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It's funny. Laugh. Television Entertainment

Details Emerge On Futurama's "Rebirth" (and Return) 183

Posted by timothy from the you'll-need-a-3d-tv-with-smellovision dept.
Svippy writes "As revealed last summer, Futurama will be returning this year, and while there were conflicts about the cast of the show in the late summer of 2009, a deal was eventually secured. Last week, Comedy Central confirmed the airing of the first episode, 'Rebirth,' will be 24 June 2010. Several other details related to plot and production have surfaced over the months, and for those interested, a full article is available on the subject."
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Details Emerge On Futurama's "Rebirth" (and Return) More

Details Emerge On Futurama's "Rebirth" (and Return)

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  • hmm (Score:4, Insightful)

    by nomadic ( 141991 ) <`nomadicworld' `at' `gmail.com'> on Thursday March 18, 2010 @07:38PM (#31530774) Homepage
    One of my favorite shows of all time, though most of the recent movies were kind of disappointing. The first one was good though.
    • I thought the second was a pretty epic disappointment, but the other three were worthy additions to the universe. None would rank up there with the series' finest episodes, but I would say they were definitely better than the weaker episodes. Not all they could have been, perhaps, but they could've been a hell of a lot worse.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tylernt ( 581794 )

        most of the recent movies were kind of disappointing. The first one was good though.

        Huh, My reaction was the opposite -- I thought the first was the weakest. It was like they tried to stretch a 1/2 hour episode into a full movie, so it was kind of thin in places... weak jokes, scenes that dragged on a bit.

        I thought the second was a pretty epic disappointment

        I thought the second was pretty good, especially compared to the first one. The third movie was the best, though.

        • The first was cramming every single character into the movie, that's what made it substandard. It had moments.

          My favorite is the second, Beast with a Billion Backs-- the ending is genuinely sad, and that appeals to me. (You can probably tell some of my favorite episodes too.) Also, it has the scene where Wornstrom and the Professor are demonstrating how the portal lets living beings through but not robots, and end up throwing a cute puppy out the window. That scene rocks. "Play time *is* fun time!"

          • Beast with a Billion Backs was my favorite too... and if your ego can't take that, then you don't deserve to be tentacle pope of anything!

      • Re:hmm (Score:4, Funny)

        by rockNme2349 ( 1414329 ) on Friday March 19, 2010 @01:40AM (#31533262)

        I have no strong feelings one way or the other.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by maxume ( 22995 )

      Hopefully most of the problems were related to the weird format (where they wanted to be able to air it in 1/2 hour time slots, but also sell the movies as standalone DVDs).

      • It was strange that they did that, because Comedy Central has only aired the movies all at once, and has advertised it as a single movie. It was split up into 4 parts but played back to back.

    • Re:hmm (Score:5, Insightful)

      by antifoidulus ( 807088 ) on Thursday March 18, 2010 @08:16PM (#31531120) Homepage Journal
      All the movies suffered from the same basic flaw, not nearly enough Zoidberg.

    • In this being (Score:5, Funny)

      by arcite ( 661011 ) on Thursday March 18, 2010 @08:44PM (#31531364)
      In this being the post-millennial / post-9/11 age, the world has become too cynical, and frankly...depressing.

      Futurama's humor was meant for the waning years of the 90's when the world was scared of Y2K and still revered Star Trek and Twilight zone as pinnacle of science fiction. When one eyed purple aliens and rich asian chicks were still 'hot' - and not in a weird way. It was a time when a young man could still dream of being a delivery boy in space, and maybe, just maybe it was possible (the US was rich and had all those mars landers planting flags). A time when no man would envy another, and there would be sexbots for all. It was a simpler time. Futurama is dead to me now.

      Fox can bite my shiny metal ass.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Yvan256 ( 722131 )

        Fox can bite my shiny metal ass.

        Doesn't look so shiny to me.

      • Re:In this being (Score:5, Funny)

        by Vellmont ( 569020 ) on Thursday March 18, 2010 @10:01PM (#31531930) Homepage


        Futurama's humor was meant for the waning years of the 90's when the world was scared of Y2K and still revered Star Trek and Twilight zone as pinnacle...
        A time when no man would envy another, and there would be sexbots for all. It was a simpler time. Futurama is dead to me now.

        Classic! Strangely enough, your post fell through a wormhole in the space-time continuum, and onto a much earlier Slashdot thread in 1999. It sparked a discussion about how the REAL golden age was actually in the waning says of the 1980s when the world was still scared of the Russians, people still thought Magnum PI was great television, and Ollie North was givin 'em hell, and 2400 baud modems were state of the art. (Simpler times as you say)

        If I find a post from 2020 that falls through the space-time continuum I'll let you know what the great things that exist today people are nostalgic for then.

        • Re:In this being (Score:5, Funny)

          by ConceptJunkie ( 24823 ) on Thursday March 18, 2010 @10:29PM (#31532102) Homepage Journal

          by JonKatzTheSecond (63445274) on 20-03-18 22:01 (#815223905)

          By season 14, Futurama seemed to outlive itself. Its humor was meant for the early years of the 2010s when the world was scared of global warming and still revered "Heroes" and "Lost" as the pinnacle of science fiction. When three-eyed omnivores and impoverished Jewish space lobsters were still 'hot' - and not in a weird way. It was a time when an old man could still dream of leading an army of mutant gorillas to global conquest, and maybe, just maybe it was possible (the U.S. still wasn't frozen over and Joe Biden hadn't developed his mighty telekinetic powers). A time when Seattle wasn't a gaping canyon and the Grand Canyon wasn't filled with coffee cups and flannel shirts, and the President still hadn't solved the "War on Terror" with a game of "Quarters" and two-falls-out-of-three Jell-O Wrestling, only to lead to tyrannical world domination by the Mormons. It was a simpler time. Futurama is as dead to me now as electric cheese and skeet shooting using Senators.

        • Re:In this being (Score:4, Insightful)

          by glwtta ( 532858 ) on Thursday March 18, 2010 @11:03PM (#31532334) Homepage
          I'll let you know what the great things that exist today people are nostalgic for then.

          I'm gonna go with "2D movies" and "the internet".

        • Magnum e was much better. But we all know that Magnum i was the best.

      • What, you expect them to come up with new ideas or something?

      • Re:In this being (Score:5, Funny)

        by dangitman ( 862676 ) on Thursday March 18, 2010 @11:26PM (#31532510)

        It was a time when a young man could still dream of being a delivery boy in space, and maybe, just maybe it was possible...

        Yes, in those days spirits were brave, the stakes were high, men were REAL men, women were REAL women, and small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were REAL small furry creatures from Aplha Centauri.

      • Re:In this being (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Tokerat ( 150341 ) on Friday March 19, 2010 @01:00AM (#31533070) Journal

        In what world do you live where rich asian chicks aren't hot?

      • Rich Asian Chicks aren't hot anymore?

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by mqduck ( 232646 )

      Funny, I was more disappointed with the first than any of the others.

      Think back to how you felt when you first saw it. Sure, in retrospect, it had a hugely solid and downright impressive sci-fi plot, but it also got weighed down by all the fan service (which I kind of liked, but ultimately didn't). Ironically, I think the best parts of it were the musical numbers, which everyone crapped on at the time.

      Beast With a Billion Backs was great because of how bizarre it was, and how uncomfortable it made people (w

  • Good News! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by kurth ( 221375 ) * on Thursday March 18, 2010 @07:39PM (#31530776) Homepage

    Good News Everyone!

  • Yay! (Score:4, Funny)

    by WrongSizeGlass ( 838941 ) on Thursday March 18, 2010 @07:45PM (#31530830)
    Dr Zoidberg: Yay! So I didn't lose my job!

  • I just got goosebumps (Score:5, Funny)

    by Reason58 ( 775044 ) on Thursday March 18, 2010 @07:48PM (#31530866)
    This post brought to you by Glagnar's Human Rinds.

  • Futurama is best #2 (Score:5, Funny)

    by gad_zuki! ( 70830 ) on Thursday March 18, 2010 @07:49PM (#31530874)

    with Everyone Loves Hypnotoad at #1 of course.

  • This means I can go ahead and order another case of Soylent Soda!

  • Whimmy wham wham wozzle...let's party!

  • Tough contract negotiations (Score:5, Insightful)

    by PPH ( 736903 ) on Thursday March 18, 2010 @08:28PM (#31531238)
    No doubt, Comedy Central had to kiss some shiny metal ass.

  • Hey Everybody! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by camperdave ( 969942 ) on Thursday March 18, 2010 @08:52PM (#31531434) Journal
    Hey folks, can we please stop linking to previous Slashdot stories? When I click on the link "Futurama will be returning this year", I want to read the actual press release, or article, or whatever. I don't want to read last year's Slashdot dupe.

    • It's called context bitch, learn to read the status bar.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Tokerat ( 150341 )

      I don't want to read last year's Slashdot dupe.

      Most people don't even seem to read what's on Slashdot now, so we figured since everyone only ever skims the /. summary that it would be the best thing to link to. I hear the next version of Slashcode will only allow 140 character summaries.

  • All glory to the Hypnotoad (Score:5, Funny)

    by grapeape ( 137008 ) <mpope7 AT kc DOT rr DOT com> on Thursday March 18, 2010 @08:57PM (#31531476) Homepage

    Must watch return of Futurama...Must watch return of Futurama...Must watch return of Futurama...

  • Next step, the amusement park! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by RevWaldo ( 1186281 ) on Thursday March 18, 2010 @09:02PM (#31531528)
    "My great unfulfilled ambition - to do my own amusement park - is really why I am doing Futurama. I'm not kidding. If this show takes off, I'm going to do an amusement park." - Matt Groening, Wired 7.02

    That, and getting "Life In Hell" online. (For God's sake man! It's an intern, a scanner, and a Facebook page!)

  • Rebirth? Hopefully this does not mean reboot. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by kimvette ( 919543 ) on Thursday March 18, 2010 @09:40PM (#31531792) Homepage Journal

    The only franchise "Reboot" I've liked is Reboot iself.

    Futurama is perfection as designed; a good mix of classic cel and modern CGI animation, the perfect mix of fart jokes, puns, and science and math humor, as well as subtle story arcs (well, mainly the on-again off-again almost-romance between Fry and Leela, Fry's being the most important "person" in the Universe, and Nibbler's continual influence on keeping society going) that don't cause you to lose interest if you miss a few episodes, but add lot to the show.

    I hope the "rebirth" doesn't mean a Tim Burton or Lucas-style franchise reboot.

  • Animation wise, technology has developed significantly since Futurama first aired, and in addition to the high-definition technology used for the films, season 6 (and presumably any subsequent seasons) will be broadcast in widescreen and high-definition where available.

    Thank god it's in high def! Now maybe we can finally see Amy's erotic tattoo!

    Seriously though, who cares. The CGI portions will improve but honestly standard-def is just fine for Futurama. I'm not complaining mind you, I just don't think hig

  • Fox Sunday/Friday victims of the early 2000s (Score:5, Informative)

    by LostCluster ( 625375 ) * on Thursday March 18, 2010 @11:50PM (#31532674)

    Fox killed Futurama by bad scheduling. See, they put the show on various slots Sunday nights, but because of the variable length of NFL football game coverage, the Sunday night lineup was often damaged by running late, being joined in progress, not being shown to the whole nation, and other problems. The only rules were that The Simpsons must run untouched at as close to 8pm ET as possible.

    Furthermore, they killed several shows by putting them on Friday nights during the spring and summer... because not only is that a traditional slow night for TV viewing, but Fox-owned stations in New York (the biggest local TV area), Boston (4th biggest) and other markets showed local baseball games on most Fridays, causing new episodes of serial series to air in the late-late-night timeslots in those areas.

    Fox has fixed these problems by allowing Fox Sports to control the network up until 8pm ET on Sundays, filling the gap between the end of the games and the set signoff time with a postgame show called The OT when needed. West coast affiliates are left on their own until 8pm PT, and the entire nation sees the Sunday lineup from 8/7-to-10/9 as they should. Fox has also stopped buying local baseball packages for their owned stations and encouraged other affiliates to get out of the local sports broadcast business.

    Many geek favorites like Futurama and Sliders got caught up in this mess. It's nice to see that the producers of such shows have found other outlets that treat them better.

    • Fox killed Futurama by bad scheduling. See, they put the show on various slots Sunday nights, but because of the variable length of NFL football game coverage, the Sunday night lineup was often damaged by running late, being joined in progress, not being shown to the whole nation, and other problems. The only rules were that The Simpsons must run untouched at as close to 8pm ET as possible.

      When Episode I came out Fox aired the original Star Wars at 5pm on a Sunday. Futurama normally came on at 7 on Sundays. Scheduling genius, right? Star Wars then Futurama! What better way to attract your new audience? That night they pre-empted Futurama and aired two episodes of King of the Hill followed by the Simpsons.

  • Best Futurama Line... (Score:2, Informative)

    by drkim ( 1559875 )
    "It's like a movie, with this happening in it!"
    -or-
    "I had the most wonderful dream! And YOU were in it!"

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