Futurama News - No spoilers outside spoiler tags!

[Reply #400 on:]

Off topic: Why did this thread get un-stickied?

TOTPFuturamaDance!

[Reply #401 on:]

Good catch.

Since this thread is about Futurama News, and not an outdated topic, it should be stickied.

[Reply #402 on:]

Or since we already have thousands of threads for that, and this one was becoming inactive following the premiere due to no spoilers, it was unstickied.

[Reply #403 on:]

I cleaned up the thread naming a bit and stickied what I thought should be a sticky.

News as posted by DotheBartman and others: The first Season 6 episodes are up on iTunes now

[Reply #404 on:]

Thanks for the clean up, mArc! Some of those thread titles were annoying me, and it's good to have some uniformity like old times again.

[Reply #405 on:]

old times is right.  I've been here almost five years and it was even before my time  

anyway, I looked over at the itunes store, and the two new futurama eps are at the top of the tv sales chart.  whoo!

[Reply #406 on:]

old times is right.  I've been here almost five years and it was even before my time  

anyway, I looked over at the itunes store, and the two new futurama eps are at the top of the tv sales chart.  whoo!

"Rebirth" is (as of this post) the third best-seller in the TV category on Amazon's video service, too.  Woo-hoo!

[Reply #407 on:]

from this article:

"Futurama" averaged 2.9 million viewers and a 1.9 rating in adults 18-49 when it aired Thursday night on Comedy Central, Nielsen Media Research said Monday. It was tied for the highest-rated show in adults 18-49 in all TV on Thursday's primetime, and was the highest-rated show among men 18-24 and men 18-34. Comedy Central said it helped the network to its highest-rated night in 2010 and its highest-rated Thursday primetime in the history of the network.

[Reply #408 on:]

Oooh, am I getting some "Space Pilot 3000" ratings vibe?

For those in the unknown, read up!:

http://theinfosphere.org/Space_Pilot_3000#Reception

Someone at CC must be thinking; 'let's order another season of this!'

[Reply #409 on:]

Well, to Comedy Central's credit, they did an excellent job promoting the season premiere. Those ratings don't surprise me--but they definitely make me hopeful for another season order sooner rather than later.

[Reply #410 on:]

I hope that if Futurama carries on for years on end, I hope the writers can still deliver fresh ideas in years to come, to keep the show feeling new, unlike The Simpsons.

[Reply #411 on:]

For some reason, I don't think Futurama will fall into a Simpsons-like situation. There's only so long that you can go along with this on-again-off-again relationship until you face it head on. Look at a show like How I Met Your Mother. You have for 4 seasons where Barney is the chauvinistic lady's man that we all know in love, but that's very small in the way of character development. So, in the 5th season, him and Robin date. Did it last? No, but at least they went head on with it. And then Robin, who's been labeled the one who doesn't want to settle down since Season 1, gets in a relationship that makes her want to settle down. Personally, I'd find it interesting if they went head-on into Fry/Leela only for them to fail. It would bring some resolution while allowing for more plot. Sure, at the end of the series, you can have them get together, but you can't go on for 15 years of them on-again-off-again. There has to be a point where they face the issue, and, for the longterm viability of a show, them not being together helps.

That being said, I can see Futurama having at most 6 additional broadcast seasons, or around 70 more episodes past this order of 26. That's the longest I can see the show being able to remain fresh. Personally, I see the likeliest route to be 3 or 4 more seasons past this.

These ratings can only help the renewal drive. It's the highest rated night for the entire year for Comedy Central! That means it got higher ratings than fresh South Park, Daily Show, or Colbert Report. And winning the night with 18-49 year olds for all of TV when you're broadcasting at 10pm on cable is really the major news. Really, think about that. A lot of people watch the 8pm show on network TV and go to bed, but somehow a show on at 10pm on cable beat those in the most lucrative age bracket. If this keeps up, Futurama will definitely be renewed. In fact, if this keeps up, Fox may want to rëexamine not picking it up themselves.

[Reply #412 on:]

I wonder exactly how Twentieth Century Fox TV and Comedy Central are splitting the production costs and revenues.  My guess is that CC isn't paying all the production costs, but TCFT is keeping all the DVD/Blu-Ray profits.  Hopefully TCFT doesn't have unrealistic expectations for TV ratings and remembers how well the discs sell.

[Reply #413 on:]

CC or FOX has to order the new seasons (due to the contract CC made with TCFT, FOX remains able to bit in on new seasons as well), TCFT is purely waiting for the call.  I am not sure how the costs are split between them, but TCFT needs an immediate customer in order to begin ordering production.  TCFT makes all the revenue from the DVDs and such.  CC or FOX have no rights to sell them.

Not sure what you mean about the last comment?  It's not really TCFT's position to have an opinion on TV ratings.

[Reply #414 on:]

Not sure what you mean about the last comment?  It's not really TCFT's position to have an opinion on TV ratings.

Well, TCFT has to decide it's still worthwhile for them to keep making the show as well, and it seems likely that the bulk of their profits are going to come from the DVDs.  Ratings are important insofar as they're a measure of how popular the show is, and we don't want them to draw pessimistic conclusions about disc sales based on the ratings (I don't think they will, but it's possible).

[Reply #415 on:]

TCFT, like most production companies, are willing to take far more risky investments than television channels (especially cable networks), because a DVD sale can basically last 'for ever' and the things that sell very well make up for the things that do.  Consider this; why would an airline fly a flight with less than half the plane full?  Because the full flights make up for it.

So I think this decision comes down to CC or FOX.

[Reply #416 on:]

Good news everyone! iTunes is advertising new Futurama on its home page. Additionally, you can buy all four movies and the new episodes as both SD and HD versions (movies are $12.99 SD and $19.99 HD), and all 72 original episodes are finally up for $1.99 a piece in their original SD.


Edit: iTunes also sent out an email about an hour ago promoting Futurama on iTunes.

[Reply #417 on:]

Too bad it's not on the Australian iTunes store.

[Reply #418 on:]

Or the UK store.

[Reply #419 on:]

Just change your store location in the bottom of the store window.

[Reply #420 on:]

That surely can't work.

[Reply #421 on:]

Did you try?

[Reply #422 on:]

The only thing I noticed in the iTunes Canada store is that they just started selling the movies. No sign of selling the new episodes though.


Oh wait! That does work! Switching countries worked for me! Yay!!!!

[Reply #423 on:]

I don't use the iTunes store, but I'd be really interested to hear from someone else about whether or not that works. I'd be amazed if it does, but if it does, then I might have to start using the store.

[Reply #424 on:]

...but it looks like in order to purchase anything from the US iTunes store, you need to live in the United States.

[Reply #425 on:]

Or have billing information that is USA based.

[Reply #426 on:]

Indeed.  The simple trick is to create a fake billing address.  Good deal I know have fake billing addresses in the US so they can use the American store.  Often, they use the White House's address.  Apparently, the stores never really check for the billing address anyway.

[Reply #427 on:]

Thank god you get the receipt in a email.

[Reply #428 on:]

Exactly.  Welcome to the modern world.

[Reply #429 on:]

Don't you mean ... the world of tomorrow?

[Reply #430 on:]

Has anybody evaluated the video quality of the HD downloads?  The eps that aired on CCHD were slightly compressed.  It'd be hard to notice unless you were specifically looking for it, but the eps definitely were encoded at a lower data rate than the Blu-Ray movies.

[Reply #431 on:]

You know you're obsessed when you start nitpicking at things like the above.

Srsly.

[Reply #432 on:]

You know you're obsessed when you start nitpicking at things like the above.

Srsly.

That's what happens when there's only one new episode (or two) per week.

[Reply #433 on:]

Back in my day, we didn't have Blu Ray. VHS was high definition! I actually remember when they released D-VHS, which was in 780p and 1080i, in the early 2000s. Damn I feel old for remembering that.

And considering that this is one of the nerdiest shows on TV right now (I'd put it just behind Doctor Who, being that Lost is gone and nothing else is airing right now), I'm not surprised at the nitpicking.

[Reply #434 on:]

yet another interview with David X. Cohen.  Not much new information in it, but he does metion a couple of new tidbits about the plots of some upcoming eps.

[Reply #435 on:]

These ratings can only help the renewal drive. It's the highest rated night for the entire year for Comedy Central! That means it got higher ratings than fresh South Park, Daily Show, or Colbert Report.And winning the night with 18-49 year olds for all of TV when you're broadcasting at 10pm on cable is really the major news. Really, think about that. A lot of people watch the 8pm show on network TV and go to bed, but somehow a show on at 10pm on cable beat those in the most lucrative age bracket. If this keeps up, Futurama will definitely be renewed. In fact, if this keeps up, Fox may want to rëexamine not picking it up themselves.

Well, it was the best overall Thursday night ever for the network, which included The Daily Show and Colbert Report (as well as the Futurama repeats the same night).  Individual South Park episodes have also done better this year, although this was apparently the highest-rated animated premiere in Comedy Central's history other than South Park (and there's been a whole bunch of animated shows on the network in the past). 

Still, this IS pretty phenomenal.  If the ratings can generally hold, I would expect at least another order of episodes after these 26.

[Reply #436 on:]

yet another interview with David X. Cohen.  Not much new information in it, but he does metion a couple of new tidbits about the plots of some upcoming eps.

The spark-notes from that article (eh, I'll spoiler it just in case):

Show spoiler

• Craig Ferguson is in Attack of the Killer App.
• I'm assuming that Proposition Infinity is the one Maurice says deals with Kif/Amy a little.
• The Late Philip J. Fry is a possibly ten-year-old story idea, and Maurice confirming/bring back up the rumor that it has to do with Fry being late for dates.
• The Duh-Vinci Code is Fry-centric.
• Lrrreconcilable Ndndifferences (this may be the hardest episode to spell ever) is the Comic-Con episode.
• Some more origin stories of Zoidberg, Hermes, and Fry in the 20th Century, as well as possibly more. (Could this bring some credence to A Clockwork Origin dealing with with Fear of a Bot Planet given its teaser on MSN?)

[Reply #437 on:]

My guess is that Fry's embarassing video/photo of Leela on the internet reveals the Craig Ferguson mutation to people, hence why it's embarassing. But I'm probably way off.

[Reply #438 on:]

We'll always be way off, turnip. Speculation is fun, but futile. After all, most of the writers are top-of-the-class thinkers. I'd actually be disappointed if I ever managed to consistently (if ever) match their imaginations, i.e. guess the plots. They're going to keep us guessing up until the show is over for-real for-real, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

[Reply #439 on:]

After all, most of the writers are top-of-the-class thinkers.

Other than Carolyn Premish.

And for some reason I was able to guess plots for Lost but I've never been able to for Futurama.