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Futurama Returns
Posted by
CowboyNeal
on Thu Jun 22, 2006 11:34 PM
from the now-zoidberg-is-the-popular-one dept.
from the now-zoidberg-is-the-popular-one dept.
GrumpySimon writes "Good news everyone!
Straight from a one-eyed alien's mouth - 13 new episodes of Futurama have been confirmed by Katey Sagal on Craig Ferguson's Late Late Show. All the original actors have signed up too."
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Interviews: Ask Futurama Star Billy West About...? 199 comments
In case you haven't heard, Futurama is coming back — in like 2008, so don't go channel-flipping in hope quite yet. This is the first interview Billy West (who voices Fry, Prof. Farnsworth, Zapp Brannigan, Zoidberg, and other Futurama characters) has done since the announcement. Realize, too, that Billy has also been the voices of Ren and Stimpy and hundreds of other animated characters over the years, and old-school Howard Stern fans will remember that part of his career, too. Ask Billy about anything you like; we'll send him 10 top-moderated questions (and maybe he'll answer a few extra ones of his choice, too). We expect to post his answers Wednesday, the day after Freedom Day's 21st Century predecessor, the 4th of July (which, sadly, is not known for nude hot tub parties). Meanwhile, to tide you over, here's a little MP3 voice montage Billy did in his home studio just for Slashdot.
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YAY! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:YAY! (Score:5, Funny)
Fry: This snow is beautiful. I'm glad global warming never happened.
Leela: Actually it did. But thank God nuclear winter cancelled it out.
Parent
Re:YAY! (Score:5, Interesting)
I just think of it like I did the Simpsons in some jokes. Lisa once stated the Springfield Oil Field is 3 times the size of Texas. This means either they live in Alaska (possibly, I need to consult a map for scale) or it's a joke because it's too ridiculous to be true.
Parent
Restrike while the iron is still warm? (Score:5, Insightful)
While I applaud it, I remember the resurrection of Ren & Stimpy and how it just wasn't quite the same anymore. The making of a popular series can often rest on the frenzy of creating the episodes and the chemistry of those at work on it. Add an interruption, time for other projects and influences, what will become of pulling the team back together? Will it be the same, or will it be like, "well, Bender saying, 'bite my shiny metal asee' doesn't totally suck, but it's just, you know, different now."
Other news in the It's About Time Department:
In other good news, finally on DVD, Yellowbeard! Arr! July 27 for USA & Canada [amazon.com] or July 10 for UK [amazon.co.uk] No word yet on extras, like Group Madness, the documentary of making of the film.
Re:Restrike while the iron is still warm? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not because the writers got worse. It's 'cause you got better. Or at least, I did. I can't stand the old Ren and Stimpy episodes now.
Just like Family Guy, Futurama still cracks me up. If they make more, I'll still like 'em.
Parent
Re:Restrike while the iron is still warm? (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Family Guy Season 4+ sucks. (Score:5, Insightful)
-M
Parent
Better News Everybody! (Score:5, Funny)
YES ! (Score:5, Funny)
Three cheers for Comedy Central (Score:5, Funny)
choice quote (Score:5, Funny)
Re:choice quote (Score:5, Funny)
I was gonna do this as a Halloween costume. I was going to paint my face up all gray/green and rotting, sores and all, wear a white robe, and a crown of thorns, and get a couple broken 4x4s tied to my arms like I broke my way down from the cross... but every time I described it, all I got was this look of horror, even from non-Christians.
Same thing with the Christopher Reeve loose fitting Superman suit and a wheelchair idea. This was before he was dead, of course, I know poor taste when I giggle uncontrollably at it.
Trick or treat
Feel my feet
I can't.
*sigh*
Parent
Re:choice quote (Score:5, Funny)
As an avid watcher of the reruns on TBS and CN, I just gotta say, you're misquoting. The correct quote is
"Sweet Zombie <weird, unnatural silence while the lips keep moving>"
Parent
Santa is real! (Score:5, Funny)
They've been VERY naughty this year. Now they must be trying to make up before Xmas.
Ryan Fenton
I believe it 100%!!! (Score:5, Interesting)
P.S. I feel like it's some futurama reference that my CAPTCHA was "breeder." Is Slashdot trying to say something about the human race?
Movies? (Score:5, Funny)
Does this make me happy? (Score:5, Funny)
Is the space pope reptilian?
Everyone must hear this news! (Score:5, Funny)
2 F's down, 1 to go! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:2 F's down, 1 to go! (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:2 F's down, 1 to go! (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:2 F's down, 1 to go! (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:2 F's down, 1 to go! (Score:5, Insightful)
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But what about...? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:But what about...? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Bite My Shiny Metal Ass (Score:5, Funny)
Fry: Don't you mean Comedy Central?
Leela: No, Comedy Control. Comedy was outlawed in the year 2045, during the Great War with the Neptutians. Comedy Control comes around and kills everyone involved with animated shows.
Holy Crap! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Good news everybody! (Score:5, Funny)
-Richard M. Nixon's head
Parent
Re:Futurama (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Futurama (Score:5, Interesting)
Dude - It's just a cartoon.
Noone's really saying that Futurama is better than Dr Who, but that doesn't mean it's not enjoyable. Plot? No way. Funny? Absolutely! More importantly, it's just entertaining.
That's something I love about these kind of shows. You don't need to make the investment to watch them. I hate it that I can't watch a lot of "running plot" shows because I know I'm going to miss a bunch of them. With Futurama/Simpsons, I can just watch them if I'm free.
Parent
Dude, there's a whole universe in all of us... (Score:5, Interesting)
1. The characters in the Simpsons are surprisingly consistent; the clearly distinct characters and their traits are one of the shows great strengths. Lisa is BOTH intelligent AND a member of the archetypal working class family; these are not mutually exclusive, and the show is subtle enough to deal with this.
2. Futurama IS better than Dr Who whichever way you spin it (allowing for taste), and its PLOTS are amongst its great strengths. When you compare the Simpsons to Futurama, one thing that is very apparent is that Futurama has much more comprehensive, less formulaic, better written storylines. The episodes, and the series, feature an internal logic which is stronger than the Simpsons, or indeed almost any other comedy other than Seinfeld or Arrested Development.
In many cases the humour is directly derived from the strength of the plot. For example, Fry travels back in time and becomes his own grandfather. As a result, he is unique in the universe, and his uniqueness ties in to the whole Nibblonian vs Brains subplot. Similarly, Leela's origins story is tightly woven throughout the various episodes and across the series. I know for a fact that Groening, Cohen and co set out to write lengthy thematic arcs which in some cases spanned series 1-4 inclusive.
If you think it's a plot-less cartoon with jokes, you're not really watching it.
3. Well, this basically explains why you think what you think. I agree to the extent that each episode of Futurama is self-contained. However, they are also intricately linked with other episodes, and you miss a lot of important context and detail from some episodes if you treat them as a one-off 'adventure'.
Try watching Futurama, in order, from start to finish. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.
Parent
Re:Dude, there's a whole universe in all of us... (Score:5, Insightful)
I never said otherwise - I was just hassling my PP for overanalysing. What next? "Oh, but at the end of The Simpson's 3D, homer ends up in the real world, but then in the next episode he's back in the Simpson's universe!". Or "Buffy is just so fake: There's no such thing as vampires!"
No. Like many people here (yourself included), I prefer Futurama to Dr Who. Anyone who tries to argue that one successful show is better than another successful show is an idiot, and you might as well be trying to prove the existence or non-existence of god, or the general superiority of one OS over another. It's a personal thing. One is better than the other for you.
I have - many times. The first time I watched it, I watched it out of order. Yes, I didn't pick up on the exact history behind each character, but I didn't miss out on any important story-line elements. (Ok - so the same is probably actually true for Dr Who, but there are many other shows where missing a couple of episodes makes the later ones not worth watching).
Parent
Re:Futurama (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Re:Futurama (Score:5, Interesting)
In a nutshell, shows like Simpsons, Family Guy, The Critic, and Futurama make me laugh, and greatly entertain me for their 30 minute duration. Okay, there's a dud episode every now and then, but for the most part they're really fun. And funny. There have been a few scenes from these that would just make me laugh a few days later when I would think about it, for instance.
The fact that it bothers you that Lisa's mental acuity isn't entirely consistent from one episode to the next sort of implies you're greatly outside the demographic they're looking for, in which case I'd suggest stick with the shows that really make you happy. I watch these shows for their comedic value, not for a consistent basis upon which to do a comparative literary analysis.
Similarly, there are shows that other people love that I can't stand at all (eg Everybody Loves Raymond). it's all your own personal tastes. Regarding not liking the Simpsons, my Mom cannot get into the Simpsons either. She's tried and either doesn't get the jokes or just doesn't think they're funny whatsoever.
That said, at the end of your post you mention other shows that are 'really funny'. Can you give an example? I'm not trolling you either, just curious what you find funny.
Parent
Re:Futurama (Score:5, Interesting)
As for why Futurama is popular.. you may not find it funny, but a lot of people do. I, for one, like that there's a lot of geek jokes in there. One that I can think of off the top of my head was that there were a pair of books in the background [appstate.edu] of one scene labeled P and NP [wikipedia.org].
Parent
Re:Futurama (Score:5, Informative)
Milt, for the non-biologists, is the sperm and seminal fluid of fish. [reference.com]
Parent
Re:Futurama (Score:5, Insightful)
Hell, there are a ton of other Slashdot articles you could be commenting on. Perhaps you could have found one that interested you. But no, you had to click on the Futurama article just so you could post a comment musing about the lack of appeal Futurama has for you.
It kind of reminds me of people who love Windows and hate the Macintosh. OK, your favorite computer platform has 90+ percent of the market, so why go seek out places online where Mac people congregate and try to rain on their parade? They have less than 5% of the market. Leave them alone. Hell, I've seen people go onto Atari ST forums and say ridiculous things to the effect that the Atari ST is long dead and ST enthusiasts should just move on and get a Windows PC. Was that you?
When you see a kid playing with a balloon, do you have an uncontrollable urge to go and stick a pin in it?
There are a lot of things that do not appeal to everyone. Sane people ignore them. Personally I have no interest in Chritianity. That doesn't mean I show up to church every Sunday and say, "You know, I just don't understand the appeal...could you explain it to me?" It would be gouche and idiotic to do so.
"Not trolling"? Bite my shiny metal ass!
Parent
Re:Futurama (Score:5, Funny)
Dude, why would you want to stick a pin in a kid?
Parent
Re:Futurama (Score:5, Funny)
Spoken as someone who has never tried it. Geesh.
Parent
Re:Futurama (Score:5, Insightful)
Because it's not about you.
Parent
Re:Futurama DOES have a plot (spoilers) (Score:5, Informative)
- Fry and the Brains (and the Nibblonians)
During the series it transpires that Fry is the only human being capable of resisting the psionic attacks of the Brains, a group of free-flying brain beings that want to take over/destroy the universe. Fry's brain waves are different from other peoples because Fry, as a result of events in the episode "Roswell that Ends Well", is his own grandfather.
In the first encounter with the Brains Fry is abducted by Nibbler, who is not only Leela's pet, but also an agent of the ancient and stupendously powerful Nibblonians (which explains why he was the only one of his kind on the planet where he was found). Nibbler explains Fry's abnormality and assists him in fending off the Brains' attack on earth. After Fry succeeds Nibbler wipes Fry's memory (everyone else was too stupefied by the Brains to remember what happened) and resumes his life as Leela's pet.
Later, in The Why of Fry, we learn that Fry was not frozen by accident. In fact Fry was brought into the future by Nibbler, whose much younger self was present on New Years' Eve '99, and who gave Fry the nudge that tipped him backwards into the cryogenic chamber. In this episode Fry is press ganged into service to destroy the Brains' ultimate project, a device that will acquire all knowledge in the universe and then destroy the universe to prevent its knowledge from becoming outdated.
Once Fry is inside the Mega-Brain and has activated the bomb with which he is to destroy it, the Brains reveal what Nibbler did to Fry and offer Fry a choice - he can stay there, blow up the Mega Brain and vanish along with it due to the failure of his escape scooter, or he can let the Mega Brain catapult him back in time to the space-time nexus centred on his own fall into the cryochamber.
Fry elects to travel back, and in fact initially prevents Nibbler from knocking him into the tube, until Nibbler persuades him that he should sacrifice himself and fulfill his predestined mission, because...
- Fry Loves Leela
Fry has an unrequited passion for Leela throughout most of the series. In a sense there is a lack of follow through here, because they do pull kind of a "will they/won't they?" thing, but Fry does succeed in communicating the depth of his feelings at times, and when he wins the devil's hands and uses them to make a holophoner opera in Leela's honour Leela realises that Fry has a depth of character and feeling that is concealed by his physical and social clumsiness.
- Leela and Her Parents
As someone else mentioned here, Leela's parent enter the series late in the piece and stick around. In fact I was surprised that nobody responded to the "straight from the alien's mouth" in the article by pointing out that Leela, as we discover when her parents emerge, is not an alien but a mutant, whose xenolinguist parents left her at an orphanage with a note in an invented alien script, so that she would be taken for an alien and avoid the apartheid-style restrictions places on mutants. This is a major shift for Leela both in the sense that earlier episodes made much of her search for her species and homeworld, and in that at least two episodes towards the end of the series are heavily concerned with her relationship with her newfound parents.
- Amy and Kif
Amy, the engineering student from Mars, and Kif, Zapp Brannigan's XO, fall in love early in the series and their developing romance is the subject of multiple episodes throughout subsequent seasons.
i'm sure there are other examples of long-term continuity that have slipped my mind, but really nobody could accuse Futurama of forgeting its past.
Parent
Re:Why so long? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:HYPNOTOAD LIVES (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Hang on... (Score:5, Informative)
The character Zapp Branigan was written for him, but he died before they started production, so Billy West took the part instead and happen to play the character in a similar way to Phil Hartman's audition.
Parent
Re:That's great and all... (Score:5, Funny)
Um... Promise me you aren't one of the writers on the new series.
Parent
Re:Welcome back! (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Welcome back! (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Who needs comedy central? (Score:5, Insightful)
also, your model doesn't work for new shows.. if your model was in place before Futurama, it would have never been created.. people won't donate to a show they've never heard of and have no idea if they'll even like it.
Parent
Re:Who needs comedy central? (Score:5, Informative)
You bitch needlessly. All the tools you need are but a few hundred dollars away!
1) Registering a domain name and getting cheap-ass hosting costs less than a few hundred dollars per year.
2) You can put a link to your project on your slashdot sig and get surprising amounts of attention that way.
3) You only need to come up with an idea for a show, and recruit some star talent. Really, you're on your way already, since you have a business plan that's pretty detailed!
Unless you aren't serious about your business plan. Maybe you wouldn't know a real business plan if it kicked you in the nards. Maybe the idea of actually doing anything outside your mother's basement scares you. In which case, your post is just so much whining and incoherent noise on a populate public blog. There's lots of that already.
The proof of whether or not you have a good idea is in your ability to make it reality. Otherwise, it's just so much hot air, and thanks to global warming, we have more than enough of that.
But, I suggest you give it a try. You'll either succeed, or learn lots about how the world around you works - either way, you win, and win BIG.
Parent
Here here! (Score:5, Funny)
Parent