Futurama to be Resurrected? 508
KingDaveRa writes "Futurama could follow in the footsteps of Family Guy and re-enter production more than two years after it was axed. The animated series, brainchild of Simpsons creator Matt Groening, ended after four produced seasons amid lackluster ratings and broken scheduling on broadcast network Fox." From the Reuters article: "Reps for 20th Century Fox have declined to comment on the news, but Variety says initial negotiations have begun. If revived, it's unclear exactly which network would air the new episodes. While Fox housed the original series, the show found new life once reruns began showing on the Cartoon Network. Comedy Central subsequently snapped up the off-air rights and will exclusively air the repeats beginning in 2008. " A follow-up to Groening and Cohen's recent comments.
Cool, but... (Score:4, Interesting)
Family Guy, Futurama... (Score:3, Interesting)
Fox could save themselves a lot of trouble by just not cancelling these shows in the first place. Low ratings for a critically-acclaimed show? How about better promotion and not jacking around with the schedule? The word-of-mouth behind these programs makes people want to watch them, but that doesn't do much good if new viewers can't find the proper time slot.
Re:Eh, it's not worth it. (Score:3, Interesting)
But I'm pretty stoked about the prospect of Futurama returning.
Dissapointing (Score:4, Interesting)
There are certainly benifits to bringing old shows back, mostly a known audience and fewer development costs, but in terms of entertainment I find that these shows add very little.
I enjoyed Family Guy, but face the facts. It was cancelled because it pushed too hard (When you wish upon a Weintstein), and clearly they show was nuetered before it was let back on the air.
Re:Cool, but... (Score:3, Interesting)
But the show's too linear, I think. I dunno. It's not like I
Family Guy is a show that can just pick up wherever it dropped off. Futurama, I'm not sure. And I say this because (in my opinion) Futurama is a MUCH higher-quality show.
what? (Score:2, Interesting)
What are you talking about? So you like Family Guy and Simpsons better. So what? Have you flipped through your cable channels lately?
Even if you like said shows better, Futurama is more than worth bringing back considering it's infinitely better than 99.5% of what's on tv.
The main question (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Evidently, you're in the minority. (Score:3, Interesting)
what about the rest?
Fry: What's so wonderful about Leela being normal? The rest of us aren't normal. And that's what makes us great. Like Dr. Zoidberg. He's a weird monster who smells like he eats garbage and does.
Dr. Zoidberg: Damn right.
Fry: And the professor's a senile amoral crackpot.
Professor: Oyeeaii.
Fry: Hermes is a Rastafarian accountant.
Hermes: Tally me banana.
Fry: Amy is a klutz from Mars.
Amy: Whoops.
Professor: And Fry, you've got that brain thing.
Fry: I already did!
Re:What's to stop Fox from doing it again though? (Score:5, Interesting)
Here's a hint to programming managers.... Scheduling a sports event is a lot simpler than you think.
Step 1: block an extra hour for the sports event.
Step 2: book sports guests to fill that hour.
Step 3: when (not if) the game runs over, trim the time per person.
Step 4: if it runs -really- long, cut entire interviews.
Step 5: since you've probably paid to have interviews with those folks, tape the interviews off-air at the end.
Step 6: schedule a regular sports follow-up show later in the week and use the interviews taped after the game.
My suspicion is that the people doing the scheduling are just clueless. As I said in a brief speech to a room full of network execs, TV personalities, and communications faculty a few years ago, when you pay people peanuts like most TV stations do, the best and brightest tend to seek careers elsewhere.
Avoid Fox like the Plague (Score:2, Interesting)
I don't know what goes on over there at Fox, but how many decent shows have been axed for no good reason and others left on inperpetuity. Are you telling me that Kind of the Hill has had better ratings then Firefly?
Fox doesn't realize the benefit of a small but loyal fan base. Even if shows like Firefly or Futurama only have a few million viewers, they are usually viewers that tune in faithfuly every week. With that kind of dedicated fan base, you can focus more targetted advertising to a generally similar group of viewers. This opposed to a shows like American Idol that, while having 20+ million viewers, are so varied and wishy washy (only watching the show until their favourite contestant is axed) that you can't find any common advertising ground to target the viewers. In the end, you can actually get more money for advertising slots for cult shows like X-Files, Buffy, and Futurama because advertisers know there is are at least a few million Geeks faithfully watching every week that probably would want to buy some electronic underwear with PDA capabilities.
But Fox, in general, has been abysmal in terms of promoting innovative programming and instead dumping tired cliche sitcoms (at a time when sitcoms are dropping faster then flies on crap) and keeping long running and tiresome franchises like the Simpson's and King of the Hill on forever. Fox is realizing they are losing an audience, and so now have to rely on pulling up past successes in order to fill their timeslots.
But if Matt had a brain, he would can the Simpsons and bring Futurama to another network and end any relationship with Fox. Even if Futurama was reserected, Fox will probably keep it going sporadically until they find some other Malcom in the Middle, Married with Children, Simpson's, King of the Hill, American Dad, War At Home clone devoid of talent to replace it.
Quick poll. Does anybody still watch Fox these days?
You got that right... (Score:4, Interesting)
Absolutely. Fox bungled Futurama like no other show before. Even my Tivo couldn't keep up with the continously changing schedule. The reason it got low ratings is that absolutely nobody knew when it was on.
When it started getting aired on Adult Swim, I was finally able to see a whole season or two of shows that I have never seen before. Not for lack of trying, mind you, it was just impossible to know when they aired them.
Family Guy, however, I never did understand why they cancelled it. It had a decent timeslot, and it was getting increasing numbers of viewers. They just shot it down before it built up a large audience. These days it seems like they cancel a show if it's not an instant hit, which is stupid, of course. Firefly was totally mishandled by airing the episodes wrong (you can't do that when there are story arcs and characters to be developed). They shot down Wonderfalls, a terrific show, after only 4 episodes that *nobody knew about* because they failed to advertise the thing!
Fox just has the most amazing bunch of idiots running the network. It's simply incredible how dumb these decisions are.
Re:TV execs don't have a clue (Score:2, Interesting)
That's one more reason I thought Firefly would be a great pickup for the SF Network--not only does it have a pre-made audience, it would be cheaper to make. Eight regular characters and only a half-dozen sets, plus one or two CGI shots an episode, and you can come in under budget pretty easily, I would think.
Unfortunately, Fox still owns the broadcast contract, and has shown no willingness to let someone else buy it from them. They only let Paramount make the movie because it wasn't TV competition--and even then they wouldn't let them use the word "Firefly" in the title or the ads. In all seriousness, I think the weakest point of the movie (which I thought was really great otherwise) was the title, which I think really hurt it at the box office. Who would go see an action movie called "Serenity", if they hadn't seen the show? They would have been much better off calling it something like "Captain Reynolds Versus the Cannibal Space Pirates", or the eqivalent.
Re:Sunday? (Score:1, Interesting)
I presume it is to boost the ratings of these shows, but the only effect it has had on me is to stop watching altogether. King of the Hill and Malcolm in the Middle are fine shows, but neither is an especially good fit between episodes of the Simpsons.
Re:futurama... too smart for mass consumption (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:HD? (Score:2, Interesting)