The Return of Futurama

[Takara_Soong 4]

From Zap2It!:

 

'Futurama' re-animated at Comedy Central

By Rick Porter

 

Sweet zombie Jesus, "Futurama" is coming back.

 

The animated series, whose last regular episode aired in 2003, is getting a second life on Comedy Central. The cable channel, which has been airing reruns of the show for the past year and a half, has ordered 26 new episodes of the show to premiere next year.

 

"Futurama's" revival follows a similar script to that of "Family Guy," whose success in repeats and on DVD prompted FOX to revive it in 2005. Comedy Central has scored solid numbers with repeats, and four "Futurama" movies -- "Bender's Big Score," "The Beast with a Billion Backs," "Bender's Game" and "Into the Wild Green Yonder" -- have performed well both on TV and in DVD sales.

 

"When we brought back 'Family Guy' several years ago, everyone said that it was a once in a lifetime thing that canceled series stay canceled and cannot be revived," reads a statement from Gary Newman and Dana Walden, chairmen of 20th Century Fox TV, which produces both shows. "But 'Futurama' was another series that fans simply demanded we bring back."

 

When Comedy Central made the deal to acquire "Futurama" in 2006, it announced it would produce 13 new episodes. That hasn't happened -- the four movies went forward instead -- but the channel is now doubling down on its initial commitment.

 

The show's cast, headed by Billy West (Fry, Zoidberg and others), Katey Sagal (Leela) and John DiMaggio (Bender), is expected to return, as are co-creators/executive producers David X. Cohen and Matt Groening and several writers.

 

The 26 episodes will bring the series total for "Futurama" to 98, and Groening notes that "We now have only 25,766 episodes to make before we catch up with Bender and Fry in the year 3000."

[Jack_Bauer 1]

"GOOD NEWS, EVERYONE!"

[A l t e r E g o 9]

Good news indeed!

[RikerChick 5]

Woo hoo!!

[Stephen of Borg 2]

Finally! I've been hearing about them renewing Futurama ever since Comedy Central bought the series. I just figured the new movies were it, glad to hear the series itself will return

[Eratosthenes 0]

This is truly excellent news! I'm so excited! It most definitely deserves a chance at the insanely long runs of its counterparts like The Simpsons (21 seasons and counting), SouthPark (13 seasons and counting), and King of the Hill (13 seasons).

[youbroughtheryouRiker 2]

Booyeah.

[Takara_Soong 4]

From Zap2It:

 

'Futurama' voice cast may be replaced

By Hanh Nguyen

July 20, 2009 8:42 AM

 

"Futurama" is known for its whimsical humor, but when it returns to Comedy Central in 2010, it may sound a little funnier.

 

The original voice voice cast -- Billy West, Katey Sagal, Tress MacNeille, John DiMaggio and Maurice LaMarche -- may not return to the futuristic cartoon, and voice casting to replace them will soon be underway, report the trade papers.

 

"We love the 'Futurama' voice performers and absolutely wanted to use them, but unfortunately, we could not meet their salary demands," studio 20th TV said in a statement Friday. "While replacing these talented actors will be difficult, the show must go on."

 

Comedy Central has already ordered 26 new episodes of the show to premiere next year.

 

The second level of the negotiation process: the "we'll replace you with someone cheaper" stage.

[A l t e r E g o 9]

Well... that sucks.

[MrPsychic 1]

Talk about being cheapskates...

[Kor37 9]

I don't think it will matter one bit. I doubt too many people will notice the difference. Not too many people can distinguish Mila Kunis' "Meg Griffin" from the first girl who voiced it.

[VaBeachGuy 12]

I don't think I've ever seen a single episode. If I have then it didn't leave a very lasting impression. I generally don't watch cartoons anymore anyway. That pretty much went out around 1983 or 1984.

 

I have all of TAS on DVD but haven't even watched it since I got it.

[MrPsychic 1]

I don't think it will matter one bit. I doubt too many people will notice the difference. Not too many people can distinguish Mila Kunis' "Meg Griffin" from the first girl who voiced it.

That's true about Family Guy, but the voice actors do more than just the main voices. This link has detailed about all the different characters the voice actors do: http://www.gotfuturama.com/Information/Fut...ff/VoiceActors/

Edited July 21, 2009 by MrPsychic

[Stephen of Borg 2]

I am a fan of the actors who played the roles, so it does suck that Billy and Katey won't return. Been a fan of Billy since he voiced Stimpy (eventually Ren as well) and of course Katey as Peg Bundy

[A l t e r E g o 9]

I am a fan of the actors who played the roles, so it does suck that Billy and Katey won't return. Been a fan of Billy since he voiced Stimpy (eventually Ren as well) and of course Katey as Peg Bundy

 

Exactly.

 

I'll watch and give the new actors a chance but they'd better be very very good.

[VaBeachGuy 12]

I am a fan of the actors who played the roles, so it does suck that Billy and Katey won't return. Been a fan of Billy since he voiced Stimpy (eventually Ren as well) and of course Katey as Peg Bundy

 

Exactly.

 

I'll watch and give the new actors a chance but they'd better be very very good.

But what if it's in an alternate timeline?

[A l t e r E g o 9]

I could live with that.

 

You reminded me of the episode, The Farnsworth Parabox.

 

 

Professor Farnsworth decides to destroy an experiment that nearly killed him in a yellow box by ejecting it into the sun. He forbids the Planet Express staff to open it and assigns Leela to guard it. However, she is tempted by curiosity and flips a coin to decide whether to look in the box. The flip results in favor of looking in the box. Upon doing so, she falls into the box and finds herself in a parallel universe where everyone has identical personalities to their counterparts but most have a different color scheme.

 

The parallel Leela orders everyone in the original universe to come into their universe by threatening them with a gun, as the parallel Professor believes that the original universe members are all evil. However, they all decide to discuss their differences over the meeting table.

 

The two Farnsworths discover that, just as the original Farnsworth created a box containing a parallel universe, the parallel universe Farnsworth created a box containing the original universe. After arguing over which universe will be named Universe A and Universe B, the original universe is named Universe A and the parallel universe is named Universe 1. Although everyone is the same, Professor-A questions why Leela-A looked in the box whilst Leela-1 didn't. Leela-1 says that she flipped a coin and it came up tails so she didn't look, a complete opposite of what happened to Leela-A. Both professors observe that the key difference between both universes is that coin flips have opposite outcomes. They ask the two groups to watch their counterparts to determine if the other is evil. When Leela-1 asks if she and Fry-1 can watch their counterparts together because they have plans, Leela-A thinks that they're dating but she and Fry-A are amazed to find that they are married.

 

The counterparts begin watching each other: Bender-A and Bender-1 become exact copies of themselves, even down to stealing each other's wallets. Amy-A and Amy-1 are slightly discouraged to realize that each counterpart wears a nail polish that is the color of their counterpart (Amy-A with yellow, Amy-1 with pink), and Professor-A and Professor-1 talk about a brain-scan operation that each of them attempted.

 

Fry-A and Leela-A go out to dinner with Fry-1 and Leela-1 and Fry-A becomes slightly annoyed and angry after realising that Leela-A didn't marry him because she always had excuses for not wanting to go out with him.

 

Zoidberg-A and Zoidberg-1 talk in a dumpster about how they are both unappreciated by the rest of the team, until Zoidberg-1 remarks that he saw where Professor-1 hid the box containing the original universe. The two both plan to steal the box.

 

After studying the Scriptures, the Professors decide that nobody is evil and the members of Universe A can go back home. However, when the parallel universe Hermes comes in to destroy the box containing the original universe, the crew realize that the original universe Hermes must be doing the same thing to the parallel universe box that they are currently in. They plan to go back through the box to stop Hermes but discover that the box is missing (Professor-1 had hidden it inside the Coelacanth tank). The two Farnsworths try to recreate the original box, but end up creating a large number of boxes containing different universes. As the crew looks through the boxes, the two Zoidbergs walk in holding the original universe box and quickly jump into another universe box, and in the process bump into the bookshelf containing the boxes, causing all of them to fall so the crew are unable to tell which box the Zoidbergs jumped into. Each member of the two crews goes in search of them, grabbing a length of wire so they can return. Eventually they find the two Zoidbergs, and everyone makes their way back to the original universe. They arrive outside the box inside the airlock just as Hermes-A has reached the Sun and is about to eject the box.

 

After returning to Earth, the parallel universe crew return to their universe. When Fry asks Leela if she will give him another shot, Leela flips a coin. When Fry asks whether it is heads or tails, Leela decides that they will just say that it is heads. The Farnsworths exchange their universe boxes by pulling each other's back into each other's universe, meaning they have pulled their box into their universe. Farnsworth tells the crew to treat the new box with care. Later, Fry enters the living room to find the crew watching TV and sits on top of the universe box, stretching their universe.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Farnsworth_Parabox

[Jack_Bauer 1]

GOOD NEWS, EVERYONE!

 

The news has just broken that the cast of Futurama has reached a new deal with Fox.

 

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/674841

 

I must what surprises me most is that the Toronto Star broke this story, apparently. I like the Star, but it doesn't seem like it's the likely source from which this news breaks.

[A l t e r E g o 9]

Good news indeed!