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Television Media Sci-Fi

One Last New Episode of Futurama 401

Posted by michael from the sweet-juicy-justice dept.
Ant writes "Futurama's last new episode airs tonight at 7:00 PM on Fox." If you're missing your fix, there's a Futurama website with entirely too much Futurama info.
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One Last New Episode of Futurama More

One Last New Episode of Futurama

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  • X-Bender (Score:5, Funny)

    by joe_bruin ( 266648 ) on Sunday August 10, 2003 @02:15PM (#6660313) Homepage Journal
    fox can bite my shiny metal ass

  • RIP Futurama (Score:5, Informative)

    by Judg3 ( 88435 ) <jeremyNO@SPAMpavleck.com> on Sunday August 10, 2003 @02:15PM (#6660316) Homepage Journal
    I love that show. It was on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim for like a month, but now it's on TNN (I think TNN) at 1:30 am and 1:30 pm (Central time).

    At least we can always have them on DVD [amazon.com].

    As I grew older, I definatly got more into Futurama then the Simpsons, even though I've been watching the Simpsons since 1990.

    • Re:RIP Futurama (Score:5, Informative)

      by rsmith-mac ( 639075 ) on Sunday August 10, 2003 @02:23PM (#6660379)
      It hasn't exactly moved, it's only being shown on more channels. It'll be back on CTN tomorrow, at a new time-slot of 11:30pm, with Family Guy moving to 11.
      • Thanks for the info rsmith. Even though that'll compete with a Simpsons rerun on Fox at the same time, I was really starting to get into the Family Guy - Futurama double header, anyway.
      • Finally! Now I can watch The Daily Show at 10pm (CST) instead of waiting till midnite! Thanks Adult Swim!
    • I've been recording it off TBS at 11:00 am PST M-F. Check your Tivo or ReplayTV!

      I think SciFi carries it too don't they?
    • Amen. But here is one thing I've been completely unable to understand; I'm hoping that some lashdot reader will either be able to explain it or at least come up with a viable theory. This year's episodes are said to be episodes that were already in the can from last year. So why did they not show them during the regular viewing season, showing lame reruns of the Simpsons or other shows instead, and then show these new episodes in the summer when there are traditionally less viewers? I understand not showing

      • Re:RIP Futurama (Score:3, Informative)

        by Exatron ( 124633 )
        Fox wanted to make sure that Futurama couldn't have any real impact on ratings, good or bad, so several episodes from the fourth production season and one from the third were held back and aired sparingly over an additional season.

  • sad but (Score:5, Interesting)

    by freedommatters ( 664657 ) on Sunday August 10, 2003 @02:16PM (#6660322)
    i can't say it ever gripped me. i enjoy it. watch it now and again when tivo records it for me and generally find it very funny but for some reason it never had that "must see the next episode now" magic.


    • > i can't say it ever gripped me. i enjoy it. watch it now and again when tivo records it for me and generally find it very funny but for some reason it never had that "must see the next episode now" magic.

      Me neither, but notice that that description puts it far ahead of most of the crap you can find on television these days. Especially without a $90/mo cable habit.

    • Re:sad but (Score:5, Funny)

      by Hogwash McFly ( 678207 ) on Sunday August 10, 2003 @03:12PM (#6660605)
      It's always been living in the shadow of the Simpsons which is quite unfortunate because it is actually a very funny show IMHO. I have both seasons on DVD and they're great, and sure while it might not be a laugh a minute like the Simpsons, there is some very clever, dry humour in there.

      I dunno what it is but I prefer the characters of Futurama, maybe because they are newer but they still each have their own zing about them - Fry, Leela, Bender, Amy, Prof F., Hermes and Zoidberg (the funniest cartoon character ever). Is it me or is Homer's stupidity getting a little tiresome?

      Add to that some great sci-fi - cool gadgets, more zany storylines, AND EXCELLENT COMPUTER JOKES! Some of the ones I can remember

      Sign in a Robot Church:
      "10 Sin
      20 Goto Hell"

      Wall plaque:
      "10 Home
      20 Sweet
      30 Goto 10"

      Bender: "I had a crazy dream, all ones and zeros, and I think I saw a 2 in there too!"

      And of course the episode in the haunted house with the flying Windows logo and eery startup sound.

      • Re:sad but (Score:3, Interesting)

        by whereiswaldo ( 459052 )
        Is it me or is Homer's stupidity getting a little tiresome?

        It's not just you. I haven't watched the Simpson's in about 2 years. It just sucks since they've made it darker and just stoop too low for the sake of "laughs". I'll laugh when it's gone.

        Funny how shows start off great and then go to hell. Like "Friends". Whenever I hear something funny on that show, I turn my head and see that it's an older episode.

        • Re:sad but (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Alaska Jack ( 679307 ) on Sunday August 10, 2003 @05:35PM (#6661282) Journal
          I know the whole "Jump the Shark" thing is overdone, but with the Simpsons, I can point to exactly the moment when the show jumped for me.

          It was when the doctors found Homer was stupid because he had a crayon jammed in his brain. Removing it made him smart, but there was a difficult period of adjustment, so at the end of the episode, he put the crayon back.

          That's not funny. That's f*&cking tragic and depressing.

      • Re:sad but (Score:3, Informative)

        by rumpledstiltskin ( 528544 )
        also the episode when they were looking for the slurm prize and x-rayed bender's head. the x-ray of his head revealed a chip labeled 6502 (a logic chip).

    • Re:sad but (Score:4, Insightful)

      by NanoGator ( 522640 ) on Sunday August 10, 2003 @03:53PM (#6660811) Homepage Journal
      " but for some reason it never had that "must see the next episode now" magic. "

      For me it was because Fox kept pre-empting it for football. That and the 7pm time-slot was actually kind of hard to catch. Simpsons had me programmed to be ready at 8. Man I was addicted to that show when it was on right after the Simpsons.

      What really bugged me was that they showed Star Wars one Sunday at 5pm. Futurama would normally have been on at 7pm, following Star Wars. Seems like a pretty damn good lineup, dontcha think? Nope. We got two eps of King of the Hill that day.

      I can understand that Futurama didn't do it for ya, but I feel rather strongly that Fox really blew it when it came to giving Futurama a chance to develop a strong audience.

      • Re:sad but (Score:4, Insightful)

        by lightsaber1 ( 686686 ) on Sunday August 10, 2003 @04:05PM (#6660873)
        I agree...FOX has to be THE worst network for scheduling consistency. The only thing you know for sure is when Simpsons is, well, except when they move it to 7:00 so they can show a movie at 8...between that and the endless commercials, it's ridiculous.

        FOX has some really good shows, and some really lousy shows, unfortunately they seem to focus more on pumping out a lot of lousy shows rather than focusing on the really good ones. Simpsons has taken a significant downturn in the last few years (since reality tv came out...coincidence? maybe). They seem to have gotten better this last season, but seasons 12 and 13 were really quite pathetic. They've also had several really good shows (imho) that they just didn't care about and dropped because nobody was watching or whatever -- except it was impossible to tell when the shows would be on...no wonder. Futurama and Family Guy both fit into this category.

        Let's just hope they don't blow it with their next good idea...and enough with the reality crap people! If I wanted reality, I'd go out...TV is supposed to be a break from reality.

      • Re:sad but (Score:4, Insightful)

        by FuzzyBad-Mofo ( 184327 ) <fuzzybad@nOSPAm.gmail.com> on Sunday August 10, 2003 @09:32PM (#6662219)

        I finally realized that Fox was actively trying to kill Futurama when they pre-empted the show for post game football. I just hope the newer episodes make their way onto Comedy Central.

  • Michael, a question? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by LittleLebowskiUrbanA ( 619114 ) on Sunday August 10, 2003 @02:17PM (#6660333) Homepage Journal
    How is this "sweet juicy justice?" I think it's as unjust as hell to cancel such an intelligent and funny series that many, if not most Slashdotters love.

  • Subscriber bastards! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by stevens ( 84346 ) on Sunday August 10, 2003 @02:17PM (#6660335) Homepage

    One comment's up and already the gotfuturama.com site's down.

    I'm sorry to see Futurama go. It started getting really funny, and I will use "Bite my shiny metal ass" in response to silly feature requests for many years.

    I bought the first episode DVDs already. *Sigh* and I will buy the rest when they come out...

  • What is there to say? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by orkysoft ( 93727 ) <orkysoft@myMONET ... om minus painter> on Sunday August 10, 2003 @02:19PM (#6660345) Journal
    Futurama was without a doubt the greatest and funniest tv series I have ever seen. I'm also not surprised about the amount of Futurama quotes I see in sigs here on Slashdot. Check my friends list, most of them have them :-)

    Bite my shiny metal... OH NOOO!
    • I agree with you if restricted to the first season, when it was wonderful, but after that it got stale. I still like the Simpsons better. Even Homer has (d)evolved and is still funny. The characters on Futurama haven't changed since the first season, and they haven't found their niche.

      I do not go out of my way to see it. When I do see it, I chuckle and enjoy it, but I'm not going to go out of my way (i.e. go upstairs away from the terminal) to see it. It isn't worth wrestling the remote out of the death g

      • Re:What is there to say? (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Tony Hoyle ( 11698 ) <tmh@nodomain.org> on Sunday August 10, 2003 @03:25PM (#6660674) Homepage
        I suppose it depends on how you percieve it. For me, the Simpsons had its day years ago.. I don't even bother watching the new episodes any more because they've completely run out of ideas (there's only so far you can push the 'homer is stupid, lisa is neglected, and bart should be in care' line). It was all very two dimensional, since it had to reflect the boring life of a power plant worker each week (one who never actually to work, except in a couple of episodes.. no wonder he was trying to drink himself to death).

        OTOH Futurama had a lot further to go, because they could introduce new ideas each episode... no preconcieved ideas of what was possible and plenty of B-movies to do parodies of.

    • (posting as a reply to my post to avoid it being drowned in the masses of replies to the main article)

      http://www.canoe.ca/ Television/aug8_future-sun.html [canoe.ca]

      "I actually forgot this week was our last episode. I scheduled something else -- a meeting of my math club," Cohen says on the phone from Los Angeles. "This group of TV writers, we're interested in math and we get together to talk about it. But I'm sure I'll be able to race home to watch it."

    • Re:What is there to say? (Score:5, Funny)

      by radish ( 98371 ) on Sunday August 10, 2003 @05:47PM (#6661324) Homepage
      Yeah? What kind of saddo would use a futurama quote as his sig?

      Oh, err, wait....

  • Zap Branagan and Kif rule (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 10, 2003 @02:20PM (#6660350)
    While I thought Matt played it a little too cute with the Fry-Leela connection and almost all the subplots involving Bender, any episodes with Zap Branagan and Kif were works of pure genius that rivaled even The Simpsons.

  • Sad.. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by OmniVector ( 569062 ) <see my homepage> on Sunday August 10, 2003 @02:20PM (#6660352) Homepage
    Futurama (made by Matt Groening) was a lot better than Simpsons ever was. Though i'm sure that will start a holy war.

    The simspsons was geared a lot towards children usually, where I always felt Futurama was more for adults (Any one remember the death by snu-snu joke in the amazon woman episode?)

    Oh well, just another shining example of how Fox knows how to cancel the best shows: Now i've lost my family guy AND futurama fix :(

    • Re:Sad.. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Chairboy ( 88841 ) on Sunday August 10, 2003 @02:25PM (#6660394) Homepage
      Oh geez....

      There are a bunch of things wrong with your post, but I'll stick to one that you should understand. Here's what you wrote:

      "Oh well, just another shining example of how Fox knows how to cancel the best shows: Now i've lost my family guy AND futurama fix :("

      The thing about this is that Fox actually approved/funded/aired these shows in the first place. Fox is far from perfect, I'm no fanboy, but the other big networks don't tolerate stuff like Family Guy and Futurama. Fox stuck with the show through four years of poor ratings, and with Family Guy through three years or so of dismal ratings.

      Fox is a business. They need to maximize profits. That aside, the fact that they take risks on shows like these is good for us, because occasionally, the quirky show turns out to be a money maker.

      • Re:Sad.. (Score:5, Interesting)

        by rbullo ( 625328 ) <ross.bullockNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Sunday August 10, 2003 @02:38PM (#6660456) Homepage Journal
        Actually, according to www.familyguyfiles.com,
        Despite the huge fan base, the show's edgy content and brash humor (remember when The Simpsons used to be that way?) doesn't sit well with the advertisers. Of course, it doesn't help when a network moves a show every week to a new time slot. How was anyone expected to watch it?
        So, apparently the "dismal ratings" were Fox's own damn fault.

      • Re:Sad.. (Score:5, Informative)

        by barzok ( 26681 ) on Sunday August 10, 2003 @02:39PM (#6660461)
        Fox is far from perfect, I'm no fanboy, but the other big networks don't tolerate stuff like Family Guy and Futurama. Fox stuck with the show through four years of poor ratings, and with Family Guy through three years or so of dismal ratings.
        Both of which Fox sabotaged. Futurama moreso than Family Guy. Futurama was put in a timeslot where at least 10 weeks a year (7 PM Sunday - NFL games run to 7:30 regularly), it would be pre-empted, and Fox knew that when they put it in that timeslot.

        Family Guy - when it was on Fox, I never knew when it was airing. Sunday? Monday? Tuesday? Friday? They kept moving it, so they were never able to snare a viewer base.

        • Re:Sad.. (Score:5, Informative)

          by RickHunter ( 103108 ) on Sunday August 10, 2003 @03:23PM (#6660662)

          I refer you to one of the latest episodes of Futurama, the one with the execubots. Family Guy fell victim to Execubot Beta (the dice-roller), while Futurama got nailed Execubots Gamma (programmed to underestimate middle America) and Alpha. (programmed to like things it has seen before)

          Seriously, justifying things through ratings is a cop-out. Both shows are great, but the ratings system is set up to punish anything that's not ruthlessly mass-market. (Or rather, what the networks WANT to be mass-market this season) Simpsons came out of nowhere and hit them between the eyes in the early '90s, and they don't want to risk that happening again... But they also don't want to be seen as not sponsoring anything new. So you get kamikaze shows, like Family Guy or Futurama.

      • Re:Sad.. (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Karl Cocknozzle ( 514413 ) <kcocknozzle@NOspAM.hotmail.com> on Sunday August 10, 2003 @02:42PM (#6660473) Homepage
        The thing about this is that Fox actually approved/funded/aired these shows in the first place. Fox is far from perfect, I'm no fanboy, but the other big networks don't tolerate stuff like Family Guy and Futurama.

        Fox certainly is willing to take risks other networks don't... That is how it works if you want people to watch your fourth banana network. Imagine how hard it is to get good shows if you're a fifth or sixth banana, like UPN/WB are? However, part of taking risks is knowing that you sometimes have to STICK WITH IT for a while, and not just by not cancelling it.
        Fox stuck with the show through four years of poor ratings, and with Family Guy through three years or so of dismal ratings.

        Fox did more to sabotage that show than they did to help it. (Many television networks are guilty of this, not just Fox. See also "Ed" on NBC.) First, they changed timeslots over and over and over again so that even people who already KNEW the show was good never knew when to tune in. Frequent timeslot changes had more to do with Family Guy not finding a big audience in first run. The show should be on where "Malcolm in the Middle" is now, and Malcolm should be slinging shakes at Mc Donald's.

        Contrast this with Cartoon Network, where Family Guy beat Jay Leno AND David Letterman COMBINED in the 18-34 demographic several evenings in July. How did this happen? They picked a good time, put it on, left it there, and promoted it. Amazingly enough people watch.

        This is both extraordinary and revolutionary... [/sarcasm]
        • However, part of taking risks is knowing that you sometimes have to STICK WITH IT for a while, and not just by not cancelling it.

          They did stick with it... 5 years of Futurama and 3 years or so of Family Guy. If ABC even had the cojones to put Futurama on, they would have seen the ratings and cancelled it before 8 episodes (which I realize is 1 season on the BBC...).

        • (Many television networks are guilty of this, not just Fox. See also "Ed" on NBC.)

          That show deserves to be cancelled.

      • Re:Sad.. (Score:5, Insightful)

        by ctr2sprt ( 574731 ) on Sunday August 10, 2003 @03:24PM (#6660670)
        My impression of the Futurama situation is that the show wasn't canceled because of lack of money or viewers, but instead because of politics. Apparently Groening got a much better contract this time around, which allowed him not just to keep greater control of the show, but also take home more of the profits from it. Groening, at least, believes that Fox are resentful of that and so have tried to keep the show moderately, but not highly, successful. So they keep stuffing it into timeslots where they know it will be preempted, not advertising it at all, and so on. Keep in mind that despite this screwing the show's ratings were pretty much in line with King of the Hill, a more mainstream show in a better timeslot. I have no idea if this is still the case, but it was back when Fox made the decision not to get any more Futurama episodes.

        I don't have a problem with Fox canceling shows that nobody watches. (I don't like it, but hey, it happens.) My problem is that they didn't seem to give Futurama a chance after the first season. It's honestly like they were trying to kill it, and many people close to the situation say that's exactly what was happening.

    • Re:Sad.. (Score:4, Informative)

      by Judg3 ( 88435 ) <jeremyNO@SPAMpavleck.com> on Sunday August 10, 2003 @02:29PM (#6660413) Homepage Journal
      Simpsons started out more for children, then went to more of an adult/child mix and now, well they are running out of ideas and losing steam. The newer episodes of "The Simpsons" don't have quite the dry wit and snappy comebacks anymore like they used to. More or less reusing old ideas from a decade ago. Don't get me wrong, I still watch it, but not as religously as I did in the mid to late 90's (when I feel they hit their sweet spot).

      Futurama is definatly more adult oriented, but still has the site gags and what not that children love, so it still makes for a good family show.

      Then again it's not really fair to compare the two shows really. Simpsons have been around 14 years, Futurama 5. Though I do think the 5th season of Futurama is superior to a 5th season Simpsons, but Groening has grown as an artist since that time, so that can be expected.
      Let's just hope Futurama gets the syndication that the Simpsons has, and I'll still be happy!

    • Re:Sad.. (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Mostly Harmless ( 48610 )
      "The simspsons was geared a lot towards children usually, where I always felt Futurama was more for adults (Any one remember the death by snu-snu joke in the amazon woman episode?)"

      I'm going to have to disagree with you on this one. One of the things that I like most about the Simpsons is that the show seems to have evolved (read: grown) with its audience. When I watch the first few seasons, those that were aired in my pre-teen/teen years, I can see how easily I related to them then -- they were geared

    • Oh well, just another shining example of how Fox knows how to cancel the best shows: Now i've lost my family guy AND futurama fix

      Geez, lets not forget Dark Angel and Firefly. And I'm betting "Keen Eddie" will soon get the axe. I'm sure they're even more causualties. They're probably repressed memories waiting to explode on my consciousness.

      And doesn't an Almighty Deity make them suffer like ABC? (for killing Cupid...)

  • Had too much information (Score:3, Funny)

    by Rosyna ( 80334 ) on Sunday August 10, 2003 @02:22PM (#6660369) Homepage
    GotFuturama had too much information. Now it's /.'d and has effectively no information.

  • Sigh... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by rbullo ( 625328 ) <ross.bullockNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Sunday August 10, 2003 @02:22PM (#6660371) Homepage Journal
    Why is it that the good shows never last? For example, Family Guy was hilarious, but Fox cancelled it because advertisers were reluctant to run ads on such an edgy show. Now they are taking down Futurama, which is consistently funnier than this newest season of The Simpsons. And shows like King of the Hill, of which only the first season was funny to me, is still going strong. And don't get me started on that prime-time soap opera known as Friends.

    • Re:Sigh... (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Why is it that the good shows never last?

      Because nothing does.

    • Re:Sigh... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by utd-blaze ( 654032 ) on Sunday August 10, 2003 @02:51PM (#6660510)
      I can respect that you dont think king of the hill is funny. Different people have different tastes in comedy, but understand that king of the hill is a quality show. I have never seen a tv show capture the look, feel, and soul of a community the way that king of the hill portrays alren (arlen is a psuedonym for garland, a dallas suburb). Anyone from the area will tell you that king of the hill is not a comedy, its a documentary.

      • Re:Sigh... (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Thing 1 ( 178996 ) on Sunday August 10, 2003 @04:49PM (#6661071) Journal
        king of the hill is a quality show.

        I second that, and am constantly amazed that Mike Judge (creator of Beavis and Butthead) managed to make such a good family-oriented show, which several times has brought a tear to my eye. Very well-written, although obviously catering to a different audience. Not always funny (but Dale is hilarious), but very touching.

        Heh, heh. He said "touching."

        • Re:Sigh... (Score:3, Insightful)

          by Kenshin ( 43036 )
          It's not always "out in the open" funny. Part of the comedy of the show is knowing the charcaters' attitudes and reactions to things.

          One of the funniest moments of the show was when Buckley broke up with Luanne. Hank was tired of listening to her, and gave her the advice that "sometimes it's just better to bottle up your emotions instead of letting them out".

      • Re:Sigh... (Score:3, Funny)

        by radish ( 98371 )
        Just the kind of argument you expect from someone who is obviously completely controlled by the secret, all-knowing, worldwide computer networks known as "The Beast"...

        sssh - don't tell anyone....
    • For television networks "good = ratings". That's all there is to it.

      A show can be critically acclaimed and have rabid fanboys, but none of that matters, just ratings.

      • Re:Sigh... (Score:2, Insightful)

        by kannibal_klown ( 531544 )
        Agreed, but they didn't give Futurama a change. After the first season, it kept being pre-empted by NFL games. After a while, even I stopped trying to watch it because instead there would be a post-game interview or something. When a station does something like that, there's no way a show can get good ratings. Because it's either not on when it's supposed to be, or people give up trying to watch it.
    • Friends is ending but hey Joey is the spin-off!
    • Friends?

      In the words of the manager of Ultimate Robot Fighting: "It's pure lowest common denominator". Friends sells. I've seen the DVDs with Friends episodes piled high, and people were snapping them up. This in a country where you'll be hard-pressed to find episodes of any other series on DVD.

      Futurama's a brilliant show but I can see that it has limited appeal... just like most quality stuff.

  • Indeed a sad, sad day. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by rvcrazy ( 146451 ) * <rvcrazy@NOsPAM.adelphia.net> on Sunday August 10, 2003 @02:24PM (#6660386)
    Unfortunately, this was my first thought when I awoke this morning. I suppose we can all only be thankful that Fox now has more room in their schedule for "reality" shows, When Car Chasing High-Speed Animals are Attacked by Couples Married by America, and some other nonsense about objects removed from people in emergency rooms.

    I truly am disgusted with television, and really only look forward to The Simpsons and B5 reruns. I can't see anything coming up that remotely appeals to me.

  • Fox network is a joke (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Karl Cocknozzle ( 514413 ) <kcocknozzle@NOspAM.hotmail.com> on Sunday August 10, 2003 @02:25PM (#6660391) Homepage
    At least now they'll have thirty more minutes available for more lowbrow, idiot level programming... Good thing. People might start to think that the networks were actually trying to provide good entertainment in exchange for all of that publicly owned broadcast spectrum they've been granted exclusive use of for the last 75 or so years. Maybe it is time to take that spectrum back?

    After all, those licenses were granted to provide a broadcast service "in the public interest", but when was the last time you saw something on TV that wasn't crap? You could even argue that the majority of commercial broadcasting actually makes people more stupid. That can't POSSIBLY be in the public's interest.

    PBS has some good stuff, maybe History Channel, but what else? Along the same lines, when was the last time you heard a radio program (besides NPR) that wasn't the same recycled viagra jokes/top 40 playlist as every other station on the dial? Granted, Clear Channel is making plenty of money, but what about the public, the people the broadcaster's were entrusted to serve?

    • Re:Fox network is a joke (Score:5, Insightful)

      by bnenning ( 58349 ) on Sunday August 10, 2003 @02:42PM (#6660476)
      Granted, Clear Channel is making plenty of money, but what about the public, the people the broadcaster's were entrusted to serve?


      Clear Channel, Fox, et al are making money precisely because the public voluntarily chooses their programming.

      • Clear Channel, Fox, et al are making money precisely because the public voluntarily chooses their programming.

        Sorry, but that is irrelevant. The FCC has ruled time and again that "People are watching/listening" is not a valid excuse for broadcasting things that aren't in the public's interest. Traditionally, the FCC has interpreted this as meaning "the public's BEST interest", while most broadcasters these days define it as "What catches the public's eye/interest."

        A good example of this conflict of seman

  • What a Shame (Score:2, Interesting)

    by alset_tech ( 683716 )
    I don't think Futurama ever got a fair chance from viewers, who expected "the Simpsons in the future." It's too bad that the series wasn't able to fun for fourteen years, like it's counterpart. I would have watched them all. BTW - was anyone else repeatedly dismayed to see the show preempted by football ever season?

  • One thing I must know... (Score:5, Funny)

    by phillymjs ( 234426 ) <slashdot AT stango DOT org> on Sunday August 10, 2003 @02:38PM (#6660455) Homepage Journal
    ...will the DVDs of later season Futurama episodes have the last 20 minutes of a football game, followed by the last 10 minutes of the episode?

  • Mirror (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 10, 2003 @02:39PM (#6660458)
    The site is not really down. THey just slipped in a blank index.html file.

    You can view the full site here...
    http://www.gotfuturama.com/index.shtml

    • Re:Mirror (Score:3, Insightful)

      by TC (WC) ( 459050 )
      It's being a bit of a jerk to bypass a measure they've obviously put in place to avoid horrible rape by the slashot hordes. :(

  • Obligatory text of episode blurb (Score:4, Informative)

    by LittleLebowskiUrbanA ( 619114 ) on Sunday August 10, 2003 @02:40PM (#6660463) Homepage Journal
    Fry, in an effort to win Leela's love, makes a deal with the Robot Devil to become a gifted musician. He has tried to take Holophoner lessons, but his teacher claimed he had "stupid fingers." Bender realizes that the Robot Devil is the only one to help. Fry makes a deal only to regret it immediately as it comes with a hefty price.

    Taken from the site itself..

    By the way, this last and final episode ties in neatly w/ this episode [tvtome.com]

  • Thanks to Kazaa-lite and BT, I'll still be able to get my BT fix. I wish Fox provided a reasonably priced, high-quality, quickly-downloadable version of shows they take off the air, like Futurama. Oh well, back to the P2P hunt.

    • "I wish Fox provided a reasonably priced, high-quality, quickly-downloadable version of shows they take off the air, like Futurama."

      So, in addition to not making money, they can lose money? Sounds like a business plan! Not that I would actually mind it.
    • I too downloaded every episode of simpsons, futurama, family guy and other shows. But now that they're all coming out on dvd in better quality than most downloaded eps, i'm buying thoses. I think all of futurama should be out by next year and the rest of family guy will be out next month i think. Also to anyone whos interested, the complete run of Firefly will be out on DVD Dec 9th, loads of extras and the 3 episodes that never aired in the US. There are also talks of a movie.

  • Futurama - The Game (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Sim9 ( 632381 )
    There is a futurama game in the works titled Futurama- The Game. Release date is Aug 15, and so far impressions have been quite favorable.

    http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle- ur l/index=videogames&field-keywords=futurama%20the%2 0game&search-type=ss&bq=1/102-3968539-6524 956

  • Futurama HTTP headers (Score:5, Funny)

    by RonnyJ ( 651856 ) on Sunday August 10, 2003 @03:08PM (#6660579)
    Slashdot's server admins seem to like Futurama quite a lot, the server sends out an extra HTTP header with each query. e.g. X-Bender: Well I don't have anything else planned for today, let's get drunk! X-Fry: They're great! They're like sex except I'm having them.

  • Cut'n'Paste from the site (Score:4, Informative)

    by AchmedHabib ( 696882 ) on Sunday August 10, 2003 @03:14PM (#6660615)
    Here's an interesting part from the site:
    -----
    Looks like Futurama executive producer David Cohen has been busy giving interviews the last few days. In this IGN front page linked article, he talks about what he did in the meantime, what he wants to do in the future (including a movie project with Ken Keeler - the writer of tomorrow's final episode), the long-shot hope for continuing Futurama with Cartoon Network, the slightly better Futurama movie possibility, the upcoming Season 2 DVDs, the Futurama Video Game and ... this very site A short excerpt:

    IGN DVD: Has there been grassroots fan efforts to save the show like there was with other series?

    Cohen: There have been huge efforts but the network hasn't been too interested. There is an online petition that as far as I know is the largest petition in TV history to save a show, and there's a Web site run by fans called GotFuturama.com. That site ended up being the central location for fans to go to, and I admit that I go there to see an air date or something I've forgotten. They have a link to it (the petition). I think at one point they delivered a hardcopy to Fox executives which must have been the size of five Manhattan phone books. (laughs) And before questions flare up, I think he got the thing about the Game Cube Futurama video game wrong. All signs still point towards no go there.

  • A Testament to Groening (Score:5, Informative)

    by KU_Fletch ( 678324 ) <bthomas1 @ k u .edu> on Sunday August 10, 2003 @03:22PM (#6660659)
    It's going to be sad that I won't have Futurama on my Sunday nights any more (at least I won't have to suffer through King of the Hill afterwards). But thank god for Matt Groening and his DVD producion staff at Fox. The Simpsons and Futurama DVDs are some of he best released and reflective of how much Groening likes his fans.

    If you look at other TV show DVD sets, Groening's collections can beat just about anyone out there. They are reasonabley priced (around 30-40 bucks at most stores) compared to some TV shows selling their sets at $80-100. The production quality is great, so you don't have to suffer through bad transfers (although there was an initial pressing problem with Simpsons S1 that was fixed). And probably the reason I love them the most is the fact that Groening and his boys sit down and do commentaries on all their episodes. They know that you can watch all the episodes and get a laugh out of them, but the thing that keeps you coming baack is hearing them shred their episodes to pieces. We've all seen Simpsons and Futurama on synidcation long enough to know a lot of the old episodes by heart, but the commentaries are pure genious. So it might be sad that the TV shows are leaving us, but props to Matt for a dedication to kick ass DVDs
    • They are reasonabley priced (around 30-40 bucks at most stores) compared to some TV shows selling their sets at $80-100.

      In addition, they don't try to squeeze every last dollar out of you they can...

      If you look at the Farscape DVDs, they only have 2 episodes per DVD, which is really *^&%$#@!-up in my opinion. There's absolutely no reason for that, other than trying to squeeze even more money out of people.
  • There's an interview with Futurama Exec. Producer David X. Cohen on IGN

    Here's the story [ign.com]
  • If anyone would like to use the opportunity tonight on the last episode to drink and salute the years Futurama has been on, I have a Futurama drinking game on my website [agshender.net] that's handy for when you want to drink until you reboot.

    /shameless plug

  • A victim of Fox (Score:2, Insightful)

    by SoVi3t ( 633947 )
    Unfortunately, like Family Guy, Futurama fell victim of Fox's scheduling stupidity. Family Guy was put up against Fraiser, and Futurama got bumped around, cancelled by football, and so much worse. Both of them ultimately lost many viewers due to these blunders. If Fox was intelligent, they would have put it on right after The Simpsons, and moved Malcolm in the Middle to some other day. That way fans of the Simpsons could watch Futurama afterwards, in a sort of Groening Hour of Power.
    • In the UK, Simpsons and Futurama episodes are aired first on Sky One at 6.30pm and 7.00pm respectively on Sunday nights - we already have a "Groening Hour of Power" :-) Plus the DVD box sets of The Simpsons and Futurama are released up to 6 months before the US (although twice the price of the US versions, so I order the US ones instead). Oh, plus the Futurama game came out several months before the US.

      Now if only Sky One didn't put "Sky One Brand New" in the top left *and* a red blob in the top right (do

  • I got it from usenet yesterday from alt.binaries.multimedia.futurama
  • "Kittens give Morbo gas!"

    That line is delivered so well (I would say casually, but Morbo isn't exactly casual) that every time I hear it I can't help but laugh. It shows that all the writing that made the Simpsons (at least in the early years) carried over to Futurama.

    Here's hoping that the Simpsons can retire gracefully when their contract is up, and that Futurama shall rise again!
  • OK - who'll post Bittorent link first? :)

  • Alternate Market (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Seek_1 ( 639070 )
    Ok, a couple of people have stated that the reason Family Guy got cancelled was because no advertisers wanted it. And obviously from reading this thread and from the petition site, there are hundreds of thousands of Futurama fans out there.

    Do you think it would be realistic for them to continue making the series directly to DVD?

    Think about it. I know that I along with most of my friends either own, or are planning to own all of the Family Guy/Futurama DVDs in addition to having downloaded copies of the sh

  • Zoidberg for president (Score:3)

    by gsfprez ( 27403 ) on Monday August 11, 2003 @12:25AM (#6663003)
    i have never before, nor shall i dare say, ever again by myself with no one around spontaneously shoot milk out nose and laugh out loud at the funniest cartoon character of all time.

    Huzzah!!! Someone is noticing me! (/Zoidberg)

    i am truly bent that my TiVo shall no longer grab for me the funniest and best written 22 minutes of my TV viewing week. Fox can bite my shiny metal ass for cancelling Futurama

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