Futurama Lives!

[GA!]

http://au.news.yahoo.com/060623/11/zi9o.html

YEAH!!!!

[SeanDMan]

Yay, 2008. I'll hold my breath.

[Godfatha]

I wonder if they'll be still singing this tune when it comes to forking out the money to make more episodes. I love the show, don't get me wrong, but it cost a LOT of money just to make one episode. I know it's not the most reliable source, but when I was watching Adult Swim, on one of the little "bumps" they had, they said how it cost them almost double the cost of The Simpsons per episode. When you consider that Futurama wasn't pulling in that strong of ratings (because of getting fucked around) it got axed.

The ratings will be high for the new season but I don't think it'll be high enough to justify spending so much money again.

[GA!]

I agree with you on all points. Just from watching it, it looks more advanced and expensive than The Simpsons' graphics. Whether they try to cut corners behind the scenes and work to a smaller budget is something to be seen, and whether or not Futurama gets to Episode 86 will be interesting... But I'm just so happy there's 13 more episodes. There's loads more territory to explore in my opinion - and the show is so better than The Simpsons on so many levels that it was criminal how FOX fucked them around during their initial run.

[FullBloodedItalian]

I heard something about this over a month ago...

but really, when this happens, I hope the Simpsons finally retire....

They are becoming decreasingly funny in the past few years....and they've had a really really long run.

and cancel South Park too by the way...South Park has started just periodically beating dead horses into the ground for 30 minutes....its no longer funny

[thatshortguy]

On a personal note, I found it somewhat disheartening when Family Guy returned from extinction and -- after an initially great return -- began a steady decline into repetition. The reason I bring this up is that Futurama was the show I gravitated to once I tired of Family Guy, so I'd really prefer them to make it up to the previous standard or not at all.

In terms of humor, Futurama was excellent on a million levels (I mean, how many other animated comedies can boast writers with doctorates in Applied Math, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, and Inorganic Chemestry?) While I don't fear that the subtle nature of the show will change, I fear that Comedy Central's inevitably smaller budget towards shows will change the visual appeal, which will in turn affect morale...which in turn affects quality of humor.

The best thing about this (besides the return of a great show) is that it gives Comedy Central a show with relative sophistication...something I believe the network has been lacking since MST3k.

[zero]

I heard something about this over a month ago...

but really, when this happens, I hope the Simpsons finally retire....

They are becoming decreasingly funny in the past few years....and they've had a really really long run.

and cancel South Park too by the way...South Park has started just periodically beating dead horses into the ground for 30 minutes....its no longer funny

:thumbsdown: South Park is still the best show on TV right now.

Good news for Futurama though. I liked the show, never anything I went out of my way to watch though. But it'll do good on Comedy Central, I'm sure on a much lower budget though. Comedy Central sticks with shows that do well, so as long as people watch, it'll stay on. Just make sure you watch those first 13 episodes, because if you don't, Comedy Central will axe it fast. Again though, it is Comedy Central, so even if they do axe it, you'll be able to watch re-runs for the next ten years at 3am right after Kid Notorious.

[thatshortguy]

:thumbsdown: South Park is still the best show on TV right now.

Good news for Futurama though. I liked the show, never anything I went out of my way to watch though. But it'll do good on Comedy Central, I'm sure on a much lower budget though. Comedy Central sticks with shows that do well, so as long as people watch, it'll stay on. Just make sure you watch those first 13 episodes, because if you don't, Comedy Central will axe it fast. Again though, it is Comedy Central, so even if they do axe it, you'll be able to watch re-runs for the next ten years at 3am right after Kid Notorious.

Still pisses me off to think that they kept what was quite possibly the best collection of animated comedy pre-Adult Swim on at 2 AM. Sunday night without moving it up.

Two episodes of Duckman, The Tick, and The Critic, with the rare two-hour block of one of those shows every so often.

[Ananas]

I don't really think that major budget cuts are necessary, because the DVD sales on Futurama sets are ridiculous. I don't know if they could cover their costs on DVD alone, but with both first-run and syndication, I'm certain Comedy Central stands to make a bundle off new episodes. Run it with South Park and you've got one hell of a successful hour of cable TV. This is great news, even though I'm constantly getting the feeling that this news has been reported before, like months ago.

[Godfatha]

They could pair it with South Park, but when you consider all the other shows that tried to pair with it (Kid Notorious and Drawn Together) not doing so well, I kind of hope they don't go that route. I don't know what the status is of Drawn Together but I really do miss that show.

I know the visuals of the show will change due to a smaller budget but I don't think that would affect the actual writing of the show. The humour was never in the fancy visuals, just in sharp writing and subtle jokes. It's cool whenever the ship lands in a new and foreign place that the camera does a wide angle panoramic shot and pans across the entire plane before focusing on the ship, but it's not entirely necessary and could be scrapped to save on money.

I remember this being old, but I think that's with Billy West originally stating it was coming back, before he retracted it by saying it was instead a few movies going direct to DVD. Now with this announcement being made, I'm not certain if those movies are actually going to be made, or if they're going to be split up to be the 13 episodes for Futurama.

[Lowerdeck]

:thumbsdown: South Park is still the best show on TV right now.

Good news for Futurama though. I liked the show, never anything I went out of my way to watch though. But it'll do good on Comedy Central, I'm sure on a much lower budget though. Comedy Central sticks with shows that do well, so as long as people watch, it'll stay on. Just make sure you watch those first 13 episodes, because if you don't, Comedy Central will axe it fast. Again though, it is Comedy Central, so even if they do axe it, you'll be able to watch re-runs for the next ten years at 3am right after Kid Notorious.

Still pisses me off to think that they kept what was quite possibly the best collection of animated comedy pre-Adult Swim on at 2 AM. Sunday night without moving it up.

Two episodes of Duckman, The Tick, and The Critic, with the rare two-hour block of one of those shows every so often.

I don't even think they do that anymore, which sucks. I used to catch The Critic and Dilbert while it was still on. But, I bought the DVDs for those two recently.

[GA!]

I personally don't think the visuals will ever change... What you got here though is a budget that will mean it'll never go past 13 episodes a season no matter how successful it is. And re-run advertising revenue and constant DVD sales, which is how Family Guy got back and gets a lot of its budget, will be what funds the show.

[Godfatha]

It depends on who is getting the DVD revenue, is it 20th Century Fox or will it be Comedy Central? Also, yeah the reruns would bring in ad revenue, but I don't think the revenue will be enough to sustain the visuals that the "original" had on Fox.