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. The film did modestly well in the box-office, and it garnered positive reviews across the board for being just what the series was: a solid, slightly hokey science-fiction series with a great cast and sharp wit.
The Family Guy is another matter. It ended up on the Cartoon Network, and after huge DVD sales and an unprecedented fan petition, Fox not only brought the show back, but put it in regular prime-time rotation, where it effortlessly outshines the tarnished and tired Simpsons franchise.
(If you know me, you know that I consider the first six or seven seasons of the Simpsons to be some of the best television ever aired. However, somewhere down the line, it stopped being about the characters and became another too-“witty”-for-its-own-good situation-based show, and it lost its heart.)
Futurama ended up in this same limbo, even after winning several Emmys. By the fourth and last season, anyone hoping to catch it would have to wait a month for its syndication on the Cartoon Network, where it was still picking up astounding ratings. At this point, the money was running out, and the creators wrote an excellent close-out, leaving it just open-ended enough for the possibility of a resurrection.
Fox was nice enough to package the four seasons in snazzy DVD editions rife with special features, as befits a show of this nature. As with the Family Guy and Firefly, the Futurama DVDs sold above expectations. But nothing else seemed to happen.
Well, it turns out, there have been some negotiations going on for awhile now, and today, we get this announcement from Fry himself:
(…) the other good news is that they’re doing 26 new episodes of ”Futurama” for TV and we’re hammering out the deal now.The original plan was to have the DVD’s first but that’s no longer the case.I’m totaly jammed dude.
To quote the Professor, “Good news, everybody!”
In case you’re not familiar with it, Futurama is the story of Phillip Fry, who stumbles into a cryogenic chamber New Year’s Eve 2000 and wakes up in the 30th century. He ends up working for a futuristic, nearly bankrupt version of FedEx, which is run by his great-great-ad-infinitum grandson. His coworkers include the lobster doctor Zoidberg, the cyclops captain Leela, and Bender, an irascible and frequently drunken robot.
The show’s creators set about cramming the show with references and parodies of just about every obscure piece of science-fiction lore they could find. Futurama had a wit and charm that’s been missing from the Simpsons for the last seven or eight seasons, and many folks (myself included) speculated that the bulk of Groening’s creative energy was going into Futurama, rather than the Simpsons.
They went so far as to create their own in-show alphabet, which ardent fans translated during the first season–the script at the top of this page is written in it. Within minutes of every episode’s airing, the fan commentary on the internet would start dissecting it in ridiculous detail…something Groening and Cohen recall on the commentary with great surprise and relish.
They set about running these things as an undercurrent in every show. This was a geek show, made for geeks by geeks, and Groening and company had a great time making it, even as they knew it was in its death-spiral. Everyone from the full cast of Star Trek (“Trapped in eternity with nerds…it’s the Pasadena Star Trek convention all over again.”) to Al Gore (“I’m a level nine Vice-President!”) and radio host Phil Hendry guest-starred. Bear in mind, “Roswell that Ends Well” won an Emmy, even though it never aired in a prime time slot. In fact, the show’s quality level went up as it neared the fourth season, even picking up a complex, brainy (and hilarious) episode-to-episode narrative.
The series ended on a high note, with just enough closure to send it off, but not so much as to rule out a future. Here’s hoping the rumors are true.
The Professor explains…something. Bear in mind Executive Producer David X. Cohen and several other writers had degrees in advanced mathematics.
Fry prepares to fight off Space Invaders. Literally. “It’s Friday night, I’m dateless, I’ve got a 2-liter bottle of Shasta and my all-Rush mixtape!”
Yes, the Harlem Globetrotters were on the show. As scientists.
One of the creators’ many self-referencing jokes. This is during a parody of Armageddon.
This is just wrong on so many levels. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, read this.
“Roswell that Ends Well,” in which Fry travels back in time and becomes his own grandfather. Yes.
(Two excellent sources of further information are fan site Can’t Get Enough Futurama and Dr. Sarah Greenwald’s phenomenal Futurama Ï€k.)