Well, Lets Bring Her Around Again - General Futurama Discussion

[Reply #760 on:]

More realistically, there's no way they had the plot of Meanwhile already planned out and revealed to all the writers when Overclockwise was penned, did they?

[Reply #761 on:]

I doubt Bender would have been able to include all of those details and still allow Fry and Leela to go through so many facial expressions in so little time. It likely only described what they did in their years alone, rather than how they got there. Also, what Josh said.

[Reply #762 on:]

I was half asleep when I listened to the Overclockwise commentary, and don't recall whether they discussed that point.

[Reply #763 on:]

I'm still amazed that, after 20 pages, we still haven't discussed decorated army veteran General Futurama. The man is a freaking HERO, for cryin' out loud!

Shame on you, PEEL. Shame on you.

[Reply #764 on:]

[Reply #765 on:]

Sounds like just some wishful thinking, but it's nice to hear one of the voice actors still being hopeful about more Futurama.

Edit: Also, haven't been around much at all, but wanna wish everyone here a Merry Christmas!

[Reply #766 on:]

So, I have constructed this interesting proof, which should bring some hope:

Let f be function f: N -> N, f(n) = n describing seasons of Futurama. With all the current seasons, n∈{1,2,3,4,5,6,7}. t is a variable describing time, t∈R.

Now, if we consider limit of f(n), when time goes on forever¹.
So, when t -> ∞, lim f(n) = ∞.
However, the question remains, what's n, when f(n) -> ∞?

We must look the question from a different angle to get a sensible answer in a context of Futurama. We can easily see the significance of the number pi (denoted as π) in Futurama and considering that there is two numbers in binary number system (0 and 1), we should look into their quotient π/2, since they seem relevant. The quotient can be thought as an angle: π/2 radians = 90 degrees by definition.

So, looking the question from an angle of 90 degrees: when f(n) = ∞, we can only assume that n = 8.
Season 8 confirmed. □

¹A necessary assumption to take, as it's all we have right now. Result doesn't require fixed value of t.

[Reply #767 on:]

Half Life 2 confirmed.

[Reply #768 on:]

Thank god, I was wondering when they were going to make a second one of those. And maybe it could be followed by some episodic content.

[Reply #769 on:]

Sounds like just some wishful thinking, but it's nice to hear one of the voice actors still being hopeful about more Futurama.

Even though they're all pretty busy with other shows, I'm guessing they'd make time for a cinematic-release standalone Futurama movie. Which would be the best way to cap the franchise off once and for all, IMO.

[Reply #770 on:]

Dem feels

[Reply #771 on:]

*bump*

Neat!

[Reply #772 on:]

Good news: I had a very productive day.

Bad news: The buses stopped running (again) and so I am stuck in the city (again).

Good news: Fox is showing Futurama all day today.

Bad news: It's in Spanish.

Good news: I can understand it, and even if I couldn't, I already know the episodes well enough to watch it on mute.

Bad news: They're currently playing Law and Oracle, which features my least favorite character of the series.

Good news: They're currently playing Law and Oracle, which features tons of cool visuals and a pretty neat storyline.

[Reply #773 on:]

I agree with you that her character is way over the top.  But I like it for some reason.  Glad you're enjoying it anyway

[Reply #774 on:]

Bad news: Fox is a bunch of filthy liars. They said it would be Futurama "todo el día," but now they are playing Glee.

[Reply #775 on:]

That's like being given broccoli topped with frozen poo instead of apple pie topped with ice-cream.

What I'm saying here is that Glee is terrible, and anybody who watches or enjoys it should be eaten by a ninja ghost shark.

[Reply #776 on:]

Well, you two might both be losers, but I just made out with that radiator woman from that radiator planet.

Actually, I've been watching Futurama from start to finish, currently half way through the second season. You know, I forgot how "off" season 1 feels compared to the rest of the show. It just feels so... slow and unambitious compared to the later seasons. It also doesn't help how the animation's a bit dodgy and there's very little ambient sound, making it difficult to get immersed.

On the other hand, they're still brilliantly written and they're not exactly "bad" so I can't complain too much.

[Reply #777 on:]

I love watching Futurama from start to finish. I enjoy how classic era cartoon season 1 feels compared to the rest of the show. It just feels so... calm and grounded compared to the later seasons. It helps how the animation's a bit dodgy (okay, there's no spinning that one) and it's quiet, making it easy to feel nostalgic for.

[Reply #778 on:]

I agree with that as well.  Also, unlike other shows, Futurama felt established from the get go.

[Reply #779 on:]

I love Season 1, but it does seem a little restrained, calm, and in places, hesitant. The show was still finding its feet, so I suppose these are all natural things. But compared to some of the late greats (eg; TLOTF, TKOS, RTEW, TLPJF) those first three episodes in particular do seem a little smaller and less grand in scope or ambition.

None of that does anything to my unashamed love for it. Season 1 was the reason I became a fan, after all. Season 2 was what cemented my love for the show firmly in place (and I think that WMIBACIL in particular should get most of the credit for that), but Season 1 was our introduction to the show, before the writing staff had gotten used to what they could really do with the universe they'd been given to play in.

Futurama felt established from the get go.

Established, yes. But also unexplored, which was an odd and engaging combination. It was always clear that there would be more to discover about the show's universe in the next episode, however far along its run the show got. There was no danger, in the beginning, of running out of good ideas (the curse that turned The Simpsons from a brilliant show into something to switch over from).

Which made it all the more jarring when something that wasn't good slipped through, into the show. But thankfully, there were relatively few of those moments.

Wait, are we eulogising Futurama? When did we collectively just accept that it was dead? That's not like this place at all.

[Reply #780 on:]

I knew it would come back the first time.

I'm just agreeing with a sentiment expressed by Scrappy.  The early episodes, season 1 & 2 primarily would probably be my preference to watch, because they seemed to have a simple, calm quality to me, this is even though those episodes were already well layered.

In fact, with my other statement, I never felt that the show had a need to find its feet--from the first episode, the characters became as friends to me.  Throughout the physical process of me aging, I find myself almost as a yearning peer to the crew themselves, and they were as people to me from the very first episode.

Strangely enough peel had a similar attachment in many ways.

[Reply #781 on:]

I think Futurama hit the ground running, but at the very end of season 2, that run turned into a world-record-setting sprint.

[Reply #782 on:]

I agree. Season 1 is good, but season 2 is bloody fantastic

[Reply #783 on:]

Every episode of season 1 is a world-building episode in some way. Throughout the season, they establish multiple things that become a prominent part of the Futurama universe, and/or little character traits that become the focal points of episodes in subsequent seasons. Season 1 is essentially just an extended pilot for the series as a whole.

I'll agree it definitely feels different from the rest of the show (the pacing is slower, it's still finding its feet on both the comedy and science fiction fronts, and the staff don't quite have things like character models or voices down just yet), but the same can also be said of most comedy shows' first seasons. The difference between season 1 of Futurama and what the show became is still not quite as distinct as, say, season 1 of The Simpsons and what that show eventually became.

I agree that season 2 is excellent for the most part, though. They really start to flesh out all the characters (hell, it seems as though the writers made a conscious decision to give every character their own episode at some point in season 2), and although they didn't quite strike the balance of comedy and emotion that practically defined the later seasons, they have the show's humour down pat by the time they reach season 2.

[Reply #784 on:]

I'm still kind of bummed that Hermes got hardly any episodes.

After HHRHGB (don't try to pronounce that ) he only got TSMDM in season 7 and a few B plots here and there.

I might be forgetting an episode. My memory is in sleep mode at the moment.

[Reply #785 on:]

Save from a few exceptions, the writers never quite figured out how to properly utilise Hermes in general. I loved it when his character functioned as a satire on bureaucracy, but more often than not, he was purely a source for cheap and easy Jamaican jokes.

[Reply #786 on:]

PE Ship in the new Rick and Morty couch gag

Slurm machine a few seconds later

Also, there's a guy with a brain slug on his head a little bit later.

[Reply #787 on:]

Save from a few exceptions, the writers never quite figured out how to properly utilise Hermes in general. I loved it when his character functioned as a satire on bureaucracy, but more often than not, he was purely a source for cheap and easy Jamaican jokes.

The weed jokes were imhO not told for their own sake, but rather to mirror Smithers in Simpsons. As the writers oerobviously hinted he was gay (without ever actually saying so....unless this happend in an episode unremembered/unseen by me), Hermes was hinted to be a stoner, with the final confirmation yet withheld.

[Reply #788 on:]

They were still cheap and easy, and about as subtle as an exploding planet. I expect more from Futurama, simple as that.

[Reply #789 on:]

They were subtle enough to fly unnoticed right over my innocent, preteenaged mind when I first started watching this show.

Same with the Smither is gay bit, except I was obviously innocenter and pre-preteenageder when I started watching that show.

[Reply #790 on:]

I must confess that the whole weed thing also went completely over my head back when I started watching the show, but in retrospect, they're really not subtle in the slightest. I don't know if it counts as subtlety if you get away with it purely on the grounds that a child doesn't really know what weed is.

That said, I don't think I ever watched The Simpsons without understanding that Smithers was clearly... sexually ambiguous if not gay.

So... I was a sexually savvy child but naive on the drugs front?

[Reply #791 on:]

It was something I didn't pick up on first either. They weren't subtle, but I think it was mostly like background joke or a quick reference (apart from T.: The Terrestrial).

It's not really prominent characteristic, but I think Jamaican jokes all together were unnecessary.

[Reply #792 on:]

I don't think the weed jokes were more subtle in the original run. I do, however, think they were much funnier than the ones from the CC era.

[Reply #793 on:]

"Husband, can't you go anywhere without lightin' somethin' up?" was probably my favourite.

[Reply #794 on:]

I always enjoyed the "the device that lets you speed or slow the passage of time" in Bendin' in the Wind (not actually a Hermes line, but still, a great example of how to successfully do a marijuana joke in a tv show).

[Reply #795 on:]

See, I love the above and I actually got that one, even as a kid.

So, like... maybe subtlety isn't any sort of useful benchmark for measuring comedy.

[Reply #796 on:]

Something new:

[Reply #797 on:]

My grin grew greater as I continued watching that video.

And also, let's post this video from the same channel because why not that's why.



Man, I really wish Billy West was starring in a show again. He's so talented.

[Reply #798 on:]

I know I'm sort of late to the party concerning the weed jokes. I do find them to be much more subtle in the Fox Era. With that being said, the only really good one I can think of from the CC era would be when Amy said "A big fat roach" and Hermes said "What? I thought I put that away!". Gets me every time.