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Futurama Returns
Posted by
CowboyNeal
on Thu Jun 22, 2006 11:34 PM
from the now-zoidberg-is-the-popular-one dept.
from the now-zoidberg-is-the-popular-one dept.
GrumpySimon writes "Good news everyone!
Straight from a one-eyed alien's mouth - 13 new episodes of Futurama have been confirmed by Katey Sagal on Craig Ferguson's Late Late Show. All the original actors have signed up too."
Related Stories
[+]
Interviews: Ask Futurama Star Billy West About...? 199 comments
In case you haven't heard, Futurama is coming back — in like 2008, so don't go channel-flipping in hope quite yet. This is the first interview Billy West (who voices Fry, Prof. Farnsworth, Zapp Brannigan, Zoidberg, and other Futurama characters) has done since the announcement. Realize, too, that Billy has also been the voices of Ren and Stimpy and hundreds of other animated characters over the years, and old-school Howard Stern fans will remember that part of his career, too. Ask Billy about anything you like; we'll send him 10 top-moderated questions (and maybe he'll answer a few extra ones of his choice, too). We expect to post his answers Wednesday, the day after Freedom Day's 21st Century predecessor, the 4th of July (which, sadly, is not known for nude hot tub parties). Meanwhile, to tide you over, here's a little MP3 voice montage Billy did in his home studio just for Slashdot.
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Futurama Returns
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YAY! (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.beryllium.ca/)
Re:YAY! (Score:5, Funny)
Fry: This snow is beautiful. I'm glad global warming never happened.
Leela: Actually it did. But thank God nuclear winter cancelled it out.
Re:YAY! (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://bakahoushi.deviantart.com/)
I just think of it like I did the Simpsons in some jokes. Lisa once stated the Springfield Oil Field is 3 times the size of Texas. This means either they live in Alaska (possibly, I need to consult a map for scale) or it's a joke because it's too ridiculous to be true.
Re:YAY! (Score:4, Insightful)
I suppose there's no real need for that sort of continuity, as long as the continuity for the main characters broadly fits together, and it gives them more room for humour without being penned in by what they did before.
Logic? (Score:5, Informative)
PS: best episode ever: Jurassic Bark.... poor Seymour the dog.
Re:Logic? (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://stinerman.livejournal.com/)
Restrike while the iron is still warm? (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.dragonswest.com/ | Last Journal: Monday November 05, @07:35PM)
While I applaud it, I remember the resurrection of Ren & Stimpy and how it just wasn't quite the same anymore. The making of a popular series can often rest on the frenzy of creating the episodes and the chemistry of those at work on it. Add an interruption, time for other projects and influences, what will become of pulling the team back together? Will it be the same, or will it be like, "well, Bender saying, 'bite my shiny metal asee' doesn't totally suck, but it's just, you know, different now."
Other news in the It's About Time Department:
In other good news, finally on DVD, Yellowbeard! Arr! July 27 for USA & Canada [amazon.com] or July 10 for UK [amazon.co.uk] No word yet on extras, like Group Madness, the documentary of making of the film.
Re:Restrike while the iron is still warm? (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://rustyp.freeshell.org/ | Last Journal: Tuesday April 29 2003, @09:22AM)
It's not because the writers got worse. It's 'cause you got better. Or at least, I did. I can't stand the old Ren and Stimpy episodes now.
Just like Family Guy, Futurama still cracks me up. If they make more, I'll still like 'em.
Re:Restrike while the iron is still warm? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Restrike while the iron is still warm? (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://free-usa.blogspot.com/)
The difference is that Family Guy and American Dad are funny the first time you watch them while the Simpsons and Futurama are funny every time you watch them.
Re:Restrike while the iron is still warm? (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://kim.biyn.com/)
Futurama humor and plot development is actually quite clever, especially since (like Arrested Development) some of the jokes and plot twists aren't revealed until later episodes (e.g., Nibbler's being present but unseen in the first episode but upon subsequent viewings after seeing "The Why of Fry" (4ACV10) it becomes obvious Nibbler was there and that plot line was planned from the beginning).
Oh, and the Dave Matthews Band does not rock.
Anyway, if this is actually true, I shall no longer refer to Fox as Faux and I shall no longer say that Faux can bite my shiny metal ass. Furthermore, I shall have to now watch Fox's crap reality shows because I've repeatedly sent them emails promising to watch their crap reality shows and buy from their crappy sponsors if they bring Futurama back as a series. I wonder if watching just one episode of American Idol or whatever crap they're airing now will fulfill that obligation, or is that like making a deal with the devil?
Anyway, here is what I really posted to say:
<Amy>Yay!</Amy>
Re:Restrike while the iron is still warm? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Restrike while the iron is still warm? (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://dronefone.com/)
I bought seasons 1-3½ on DVD which contains the original John K. episodes and the obvious downfall episodes after he was fired and Nickelodeon took over. All I can say is that the original first season still cracks me up, but everything afterwards is a sharp downwarn decline.
The interesting thing is to watch the episodes with the audio commentary by John K. Suprisingly, he does commentary on episodes after his departure, and he really gives a lot of insight to help understand why anything after season 1 simply was garbage. To hit a specific comment of yours, "two minute ultra-grotesque stills": it was something new and unique to R&S. In the early episodes, you can see how those scenes helped build storyline, express context or otherwise simply drive a concept home. However, most people took these scenes at face value and just thought, "ooh! he's got a booger!" or something like that. Yeah, it is accessible at that level. Unfortunately, this is the level that the post-Spümcø felt they needed to continue and exaggerate. To put it in John K's words when seeing a gross close up of Stimpy in a season 2 commentary, "ugly for the sake of being ugly". In other words, no purpose to the scene like there would have been in season 1 episodes.
Of course, this is a cartoon we're talking about, so it wasn't trying to save the world or teach you to eat your vegetables or anything; it was meant to be stupid humor for you to laugh at. All I'm trying to say is that this really was a groundbreaking show in cartoons and the first season was really something special in its own way. Unfortunately, that "magic" (if you will) was completely mis-interpreted and lost in subsequent episodes once John K. no longer oversaw production.
Re:Restrike while the iron is still warm? (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://www.dragonswest.com/ | Last Journal: Monday November 05, @07:35PM)
But I still get a huge kick out of Log (tm), Powdered Toast Man, Lummox herds, lambasting the materialism and exposing the fetishism in western society, and the fact that the show could ever have been marketed as a kid's cartoon to start with.
Thank you. The thing a later half generation doesn't seem to get is this was fairly cutting edge, underground stuff. Why Nick even picked it up is beyond me, it should have played late evening on Viacom's other network MTV, as Beavis and Butthead did. RnS (as it was referred to back in the day) was a huge hit with the college age group. Little kids could laugh at the nose-goblins or Mr. Horse sniffing a pan of Gritty Kitty, but the content wasn't really intended for them. John K. waged epic battles with Vanessa Coffey, who would eventually get him the sack, which dramatically altered many finished cartoons, which then went back to the shop for some modification and as John once said, just to mock Coffey, they'd make no sense, like the butchered PC Looney Tunes of the 70's.
Family Guy Season 4+ sucks. (Score:5, Insightful)
-M
Better News Everybody! (Score:5, Funny)
(Last Journal: Saturday June 12 2004, @11:19PM)
YES ! (Score:5, Funny)
Three cheers for Comedy Central (Score:5, Funny)
choice quote (Score:5, Funny)
Re:choice quote (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.lepertheory.net/)
I was gonna do this as a Halloween costume. I was going to paint my face up all gray/green and rotting, sores and all, wear a white robe, and a crown of thorns, and get a couple broken 4x4s tied to my arms like I broke my way down from the cross... but every time I described it, all I got was this look of horror, even from non-Christians.
Same thing with the Christopher Reeve loose fitting Superman suit and a wheelchair idea. This was before he was dead, of course, I know poor taste when I giggle uncontrollably at it.
Trick or treat
Feel my feet
I can't.
*sigh*
Re:choice quote (Score:4, Funny)
Re:choice quote (Score:5, Funny)
(Last Journal: Sunday January 02 2005, @02:42AM)
As an avid watcher of the reruns on TBS and CN, I just gotta say, you're misquoting. The correct quote is
"Sweet Zombie <weird, unnatural silence while the lips keep moving>"
Re:choice quote (Score:5, Funny)
- Bender
Santa is real! (Score:5, Funny)
They've been VERY naughty this year. Now they must be trying to make up before Xmas.
Ryan Fenton
I believe it 100%!!! (Score:5, Interesting)
P.S. I feel like it's some futurama reference that my CAPTCHA was "breeder." Is Slashdot trying to say something about the human race?
Movies? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Good news everybody! (Score:5, Funny)
-Richard M. Nixon's head
HYPNOTOAD LIVES (Score:4, Funny)
Re:HYPNOTOAD LIVES (Score:5, Funny)
*sigh* (Score:3, Insightful)
I have a reason to live again (Score:3, Funny)
Does this make me happy? (Score:5, Funny)
Is the space pope reptilian?
Re:Why so long? (Score:5, Funny)
(Last Journal: Thursday November 11 2004, @05:39AM)
Welcome back! (Score:3, Funny)
(http://www4.iastate.edu/~tkarr)
Re:Welcome back! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Welcome back! (Score:5, Funny)
(http://fuzzbucket.tk/ | Last Journal: Sunday May 14 2006, @05:22PM)
Everyone must hear this news! (Score:5, Funny)
Who needs comedy central? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Who needs comedy central? (Score:5, Insightful)
also, your model doesn't work for new shows.. if your model was in place before Futurama, it would have never been created.. people won't donate to a show they've never heard of and have no idea if they'll even like it.
Re:Who needs comedy central? (Score:5, Funny)
(http://slashdot.org/ | Last Journal: Friday July 29 2005, @12:12PM)
That's because some episodes are painstakingly drawn before a live audience!
Re:Who needs comedy central? (Score:5, Informative)
You bitch needlessly. All the tools you need are but a few hundred dollars away!
1) Registering a domain name and getting cheap-ass hosting costs less than a few hundred dollars per year.
2) You can put a link to your project on your slashdot sig and get surprising amounts of attention that way.
3) You only need to come up with an idea for a show, and recruit some star talent. Really, you're on your way already, since you have a business plan that's pretty detailed!
Unless you aren't serious about your business plan. Maybe you wouldn't know a real business plan if it kicked you in the nards. Maybe the idea of actually doing anything outside your mother's basement scares you. In which case, your post is just so much whining and incoherent noise on a populate public blog. There's lots of that already.
The proof of whether or not you have a good idea is in your ability to make it reality. Otherwise, it's just so much hot air, and thanks to global warming, we have more than enough of that.
But, I suggest you give it a try. You'll either succeed, or learn lots about how the world around you works - either way, you win, and win BIG.
requesting more snoo snoo (Score:4, Funny)
(http://www.thecellcity.com/)
Here here! (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.geocities.com/evil_rhinobird)
2 F's down, 1 to go! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:2 F's down, 1 to go! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:2 F's down, 1 to go! (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://mshiltonj.com/ | Last Journal: Tuesday July 26 2005, @09:43PM)
Re:2 F's down, 1 to go! (Score:5, Funny)
(http://robvincent.net/ | Last Journal: Tuesday October 09, @01:55PM)
Re:2 F's down, 1 to go! (Score:5, Insightful)
But what about...? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:But what about...? (Score:5, Funny)
Future Futurama to be... (Score:4, Interesting)
This is the only reason for Fox to start it again.
--
This is not a flamebait... this is bloody serious... Just wait'n'see.
Bite My Shiny Metal Ass (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.squarextreme.com/)
Fry: Don't you mean Comedy Central?
Leela: No, Comedy Control. Comedy was outlawed in the year 2045, during the Great War with the Neptutians. Comedy Control comes around and kills everyone involved with animated shows.
That's not good news (Score:4, Funny)
Holy Crap! (Score:5, Funny)
*crosses fingers* (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://qntm.org/ | Last Journal: Saturday May 06 2006, @09:26AM)
Good news... kind of. (Score:4, Insightful)
The actors can be replaced, the writing team can not - not if you want to keep the same style of humour.
When you see the robot, drink! (Score:3, Funny)
-----
Sig Sauer
Re:All the original actors? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Hang on... (Score:5, Informative)
The character Zapp Branigan was written for him, but he died before they started production, so Billy West took the part instead and happen to play the character in a similar way to Phil Hartman's audition.
Re:That's great and all... (Score:5, Funny)
Um... Promise me you aren't one of the writers on the new series.
Re:Futurama (Score:3, Interesting)
I think the issue is exactly that they don't have to worry about what happened last week if the writers don't want to. That the characters don't have to age. I live in the real world. When I watch TV I don't want reality. I want something different. Something to tickle my imagination. And the surreal world of many cartoons is great for that. A show like Doctor Who doesn't appeal to me as much, because I would much rather pick up a book and supply a much cooler image of a sci-fi world in my own head.
That being said, Futurama isn't the best example to be picking on for nothing ever changing. The series did have an advancing plot and the important events of previous episodes did matter in future ones. Individual events didn't matter as much, but the evolution of the character's relationships to each other definitely progressed based on the events of the show. I also felt it was much better written then other popular cartoons and didn't rely as much on mind-numbing pop-culture references.
Re:Futurama (Score:5, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Sunday October 07, @01:01AM)
Re:Futurama (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://iki.fi/wheany/ | Last Journal: Monday July 03 2006, @01:48PM)
Re:Futurama (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://www.jeffornot.com/ | Last Journal: Monday May 14 2007, @09:56AM)
- Nibbler shows up and sticks around, the order of those episodes has some significance
- Leela's parents are discovered, then are characters on the show after that.
- Farnsworth's clone is created and is in future episodes.
Just to name a few.
typically everything that happens is straightened out by the end of the episode as needed. It's just not in the typical cartoon genre to have numerous-episode-arcs, because reruns are not often shown in order.
And PS, the "OMG PONIES! AND NEW FUTURAMA EPISODES!!" is *really* old news. I assume this number of episodes is really just the dvds that were mentioned months ago. It's been on adult swim bumps for awhile now.
Re:Futurama (Score:5, Interesting)
Dude - It's just a cartoon.
Noone's really saying that Futurama is better than Dr Who, but that doesn't mean it's not enjoyable. Plot? No way. Funny? Absolutely! More importantly, it's just entertaining.
That's something I love about these kind of shows. You don't need to make the investment to watch them. I hate it that I can't watch a lot of "running plot" shows because I know I'm going to miss a bunch of them. With Futurama/Simpsons, I can just watch them if I'm free.
Dude, there's a whole universe in all of us... (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://blog.intelligentdesign.com.au/ | Last Journal: Thursday March 11 2004, @05:32AM)
1. The characters in the Simpsons are surprisingly consistent; the clearly distinct characters and their traits are one of the shows great strengths. Lisa is BOTH intelligent AND a member of the archetypal working class family; these are not mutually exclusive, and the show is subtle enough to deal with this.
2. Futurama IS better than Dr Who whichever way you spin it (allowing for taste), and its PLOTS are amongst its great strengths. When you compare the Simpsons to Futurama, one thing that is very apparent is that Futurama has much more comprehensive, less formulaic, better written storylines. The episodes, and the series, feature an internal logic which is stronger than the Simpsons, or indeed almost any other comedy other than Seinfeld or Arrested Development.
In many cases the humour is directly derived from the strength of the plot. For example, Fry travels back in time and becomes his own grandfather. As a result, he is unique in the universe, and his uniqueness ties in to the whole Nibblonian vs Brains subplot. Similarly, Leela's origins story is tightly woven throughout the various episodes and across the series. I know for a fact that Groening, Cohen and co set out to write lengthy thematic arcs which in some cases spanned series 1-4 inclusive.
If you think it's a plot-less cartoon with jokes, you're not really watching it.
3. Well, this basically explains why you think what you think. I agree to the extent that each episode of Futurama is self-contained. However, they are also intricately linked with other episodes, and you miss a lot of important context and detail from some episodes if you treat them as a one-off 'adventure'.
Try watching Futurama, in order, from start to finish. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.
Re:Dude, there's a whole universe in all of us... (Score:5, Insightful)
I never said otherwise - I was just hassling my PP for overanalysing. What next? "Oh, but at the end of The Simpson's 3D, homer ends up in the real world, but then in the next episode he's back in the Simpson's universe!". Or "Buffy is just so fake: There's no such thing as vampires!"
No. Like many people here (yourself included), I prefer Futurama to Dr Who. Anyone who tries to argue that one successful show is better than another successful show is an idiot, and you might as well be trying to prove the existence or non-existence of god, or the general superiority of one OS over another. It's a personal thing. One is better than the other for you.
I have - many times. The first time I watched it, I watched it out of order. Yes, I didn't pick up on the exact history behind each character, but I didn't miss out on any important story-line elements. (Ok - so the same is probably actually true for Dr Who, but there are many other shows where missing a couple of episodes makes the later ones not worth watching).
Re:Dude, there's a whole universe in all of us... (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://stinerman.livejournal.com/)
I was amazed that the writing team had thought that far ahead.
Re:Futurama (Score:3, Insightful)
Even if you try to persuade me for hours that red is a much better colour, you won't be able to win me over.
In short, nods to classic bits of comedy coupled with a great sense of absurd and sprinklings of science make a cartoon I love to watch. I love the voice-work in Futurama too, great characterizations.
Re:Futurama (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Futurama (Score:5, Interesting)
In a nutshell, shows like Simpsons, Family Guy, The Critic, and Futurama make me laugh, and greatly entertain me for their 30 minute duration. Okay, there's a dud episode every now and then, but for the most part they're really fun. And funny. There have been a few scenes from these that would just make me laugh a few days later when I would think about it, for instance.
The fact that it bothers you that Lisa's mental acuity isn't entirely consistent from one episode to the next sort of implies you're greatly outside the demographic they're looking for, in which case I'd suggest stick with the shows that really make you happy. I watch these shows for their comedic value, not for a consistent basis upon which to do a comparative literary analysis.
Similarly, there are shows that other people love that I can't stand at all (eg Everybody Loves Raymond). it's all your own personal tastes. Regarding not liking the Simpsons, my Mom cannot get into the Simpsons either. She's tried and either doesn't get the jokes or just doesn't think they're funny whatsoever.
That said, at the end of your post you mention other shows that are 'really funny'. Can you give an example? I'm not trolling you either, just curious what you find funny.
Re:Futurama (Score:5, Interesting)
As for why Futurama is popular.. you may not find it funny, but a lot of people do. I, for one, like that there's a lot of geek jokes in there. One that I can think of off the top of my head was that there were a pair of books in the background [appstate.edu] of one scene labeled P and NP [wikipedia.org].
Re:Futurama (Score:5, Informative)
(http://slashdot.org/)
Milt, for the non-biologists, is the sperm and seminal fluid of fish. [reference.com]
Re:Futurama (Score:5, Insightful)
Hell, there are a ton of other Slashdot articles you could be commenting on. Perhaps you could have found one that interested you. But no, you had to click on the Futurama article just so you could post a comment musing about the lack of appeal Futurama has for you.
It kind of reminds me of people who love Windows and hate the Macintosh. OK, your favorite computer platform has 90+ percent of the market, so why go seek out places online where Mac people congregate and try to rain on their parade? They have less than 5% of the market. Leave them alone. Hell, I've seen people go onto Atari ST forums and say ridiculous things to the effect that the Atari ST is long dead and ST enthusiasts should just move on and get a Windows PC. Was that you?
When you see a kid playing with a balloon, do you have an uncontrollable urge to go and stick a pin in it?
There are a lot of things that do not appeal to everyone. Sane people ignore them. Personally I have no interest in Chritianity. That doesn't mean I show up to church every Sunday and say, "You know, I just don't understand the appeal...could you explain it to me?" It would be gouche and idiotic to do so.
"Not trolling"? Bite my shiny metal ass!
Re:Futurama (Score:5, Funny)
Dude, why would you want to stick a pin in a kid?
Re:Futurama (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.entropicsoftware.com/eve/sd.html | Last Journal: Monday July 10 2006, @07:42PM)
Spoken as someone who has never tried it. Geesh.
Re:Futurama (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://libtom.org/)
My take was that it was consistant that Lisa was a little hippie shitdisturber. Maybe you watched an OLDER episode where they haven't yet developed that trait? Simpsons is popular because it's older than most of the audience. It came out in the late 80s. I was babysitting kids born in the 90s who liked the show even though their first memories of the show were probably from 1996 onward.
Futurama is funny because it's silly and creative. Family guy is funny because it's a bit more adult and off the wall. South park is funny because they're highly objective and use hyperbole.
That doesn't mean EVERY episode is comedy gold. But normally people tend to watch the series not just specific episodes which means watching the occasional shit-fill-the-season-out episode.
Tom
Re:Futurama (Score:3)
Re:Get yer facts straight! (Score:3, Insightful)
(http://www.mangaschool.com/ | Last Journal: Tuesday January 03 2006, @07:51AM)
Re:Futurama (Score:5, Insightful)
Because it's not about you.
Re:Futurama (Score:3, Funny)
(http://hive.ro/)
yadda-yadda, I'm too good for animation
perhaps its the big stick up your shiny metal ass?
Obligatory Futurama reference (Score:4, Funny)
(http://www.unity08.com/)
Silence!!!
Re:Futurama DOES have a plot (spoilers) (Score:5, Informative)
- Fry and the Brains (and the Nibblonians)
During the series it transpires that Fry is the only human being capable of resisting the psionic attacks of the Brains, a group of free-flying brain beings that want to take over/destroy the universe. Fry's brain waves are different from other peoples because Fry, as a result of events in the episode "Roswell that Ends Well", is his own grandfather.
In the first encounter with the Brains Fry is abducted by Nibbler, who is not only Leela's pet, but also an agent of the ancient and stupendously powerful Nibblonians (which explains why he was the only one of his kind on the planet where he was found). Nibbler explains Fry's abnormality and assists him in fending off the Brains' attack on earth. After Fry succeeds Nibbler wipes Fry's memory (everyone else was too stupefied by the Brains to remember what happened) and resumes his life as Leela's pet.
Later, in The Why of Fry, we learn that Fry was not frozen by accident. In fact Fry was brought into the future by Nibbler, whose much younger self was present on New Years' Eve '99, and who gave Fry the nudge that tipped him backwards into the cryogenic chamber. In this episode Fry is press ganged into service to destroy the Brains' ultimate project, a device that will acquire all knowledge in the universe and then destroy the universe to prevent its knowledge from becoming outdated.
Once Fry is inside the Mega-Brain and has activated the bomb with which he is to destroy it, the Brains reveal what Nibbler did to Fry and offer Fry a choice - he can stay there, blow up the Mega Brain and vanish along with it due to the failure of his escape scooter, or he can let the Mega Brain catapult him back in time to the space-time nexus centred on his own fall into the cryochamber.
Fry elects to travel back, and in fact initially prevents Nibbler from knocking him into the tube, until Nibbler persuades him that he should sacrifice himself and fulfill his predestined mission, because...
- Fry Loves Leela
Fry has an unrequited passion for Leela throughout most of the series. In a sense there is a lack of follow through here, because they do pull kind of a "will they/won't they?" thing, but Fry does succeed in communicating the depth of his feelings at times, and when he wins the devil's hands and uses them to make a holophoner opera in Leela's honour Leela realises that Fry has a depth of character and feeling that is concealed by his physical and social clumsiness.
- Leela and Her Parents
As someone else mentioned here, Leela's parent enter the series late in the piece and stick around. In fact I was surprised that nobody responded to the "straight from the alien's mouth" in the article by pointing out that Leela, as we discover when her parents emerge, is not an alien but a mutant, whose xenolinguist parents left her at an orphanage with a note in an invented alien script, so that she would be taken for an alien and avoid the apartheid-style restrictions places on mutants. This is a major shift for Leela both in the sense that earlier episodes made much of her search for her species and homeworld, and in that at least two episodes towards the end of the series are heavily concerned with her relationship with her newfound parents.
- Amy and Kif
Amy, the engineering student from Mars, and Kif, Zapp Brannigan's XO, fall in love early in the series and their developing romance is the subject of multiple episodes throughout subsequent seasons.
i'm sure there are other examples of long-term continuity that have slipped my mind, but really nobody could accuse Futurama of forgeting its past.
Re:Futurama (Score:4, Interesting)
(Last Journal: Friday February 17 2006, @06:59AM)
The second of the two jumped the shark a while ago - although it came back from the groaner pile a bit it never compared to Futurama which was just getting a decent groove when Fox pre-empted it into oblivion.
After Futurama came out - the Simpsons seemed just wholesale tame by comparrison and even in some of the comentator tracks on the DVDs you could see where Matt G.'s passion was going (or at least more of it). It's not just the geek factor - it's the ubber geek factor that made it great among other things. Plus not having to be tied down to earth led to a much broader swath of possiblities - continuity be damned. Or at least horribly twisted if one recalls brain-burners like the Farnsworth parallel universe boxes. That was a particularly fun episode.
I don't really know where I'm going with this so I'll just stop now.