Not even second chances are forever: Comedy Central has not renewed Futurama, Entertainment Weekly reports.
The sci-fi cartoon from The Simpsons’ Matt Groening originally debuted on Fox, who first canceled it in 2003. It did well in reruns and DVD sales, and Comedy Central relaunched it in 2007 for an additional 3 seasons. (Or, two seasons and a handful of movies, whichever you prefer.)
Half of the last season is still to air, though. (Note possible spoilers:)
[Executive producer David X.] Cohen calls the final run — which features such guests as Larry Bird, Sarah Silverman, George Takei, Adam West, Dan Castellaneta, and Burt Ward — “our best ‘last season ever’ ever,” noting that there are “a bunch of episodes that I think are going to be classics.” In one installment, Futurama is “reincarnated as various cartoons of your youth, not legally resembling but somehow quite reminiscent of Scooby-Doo, Strawberry Shortcake, and G.I. Joe,” he says. And the series finale, which features a wedding between Fry and Leela, is “a tasteful, emotional gorefest,” he raves. “There’s a lot of death but there’s also a lot of time travel, so that makes for an interesting combination.” Adds Groening: “It’s a really satisfying ending. It’s an epic ending. If indeed it’s the ending.”
We’ll miss you, new Futurama, but hey: At least we’ll have the reruns. (Again.)
What, no ‘Futurama Massacre’ headline? I thought this was EW.
Well, it had a good run. And a good second run. And a couple of interesting films in between. May it rest in fan devotion. :-)
And now we can look forward to Groening’s next show. Isn’t that a treat?
It’s probably moving to DisneyXD
Meanwhile, Seth MacFarlane has at least two shows on Fox. This is why we can’t have nice things.
Back before either were revived, I used to fairly regularly watch a block of Family Guy and Futurama reruns at night. And I noticed that while Family Guy was funny the first time around, it didn’t really hold up to multiple viewings and I just got sick of the general shtick really quickly. (And I should note I was actually sad when FG first got canceled.) Whereas I could watch the Futurama reruns for ages and never get sick of them.
The fact that Family Guy came back first and is still going and they gave MacFarlane more shows just boggles my mind.
I mean, I can understand canceling Futurama. I’m sure it wasn’t the cheapest show in the world to produce (hey, South Park) and the genre automatically made it a niche thing, unlike (sigh) FG or The Simpsons, both of which are looking like they’re going to outlive the cockroaches. (Plus are on network, though certainly SP looks like it’s going for the gold as well.) I guess it’s go big or go home for these kinds of shows, and poor Futurama just never got enough audience.
the past couple seasons of futurama have had some really great episodes, and as Dunc says, it’s a show that really stands up well to repeat viewing.
Fun on a bun!