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

[Reply #560 on:]

Two Extremely Corny one minute clips. Everything about them threw me off.

Also, TOTTD

[Reply #561 on:]

I loved Zoidberg!

Great clips.

[Reply #562 on:]

Also, I just tweeted Eric Rogers about the Stench and Stenchability.

He told me that "it's fantastic. A perfect final zoidberg-centered story. You will be happy".

Two extremely positive receptions of the ep so far. I hope they don't disappoint. My hopes for this ep is up a tiny bit more now.

[Reply #563 on:]

I actually liked the clips. I'm just hoping that the Bender sub-plot somehow ties in with the Zoidberg plot.

Does anyone else think Stench and Stenchability is going to go out on a cliffhanger?

[Reply #564 on:]

I don't think It will.  If it did then wouldn't it resume where it left off in the beginning of Meanwhile?  Which it definitely doesn't.

[Reply #565 on:]

I don't think It will.  If it did then wouldn't it resume where it left off in the beginning of Meanwhile?  Which it definitely doesn't.

You realize that Stench and Stenchability is supposed to be part one of the two episode finale, right?

[Reply #566 on:]

Does anyone else think Stench and Stenchability is going to go out on a cliffhanger?

No. There is nothing to support this theory. It's been incorrectly called "part 1 of a 2 part episode" since it was originally intended to air on the same night as Meanwhile, which has now been scrapped. They're two separate episodes with two separate plots.

[Reply #567 on:]

Also, I just tweeted Eric Rogers about the Stench and Stenchability.

He told me that "it's fantastic. A perfect final zoidberg-centered story. You will be happy".

Two extremely positive receptions of the ep so far. I hope they don't disappoint. My hopes for this ep is up a tiny bit more now.

I don't think a writer on the season is in a place to give an unbiased opinion on the episode to the point that you can even call it a positive reception.

Plus, Eric Rogers is really positive about absolutely everything that the show has done. He was really positive about episodes like "Yo Leela Leela" before they aired, and whilst I didn't mind that one in particular, it didn't go down well, here.

I know he doesn't work for the show anymore, but he's still presumably friends with lots of the people involved with it and he's probably holding out some hope for the show coming back in some form at this point - plus, he probably had a hand in writing it, himself, seeing as this show is practically written by committee.

Nothing against Eric; he's just doing his job - I just wouldn't listen to anything he says regarding how good an episode of Futurama is before it's aired.

Does anyone else think Stench and Stenchability is going to go out on a cliffhanger?

No. There is nothing to support this theory. It's been incorrectly called "part 1 of a 2 part episode" since it was originally intended to air on the same night as Meanwhile, which has now been scrapped. They're two separate episodes with two separate plots.

I think the idea was perpetuated by the fact that the last episode is called "Meanwhile", which really does sound like a meta name for a "part 2" episode. But yeah, it's pretty clear that they're both standalone at this point.

I've been avoiding spoilers, but lots of people have watched act 1 and act 2 of "Meanwhile" in various forms, already, haven't they? Table reads and animatics and whatnot? I'd say that it's confirmed that they're standalone given that none of the people who've watched it have suggested that it follows on from anything.

Plus, I doubt they would have read act 1 at Comic Con in the first place if you needed to see an episode before it for proper context.

[Reply #568 on:]

I was really looking forward to having a two-parter. Now I'm a little disappointed because I've been looking up to it all year. When did this alteration occur?

[Reply #569 on:]

Like Beamer said, it was originally meant to be aired on the same night as "Meanwhile" before they cancelled the show, just as they had a 2-episode finale with "30th Century Fox" and "Naturama" as well as "Overclockwise" and "Reincarnation".

A similar misunderstanding happened when they called "Rebirth" and "In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela" a 2-part premiere in some promo material due to them airing both back-to-back, as well.

[Reply #570 on:]

Precisely. The information leaked was bad, they were NEVER intended to be a two parter.

I assume if they ever did multi-part episodes again (ie. the dvd movies) they would title them accordingly. We haven't actually had any multi-part episodes before or since the dvd movies. We have had some "sequels to specficic episodes" (ie. The Why of Fry basically being a sequel to The Day the Earth Stood Stupid, etc.), but that's about it, outside of the dvd movies.

[Reply #571 on:]

Don't forget "Devils Hands" being a sequel to "Parasites Lost".

[Reply #572 on:]

And "Amazon Women In the Mood" to "A Flight To Remember"

And "Calculon 2.0" to "The Thief of Baghead"

[Reply #573 on:]

"Fry Eats a Scorpion" was a sequel to "Bender Dares Fry to Eat a Scorpion."

[Reply #574 on:]

That was an ATHF episode good sir.
Meatwad dared Shake to do it, and then he promised he'd go back in time and do it once Shake had finished.
Then Meatwad stayed put... b/c the dumbass Shake ate a scorpion and died.

[Reply #575 on:]

Capital earthworm, oh tyrant! But I believe you are mistaken.

See?

[Reply #576 on:]

Also, the direct link to the "date" clip.

Thanks Just Fan, I laughed hard at the part were Zoidberg cuts his arm open.

Also, Solid Snake's deep-hatred for this episode is stupid. We've seen two clips. And in the past we've had episodes that sound terrible end up being epic and episodes that sound epic end up being a let-down (sometimes).

[Reply #577 on:]

I'd say "Into the Wild Green Yonder: Part 4" and "Rebirth" qualify as something of a two-parter.

Not to mention "Bender's Big Score: Part 4" and "The Beast with a Billion Backs: Part 1".

[Reply #578 on:]

A two parter implies a single narrarive split over two installments. Other than "the last 30 seconds of one instigating the first 30 seconds of the next," they've got almost totally separate storylines. And they've never pulled that cliffhanger ending shit outside of the dvd movies ("unresolved endings" excluded, because that's a totaly different thing).

[Reply #579 on:]

I'd say "Into the Wild Green Yonder: Part 4" and "Rebirth" qualify as something of a two-parter.

Not to mention "Bender's Big Score: Part 4" and "The Beast with a Billion Backs: Part 1".

They're the only two episodes/movies I consider to come close to 2-parters in Futurama.

[Reply #580 on:]

Also, the direct link to the "date" clip.

Also, Solid Snake's deep-hatred for this episode is stupid. We've seen two clips. And in the past we've had episodes that sound terrible end up being epic and episodes that sound epic end up being a let-down (sometimes).

Stupid? How's there still pacemakers in the future?? How does a decapodian "forget" he's a decapodian, and calls himself a giant crab?! It's like New Simpsons in the Future.

And hey, I got yet to see the Ep. I may be pleasantly surprised. But for now, I'm not going to be excited for it. Not at all.

Maurice Lamarche said it smelled of Emmy worthyness! He hasn't said that about an Ep since The Late Phillip J Fry. Also Eric Rogers said it was "fantastic", while he did say that "Fun Pit" was awesome (and I liked fun pit, so I'd have to agree with him). So I mean maybe it'll catch me by surprise and be good.

But for now, I'm staying entitled to my opinion.

[Reply #581 on:]

Also, they're talking about pacemakers. PACEMAKERS??

It's 1000 years in the future, I'm sure we will have much better advanced technology in the future by then!

Um...in "Murder on the Planet Express," we see some big-ass floppy disks, and Fry's using a joystick-looking device to advance his surveillance footage. Did those things bug you? Futurama has always been a show with semi-anachronistic technology, almost always used for a laugh. Also, what was the girl going to say in that clip that would have been as instantly recognizable (and therefore easy to understand, and laugh at) for a modern-day audience as the word "pacemaker"? ("Dancing isn't good for my heart-o-tron electic current-izer!") I know you're entitled to your opinion, and you're reserving judgment on the episode as a whole until it actually airs, but don't you think you're being just a wee bit nit-picky here?

For my part, I thought both of the "Stench and Stenchibility" clips were pretty funny. I loved Fry's excitement at seeing Randy (a nice callback to their apparently deep friendship, as seen in "Overclockwise"), and I thought the montage with Zoidberg and Marianne partaking of overpoweringly smelly recreational activities was both sweet and silly. I'm actually kind of looking forward to this episode.

[Reply #582 on:]

Cheers Gorky, the big-ass floppy disks (that's fun to type) were a big laugh for me in Murder on the Planet Express.

Having said that, it's the "huge point point hinging on jokes about bad smells" theme of this episode that's worrying me the most. It wasn't funny in A Big Piece of Garbage, it wasn't funny in any of the sewer mutant episodes, quite frankly it's an already-mined (and incredibly lame) well I was hoping the show wouldn't go to again.

[Reply #583 on:]

One of the most central jokes on Futurama has always been dated technology, because the most central theme on the show when it was first conceived was "the more things change, the more they stay the same." It's unlikely that TV soap operas and stuff like that will even exist 1000 years from now, yet the first few seasons the TV had an ANTENNA of all things, which even in 1999 was kind of dated. It's the joke. Futurama has always used the future to make jokes about the present.

[Reply #584 on:]

Also, they're talking about pacemakers. PACEMAKERS??

It's 1000 years in the future, I'm sure we will have much better advanced technology in the future by then!

Um...in "Murder on the Planet Express," we see some big-ass floppy disks, and Fry's using a joystick-looking device to advance his surveillance footage. Did those things bug you? Futurama has always been a show with semi-anachronistic technology, almost always used for a laugh. Also, what was the girl going to say in that clip that would have been as instantly recognizable (and therefore easy to understand, and laugh at) for a modern-day audience as the word "pacemaker"? ("Dancing isn't good for my heart-o-tron electic current-izer!") I know you're entitled to your opinion, and you're reserving judgment on the episode as a whole until it actually airs, but don't you think you're being just a wee bit nit-picky here?

For my part, I thought both of the "Stench and Stenchibility" clips were pretty funny. I loved Fry's excitement at seeing Randy (a nice callback to their apparently deep friendship, as seen in "Overclockwise"), and I thought the montage with Zoidberg and Marianne partaking of overpoweringly smelly recreational activities was both sweet and silly. I'm actually kind of looking forward to this episode.

True, true, but the pacemaker seems so out-of-place and annoying to me. Not sure why, but it does. Maybe it'll wind up being some kind of plot twist or something.

And I think the purpose of having the Floppy discs gag in MotPE was to make it look funny and out of place. And it worked.

The pacemaker, isn't exactly used as a funny joke/gag, and makes me scratch my head like "wait, what's the point of this?". And yeah, I know the show can be known for using modern-day tech and making fun of it. But in the clip, they didn't portray it as a gag/make fun of kind of thing at all, really. And made Bender's line about it after shooting the 20th century gun (Why not have a ray-gun? I thought guns are long-gone) fall completely flat for me. I usually do appreciate when they make fun of modern-day tech, or make a gag out of an old out-of-date one, but with this, I can't seem find anything to laugh at, or appreciate about it.

Maybe I am being a bit too nit-picky. But I just can't find exactly what to appreciate out of the first clip. The one with Zoidberg, was okay. I could have swore I heard him say "Hello you" somewhere else though. And again, the I-forgot-I-was-a-crab gag was pretty stupid in my opinion. But oh well. Maybe I'll learn to appreciate it over time.

[Reply #585 on:]

The show has always had technology from today, usually not as jokes. It would be impossible to avoid it. Pacemaker is just one of those things used nowadays, but it represents thing used to keep hearts going in 3000. It doesn't seem out of the place to me.

With a normal gun, it's more dramatic and funnier, I think, so it might have been done purposefully. Also, Bender likes older technology like camera with a film.

[Reply #586 on:]

Hell, there was a second Middle Ages in the 24th Century. Doesn't get more dated than that.

[Reply #587 on:]

Also, the direct link to the "date" clip.

Also, Solid Snake's deep-hatred for this episode is stupid. We've seen two clips. And in the past we've had episodes that sound terrible end up being epic and episodes that sound epic end up being a let-down (sometimes).

Stupid? How's there still pacemakers in the future?? How does a decapodian "forget" he's a decapodian, and calls himself a giant crab?!

He's been referred to as a giant crab/lobster many times throughout the series, so I don't thinks it's anything that new. Sure, it is a little weird, but It's not episode ruiningly weird.

[Reply #588 on:]

Some of the first season or so is already so dated that it's comical. Video phones? (Modern phones are capable of it, but it turns out nobody wanted it that much. Most 20th century sci-fi visions of the "future" prior to the 2000s are really hilarious for that reason.) The Professor having a "pager"? The antenna on the TV? I kinda think if anything, Groening and Cohen knew they'd get everything wrong, so they made most things just "equivalents" to modern technology or even made them retro on purpose as a joke. The constant whining about references to modern TV shows, Facebook, etc is one of the most annoying and frankly perspective-less and inconsequential fan complaints about the newer seasons. Jesus christ, just watch literally any of the original 72 episodes and try to tell me there aren't at least a half-dozen things in any one of them that would surely be completely anachronistic in the actual 3000s.

[Reply #589 on:]

Also, the direct link to the "date" clip.

Also, Solid Snake's deep-hatred for this episode is stupid. We've seen two clips. And in the past we've had episodes that sound terrible end up being epic and episodes that sound epic end up being a let-down (sometimes).

Stupid? How's there still pacemakers in the future?? How does a decapodian "forget" he's a decapodian, and calls himself a giant crab?!

He's been referred to as a giant crab/lobster many times throughout the series, so I don't thinks it's anything that new. Sure, it is a little weird, but It's not episode ruiningly weird.

The same guy who, in the most recent episode, wasn't sure whether or not he was the monster? Seems perfectly in character to me.

[Reply #590 on:]

Nobody knew if they were the monster.

[Reply #591 on:]

But they would logically know that they THEMSELVES weren't the monster. And yet somehow Zoidberg didn't.

Beamer's point stands.

[Reply #592 on:]

Nobody knew if they were the monster.

If there was a shapeshifting monster on the loose and you saw a doppelgänger of yourself in the same room, are you saying that you wouldn't know which version of you was the monster between "the sentient being whose point of view you've been seeing the world through your entire life" or "a physical copy of yourself that you're just now seeing in third person for some reason?"

[Reply #593 on:]

It's got a Zoidberg-centric plot, which usually means failure, and it introduces a new character, Zoidy's girlfriend. Only problem with that is the fact that this is the second to last episode! They had to have known this by the time they were writing it.

The episode was written last year.  Futurama was not canceled until a few months ago.  At the time the episode was being written, the writing staff would have not have known that this would be the second-last episode.

[Reply #594 on:]

^ Maybe not, but I'm pretty sure they knew it was a possibility the show wouldn't be renewed.

[Reply #595 on:]

Their second-to-last episodes have generally been pretty inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. Look at Spanish Fry.

[Reply #596 on:]

It's got a Zoidberg-centric plot, which usually means failure, and it introduces a new character, Zoidy's girlfriend. Only problem with that is the fact that this is the second to last episode! They had to have known this by the time they were writing it.

The episode was written last year.  Futurama was not canceled until a few months ago.  At the time the episode was being written, the writing staff would have not have known that this would be the second-last episode.

According to some interview with David X. Cohen, They should've known at the time of writing it that they were going to be cancelled. I remember he said 'Usually around the time we're writing the last episodes of a season, the company will buy another season if they want one. I they don't buy another season at that time, we assume we've been cancelled.'. I am paraphrasing, of course, but that's what he said. I'll see if I can find the link to the interview.

Bascially, that says that they should've realized they weren't getting another season, and I think they shouldn't have introduced a brand new character in the second to last episode.

EDIT it should be mentioned somewhere in here...http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1hgdrt/i_am_david_x_cohen_head_writer_on_futurama_ama/

[Reply #597 on:]

Their second-to-last episodes have generally been pretty inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. Look at Spanish Fry.

"Spanish Fry" is one of the funniest episodes of the series, in my opinion, but you're definitely right that it is no game-changer like some later season four episodes (such as "The Farnsworth Parabox," which I think was the 15th episode of that year's 18). However, "Spanish Fry" did give us one last fun, silly, trio-based episode that also happened to involve two of the show's best tertiary characters; even if the writers didn't know at the time that it would be their second-to-last episode ever, they definitely delivered a perfectly enjoyable little romp.

In a similar vein, even if the writers had no way of knowing it would be their almost-final episode, I'm hoping "Stench and Stenchibility" will give Zoidberg's character a nice send-off, kind of like what Lrrr and Ndnd got in "Spanish Fry." Moreover, the Bender subplot promises to be wacky, and if it also happens to involve Fry and Leela (the clip posted a page back suggests that it might), then all the better. I don't have any special expectations of this episode just because of where it falls in the production order, but I also don't fear it will be godawful or anything based on what I've seen of it so far.

[Reply #598 on:]

It's got a Zoidberg-centric plot, which usually means failure, and it introduces a new character, Zoidy's girlfriend. Only problem with that is the fact that this is the second to last episode! They had to have known this by the time they were writing it.

The episode was written last year.  Futurama was not canceled until a few months ago.  At the time the episode was being written, the writing staff would have not have known that this would be the second-last episode.

According to some interview with David X. Cohen, They should've known at the time of writing it that they were going to be cancelled. I remember he said 'Usually around the time we're writing the last episodes of a season, the company will buy another season if they want one. I they don't buy another season at that time, we assume we've been cancelled.'. I am paraphrasing, of course, but that's what he said. I'll see if I can find the link to the interview.

Bascially, that says that they should've realized they weren't getting another season, and I think they shouldn't have introduced a brand new character in the second to last episode.

EDIT it should be mentioned somewhere in here...http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1hgdrt/i_am_david_x_cohen_head_writer_on_futurama_ama/

Firstly, it depends on what he means by "writing"; there are different stages in that process, and it wouldn't surprise me if they come up with the initial pitches or even script treatments prior to the stage he's talking about, but then by the time they get to the actual main scripts of the last few (at which point, it would probably be too late to just scrap an episode and start anew) is when they actually start to get an inkling of whether they've been cancelled or not.

But anyway, Futurama is a sitcom with relatively limited continuity, so I don't think it makes much difference whether the penultimate is particularly game-changing or not. Spanish Fry was just a fun episode that, incidentally, itself introduced at least a couple new characters (including the porno dealing monster, who ended up coming back). With a show like this, I think it's really better creative thinking to just do a normal episode, of whatever idea the writers feel would be a good standalone episode by itself, rather than worrying about giving characters a proper send-off or anything like that. That's for the actual finale to deal with.

This looks like a sweet and funny episode that will play well in reruns (rather than confusing people who can't tell if it's supposed to be a finale or not). Which is essentially what I want out of most Futurama episodes.

[Reply #599 on:]

I don't get why everybody is still talking about "the other" line from Why of Fry.

I mean, yes, it could possibly mean that Leela could be important to the Nibblonians in some way or another, but it's highly unlikely.

I just think that when Nibbler said "She must be the other", he meant Fry's future love life companion. Nothing real important, just the special person of his future life, and knew it was his one weakness of leaving the Future.

I'm just sick of people complaining about stuff like "I want to see them do a episode about the other already!!". I highly doubt it means anything. And if it did, I think they would have made that particular episode by now.