Futurama's been dead and gone since 2003, but it's coming back to life in new episodes on Comedy Central.
Taking a page from the “Family Guy” resurrection guidebook, the canceled Fox animated comedy is returning with an order from Comedy Central for 26 new episodes.
Writers already are working on stories for the new batch of episodes from the sci-fi cartoon created by Matt Groening and David X. Cohen, which is slated to premiere on Comedy Central in mid-2010.
via THR.com.
Update, Here is the Comedy Central press release:
| 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 -- 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 CENTRALand 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 ChairmenGary 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(R) 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'sInternet 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. SOURCE COMEDY CENTRAL Corporate Communications |
Woo Hoo! I have been waiting for this for 2 years. The dvd movies were fun but individual episodes will be better. Awesome!
Yay! This gives me hope that one day in the near future, some network will announce the premiere of Buffy the Vampire Slayer the Animated Series! After all, the plan for that series fell apart in 2002, just a year before Futurama ended on FOX!!
Heh, in a few years the term “canceled” will come to mean “on hiatus until another network picks it up”. LOL
it can’t hurt that the reruns of Futurama running on CMDY perform relatively well for CMDY. Last Monday’s (not last night) 10:30pm ep did over a million viewers. Out of almost 200 airings on the network for the week, that placed 9th for the network.
This is awesome! I am so happy to see this show come back. The DVD movies were great, but individual episodes would be even better. Thanks Comedy Central.
Amazing news, it’s a great show indeed.
It’ll be interesting to see if they actually air them as episodes this time. When Comedy Central originally ordered the new episodes of Futurama that ended up being four movies, it was reported that they were ordering 12 (I think?) episodes, and the implication was that they would be aired as a normal series. They ended up combining those into movies.
Intresting question. I hope that they air it like a normal series, because the movie format didn’t really work that well (quality-wise, don’t know about the proft).
I always thought this was the funniest of all Fox’s animated series. Gotta love that Bender.:)
The movies were awful. The original series was great. I think the 30 minute format works better than the movie format, and I’m hoping that means the new series will be as good as the original.
This is great news.
Sweet! Got into show last fall. After watching a few epis, wanted more! Best news today!
Ahem, I quote from Benders Big Score:
Professor Farnsworth: Good news, everyone! Those asinine morons who canceled us were themselves fired for incompetence.
[the crew cheers]
Professor Farnsworth: And not just fired, but beaten up, too… and pretty badly.
[the crew cheers doubtfully]
Professor Farnsworth: In fact, most of them died from their injuries.
[the crew remains silent while Bender laughs evilly]
Professor Farnsworth: And then they were ground up into a fine pink powder.
Fry: Why?
Professor Farnsworth: Oh, it’s got a million and one uses.
[Takes some Torgo's Powder and sprinkles it in his pants]
Professor Farnsworth: Aw, that soothes the fire.
Leela: [referring to both the numerous air conditioners and the admirers of Futurama] So what does this mean for us and our many fans?
Professor Farnsworth: It means we’re back on the air!
[the crew is still silent]
Professor Farnsworth: Yes, flying on the air in our mighty spaceship!
[the crew cheers wildly]
Bender: We’re back, baby!
That really is good news!
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
this is my favorite show and it finally got renewed
YES
Please don’t screw it up as badly as the movies… please!
This should have been done back in 2006 when the movies were made. No problem though, Comedy Central has done well and I will be happy to see the 26 episodes come 2010.
It’s good to see it coming back (in episodic form) and I really hope that Fox sees what they really have with their Animation Domination and especially the cancelled KotH.
HURRAY!!
Do Mid-2010 means June 2010?
Good news, everyone!
This is truly great. Futurama is hilarious, and having it come back is wonderful! Fox should have never canceled it to begin with.