I saw _Futurama_ for the first time last Sunday. (1 Viewer)

[Jack Briggs]

Is this animated comedy always that clever?

I really appreciated all the nods to 2001. The spaceship had that HAL-like red eye, and there were other cool, clever references to the film.

In addition, there were laughs to be had.

I've not been much a Fox-TV person, but that may be changing.

 

[Brett Jason]

Don't get used to it, it's been cancelled
http://www.aint-it-cool-news.com/display.cgi?id=11499

 

[Craig S]

Don't get used to it, it's been cancelled

Aughhhhhhh!!!!!

 

[Dave Barth]

I suppose that's not surprising, in this sense: given football and their promotion of the show, I am not surprised they don't think it's done that well. My question is, what show would succeed when it's chronically preempted and the season premiere starts in progress TWENTY minutes into the show?

Fox has done almost everything they could do make sure the show never had a chance to find and build and audience. That said, I'm impressed it lasted this long, and this is a real shame. It's quite a good show.

 

[Greg Morse]

you've got to be kidding me. The Simpsons hasn't been funny in about 3 years and I can't figure out how King of the Hill keeps getting renewed. Between this and Family Guy getting cancelled, once 24 ends this season, there will be not a single reason for me to watch fox anymore.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Gee, way to build an audience. Pre-empt it half the year with football! And they wonder why they end up cancelling every single show in the Sunday at 7 slot!

The NFL's victims that were so worthy of being kept on:

Earth 2

Space: Above & Beyond

and now, Futurama

STOP THE MADNESS! FORCE FOOTBALL TO END ON TIME OR CANCEL IT!

 

[Chris Beveridge]

I continue to despise fox. I'm damn glad that I'm down to only watching 2 shows on their network. Or rather, just one now.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Sports are a very important source of revenue for local stations. Sports aren't going anywhere, nor should they. And the nature of sports is that they can run over.

It's not the NFL's fault, it's Fox's fault. NO show should be programmed for 7pm Sunday during football season. 7:30 is pushing it. They should use that block for repeats (like when they show 2 episodes of Malcom in one week, but the second episode is a rerun).

Futurama should have been programmed during another time. Fox blew it, but at least we got a few years of the show, and DVDs to come.

The Tick never had a chance. Killed by poor programming at FOX.

 

[Ron Biles]

Here's a petition:
http://www.petitiononline.com/futufu/petition.html

 

[Don Black]

RIP Kif.

 

[Dion]

More information on what to do can be found here:
http://www.gotfuturama.com/
I'm very upset over this move, which just adds insult to injury since I'm in Australia and we've only seen the first two seasons. Futurama hasn't seen the light of day on Australian free-to-air in over a year!
Dion

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Sports are a very important source of revenue for local stations. Sports aren't going anywhere, nor should they. And the nature of sports is that they can run over.

Basketball and Hockey seem to be able to run pretty much on time

The Answer: Set the clock for 3 hours and let it run. When it ends, it ends, unless it's a tie, and that rarely happens. Then they could pretty reliably schedual around it, instead of just pre-empting shows.

 

[Will_B]

Yes, Fox did everything they could to make the show hard to find, but come on, it was rarely funny. Maybe one out of three episodes?

Could there be a future on the Cartoon Channel?

 

[CharlesD]

NO Way!!!! I suppose this show is just too good for the likes of FOX. Jack, yes the show is/was almost always that good if not better. What a shame, maybe this will speed up the R1 DVD release however, as they will have to abandon hopes of syndication.

FOX TV as a whole continues to digust me. But as someone pointed out on another forum about the NASCAR-ifcation of The Channel formerly Known as Speed Vision, Murdoch has never lost money by under estimating the intelligence of his audience. FOX TV goes for the lowest common-denominator, shortest attention-span, most drooling demographics with all of their TV endevours, so its no wonder they have no idea what to do with an intelligent show like Futurama.

 

[Dave Barth]

Are they that short of syndication? Animated shows are made so far in advance of their airdate. So even with this cancellation, I'd think they easily have 80+ episodes in the can? Am I wrong?

 

[David Williams]

Are they that short of syndication?... So even with this cancellation, I'd think they easily have 80+ episodes in the can? Am I wrong?

It would appear that way from the reports coming out of AICN's Coax section.

Junior Mintz had this to say:

Just got the word seconds ago. FUTURAMA is not officially cancelled, though it is on a sort of hiatus. Turns out Fox, which hates the show as they do not own it and Groening does, has been giving it a sort of secondary status for the late few years, i.e., running it when they feel like it, dropping it when they don't.

Turns out they have so many unaired episodes between seasons three and four (some reports indicate as many as 30!) that they don't need to commission any new shows for season five and can keep running them whenever. Will they ever start production on new episodes? Hard to say. The staff isn't too hopeful, but Fox has not given the Planet Express crew final notice yet.

Herc's reliable informant piped up:

Fox TV prez Sandy Grushow called Matt Groening last Friday and said Fox "couldn't see its way clear to ordering any new episodes." I suspect this was due to: the fact that we have two dozen episodes in the can (and we only air 14 to 16 times a year); Fox's losses in viewership and advertising losses, which have led to extreme cost-cutting measures; and a weak syndication market that is already glutted with The Simpsons and King of the Hill. If any or all of these things change, then Fox might reconsider its decision but, in the meantime, all the current writers and animators of Futurama are looking for new jobs. Sorry to confirm the bad news.

While an animator on the show said this:

...it is true we've been given our walking papers (until Rough Draft gets another project, hopefully). It seems we've come out on the wrong end of the pissing match that's gone on between Groening and the head suits at Fox TV. While Fox hasn't 'officially' cancelled the show, they haven't picked up the fifth season. That means we're in limbo. Matt can't take the show to another network and we won't make our syndication number (all we needed was 16 more shows to syndicate). And that also means region 1 dvd's will probably never see the light of day.

Why he/she/it seems to think that we won't see DVDs is beyond me. It would seem with all the money that Fox is losing on the show this would be the one thing that would be a sure fire ticket... all they'd have to do is slap a sticker on the box that reads: FROM THE CREATORS OF THE SIMPSONS and it would sell like hotcakes (an NY Times article this morning says that Simpsons merchandise is as hot now or hotter than it was during the first great wave in 1991).

 

[DaveF]

See what you've done Jack?!?
Had you bothered to watch this show earlier, you could have used your prolific powers of persuasion to point people in the direction of this show.
You could have used your written word, the power of the press, your Administrator assets, to stir up the masses to rally behind Futurama!
Yes, this is all your fault! If only you'd turned on your TV a few years ago, we could still be enjoying Futurama for years to come.
For shame.

 

[Mike Broadman]

Jeff, it's hardly reasonable to expect the rules of football to change to make scheduling TV shows is easier. Let's get some perspective here. Any network that broadcasts football understands a simple rule: don't mess with football. As well they shouldn't. A game is a live event that is boradcast, not a TV show. Would you demand they edit down the State of the Union address so that you can watch Frasier?

I think it's sad that FOX is treating Groening so poorly, after he gave them one of the most popular shows in TV history. The Simpsons helped make FOX a contender. Because of the Simpsons, people were drawn to Sunday nights, and that made X-Files so big. FOX ownded Sunday nights because of this.

FOX manages to both disgust and impress me. On the one hand, they have such fantastic animated comedy as Simpsons and Family Guy, and 24, IMO the best show on TV. On the other hand, they schedule Family Guy and Futurama against Friends and Survivor and football, respectively while promoting such utter tripe as Temptation Island 3 and Who Wants to Whack-Off a Millionair.

 

[Dave Barth]

My recollection is that The X-Files was already fairly popular and critically acclaimed before it made the leap to Sunday. I'm sure it helped to have the improved lead-in, but The X-Files had already cultivated a strong audience prior to the move.

None of that, however, justifies Fox's treatment of Futurama or the disrespect for Groening they have shown through their treatment of the show.

 

[Craig_T]

Fox doesn't bother promoting Futurama because they're already too busy trying to force-feed us "24" and that gawdawful "80s Show."