Big Dogs Futurama t-shirts

[on:]

I'm sure you've seen people wear those 'Big-Dogs' shirts.  I have a few myself.  I've seen how the Big Dogs shirts parody TV Shows from CSI, Cops, and The Sopranos.  There's even a shirt of South Park that says, "South Bark".  And of course Spongebob, Lord of the Rings, Pokemon, and Harry Potter have been paordied as well.

The question is, how come Big Dogs never made a parody of Futurama?  Or even Family Guy?  Both shows are popular, so why not a Big Dogs paordy of those shows as well?

[Reply #1 on:]

Futurama gets good cable ratings and enjoys a good cult fanbase.  What it isn't is a phenomenon of the scale of things like South Park (in the last 90's), Sopranos, Star Wars, etc that the Big Dogs line has parodied before.  Think about this logically.  Futurama is a cult show that was cancelled after a few seasons and now enjoys a solid cult fanbase.  That doesn't equate to hugely popular and known phemonenons like Lord of the Rings or Star Wars.  I could see Family Guy at some point, but only because the show has just come back and is really popular with the mall-dwelling Hot Topic kidz.

And honestly, do we really want a Big Dogs Futurama shirt?  I want a Futurama shirt pretty badly, and would be willing to buy almost anything they put out as a result, but the "Big Dogs" parodies are so painfully lame that I'd be forced to pass it up.

[Reply #2 on:]

Yeah, parody shirts suck pretty much as a rule of thumb, especially so when they are poorly done.  I've never heard of Big Dogs before, but from what you two have said I don't think I want them and Futurama to cross.

Speaking of mechandise, such as new T-shirts, who owns the merchandising rights to Futurama?  Is it Groening?  One would think with Futurama being the first "big" acquisition of Adult Swim that it would have done some new merchandising of Futurama if it was financially possible.  The only reason I can think of for AS not doing it is that the license holder is asking too much money.  I know for a fact that Palisades Toys looked into licensing Futurama (how cool would that be?) and stated that it was too expensive to get done.  Why is the license holder being so tight?  If it's FOX  I could understand it, but if it's Groening it doesn't make sense to me, particularly since he's such a whore with the Simpsons merchandise.  This is the peak of the Futurama syndicated market.  Get with the merchandise already!

[Reply #3 on:]

Fox must at least partially own it.  And don't blame Groening for all the awful Simpsons merchandise....not that he's an anti-merchandise crusader or anything, but a LOT of stuff that he doesn't care for has been put out, because he has very little control over it (Fox mostly controls that).

I agree that it doesn't really make sense.  If they're too stingy it just means that merchandise doesn't get made at all and no one gets any money off of it.  It would seem like Fox would be willing to compromise on it more.

[Reply #4 on:]

 

Originally posted by DotheBartman:
  And don't blame Groening for all the awful Simpsons merchandise....not that he's an anti-merchandise crusader or anything, but a LOT of stuff that he doesn't care for has been put out, because he has very little control over it (Fox mostly controls that).

 

I don't have anything against merchandising, I'm just jealous that we don't have that variety of Futurama merchandise to choose from.  Granted, Futurama never had near the broad popularity of the Simpsons, but it has enough of a fanbase to justify at least some merchandise.  The only logical conclusion one can draw from the lack of available Futurama merchandise is that fox has a say in its licensing.  They're the only entity backwards enough not to see the money in it.  Oh well, at leat Groening retained the publishing rights so we get comic books and the calenders.

[Reply #5 on:]

Yeah, I do agree with that.  One issue could also be poor/mediocre sales of previous items, which would be a direct result from lack of marketing for the show and lack of enough merchandise to really make a presence.  But yeah, otherwise I don't really see why they haven't put out a few t-shirts at least.

And I still want a pinball machine, goddamnit.

[Reply #6 on:]

The licensing is through Fox, and alas, due to the lack of demand then, no other company has picked up doing shirts again since Giant Merchandising discontinued them in '00.

The lack of continous sales figures makes it hard to convince another company to pick up the license.  Family Guy at least had a couple years under Stanley Desantis; they're now licensed by Changes.  Even though Invader Zim has been cancelled for a few years too, Balzout is still making new shirts, as they've been involved since the show was on the air and has had good success.

Futurama fans are a loyal bunch, but there is a only finite number of us willing to shell out $15-20 each for the thousands needed to be sold to be profitable.  From a business standpoint, the potential growth to the fanbase of Futurama nerds is lesser than than it is the fanbase of Family Guy drunkies.

-- Kane