I, too, see the comedy and drama as separate.  Having Leela and Fry get together will not wreck the comedy; but it might impact the drama, because it will destroy a certain part of the tension.

Sure, we all joke about "Unresolved Sexual Tension," or UST, but tension is a real part of drama.  Other TV shows have found that interest drops after its UST is resolved. ( "Moonlighting," for instance, was a show entirely built on UST. ) As the Wikipedia stub on it says, UST is "a common mechanism in fiction, which enables the relationship between characters to build up a powerful erotic charge without actually becoming sexual....When the sexual tension [is] resolved, the tension that made the relationship interesting to the audience disappear(s)."

That said, I think that Futurama has much more going for it than UST.  For one thing, Fry and Leela have much more of an "unresoved ROMANTIC tension" between them, rather than just a sexual one.  For another, Successful romances can be as funny as unsuccessful ones if enough other tensions exist around it (re, Dharma and Greg).  Thirdly, there will always be the tension between Fry the lackadaisical slacker and Leela the practical captain (add in Bender's hyperkinetic petty crime tendencies and the brew becomes more interesting). 

Fourthly, Fry and Leela's relationship is important, but not the actual focus of the show.  The focus is comedy based on subverting, inverting,  and/or otherwise playing surreal pinball with common “tropes” (literally meaning “a play on words,” figuratively meaning "devices and conventions that a writer can reasonably rely on as being present in the audience members' minds and expectations" (TV Tropes Wiki Home Page); usually science fiction, animation and action adventure tropes, but random tropes can be found in varying amounts.  Mix in a few handfuls of science, a quarter cup of drama, a healthy dollop of heart, and then add robots - viola! Futurama!

In my humble opinion, Futurama’s drama could survive Fry & Leela getting together as long as some other long-term tensions remained (like the Nibblonian prophecy stuff); and also as long as Fry and Leela still conflict normally over other issues, Bender remains an anti-social petty criminal with a soft spot for his crewmates, the Professor remains a senile, amoral crackpot, Zoidberg remains a poor, hungry, lonely, pathetic bizarre lobster thing, etc. etc.; and lastly, as long as other books, movies, and TV shows remain to have fun poked at them by a team of brilliant, clever, and geeky writers.

Now, if only the show's creators would just agree with ME....     

~~~~~~

(And now, being inspired but having no scanner, I will present the following cartoon strip in narrative form: )


-----------
Panel 1: a dark Planet Express building.  The Professor stands in the center of the conference area.

Prof (horrified): “Great Balls of Plasma, we’re completely powerless!  The unthinkable must have happened!”
-----------
Panel 2:He rushes into the lounge, to see Fry and Leela on the sofa.  Leela lays across Fry’s chest, hair unbound; beneath a small coverlet, they are clearly naked.  Both wear sappy, sweet smiles.

Prof (sadly, hand clapped to forehead): “I knew it.”
-----------
Panel 3-4: Professor walking downstairs to the basement with dejected look.
-----------
Panel 5: The Professor pulls a giant electrical plug out of an equally giant socket which is attached to a flat surface, like a wall.

Prof: “Four years of free power, gone!  What a tragedy!”
-----------
Panel 6: PULLBACK to reveal that the giant socket is actually attached to the flat side of a large machine, of the “big box of unexplainable dials” variety.  In one dial window we see a small picture of Fry, in another we see one of Leela.  Both dials are sunk to the “0" level on the left, and in between them a vertical readout containing a column of measures also reads "0". 

The name of the device is emblazoned along the bottom: “The Unresolved Sexual Tension Power Converter - The Ultimate in Electroerotic Energy Storage.”

Prof (walking away; *sighs*): “Now I’ll have to go back to burning rhesus monkeys....”


The end!  And TOTPD!  WOO!

Very little actual comedy results from drama between Leela&Fry.(Why does Fry always have to be first?) Most of the Leela-Fry comedy is situational. As Shiny said, a successful relationship doesn't preclude comedy. A married or consummated romantic relationship can/would be just as funny because there are still an infinite number of situations they can be put in.

Drama would obviously be heavily impacted. Fry or Leela putting their life on the line would be improved because they are loosing something more. (This scenario works for Leela, anyway.) Second, the perfect relationship is highly doubtful, much drama can come out of spats, arguments and the like. Finally, drama can come from other places! The writers can easily find any number of other relationships or people to get drama. (They have done it in the past.)

[Edited to be rated PG] Point taken.

To Venus: Thank you! 

To Hopeless Shipper: fascinating...email me the unrated version...? 

To Danny Futureboy: Die, Heretic!  (j/k  )

Hopeless' first sample scenario for moving The Ship along with lots of comedy: Leela gets pregnant. It's too easy really, lots of comedy+lots of drama follow this naturally. Joe Blow off the street could write a good script off this.
Problems with it: 1. What happens at the end of pregnancy. A child of Fry and Leela's would be dangerously close to jumping the shark.
2. Pregnancy is cliche on TV.

So the final verdict is that this would be bad long-term, however, this is one of an infinite number of scenarios that would work post ship graduation.

Actually, they could get her pregnant and then later have her lose the baby. The show does use dramatic plots sometimes. It would be hard to keep it from going too dramatic but i'm sure the writer's could actually pull it off.

over-the-top dramatics arent your style, huh?
thats OK. humor works, too. i hope to see a fic of yours up sometime soon.

If I could have things my way (which never happens) is to have the final closing episode be about the romantic resolution of Fry and Leela.  Lots of drama, lots of sacrifice, lots of fluttery eyed sighs, and lots of comedy.

Basically what I am imagining in the final moments of the episode/movie is this:

There is a voice over by someone (possibly Zoidberg, a la "Love and Rocket" ) giving a sappy ending narrative.
You see Fry and Leela looking at each other happily as the narritive continues.  The camera pulls to a wider angle and you see an adorable, 5 year old, red-haired daughter between the two of them.  Fry lifts her into his arm and places his other arm around Leela, and all three look out into a lovely nebula through a giant space window.
The narrative ends with something sappy but wonderfully cliche like, "Your future is still what you make of it."
Then Bender puts his arms around them from behind, pokes his head between Fry and Leela, and takes center attention as the camera rolls to credits.

It warms my heart to envision an ending like that.

@: Invader Jenny:

Holy Shitake mushrooms.

Thats almost how I envisioned my perfect ending of futurama.

I love you all,
Futurama Llama

A Bender monologue would be such a fitting end to the series, no matter what he's saying. Especially with a good cut at Leela's age...

Like most shows, they don't want you to tell them stuff because of sticky copyright stuff.

I'm as much a shipper as anyone.
While I ache for Fry & Leela to finally forge a durable loving relationship, I look forward to it with an anxious dread. 
The moment they do "get together," the end of our favorite animated science-fiction comedy is as close as the next commercial. 

 

Originally posted by Invader Jenny:
If I could have things my way (which never happens) is to have the final closing episode be about the romantic resolution of Fry and Leela.  Lots of drama, lots of sacrifice, lots of fluttery eyed sighs, and lots of comedy.

Basically what I am imagining in the final moments of the episode/movie is this:

There is a voice over by someone (possibly Zoidberg, a la "Love and Rocket" ) giving a sappy ending narrative.
You see Fry and Leela looking at each other happily as the narritive continues.  The camera pulls to a wider angle and you see an adorable, 5 year old, red-haired daughter between the two of them.  Fry lifts her into his arm and places his other arm around Leela, and all three look out into a lovely nebula through a giant space window.
The narrative ends with something sappy but wonderfully cliche like, "Your future is still what you make of it."
Then Bender puts his arms around them from behind, pokes his head between Fry and Leela, and takes center attention as the camera rolls to credits.

It warms my heart to envision an ending like that.

Nibbler needs to be in there somewhere too!

I must the the only one who thinks that they could be a happy couple and still have a decent show.  We can have Leela's jealousy rear its ugly head if Fry becomes friendly (but not that way) towards another woman.  Fry can show his love for her by doing almost-suicidal things to protect her and keep her safe.

There can be eps like Leela thinking she's pregnant and thinking about having a child - having the family she always wanted and Fry having different thoughts because of the type of family that he had.  There's a lot that can be done in humor and seriousness with the two as a couple, married or not.

After a while, the two getting close to a kiss or Leela almost admitting her love for Fry, then the next episode hits the "RESET" button gets old and tired.

BE STILL MY RACING HEART!

Venus and I agree totally on one subject?  Break out the Cham-paggen!

True, the eps that would focus on them could have humor and heartache as two different people who care deeply for each other learn how to deal with their issues and still keep the relationship going.  Also, it wouldn't have to be "THE MAIN PLOT" for every ep.  In some it wouldn't even be acknowledged.

How would Bender deal with his best friend moving out and living with Leela?  Would he move in with them (oh, the hilarity that would ensue between Bender/Leela fights); would Fry takes sides as the two fought?  Would Fry get jealous of Zapp's continued attempts to romance Leela?

Really, to me the "Off again, off-again" relationship of Fry pursuing Leela and her constantly shooting him down has run its course with me.  Somewhere in her heart, Leela has to acknowledge that the one person who sacrificed himself for her and was the only one who stayed by her side when everybody else gave her up for dead deserves a chance.

Anybody who thinks that the 'tension' goes out of a relationship when they get engaged or married obviously has done neither.  To tell the truth, a whole new area can be explored in the new DVD has the two become a couple then for some reason fall apart at the end (remember, LaMarche has promised a tear-jerker ending), only to patch their differences up during the next DVD.

They can be together and still be interesting. I loved Buffy and Spike when they were together, and Mulder and Scully when they were together. When Buffy and Spike stopped being together i was dissapointed and when Mulder and Scully got together i was like "Bought freaking time!" and was dissapointed that we only got to see them be together for like 2 eps.

 

Originally posted by Venus:
...not a lot would actually change except that the few eps that did focus on them wouldn't follow the old 'reset button' formula

No, they would follow a NEW 'reset button' formula.   

Would anybody think that time would stand still if Fry & Leela were together?

I'm in favor of it - Fry and Leela spending some time as a couple before the end of the series.  It would have to be handled carefully, because it's a tricky situation that is difficult to get "right," but the Futurama writers are the only writing team I would trust with something that requires such a delicate balance of drama and comedy (normally I would only trust sole creators on this one, and not very many of them - Joss Whedon has my unqualified confidence, but with JMS I'd have to qualify it just a little tiny bit...can't recall any others off the cuff, but you know what I mean... ).

While the Futurama team is not without flaw (not so much because they produced "That's Lobstertainment" but because (according to the commentaries) apparently they still don't see it as a weak episode), the number of times they got it right far outweighs the times they missed the mark.  I trust that, if they chose to, they could make Fry&Leela as a couple work, and work well, for as long as they wanted.

But as they apparently don't want to, I'll settle for a "happily united at the closing credits"*, with a hopeful longing for a bit of nookie** somewhere along the way.

*With no post-credits retraction! (she added, closing the loophole she suddenly noticed.)

**nookie, as in kissing, necking, cuddling.  I've been told that it can mean more than that; I'm using it as an American equivalent of the Brits' "snogging."

Shiny

(P.S. - actually, my greatest fear is that they'll attempt to defy fan expectations, since Futurama is so into subverting tropes and all, and give us the "Mary Tyler Moore Show" solution. 

In the next-to-the-last (or close to it) episode of MTMS, Mary Richards laments that she's 37 and still alone, and Georgette tells her there's a good, available man right in front of her - her boss, Lou Grant.  Mary is shocked at this idea, but considers it, and tells Mr. Grant about it and invites him over for dinner.  His reaction is the same - shocked but not opposed to considering it.  They are both kind of adorably nervous about the whole thing, but willing to entertain the possibility, and gamely but awkwardly meet to have a romantic dinner in Mary’s apartment.  The plot point is when they lean in (cautious as pre-teens in the 1950's) and kiss.

The timing is brilliant.  Their lips meet.  They stay that way for a few beats.  Then their lips begin to curl up in simultaneous smiles, and as they separate, they both start laughing gently - at themselves, at each other.  Their mutal assessment is "That was the silliest kiss ever."  Mary puts out the candles and they revert, totally comfortably, to chatting and eating dinner as friends.

It's an adorable episode (and possibly the first example of "fanservice" on American TV - I don't know if the show’s makers got letters about Mary and Lou getting together, but it seems like something that could have happened).  But my greatest fear is that something like this will happen on Futurama - that Fry and Leela finally have a kiss, and discover they have no chemistry.

BUT, my optimistic half reminds me, the situations ARE very different.  Mary and Lou had no long-running romantic tension - that I’m aware of (I WAS pretty young, though I saw some episodes a few years ago on reruns, including this one); this was just a one-shot episode exploring something that hadn’t been explored, whereas on Futurama the ship has been repeatedly explored.  Mary and Lou’s relationship was a working relationship only, from the very beginning (the pilot was also one I saw in recent years, which reaquainted me with the brilliant line from Mary’s job interview - Lou Grant: “You’ve got spunk.”  Mary: “Oh, thank you!”  Lou: “I hate spunk.”  And the fact that Mary said “excuse me” to a chair she bumped into.  I’ve done that!      ), whereas Fry and Leela have had romantic tension ever since Leela removed her career chip.  Mary and Lou never got married in a skipped timeline, or (more telling for F&L) were long-term happily married in an alternate universe (don’t think that could happen if they had no chemistry). 

Most hope-inspiring, David X. Cohen seems to take the relationship seriously - he likes it when Fry gets some dignity in TDHAIP, and recognizes that Fry’s creativity IS still with him - only his means of expressing it are gone; and he wrote “The Why of Fry,” which is right up there with TDHAIP and “The Sting” for promise of future ship.  Not so much for “the other” comment as for the shot where Fry’s face is seen through the hole in Leela’s photo.  Gotta      foreshadowing!  And the daisy.  (Apropos of not much, daisies are one of my favorite flowers - as a child I always said that when I got married I’d have a bouquet of daisies and yellow roses; now I qualify it to IF I ever get married, etc. etc.  But it means that I attach a “good romance vibe” to daisies in general.      )

So I’m reasonably confident that they’re not going to do that to us; but enough doubt remains that it’s still the biggest fear I have for a “gotcha!” ending.  )

Shiny “The Parenthetical Remarks Just Keep Getting Longer” J. Fangirl

What I think should happen:

Fry and Leela test date within the first few episodes: Nothing exiting happens.
There becomes an unspoken agreement that they should remain "special friends"

A little later on... "BAM" Leela has a new (or returned ex-) boyfriend, Fry jealousy gets in the way and Leela can't handle the pressure and retreats back into her 'males are immature' phase

A little further on - honoes! The earth needs saving - Fry steps in Nibbler pushes Fry to being heroic and we come to understand the 'the other' meaning maybe?

Not too long after that Fry or Leela in danger, the other to save the first - result in rekindling of the deeper love? - A proper onscreen smoochies/nookie plz.

Proper dating - but not without issues, but they're going to work it out - isn't that what love is all about?   
The End... OR IS IT?

I guess not,
Closure options: A Fry and Leela Wedding... or Fry's proposed or Leela's pregnant or something that confirms to us that there will never be seperation again.
~
Not that I don't disagree with everything that's been said beforehand   

Edit:  I'm a Bending Unit! [Bender]Woooo! [/Bender]