Futurama News during the 2011 Futurama run

[#320 :]

I don't know why, but I get the feeling this 'big secret' the Professor and Zoidberg are hiding will be a let down and the ending will be rushed. Just a hunch...

Well, this could be the Scruffy origin episode, and that may be the secret somehow.

Scruffy is a (shaved) Yeti child whose mother they killed, so they raised him together?

This would be similar to Loki as recently seen in Thor

That might just be ridiculous enough to happen, so I've spoiler-tagged it.

Also Australian Futurama premiers are now on Tuesdays instead of Wednesdays.

This will almost certainly be the Scruffy origin episode, but I'm not expecting anything more than a quick throw-away gag about where he came from.

[#321 :]

Good old Scruffy. Should be interesting to get to know a little bit more about him, but hopefully only a little bit. Less is more...

[#322 :]

The newest giclee, which is awesome!!
 I think I will make a Fanart about Reincarnation.

I cannot wait until this episode airs!

[#323 :]

So who is selling this giclee. Can't make out Matt Groening's usual signature/stamp either.

Grab from episode promo:

[#324 :]

I found the giclee on acmearchievesdirect.com. On this site there are also other ones, which I think, we have already seen yet. But on kellyakins.com I have found an image, which I haven´t seen before:

[#325 :]

Wow, the Crushinator has put on some weight...

[#326 :]

I'm guessing that's fanart, isn't it?  And pretty fantastic fanart at that.   I love how they managed to get the farmer, Lulabelle and Daisy Mae in there too, and Amy is in there too (albeit flying in the spaceship)

I did get excited for a minute hoping it would be a Crushinator episode, but I guess not.  She is still as murderous as a girl can be.  End statement.

[#327 :]

Great art, thanx for sharing that giclee ...

[#328 :]

CGEF just put this on Twitter:

'Tonight's episode also features a song called 'Eggman' by Australian artist @eliwolfe who released his self titled debut LP in Sept 2010.'

Could be in a montage or an emotional scene? Here's a snippet:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5izfpqjdL0

[#329 :]

That song sounds too happy for an emotional scene. Probably just a montage.

[#330 :]

This is of only interest to the other NZer here (that I'm aware of), but I just noticed that Four are playing the new 6B episodes. Not in order, but WTF, they're playing them.

[#331 :]

So I just noticed the A.V. Club's review for 'Fry Am the Egg Man' had this image on it...



..... Tip of the Zoidberg?

[#332 :]

Looks like it.

[#333 :]

That song sounds too happy for an emotional scene. Probably just a montage.

We're gonna need a montage.  MONTAGE!

[#334 :]

alas, our first image from 'totz'.

[#335 :]

Comedy Central put up the preview for "The Tip of the Zoidberg."

Hmmm...I can't tell if I liked that or not. I do know that the cricking sound Leela's spine kept making made me faintly ill.

[#336 :]

alas, our first image from 'totz'.

Comedy central put up the preview for "The Tip of the Zoidberg."

BUURRRRN.

[#337 :]

Is it good? ...

[#338 :]

Is it good? ...

What he said, we need a UK working link.

[#339 :]

The preview I posted is a two-minute clip from the episode, Danny.

And, yes, I know people in the UK can't see it. Just clarifying.

Edit: Danny edited his post, so now mine makes no sense. Pity, that.

And Otis: It was...interesting, to say the least. A bit too slapstick for my liking, but not all bad.

[#340 :]

The preview I posted is a two-minute clip from the episode, Danny.

Yes I know...

[#341 :]

Two whole minutes! Awwwwww ...

@Gorky, interesting you say? Double awwwwww ...

[#342 :]

The preview I posted is a two-minute clip from the episode, Danny.

Yes I know...

Please tell me I'm not being crazy and that you had originally responded to Otis by describing the preview storyboard that the CC Insider posted a few months ago. If I made up an entire post, I think I need to take a vacation from PEEL.

[#343 :]

No I did, but then I realised that it wasn't those previews you posted.



Or did I....?

Also, Otis, there is a pic of the clip on the Infosphere, here:

[#344 :]

All I know is, my bike goes backwards! ...

[#345 :]

Stop messing with my head, man!

Otis: If it's any consolation, usually Aki or one of those other technologically-inclined people posts a UK-friendly version of the preview clip at some point during the week. I only wish that I was remotely savvy when it comes to junk like that.

[#346 :]

Hope so! Technology is a harsh mistress. Oh, and thanx for the pic, DannyJC13. Good to see the owls back!...

[#347 :]

OOOO, look at this convo between Eric Rogers and Phil LaMarr on Twitter:

Another #futurama table read cancelled. I blame @phillamarr. And maybe @MAURICELAMARCHE. Okay, both.

@Kitchelfilms Don't blame me, I wasn't even in the last script

@phillamarr I keed, I keed...

@phillamarr psst, you have a pretty cool Hermes showcase on the way.... You'll be pleased.

He's most likely talking about the ep were Hermes starts cutting off his limbs and replacing them with robotic parts to be more efficient.

[#348 :]

You are quite the formidable twitter stalker. A Twitstalk if you will.

[#349 :]

Comedy Central put up the preview for "The Tip of the Zoidberg."

Hmmm...I can't tell if I liked that or not. I do know that the cricking sound Leela's spine kept making made me faintly ill.

I dunno, I like the fact that we get to see Zoidberg performing more of his terrible doctor skills.  It's been a while if you ask me.  All right, all right, spare me your life story!

[#350 :]

Svip:

I thought Fry's progression from Simpson's jaundice to Garfield whatever to Muppet gangrene was kind of...blah. I think that's what bothered me most (that and, I suppose, the fact that they're testing the boundaries of the show's own cartoony-ness by allowing Leela's body to be sliced in half and Hermes' spine to be removed without too many adverse effects. Then again, Hermes was beheaded in BBS and it wasn't treated as the most traumatic thing in the world, so it's entirely possible I'm overreacting).

I do think the clip was funny, I suppose; I just felt like it was trying a little too hard. I'll just have to reserve further judgment until the episode airs, I guess, but I still have high hopes for this one.

[#351 :]

You are quite the formidable twitter stalker. A Twitstalk if you will.

Haha, nope, if you follow two people and those two people contact each other you can see it. If I only followed Eric and not Phil I would'nt have seen that, unless he retweeted part of it.

[#352 :]

I agree with Gorky on this. The clip is acceptable, but it seems that since BBS the writers have went ahead and let the show be cartoonier than it was before.

It's also been a long time problem for me that the writers pick and choose when they want Zoidberg to be a terrible surgeon. He's always been a bad M.D., but his surgical skills are either competent or horrifying depending on an episode's needs. As Gorky said, here they went over the top to justify that roving trait.

To speak about a specific concern in the clip itself:

The cartooniness would be easier to accept if Leela was in more pain from her botched surgery or Fry was in less pain from his diagnosis. You go from Fry very realistically screaming in pain from the needles being driven in to his skin to Leela barely reacting at all to her being split in half. It's needlessly confusing to what kind of pain is tolerable in the future (they could have had her at least do a quick scream before they cut to the Hermes part/her aftermath).

[#353 :]

Maybe Zoidberg doped her up on some painkillers?

I don't mind a bit of cartooniness. It is a cartoon we're watching after all - so long as it serves the story and they don't go overboard with it. We've seen a lot of cartoonish elements in the show before already, like in the honking with Bender turning into a werecar and getting Fry stuck inside his chest compartment and in I second that emotion where he flushes his torso down a toilet. I don't mind it at all - it can be quite funny when it's done well (although perhaps that clip was pushing it a bit).

The clip looks promising enough.

It seems like the flashbacks will be grounded with the crew getting fed up with Zoidberg's incompetence and demanding an explanation for his employment from the professor, which I think will work well.

[#354 :]

Still can't see the clip... Will check on YouTube.

Nope, nothing.

[#355 :]

Nor me ...

[#356 :]

Nice to get a good dose of Zoidberg humor.   I'll be looking forward to this one.

But,

the cricking sound Leela's spine kept making made me faintly ill.

Indeed....

Alternate link

[#357 :]

Thanx! ...

On one hand I quite liked Dr Zoidberg's medical mishaps, on the other it got a little too silly/wacky...

[#358 :]

I don't mind a bit of cartooniness. It is a cartoon we're watching after all - so long as it serves the story and they don't go overboard with it. We've seen a lot of cartoonish elements in the show before already, like in the honking with Bender turning into a werecar and getting Fry stuck inside his chest compartment and in I second that emotion where he flushes his torso down a toilet. I don't mind it at all - it can be quite funny when it's done well (although perhaps that clip was pushing it a bit).

But I think there's a difference between the way the show plays with basic laws of the physical universe (tweaking the dimensions of Bender's chest cavity, for example), and its portrayal of pain and violence. I don't mind cartoonish-ness of the first variety--it's the second kind that kind of pisses me off. We are meant to sympathize with these characters and perhaps relate to them, all while suspending our disbelief to a certain extent. But when Leela can be

sliced in half and Hermes can have his spine completely removed

, things have crossed over into Wacky Cartoon Country, and it becomes a lot harder to care about the characters, or to accept the universe in which they live as "real." This attitude toward pain and violence and mortality and such is by no means new--Fry is dismembered plenty in "Why Must I Be a Crustacean in Love?", for example--but I still have never been too fond of it.

[#359 :]

Wow, that clip was super wacky! Thanks bendingunit6.