General Futurama Discussion - A New Thread

[Reply #240 on:]

I have always found it odd how Katey Sagal voiced nobody besides Leela. Tress MacNeille on the other hand collects voice credits like its going out of style.

I don't really hold that against her, I don't want her doing other voices just for the sake of it if there are other voice actors who can do it better. Tress MacNeille had a long voice acting career before Futurama so it's likely she can do any non-Leela voice better than her.

[Reply #241 on:]

The only instance I can think of when Sagal voiced a character other than Leela in Futurama was during a live reading of the Futurama Returns Comic. Sagal was the only female voice actor in the reading and one of the lines came from a female executive, so Sagal gave her a nasally voice. One of MacNeille's many characters, the robot gypsy, also plays a part in the comic, and interestingly, West pulled a very good impression of her.

[Reply #242 on:]

Surprised this board isn't busier what with the new season around the corner.

It has been a good excuse for me to do a rewatch, something I haven't done in about a decade, planning to finish the rewatch just in time for the new season.

It's still great but funnily I can still remember what the next line is from the early seasons most of the time even though I haven't seen it in ages, guess I really burned it permanently into my memory with all the repeat viewings back in the day.

[Reply #243 on:]

Surprised this board isn't busier what with the new season around the corner.

There are bursts of activity from time to time but it's mostly confined to the off-topic threads, Once PEELers started their tentative explorations outside their mom's basements years ago and began meeting each other in real life, the on-topic posting activity fell off sharply. But once a PEELer, always a PEELer, eh?

I've no idea how well the new episodes will hit but I expect that I'll enjoy a number of them.

[Reply #244 on:]

New member registrations have been disabled since the update, so unless some of whichever PEELers are still alive and haven't forgotten their passwords wander back here, we aren't likely to see much of an increase in activity on the board.

[Reply #245 on:]

It has been a good excuse for me to do a rewatch, something I haven't done in about a decade, planning to finish the rewatch just in time for the new season.

I'm also doing this for pretty much the first time since shortly after the series was last cancelled. I was honestly expecting to return to the show to find that it was good but it didn't quite live up to my memory or expectations but that's not been the case at all. 10 years older and this show is still perfectly tuned to my sense of humour and general sensibilities. I love it. Can't believe how well it holds up, frankly.

[Reply #246 on:]

It's a shame new users cannot register anymore... Been rewatching the series for the last couple of weeks or so as well, and I must admit I'm glad I'm not the only one rewatching it. Admittedly, I might get alot of flack for this but I have really grown to enjoy the latter half of the CC run, whereas before I loved the earlier half of its run just ten years ago. Idk why but I just find the episode quality in Season 7 to be much more consistent than Season 6. Even if Season 6 had better bangers than 7, I think they really got a good grasp of pacing the episodes better by the time they started working on Season 7.

Doesn't mean the episodes were any better, in fact I still hate many episodes from that Season, hence why I still can't exactly make up my mind how to feel about the season as a whole. The improved pacing did help with the timing of the jokes really well, though. A great example of this is Free-Will Hunting, one of my favorite CC-run episodes now. It's one of few episodes that was self-aware of it's pacing issues and executed it superbly for the sake of the plot up until the third act.

[Reply #247 on:]

It's a shame new users cannot register anymore...

Yes.  Yes it is.

[Reply #248 on:]

I'm also (planning on, starting tomorrow) rewatching the series. I realize that I've waited a bit to get started and I'll have to watch 3+ episodes per day to watch the full series by July 24th. However, if I simply replace all of the time I waste on YouTube and Reddit with watching Futurama, then I'll easily be able to fit it all in in time, lol.

Perhaps ironically, I agree with some of SolidSnake's takes and disagree with others. Like many here, I've been watching Futurama since it premiered in 1999. I eagerly watched the Comedy Central episodes as they aired. I immediately disliked much of Season 6A. The writing was weak, the jokes were too on-the-nose and seldom clever or subversive, and too many quotes and plot points felt way out of character. And the quality was all over the place! I mean, how in Robot Hell was In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela written practically alongside The Late Philip J. Fry?

Season 6B felt much stronger to me, though still inconsistent. I loved The Tip of the Zoidberg, Ghost in the Machines, Fry Am the Egg Man, and Cold Warriors instantly. These episodes had so much heart, soul, and character. All the Presidents' Heads was a wacky adventure with plenty of memorable bits. However, Neutopia and Yo Leela Leela make me want to cry. And I couldn't even finish Law and Oracle the first time I watched it. Maybe it's because I don't have any appreciation for the slew of '80s movie references, but also Chief Over-the-Top O'Mannohan felt way too forced. In subsequent rewatches, though, I do have to admit that the story, foreshadowing, and plot twist were all really well executed.

Season 7A was maybe slightly weaker than 6B for me, but still strong. The only weak episodes for me were The Bots and the Bees, Zapp Dingbat, and The Butterjunk Effect. The rest were really fun and interesting adventures.

Season 7B was the best of the Comedy Central run. It felt like they finally found their footing, just in time to be cancelled. Or, to be more optimistic, at least they went out on a high note. Some episodes are stronger than others, but overall I didn't dislike a single episode in 7B.

Overall, it seems obvious to me that the Comedy Central run suffered from a reduced writing budget. (I remember reading in some interview years ago that they were no longer afforded a writers' room. They could not discuss and break stories together as a group before assigning it to a single writer to fill out the script. In fact, that is pretty much the reason in a nutshell for the Writers' Strike in 2008 and the Writers' Strike in 2023. I would love to think that everything was great for the writers for the upcoming Hulu seasons, but I know that they probably had a limited budget all over again. It'll be interesting to see how the season shakes out.

[Reply #249 on:]

I started a rewatch a couple of months back, and I was watching 3 or 4 episodes a day of the original run. Then I got to the movies, and it was just a real slog getting through them, given I didn't really enjoy the 2nd return the first time round I just stopped after the fourth movie.
The newer seasons remain unwatched, and given I bought the "complete" collection on DVD, I now have 2 copies of every episode I like, and an unwatched copy of every later one. Should I even watch the new ones?

[Reply #250 on:]

New member registrations have been disabled since the update, so unless some of whichever PEELers are still alive and haven't forgotten their passwords wander back here, we aren't likely to see much of an increase in activity on the board.

Thank God, as a recovering alcoholic all my passwords have been the variations of the same thing since the good ol AOL days.

[Reply #251 on:]

A new teaser (no footage, but some images) was posted on the show's Twitter account. My theory is that this represents what we can expect from the first five episodes of the season, in order.

* Bender is seen in the same exact pose he was frozen in in "Meanwhile" which further suggests that "The Impossible Stream" will be a direct sequel to that episode.

* The Network Execu-Bots from "Bender Should Not Be Allowed on TV" are returning -- no doubt as part of the Fulu streaming jokes they're also going to be making in "The Impossible Stream".

* We then see Kif and Amy sat together, looking romantic. This is our hint at episode #2: "Children of a Lesser Bog".

* Fry and Leela can be seen in wild west get up, suggesting that "How the West Was 1010001" is, indeed, a wild west pastiche episode.

* We see a prospector character and a sign that reads "Doge City" which suggests to me that the episode is going to make fun of cryptocurrency by comparing it to The Gold Rush.

* One episode appears to be a straight-up Dune parody -- the gang are in a desert (which we see in the earlier trailer) with water packs on their backs and there's a huge sandworm. It would make sense of it's the same one what with the desert, but my theory is that this is actually from "Parasites Regained" and that the giant worm will somehow be linked to the worms that Fry had in "Parasites Lost".

* A street sign reads "Bourbon St." and "Diet Coke Av." -- no idea what this is about.

* Hermes is reading tarot cards at the table in Elzar's restaurant -- again, no clue what this will be about.

* Bender appears to get a job in an Amazon-warehouse-esque Mom Corp company. I'm guessing this will be the basis of the plot for "Related to Items You've Viewed". Going from name alone, it could also easily be "The Prince and the Product", but like I say, these all seem to be for the first five episodes in order so I'm betting on "Items Viewed".

EDIT: Screw my theory -- I've just realised I forgot about all the vaccines in the ad.

[Reply #252 on:]

Also: new theory for "All the Way Down"

El Chupanibre was flushed into the sub-sewer at the end of "I Second That Emotion".

I'm guessing that in the 20 years since, the sub-mutants have also flushed him into the sub-sub-sewer and the sub-sub-mutants then flushed him into the sub-sub-sub-sewer and so on. He's finally reached the Earth's core and he's messing it up in a way that's causing havoc for the entire planet including the surface.

The Planet Express crew must embark on a mission to stop him, down through each layer of Earth's sewer systems to go... all the way down.

I think it'll be similar to "The Late Philip J. Fry" in that it plays as a showcase of countless crazy sci-fi worlds we've never seen before.

[Reply #253 on:]

I started a rewatch a couple of months back, and I was watching 3 or 4 episodes a day of the original run. Then I got to the movies, and it was just a real slog getting through them, given I didn't really enjoy the 2nd return the first time round I just stopped after the fourth movie.
The newer seasons remain unwatched, and given I bought the "complete" collection on DVD, I now have 2 copies of every episode I like, and an unwatched copy of every later one. Should I even watch the new ones?

The new seasons are definitely an improvement on the movies, particularly the first season, they aren't as good as the original run but definitely worth watching yes.

[Reply #254 on:]

10 days left until it's released!

I'll place a bet now for 1 internet-point that /We're back, baby!/ will be heard in the first ~30s

[Reply #255 on:]

4 More Days!

Maybe it's just me, but I can tell by the trailer and episode descriptions alone that this season is going to be alot like Season 6A. It appears they're trying to play catch-up again with the pop-culture references which, not gonna lie, is a bit disappointing but I'll try to keep an open mind when viewing these episodes. A part of me feels like the quality of their continuation episodes will likely suffer in quality the same way other episodes towards the latter half of Season 6A suffered.

[Reply #256 on:]

FWIW I lost my bet for internet-points; "We're back, baby!" was at ~1m30s.

Now I need to watch all the reboot episodes and the plot episode number vs time-of-utterance-of-that-phrase...

[Reply #257 on:]

This IGN review comes the closest of anything I've read to describing my feelings on the Hulu revival:

Rarely, in its post-revival days, has the show matched the one-liner-machine hilarity of its initial run. The Hulu episodes are no different; they exemplify the groove of "pretty funny" Futurama settled into around the time it was transitioning, briefly, into feature-length form. Still, the false endings and periodic interruptions have counterintuitively helped its consistency, to say nothing of how they've nourished its cult underdog appeal: Creatively replenished with each revival, Futurama never feels as atrophied as The Simpsons does after nearly 34 consecutive years in primetime.

And in a way, those previous restarts all lowered the bar to what Rastafarian bureaucrat Hermes (Phil LaMarr) might call comfortable limbo height: below the expectations Groening and Cohen set in those terrific early seasons, above what we might normally expect from a show ticking off significant anniversaries.

Like, I'm not expecting greatness from this revival, but it's still kind of cool to have new episodes and I'm going to do my best to compare the Hulu run to the Comedy Central run rather than the original run, because honestly it's like comparing apples and oranges to take anything post-Devil's Hands and set it alongside seasons one through four. That way lies madness (or at least, you know, disappointment).

This writer also noted that "Related to Items You've Viewed" is the best "topical" episode of the new season (I think reviewers were given advance access to the first five episodes), so I suppose I'll look forward to that one more than some of the others in this first half of the season.

[Reply #258 on:]

(Loud thunder is heard throughout the message board)


(A tall blond haired man appears with brown eyes holding a magic staff.   Dressed in an evil purple and black magician outfit complete with cape and a top hat appears in a puff of smoke in the middle of Peelified Headquarters.)



Greetings!  Futurama fanatics.   I have returned!  I'm sure you all probably remember me.  Joined here 20 years ago.  Well, almost.  hee hee.  Yes, I'm the dude who came up with all those wild, wacky, and obscure ideas for episodes and fanfics I used to conjure up.  Boy howdy did people hate my concepts or what! 

Did pointless threads too and posted in wrong threads.  I was just trying to have a little fun.   Never meant to hurt anyone or piss people off.   

I can laugh about that now.   Did I complain about shit that I used to be worried about that I thought was going to happen on Futurama?   Yes I did! Guilty by association.  Won't deny it.  However, I don't care anymore.   Now I shall take over this message board with an eternal darkness of evil!  (laughs manaically!)   


















No, just kidding!  Fooled you, didn't I!   Anyway, I heard about Futurama getting a reboot and this is my two cents on it.....

There's three words I have to say, "count me out".   In fact, I began to slowly lose interest on Futurama around 2016.  The comic book was declining at the time as well.  The comic book was the only reason I held onto Futurama. 

Then in 2017, after playing Futurama Worlds Of Tomorrow that turned out to be a money making machine.  That's when I threw in the towel.   Then I thought it was time to give up on Futurama and get into something new.   

I am totally over Futurama now.    Never to watch it again.  Not even going to watch this new season.   

Besides, this is my thing now:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_Opposites

Yes, I have written fanfics about this show too!    Not only Solar Opposites, I also like Final Space, and Rick and Morty too!   


Soooo, my job  here is done.   I'll let you all go back to fighting off lamers and trolls! 



(Disappears In A Puff Of Smoke)

[Reply #259 on:]

To be fair I think that's the correct reaction to playing the Futurama mobile game.

[Reply #260 on:]

I memory-holed that game hard. Wow. I vaguely remember trying it out when it was new, only to get bored of it almost immediately. Kinda like every other mobile game ever, because I hate pay-to-win.

I'm not expecting greatness from this revival, but it's still kind of cool to have new episodes and I'm going to do my best to compare the Hulu run to the Comedy Central run rather than the original run, because honestly it's like comparing apples and oranges to take anything post-Devil's Hands and set it alongside seasons one through four. That way lies madness (or at least, you know, disappointment).

Honestly, Gorky, that's an excellent way to look at things. If we're comparing anything to the initial Fox run we're all gonna be vastly disappointed. But if we compare it to the CC run, well, we'll have a dandy ol' time. I know I went in with zero expectations, but once I got done watching the first episode, I thought to myself 'Huh. Nothing exploded the world. I laughed. I smiled. This is already better than CC's whack at it'.

[Reply #261 on:]

Futurama peaked with WMIBACIL, TBH. The high points that followed were high points of an increasingly-inconsistent double pendulum system. As Futurama has approached maximum entropy, the potential for further high points that match episodes like RTEW, TWOF, TLPJF, TS, or HIOR drastically decreases.

But then again, it's more of something that started off great so should probably be okay when re-heated and served again fresh from the microwave in a tupperware container.

So, y'know, low expectations and casual watching when bored are probably the best ways to consume this particular entertainmeal.

[Reply #262 on:]

Well, I'm going to have to make a return because our favourite show has returned. Hi guys, do you miss me?

[Reply #263 on:]

Hey Juliet! Hope things are going well for you.

Things move rather slowly in Tachy-land, counterintuitively, so I still haven't managed to watch new Futurama eps. Best find me a round tuit.

[Reply #264 on:]

Welcome back, Juliet—glad to have you here!

Futurama peaked with WMIBACIL, TBH. The high points that followed were high points of an increasingly-inconsistent double pendulum system. As Futurama has approached maximum entropy, the potential for further high points that match episodes like RTEW, TWOF, TLPJF, TS, or HIOR drastically decreases.

I'm not sure how tongue-in-cheek you're being, but I would agree that "Why Must I Be a Crustacean in Love" is perhaps the first great episode of the series, in terms of its potent combination of story, character, humor, and straight-up visual beauty (I rewatched it recently, and the use of color on Decapod 10 is stellar). "Xmas Story" is another possible contender, but while it does the same excellent world-building work of WMIBACIL, it's not quite as clever or laugh-out-loud funny as its successor.

I can't intelligently speak to all the scientific mumbo jumbo you go on to discuss, but I suppose I'll add that the level of consistent week-to-week quality we see in season four—which, I would argue, contains no episodes that could reasonably be rated lower than 8/10—is obviously not sustainable in the long-term. So, one more reason why holding the new run to the standards of the old run is a fool's errand.

[Reply #265 on:]

How are y'all enjoying the new season so far?

[Reply #266 on:]

I watched Into the Wild Green Yonder today. I gotta say... the entire mafia plotline, particularly the poker tournament, is absolutely hilarious. But also really pointless. Once Fanny leaves she and the robot mafia aren't mentioned again. And as far as I can tell, absolutely nothing of importance happened.

[Reply #267 on:]

Futurama peaked with WMIBACIL, TBH. The high points that followed were high points of an increasingly-inconsistent double pendulum system. As Futurama has approached maximum entropy, the potential for further high points that match episodes like RTEW, TWOF, TLPJF, TS, or HIOR drastically decreases.

I'm not sure how tongue-in-cheek you're being, but I would agree that "Why Must I Be a Crustacean in Love" is perhaps the first great episode of the series, in terms of its potent combination of story, character, humor, and straight-up visual beauty (I rewatched it recently, and the use of color on Decapod 10 is stellar). "Xmas Story" is another possible contender, but while it does the same excellent world-building work of WMIBACIL, it's not quite as clever or laugh-out-loud funny as its successor.

Not very would be the answer. WMIBACIL is my favorite episode, and for exactly the reasons given. It's peak Futurama for me. I mean, I think there are some solid fucking greats that belong on the same tier. And I agree that most of Production Season 4 is up there as being very good. But WMIBACIL is genuinely funny for the entire runtime, is beautifully realized on screen, has a healthy balance between sci-fi ideas and poking fun at them, and contains a decent snapshot of the characters and their core attributes.

I'd argue that its one failing is that it's constrained to the usual episode runtime. This could easily have been a 45-minute masterpiece if allowed, and very few other episodes (notably TLPJF, HIOR, TKOS, and TLOTF) left me with that impression. There's a depth of story there which would definitely benefit from a little expansion and there's a well of humor that could have been pumped a little longer without running dry.

[Reply #268 on:]

When do you think we'll see Amy and Kif's children again?

The next logical appearance would be in "Rage Against the Vaccine" seeing as we're going to see the crew working from home.

"Zapp Gets Canceled" is also probably a good bet seeing as Kif will no doubt be quite a large role in it.

I suspect one of the second batch of season 8 episodes will be a proper Kif and Amy's kids episode, but which one?

I'm guessing either:
"The Temp" is about Axl getting a temp job at Planet Express.

or

"Beauty and the Bug" is about Axl having a crush on a girl. Are amphibiosans "bugs"? They certainly are when they reach their final life cycle stage.

[Reply #269 on:]

How are y'all enjoying the new season so far?

I'm enjoying it. It's not quite classic original run quality but its not Simpson 2.0 either and nowhere near as bad as some of the negativity you see on the likes of reddit.

I'm happy to have any new Futurama as long as it stays at a reasonable level which I think it has as it fells like the crew is still passionate about the show and its not just a money grab.

[Reply #270 on:]

When do you think we'll see Amy and Kif's children again?

My semi-glib answer to this is that I don’t expect to see their kids any more often than we see Dwight and Cubert, which amounts to one or two episodes per season. On that note, it might be kind of cool to see an episode that has Hermes, Amy, and Farnsworth bonding or otherwise interacting in their capacity as parents, sort of like we saw in “The Route of All Evil” and “Bender Should Not Be Allowed on TV.”

[Reply #271 on:]

When do you think we'll see Amy and Kif's children again?

The next logical appearance would be in "Rage Against the Vaccine" seeing as we're going to see the crew working from home.

"Zapp Gets Canceled" is also probably a good bet seeing as Kif will no doubt be quite a large role in it.

I suspect one of the second batch of season 8 episodes will be a proper Kif and Amy's kids episode, but which one?

I'm guessing either:
"The Temp" is about Axl getting a temp job at Planet Express.

or

"Beauty and the Bug" is about Axl having a crush on a girl. Are amphibiosans "bugs"? They certainly are when they reach their final life cycle stage.

For all we know, the might be even in the XMas episode...

Hard to tell, if The Temp, hasn´t something to do with the time travel.
Lady and the Bug... Well, they are amphibians. Given the tendencies of this season, it might be sequel to "Bicyclops Built For Two" :-)

When do you think we'll see Amy and Kif's children again?

My semi-glib answer to this is that I don’t expect to see their kids any more often than we see Dwight and Cubert, which amounts to one or two episodes per season. On that note, it might be kind of cool to see an episode that has Hermes, Amy, and Farnsworth bonding or otherwise interacting in their capacity as parents, sort of like we saw in “The Route of All Evil” and “Bender Should Not Be Allowed on TV.”

Sounds right.

[Reply #272 on:]

General dissatisfaction with the hulu season thus far and some discussion in the Parasites Regained discussion thread has made me wonder how well the comedy central seasons hold up. I watched them once, as they aired, and then have never really revisited them, even a couple of years ago when my roommate was doing a complete rewatch I opted not to sit in on more than a couple of these episodes.

So I thought I would do a gradual rewatch of the comedy central seasons and just post thoughts here if any crop up (saves bumping a bunch of old threads unless I have substantial thoughts about any individual episode).

So far only watched two episodes. Rebirth is as good as I remember it. In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela was like a repressed memory, next to no recollection of it and it turns out for good reason.

It's a good recalibration against the new season if nothing else. I've found them pretty safe and conceptually empty but at least they don't do... any of that.

[Reply #273 on:]

When do you think we'll see Amy and Kif's children again?

The next logical appearance would be in "Rage Against the Vaccine" seeing as we're going to see the crew working from home.

"Zapp Gets Canceled" is also probably a good bet seeing as Kif will no doubt be quite a large role in it.

I suspect one of the second batch of season 8 episodes will be a proper Kif and Amy's kids episode, but which one?

I'm guessing either:
"The Temp" is about Axl getting a temp job at Planet Express.

or

"Beauty and the Bug" is about Axl having a crush on a girl. Are amphibiosans "bugs"? They certainly are when they reach their final life cycle stage.

Also... Newt might be the hero of Cuteness Overload.
EDIT: "Beauty and the Bug" might be about Mandy and buggalo.

[Reply #274 on:]

I wonder even what's happenings on next weekend's episode of the Futurama!?  Even everyone excited too!

[Reply #275 on:]

For all we know, the might be even in the XMas episode...

Guess what? I was right! episode 6 promo!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NftYAn_b5rI

EDIT: Shouldn´t settings on Inez´s remote control go in opposite direction?
EDIT2: Second sneak peek, more on the plot side this time -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_CS1dYWbMU

[Reply #276 on:]

You nailed it.

I have a new prediction.

I think "Otherwise" will be a multiverse episode of sorts. I suspect it'll introduce the idea of branching timelines to the show and we're going to see numerous alternate realities depicting what happens to Fry and Leela branching out from some specific point in time. It might relate to their kids or it might be as simple as Fry trying to salvage the relationship from something that threatens it.

My reasoning is that this is the sort of concept they'd use for a potential series finale and the title is "Otherwise".

"Meanwhile"'s title used the word very, very literally. It obviously refers to this specific moment in time, right now... so what if that got stretched out forever and we were stuck in this moment forever? That's "Meanwhile".

So... "Otherwise"... what happens if something else happens instead of what we were expecting? Something different happens, right? Boom... different timeline.

[Reply #277 on:]

You nailed it.

Thank you.

BTW, people took a notice of this sysnopsis for "Zapp Gets Canceled":

When Zapp Brannigan is canceled for crude behavior, Leela takes over as captain of the Nimbus on a critical mission.

I have a new prediction.

I think "Otherwise" will be a multiverse episode of sorts. I suspect it'll introduce the idea of branching timelines to the show and we're going to see numerous alternate realities depicting what happens to Fry and Leela branching out from some specific point in time. It might relate to their kids or it might be as simple as Fry trying to salvage the relationship from something that threatens it.

My reasoning is that this is the sort of concept they'd use for a potential series finale and the title is "Otherwise".

"Meanwhile"'s title used the word very, very literally. It obviously refers to this specific moment in time, right now... so what if that got stretched out forever and we were stuck in this moment forever? That's "Meanwhile".

So... "Otherwise"... what happens if something else happens instead of what we were expecting? Something different happens, right? Boom... different timeline.

I have actually wondered if it won´t be a reference to Leela´s status as "Other".

[Reply #278 on:]

I thought Otherwise would be a parallel universe episode as well.  It'll be interesting how they handle that. 

Though Rhodan also makes an excellent point, it could be about the Other, who that is, and what the Other means exactly.  Personally, it might be interesting if Leela wasn't the Other after all, whatever the Other is meant to do or be.

[Reply #279 on:]

The annual awards that haven't happened for several years are once again being held. Click here to participate.

As usual there will be a bunch of on-topic awards. Please feel free to speculate wildly on what they will be, and who will win.

But, do it over there. Not here.