One Last New Episode of Futurama 401
Ant writes "Futurama's last new episode airs tonight at 7:00 PM on Fox." If you're missing your fix, there's a Futurama website with entirely too much Futurama info.
Algebraic symbols are used when you do not know what you are talking about. -- Philippe Schnoebelen
X-Bender (Score:5, Funny)
Re:X-Bender (Score:2, Funny)
Re:X-Bender (Score:5, Informative)
James
Re:X-Bender (Score:3, Funny)
We are reasonably satisfied with the events we have seen. Overall I would rate it a C+; okay, not great.
RIP Futurama (Score:5, Informative)
At least we can always have them on DVD [amazon.com].
As I grew older, I definatly got more into Futurama then the Simpsons, even though I've been watching the Simpsons since 1990.
Re:RIP Futurama (Score:5, Informative)
Re:RIP Futurama (Score:2)
Re:RIP Futurama (Score:2)
Re:RIP Futurama (Score:2)
I think SciFi carries it too don't they?
Re:RIP Futurama (Score:3)
Re:RIP Futurama (Score:3, Informative)
Re:RIP Futurama (Score:3, Informative)
What exactly is so sick about it?
sad but (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: sad but (Score:2)
> i can't say it ever gripped me. i enjoy it. watch it now and again when tivo records it for me and generally find it very funny but for some reason it never had that "must see the next episode now" magic.
Me neither, but notice that that description puts it far ahead of most of the crap you can find on television these days. Especially without a $90/mo cable habit.
Re:sad but (Score:5, Funny)
I dunno what it is but I prefer the characters of Futurama, maybe because they are newer but they still each have their own zing about them - Fry, Leela, Bender, Amy, Prof F., Hermes and Zoidberg (the funniest cartoon character ever). Is it me or is Homer's stupidity getting a little tiresome?
Add to that some great sci-fi - cool gadgets, more zany storylines, AND EXCELLENT COMPUTER JOKES! Some of the ones I can remember
Sign in a Robot Church:
"10 Sin
20 Goto Hell"
Wall plaque:
"10 Home
20 Sweet
30 Goto 10"
Bender: "I had a crazy dream, all ones and zeros, and I think I saw a 2 in there too!"
And of course the episode in the haunted house with the flying Windows logo and eery startup sound.
Re:sad but (Score:3, Interesting)
It's not just you. I haven't watched the Simpson's in about 2 years. It just sucks since they've made it darker and just stoop too low for the sake of "laughs". I'll laugh when it's gone.
Funny how shows start off great and then go to hell. Like "Friends". Whenever I hear something funny on that show, I turn my head and see that it's an older episode.
Re:sad but (Score:5, Insightful)
It was when the doctors found Homer was stupid because he had a crayon jammed in his brain. Removing it made him smart, but there was a difficult period of adjustment, so at the end of the episode, he put the crayon back.
That's not funny. That's f*&cking tragic and depressing.
Re:sad but (Score:3, Informative)
Re:sad but (Score:4, Interesting)
The Simpsons had these gags, but they were a lot less prominent while other more obvious gags kept a wider audience amused.
Re:sad but (Score:4, Insightful)
For me it was because Fox kept pre-empting it for football. That and the 7pm time-slot was actually kind of hard to catch. Simpsons had me programmed to be ready at 8. Man I was addicted to that show when it was on right after the Simpsons.
What really bugged me was that they showed Star Wars one Sunday at 5pm. Futurama would normally have been on at 7pm, following Star Wars. Seems like a pretty damn good lineup, dontcha think? Nope. We got two eps of King of the Hill that day.
I can understand that Futurama didn't do it for ya, but I feel rather strongly that Fox really blew it when it came to giving Futurama a chance to develop a strong audience.
Re:sad but (Score:4, Insightful)
FOX has some really good shows, and some really lousy shows, unfortunately they seem to focus more on pumping out a lot of lousy shows rather than focusing on the really good ones. Simpsons has taken a significant downturn in the last few years (since reality tv came out...coincidence? maybe). They seem to have gotten better this last season, but seasons 12 and 13 were really quite pathetic. They've also had several really good shows (imho) that they just didn't care about and dropped because nobody was watching or whatever -- except it was impossible to tell when the shows would be on...no wonder. Futurama and Family Guy both fit into this category.
Let's just hope they don't blow it with their next good idea...and enough with the reality crap people! If I wanted reality, I'd go out...TV is supposed to be a break from reality.
Re:sad but (Score:4, Insightful)
I finally realized that Fox was actively trying to kill Futurama when they pre-empted the show for post game football. I just hope the newer episodes make their way onto Comedy Central.
Michael, a question? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Michael, a question? (Score:2)
Re:Michael, a question? (Score:2)
Re:LOOK, DUMBFUCK (Score:5, Funny)
That still doesn't make it justice.
How about something like "from the Morbo demands more episodes dept?"
That quote should even be obvious to you w/ your learning disability, Fry.
Subscriber bastards! (Score:4, Insightful)
One comment's up and already the gotfuturama.com site's down.
I'm sorry to see Futurama go. It started getting really funny, and I will use "Bite my shiny metal ass" in response to silly feature requests for many years.
I bought the first episode DVDs already. *Sigh* and I will buy the rest when they come out...
Re:Subscriber bastards! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Subscriber bastards! (Score:2)
Re:Subscriber bastards! (Score:4, Funny)
It was preempted for a NFL Fantasy Football site.
Oh, and if Bender says 'ass', Katherine Harris appears [gotfuturama.com].
What is there to say? (Score:5, Insightful)
Bite my shiny metal... OH NOOO!
Re:What is there to say? (Score:2, Insightful)
I do not go out of my way to see it. When I do see it, I chuckle and enjoy it, but I'm not going to go out of my way (i.e. go upstairs away from the terminal) to see it. It isn't worth wrestling the remote out of the death g
Re:What is there to say? (Score:4, Insightful)
OTOH Futurama had a lot further to go, because they could introduce new ideas each episode... no preconcieved ideas of what was possible and plenty of B-movies to do parodies of.
Newspaper article with David X. Cohen interview: (Score:3, Informative)
(posting as a reply to my post to avoid it being drowned in the masses of replies to the main article)
http://www.canoe.ca/ Television/aug8_future-sun.html [canoe.ca]
Re:What is there to say? (Score:5, Funny)
Oh, err, wait....
Zap Branagan and Kif rule (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Zap Branagan and Kif rule (Score:4, Funny)
And that's why you'll never make Captain, Kif.
Re:Zap Branagan and Kif rule (Score:5, Funny)
Sad.. (Score:5, Insightful)
The simspsons was geared a lot towards children usually, where I always felt Futurama was more for adults (Any one remember the death by snu-snu joke in the amazon woman episode?)
Oh well, just another shining example of how Fox knows how to cancel the best shows: Now i've lost my family guy AND futurama fix
Re:Sad.. (Score:5, Insightful)
There are a bunch of things wrong with your post, but I'll stick to one that you should understand. Here's what you wrote:
"Oh well, just another shining example of how Fox knows how to cancel the best shows: Now i've lost my family guy AND futurama fix
The thing about this is that Fox actually approved/funded/aired these shows in the first place. Fox is far from perfect, I'm no fanboy, but the other big networks don't tolerate stuff like Family Guy and Futurama. Fox stuck with the show through four years of poor ratings, and with Family Guy through three years or so of dismal ratings.
Fox is a business. They need to maximize profits. That aside, the fact that they take risks on shows like these is good for us, because occasionally, the quirky show turns out to be a money maker.
Re:Sad.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Sad.. (Score:5, Informative)
Family Guy - when it was on Fox, I never knew when it was airing. Sunday? Monday? Tuesday? Friday? They kept moving it, so they were never able to snare a viewer base.
Re:Sad.. (Score:5, Informative)
I refer you to one of the latest episodes of Futurama, the one with the execubots. Family Guy fell victim to Execubot Beta (the dice-roller), while Futurama got nailed Execubots Gamma (programmed to underestimate middle America) and Alpha. (programmed to like things it has seen before)
Seriously, justifying things through ratings is a cop-out. Both shows are great, but the ratings system is set up to punish anything that's not ruthlessly mass-market. (Or rather, what the networks WANT to be mass-market this season) Simpsons came out of nowhere and hit them between the eyes in the early '90s, and they don't want to risk that happening again... But they also don't want to be seen as not sponsoring anything new. So you get kamikaze shows, like Family Guy or Futurama.
Re:Sad.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Fox certainly is willing to take risks other networks don't... That is how it works if you want people to watch your fourth banana network. Imagine how hard it is to get good shows if you're a fifth or sixth banana, like UPN/WB are? However, part of taking risks is knowing that you sometimes have to STICK WITH IT for a while, and not just by not cancelling it.
Fox did more to sabotage that show than they did to help it. (Many television networks are guilty of this, not just Fox. See also "Ed" on NBC.) First, they changed timeslots over and over and over again so that even people who already KNEW the show was good never knew when to tune in. Frequent timeslot changes had more to do with Family Guy not finding a big audience in first run. The show should be on where "Malcolm in the Middle" is now, and Malcolm should be slinging shakes at Mc Donald's.
Contrast this with Cartoon Network, where Family Guy beat Jay Leno AND David Letterman COMBINED in the 18-34 demographic several evenings in July. How did this happen? They picked a good time, put it on, left it there, and promoted it. Amazingly enough people watch.
This is both extraordinary and revolutionary... [/sarcasm]
Re:Sad.. (Score:2)
They did stick with it... 5 years of Futurama and 3 years or so of Family Guy. If ABC even had the cojones to put Futurama on, they would have seen the ratings and cancelled it before 8 episodes (which I realize is 1 season on the BBC...).
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Sad.. (Score:2)
Re:Sad.. (Score:2)
That show deserves to be cancelled.
Re:Sad.. (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't have a problem with Fox canceling shows that nobody watches. (I don't like it, but hey, it happens.) My problem is that they didn't seem to give Futurama a chance after the first season. It's honestly like they were trying to kill it, and many people close to the situation say that's exactly what was happening.
Re:Sad.. (Score:4, Informative)
Futurama is definatly more adult oriented, but still has the site gags and what not that children love, so it still makes for a good family show.
Then again it's not really fair to compare the two shows really. Simpsons have been around 14 years, Futurama 5. Though I do think the 5th season of Futurama is superior to a 5th season Simpsons, but Groening has grown as an artist since that time, so that can be expected.
Let's just hope Futurama gets the syndication that the Simpsons has, and I'll still be happy!
Who here misses... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Sad.. (Score:2)
Re:Sad.. (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm going to have to disagree with you on this one. One of the things that I like most about the Simpsons is that the show seems to have evolved (read: grown) with its audience. When I watch the first few seasons, those that were aired in my pre-teen/teen years, I can see how easily I related to them then -- they were geared
Atilla the "Fox Channel" Hun (Score:3)
Oh well, just another shining example of how Fox knows how to cancel the best shows: Now i've lost my family guy AND futurama fix
Geez, lets not forget Dark Angel and Firefly. And I'm betting "Keen Eddie" will soon get the axe. I'm sure they're even more causualties. They're probably repressed memories waiting to explode on my consciousness.
And doesn't an Almighty Deity make them suffer like ABC? (for killing Cupid...)
Re:Sad.. (Score:2)
Anyone who thinks that The Simpsons is a kids cartoon hasn't gone through puberty yet.
Had too much information (Score:3, Funny)
Sigh... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Sigh... (Score:2, Insightful)
Because nothing does.
Re:Sigh... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Sigh... (Score:4, Insightful)
I second that, and am constantly amazed that Mike Judge (creator of Beavis and Butthead) managed to make such a good family-oriented show, which several times has brought a tear to my eye. Very well-written, although obviously catering to a different audience. Not always funny (but Dale is hilarious), but very touching.
Heh, heh. He said "touching."
Re:Sigh... (Score:3, Insightful)
One of the funniest moments of the show was when Buckley broke up with Luanne. Hank was tired of listening to her, and gave her the advice that "sometimes it's just better to bottle up your emotions instead of letting them out".
Re:Sigh... (Score:3, Funny)
sssh - don't tell anyone....
Re:Sigh... (Score:2)
A show can be critically acclaimed and have rabid fanboys, but none of that matters, just ratings.
Re:Sigh... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Sigh... (Score:2)
Re:Sigh... (Score:2)
In the words of the manager of Ultimate Robot Fighting: "It's pure lowest common denominator". Friends sells. I've seen the DVDs with Friends episodes piled high, and people were snapping them up. This in a country where you'll be hard-pressed to find episodes of any other series on DVD.
Futurama's a brilliant show but I can see that it has limited appeal... just like most quality stuff.
Indeed a sad, sad day. (Score:5, Insightful)
I truly am disgusted with television, and really only look forward to The Simpsons and B5 reruns. I can't see anything coming up that remotely appeals to me.
Re:Indeed a sad, sad day. (Score:2)
There's BBC America also. Coupling and Manchild are both exceptionally excellent.
Fox network is a joke (Score:4, Insightful)
After all, those licenses were granted to provide a broadcast service "in the public interest", but when was the last time you saw something on TV that wasn't crap? You could even argue that the majority of commercial broadcasting actually makes people more stupid. That can't POSSIBLY be in the public's interest.
PBS has some good stuff, maybe History Channel, but what else? Along the same lines, when was the last time you heard a radio program (besides NPR) that wasn't the same recycled viagra jokes/top 40 playlist as every other station on the dial? Granted, Clear Channel is making plenty of money, but what about the public, the people the broadcaster's were entrusted to serve?
Re:Fox network is a joke (Score:5, Insightful)
Clear Channel, Fox, et al are making money precisely because the public voluntarily chooses their programming.
Re:Fox network is a joke (Score:2)
Sorry, but that is irrelevant. The FCC has ruled time and again that "People are watching/listening" is not a valid excuse for broadcasting things that aren't in the public's interest. Traditionally, the FCC has interpreted this as meaning "the public's BEST interest", while most broadcasters these days define it as "What catches the public's eye/interest."
A good example of this conflict of seman
What a Shame (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:What a Shame (Score:2)
Re:What a Shame (Score:2)
One thing I must know... (Score:5, Funny)
Mirror (Score:4, Informative)
You can view the full site here...
http://www.gotfuturama.com/index.shtml
Re:Mirror (Score:3, Insightful)
Obligatory text of episode blurb (Score:4, Informative)
Taken from the site itself..
By the way, this last and final episode ties in neatly w/ this episode [tvtome.com]
Well.... (Score:2)
Re:Well.... (Score:2)
So, in addition to not making money, they can lose money? Sounds like a business plan! Not that I would actually mind it.
DVDs + ANNOUNCEMENT FIREFLY DVDs IN DEC!!! (Score:2)
Futurama - The Game (Score:2, Interesting)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle
Futurama HTTP headers (Score:5, Funny)
Cut'n'Paste from the site (Score:4, Informative)
-----
Looks like Futurama executive producer David Cohen has been busy giving interviews the last few days. In this IGN front page linked article, he talks about what he did in the meantime, what he wants to do in the future (including a movie project with Ken Keeler - the writer of tomorrow's final episode), the long-shot hope for continuing Futurama with Cartoon Network, the slightly better Futurama movie possibility, the upcoming Season 2 DVDs, the Futurama Video Game and
IGN DVD: Has there been grassroots fan efforts to save the show like there was with other series?
Cohen: There have been huge efforts but the network hasn't been too interested. There is an online petition that as far as I know is the largest petition in TV history to save a show, and there's a Web site run by fans called GotFuturama.com. That site ended up being the central location for fans to go to, and I admit that I go there to see an air date or something I've forgotten. They have a link to it (the petition). I think at one point they delivered a hardcopy to Fox executives which must have been the size of five Manhattan phone books. (laughs) And before questions flare up, I think he got the thing about the Game Cube Futurama video game wrong. All signs still point towards no go there.
A Testament to Groening (Score:5, Informative)
If you look at other TV show DVD sets, Groening's collections can beat just about anyone out there. They are reasonabley priced (around 30-40 bucks at most stores) compared to some TV shows selling their sets at $80-100. The production quality is great, so you don't have to suffer through bad transfers (although there was an initial pressing problem with Simpsons S1 that was fixed). And probably the reason I love them the most is the fact that Groening and his boys sit down and do commentaries on all their episodes. They know that you can watch all the episodes and get a laugh out of them, but the thing that keeps you coming baack is hearing them shred their episodes to pieces. We've all seen Simpsons and Futurama on synidcation long enough to know a lot of the old episodes by heart, but the commentaries are pure genious. So it might be sad that the TV shows are leaving us, but props to Matt for a dedication to kick ass DVDs
Re:A Testament to Groening (Score:3, Informative)
In addition, they don't try to squeeze every last dollar out of you they can...
If you look at the Farscape DVDs, they only have 2 episodes per DVD, which is really *^&%$#@!-up in my opinion. There's absolutely no reason for that, other than trying to squeeze even more money out of people.
Interview with X (Score:2)
Here's the story [ign.com]
Futurama Drinking Game (Score:2, Funny)
/shameless plug
A victim of Fox (Score:2, Insightful)
Sky One do this in the UK (Score:2, Interesting)
Now if only Sky One didn't put "Sky One Brand New" in the top left *and* a red blob in the top right (do
get it: (Score:2)
My favourite quote has to be... (Score:2)
That line is delivered so well (I would say casually, but Morbo isn't exactly casual) that every time I hear it I can't help but laugh. It shows that all the writing that made the Simpsons (at least in the early years) carried over to Futurama.
Here's hoping that the Simpsons can retire gracefully when their contract is up, and that Futurama shall rise again!
Bittorent? (Score:2)
Alternate Market (Score:2, Insightful)
Do you think it would be realistic for them to continue making the series directly to DVD?
Think about it. I know that I along with most of my friends either own, or are planning to own all of the Family Guy/Futurama DVDs in addition to having downloaded copies of the sh
Zoidberg for president (Score:3)
Huzzah!!! Someone is noticing me! (/Zoidberg)
i am truly bent that my TiVo shall no longer grab for me the funniest and best written 22 minutes of my TV viewing week. Fox can bite my shiny metal ass for cancelling Futurama
Re:another good show gone (Score:2)
~Philly
Re:Seasons DVDs ? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Seasons DVDs ? (Score:2)
They are also being shown out of order... but what show isn't these days.
Re:Bit Torrent seeds (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)