ROTTEN TOMATOES: There Is a Future for "Futurama"

There Is a Future for "Futurama"

by Scott Weinberg | January 04, 2006

OK, so technically this would count more as "TV news" than "movie news," but I'm so amazingly geeked out by this Variety scoop that I can hardly contain myself. You know that brilliant animated comedy on Fox called "Futurama"? Yeah, well, it looks like it'll be making a comeback on the Fox network sometime relatively soon. Relatively sooner than the year 3000, that is.

A few months back there were some rumors and vague discussions about the possibility of "Futurama" morphing into a made-for-DVD movie, but Variety's Michael Schneider just chimed in with the following:

""Futurama" may live to see the year 3000 after all.

Talks have begun at 20th Century Fox TV to revive the animated skein, which takes place in the next millennium, much in the same way "Family Guy" found new life after cancellation.

The studio is in early discussions to put "Futurama" back in production and create a limited number of episodes of the Emmy Award-winning skein -- although it's too soon to tell where those segs might end up. A rep for 20th Century Fox TV declined comment.

The final original episode of "Futurama" aired on Fox in August 2003. But since then, the skein has found new life -- and fans -- via DVD releases and repeatedly high-rated airings on the Cartoon Network.

"Futurama" remains popular enough that Comedy Central even stole away off-net rights to the show's repeats late last year; it will switch to the laffer cabler in 2008.

A similar resurgence in interest for "Family Guy" persuaded 20th Century Fox TV to revive that show, which has produced two seasons of new episodes and a DVD since coming back from the dead. "Family Guy" now resides as Fox's Sunday 9 p.m. tentpole.

"Futurama" scored three Emmys in its five-season run, including the 2002 award for animated series. But it lived an unusual existence on Fox, with short seasons, late launches and long gaps between airings. That allowed Fox to air five seasons of "Futurama," even though technically only four were produced.

"The Simpsons" creator Matt Groening and "Simpsons" vet David X. Cohen were behind "Futurama," which bowed on Fox in March 1999. The animated skein revolved around Fry, a pizza delivery boy who's accidentally frozen for 1,000 years. He wakes up in the year 3000 and befriends cyclops Leela and cranky robot Bender -- all of whom work for the intergalactic delivery service run by Fry's distantly descended nephew, Prof. Farnsworth.

Before "Futurama" comes back into being, however, 20th first must secure deals with the show's production team, as well as voice stars including Billy West (Fry), Katey Sagal (Leela) and John DiMaggio (Bender).

Meanwhile, even after the cancellation new "Futurama" stories have continued to be churned out via the "Futurama" comicbook, published by Groening's Bongo Comics imprint."
--

I'm sure all my fellow Futurama freaks will join me in thanking Peter Griffin for helping to make this all possible.

Related Items

Movie:	Futurama - Volume 3
	The Simpsons - The Complete First Season
	Family Guy - Volume 1: Seasons 1 & 2
	Futurama - Volume 2
	Futurama - Monster Robot Maniac Fun Collection
	Futurama - Volume 4
Celeb:	Billy West
	Katey Sagal
	Matt Groening
	John DiMaggio

(1-20 of 21 posts) | Reply

IMAmoose24 writes:
on Jan 04 2006 06:03 AM

I Love Futurama to death. I like it more than the simpsons. when it was cancelled, i knew that they would re run it on cartoon network or comedy central. So i wasnt that mad. Im not sure i'd like to see it back on fox. They should just release the episodes on Adult Swim.

(Reply to this)

zenbone writes:
on Jan 04 2006 07:18 AM

I hope it comes back SOON! I watch the dvd's over and over. I think it is easily one of the funniest best written shows. If they were smart they would resign the show and also NOT bury it on fox like they did the first time around. It seemed that fox wanted futurama to fail buy putting it on odd times that were often pre-empted by sports programming. This show should be PRIME TIME.

(Reply to this)

Gareth writes:
on Jan 04 2006 08:12 AM

I hope so. what I wonder about is that there were reported to be 12-16 episodes that were finished but never aired. There was some talk over a year ago about a DVD release of them, I hope they do not vanish.

(Reply to this)

Wolf_Boat writes:
on Jan 04 2006 09:59 AM

[b]Great show, for sure.[/b]
What the hell is a "skein," though? Or a "laffer cabler?" From the context, I'm guessing "skein" means "series." Why not write "series" then? Poor writing. Also, "laffer cabler" earns whoever wrote this little article a boot to the head.

--Internet Crank

(Reply to this)

deadpickle writes:
on Jan 04 2006 10:53 AM

[b]some concern[/b]
I love Futurama as much as the next guy, I have made a ritual of watching it every night on that great program Adult Swim (samuria champloo rulz0rz) even if i have seen that episode over a gajillion times but, there are reasons to be concerted. The article mentions that "But it lived an unusual existence on Fox, with short seasons, late launches and long gaps between airings." This seem like a familiar statement. I remember that Fox stopped airing the new family guy's for 3 weeks!! I call that a gap in air time. If they did it back in 2003 and are still doing it now, then they ARE going to do it to the new Futurama. I just hope the fan base is large enough to keep it on the air dispite Fox's inability to be consistent with its programming. I am psyched that they are bringing it back but, i wish it was on a more worthy network like CARTOON NETWORK (ADULT SWIM).

(Reply to this)

lovelykeira writes:
on Jan 04 2006 12:09 PM

Let's go Futurama, if the not as good Family Guy can do it, you better be able to come back.

(Reply to this)

foolofatook writes:
on Jan 04 2006 01:10 PM

Ah, great news.

(Reply to this)

LampEft writes:
on Jan 04 2006 01:27 PM

In reply to this comment (#829467)
[b]skein[/b]
Sounds like someone got a sparkly new thesaurus for Christmas and wanted to impress! Although, when reading the defnition at dictionary.com, I tend to wonder if the writer really knew what it meant:

skein n.

1. A length of thread or yarn wound in a loose long coil.
2. Something suggesting the coil of a skein; a complex tangle: a twisted skein of lies

So, it doesn't appear to mean series, and personally I never saw Futurama as a "complex tangle". Still, the news is good. I'll look forward to seeing the show back. Now if they'd just bring back Wonderfalls....

(Reply to this)

scottybarkbark writes:
on Jan 04 2006 01:30 PM

YAY!!!!!!!!!!

(Reply to this)

SIRxxxTMG writes:
on Jan 04 2006 02:12 PM

Great, great news.

(Reply to this)

Reel 2/Dialogue 2 writes:
on Jan 04 2006 02:24 PM

In reply to this comment (#829467)
[b]Makes my skein crawl...[/b]
I must heartily agree, those are idiotic words. Right down there with "filmic" and "musicality".

(Reply to this)

Elixir writes:
on Jan 04 2006 03:45 PM

brings this back right now!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Reply to this)

FireflyFan4evr writes:
on Jan 04 2006 05:16 PM

In reply to this comment (#829471)
[b]What about Firefly?[/b]
Arguably the best show on FOX was "Firefly" (re: ARGUABLY). Now, that had strong DVD sales and also a strong and loyal fanbase such as "Futurama", with "Firefly" also having bad scheduling problems.

Such as:
1. the pilot being shown last,
2. episodes showed out of chronological order,
3. Three episodes never being aired,
4. having the time slot (usually) on Friday nights; which is when the majority of their target audience were more than likely out of the house.

If "Futurama" can come back as a T.V. show, why not "Firefly"??????

Never saw "Wonderfalls", but I wish I had the money to buy it. Jewel Staite also stars in "Firefly", and Tim Minear produces "Firefly" as well as "Wonderfalls".

(Reply to this)

GigLISUx writes:
on Jan 04 2006 06:49 PM

[b]What are you guys thinking,[/b]
they should bring back another classic show instead of futuramama, "The PJ's"!

You all know that you remember that, and you wish it would come back far sooner than fUtRama.

Eddie murphy was sooo hilarios on that show!
Come on fox,

We want the pj's, we want the pj's!

(Reply to this)

Daveed writes:
on Jan 04 2006 08:46 PM

[b]In regards to Firefly[/b]
From what I've read since Serenity, despite being a good movie didn't do as well as they'd hoped in theatres, and the creator has said he's pretty much done with anything related to Firefly and instead work on new projects.

I am very excited for the possible return of Futurama to get back to the topic. I was rather upset when it ended just as the show was developing a more complex and serious storyline on top of the humor. This on top of a movie and possible set of movies after that is very nice.

If Futurama returns then I will only have grumblings with Nickelodeon and Invader Zim.

(Reply to this)

dangerous beans writes:
on Jan 04 2006 09:36 PM

In reply to this comment (#829464)
i agree... they should just release it on adult swim. if it's on fox i'll probably never find it.

in fact, i think they should just make all their good shows go straight to dvd. so that way i can just buy it and watch it whenever i want and not worry about it being cancelled.. such as House M.D., I watched the first season in a two-day marathon, and when the second season came on fox i could only catch a couple episodes. just inconvenient to watch it when they show it.

(Reply to this)

ndrage85 writes:
on Jan 05 2006 03:31 AM

In reply to this comment (#829478)
[b]Actually Daveed, about Firefly...[/b]
to Daveed: are you referring to that Entertainment Weekly article with Joss Whedon when you say that the creator said he's pretty much done with anything related to Firefly? Just wondering because Joss Whedon himself has come out to say that he was very badly misquoted in that article. He says that he will never completely shut the door on Firefly. He said he is happy with the movie and what he accomplished with the series, but there is still much he'd like to do with the Firefly 'verse if he were ever to be given the chance to do it. below is a post that Joss Whedon made himself in regards to the article. It's a bit confusing if you are not familiar with the man's weird sense of humor:

All right, now I have to jump in and set the record straight. EW is a fine rag, but they do take things out of context. Obviously when I said I had 'closure', what I meant was "I hate Serenity, I hated Firefly, I think my fans are stupid and Nathan Fillion smells like turnips." But EW's always got to put some weird negative spin on it. But so we're clear once and for all: If you read a quote saying "I'd love to do more in this 'verse with these actors in any medium" all I'm saying is that Nathan has a turnipy odor. It's not his fault, he doesn't eat a lot of them but everyone else in the cast noticed it and tht's not really something I'm prepared to deal with any more. And Jewel said outright she wouldn't do scenes with him except stuff like the SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER funeral scene which was outside in a high SPOILER wind. So if I do manage to find another incarnation for my beloved creation, it will have been totally against my will.

I hope that clears everything up. Oh, and when I say I want to do a Spike movie, it means I have a bunion on my toe.

-joss (by which I mean Tim)

(no, actually me.)

(Reply to this)

malaguy writes:
on Jan 06 2006 11:59 PM

[b]futurama is way too UNDERrated[/b]
futurama isn't given enough credit for being the genius show ir was. it was too smart for most people, and i for one say fuck em.
futurama coming back can only be a great thing.
those who don't get it will think it's stupid and think lesser crap like the PJ's should be back instead. these are the people who the best futurama jokes/references are lost on. those poor souls. let's just hope that by the time of futurama's long overdue return, these people have gotten a little smarter so they too can experience the greatness that is this show.

(Reply to this)

tyler8186 writes:
on Jan 11 2006 04:42 AM

i like adult swim's ad that talks about arrested developement
i'm ticked that show is getting canceled
it is absolutely the best show on TV

(Reply to this)

killermonkey82 writes:
on Apr 03 2006 07:04 PM

[b]FUTURAMA IS COMING BACK!!!!![/b]
futurama is one of the best animated sitcoms to ever arrive on fox that might be another reason why simpsons wasan't as funny because of futurama or matt groening just ran out of ideas

(Reply to this)

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