Red Decapodian
Crustacean
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« on: 05-07-2003 19:56 »
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Well, let's look at the facts here, this seems to be the last call for renewing it this week so we may as well look things over.
Fox still has 10 more episodes that they've probably paid to rent and haven't aired yet, just letting 10 episodes sit around unaired would seem pretty cost ineffective considering all the holes in Fox's schedule, and it would make sense that they would want more episodes just to round out the season.
It's May right now, next episode aired will be November with the way Fox does their seasons (even Simpsons), and they probably wouldn't finish the 10 completed ones until about March with the football preemptions and all. So that would be 9 or 10 months away.
From what i understand from the Family Guy sites I've been to, reuniting the team and getting a writing crew together and making new episodes took 9 months, and Fox only ordered that show back because of the huge amount of letters from the internet and snail mail.
Now i understand that Futurama is a little more complex animation since it's painted on cells, but from how i understand it all the Americans do is the animatic and it's sent over to Korea to be filled in with color, motion, stuff in the background which takes like 2 months (?).
I figure if Fox listened to the Family Guy fans they'd listen to the Futurama fans, especially with all the letters they sent back saying that the show isn't cancelled and that they're pleased with how it's doing at 7 PM on Sundays. I know we don't like it on Fox but how many of you wouldn't like to see the show at least hit 100 episodes before calling it a day? (I mean, 1 season away!)
So i guess it's going to take more letters and petitions, and i know that's a pain in the ass, but instead of flooding Fox with "complaining fan mails", let's present logical reasons that make dollars and sense to them why Futurama should be brought back.
1) Futurama, without promotion, does a little under a 4.0, while the X-Men special aired in it's place did a 1.7 (?)
2) Fox will have all sorts of holes in their programming.
Sunday-7 PM (outside of football season), Sunday 9:30 PM (cancelling The Pitts)
Tuesday-8-10 since last night's 24 was the series finale to my understanding and American Idol probably won't be back until next January
Wednesday-8:00, American Idol gone until January
Thursday-8-10, in fact, this spot has been empty for forever, i wonder why they haven't filled it.
Friday-8-10 since Fastlane and John Doe are getting the boot
With all these holes in the programming why would they cancel a proven success that hasn't been marketed in so long they could start promoting it again and making it fresh.
3) Futurama has almost singlehandedly turned cartoon network around even though there's only about 50-60 episodes in syndication.
4) Fox has money to experiment with a different time slot or more episodes or maybe more promotion for the show to boost it's numbers, they're getting their highest ratings ever doing better than ABC every week, and they have a successful news channel to boot.
I know it's hard getting logic out there to Fox but maybe, just MAYBE they'll listen. I'm going to send a formal letter to them by snail mail in the next two days just to see if it has any effect at all.
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Red Decapodian
Crustacean
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I understand the issue is that Fox doesn't own Futurama lock, stock, and barrel like they do the Simpsons and it eats them up so they take it out on Groening
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Anarchist
Professor
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No, the issue here is a simple self esteem problem at FOX. Groening won a bitchfight with FOX in the show's early days, thus questioning FOX's manhood, and Gail Berman has been trying to prove that his dong is bigger than Matt Groening's ever since.
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Kristi
Starship Captain
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- Gail Berman is a female.
- How can you question a TV network's manhood? :rolleyes:
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Anarchist
Professor
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1. I'm not quite sure about that; although I can't call Gail Berman male either. I prefer to use the term "it". 2. Everything has a manhood, and most things have a problem with said manhood. Nations, especially.
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Killerfox
Professor
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FOX Doesnt like the show at all, They never have and never will, havent you noticed all those crap timeslots, no advert, almost 4 years after the show started they launch the season one dvd.
They dont like the show and i dont know why but it isnt just coincidence.
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Kristi
Starship Captain
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Originally posted by Anarchist: Everything has a manhood
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WGuy00
Crustacean
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I think it's just antenna envy
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Red Decapodian
Crustacean
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I don't want to see the show go forever either so it doesn't turn into Simpsons circa Season 14 (UGGHH)
But come on, 100 episodes, we have nothing to lose, it's worth fighting for!
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Anarchist
Professor
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I kinda agree with PCC Fred here. If they decide to continue dragging it out, and even if they do order 8 more episodes, it will mean that we won't see the current unaired episodes for a while. They'll make them "Season 6", while the new episodes are being made. (FOX can easily turn 8 eps into a season. We've all seen it.) After that, there's no gurantee that the show will be stable (and it most likely won't be) - it will suffer a bad timeslot and many preemptions, and will be on hiatus again in no time. Besides, the old crew won't be working on the new eps. They'll probably be able to get some of them back, but it won't be the same anymore. I doubt many of them would want to quit a stable job to go back to FOX for a few episodes and then be out of a job again, regardless of how much they enjoyed working on Futurama. Also, since they won't be sure how long the series will continue, they'll have to make another "series finale" just to be safe. It won't be pretty. I'd rather see Futurama die with dignity than continue being dragged on like this. I'm only in favor of it being renewed if it will be given a good, stable timeslot and some advertizing. Is it worth fighting for? Sure. Too bad we've already done all we could, and it pretty much had no effect.
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Merion
Crustacean
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Greetings, Ok, we all know it, it's a bloody shame, and there's obviously no reliable information to get from FOX. But is there any word from Groening on that matter? He should know...
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Teral
Helpy McHelphelp
DOOP Secretary
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He said in a British radio interview he's grateful for the fans actions to save the show.
Also one of the staff, I think it was Cohen, said Groening still fought to save the show, either by convincing FOX to renew or examining the possibility of taking it to other networks (no information about the legal issues in that interview).
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Teral
Helpy McHelphelp
DOOP Secretary
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I think that's the name I was looking for. I guessed Cohen because it sounds like something he would've said.
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Red Decapodian
Crustacean
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The letter i'm writing is addressed to Gail Berman and I'm trying to write friendly/persuasively, it never hurt writing a professional looking letter.
Although I couldn't help doing envelope art, Free Waterfall Junior is on the front holding a "Save Futurama" sign with the Tofu Eating Lion on the back, i figured it was eye-catching.
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Grim
Professor
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You could probably do with out the envelope art... less likely to take u seriously with that...
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Red Decapodian
Crustacean
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I'm sending more letters on Saturday so don't worry about it. There's tons of other people to reach.
The petitions go in the circular file, the letters actually have a WAY better chance of getting read.
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Grim
Professor
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I always thought the Fox mail room had a revolving door, in comes the mail, out goes the same mail...
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Teral
Helpy McHelphelp
DOOP Secretary
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Basically FOX said: "we want creative control, or at least a joint control."
Groening repsonded: "GET OUT OF MY OFFICE!" ::insert picture of Matt Groening from that-Simpsons-episode-I-forgot-the-name-of-right-ow::
Taking lessons from the Simpsons, FOX wanted some creative control of Futurama. Matt said, "Forget it. We'll do this like we did on the Simpsons (ie. Matt had complete control of the show)." FOX said "We don't do business that way anymore." And Matt's final words were: "Though, that's the only way I do business."
And that's how the big pissing-contest between FOX and Groening started. I think FOX's strategy was to harass and annoy Matt so much, he'd eventually say "Okay, you win. We'll do it your way!" Looks like FOX made a slight mis-calculation.
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Teral
Helpy McHelphelp
DOOP Secretary
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That's the one.
Boy, Matt sure cleaned himself up before taping the Futurama season 1 extras, eh?
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Action Jacktion
Professor
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« Reply #32 on: 05-11-2003 16:36 »
« Last Edit on: 05-11-2003 16:36 »
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Originally posted by OC_James: What exactly was the argument between Matt and FOX about? Groening explains things in this interview -- which was actually conducted before Futurama even premiered. Interestingly, he thinks Fox also dislikes The Simpsons and gives it a lot less support than they could, though they tolerate it because of its popularity. So if they dislike Futurama even more, it makes sense that they'd show an even greater lack of interest. So is the 7:00 time slot a manefestation of their lack of interest and support? I asked in another thread if Futurama has had that slot since 1999, since they moved it back from Tuesdays. Is that right? (EDIT: Okay, I just read the interview and Cohen says the show was "bounced around" a bit before it got the 7:00 slot. I don't remember that but it sounds right.)
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Teral
Helpy McHelphelp
DOOP Secretary
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David gives some further opinions on this matter in the interview Andy just put up at ANSTATMAW.
Geoshitties closed the site due to bandwidth overrun- Try again in an hour, or look out for mirror sites (CGEF).
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