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Television Media Entertainment

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."
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Comedy Central Confirms 26 New Futurama Episodes

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  • Awesome... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by GigaHurtsMyRobot ( 1143329 ) on Wednesday June 10, 2009 @09:25AM (#28279359) Journal
    Why does it take Comedy Central to re-animate the corpses of great shows?
    • Why does it take Comedy Central to re-animate the corpses of great shows?

      Um, I could be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure this is the first corpse that Comedy Central has re-animated.

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by Hatta ( 162192 )

        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: (Score:2, Informative)

          by maxume ( 22995 )

          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).

        • by AndrewNeo ( 979708 ) on Wednesday June 10, 2009 @10:21AM (#28280135) Homepage

          I think it was said best in the words of the Aqua Teen Hunger Force:

          Meatwad: Why don't you ask that TV if he'd mind showing me some Futurama? I like me some Futurama.
          Master Shake: Well, now we're too damn cheap to receive it, so go the hell over to Carl Central and watch it to your heart's content.
          Meatwad: Carl gets Futurama?
          Master Shake: He didn't even want it until we started watching it

    • Re: (Score:2, Redundant)

      by hedwards ( 940851 )
      Basically since Cartoon Network and DVD sales demonstrated that there was great profit in reanimating corpses. One of the nice things about the trend to releasing TV shows via DVD is that if enough people buy them, the networks start to see dollar signs and are more apt to uncancel them. Admittedly it has to be fairly quick and it doesn't ensure that the show is any good after coming back, but it does give fans at least some hope of getting the show back. Plus, they're zombie shows, and kids like zombies,
    • by evilkasper ( 1292798 ) on Wednesday June 10, 2009 @11:00AM (#28280669)
      Because they dabble in croakamancy?
  • yes, yes. We all know Comedy Central executive of extremely intelligent and deserve a huge raise.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by residieu ( 577863 )
      They just don't want to be turned into Torgo's Executive Powder
    • by Rei ( 128717 )

      Well, at least they're not Fox. ;)

      By the way: Am I the only one who sees things like this:

      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.' ... and automatically pictures Groening's voice as Professor Farnsworth's?

  • Lessons learned:

    1. 1. Ratings are not the end-all be-all.
    2. 2. DVD sales matter.

    Thinking like this is what saved Dollhouse.

    • 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: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by MrMista_B ( 891430 )

      Unfortunately, Dollhouse is crap. Firefly, on the other hand...

    • by Palshife ( 60519 ) on Wednesday June 10, 2009 @09:45AM (#28279671) Homepage

      3. 3. HTML ordered lists already number themselves.

      • by TheRaven64 ( 641858 ) on Wednesday June 10, 2009 @10:07AM (#28279983) Journal
        1. Not on Slashdot.
        2. The CSS is messed up.
        3. Whichever idiot keeps breaking it should have been fired a long time ago.
        • Unordered lists (like this one) look the same.
        • Although, for some reason, with a different indent level.
        • Very silly, I know.
        • When you say "not on slashdot", do you mean some other time than now? This would seem true given your "keeps breaking it" comment. But it's still a bit unclear. I note that the following code produces the proper auto-numbered result:

          <ol>
          <li>item 1
          <li>item 2
          <li>item 3
          </ol>

          1. item 1
          2. item 2
          3. item 3

          As far as the indent level goes, the left edges of the text in both lists' items line up with each other. Since the numbers with periods and the single dot take up different amounts of s

          • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

            by TheRaven64 ( 641858 )
            Huh. Now my post shows numbers for the ol and round bullets for the ul. When I posted it, it showed just L shapes for both. Maybe someone saw my post and fixed the CSS. Either that, or it's a massive coincidence since it's been broken for several weeks (months?) and was fixed within two hours of my post...
    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      Does that mean Firefly will be back? *looks wistfully into the distance*
    • By the way, am I the only person who thinks that Alan Tudyk deserves to be the real star of "Dollhouse"? In two episodes he out-acted Eliza Dushku's entire season.

    • by mcgrew ( 92797 )

      No, it wasn't ratings. They just read my NSFW slashdot journals and found out that they got it all wrong. Leila's my daughter - first, they spelled her name wrong. Second, they got the wrong daughter; it isn't Leila but Patty. Third, it isn't that Patty has only one eye, she has both of them. It's her kidney that's missing.

      And my robot does NOT say "bite my shiny metal ass." It's the cat, she says "GTFO my tail!"

  • by cheezitman2001 ( 1397905 ) on Wednesday June 10, 2009 @09:26AM (#28279387)
    Tomorrow, you'll all be making a delivery to Ebola 9, the virus planet.
  • by Phoenix666 ( 184391 ) on Wednesday June 10, 2009 @09:27AM (#28279395)

    the two movies that followed the series felt like the writers and voice actors were out of practice. That said, this is Good News! indeed.

    • Four movies.

      Aikon-

    • by Abcd1234 ( 188840 ) on Wednesday June 10, 2009 @10:13AM (#28280047) Homepage

      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.

      • Doh... make that "Bender's Game". I always do that...

      • Maybe it's selective perception to protect the mind.

        After all, there has been only one Star Wars trilogy!

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by sexconker ( 1179573 )

          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.

          • I wasn't fond of Bender's Game...but for a particular reason: I enjoyed the A story, and I enjoyed the B story, I just didn't like how they were joined together. Very awkward.

            • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

              by Rei ( 128717 )

              What got me about it was that it had more plot holes than Fry's novel in The Day the Earth Stood Stupid.

              * The professor's plan to deal with high fuel prices is... to destroy fuel? So that people will come up with something better? How are they going to do that with everything shut down? Why not just invent something better? I mean, he runs a delivery company; he has the most to lose.
              * Doesn't Dark Matter "weigh as much as a thousand suns"? What are people doing handling it like it's not

        • And Frank Herbert wrote all 6 Dune books!

    • by LMacG ( 118321 )

      Which "two"? The first two? The last two? Numbers 1 and 4?

  • by eldavojohn ( 898314 ) * <eldavojohn@gm a i l . com> on Wednesday June 10, 2009 @09:27AM (#28279407) Journal
    I'm convinced Futurama was not canceled for any reason within its power. The powers that be at Fox seemed to think that moving its time slot around so no one knew when it was on was a great idea. I don't know how the politics work there within the scheduling and piloting areas of Fox but someone must have had a problem with Futurama.

    The show had a great format. You had a mechanism for sending the crew anywhere where Professor Farnsworth would walk in saying "Good news everyone ... you're going to planet X to deliver package Y" with optional information about said planet. From there, they could go anywhere. Using a mechanism like this was a lot like Star Trek (although better than just Trek's "for the sake of discovery" in my opinion but I know that's a monkey shit fight I can't win). And Star Trek (or some form of it) is still going strong on that same idea. 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.

    And Futurama is animated so you're not limited by budgets and CGI.

    I think the writers did a good job of keeping multiple plot arcs up and concentrating on them every now and then to keep the fans happy. I think the first movie (Bender's Big Score) was a clear indication of how much they value development in plot arcs and connections between episodes.

    To compare it to a show far past it's prime and in a similar format: The Simpsons. The Simpsons has explored every possible crevice and building in Springfield to center on ... from the town sundial to the quarry to the statue of Jedediah Springfield to Springfield Gorge to the old folks home to the ... they have stretched that town out so badly that recent episodes seem to seep more into neighboring towns for a desperate change of pace. You wouldn't have this problem with Futurama.

    Sure, Futurama could jump the shark. But I bet it will last a lot longer than other series if given the chance. Sure, Futurama could end up worse than before the break--much like Family Guy. But I think Family Guy depended too much on edgy questionable humor and when it came back and still had that humor it just wasn't as shocking. And the gimmicks and long digresses got old and tedious. I don't think Futurama relies on these as much as Family Guy.

    Anyways, that's my largely opinionated two cents about a show I knew nothing about when it was airing and found it immensely enjoyable years after it was canceled. That's the only show I can say that about. The movies were ok but nothing like the TV formatted shows. Here's to hoping it's just as good as when it left off Season Four!

    For the record normally I would complain about lack of originality in a situation like this but after watching some new shows on TV I don't care. Who ever is pitching/accepting these shows like The War at Home and 'til Death should be shot.
    • by harryandthehenderson ( 1559721 ) on Wednesday June 10, 2009 @09:33AM (#28279489)

      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.

    • ...And Futurama is animated so you're not limited by budgets and CGI...

      Actually most animation is now computer driven so it is actually CGI but considerably cheaper then the old animation methods. 2-D CGI is still CGI.

      • Yes, and a significant number of models are reused episode to episode. I'd be surprised if they haven't got the DOoP headquarters squirreled away somewhere, in case it ever gets rebuilt. They do still have to repaint things as needed, but the work of designing the space and rendering it to model is complete. Just move the camera and rerender.

        I have to admit that watching older cartoons, even those that are only 15 years old makes me kind of nostalgic. For the times when long hallways had the same table e
    • by Drakkenmensch ( 1255800 ) on Wednesday June 10, 2009 @09:40AM (#28279591)

      "The morons who cancelled us not only got fired, but also got beaten! Badly!"

      The biggest problem plaguing Fox was the constant shuffling of executives in charge of the schedule. Because the new guy in place feared that a succesful show implemented by its predecessor would not give HIM credit, he'd just move it around, keeping prime slots for his own pet projects. Fast forward six months, change execs again, repeat until your schedule is a stinker parade surrounding a few scant barely palatable options. Good shows get lost in the cracks.

      "This is executive Alpha, programmed to like things he's seen before."
      "Hey hey hey!"
      "This is executive Beta, programmed to underestimate the audience."
      "It's funny, but how will it go with farmers?"
      "And this is executive Gamma, programmed to roll dice to determine the schedule."
      *rolls dice* "MORE REALITY SHOWS!"

      • "It's funny, but how will it go with farmers?"

        Correct quote: ""This is executive Beta, programmed to underestimate middle America." "It's funny, but will it get them off their tractors?"

        Loss of 20 geek points. Please complete three Windows ME to Vista upgrades as penance.

        • by Drakkenmensch ( 1255800 ) on Wednesday June 10, 2009 @10:01AM (#28279905)

          Please complete three Windows ME to Vista upgrades as penance.

          Can't I just take over boulder duty from Sysyphus instead? Then I'd be done sometime this millenia at least!

        • by ari_j ( 90255 )

          "It's funny, but how will it go with farmers?"

          Correct quote: ""This is executive Beta, programmed to underestimate middle America." "It's funny, but will it get them off their tractors?"

          Loss of 20 geek points. Please complete three Windows ME to Vista upgrades as penance.

          Loss of 50 geek points for using an off-topic penance. The correct penance is to demote to Bureaucrat Grade 37. Now you're going to have to deliver pillows on Stumbos IV, without the anti-gravity dolly.

        • by geekoid ( 135745 )

          Nice try, but had they actually had those to install, they would ahve lost more mod point. Resulting in more installs. Kind Sisyphus-ian in nature. Yet, two Sisyphus jokes in one /. thread.

      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by sexconker ( 1179573 )

        GAME SHOWS ARE BACK

      • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        "The morons who cancelled us not only got fired, but also got beaten! Badly!"

        The biggest problem plaguing Fox was the constant shuffling of executives in charge of the schedule. Because the new guy in place feared that a succesful show implemented by its predecessor would not give HIM credit, he'd just move it around, keeping prime slots for his own pet projects. Fast forward six months, change execs again, repeat until your schedule is a stinker parade surrounding a few scant barely palatable options. Good

        • by TheSync ( 5291 )

          The other issue is that sports often pre-empted Futurama (and many other shows), or in some timezones, extended over it.

          In 2008, FOX's Sunday National NFL Game (4:15 PM ET) was the most-watched weekly program on TV with an average of 22.3 million viewers. (source) [groundreport.com].

          According to Wikipedia [wikipedia.org], "When Futurama was effectively cancelled in 2003, it had averaged 6.4 million viewers for the first half of its fourth broadcast season".

    • "Family Guy" is the Denzel Washington of animated series. At one point, it was fresh and original.

      But then it became huge. Now everyone loves it because it's "Family Guy." Stewie's gonna say something gay, there's gonna be thirty "like that time I was..." jokes that are sorta mildly amusing. Every once it a while it steps out and does something fresh (Blue Harvest), but then it's back into the routine. Or the 'new' just gets recycled into the routine (like the Shawshank parody.)

      Denzel Washington does the same thing as an actor. He's played "Morally right guy that the establishment doesn't like / believe / trust" in like twenty movies now. Every once in a while he steps out and it's fantastic (Training Day), but then he turns around and makes "Man on Fire" three more times for the paychecks.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Volante3192 ( 953645 )

        Easier to make Family Guy drinking games though.

        Recognize a pop culture reference? Take a shot.
        Be the only one in the room who gets it? Take two shots.

      • "Family Guy" is the Denzel Washington of animated series. At one point, it was fresh and original.

        But then it became huge. Now everyone loves it because it's "Family Guy." Stewie's gonna say something gay, there's gonna be thirty "like that time I was..." jokes that are sorta mildly amusing. Every once it a while it steps out and does something fresh (Blue Harvest), but then it's back into the routine. Or the 'new' just gets recycled into the routine (like the Shawshank parody.)

        Denzel Washington does the same thing as an actor. He's played "Morally right guy that the establishment doesn't like / believe / trust" in like twenty movies now. Every once in a while he steps out and it's fantastic (Training Day), but then he turns around and makes "Man on Fire" three more times for the paychecks.

        I think that FG's parodies, best exemplified in "Blue Harvest," suffer from the writing staff's lack of experience writing scenes other than "like that time I was..." jokes. Compare Blue Harvest with the Robot Chicken Star Wars special and you see FG following the original plot and dialog with occasional slight tweaks. When they digress heavily, and they only do it a handful of times, they end up doing rather unsuccessful versions of their normal non sequiturs. Robot Chicken, on the other hand, showed a

        • I think Robot Chicken as an 'animated skit show' did what was expected of them, just made a bunch of star wars skits, just as Family Guy made a (lack of a better term) story episode. Dont get me wrong I dig the Chicken but they did nothing more then usually except kept with a theme for the whole time.
      • by geekoid ( 135745 )

        First, you dn't like it, don't watch. Lots of people don't like it, they jsut don't have sucj a huge egoas to think anyone cares.

        In Hollywood, it's 1 to 5. You can make 5 'paycheck' movies and long as you then do at least one 'good' one.

        Or it used to be, but with Adam Sandler and Will Farrell still making bank, that rule might have been suspended~

      • by sexconker ( 1179573 ) on Wednesday June 10, 2009 @11:17AM (#28280961)

        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: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Captain Spam ( 66120 )

      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.

    • Anyways, that's my largely opinionated two cents about a show I knew nothing about when it was airing and found it immensely enjoyable years after it was canceled. That's the only show I can say that about. The movies were ok but nothing like the TV formatted shows. Here's to hoping it's just as good as when it left off Season Four!

      I agree completely! I watched this for the first time on Cartoon Network and got hooked and watched every episode that aired religiously until I had seen them all several times.

      At the end of the day, Cartoon Network deserves a lot of credit for (yet again) resurrecting a once, but clearly undeservedly and prematurely, dead comedy cartoon. I'm more excited about Futurama than I was about Family Guy though!

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      What does it for me is that Futurama utilizes some fairly intelligent humor, without going so far as to set itself above or beyond its audience. It also successfully mixes in small amounts of shock and surprise humor (ala Family Guy, but usually more subtle). I think they've also got just the right number/mix of characters. It lets them change things up without constantly introducing new people or wearing out and overextending their main characters. Their use of stereotypes and cliches helps them keep t

  • by Darth_brooks ( 180756 ) * <clipper377@g[ ]l.com ['mai' in gap]> on Wednesday June 10, 2009 @09:28AM (#28279415) Homepage

    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.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by RealErmine ( 621439 )

      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.

      • I love the show, but it's a TV show. It's not exactly a coherent work of fiction.

        Fixed that for you. There's no reason a cartoon can't be a coherent work of fiction. On the other hand, there's all sorts of obstacles to any TV show being coherent over the long term.

      • Actually Futurama has been pretty damned good about that.

    • by Scrameustache ( 459504 ) on Wednesday June 10, 2009 @09:53AM (#28279801) Homepage Journal

      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.

  • by Thanshin ( 1188877 ) on Wednesday June 10, 2009 @09:33AM (#28279491)

    Too much time has passed.

    The professor's probably dead by now, the kids will be all late teenagers, etc.

    In Bender's case you can always put another guy in the costume but come on! Where do they expect to find another actress with the eye mutation?

    • by Merls the Sneaky ( 1031058 ) on Wednesday June 10, 2009 @10:56AM (#28280589)

      We just get Kiff to give an orangutang a makeover.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by naoursla ( 99850 )

      It would be hilarious if the first episode of the relaunch had all of the characters drawn as if they were many years old trying to play the part of their younger counterparts. Also, maybe there would be a new kid who was added to freshen things up. He would supposedly be around Fry's age, but the 'actor' would be 30 years younger. Their mission would end up restoring the glory days.

  • reboot (Score:5, Funny)

    by cstacy ( 534252 ) on Wednesday June 10, 2009 @09:50AM (#28279761)
    This will be a reboot of Futurama with a new cast, and more action (and sex) to excite a younger more modern audience. The Planet Express spaceship's bridge will look like the Apple Store, Leela will be having a secret affair with Bender. It will be shot in realistic shakey-cam. And there will be lots of lens flare...
    • Re:reboot (Score:4, Funny)

      by Whyzzi ( 319263 ) on Wednesday June 10, 2009 @11:52AM (#28281487)

      This will be a reboot of Futurama ...

      Really? I wanna see that! Lets get Dot to play Leela. Phong will play the professor (Imagine the professor with a chinese accent and speaking in riddles). Bob will have to be Fry I suppose, with like a -100 intelligence. Matrix can play Bender, AndrAIa should be Amy Wong. I think it would be fun to make Megabyte play Zapp Brannigan, and of course Hexidecimal is MoM. SCSI can be Nibbler. And just for kicks we'll have Turbo play Kiff. Lets make lil' Enzo play Kiff's & Amy's offspring...

      Of course, this is plenty open to changes...

  • I just finished watching every episode of that show, and thought I was done. You mean to tell me there's going to be MOAR?

  • ... for not giving up on everything else...?

  • Huzzahs are in order!
  • Let it die. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by MaWeiTao ( 908546 ) on Wednesday June 10, 2009 @10:21AM (#28280141)

    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.

    • Bender's Game wasn't about environmentalism, it just used non-renewable fuels as a plot device. Into the Wild Green Yonder, on the other hand, was definitely anvilicious.

  • Over the past 15 years I've watched as my life become harder to live due to a series of set backs that are out of my control. I sat down and reasoned out suicide as being the best solution to my permanent problems. Now that Futurama is coming back on TV I figured that I should just sit around until it goes off the air again. I hope it's as good as it used to be.
  • Great news everyone! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by yoshi_mon ( 172895 ) on Wednesday June 10, 2009 @12:57PM (#28282501)

    One of the things that was cool about Futurama was it broke the Simpsons 'family animated sitcom' mold. Giving it a different feel and of course many different options for the writers.

    Since there is always the comparison to Family Guy keep in mind that Family Guy was just another family animated sitcom. In fact many people have gone far out of their way to point this out as if other non-animated sitcoms have not been doing the same thing for many years. We just had virtually no other points of reference when looking at prime time animation.

    As an example look at American Dad. It's a family animated sitcom but it changes up the: dad is fat and does wacky stuff all the time, mom is very well intentioned and ignores all the flaws of her dysfunctional family, kids do stuff, blah blah. Instead, due to some...suggestions...from Fox they made the dad a wacky wing-nut, the mother a blond ditz wing-nut enabler, and the kids who do stuff with the added fact that like the Simpsons the girl is the token left wing voice. (And I don't want to get into the politics of American Dad but there is plenty more to be said about it's dynamic but that is beyond the scope of what I'm trying to say here. Suffice to say I find it hilarious how they have left politics alone in S4.)

    The uniqueness of Futurama's sitcom environment made it very open and different than the other 3 prime time family centered ones. We can all only hope that the writers working on it's return will embrace that as well as the original ones did.

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