Futurama: Can it be True!?

foolinator writes "Wired News has reported that Futurama could be making a comeback! From the article: "Last year, Futurama and Family Guy reruns did so well that it's likely both shows (which Fox killed in prime time) will produce new episodes." " Now if only I could get more Firefly, TV might be worth watching again.

Good news

"Good news everyone, we're canceled!"

Hey Fox, Let me program Sundays for you

Here's the new Fox lineup starting at 8pm, 7 central:

8:00 = The Simpsons

8:30 = Futurama (Oliver Bean was funnier when it was called "The Wonder Years")

9:00 = The Family Guy (Malcome in the Middle should be Malcom in the Unemployment line)

9:30 = Arrested Development (this is a GREAT show, please keep it idiots)

Please note, there are no laugh tracks in any of the above shows...as you don't need to tell us when something is funny. (Animated before a live audience?)

Also, Fox WILL stop from the idiotic news teases such as "Alarming news about a certain new food you could be eating right at this very moment that could instantly kill you...we'll tell you about it at 10pm".

Re:Hey Fox, Let me program Sundays for you

(Animated before a live audience?)

This has been tried before but the artist's hands got very sore half way through the show.

Re:Hey Fox, Let me program Sundays for you

"No, Homer. Very few cartoons are broadcast live, it's a terrible strain on the animators' wrists."

Re:Hey Fox, Let me program Sundays for you

Please note, there are no laugh tracks in any of the above shows

Not yet. Anyone remember when Comedy Central picked up "Sports Night" and added a laugh track to it? It was downright creepy.

Imagine someone taking your favorite drama, and adding a laugh track to the 'funny' parts.

Bones: "Damnit Jim, I'm a doctor not a cement mixer!"
[laughter]

Cipher: "I don't even see the codes anymore, just blonde..brunette"
[laughter]

Luke: "More than you can imagine"
Han: "I can imagine a lot"
[laughter]

Re:Hey Fox, Let me program Sundays for you

Yeah, and Jimmy Kimmel gets her.

Hey, Sarah! If you wanted fat and not funny, I could have toned down my sense of humor for you, baby!

Re:Hey Fox, Let me program Sundays for you

The reason fox doesn't like Futurama or Family Guy (and kept moving them around and eventually gave them crappy time slots) is ownership.
Fox wants to own every show on Fox. Groening owns Futurama. Fox would rather show a stupid show it owns (like Oliver Beane) that gets worse ratings, but gives Fox a lionshare of the profits.

Hooray for Zoidberg

I don't know if anyone else remembers what Futurama was replaced with. Oliver Beane. One of the shittiest shows ever. People joke about Fox executives being a bunch of monkeys that have no clue about programming, but it's really true. Every single truly good show Fox gets it cancels. What is it replaced with? Midgets, people injuring themselves, TV bloopers, weddings, police chases, reality shows, absolute shit. The ratings may be high for those shows, but they are only high because they are extreme. Once people become censatized they must become more extreme. It's an arms race. Just look at the wedding shows of 3 years ago compared to todays. There's nothing about these shows that have lasting value or anything that's fundamentally entertaining about them.

Zoidberg, now he's entertaining. The rubber band is on the other claw now!!

Re:Hooray for Zoidberg

I think when you said censatized you meant sensitized by which you meant desensitized and were really after the word inured.

Otherwise you're totally right.

The question is...

...will they be able to get back the same writing talent that made us fall in love with it, or is the quality of the shows going to be compromised?

At least South Park still manages to be fresh and timely after 8 years.

Re:The question is...

At least South Park still manages to be fresh and timely after 8 years.

Due in no small part to the fact that they're able to create episodes in a week, if need be.

Re:The question is...

It also takes a steady time slot. Both Futurama and Family Guy, if I recall correctly, were victims of FOX bumping it around their lineup a whole lot trying to find where it'd work best, but inevitably just screwing with their audience's head by not letting them get settled with when the show was on.

Re:The question is...

I think you confuse the thrust of my argument. A steady timeslow can make a funny show easier to find, but it won't make a dull show funnier.

The shows I mentioned are funny no matter when they're on.

Re:The question is...

Adult Swim has it a lot of the time. Family Guy had it. South Park had it, lost it, and last season regained it. And Futurama has it in droves

...your sister has it. Your thoughts have betrayed her too.

Let's fighting love

You're telling me you didn't laugh at let's fighting love? and butters getting a throwing star in his eye? or "you got served"?

Re:South Park Season 8 (and other topics)

The way a naked Cartman creeped across that stage was funnier than anything that's been on Fox for years.

Welcome back Family Guy!!

Stewie Griffin: [After Lois tries to feed Stewie his broccoli "airplane style"] Damn you, Damn the Broccoli, and Damn the Wright Brothers.

Not true

This is simply a exagerration by the reporter - a wishful comment. It's simply not true, as has been said on all the Futurama sites for some time now.

Re:Not true

The sad fact is that it may just be too hard to get all the right people back together. On the messageboards on Billy West's website [billywest.com] (the voice of Fry, Zapp, Zoiberg etc but you know that) he said that the production team had broken up. At least I think that's where he said it anyway. But he has said he'd love to make more so who knows?

That said isn't Katy Sagal doing something else with her time now?

Family Guy is pretty much confirmed now, as the official site of the voice of Lois (forget her name) says as much.

Re:Not true

Alex Borstein did the voice of Lois and others. Incidentally wasn't there talk of a feature length Family Guy?

Re:Not true

Yes, Katie Sagal is on ABCs 8 simple rules for dating my teenage daughter, the show John Ritter was also starring in when he passed away last year. Who knows if the show will last past this year, though. I don't watch it, and haven't paid any attention to how it is doing.

That said, back in the early 90s, Yeardley Smith was concurrently playing in Herman's Head and doing the voice of Lisa Simpson. Of course, those were both Fox shows, whereas Sagal would end up on two different networks...

Who knows!?! ... but here's to wishful thinking!

Re:Not true

Just to start, Mila Kunis [imdb.com] has been able to work both "Family Guy" and "That 70's Show" simultaneously.

Voiceover and 'live' acting can and have crossed over.

Re:Not true

that may be, but Seth McFarlane has been quoted as working on new Family Guy:

... at the very least it [the new series] will be on Cartoon Network, which is great, because at the end of the day, that's where we built our biggest fan base.

"The Family Guy" Coming Back [eonline.com]

Re:Not true

Yeah its definately confirmed that family guy is coming back. They're working on new episodes now to begin airing in January of '05 on Cartoon Network. Fox has an option to air those episodes or sell them directly into syndication without ever airing them.

I've heard speculation recently that Fox may indeed exercise thier option to show them first -- so we might get new family guy *THIS* year.

But as for futurama, this sounds more like wishful thinking than anything substantiated. I think Futurama cost alot more to produce per episode than family guy (I could be wrong), so there might not be any profit to be had by making new episodes for syndication. Moreover, I don't think Futurama has had quite the same level of success in DVD sales that family guy had.

The key to Family Guy's ressurection was not only beating letterman and leno in it's time slot on adult swim, but also being the number #1 selling dvd/dvd set in the country for several weeks.

All-cartoon prime time?

I still think we're headed for an all-cartoon prime time. It's so much cheaper to make cartoons compared to other shows, and the jokes can be so much clearer, plus you can fly under the FCC's crazy censorship witch-hunting by being "just a harmless cartoon".

Re:All-cartoon prime time?

I still think we're headed for an all-cartoon prime time. It's so much cheaper to make cartoons compared to other shows

I think I would prefer cartoon primetime over reality TV. Let's see the current Fox lineup on that front

America's most wanted
Cops
My big fat obnoxious fiance
The simple life
Totally outrageous behavior caught on tape
The Swan

And the ever popular American Idol --www.fox.com

The Dead Kennedys had a line in thier song MTV Get Off The Air "Allowing it to sink as low in one year As commercial TV has in 25". The shows listed are the likes of which you'd expect to be in scetch comedy. I'm not saying that Futurama or Family Guy is the apex of modern entertainment... but it's at least entertainment rather then vomit.

Re:All-cartoon prime time?

I'm afraid you're too much of an optimist. The sad truth is we're heading towards a prime time populated entirely by 'reality' programming. (I put reality in quotes because anyone who believes reality is really like that needs their head examined.)
Those kind of shows are so cheap to make and draw such high ratings that they will completely take over the airwaves in a year or two.

Re:All-cartoon prime time?

I'm afraid your both wrong.

We're headed for what we've always had...a scant few long running shows that get money and the benefit of the doubt, along with a bunch of filler that's on a short leash. Family Guy did well, but it didn't do as well as expected (come on, it was up against friggin FRIENDS, the indestructable behemouth of thursday night. even *I* would tape FG during the first run). So it was dumped as if it were Oliver Beene. Of course, since then, it's done massive syndicated business and had tons of DVD sales, and suddenly it looked a lot more valuable.

Reality TV series are pressed to be more outrageous and as such are becoming more expensive. Yes, you don't pay the actors...but if you think talented editors, tropical locales and hundreds of cameras come cheaper than a ten person cast and a few unchanging sets, you're deluding yourself. And it's not as if you don't need writers on a reality show...you think all that drama sequences and frames itself? You think those voiceovers are ad-libbed? People write out the plots and subplots of reality TV, same as regular shows...they just have to make mountains out of molehills instead of out of imagination.

I think reality TV peaked last year. It won't disappear, but I think what we're seeing is the tail end of reality show development and we can expect something new to excite programming directors for the next five years.

Re:All-cartoon prime time?

anything with Hitler in it is avoided, as is anything having to do with emergency rooms, UFOs, Crop Circles, Ghosts or Psychic Powers.

I was channel-hopping one night and ran into one of those "Unsolved-Mysteries" UFO shows on Discovery. They were talking about these mysterious lights floating over Phoenix, which are apparently a big mystery in the flake world. I was disgusted to see this kind of World Weekly News crap on a science channel. But I watched it in a horrified trance. And do you know what happened? They debunked it! After listening to all the UFO nuts talking about how the only explanation is the paranormal, they spent the last quarter of the show presenting a credible, rational explanation. Yay for our side!
-aiabx

Is it the money?

It seems like too much of a coincidence that while the Simpsons actors are holding out for $8 Million / season that Fox suddenly takes an intrest in Futurama? Say it aint so!

Re:Is it the money?

Either that, or they are the most clueless idiots on planet earth...

Well, since we're talking about them cancelling Family Guy and Futurama... and this is the same network that aired The Simple Life... that verdict's up in the air.

You're Fired! (tm)

I hope someone at Fox got the axe for cancelling the two shows in the first place.

I think we know what to say....

to the people that had Futurama canned...

Kiss my shiny metal ass....

Re:I think we know what to say....

Erm, it's BITE my shiny metal ass.

Family Guy Series 4 Already Confirmed

For those who don't know, Family Guy will be back early next year for a fourth series. Alex Borstein (Lois) has recently commented on her first week back [alexborstein.com].

:) hmmm.

Bite my non-shiny non-metal ass!

Old News

CGEF carried this over a month ago. At the time it was considered a case of "overenthusiastic editor." It still is as far as I'm concerned.
I'll believe it when there's an announcement from Fox.

We can only hope.

At the last convention that I saw him at, Matt Groening said he would LOVE to make new episodes of Futurama, but it is a extremely expensive show to make. It's more a money issue than anything else.

As for Family Guy, they ARE making new episodes of that. The DVD set sales blew the execs away, they hadn't realized how popular it was, apparently.

Not sure how to make the below a link....first time commenting on Slashdot.

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/ in dex.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20040326005446& newsLang=en

Smaller channels?

"Big Name" shows like these with a large brand recognition would be right at home on the smaller channels that need something to grab a few hundred thousand viewers. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels that a show like Futurama would be given a lot more love and attention by a more grateful network, than the Fox behemouth.

In addition to the mentioned toons, I read an interview with Kevin Smith and he mentioned that not only have the original 6 episodes of Clerks: The Animated Series been picked up for airing on a channel other then ABC (HBO I think?), but there is the possibility of all new episodes, as they orginally had plans for 4 seasons! Good times indeed....

They never learn

If Fox does bring it back I hope they don't put it on at 7pm Sunday. Football and Nascar runs long... Kill Futurama. They never gave the show a chance to grow an audience outside of Sci-Fi fans. And yet they give Oliver Bean the cherriest slot behind Simpsons. I loved that crapfest when it was called 'The Wonder Years'.

Firefly?!?

Sheesh, did they have to change the name of Phoenix/Firebird/Firefox/whatever again?!?

Only to be pre-empted by Fox Football

I'm a huge fan of Futurama and Family Guy, but I'm convinced that Fox is only doing this as "fodder" for pre-emption by football games.

During Futurama's last season there was a two-month stretch where no Futurama was shown at all (even though it was in the schedule).

OBEY THE FIST!

OK, now we've got the second best science-fiction comedy cartoon of all time un-cancelled, a concerted effort must be made to rescue Invader Zim from Nickelodeon. Irkan dominance must not be denied!

SoupIsGood Food

No one's posted this yet? Shame on you!

1. Create insanely funny, brilliant show. Allow critics and internet forum readers to rave about said brilliance while it airs on FOX.
2. Allow FOX to cancel your series after a few seasons.
3. Send out a couple of DVDs that sell millions of copies.
4. Air reruns on Cartoon Network that become insanely popular.
5. ???
6. PROFIT!

News From The Fox Boardroom

*Buzzing Sounds* (Together) We will reinstate Futurama... All glory to the hypnotoad.

Sarcasm

Wow! web based petitions really do work!

Looks like you'll get your wish

Now if only I could get more Firefly, TV might be worth watching again.

Movie Tome has an entry for a Firefly movie called "Serenity" that will start filming later this year and be ready by 2005. Hopefully it'll be successful and spawn another set of episodes or at the very least more movies. I'd link it but tv tome and movie tome aren't responding to me right now.

Firefly's Hope

Not only is the movie Serenity in pre-production, but the good folks at Universal asked Joss Whedon to rework the script. And the rumored reson was to make the movie a potential launching platform for... a television program.

It all will depend on how many people I can drag to the movie.

Fox Execs

<Dumbass at Fox> I don't know why it's doing so poorly! All we did is move its timeslot around and then preempt it with sports that its target audience doesn't want to watch.</Dumbass at Fox>

[as] is like the nice, sweet geek friend who loves a girl (great cartoons) who's with a horrible boyfriend (Fox). He treats her wrong, and she runs to her geek. But as soon as she's feeling better, the dumbass boyfriend wants her back.

I'm not sure how to feel about this. Part of me says "woo hoo! New Episodes!" But another part says "Now it will be in the mainstream again, complete with lots of disgusting, annoying commercials and no funny cards."

Futurama probably won't come back

I love Futurama, it really was the best show on television, but I think the reference to its "revival" in this article is just some stupid reporter misinterpreting some stuff somebody told them. We'd have gotten a more official, specific news article about this if the show was really being revived.

Now, Family Guy, on the other hand, has a shot - I've seen articles about its possible revival thanks to strong DVD sales.

Everyone, put your CSS and region-control concerns behind you, and buy a fuckload of Futurama DVDs.

Spoon!

Now if only Fox would bring the back The Tick. (The animated version! The animated version!)

The real reason FG got canceled ...

... was because Seth MacFarlane's old school headmaster got the sponsors of the show to pull out [eonline.com].

Of course it's total BS, but he's the real person to blame for this, not the Fox execs, as such. What could they do? No money, no deal, right?

BTW, Family Guy rocks! Go Family Guy! :-)

z

Re:The real reason FG got canceled ...

I can't find the article, but Family Guy's greatest opponent was Catholic advocacy groups. Family Guy was 100 times harder on Catholism than Judism or the handicapped. Practically every episode had some dig, from...

Peter: "We need a book to potty train our son."
Clerk: "This is the most popular book 'Everybody Poops'. It has won many awards"
Peter: "Ah, we're Catholic"
Clerk: "Oh in that case you'll want "You're a Very Bad Boy and That's Concentrated Evil Coming Out of You'"

to the numerous episode where the Pope get placed in undignified positions or hob-nobs with the Griffin family members with-a da cheezy-a Italiana accento. Not to mention Peter's stereotypical Irish Catholic father role...and his overly-stereotypical Irish Catholic father.

Anyway, Catholics are a rather large group, and I think enough letters were written to get FOX nervous. Supposedly, outrage from Catholic groups over the first pope episode was the reason it was put on hiatus the first time, only it won an Emmy that year so FOX decided it was worth the risk...but when ratings failed to materialize from the award (thanks to timeslot shuffle) the continued pressure from Catholic groups finally made FOX buckle.

This was like five years ago, so I have no clue where to look for the article, but it made sense to me.

- JoeShmoe
.

Interesting

Isn't it? How something has to be canceled before anybody notices it was doing well? Someone needs to figure out what it is about middle management that makes them insist on canceling/firing/destroying as a first alternative for everything.

Profits down? Fire people. Ratings down? Cancel it. Not making seven figures pure pocket-stuffing profit a day? Destroy it. What if these guys worked in agriculture? They'd probably bulldoze the whole fucking farm because they weren't shipping truckloads of wheat bread and salsa by Thursday.

This is excellent news

Nice to see that Futurama may have a second chance at getting pre-empted for football every week and shuffled throughout the Fox lineup until Ethan Fucking Edwards couldn't find it.

This is still Fox we're talking about people. If both Futurama and Family Guy do end up coming back, don't expect the second coming or anything. They'll get some hype when they first come back, get thrown into some God awful time slot when American Idol: This Time It's Personal goes on the air, and will be forgotten by 90% of this country inside of 3 weeks.

So many cancellations...

You know, if Fox were to bring back all the great shows they've cancelled over the years, they could singlehandedly wipe out reality TV (largely because they wouldn't have any time to show it).

I love Futurama, and I don't want it back

The thing is, Futurama was one of those shows that was driven by one character's unrequited love for another. (Although I suppose there are some who'll argue that it was driven by comedy. Pshaw!) It ended with a story where it looked like Fry and Leela were finally getting together, though the writers left some wiggle room. Now, what would happen in a new season? Either:

1. The writers take advantage of that wiggle room -- no, Fry and Leela didn't really get together; he's still pining for her, she's still turning him down. That's depressing, after everything that happened in the finale. I don't want to see that.

2. They DO get together, and live happily ever after. I'm glad for them, but I don't want to watch that. It's boring. That's why "happily ever after" is always at the end of the story. It's a nice place to live, but you wouldn't want to visit.

Alternatively, they could get together, and then have it not work out. That's even more depressing than the first option.

OK, so I'm a hopeless romantic.

Re:I love Futurama, and I don't want it back

Bah! This is Matt Groening. He has dissolved plotlines with no explaination whatsoever before, he can do it again!

Futurama...

...ane then Family Guy, and right before that Anime Unleashed for an hour on TechTV.

That's about all there is on cable these days.

What did Bruce say? Something about "..57 channels and nothin's on.."

t_t_b

Re:FP

Hello... "Do the executives ever watch these programs...?"

Well, yes... they probably do. But, since they're executives, there's a slim chance that they're also geeky enough to "get" Futurama. Futurama was packed with side jokes related to programming, physics, linguistics, etc. No executive worth his washroom key would understand any of that...

the network execubots are here!

Director: The network Execubots are coming!

Calculon: Dear God!

[Enter three huge clunky robots on tracks.] Betabot: Presenting the president of the network.

Network President: Greetings gentlemen, you already know my Execubots. Executive Alpha, programmed to like things that are seen before.

Alphabot: Hey hey hey.

Network President: Executive Beta, programmed to roll dice to determine the fall schedule.

[Betabot rolls two dice.]

Betabot: More reality shows.

Network President: And Executive Gamma, programmed to underestimate middle America.

Gammabot: It's funny but is it going to get them off their tractors?

Network President: Now, who put this obnoxious dancing robot on my network?

Director: We were about to fire him sir.

Network President: Silence hack! We've been monitoring our Nielsen families carefully and during the 12 seconds Bender was on screen, viewer eyeball focus was up 90%.

Calculon: Sir, children watch this show. Bender's no role model, he's a filth monger!

Network President: At our network, we love filth! Filthy rich that is! Being filthy rich that is! [He laughs. something fizzles towards the Execubots from the president and they all laugh with him.] "Bite my shiny metal ass" could be a catchphrase.

Alphabot: 80% likely.

Gammabot: It will play in Peoria.

[Betabot rolls his dice.]

Betabot: Gameshows are back.

Re:You're all a bunch of geeks around here!

If you don't like Futurama you probably didn't get the jokes. :)