The lesson is that you should never, ever give a network executive control of your fate.
Those kinds of macabre twists would be Futurama’s undoing. Fox was expecting something familiar, The Simpsons in space. Executives certainly were not prepared for the bizarre contours of Groening and Cohen’s brave new world. “The network’s attitude quickly went from tremendous excitement to great fear,” Groening says. “They were very troubled by the suicide booth. They didn’t like the ‘All-Tentacle Massage’ parlor.”
How can you not like the ‘All-Tentacle Massage’ parlor? Obviously, Groening and Co. should have just sent the execs a two hour preview clip of HypnoToad, and gone ahead and done whatever they wanted.
At least the good news is that Futurama is coming back for one more year.
I am so glad that you addressed this. There has been a great gap in my life since Futurama went off the air. There is actually a Futurama movie that was released today on DVD. It’s confusing whether this is the new season, or something separate. Either way, I feel fulfilled once again.
PZ, I like you even more now that I see you’re a Futurama fan.
I picture you becoming more and more like Professor Farnsworth as you age, what with the pet gargoyle (Pazuzu) and all.
Whoa, more futurama episodes -thats great news! Pity the movie wasn’t very good (at all).
Everything you wrote about Futurama goes double for the best cartoon on Nickelodeon (before “Avatar, the Last Airbender” at least), INVADER ZIM.
The geniuses at Nickelodeon go out and hire this hip edgy indie comics artist named Jhonen Vasquez to write and direct an animated series about a megalomaniac alien weenie trying to invade Earth and the paranoid Emo-kid who tries to stop him. Previously Vasquez is best known from his comic “Johnny the Homicidal Maniac”. Then for some reason the Nick suits were scared and confused when the series they got was dark and emo and deeply off-center (including things like Zim running around in a mechanical spider-like suit skittering through school ventilation ductwork harvesting fellow students’ organs in an attempt to appear more human).
Then they get really spooked after a school shooting somewhere is perpetrated by some kids wearing long black trenchoats, and ZOMG! the main human character in Zim wears a trenchcoat! Oh noes!
Naturally when Vasquez refused to turn Zim and Dib into an SF-ed up version of Tom and Jerry, the Nick morons canned it.
Don’t forget to drink your Slurm.
Sweet! I loved Futurama and look forward to more. (cackles with glee while rubbing hands together)
More like Farnsworth? Not more like Zoidberg?
I’ve got a bunch of the Invader Zim DVDs, and I also own JTHM and
Squee’s Wonderful Big Giant Book of Unspeakable Horrors — I love that stuff. One curious thing about the Expelled movie: in an interview before that, I’d mentioned something in reference to the wall Nny has to keep painting with the blood of his victims, and the interviewer kept asking about it and clearly didn’t understand what the hell I had been talking about. I finally had to tell them that if they’d like, I’d take them across the street and show them that there is no wall of blood in my basement.
I’m wondering if that bit is going to be in the movie.
I’m also going to watch the Zim Christmas special on Christmas eve, for sure.
Good news everyone!
They’re making 4 feature-length (direct to DVD) Futurama movies but they’re gonna be cut into episodes and aired on TV as the new season. Don’t ask me where they’re gonna air them though, I live in Sweden a.k.a. waiting-for-a-year-before-anything-gets-here-land.
@ #3:
What didn’t you like about the movie that just came out?
On the topic of cephalopod teachers – though the space soap aspect may be more Plait country:
I’m reading my way through the first collection of Starslip Crisis, and professor Teuthis remind me a lot of our PZed (if less pacifist) – he just needs the monocle.
With luck, the resurrection of Futurama will be the deathblow for the doddering institution of The Simpsons. A 100% replacement would be more or less ideal.
Wow, 8 comments in the time it took for me to read the Wired article.
But I guess some of the other commenters didn’t bother.
Daniel has it right, it’s four feature length stories, but each is cut into 22 minute segments for airing on Comedy Central next year. The first of the four was available yesterday (in the US).
I know what to put on my Newtonmas list this year.
They’ll be airing on Comedy Central here in the states, as will the repeats. Cartoon Network had the rights for 5 years, which is up January 1, 2008, at which point Comedy Central will take up the reruns.
There’s an informative interview with David X Cohen on tvsquad.com.
Good news everybody. Finally we get an entire episode of Everybody Loves Hypnotoad. Hooray!
Should send the Fox executives some handy brain slugs as well, if the hypno-toad should fail.
Invader Zim totally rocked, too.
Merry Xmas everyone, and don’t let psychotic robot Santa rub you out.
#11: Not even Family Guy has been able to kill the Simpsons. I think that FOX and the Simpsons crew are both going for the Gunsmoke record (that is to say, longest running TV show…of the category that excludes news and SNL).
One of my undergrad minions is a fan of Cartoon Networks’ Metalocolypse which features a band on the show called Deathklock. I had seen a few episodes and mentioned to him that the band name is a Futurama reference (one of Prof. Farnsworth’s inventions). He said,”What’s Futurama?” and I almost slapped him. He has since become a fan.
I’ve already got “Bender’s Big Score” on my Netflix queue and am looking forward to more. I’m one of those “niche fans” who has never let go of hopes for a return of one of my favorite animated shows of all time. I’ll even go so far as to say I like Futurama better than The Simpsons.
As far as Jhonen Vasquez goes, I don’t suppose I can offer higher praise than my ownership of a Happy Noodle Boy t-shirt, can I? I still watch reruns of Zim on occasion, though I’ve seen them all so many times now I’ve practically memorized them.
There needs to be a Happy Noodle Boy cartoon, though. Perhaps when some enterprising media conglomerate decides to start the Bipolar Hebephrenic Channel…
Y’know, I’m not sure that this all that ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTOAD!
I’ll even go so far as to say I like Futurama better than The Simpsons.
I’ll go not very far in backing you on that.
It’s much more a show for geeks than the Simpsons ever dreamed of being.
besides, I really have to give kudos to a show that featured an Al Gore espousing:
“Peace out, ya ‘all!”
Sometimes one is so over joyed with good news that one can over look the terror.
I am now picturing PZ filling his Trophy Wife with jelly.
It burns! It burns!
My local blockbuster hasn’t seen fit to stock the new DVD, which is utterly incredible.
I remember when Futurama was actually airing: it was by far one of my favorite shows… and yet Fox’s treatment of it on the schedule made it hard for even someone like me to keep coming back and trying every weekend to see if this time it might REALLY be on…. or if we’d instead be treated to an extra half-hour of football commentators blathering on randomly on about nothing in the wake of the latest game.
Goodness. Perhaps the execs should have made themselves familiar with his comic “Life in Hell.” It might have tipped them off to other aspects of his creative processes.
humbert dinglepencker, I am afraid I have to disagree with you. For a long time, ‘Life In Hell’ was a very funny comic. I was reading it long before there was a ‘Simpsons’. (Wow! Is that a distant memory!) But in recent years, ‘Life In Hell’ has been little more than Akbar and Jeff doing their love and disgust bit. There is no indication of what ‘Futurama’ became.
Have to love the collaboration process. Network execs get nervous when when the product becomes difficult to describe.
The DVD is the new season. They’re going to chop the movie up into four pieces, add new stuff to each episode, and air it.
Too bad Fox couldn’t give Firefly that kind of chance.
“May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one.”
Bastiges….
fyi, the bonus feature about the math of Futurama in the new movie DVD is well worth the watch. There is a website to go along with it by Dr. Sarah Greenwald (the presenter of the feature) at http://www.futuramamath.com
The movie is brilliant btw! A moment for Pharyngula readers to definitely watch for is during Leela’s wedding, where Father Changstein-El-Gamal says “We are gathered here before one or more Gods, or fewer”.
Oh, and it’s Fox’s first ever carbon neutral product as well! http://www.newscorp.com/energy/futurama.html
Leela gets married? Any more plot details we should know?
Sure, you want me to transcribe the lyrics to the songs in the movie for you? Or was that a thinly veiled “whaaa, don’t spoil the show!”? If so, why not just say it instead of trying to be clever?
Ah, yes. The tried-and-true Bastard Fox Cancellation Maneuver. Everyone who’s ever watched anything on Fox knows this gambit all too well.
The most amazing thing about the DVD is the full length “Everybody Loves Hypnotoad” episode. It’s the bestest DVD feature ever.
Mild spoiler:
There is a commercial for the season one box set, with cast and crew commentary!, that made me laugh so hard I had difficulty breathing.
All Glory to the Hypnotoad!
OK, I also think Futurama is (MUCH) better than The Simpsons. I also prefer Family Guy more, but I don’t think it compares as much with Simpsons, as much as Simpsons fans would like to (because then they can accuse FG of copying and such). I just don’t like the main characters of The Simpsons that much, while Futurama, as is said before, is like a show FOR geeks.
But now, I don’t get the fanfare Firefly has got. I rented Serenity and the first 10 minutes seemed interesting, so I just held viewing it and rented the complete season of Firefly. It was entertaining enough, but nothing too seriously fan-inducing.
It has its couple of funny unexpected moments (like the big guy threatening to chase Mal and kill him, and Mal just kicking him into the turbine engine), but most of it is kind of silly. I can’t see how this is one of the highest rated sci-fi shows, given that usually the genre attracts geeks and science-minded people when done right. I am not a fan of sci-fi as a genre, I usually just like some movies regardless of what themes they take. Serenity was OK, but nothing special. I liked movies like Contact better. Can anyone explain what they find Firefly>/i> so exciting about? I felt a little cheated after reading so much excitement about it.
They’re back, baby!
The DVD is grand. The movie is great, digging deeply into the shows history.
And the extras are fun going from a math lecture to hypnotoad’s show (I did love the scene changes and the commercial break — it was a labor of love by all involved). Plus the cast reads a comic at a Con and they have a video commentary with David X. Cohen, Matt Groening, and Al Gore on the ad they did for his movie.
Plus they made sure to do another great commentary, I have yet to see a group that does a more fun commentary.
The whole Futurama experience seems like a labor of love from the cast and crew. And their fans love them back.
By the way, talking about canceled Fox shows, the super-hyped one that didn’t disappoint AT ALL was Arrested Development.
Myer as Zoidberg?…
Yeah…Male or female, among humans, what’s the difference? You add a tentacle or two…know you’re on to something.
I just hope you aren’t also a hobo doctor.
ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTOAD
Re: #32
Sure. The problem is not in the show, but in you, as your comment reveals: “I am not a fan of sci-fi as a genre…”
— CV
–CV
Yeah, I’m not particularly a fan of sci-fi, but I don’t dislike it either. I have seen sci-fi movies and liked some. I just wish someone could just explain to me what’s so special about Firefly that, for instance, Star Wars or other mainstream stuff lacks. It didn’t seem bad to me, but really nothing much more than entertaining maybe.
I mean, I haven’t even seen 2001 complete, just clips, but one of the scenes that caught my attention was the space station that was like a rotating wheel. I just thought, that’s a good way to simulate gravity, how clever. Compared to most other sci-fi movies, where they had to magic gravity somehow, it was pretty well-done.
I’m definitely a big fan of Futurama– watched “Bender’s Big Score” this morning with my son, who has been catching up on back episodes with me and his sister. I’ve probably got the only three-year-old on the planet who says “What’s up, sweetcheeks?” ala’ my main metal man Bender!
“I just wish someone could just explain to me what’s so special about Firefly that, for instance, Star Wars or other mainstream stuff lacks. ”
Er, actors that can actually act? Scripts that are deft and witty instead of leaden?
The great thing about Futurama is that you don’t have to like sci-fi to like making fun of it. :)
Bad #23,
Free-to-air here in australia also treats its viewers with contempt.
My VCR is my friend; I set it for 1/2 hour before and 1/2 hour after the scheduled time and only curse when it’s taken over by some other programming.
Bonus: you get to zap the adverts!
“Good News Everyone…”
Futurama is back!
“Sweet Zombie Jesus!”
I have seen sci-fi movies and liked some. I just wish someone could just explain to me what’s so special about Firefly that, for instance, Star Wars or other mainstream stuff lacks.
A creator who calls it science-fiction instead of space fantasy? Silence in airless space? You’re only digging yourself in deeper.
Also: whoohoo!
I was eagerly awaiting Bender’s Big Score, and I wasn’t disappointed.
Not enough Zoidberg, but that’s my only criticism. If the other 3 are as good, this might make up for cancellation (did we really want it to dig it’s own grave like the Simpsons?)
I found that Invader Zim often got a bit cagey when the subject of the Irken’s nastier proclivities came up (eg enslaving the Vortians) which tended to blunt the edge of the humour.
That said the Valentine’s Day episode was a glorious piss-take on the Peter Cushing Dalek movie.
And I’m still awestruck at how Christmas episode burned Alfed T. Pooner holiday specials, smarmy TV news “Santa Updates”, “Left Behind” crazies, media-driven group-think, fascistic “Battle Cry” rallies, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and pandering politicians, and then brazenly stole the central joke from Futurama‘s Xmas episode and somehow made it 10,000x funnier in the process.
It’s not only short on Zoidberg, but Zap and Kiff as well. Also, it could have used more of Nixon’s severed head. Of course, I think every episode needs more Nixon and Zap.
Like all of the original episodes, the DVD gets better with repeated viewings. Almost every time I watch a Futurama episode I notice some little detail in the background.
Funny you should mention that. One of the first things I noticed when I started watching Firefly was the bad acting! Of course, I didn’t let it bother me too much, it wasn’t that bad, and good acting alone doesn’t make a good series in my opinion. So acting was not a criterion I considered. Half the main characters are OK, but Kaylee and the doctor are pretty horrible actors. The shepherd didn’t fall that far behind.
And about the scripts, that’s what I’m talking about! They don’t seem that much of a thing. Much of it comes off as pretty silly. The whole galactic cowboy thing and the “companions” being a super respected high-class job seem a little too contrived.
I did notice the actual silence in space in Firefly and it was kind of refreshing. But if you’re gonna get that picky, there are many other little things to pick on. And besides, I also noticed Serenity did have sound in space!
Guys, not trying to pick fights here, but come on. I did like Firefly OK, I just don’t see what the “cult” following is about. Futurama, I see it at once, it’s clever, it’s geeky, it has multiple layers of comedy genius. Even The Simpsons, which I don’t like that much, I can see it. Family Guy I do. Arrested Development… and so on. Maybe I just need some initiation in the sci-fi circles? I just don’t see what’s so special. It is funny at times, even entertaining… but still…
So what would you have done if they’d called your bluff?
Nice troll, andyo. “Hey, I don’t know much about science fiction, but I don’t like Firefly very much. It’s just not that good.”
Though here one expects something more along the lines of “But isn’t it obvious God made the world and everything in it? After all, it’s in the Bible! What more do you want?”
I just wish someone could just explain to me what’s so special about Firefly that, for instance, Star Wars or other mainstream stuff lacks.
Likeable characters combined with wit? Obviously that’s going to be a subjective opinion, as I feel exactly the same way about Futurama, it’s good, I’ll watch it, but I won’t hunt it out as I don’t find it as funny as other shows (and I get the references), partially because I don’t find many of the characters particularly likeable, partially because I, apparently alone, don’t find the humour particularly subtle (occasionally obscure – yes, subtle, no) and partially because I keep hearing Peggy Bundy’s voice when Leela talks, which is disconcerting. Not really fair, but there you go.
But it’s alright. You don’t have to like Firefly. That way you get to feel less annoyed it ended the way it did, when it did.
Did I say I didn’t like it, or did I say that I did like it? (Hint: look it UP!) Just didn’t see what all the hoopla is about. It is OK, entertaining, but didn’t strike me as deserving such a cult following.
And your analogy is so flawed. I’m not the one taking it on faith. I even listened to rave recommendations (even on this site by the commenters, thus my questioning) and went and saw the whole freaking series + movie. I am now asking for clear reasons and nobody can give anything substantial. And what’s the deal in getting all defensive about a TV show? I’ll get defensive about being called a troll, but you can insult my favorite TV shows all you want. I didn’t even insult yours, I just said I liked it didn’t I?
OK, my reply was to ajay.
Sam, I get your point. Some of the characters seemed better than most other sci-fi stuff. I’ve seen. I did enjoy Serenity as a close to the series though.
andyo, it’s okay to have different tastes. I loved Blake’s 7, Dr. Who, Babylon 5, liked some of the Star Trek stuff but wasn’t a big-time fan often– loved Buffy the Vampire Slayer most of the time, Joss Whedon’s other big work.
But I don’t like westerns, and I guess the Western in space thing about the original Star Trek AND Firefly made me go, “Meh.”
Bender’s Big Score:
Not as good as the best Futurama episodes, but certainly as good as their average, which is saying a lot. The only disappointments I’ve heard that I agreed with were that the plot twists were too predictable and the musical numbers were lame. Even the guessed plot twists worked as dramatic irony, though. If you haven’t bought the DVD already, do so. I only wish it came with a free canister of Torgo’s Executive Powder.
andyo,
I’m with you, Firefly was good, but not spectacularly so. My son (22) is in the “big fan” camp and we’ve discussed it quite a few times. I think what a lot of people like is that it is science fiction that isn’t really about technology and SFX. And the technology that is there is very familiar and believable. A lot of modern science fiction is really magical science rather than plausible science. I think it attracted fans becuase it was really the polar opposite of the “Star Trek” style of SF.
The other thing that I think fuels the “cult status” is the perceived “persecution” the show got at the hands of FOX; moving it around the schedule, showing episodes out of order, early cancellation. Somewhat mirrored the outcast rebel status of the characters.
Re: #47
Well, there you go — you never will “get it” if you believe that the acting was bad. The great acting is one of the major pluses of the series. Others are the stories (more realistic: not all happy endings and good-guy-wins); the dialogue (Mal’s dry humor and Jayne’s obvious humor being my favorites); the tension between different groups of characters; the sets and costumes (you don’t think space and western can co-exist? how ’bout computers and westerns, like a modern cattle ranch?); and the whole theme of operating just below the radar of a repressive government. And who the hell doesn’t like Kaylee??
I note that the other shows you mention are all comedies — that might have something to do with it.
There’s no accounting for taste. Just don’t be too celebratory on Unification Day.
— CV
Andyo @ :
I wish someone could explain to you, too. Or rather, pass on the enthusiasm, which mere explanation fails all too often to do. Thing is, if you’re going to get it, you’ll get it, and if you’re not, you won’t. No amount of explanation will help. Best just to let it lie. I’m sure there are things you like which are just as mystifying to me.
Yes PZ, Dr. Farnsworth; not Dr. Zoidberg.
If Zoidberg had a Minnesota/North Dakota/Upper Upper Midwestern accent (instead of sounding like Jackie Mason) and his name was something Scandehoovian like Gunderson or Zoiderson, you would have been a shoe-in for the role.
Funnily enough that’s what I liked about Firefly. I mean, along with the visual appeal of the crew, of course; and the believable physics (more or less), the noted silence in vacuum and the lack of “hyperdrive”. Oh, and the hints at a society in dystopian collapse and the clearly uneasy relationship of humanity with high technology.
What really drew me in and hooked me was the Westernish flavor, the crossover, the literal interpretation of frontier mentality. It was plausible enough that I felt connected to the characters, could understand where they were coming from, and it reminded me enough of the animé series Cowboy Bebop that I was able to get into the groove of it fairly quickly.
I might have had a predisposition; about the time Firefly was airing I was also really beginning to explore Kurosawa’s samurai oeuvre, which has strong enough Western (genre, not society) overtones that several of his films got repurposed as Westerns over the years.
That said, some episodes were stinkers, such as the train robbery one.
I was also a fan of the original Dr. Who (especially when in the Baker years Douglas Adams took over as script editor and heavily punched up the quality of the storytelling), like the new series, but my interest in Trek began waning after the third year or so of TNG, when the writing began to rely too much on Borg and Q for really interesting social interrogation to take place. After it devolved into the particle-of-the-week club I pretty much gave up on it.
Seen in that context I suppose that’s another reason I fell so heavily for Firefly: It was absolutely not another Trek franchise. It was like living in a closed-up room for years, then opening the windows and taking a long, deep breath.
“They were very troubled by the suicide booth. They didn’t like the ‘All-Tentacle Massage’ parlor.”
Increasingly, MBA’s who never wrote so much as a short story have say-so over the content of entertainment, so it’s no wonder it’s been dumbed down to the level of someone whose world consists of a subdivision, a golf-course, and a mall.
.
“I just wish someone could just explain to me what’s so special about Firefly that, for instance, Star Wars or other mainstream stuff lacks.”
Mainly the dialouge. It’s not really a question of whether you like sci-fi as a genre, more whether you like Joss Whedon’s other output. If you don’t you’re never going to like Firefly. Also, as said above, if you don’t love Kaylee you’re never going to be persuaded of the show’s qualities.
As for Futurama, does anyone know when this is being released (or aired) in the UK? Should I wait or should I import?
well, enough with Firefly stuff from me. I just saw the new Futurama movie/eps, you GOT TO watch it! It’s genius. Time travel done right!