‘Futurama’ switches orbits to Comedy Central in January
"Futruama" stars celebrate their return to television aboard their spaceship.
By Brittany Coombs
Published on Tuesday, January 15, 2008
In the future, you will be speedily transported through the city via inter-connected tubing! In the future, you will not be able to walk down the street without tripping over a monkey! In the future, your significant other's head will be attached to your neck, thus allowing you to play ping-pong -- "with your own damn self!"
Such disembodied wonderments comprise the hilarious new promotional campaign on Comedy Central -- which is, as of winter, the new home of "Futurama," the Emmy Award–winning and recently resurrected animated sitcom about the Year 3000. After countless online petitions, massive DVD sales and relentless battle cries against the FOX Network, master cartoonist Matt Groening's cultish Sci-Fi brainchild is set to return with new episodes to the small screen. There, it will remind us why we too would like to be cryogenically whisked away to an era of alien newscasters, heads in jars and Amazon women looking for "snu snu."
The series' first movie, "Futurama: Bender's Big Score," which was released in late November on DVD, confirmed rumors that the critically acclaimed show would be returning to syndication with an all-new fifth season (in addition to providing long-starved fans with an epic and complex continuity hopper about love, death and the meaning of existence).
The movie's memorable opening features the crew of the Planet Express spaceship celebrating their return to "the air" upon learning the incompetent executives of the Box Network have all been fired -- and punitively ground into "a fine, pink powder." And when captain Leela wonders aloud what such news means for the gang and its "many fans" (as her ponytail whips in front of a literal wall of ventilation devices), triumphant music rings out to cries of "We're back!"
While indeed this is "good news, everyone," to quote the maniacal Professor, the beloved absurdist cartoon is not coming back to television in the traditional sense -- Ã la, say, the famously revived 'Family Guy'.
In an interview with Crave Online, an e-hub of pop culture, Groening revealed that with Comedy Central now owning rights to all 72 Futurama episodes, FOX did not make requests for more standard half-hour installments. Instead, 20th Century Fox wanted a single straight-to-DVD film release -- an idea that quickly ballooned to include four movies when Groening and co-developer David X. Cohen realized the films, if properly scripted, could each essentially be four new installments ready-made for TV.
In other words, 16 never-before-seen "Futurama" episodes are on their way to the home of "South Park" and the "Daily Show.""We're writing them as movies and then we're going to chop them up, reconfigure them, write new material and narration, and try to make them work as separate episodes," Groening explained on the website. Best of all, the quality of the show would step up a notch.
"All the actors, the original animation team, the original animation house, the original writers -- everybody came back. It was great," he added.
And with the sliced-and-diced episodes set to greet the world on uncensored DVDs before airing on a station known for its loosened (if at all existent) reins, the plan is for everyone's favorite animated spaceship crew to fly to risqué realms previously circumnavigated.
"[We're going to] really try to push it," Groening said. "There's nothing we can think of that Comedy Central won't run."
Bold and creative writing draw the show's sizable fan base.
"Other shows like 'Family Guy' and 'American Dad' have their few jokes that are basically you've heard them once, you've heard them enough," Lani Lee '09 said. "With 'Futurama,' though, the jokes aren't just sarcastic cracks about modern culture; they're from all over the board."
Charlie Cunningham '07, a fan of the show since its inception, most appreciates "Futurama's" unique ability to astutely mock elements of advanced mathematics and natural science, something that allows it to work on a "deep" level that was especially present during the early run of "The Simpsons," Groening's most famous creation.
"I actually think the show is not as well-respected as it deserves, especially amongst general television viewers," Cunningham said. "What separates it from other adult cartoon comedies is that it has more heart. Its characters actually grow, and amid the smart and quick humor, the tone of the show is often very bittersweet and sometimes even sad. 'Futurama' is a love story which just happens to be set 1000 years in the future, in the middle of a parody of all things science-fiction and fact."
The other three DVD movies -- "The Beast with a Billion Backs," "Bender's Game," and "The Wild Green Yonder" -- are still in production. Currently, the rerun misadventures of Fry, Leela and Bender can be seen on Channel 44 of DarTV.
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