Billy West Says Futurama Might Return To Fox For 6th Season 265
MajikJon writes "After strong sales of the straight-to-DVD Futurama movies, Fox is reportedly considering bringing back Futurama for a 6th season. This according to Billy West in a recent statement at the Anime Supercon in Florida. Here's me with my fingers crossed."
Re:As a fan, I hate to say this (Score:5, Interesting)
Well actually, Beast with a Billion Backs sucked, but the rest were pretty damn good. I thought Bender's Game was completely back on form for Futurama.
Re:As a fan, I hate to say this (Score:4, Interesting)
Take a longer term perspective...It'll warm up. (Score:1, Interesting)
I was a huge Futurama fan when it was on TV, so it pains me greatly to say this. But if you can't do better than those terrible new DVD releases, please *DON'T* bring this show back. I don't know if they got different writers for those movies, or whether the writers they brought back just lost their edge, but those were just embarrassing. Each release has managed to be even worse than the previous one.
But if Matt Groening has proven nothing else with The Simpsons, it's that he has absolutely no understanding of the phrase "finishing while you're on top" and all-too-much understanding of "run it into the ground until it's a pathetic shadow of its former greatness."
I actually like the movies quite a bit, but know sort of what you're talking about. There's definitely a bit of "trying too hard" on some of the scenes.
But you should keep in mind--it took a season for the original run to warm up. I think the wait for the episodes to become consistently great again will be far shorter this time around.
Re:Futurama yes! Fox No! (Score:3, Interesting)
Cable channels dont typically have the budget for something like Futurama. Its one thing to licence reruns and produce low-quality stuff like Aqua Force and another run a show like Futurama. Right now, its Fox or nothing. Has any of the major players expressed interest? Everyone seems to shy from animation except for Fox.
Re:As a fan, I hate to say this (Score:3, Interesting)
Really? I absolutely loved Bender's Big Score more than I have the words to express. I felt that it was in every way the perfect futurama movie. But Beasts with a Billion Backs was clearly an unfinished piece, with tons of promising gag ideas mutilated by terrible execution, timing, and unconvincing plot. I figured this was likely due to the writer's strike, but I've been afraid to view Bender's Game lest I suffer the same disappoint.
But if Bender's Game and the fourth dvd are half as good as Big Score, I'd love to see a return to episodes.
Re:Why Fox? (Score:2, Interesting)
Partly it's because they've completely changed the dynamic of every character (usually for the worst--Stewie is now more about "hiding in the closet" now than "take over the world and kill Lois"). Partly it's that the seem to rely more and more on the "like that time when" skits.
All the characters are better and funnier than they used to be. The Stewie character had to change eventually. Honestly, the 'wacky character that is obsessed with global domination' has been played out for a long time, almost as much as either a talking animal/inanimate object, or the self-obsessed, idiot dad. We've seen those things in comics forever and it really isn't much of a gag anymore. The Stewie/Brian-heavy episodes are the best. Anything else is like watching a Lisa- or Marge-heavy episode of The Simpsons. You get through it but you don't expect anything good.
The big question is where American Dad fits in all this. I'm not sure why they didn't just call it 'Another Family Guy' since you've got the idiot dad, the 'smarter than dad' mother, the talking animal (fish), the crazy wacky character (alien, although not bent on world domination), and the 2 kids who aren't interesting in the slightest.
Re:As a fan, I hate to say this (Score:3, Interesting)
Well actually, Beast with a Billion Backs sucked,
Compared to most Futurama, yeah. It wasn't any worse than "That's Lobstertainment" or "A Leela of Her Own", though.
but the rest were pretty damn good. I thought Bender's Game was completely back on form for Futurama.
Not quite. Bender's Big Score (at least parts of it) put together an enthralling plot that tugged at the heartstrings. And Bender's Game managed to keep the jokes hilarious, original, and steady. But by the time they were in full swing, the original Futurama episodes were managing to do both those things simultaneously.
Leela: "Acting like a moron won't bring your dog back."
Fry: "Then all hope is lost."
Re:Futurama yes! Fox No! (Score:5, Interesting)
Matt Groening has said before that Futurama is so budget-intensive that the smaller cable networks would not be able to financially support the show in its current state. I remember he went on to say that the kind of sacrifices that would have to be made to make the transtion from a broadcast to a cable network cut too deep and he was unwilling to make them.
I can't remember exactly where I read this, but it makes sense. It's very espensive to make an animated show of this nature while maintaining Futurama's standard of quality. Look at how Comedy Cental and Adult Swim save money on their animations. South Park is super cheap because there's no hand animation. Drawn Together has hand animation, but it's crude and ugly when you stand it next to Futurama. For years Adult Swim used stock character animations and used computers to manipulate them (e.g. Space Ghost, Sealab).
Futurama needs Fox's money. Kind of like how Mr. Bungle's California could have never been made without Warner Bros.'s money backing it up.