talking about the 80s.
Writer 1: "Hey you remember <thing from the 80s>? That was so cool!"
Writer 2: "Yeah, lol!"
Writer 3: "What? I don't remember that."
Writer 1: "You don't know <thing>? OMG it was the best! It had <thing> and <thing>!"
Writer 2: "Here look I found it on the internet!"
Writer 3: "Oh yeah, I vaguely remember this. But it didn't have <thing> and it was actually just a <thing>."
Writer 2 (reading Wikipedia): "Oh yeah, I guess you 're right. BUT OMG WE SHOULD SO USE THIS FOR THE SHOW!"
Writer 1: "YEAH!!!"
Re:Can Futurama unjump the shark? (Score:3, Insightful)
DON'T MENTION JURASSIC BARK.
Re:Hope they warm up before starting (Score:3, Insightful)
Are you referring to the standards which increase the per-capita consumption of gasoline?
Oh, god, another Jevonite...
Right. And if our cars get 300 miles per gallon, I'll suddenly start driving 120,000 miles per year for no particular reason. Have you ever looked at a graph [peak-oil-crisis.com] of the US's oil consumption? See that one major time in modern US history where there was a protracted drop in oil consumption? There was a dip during the 1973 oil crisis, but then consumption kept growing (despite oil prices plateauing at near the 1973 levels)... up until 1978. Then for years (despite the end of the 1979 energy crisis), consumption kept falling. In the 80s, consumption bottomed out, and then continued a steady rise. What happened in 1978 that was so different? The creation of CAFE. But then CAFE stagnated, and so eventually the market was saturated with vehicles produced under CAFE standards, and the continued growth of the US population and auto market overwhelmed it.
The "rebound effect" you refer to is estimated by the National Research Council to only be about 10-20% [nap.edu].