Unfortunately this account seems more conclusive but I hope it's wrong:
http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2009...ew-voices.html
Like I said it would be suicide to try to bring this show back without the original cast. I also can't believe that Groening and co. would even want to do the show without them. There was even a joke on The Simpsons once where Flanders talked about in Cartoons you can replace the voice actors with other people and no one would no the difference, but he said it in a completely fake "Flanders" voice
And talk about Fox still just having no understanding of the audience for this show. The Futurama fans are very loyal and rabid and will not accept the change in the voice cast unless they can find people who can perfectly recreate the original voices and they're will be no room for error.
And the cast is dumb as well. I love Billy West and think he's the Mel Blanc of this era. But it's not like he's going to get plumb gigs outside of Futurama. He'll get commercial work being the Honey Nut Cheerios Bee and the yellow or whatever M&M, but it's not like he's going to get gigs in Pixar or Dreamworks animated films which most of the time go to bigger name celebrities. Same goes for DiMaggio and LaMarche. Well LaMarche does seem to get somewhat steady work, but it seems like mostly kid animated shows. Also, it seems from commentaries and other DVD features that the cast does genuinely enjoy doing the show. But bottom line is that Futurama is probably they best they're going to get these days. Katey Sagal is the one with the best legs to stand on here as she is likely to be able to get work in live action TV.
The irony there is that I could probably live if they recast Sagal and the one who does the voice for Amy Wong. Because if I had to choose, I would say those are the two least essential characters for me and Sagal only does Leela and just uses her regular voice for her. So it would not be the end of the world if they got someone else with a similar voice. You could say that West just does his regular voice for Fry, but it's too distinctive and perfect for that character. But, in addition, he does the Professor, Zapp Branigan (although it still saddens me that Zapp was very obviously meant for Phil Hartman) and Zoidberg among others. LaMarche does Calculon and couldn't live with a different voice for Calculon either. And there's just no way that DiMaggio as the voice of Bender could be replaced.
The sad thing is that if they replace the actors and the show inevitably fails, it will likely be the end of Futurama for good. And the executives will probably be scratching they're heads wondering why it failed when the DVD movies were successful.
Edited by WillG - 7/19/2009 at 10:25 pm GMTEdited by WillG - 7/19/2009 at 10:28 pm GMTEdited by WillG - 7/19/2009 at 10:38 pm GMT
