Futurama never stood a chance on network television. Sure, it was created by Simpsons creator Matt Groening (and billed as such), but it never got much of an initial push by Fox, and after a few episodes, it got relegated to the usual Fox treatment: it was regularly pre-empted, its schedule was shuffled on a regular basis (making it impossibe for even diehard fans to catch), and its promotion dwindled to zero.
This is what I despise about Fox. They’ll throw a ton of money at anything (sometimes good), but if they don’t see the dividends immediately, they doom it to a slow death by obscurity (sometimes bad). This same treatment sank other worthy shows, like Firefly and the Family Guy.
It’s interesting to note that the latter two shows found an unexpected and vibrant second life on DVD. Firefly became a cult hit after its demise, and fan reaction was such that Joss Whedon was greenlighted to make a feature film, Serenity. Continued...