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Back to the Futurama!
— June 24, 2006 Leave a Comment
TV.com links to a New York Post story on the return of Futurama to television. The story reports that Comedy Central has the rights to produce 13 new episodes of the show for 2008. Futurama is an animated sci-fi show that ran for 5 seasons before it was cancelled by Fox in 2003.
Futurama never found its audience when it was on, but after it was cancelled, Cartoon Network began to air the reruns on their late night animation block, Adult Swim. On Adult Swim, the show gained a huge following, and once episodes were released on DVD, sales were unexpectedly high. The same thing happened to Family Guy, which was also brought back to TV by Fox in 2005, something that was a first for TV.
This news comes after it was announced in February of this year that more Futurama would be produced for 4 straight to DVD movies. Billy West posted this in the forum of his web site and that production would begin in July or August for the movies. No word yet on how this will be affected. It was also announced that all the original talent will be returning for the show.
This is a very exciting time for Futurama fans. This is only the second time in TV history a show has been brought back. It just doesn’t happen. I think the reason for this is DVD sales. Financially, there is no other reason to keep a show like that on the air, let alone resurrect one from the dead. Family Guy was one of the biggest selling DVD’s of all time. TV studios are seeing that DVD sales can be highly profitable for these shows. For this reason, we may keep seeing this happen in the future. In addition, it could affect the way TV is done.
Futurama is one of my favorite animated shows of all time. I personally cannot wait for the DVD’s, let alone the return of the show!
