I'm glad some new Futurama is getting made.
But why 4 DVD movies? That just sounds weird to me!
Why not just make another series?

Cheers
AC (cautiously optimistic)

I'm sure it has something to do with them being cancelled.

I don't get it

Is it more expensive to make a series of episodes than to make 4 movies?
Is it more of a risk to put a series of episodes straight to DVD than movies?

The 4th series went straight to DVD in the end didn't it? Or did it get screened?

I guess I have no idea how these things work.
It just seems kinda strange to me.

But then I didn't even know there WAS a Family Guy movie


Cheers
AC

I can only hazard a guess which may very well be wrong, but if they were cancelled it implies that Fox didn't want to fund any more episodes of Futurama and so these "DVD movies" are being funded/produced by a different group who have chosen to market them as such rather than scheduling them for US television. But like I said, I have only read what has been put on here so I don't know for sure.

Yeah that makes sense.
I still find it hard to imagine why someone would want to put up money for movies rather than episodes though.

Maybe it's a more accepted format for straight-to-DVD releases.

Anyway, enough of my constant questions I shall just wait and see and hopefully the movies will be really good.
Certainly looking forward to some new Futurama in ANY format!!


Damn, now I feel like watching some of the old eps. I wish all our DVDs weren't packed away.


Cheers
AC

I suppose this way they can make them more compact and they can expand on all the good storylines and jokes they have with the length of a film probably making it much easier than making a whole series. Also, films that are self-contained, standing alone from the series, are a good way of attracting new fans, and reining in all young 'uns who might not have seen much of the show ( Though I imagine there's not that many people who aren't already Futurama followers).

The fourth series was screened, just all haphazardly. It is cheaper to commit to a DVD movie than 22 new episodes. I assume the remaining three movies are dependant on sales of the first. The reason Fox have decided to go with the straight to DVD market is as a result of overwhelming sales of the TV show DVDs. They cancelled the show because it wasn't getting good ratings, but the reason for that wasn't its unpopularity, it was because of poor scheduling (Groening maintains that this was a deliberate attempt to undermine the show by Fox). Can't argue with the figures though and the show shifts DVDs. Same story as Family Guy except that Fox recomissioned the FG series based on the DVD sales having already greenlit the DTDVD movie.

You.

"Cancelled by Fox" = an excellent show.

Regarding the Family Guy Movie - I had no problems with the production values, or the material, or the plot. I wasn't expecting an all-singing, all-dancing version of the series, and so I wan't disappointed.

However, now you all mention it - what if the Futurama Movie was akin to The Incredibles of Toy Story 2 in terms of scope and special effects? How amazing would that be!

The FG flick seemed even cheaper than the show. I wasn't expecting anything better than that. Futurama was always expensive for TV but would be cheap as a feature.

It certainly stands up to scrutiny as an indicator of quality. I liked teh FG film, it was a bit on the cheap side and it didn't have a particularly great plot but a lot of the jokes were quite good, though it did tire a bit at the end due to the narrative. I suppose it works best in episodic form and Season 4 is pretty good, although the constant in-jokes are a bit grating.

I think that the Futurama films will be a better effort all around, it was a show that managed to make good stories out of even the weaker episodes. Even if some of them weren't hilarious the stories were usually very engaging. If they can make anything that has even half the emotional clout of 'Luck of The Fryrish' and 'Jurassic Bark' and still manage to keep them funny then it will be a great success.

So *sniffs* beautiful.

#If it takes forever, I will wait for you#

One of my friends hadn't seen most of Season 4 so I showed her that episode and by the end we were both crying, it's quite possibly the saddest ending to a cartoon I've ever seen. The only one that rivals it is the last shot of the Simpsons episode where Homer's Mum first comes back.

Well unfortunately Lois there's just no more room on the schedule, we've just go to accept the fact that Fox has to make room for terrific shows like Dark Angel, Titus, Undeclared, Action, That 80s Show, Wonderfalls, Fast Lane, Andy Richter Controls the Universe, Skin, Girls Club, The Pits, Firefly, Get Real, Freaky Links, Wanda at Large, Costello, The Lone Gunmen, A Minute with Stan Hooper, Normal Ohio, Pacedina, Harsh Realm, Keen Eddie, The Street, American Embassy, Cedric the Entertainer, The Tick, Louis and Greg the Bunny.

...Well I suppose if ALL those shows go down the tube we'll have a shot.

Lousy ineffective reaper

Consider my case rested.

What?????

Any Good?

Probably not, I don't think there are plans to screen it over here.

Yeah from what I had seen from that list most of them were pretty poor and some were so obscure I hadn't even heard of them until they were on Family Guy... "Greg the Bunny"!? But I liked Dark Angel and Firefly.

For shame, Ingram!

It featured Buffy star Seth Green.


(I've never seen it, BTW, just heard of it)

After looking it up on IMDB, Seth Green and Eugene Levy does seen like an excellent reason for me to have heard of it... but seeing as it wasn't exported over here and was cancelled after only 11 episodes I don't think I'm completely at fault.

Oh, I thought it might be something to do with That 70's Show but I guess not if it was cancelled due to shitness.

I assumed that it was a follow-up considering that it had a similar name and, it would appear, was similarly awful.

Considering the long-run the original has had I would say that it was worse, not similarly awful. I didn't think That 70s Show was that bad. I thought it had its moments.

I think that it had no moments. Well, except for the one where one of them kept going on about Star Wars. It is one of the few shows that I actively despise, no show that resorts to stoned conversations in nearly every episode can be particularly good.

That's fair enough. We all have programmes we hate.

I admit That 70's Show is a bit sometimes but as Ingram said it does have it's moments, a few of which are the stoned conversations that you speak of. Also Hyde is rather amusing.

From Billy West himself:



This is sounding better and better... I just hope it pans out.

Needless to say, that is brilliant news. Good news, in fact.

I refuse to get my hopes up.

Oh yeah, oh yeah.

Same here.

All this good news flying about- it may just all fall flat on it's arse and we'll end up with nothing.

You need to read further down, Billy's posted a retraction - there may still be DVD happenings but his report that there will be a 26 episode series has been squashed by David X.

Damn it. Knew I should have kept reading but I got bored of reading all the ''Woo, yay etc'' posts. Well, it was a nice feeling while it lasted.

WHilst reading further down ( ) I heard someone say something about where Fry's Y chromosome (sp?) is really from

I thought it was because he was his own grandfather, is this not true?

I'm confused.

Oh well, I thought it might be too good to be true.



That's the point - Y chromosomes are only passed from father to son. If Fry got his Y chromosome from his father, and his father got it from Fry, where did it come from in the first place?

Ah...curse my lack of geneology(sp) knowledge

Hopes raised.
Hopes dashed.

DOes anyone else recall an episode where Fry finds an old VW hippy van and keeps it, and benders been hurt for some reason and ends up touring with Beck?
And Dr Zoidberg creates these funky pearl necklace things?

I can remember these details but have noticed that it isn't on any of the dvds (unless I'm being an idiot) but I have just watched them all again fairly recently and I'm certain I didn't see this.

It's haunting my dreams now it's really bugging me.

That'll be Bendin' in the Wind, episode 13 in series 3.

BUt does the whole VW van business happen too?

Episode summary, from Wikipedia;

Fry gets a free Volkswagen microbus, excavated from the ruins of Old New York. He pushes it back to the Planet Express office, and has to fuel it with whale oil, which replaced gasoline. Bender lifts the barrel of whale oil to the can opener, and is caught by the opener's magnet and horribly injured.

At the robot hospital, the doctor informs Bender that he will never move again. Bender falls into a state of depression, but when he finds out that Beck's disembodied head is occupying the bed next to him, his spirits are lifted. Beck loans Bender a set of neck-mounted robotic mini-arms. Using the arms to scrape across his mangled body, Bender earns the position of Beck's washboard player.

Bender goes on tour with Beck, and Fry, Leela, Amy, and Dr. Zoidberg pile into Fry's van to follow them. While on tour, Bender is insulted by the treatment of other broken robots. As the tour continues, Bender writes a song about broken robots. Together with Beck, he decides to put on a benefit concert in San Francisco, to help all the broken robots.

Fry and the crew catch up with Bender, who is relaxing in a San Francisco hotel. To everyone's shock, they discover that Bender has miraculously been fixed. To keep his music career, Bender decides to fake still being broken. The concert goes on as planned, but when the time comes to perform Bender's song, he can not restrain himself, and dances around the stage. Bender, having been found out, runs off with the oversized benefit check, stealing Fry's Volkswagen.

Bender, being pursued by an irate Beck, drives the microbus into San Francisco Bay. Beck catches Bender, and recovers the check. The crew floats back to New New York in the microbus.

And yes, Zoidberg makes necklaces for the hippies.

Phew, I thought I was going insane. I guess the drugs were to blame for me not remembering this during my Futurama marathon.

Thanks man.

Fine episode. The summary doesn't mention one of the best jokes in the entire series.

Namely:



Cylon & Garfunkel!

I just love it when Cylon starts singing

Once again, the conservative sandwich-heavy portfolio pays off for the hungry investor!

Further, my favorite episode appears to be unrepresented: Three Hundred Big Boys.

Whale Biologist

That is a damn fine episode.

"Ah...closure."

Don't know whether it's been posted before but someone has wayyyyyyy too much time on their hands.

Haha, awesome.

Must be the same people who did the live action advert for the Simpsons. My jaw dropped.