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Television Media It's funny. Laugh.

Groening Confident on Futurama Relaunch 462

Posted by Zonk from the kiss-my-shiny-metal-daffodil dept.
friedo writes "Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons and Futurama, says there may yet be hope for a renewed Futurama series, thanks to high DVD sales and syndication ratings. Comments from David X. Cohen: 'Three months ago, I would have said we were going to start tomorrow ... And one month ago I would also have said we were going to start tomorrow. So...my current estimate is that we're starting tomorrow.'"
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Groening Confident on Futurama Relaunch More

Groening Confident on Futurama Relaunch

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  • Good news everyone! (Score:3, Funny)

    by eldavojohn ( 898314 ) * <eldavojohn@noSpAM.gmail.com> on Tuesday December 20, 2005 @02:23PM (#14300358) Journal
    Space. It seems to go on and on forever. But then you get to the end and a gorilla starts throwing barrels at you ...

  • In the words of Zapp Brannigan (Score:5, Funny)

    by Crudely_Indecent ( 739699 ) * on Tuesday December 20, 2005 @02:23PM (#14300362) Journal
    "If we hit that bullseye, the rest of the dominos will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate."

  • Bender! (Score:2, Interesting)

    by ericdano ( 113424 )
    Yes! More Bender in the world is a good thing.

  • nice. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by joemawlma ( 897746 ) on Tuesday December 20, 2005 @02:24PM (#14300369)
    The Family Guy came back because of the demand of the fans. Futurama can do it too! Too bad FOX wasn't smart enough to realize they should have never cancelled either of them. But what can you do? It's FOX.

    • Re:nice. (Score:2, Interesting)

      by FraggleMI ( 117868 )
      I don't know. I think that cancelling them increased their appeal and popularity.

    • Re:nice. (Score:5, Funny)

      by Council ( 514577 ) <rmunroe@gm[ ].com ['ail' in gap]> on Tuesday December 20, 2005 @02:38PM (#14300619) Homepage
      The Family Guy came back because of the demand of the fans. Futurama can do it too! Too bad FOX wasn't smart enough to realize they should have never cancelled either of them.

      Fox cancels Family Guy, Futurama, and Firefly, each of which is critically acclaimed and later brought back in some way.

      Perhaps they should just realize that they should never cancel shows beginning with "F".

    • Appropriate Family Guy Quote (Score:5, Funny)

      by glennrrr ( 592457 ) on Tuesday December 20, 2005 @03:07PM (#14301061)
      Peter: Everybody I've got bad news. We've been cancelled.

      Lois:Oh no Peter! How could they do that?

      Peter: Well unfortuantely Lois, there's just no more room on the schedule. We just gotta accept the fact that FOX has to make room for terrific shows like Dark Angel, Titus, Undeclared, Action, That 80's Show, Wonder Falls, Fast Lane, Andy Richter Controls The Universe, Skin, Girl's Club, Cracking Up, The Pitts, Firefly, Get Real, Freaky Links, Wanda At Large, Costello, The Lone Gunman, A Minute with Stan Hooper, Normal Ohio, Pasadena, Harsh Realm, Keen Eddy, The Street, American Embassy, Cedric The Entertainer, The Tick, Louie, And Greg The Bunny....

      Lois:Is there no hope?

      Peter:Well I suppose if ALL those shows go down the tubes we might have a shot.

    • Re:nice. (Score:3, Insightful)

      by drsquare ( 530038 )
      Family Guy has been awful since they restarted it. Be careful what you wish for.

      Sometimes it's best when programmes are killed at their peak. Otherwise you end up with a slow, steady descent into medeocrity like the Simpsons.

      • Re:nice. (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Otter ( 3800 )
        For that matter, the last season of Futurama (where it turned into Friends with a talking lobster) was also awful. I'd missed them all when they were originally on, but having seen them in reurns, it's like watching Ross and Rachel break up for the eleventeenth time.

      • Re:nice. (Score:3, Insightful)

        by X86Daddy ( 446356 )
        Family Guy has been awful since they restarted it. Be careful what you wish for.

        I've also noticed the show being more... shallow and repetitive, like it has lost something. However, I still tune in and still get some laughs out of it, because a crappier Family Guy is a whole lot better than most shows at their best, IMHO. Fox has to air *something*. I do miss Andy Richter Controls the Universe though...

  • I took the liberty... (Score:5, Funny)

    by n0dna ( 939092 ) on Tuesday December 20, 2005 @02:24PM (#14300383)
    of fertilizing your caviar. -Dr. Zoidberg

  • Cancel (Score:5, Insightful)

    by kevin_conaway ( 585204 ) on Tuesday December 20, 2005 @02:25PM (#14300387) Homepage
    I always questioned the decision to cancel Futurama, it just seemed so...neutral. I wondered what made them do it. Lust for gold? Power? Perhaps they were all just born with a heart full of neutrality.

    Either way, I'd be happy if they brought it back. I do wonder what the new episodes would be like though. The last episode kind of "wrapped" up the series.
    • I always questioned the decision to cancel Futurama, it just seemed so...neutral.

      What makes a TV Network Execubot turn nuetral anyway?
      • What makes a TV Network Execubot turn nuetral anyway?

        Extra-Strength Neutronium Robot Breakfast Cereal! It's mm-mm-good!

    • Re:Cancel (Score:5, Insightful)

      by geoffspear ( 692508 ) on Tuesday December 20, 2005 @02:35PM (#14300564) Homepage
      It was cancelled because the 60 year old former football players talking about nothing and 15 minutes of commercials they had sharing a timeslot with the last 5 minutes of each episode got, for some reason they couldn't figure out, really bad ratings.

      Don't get me wrong, I love football. I'd rather see the end of a good football game then the start of Pollyanna. Or even Futurama. But almost every week, the late Fox game would end before Futurama was scheduled to begin on the East Coast, and they still insisted on doing a meaningless postgame show afterwards. CBS, on the other hand, has been showing games that ended after 7:00 for years, and have always begun 60 Minutes immediately after the end of the actual game, without even cutting any of the show.

      I was actually shocked this week when Fox managed to show all of it's Sunday night programming despite the President's address. I really expected the local news to come on at 10:00, forcing me to wait for Cartoon Network to air the end of American Dad in 2 weeks. Some idiot at Fox must have gotten replaced with a trained monkey or something.

    • The last episode kind of "wrapped" up the series.

      Uh. I'm not really sure what you mean by that? What did "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings" really wrap up?

      Anyway, what I'm more worried about is the cast. Will all the wonderful voice actors be willing/available for a new series?

  • would have to keep that humor fresh, the worst thing a cartoon or animation can do is start to repeat itself. I think think of a few huge ones that have fallen into that trap and should have been put down years ago.
    • the worst thing a cartoon or animation can do is start to repeat itself. I think think of a few huge ones that have fallen into that trap and should have been put down years ago.

      I went back and watched most of the run of Futurama recently when my little brother got into it, and I noticed something interesting: the final season is by a good margin the best. A lot of the memorable episodes are there. The Sting, where Leela gets stabbed by that bee, Fry dies, and then Leela starts to lose it -- was it just m

  • Bender Quote (Score:4, Funny)

    by waterlogged ( 210759 ) <crussey@[ ]mail.com ['hot' in gap]> on Tuesday December 20, 2005 @02:25PM (#14300394)
    First thing I want bender to say when he comes back....

    "Fox can bite my shiny metal ass"
    • > First thing I want bender to say when he comes back....
      >
      >"Fox can bite my shiny metal ass"

      X-Bender: Yeah, well I'm gonna build my own slashdot posting about Futurama! With blackjack! And Hookers! Actually, forget the slashdot post. And the blackjack. Aaaawww... forget the whole thing!

    • I agree; I hope they are able to follow through on the last "laser placard" (or whatever they call it), which IIRC was "See you on another channel."
    • When Jack Paar came back on the Tonight Show after a "hiatus" forced by NBC execs. His opening line was "As I was saying before I was interupted..." Futurama should do some riff on coming back from a time warp / black hole.

  • Whew! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by mister_llah ( 891540 ) on Tuesday December 20, 2005 @02:26PM (#14300404) Homepage Journal
    I have to say, this is a relief, if it actually happens, there may be hope that Arrested Development, too, may be saved from the fires!

    Too bad it doesn't seem to work for sci-fi (see also: Firefly, Farscape) ... :/

  • Good News Everyone! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 20, 2005 @02:30PM (#14300475)
    Good News Everyone!
  • ...now just Firefly and Farscape to go.

  • HEY TACO!!! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by eno2001 ( 527078 ) on Tuesday December 20, 2005 @02:33PM (#14300539) Homepage Journal
    Why don't you get Groening for a Slashdot interview?? Then we'd have the inevitable "I'd like to subscribe to your newsletter" posts for a month.
  • This would make me happier than a green snake in a sugarcane-field!

  • Adult swim strikes again (Score:5, Insightful)

    by squison ( 546401 ) on Tuesday December 20, 2005 @02:36PM (#14300577)
    Yet another Fox series brought back from the dead by Adult Swim.

  • The only cancellation that I mourn more... (Score:3, Funny)

    by komodotoes ( 939836 ) on Tuesday December 20, 2005 @02:41PM (#14300658) Homepage
    ...than Futurama's is that of Turbo Pascal.



    NeverEndingBillboard.com [neverendingbillboard.com]
  • Futurama is coming back. Or maybe it doesn't. Either way I'm indifferent about what happens. ... or so you thought! YIPPIE!
  • ...let's get drunk!

    Now, strip naked and get on the probulator!
  • ... what day and hour is FOX going to put it on? I know Sunday nights are the domination animation night (or whatever they called it) with The Simpsons, Family Guy, and American Dad. Maybe FOX can put it after The Simpsons (Matt Groening's hour)? Is Futurama going to be at 7:00 PM again like before? That is why it got killed because of east coast with sport games (e.g., NFL). It didn't help when overtimes occurred! :(
    • Overtimes are pretty rare in the NFL, and when they do happen, they're usually not that long. The fact of the matter is that the TV stations only schedule 3 hours for NFL games, when the average game length is over 3 hours. On top of that, the games never start exactly at 4:15. It's a recipe for disaster, but it's no one's fault except for the networks.
  • "So...my current estimate is that we're starting tomorrow.'"

    Alright, Slashdotters, which will come first?
    1. Flying cars
    2. Fusion power (cold or otherwise)
    3. New Futurama
  • Firstly, why are the words "Good news, everyone!" nowhere in the summary? Secondly, here [ucam.org] are some potential future plot lines which were opened in the first four seasons and could yet stand to be resolved: * The Fry/Leela love story arc * Fry is the single most important person in the universe and still needs to help the Nibblonians save it at least once more * Morbo's people have yet to live up to his threats and invade Earth * Scruffy - Who is this guy? Seriously? * How and when exactly did New York bec

  • Happy Xmas (Score:4, Funny)

    by BorgCopyeditor ( 590345 ) on Tuesday December 20, 2005 @02:56PM (#14300887)
    -- Fry's still outside? He'd better watch out!
    -- Why?
    -- I'm telling you why: Santa Claus is coming to town!
  • I simply LOVE that series! I put it at the very top of my "best animated series"-list!
    I feel a quote from professor Farnsworth is in order:

    - Everyone, I have a very dramatic announcement, so anyone with a weak heart should leave now. Goodbye!

    I can't wait!
  • Congratulate /. for bringing us this story by giving it some good HEAD:
    lynx --dump --head http://slashdot.org/ | grep "\(X-Fry\|X-Bender\)" | sed 's/^X-//'
  • <ubergeek>

    In "The Why Of Fry", when Fry confronts Nibbler back in 1999, Nibbler talks about a prophecy where Fry saves the universe (what he is doing at that moment) and mentions that Leela must be "the other".

    They have to do something with Leela's part of the prophecy!

    </ubergeek>

  • NO! they need to tell Fox to F themselves. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Lumpy ( 12016 ) on Tuesday December 20, 2005 @03:18PM (#14301239) Homepage
    Futurama is the perfect show to prove to the content providers that TV is a useless medium for selling content. they need to make futurama available as a pay per episode download on itunes and in a higher resolution format. I would gladly subscribe to individual shows Monthly than pay Cable Tv to shovel 900 channels of garbage at me.

    Futurama would be one of those shows that even at $3,99 a download would sell at insane levels and make mattand company vastly more money than they could ever get on a TV network and in the same setup become the pioneers that pavedthe way for the future of television.

  • Just shows that Fox doesn't have a clue ... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Hellasboy ( 120979 ) on Tuesday December 20, 2005 @03:19PM (#14301260)
    Just shows that Fox doesn't have a clue in marketing and keeping good shows.

    I remember that I could never find Futurama on the air because they kept shuffling the time slot and then when I did find its timeslot, it would appear in its timeslot sometimes. Not to mention that they quit advertising the show on their station. Fox kept on showing advertisements for Oliver Beene and John Doe (I think, it's been a few years).

    Now Fox is doing the same thing with my favorite show, Arrested Development. I heard they had changed it to Monday, so I waited to watch it on Monday. Oh wait, not *that* Monday. The monday it did appear, I missed it because I didn't know. You would think that then on the following monday it would be shown... nope, something else was on. I think it's been on Monday for the last two weeks but it's hard to plan to watch it on a regular basis (on TV) when they keep on changing the timeslot. I don't think any of the other networks do this, they'll show a rerun if they don't have a new episode in that timeslot. We'll, hopefully Showtime will pick it up. If that happens then I just might get cable.

    It just shows that Fox isn't looking for good shows but for instant hits.

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