Posts Tagged ‘Futurama’

Original Futurama Voice Actors Sign Contract!

futurama-saved

As you may already have been aware, 20th Century Fox was attempting to kill Futurama – again – by recasting the voice talent. Petitions were circulated, people were upset, the Internets were in an uproar, and for the second time in recent memory (the first being renewing the show) Fox made the wise decision. News sources all over the ‘net are reporting that Futurama has been saved – again. The network and the original voice cast have reached an agreement and they have signed a new contract. Now we just have to wait for new episodes to air in mid-2010 with their former voice acting goodness.

Keep Futurama’s Original Voice Actors

It has been brought to my attention that the powers that be are looking in to recasting Futurama. This is unacceptable. Very seldom in the history of television has this worked out to the benefit of a show (be it voice actors or live actors) and this would not be one of those times. The voice talents of Billy West, Katey Sagal, John Di Maggio, Tress MacNeille, Maurice LaMarche, Phil LaMarr, and Lauren Tom are vital to the series and it would not be Futurama without them.

If you agree with me, please take 30 seconds of your life to sign the following two petitions and share them with your friends:

http://www.petitiononline.com/futura13/petition.html
http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/futuramarecast/

DIY Philip J. Fry Costume

fryIn honor of Futurama being officially renewed, I have decided to break down exactly what you need to get, from head to toe, so you can be unfrozen in the proper attire for a year 3000 Halloween party.

  • Orange Hair
    Fry’s most noticeable feature, and probably the trickiest part of the costume, is his hair. Unless you happen to naturally have a unique shade of fluorescent orange hair, you’ll probably want to pick up the above linked hairspray to help out. My suggestion would be to style your hair with heavy styling mousse (unless of course you make your own), to get a nice large wave in the front, let it harden, and spray the hell out of it with the can of orange hairspray. Note: Some of you may not quite have enough hair to do this, but don’t worry, some brushing and styling done to this wig should do the trick!
  • A White T-Shirt
    It doesn’t get more basic than a plain white tagless (may as well be comfortable, too!) Hanes t-shirt. I’m sure Fry has more than one, or he’d likely make Zoidberg smell clean in comparison.
  • Red Windbreaker
    He’s got it on in every episode, so it must be a pretty nice jacket. The jacket I linked to above is just about a perfect fit and, just like about every other part of this costume (save maybe the hairspray) will fit in to your wardrobe flawlessly after it’s use in the costume. Wear it, keep it unzipped, stay warm.
    Note: It looks like the Dickies Windbreaker I originally linked to is no longer available. I’ve updated the link above with a similar Jacket that will work just as well. In addition, American Apparel offers a cheaper, but less-exact Nylon Windbreaker.
  • Light Blue Jeans
    Pretty much any jeans will do as long as it’s a light blue color. You’re going to spend the whole party in them and will probably want to wear them more than once, so make sure they’re comfortable.
  • Black Low Top Shoes
    I don’t know that it’s ever been truly revealed, but Fry’s shoes have got to be based of a classic pair of black Converse low tops. If you’re really anal about it, lace them up using the straight easy lacing method.
  • Accessories
    What, you thought you just needed the clothes, the hair, and that’s it? No way, mister! You’re going to need some accessories to go with that costume. First and foremost, you should work hard at developing a nice healthy addiction to Slurm. You’re also certainly going to need a space ship for your new job as an intergalactic delivery boy. Last, but certainly not least, you’re going to need to dump your old friends and embrace your new best friend, Bender Bending Rodriquez.

There you have it! Everything you need to show up to your next costume party as everyone’s favorite unfrozen fool from the stupid ages, Philip J. Fry.

Good News, Everyone! Futurama’s Back!

futuramaIt’s been a long time coming and Comedy Central has, according to an exclusive report at Collider.com, ordered 13 new episodes of what, in this writers opinion, is one of the best animated series ever made. I would like to think I did my part in helping it return by buying all four of the movies and, apparently, I was not alone. Comedy Central’s appetite for the series just could not be whet when they just recently aired the final movie and they, like all of the fans, they needed more. No news yet on when it’ll be back or if the usual suspects will continue doing the voices, but I’m sure that info will be available soon. In the mean time, I’ll just be wandering around with a stupid grin on my face.

UPDATE 6/10/09: A spokesperson for 20th Century Fox Television has confirmed that they have ordered 26 new episodes of Futurama to start airing (again!) in 2010.

UPDATE 6/11/09: Here’s the official press release from Comedy Central…

“FUTURAMA” RETURNS TO PRODUCTION WITH AN INITIAL ORDER OF 26 NEW EPISODES TO PREMIERE MID 2010

Emmy Award-Winning Animated Comedy Series Confirmed To Run On COMEDY CENTRAL; Broadcast Network Run Also Possible

NEW YORK, June 10, 2009 — 20th Century Fox Television, the animation powerhouse that brought “Family Guy” back from the dead five years ago, has done it again: Matt Groening and David X. Cohen’s brilliantly subversive animated sci-fi comedy “Futurama” will return to production on 26 new half-hour episodes more than six years after the series aired its last original episode. The move comes on the heels of the series’ blockbuster performance on DVD and on COMEDY CENTRAL; the announcement was made today by Twentieth Century Fox Television Chairmen Gary Newman and Dana Walden, and David Bernath, senior vice president, programming for COMEDY CENTRAL.

“Futurama” was a staple of Fox’s Sunday night animation block from 1999 to 2003 before ceasing production on original episodes. In June 2006, COMEDY CENTRAL acquired the rights to the existing 72 episodes of the series, which the channel began airing in January 2008, and four recently-produced extended length “Futurama” adventures: “Bender’s Big Score,” “The Beast with a Billion Backs,” “Bender’s Game” and “Into the Wild Green Yonder,” which enjoyed enormous success both on COMEDY CENTRAL and in DVD release. This new deal marks the show’s return to episodic series production on original episodes. “Futurama” becomes only the second series in the history of the medium to go back into production based on the strength of its DVD sales and repeat airings on cable.

The new episodes will be available in mid 2010 to be shown on COMEDY CENTRAL. Twentieth Century Fox Television retains the option to license the original runs of the new episodes to a broadcast network.

“We are excited to continue our relationship with Matt, David and 20th Century Fox TV and to be able to offer COMEDY CENTRAL viewers the first opportunity to see new episodes of ‘Futurama,’” said Bernath. “As evidenced by the strong performance of the extended length epics, there remains a deep and passionate fan base for this intelligent and very funny show that matches perfectly with our audience. It’s fantastic that we can add brand-new installments of Leela, Fry and Bender’s adventures to our existing library.”

Quipped Matt Groening, “We’re thrilled ‘Futurama’ is coming back. We now have only 25,766 episodes to make before we catch up with Bender and Fry in the year 3000.” Added David X. Cohen, “We’re excited and amazed that the show is coming back, perhaps due to some sort of mysterious time loop. We look forward to working with COMEDY CENTRAL and 20th Television to make this the best iteration of the loop yet!”

“When we brought back ‘Family Guy’ several years ago, everyone said that it was a once-in-a-lifetime thing – that canceled series stay canceled and cannot be revived,” commented 20th Century Fox TV Chairmen Gary Newman and Dana Walden. “But ‘Futurama’ was another series that fans simply demanded we bring back, and we couldn’t have been happier when Matt and David agreed that there were many more stories yet to tell.”

“Futurama” focuses on the life of Philip Fry (Billy West), a 25-year-old pizza delivery boy who accidentally freezes himself on December 31, 1999 and wakes up 1,000 years later with a fresh start at life and a “diverse” new group of friends including Leela (Katey Sagal), a tough but lovely one-eyed alien and Bender (John DiMaggio), a robot who possesses human characteristics and flaws. The series aired for five seasons on Fox (1999 to 2003) earning Emmy® nominations each season while winning three times, including “Outstanding Animated Program” in 2002. It featured guest stars such as Sarah Silverman, Hank Azaria, Bob Odenkirk, Pamela Anderson, Beatrice Arthur, Lucy Liu, Beck and Coolio.

“Futurama,” created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen, is produced by Twentieth Century Fox Television, with Rough Draft Studios, Inc. contributing the animation.

20th Century Fox Television, a division of News Corp, is a leading supplier of entertainment content domestically and around the world.

COMEDY CENTRAL, the only all-comedy network, currently is seen in more than 95 million homes nationwide. COMEDY CENTRAL is owned by, and is a registered trademark of, Comedy Partners, a wholly-owned division of Viacom Inc.’s (NYSE: VIA and VIA.B) MTV Networks. COMEDY CENTRAL’s Internet address is www.comedycentral.com. For up-to-the-minute and archival press information and photographs visit Press Central, COMEDY CENTRAL’s press web site at www.comedycentral.com/press.

MTV Networks, a unit of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), is one of the world’s leading creators of entertainment content, with brands that engage and connect diverse audiences across television, online, mobile, games, virtual worlds and consumer products. The company’s portfolio spans more than 150 television channels and 350 digital media properties worldwide, and includes MTV, VH1, CMT, Logo, Harmonix, Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite, Noggin, The N, AddictingGames, Neopets, COMEDY CENTRAL, Spike TV, TV Land, Atom, Gametrailers and Xfire.

Futurama: Bender’s Big Score

Good news, everyone! I’ve been waiting for this day since the final episode of Futurama aired in late 2003. I had always hoped that this day would come and here it is. I swung by Best Buy on my way home from work today and when the friendly, yet persistently annoying yellow shirt at the front door asked me if there was anything he could help me find. I promptly answered no, as I could already see Bender’s eyes staring out at me from an entire row of DVDs in the front aisle of the store, right where it should be. I grabbed my copy and was promptly in a short line waiting to pay. I finally had it. Fresh off the press, brand new Futurama. Now, enough of my mindless dribble and on to the actual review.

What can I say, it was great. Really, it was beyond great. I have no doubts that part of what made it a phenomenal movie was the anticipation, but even having watched it a second time, it’s still incredible. It fits perfectly with previous episodes of Futurama and fulfills any expectations I had of the movie. As with every previous episode the humor ranges from slapstick to extremely intelligent and the entire film is filled with quotable lines which I’m sure will be a part of my regular speech in due time. The dialog and plot were extremely well-written and the cameos that one has come to love and expect in the series were awesome and, in all instances, hilarious. Without spoiling anything, I can say that Al Gore had a few lines in the film that had me literally laughing out loud. Beyond the constant humor, great cameos, and well written plot, the tie-ins with previous episodes in the series were very well done and fit in perfectly with the episode. I could probably continue to go on about how impressed I am with the return of Futurama, but I’ll let you go back to whatever it was you were doing before you decided to read this.

Final thoughts? Go buy a copy. It’s worth it. In fact, buy two. Give one to a friend.

Finally, Fox does something right!

Those of you that regularly read Digitally Wise, the media review site that I host and admin, probably already know this, but I felt it was important enough to post here as well…

FOX HAS GREEN-LIGHTED A NEW FUTURAMA STRAIGHT-TO-DVD MOVIE!!!

Don’t believe me? Fine.

Watch Billy West’s Video-Blog from Comic-Con 2005 or read IGN’s article about the movie.

We don’t know much about the movie yet, but myself and all the other crazed Futurama fans out there are ecstatic and hope that Fox finally sees the wrongfulness of their ways. Alas, I still hold some doubts that it will ever fly, as Fox has a tendency to take good things and screw them over, but I’ll keep my finger’s crossed. I sincerely hope that the movie does make it all the way to my DVD player and has enough sales to convince Fox to jump-start the show again as they did with Family Guy.