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Author Topic: Comedy Central Cancels Futurama  (Read 35072 times)
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fryfanSpyOrama

Urban Legend
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« on: 04-22-2013 23:17 »

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/22/futurama-cancelled-comedy-central_n_3131915.html

it's sad news  :cry:
transgender nerd under canada

DOOP Ubersecretary
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« Reply #1 on: 04-22-2013 23:29 »

No, no. It wasn't CC that cancelled the program. It was that one PEELer who claims to be a telepathic wizard that did it. He wanted the show gone so that he could have one of the characters all to himself.

I think it was Pedro La Loco. He was one crazy PEELer.
core

Crustacean
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« Reply #2 on: 04-23-2013 00:29 »

eh we all saw it coming the show had a good run hopefully the final episodes will be good
fryfanSpyOrama

Urban Legend
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« Reply #3 on: 04-23-2013 00:57 »

I partially blame some of you fans out there that complained and nitpicked every new episode that aired and said "it's not as good as previous seasons."  That's pretty much what I read for every review thread of each episode.
Mr Snrub

Urban Legend
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« Reply #4 on: 04-23-2013 01:06 »

People have been saying it's not as good as it used to be since season 2, though.
transgender nerd under canada

DOOP Ubersecretary
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« Reply #5 on: 04-23-2013 01:46 »

I partially blame some of you fans out there that complained and nitpicked every new episode that aired and said "it's not as good as previous seasons." 

A lot of it wasn't - and when it was as good, there was praise where it was due. The review thread for TLPJF shows that it's not all just nitpicking. In fact, even the mediocre episodes got plenty of rave reviews.

But overall, Futurama hadn't delivered with Season 7, and it deserved the criticism that it did attract (not that there was a lot of it). We've always been a community unafraid to say what we dislike. To blame fans for not praising lacklustre episodes is either to blind yourself to falling standards and thus become part of the problem, or simply to clutch at straws in order to find a place where you can lay blame outside of the writer's room. Of course, you might not want to take my word for this, in which case I invite you to consider the viewing figures for Season 7, and draw a sensible conclusion based on the data.
UnrealLegend

Space Pope
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« Reply #6 on: 04-23-2013 02:00 »

I partially blame some of you fans out there that complained and nitpicked every new episode that aired and said "it's not as good as previous seasons."  That's pretty much what I read for every review thread of each episode.

Criticism is a good thing. If we never complained, there'd never be improvements.
futz
Liquid Emperor
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« Reply #7 on: 04-23-2013 02:08 »

Yeah, perhaps if they would have listened a bit to the criticism rather than ignoring it and adopting a "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain" attitude it would have done better. After hearing for years about how much better the show would be without interference from the network overlords, it wasn't. As often happens when artists in any media are left to do what they please. Sometimes it was like they were trying to make a comedy for adults but there was some overly cautious fear that it shouldn't offend anyone thinking it was it Saturday morning kid's show. Stuff like that is pretty much on Cohen and Groening.

That and that first long commercial break in each show totally fucked up the flow of the show. Almost forgot what happened by the time the break was over. Stuff like that is on CC.
MuchAdo

Professor
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« Reply #8 on: 04-23-2013 02:59 »

Bust out the Torgo's Powder!
homerjaysimpson

Space Pope
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« Reply #9 on: 04-23-2013 03:11 »

The new Futurama episodes sucked anyways... so nothing of value was lost.
transgender nerd under canada

DOOP Ubersecretary
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« Reply #10 on: 04-23-2013 03:12 »

nothing of value was lost.

That's the epitaph of so many TV shows now.
coffeeBot

Urban Legend
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« Reply #11 on: 04-23-2013 03:32 »

I partially blame some of you fans out there that complained and nitpicked every new episode that aired and said "it's not as good as previous seasons."  That's pretty much what I read for every review thread of each episode.

Yes, well, it's the truth.

I have written some good reviews for the newer episodes, but I've realized as time passes that I haven't been rewatching many episodes newer than season 4. I've definitely noticed that even if a new episode seems okay during the first viewing, I rarely like it enough to watch it again. At this point, I'd rather just see it cancelled and rewatch my favorite episodes. I don't think that they have many more avenues to go down story-wise, anyway.

Just let a show die when its time comes. Jeebus.
transgender nerd under canada

DOOP Ubersecretary
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« Reply #12 on: 04-23-2013 03:38 »

Just let a show die when its time comes. Jeebus.
The attitude that TV people seem to have is "why let something die with dignity when you can get rich raping its corpse?"
coffeeBot

Urban Legend
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« Reply #13 on: 04-23-2013 03:47 »

Pretty much.
Have we forgotten what happened to Family Guy?
transgender nerd under canada

DOOP Ubersecretary
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« Reply #14 on: 04-23-2013 03:59 »

From where do you think I drew the comparison?
DotheBartman

Liquid Emperor
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« Reply #15 on: 04-23-2013 04:13 »

Preeeeetty doubtful that reviews had anything to do with this one way or the other. Perceptions of a decline may not have even had much to do with the dropping figures. Futurama was always kind of a cult show and even much of its fanbase always liked to tune in and out of reruns rather than it being a "must see" show every week (because you could always just catch up with whatever episodes you missed later on). Internet fans, specifically on forums like this, are a small percentage of the show's relatively small viewership. I think the initial hype of the show's return eventually just wore off and there weren't enough people watching it week to week to keep it going. Pretty simple. Very few people I know (outside of this and other message boards) who love Futurama even think that the show has declined at all, but the resounding thing I hear from a lot of them is just that they don't always keep up with it or they catch up with the episodes later - which, for Comedy Central's ratings, is bad news. They get no benefit from people watching six months later on Netflix, no matter how much those people laugh their asses off. If we were at a point where internet streaming services had truly taken the torch from regular live television I would say the show would probably do better, but alas, we aren't there yet.

I still love the show. And I'm bummed to see it end. But, this is probably about its time. In my perfect little world I would say an eighth season (and a movie!) would be in order, but seven seasons and 140 episodes is really pretty damn good in the world of television. Not many shows even should go much further than that. I'd be happy to see Matt and David try to find one more home for it before it finishes for good, but if this is the end, I'd say that all in all it's been a nice run. A decade ago I never thought we'd be here with 68 more episodes (counting the 16 movie ones) that I could watch forever and ever.
MuchAdo

Professor
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« Reply #16 on: 04-23-2013 04:25 »

Very true, nicely written.

I could not agree more.
Jezzem

Urban Legend
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« Reply #17 on: 04-23-2013 06:09 »

I'm disappointed about the cancellation but at least this time it feels like the show's had a good run, whereas the original cancellation felt premature.

That and I'm kinda more upset about other things in my life right now which conveniently makes it hard for me to dwell on this news too much.
jabalong

Bending Unit
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« Reply #18 on: 04-23-2013 06:53 »

It is hard to argue with a seven-year run and 140 episodes. By most standards (virtually everything by The Simpsons), Futurama has had a very good kick at the can. And to come back once from the dead with 68 "bonus" episodes, really can't complain.

That said, Futurama's cancellation is still disappointing and hard to comprehend at some level.

I don't really understand the TV industry. There is a sea of channels flowing with crap all day long. So why can't there be room in there for shows with loyal fan bases and creators that still want to make new episodes?

Yes, a lot of fans don't watch TV broadcasts, I certainly don't. But then isn't there a way make a go of it with DVD sales and legal internet downloads? I'd think that's what shows with hardcore fanbases are made for. Easier said than done I guess making the money add up.
jabalong

Bending Unit
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« Reply #19 on: 04-23-2013 06:56 »

This should be the poster for any efforts to try save the show again:



 :p
DotheBartman

Liquid Emperor
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« Reply #20 on: 04-23-2013 07:32 »

One of the difficulties TV networks and content providers are having nowadays (the main networks are having the most trouble, but even cable has taken some kind of hit I'm pretty sure) is that fewer and fewer people watch live television every year, but the alternatives just don't make enough money....yet. Netflix and DVD are getting bigger and bigger, as are Hulu and other such things. But online streaming, even with ads, just doesn't make enough to keep a show going. Advertisers have yet to catch up to (or maybe just have yet to acknowledge, since it makes buying ad-time cheap for them) the fact that so many people are watching shows that way nowadays and that the ads they see "count" just as much as the ones they see on a television. It makes no sense, but that's just the way it is now. Nielsens have yet to properly factor in that stuff and are only just starting. I don't doubt that within the next decade (if not a lot sooner) we'll see a more significant shift away from networks and more and more series surviving solely or primarily through the internet and other platforms. But we're just not quite at that stage yet.

Right now is both a good and bad time to be a cult TV show. On the one hand, networks are so desperate to even just have something with a loyal following that even something like Community is allowed to drag on, despite that its ratings would otherwise be bad enough for an easy cancellation even just a few years ago. 30 Rock plodded along to seven seasons and 138 episodes (pretty similar) despite that it never really rated that well. At the same time, it's just sort of bad timing where you have lots of shows like Futurama that presumably still do well on home video and streaming services, but that's just not "enough" to keep them profitable under the current models. They still have to get good enough ratings somehow, or offer enough "prestige" to their networks to be worth keeping around as a loss leader.

It's a shame, but at the same time it's kind of this weird moment in television history that enabled the show to come back at all.
Tastes Like Fry

Urban Legend
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« Reply #21 on: 04-23-2013 08:24 »

Ugh, not again ><
MYK

Delivery Boy
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« Reply #22 on: 04-23-2013 09:31 »

Wow. This is big news, and definitely evokes mixed feelings.

Knowing the history, it's a bit hard to fully believe that this truly is the end, because Futurama was cancelled after its fourth season on FOX and was resurrected not long after.

If it is true, however, it will be truly sad to see Fry, Leela, and Bender take their final bows. Futurama is a truly excellent, well-rounded show. It has had consistently awesome writing, realistic characters, a very unique sense of humor, and it has shown time and again that it can work just as well as a serious show as well as a comedy.

This may not be all terrible, though. It's a great show, but that doesn't necessarily mean it should go on forever. While I believe it probably could have gone on for one or two more seasons, I have full faith the writers will be able to tie up all the loose ends well in the last dozen or so episodes this summer. If they manage to nail down the Fry-Leela relationship and have a bombastic episode with Fry as "The Mighty One" and Leela as "The Other", I'll be very happy with the way this show goes out.


So if this is truly the end, farewell, Futurama. It was one hell of a run watching the adventures of an absent-minded, unintentional time traveler, his svelte purple-haired cyclops ship captain girlfriend, and their smart-ass robot drinking buddy.
Univers

Delivery Boy
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« Reply #23 on: 04-23-2013 09:48 »

Damn.

It's not even been a year that I've discovered and loved the show that it's cancelled.

I feel sad about this. I watched Futurama for the first time on Netflix last summer. The characters really grew on me and I like the themes of the show. Never before have I bought the complete DVD collection of a serie so quickly.

To look at the bright side, 7 seasons is a lot of episodes. There's still the new ones that we will get to watch. I feel that seeing the last one knowing that it will be the end of the story will be very bittersweet.

I hope that they foresaw their fate and that they included all that was left to discover, like the theory of the other, and F&L's relationship.

I think the show end on an excellent note. Extremely solid show through and through.
Beanoz4

Liquid Emperor
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« Reply #24 on: 04-23-2013 18:57 »

Does there need to be about 20 threads for this one topic?

I hope that they foresaw their fate and that they included all that was left to discover, like the theory of the other, and F&L's relationship.
They said they've made the last episode suitable for a series final (which was what they did for the Season 4 final)
Nibblet

Poppler
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« Reply #25 on: 04-26-2013 02:15 »

I'm somewhat bummed they weren't renewed -- I though another (double) season on Comedy Central would have been enjoyable.

However, I feel like they should finally release a feature in theaters. My vote for the plot: Morbo's race finally invades Earth.
LorenzoDuke

Crustacean
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« Reply #26 on: 04-26-2013 04:36 »

I partially blame some of you fans out there that complained and nitpicked every new episode that aired and said "it's not as good as previous seasons."  That's pretty much what I read for every review thread of each episode.

That's hilarious.

Here's a comparison. You're scheduled to come to my house for a dinner party every Thursday. For the first 5 weeks, you come and really enjoy the food I serve and tell me how delicious it is. On Monday of week 6 I phone you and say I don't think I can host these dinner parties anymore. You say 'Oh man, what a shame! I love your dinner parties. Please find a way to keep having them'.

Eventually, I relent and on week 6 I serve you a plate of cold sick. By your logic, if you say 'that was gross' or 'this was way worse than your other dinner parties' you are 'partially to blame' for my dinner parties not continuing, rather than it being my fault for serving up crap.
Tastes Like Fry

Urban Legend
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« Reply #27 on: 04-26-2013 04:48 »

I like the idea of a feature release. Because if there's no chance of them renewing episodes, then pull out all stocks for a movie to conclude with an epic conclusion. I'd like to see Morbo's race trying to invade earth - also Nixon's anti-alien shield thing happen, robots taking over, brains invading, time-travelling future Fry/Leela Amy/Kif children, and Leela kicking ass, Bender establishing he is great and Fry self-sacrifically saving the day while being a lovable goofbag, having the bestest of robot best friends and getting the purple haired gal.

Yes, that's the short version xD Still almost tl;dr
Jarvio

Bending Unit
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« Reply #28 on: 04-26-2013 18:42 »
« Last Edit on: 04-26-2013 19:15 »

Ridiculous that this has been cancelled. Ok I can understand those wanting the show to end while it's ontop and all, but the show is a thousand times more creative and interesting than many other shows, including the simpsons (from about series 12 onwards). Futurama is, and always was, the most interesting of all the animated shows (or maybe South Park.... but my point is, NOT Family Guy, even though I do love it for the laughs). Brickelberry? Bob's Fuckin' Burgers? The Cleveland Show (which isn't even officially cancelled for some reason)... Society have no taste in anything anymore.

Also, why has it been cancelled? As in, what reasons did CC give? Purely ratings? I don't get it, an enormously popular show with endless story possibilities cancelled, yet the simpsons, which has exhausted every possible scenario for the past 15 years, keeps going. How boring and uninteresting.

And to add to my frustration about this, "Meanwhile" is just a bad title for a final episode IMO. But there you go. The episode may be great, who knows, I'm simply talking about the title here.

Yeah, you gathered that I am one of the people who is furious at this cancellation.

And so, to slightly change the tone of my post... I wonder which character will be on the dvd cover for this final series? I'm guessing Nibbler or Zapp. The only "main" character not used is Hermes, but I can't see it being him.
DannyJC13

DOOP Secretary
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« Reply #29 on: 04-26-2013 19:43 »

And to add to my frustration about this, "Meanwhile" is just a bad title for a final episode IMO. But there you go. The episode may be great, who knows, I'm simply talking about the title here.

Maybe the title will make more sense when we see the episode? Such as "A Farewell to Arms"?
Quantum Neutrino Field

Liquid Emperor
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« Reply #30 on: 04-26-2013 20:19 »

I guess "Meanwhile" refers to that narrating: "Meanwhile, in universe-A...". It can also refer to effects of ten seconds back in time -button. And I like that title with one word very much.
Inquisitor Hein
Liquid Emperor
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« Reply #31 on: 04-26-2013 20:41 »
« Last Edit on: 04-27-2013 10:13 »

Ridiculous that this has been cancelled. Ok I can understand those wanting the show to end while it's ontop and all, but the show is a thousand times more creative and interesting than many other shows, including the simpsons (from about series 12 onwards). Futurama is, and always was, the most interesting of all the animated shows (or maybe South Park.... but my point is, NOT Family Guy, even though I do love it for the laughs). Brickelberry? Bob's Fuckin' Burgers? The Cleveland Show (which isn't even officially cancelled for some reason)... Society have no taste in anything anymore.


Well..regarding the unusual sci fi setting, insider jokes, and designs, Futurama is certainly the most creative one.
But when it comes to satire/humor, that's quite another battlefield:
"Amazon Women in the Mood" vs. "I am Peter, hear me roar" ?
"Propsition Infinity" vs. "Death Camp of Tolerance" ?
(..enter further examples at will)
Judging the satirical content alone (the criteria for non-sci-fi-viewers), there  are no valid points why the Futurama humor should be considered superior or better than the other one.

To cut a long story short:
Other shows do not always beat Futurama rating wise due to more stupid content and therefore being more appeasing to the supposed dumb masses.
It's just because many folks have just a different set of criteria how to judge a quality TV show. And for a non-sci-fi fan, many of Futurama's qualities are just uninteresting.
futz
Liquid Emperor
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« Reply #32 on: 04-26-2013 21:10 »

Doesn't really matter if a show is funny and/or makes money. If exec's think they can make more money of home videos of raccoons pooping in banjos then that's what they'll do. Can't blame them too much, that's really their job. But I think we have a new breed of exec. that whats to look busy by shuffling lineups, schedules, and programs so they have something to do at meetings. Not sure if results matter much but if things go bad there are underlings to blame and if they go well then they are geniuses. The key is to create chaos to even higher ups can see activity.
meisterPOOP

Professor
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« Reply #33 on: 04-26-2013 22:17 »

I think that CC as it applied to 'Futurama' is typical as to the whole cable/satellite universe.  The damn show is being re-run to the extreme.  The novelty is gone and not even a new episode now will ever draw me back to it.
Otis P Jivefunk

DOOP Secretary
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« Reply #34 on: 04-27-2013 01:29 »

I'm sad to see it go again, and I'm a bit surprised, but not that much. Futurama is something that has had a large impact on my life, but to be honest the original run was what had the big impact. The re-birth, although enjoyable, on the whole didn't match the ridiculously lofty heights of the original run...

Instead of finding its feet again and then getting steadily better once if got back into its groove, it just didn't really find that groove again other than momentarily, and then the needle skipped around all over the place...

Perhaps the groove will be found with the remaining episodes. If it is then I shall be all the sadder. As it is, I'm a little sad, but that's mainly over losing what it was rather than what it is now...
ElvisMasur

Poppler
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« Reply #35 on: 04-27-2013 02:46 »

Nooooooooooooooooo!!

:(
DotheBartman

Liquid Emperor
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« Reply #36 on: 04-27-2013 03:29 »
« Last Edit on: 04-27-2013 03:32 »


Well..regarding the unusual sci fi setting, insider jokes, and designs, Futurama is certainly the most creative one.
But when it comes to satire/humor, that's quite another battlefield:
"Amazon Women in the Mood" vs. "I am Peter, hear me roar" ?


Amazon Women in the Mood is hilarious, while pretty much every Family Guy episode is a steaming bowl of elephant piss. Also, Futurama's episode in this case is much more satirical and insightful about perceived gender differences and rivalry than the misogynist crap that makes up that Family Guy episode (and a lot of other episodes, and Seth MacFarlane's body of work in general...). South Park I might give you, but there can exist more than one smart, funny satirical cartoon. They're still both among the sharpest shows on TV.

I'm sure the reason for the cancellation was ratings. Futurama still does better than a lot of other Comedy Central shows (even ones that have been renewed just recently), but it's extremely expensive to produce for a cable show. At that point, it would have to do REALLY well to keep going for very long. At the end of the day, I'm just thankful that they decided to experiment with it as long as they did, because it was a real risk considering the costs and a lot of other factors. It would probably have helped if it was on a Fox-owned network as they'd have a little more incentive to keep it going at that point, but either way I'm thankful that we got 52 more episodes out of this whole deal.
Inquisitor Hein
Liquid Emperor
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« Reply #37 on: 04-27-2013 09:22 »
« Last Edit on: 04-27-2013 10:16 »


Well..regarding the unusual sci fi setting, insider jokes, and designs, Futurama is certainly the most creative one.
But when it comes to satire/humor, that's quite another battlefield:
"Amazon Women in the Mood" vs. "I am Peter, hear me roar" ?


Amazon Women in the Mood is hilarious, while pretty much every Family Guy episode is a steaming bowl of elephant piss. Also, Futurama's episode in this case is much more satirical and insightful about perceived gender differences and rivalry than the misogynist crap that makes up that Family Guy episode (and a lot of other episodes, and Seth MacFarlane's body of work in general...).

Amazon Women had no insights in "Gender rivalery", it was just the usual "Ode to double standards".
While Farlane had/has the guts to ridicule EVERYONE, and make EVERYONE the butt of the joke. Also, the "Let us see should a guy REALLY act how some feminists want" is far more balanced in insightful than Futurama's "It's okay to rape/kill a man for humor, but we draw the line should someone say "Pffff...a female leader". We have our sacred cows, which we're gonna defend, you know".

E.g. "South Park" showed how to use that double standard and to RIDICULE it while doing so (The episode when Ike had something with his teacher, cannot remember the name right now). While Futurama...well...just appeased and followed that double standard. No ridiculing, no humor coming out of it...just treating is as something completely normal and acceptable.
futz
Liquid Emperor
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« Reply #38 on: 04-27-2013 14:29 »

I never thought that Family Guy or South Park had any consistent moral ideas and that they just like to make noise until someone pays attention, Never watch South Park but I think the Family Guy episode came from the time someone writing for the show was upset that they they couldn't tell dirty jokes at work if someone didn't like it which sort of got trailed through several episodes. Sort of like the "isn't peeing in your shower the neatest thing" concept that shopped around several shows at the time (well, no not really). Think that episode ended with a chick fight with some semi-boobage shown in the process and that and traditional marriage roles were posited as some sort of resolution (?!?).

I thought first run Futurama suffered badly from a "women are superior in all respects and violence by them upon men is good" tone... but Amazon Women still was a lot funnier than that Family Guy episode. And things evened out a bit later in the Coilette episode. The anti-man theme was toned down quite a bit in the movies and second run and in Bender's Game Leela is called to task for her impulsive violence. Trouble was about the same time (during the movie run) Fry's character went from being "guy dumb" (which adult male viewers could relate to) to "child dumb" which sort of was a "whaa...?" Maybe that's how all those PhD writers at Futurama saw average people or something. Pretty much developmently disabled or something.
DotheBartman

Liquid Emperor
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« Reply #39 on: 04-27-2013 21:17 »

Family Guy doesn't have any "guts." Appealing to frat boy attitudes is pretty much the easiest thing to do if you want to be successful on the Fox network.

South Park is a show that really does "make fun of everyone" and actually does it with intelligence, insight, and wit. They expertly make fun of stereotypes and most every episode has a legitimate moral, and it's often one that challenges the sorts of messages you often see in other TV shows. And incidentally, South Park often features rape jokes and violence against women and all that, and certainly has no "double standard" (or whatever the hell it is you're complaining about), but I don't get the same tone from it that I do from Family Guy. Everything MacFarlane touches tends to have this really nasty attitude towards women as human beings, and it never serves any kind of purpose because his shows just don't have a lot to say. It's just superficially "edgy" jokes that are ultimately completely safe because they don't challenge the show's target audience in any meaningful way.

Amazon Women in the Mood isn't a terribly deep episode or anything, but it's a funny satire on "women are from Venus, men are from Mars" type conversation that had been going on for a long time and is certainly playing on those conventions. You're giving the writers too little credit if you think the entire message of the episode is just "men suck" or something to that effect. The humor may have gone over your head. In any case, just by virtue that the episode has even a single funny line, it's miles ahead of nearly every Family Guy episode ever produced. Most recent animated shows could run circles around MacFarlane's stuff.
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