The LAST Futurama News Thread... Forever? (Caution: Spoilers)

[Reply #440 on:]

I can see what you mean about re-runs only. If AD got too much control over it, there 'd be sex and drugs jokes every five seconds. However, if they let David X. and Matt have most of the control, it'd probably be just as good as it always was.
However, I'd be happy with 7 seasons, too, and I'd hate to see the show turn into crap.  But at least it's not over with just 4 seasons, leaving us knowing there were so many more stories left untold. Now with 7, it feels like the creative bank may run out at any time, which would cause them to go into new Simpsons territory.

But at the same time, it sucks to think that my favorite show's gonna be over forever in just 3 weeks. I didn't watch Futurama during the first run, so this ending will be a real punch in the gut for me. I hope the finale is truly an excellent ending to an excellent show, and will leave us all perfectly satisfied.

oh, and....TOTPD!

[Reply #441 on:]

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I feel like 7 seasons is a pretty impressive run as opposed to only 4, and now that the show's becoming as hit-and-miss as ever, I feel that this is where it should conclude. The deciding factor in how I feel will depend on how satisfying the finale is.

[Reply #442 on:]

I think the show needs to go back to Adult Swim; they'd get a much higher budget there, and a crap load of more viewership. Plus, it seems Adult Swim is better at keeping shows on schedule. For example, King of the Hill has been airing on weekdays from 9-10 for at least the past 3 years.
Also, didn't the show receive high ratings when it was on there in the first place? I imagine if they went back, they'd get those great ratings once again..

Adult Swim don't have anything close to the amount of money that Comedy Central has. All of Adult Swim's shows are produced very cheaply. The most expensive one is probably The Venture Bros. and that's essentially two people working non-stop in a basement to produce about 8 episodes every two years. If they had the money to pick Futurama up, they would have done it before Comedy Central did.

Anyway, this seems relevant to the discussion. I don't recall having seen it on these forums before, but it's fairly accurate:

[Reply #443 on:]

But..but... i dont wanna see Futurama meets its ending....umm.. *sob* maybe i should buy a new pc *sob* to prepare for GTA V *sob* *sigh* i should get a life..

[Reply #444 on:]

But..but... i dont wanna see Futurama meets its ending....umm.. *sob* maybe i should buy a new pc *sob* to prepare for GTA V *sob* *sigh* i should get a life..

Exactly how I feel every time one of my favorite shows ends, GedeWK.
*runs into corner and cries for the next 30 minutes about ALF being cancelled*

[Reply #445 on:]

That chart is most not accurate with South Park. Not at all.

Accuracy with Futurama, not really. a little close, but not exactly though.

[Reply #446 on:]

I actually think that's fairly close to Futurama, except season 7 is more like how season 6 was described in the picture.

[Reply #447 on:]

Yeah, I agree with you there, UnrealLegend. But Season 5 of Futurama should have a rank between the 6-7 season thing showed on the graph.

[Reply #448 on:]

Alright. I want to see an AMAZING series finale, I want to cry, laugh, and start rolling around doing a mixture of the two. I want...no, NEED to find out about the "other". I want animation that will blow my mind. I want a plot, a story that will blow my mind. I will NOT settle for some shitty-wrap-it-up ending! I want things to be finalized with Fry and Leela! And at the end of the episode I want to sit there for at least 10 minutes, feeling overjoyed, blown away, distraught, furious, and a bit nauseous. And wake up 2 hours later in a pool full of my own tears, sweat and vomit. THAT'S how I want this series to end.

Rant over.

[Reply #449 on:]

Alright. I want to see an AMAZING series finale, I want to cry, laugh, and start rolling around doing a mixture of the two. I want...no, NEED to find out about the "other". I want animation that will blow my mind. I want a plot, a story that will blow my mind. I will NOT settle for some shitty-wrap-it-up ending! I want things to be finalized with Fry and Leela! And at the end of the episode I want to sit there for at least 10 minutes, feeling overjoyed, blown away, distraught, furious, and a bit nauseous. And wake up 2 hours later in a pool full of my own tears, sweat and vomit. THAT'S how I want this series to end.

Rant over.

I completely agree with you pumpkinpie. If I don't laugh and cry I wont be satisfied.

[Reply #450 on:]

Alright. I want to see an AMAZING series finale, I want to cry, laugh, and start rolling around doing a mixture of the two. I want...no, NEED to find out about the "other". I want animation that will blow my mind. I want a plot, a story that will blow my mind. I will NOT settle for some shitty-wrap-it-up ending! I want things to be finalized with Fry and Leela! And at the end of the episode I want to sit there for at least 10 minutes, feeling overjoyed, blown away, distraught, furious, and a bit nauseous. And wake up 2 hours later in a pool full of my own tears, sweat and vomit. THAT'S how I want this series to end.

Rant over.

I expect it to be so mind-blowingly good that every time it comes back from the commercial break, I'll have to yell, "But I'm Not Done Vomiting!"!
When the episode ends, I expect it to be so good that it causes me break into song about how great it was (complete with background dancers that come seeping out of my walls), then go to McDonalds and tell somebody about how good it was until they get a restraining order on me, then I will simply yell the rant of goodness to them from 100 feet away.
It's gonna be so good that it'll not only cure cancer, it'll stop the world's hunger issues, save thousands of African babies from death, Destroy every nuclear bomb, cancel the Simpsons once and for all, deplete every human and computer virus, kill all animal abusers, rid us of The National Enquirer, change everyone's point of view on life, make us go into an eternal reliving of the 70's,  and even unravel the House of Represenatives.
IT WILL EVEN CAUSE WORLD PEACE.
....and if it doesn't, it will cause the opposite of all those things.

[Reply #451 on:]

I don't want the show on Netflix b/c they have even less money than CC.

If the show comes back (yet again).. I want it to have a bigger budget than when it was on CC.
The only way it will be good after all that time and being canned so much is to get ALL the writers back, maybe a few new one's, get a nicer animation budget, and a nicer music budget for an orchestra.
And BOOOOMMM... I'm sold.

Wait, where's the proof for Netflix only going to be able to give a lower budget? Nobody knows that. Nobody knows whether it may give the show an even bigger budget.

I think it was the David X. Cohen Reddit talk, or some other interview, but I remember either him or Matt saying that they already thought about going to Netflix, but said that they couldn't do it without getting a severely reduced animation budget, which they really don't want to do.

[Reply #452 on:]

Ding ding ding!
DXC said the Comedy Central budget was as cheaply as the show could be made and still be called Futurama. Which is still quite expensive apparently, as CC mentioned it was their most expensive animated show ever.

Yup, so Netflix doesn't have the budget. That's why the new 'Arrested' was made soo cheaply. Even it's creator apologized for a few crappy green screen shots b/c the budget was so tight getting the cast back.

Adult Swim allegedly had/has the budget to make more Futurama, they were only outbid by CC when all the interested cable channels were bidding on the show back in 2006 during pre-production of the dvd movies. CC won and bought the rights to the new material, and the re-runs. Thus the re-runs got sold away from AS, as their right to air them had expired.
Then CC aired the new DVD/Cable TV movies to successful ratings.
Enough so that after a bit of waiting CC decided to make 26 episodes, then after that 26 more episodes with FOX. But now the show averages 1 million viewers only.
So what most average people don't know is the show would have been renewed by CC had it's high budget been matched by high ratings, like it did in 2010.

Next.. who knows... the show might just keep coming back...only to get canned over and over.. forever.

[Reply #453 on:]

I would love to see Futurama back on Fox, but that would never happen so now I'm hoping for Adult Swim to maybe pick it up.

I wouldn't want to see it on Netflix because the budget would be way to low for any great episodes to be produced.

I think if we get anything it will be a feature length movie.

I assume Futurama was not renewed because not enough people watched it but if I'm wrong someone please tell me why it wasn't renewed.

[Reply #454 on:]

*sob* maybe i should buy a new pc *sob* to prepare for GTA V

GTA V isn't coming to PC...

Yet.

[Reply #455 on:]

*sob* maybe i should buy a new pc *sob* to prepare for GTA V

GTA V isn't coming to PC...

Yet.

The money isnt collected yet maybe when its available for PC i would buy/pre order.

[Reply #456 on:]

Adult Swim allegedly had/has the budget to make more Futurama,

They didn't. Otherwise, they would have outbid Comedy Central in the first place, or for that matter, would have started production on new episodes before the 2006 bidding war. Back around 2004/2005, Adult Swim head Mike Lazzo was often making noise in interviews about how he'd like to see Futurama get resurrected with new episodes, but it never happened because Adult Swim just didn't have the budget for that. They were also instrumental in getting Family Guy (which, at least at that time, was cheaper than Futurama) back in production, but even at that time it had to be done with first-run airings being on Fox, because Adult Swim just didn't have the money to produce them.

From what I remember, part of the reason the DVD movies got made is that they made a specific deal with Comedy Central, where CC would pay for part of the production of them and get the airing rights to them as new "episodes." In other words, even those weren't (necessarily) possible without Comedy Central's investment, or at least they helped to precipitate those.

Basically, it's extremely unlikely Adult Swim could ever front enough money to make new episodes, then or now, and we pretty much have Comedy Central to thank for us having so many more episodes than we did in 2003. That's not to say other networks couldn't have done that, but Adult Swim wouldn't have been one of them.

[Reply #457 on:]

Why not FX?

[Reply #458 on:]

Why not FX?

Now there's a good idea. They definitely would have the money to produce it, and it'd get alot of viewership, as FX is a pretty popular channel.

[Reply #459 on:]

Why not FX?

Now there's a good idea. They definitely would have the money to produce it, and it'd get alot of viewership, as FX is a pretty popular channel.

FX is definitely the best option available and might be be looking for new shows because It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and The League left for FXX and with only 1 animation show (Archer) I think Futurama would be great for them.

[Reply #460 on:]

Possibly. Although Futurama and Archer are two different shows. I don't know if FX would be interested.

Still, it seems like alot of you guys (mostly the Crustacean-Starship Captain users) can't seem to accept that this may be the absolute end. I'm good with it ending here. I don't see a problem with that. I would like to see an extra season or two, but alas, what we got now is perfectly fine. And as Pumpkinpie said, I hope it's a Great Series Finale.

[Reply #461 on:]

Possibly. Although Futurama and Archer are two different shows. I don't know if FX would be interested.

Still, it seems like alot of you guys (mostly the Crustacean-Starship Captain users) can't seem to accept that this may be the absolute end. I'm good with it ending here. I don't see a problem with that. I would like to see an extra season or two, but alas, what we got now is perfectly fine. And as Pumpkinpie said, I hope it's a Great Series Finale.

Like I said before, I'm satisfied with 7 seasons, too, but it'd still be great to have more. Also like I said, the only problem with more is that the quality would more than likely go way down. I'm just being optimistic for the future of this show, but if it does end forever here, i'm not gonna make a huge fuss about it.

[Reply #462 on:]

Adult Swim allegedly had/has the budget to make more Futurama,

They didn't. Otherwise, they would have outbid Comedy Central in the first place, or for that matter, would have started production on new episodes before the 2006 bidding war. Back around 2004/2005, Adult Swim head Mike Lazzo was often making noise in interviews about how he'd like to see Futurama get resurrected with new episodes, but it never happened because Adult Swim just didn't have the budget for that. They were also instrumental in getting Family Guy (which, at least at that time, was cheaper than Futurama) back in production, but even at that time it had to be done with first-run airings being on Fox, because Adult Swim just didn't have the money to produce them.

From what I remember, part of the reason the DVD movies got made is that they made a specific deal with Comedy Central, where CC would pay for part of the production of them and get the airing rights to them as new "episodes." In other words, even those weren't (necessarily) possible without Comedy Central's investment, or at least they helped to precipitate those.

Basically, it's extremely unlikely Adult Swim could ever front enough money to make new episodes, then or now, and we pretty much have Comedy Central to thank for us having so many more episodes than we did in 2003. That's not to say other networks couldn't have done that, but Adult Swim wouldn't have been one of them.

Everything you say is correct Bartman, exepct Adult Swim HAS the money to make more NOW. And they almost had enough money back in the day.

They have 20 million they could sink into more episodes.. but they aren't going to when they can just keep that money for tons of other cheap crap.
They recently paid 22 million just to air the first three seasons of Bob's.
http://www.deadline.com/2013/05/adult-swim-acquires-off-network-rights-to-bobs-burgers/
If they really wanted to they could plop down 20 million to make 20 more episodes of Futurama.
It's not about money, they probably just don't want to now.
AS has no desire to make more when a show already has 140 episodes.

So Bartman.. you don't always know what your saying.
I like you.. but you argue waaaay too much.

Anyway FX is one of the better options, and pair it with Archer.

[Reply #463 on:]

I agree MuchAdo, FX could pair Futurama with Archer and have their own thing like Animation Domination on Fox.

[Reply #464 on:]

Archer would crush Futurama if they were matched up against each other.

[Reply #465 on:]

Mr. Snrub, do you mean Ratings-wise?

As I said before, I doubt that FX would be interested in picking up Futurama. I mean maybe they will consider it, but it's highly doubtful in my books.

[Reply #466 on:]

Yep. Also Archer is genuinely the better show at the moment. Sorry, but it is.

[Reply #467 on:]

I watched a few episodes of Archer in the past. I didn't exactly like it. I'm just not a fan of it's kind of humor, and the Archer guy (His name's Sterling I think?) is really unlikable in my opinion. Kinda like a half-assed version of James Bond.

Besides, looking at it, Archer is most definitely a cheaper show to produce than Futurama. Just another reason why I don't think FX will pick up Futurama. I still could be proven wrong. Still unlikely though, to say the least.

[Reply #468 on:]

Adult Swim allegedly had/has the budget to make more Futurama,

They didn't. Otherwise, they would have outbid Comedy Central in the first place, or for that matter, would have started production on new episodes before the 2006 bidding war. Back around 2004/2005, Adult Swim head Mike Lazzo was often making noise in interviews about how he'd like to see Futurama get resurrected with new episodes, but it never happened because Adult Swim just didn't have the budget for that. They were also instrumental in getting Family Guy (which, at least at that time, was cheaper than Futurama) back in production, but even at that time it had to be done with first-run airings being on Fox, because Adult Swim just didn't have the money to produce them.

From what I remember, part of the reason the DVD movies got made is that they made a specific deal with Comedy Central, where CC would pay for part of the production of them and get the airing rights to them as new "episodes." In other words, even those weren't (necessarily) possible without Comedy Central's investment, or at least they helped to precipitate those.

Basically, it's extremely unlikely Adult Swim could ever front enough money to make new episodes, then or now, and we pretty much have Comedy Central to thank for us having so many more episodes than we did in 2003. That's not to say other networks couldn't have done that, but Adult Swim wouldn't have been one of them.

Everything you say is correct Bartman, exepct Adult Swim HAS the money to make more NOW. And they almost had enough money back in the day.

They have 20 million they could sink into more episodes.. but they aren't going to when they can just keep that money for tons of other cheap crap.
They recently paid 22 million just to air the first three seasons of Bob's.
http://www.deadline.com/2013/05/adult-swim-acquires-off-network-rights-to-bobs-burgers/
If they really wanted to they could plop down 20 million to make 20 more episodes of Futurama.
It's not about money, they probably just don't want to now.
AS has no desire to make more when a show already has 140 episodes.

So Bartman.. you don't always know what your saying.
I like you.. but you argue waaaay too much.

Anyway FX is one of the better options, and pair it with Archer.

Actually getting the show started again would be a bigger investment than that. Much bigger. For one thing, they would need to buy the back- rights to the series (unless they were okay with someone else owning the rights to show the previous 140 episodes, which would make zero sense). And they'd have to promote it and spend the necessary scratch for that. And if they decided to do another season beyond that? that's more money right there. All for ONE show. 22 million buys them several years of Bob's Burgers reruns with no other effort required. It's a much simpler thing for the AS people to justify to their higher-ups.

That said, as far as another network picking it up, FX (or FXX) would be the natural place for it. It's in the Fox family, so less investment for more gain (because the parent company would benefit from DVDs and so forth). And pairing it with Archer would make perfect sense. That said....Archer is an okay show, but JUST okay (IMO). Nowhere near Futurama. It wastes it's premise most of the time, and every fifth line is another lame, bro-ish sex joke. And the main character is the only memorable one. As far as FX comedies go, It's Always Sunny is more the gold standard to me (and I've heard great things about Louie).

[Reply #469 on:]

I meant they have the budget, they could spend about 50 million+ on it.
But they wouldn't want to now, like you said, b/c of all the BS involved with ALL the extra costs in picking up a pretty old show.
Also AS simply would never revive a show with 140 episodes!
I'm sure Mike Lazzo would not be interested in making new "Futurama" anymore.. at all.

FX or FXX perhaps seem logical. And I think your either underrating Archer or overrating Futurama; the new episodes of our beloved PE Crew have at times been crude and lazy... and sometimes the vulgar/crass but funny "Archer" is actually pretty damn well written.
So.. to each his own I guess.

The crazy thing is a department mega chain could actually team up with FOX like Walmart and make exclusive DVD seasons/movies to be sold ONLY at Walmart.
Walmart has an endless budget, but probably zero interest in that.
Although I've noticed an increase in exclusive movies at Walmart and Target in the past five years.

[Reply #470 on:]

The crazy thing is a department mega chain could actually team up with FOX like Walmart and make exclusive DVD seasons/movies to be sold ONLY at Walmart.
Walmart has an endless budget, but probably zero interest in that.
Although I've noticed an increase in exclusive movies at Walmart and Target in the past five years.

Just to be clear; basically you're saying they could make episodes, then just send them straight-to-DVD?
If so, then that's also a pretty good idea. I'm sure they could get a pretty good budget from either Walmart or Target, as they're both huge chains with a load of cash. Even if it was just a few movies again i'd buy them all!
However, the show actually getting picked up seems more likely to happen than this for some reason. I just haven't heard of any show ever successfully doing this, so i have my doubts that it would work out.
Also, I'm gonna sound like an idiot for asking this, but what is FXX?

[Reply #471 on:]

I'm sure Adult Swim would absolutely love to have new episodes of Futurama, theoretically (though, they may or may not be hesitant based on the ratings it got at Comedy Central). Plenty of episodes with more episodes than 140 still command high ratings and interest, and would with new episodes. One could even argue that it might get better ratings at AS than it did recently at Comedy Central, for various reasons.

The issue is absolutely cost. Does AS have the cash on hand to make another season? Yeah, probably, assuming it pools a lot of resources that would otherwise go to other things...but that's the thing. Why should they spend a (for them) very high amount of money when they could spend that same amount on several other series and still get very good ratings? For 22 million for Bob's Burgers, they're getting the entire series (however many episodes that ends up being, for the duration that the deal is in place). For whatever exactly it would cost to make a whole season of Futurama (probably at least that much money, if not probably more especially with advertising and upfront costs, not counting acquiring all the back reruns), they'd just be getting one season and then they'd have to front more money if they wanted another run of them. So why spend the dough? It's not just about whether they literally have the cash on hand, but whether they have enough that it's really worth the risk to do so. If they only have 50 million dollars to spend a year on various series (this is a totally made up number by me, by the way, but it's just to illustrate this point), and it costs say 30 million in total costs to do a season of Futurama, how much sense would it really make to do that? How would they justify it to the higher ups at Cartoon Network and Time Warner? And then, how much profit would they make to justify the investment, also? (Consider that a 100 million movie that makes back 110 is considered a failure; sure, it made a profit, but you don't spend that kind of budget in the first place to get back ten million in profit. You're looking to make several hundred million in profit.) As much as we all love Futurama and might prefer it over their other shows, they can't just be an all-Futurama channel; some of their money on hand has to go to other things.

If this was something they could do, they would have done it years ago, and they said as much. Even "The Boondocks" was made VERY cheap. Futurama is not cheap.

As for Archer...honestly, it's not that I don't think there are a few shows genuinely better than Futurama these days (FX's own It's Always Sunny is one), but I just don't like Archer tremendously. It's okay, and I'd watch it if it was on and a friend wanted to watch it or what have you, but when I was watching it in order I got bored somewhere in season 2 and gave up. I don't find it offensive, by any means (I love crass, offensive humor), but too much of Archer just strikes me as kind of lazy. I get why people like it, but most of the characters aren't great and all the sex jokes just get kind of old. Not because they're crass, but because they're repetitive and not very clever. That said, the show is decent and certainly has its moments, but I do think Futurama is a way better show. And honestly, I don't really agree with the general opinion that it's significantly declined, anyway.

Also, I'm gonna sound like an idiot for asking this, but what is FXX?

FXX is FX's new spinoff channel. IIRC, a lot of the comedies (It's Always Sunny, The League) are moving there and FX itself will be more focused on their hit dramas from now on, though they're keeping a few of their comedies there for now (Archer included).

[Reply #472 on:]

Monster_Robot_Maniac FXX is FX's new channel which is aimed toward young men between 18 and 34 years-old according to Wikipedia. Its gonna start airing new episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The League and some other shows. It's also gonna have reruns of shows like How I Met Your Mother and Park and Recreation.

Here's the link for the whole Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FXX

[Reply #473 on:]

Monster_Robot_Maniac FXX is FX's new channel which is aimed toward young men between 18 and 34 years-old according to Wikipedia. Its gonna start airing new episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The League and some other shows. It's also gonna have reruns of shows like How I Met Your Mother and Park and Recreation.

Here's the link for the whole Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FXX

Well, that sounds like the perfect place for futurama to me. I think FX would by far have the most money available to make the series, and the show would fit right in with all their other shows.
I think AS would have the money to make the show too, personally. They run tons of hit shows, which gets them a hell of a lot of viewership, and are run by a pretty darn big (and rich) company.

[Reply #474 on:]

Uhhh, everyone - you're aware FX and FXX are off-shoots of Fox, right?

Not to bash either network or anything (I LOVE Louie, The League, Always Sunny, Archer, etc.) but if Fox doesn't want the show, would either of these networks?

EDIT: Also, just look at that list of shows. All brilliance aside, I can't imagine ANY of them are all that expensive to make.

[Reply #475 on:]

It was the Fox network people that didn't want it. The leadership at FX is different. Other branches of the larger Fox corp are perfectly happy to profit off the show (as evidenced by them putting it back into production the last few years).

Not that I think it would happen. But if I had to say that any outlet might decide to revive it (which is snowball's chance in hell, granted), FX seems like the likeliest one.

[Reply #476 on:]

FX seems likely, but unlikely at the same time.

I mean the show's budget.....And FX......could work. It all depends on whether or not FX would even be interested in buying the show. That's the doubtful part.

At the same time,  I'd prefer if it didn't come back. Unless it got back the old FOX budget. Then I'd have high hopes for the following season(s).

[Reply #477 on:]

I think our biggest chance would be with Netflix or one of the online outlets. Futurama doesn't do well in tv ratings but it DOES do well in dvd sales (and presumably, online downloads/streaming).

Having said that, I honestly can't see the show continuing for too much longer regardless. If we get any more new material after "Meanwhile," it's most likely gonna be another DVD movie. Possibly even a theatrical film, though that'd be a huge risk.

[Reply #478 on:]

I think the show needs to go back to Adult Swim; they'd get a much higher budget there, and a crap load of more viewership. Plus, it seems Adult Swim is better at keeping shows on schedule. For example, King of the Hill has been airing on weekdays from 9-10 for at least the past 3 years.
Also, didn't the show receive high ratings when it was on there in the first place? I imagine if they went back, they'd get those great ratings once again..

Adult Swim would be FANTASTIC!

[Reply #479 on:]

If Adult Swim didn't pick it up for more episodes when they first had it, why (and how) would they do it second-time-around? Not to mention that, with all these new episodes under their belt, Futurama's well past the number required for syndication. There's far less incentive to renew.

I don't mean to sound negative here - I would LOVE to have more Futurama - I just don't think anything beyond "another DVD movie" is all that realistic.