TVSquad

Believe it or not, Futurama has been airing on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block for about five years. During that period, fans of the show have probably watched every single episode at least once, or twice, or fifteen times. Now, those same fans will get the chance to watch every single episode one more time as Adult Swim begins a Futurama marathon.

Starting tonight at 11:00 PM, and continuing until 11:30 PM on the last day of the year, there will be nothing on the schedule but Fry, Leela, Bender, and the rest of the team from Planet Express. On December 31st Adult Swim will air the show's first episode, 'Space Pilot 3000' and the last episode, 'The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings' (great episode, by the way) at 11:00 pm and 11:30 pm respectively. This is all in preparation of Futurama moving from Adult Swim to Comedy Central starting on January 1st.

Futurama is back, and the future looks a whole lot brighter. Cliché, but true.

When I first heard that Family Guy was returning to the airwaves, I was wondering if/when other cancelled Fox animated shows would similarly rise from the dead. Then I heard Futurama was returning to Comedy Central (with a brief stop on DVD beforehand). Futurama can best be described as The Simpsons for sci-fi/fantasy fans (which makes sense consider that Matt Groening created both and uses the same animation style for both). I then thanked the gods of comedy for returning this gem.

The plan for Futurama is to release four direct-to-DVD movies which would make up a complete season of 16 half-hour episodes. "Bender's Big Score" is the first release and consists of the first four episodes (although I hear the individual episodes will contain extra footage not in the DVD release when they are eventually broadcast. How's that for a reversal of precedent?).

Futurama is back, and now we know in what form. The show will return on November 27th as a full-length high-def film sold on DVD. It will be followed by three additional films, and each film will be divided into four episodes each to be aired on Comedy Central. So, that's 4 DVD movies or 16 new episodes depending on how you look at it.

See that robot on the right? Does he look familiar at all? Does he perhaps resemble a certain womanizing, hard-drinking robot from a certain recently-resurrected animated series that rhymes with "Futurama," and is, coincidentally, also called "Futurama?" And didn't I essentially give away the answer in the title of this post?

Internet scuttlebutt has it that the robot featured on the old comic book cover, drawn by artist Alex Schomburg, is what inspired the design of Bender from Futurama. The Web site Samuel Design seems to have conclusive proof that Bender did in fact spawn from this cover. It has a screenshot from the season four episode "Crimes of the Hot" that features a "bending unit" with very similar head features of the nameless robot on the cover.

This sci fi and comic book stuff gets into territory I'm not completely familiar with, so I give the floor to you readers who know more about this than I do. Is it obviously the inspiration for Bender, or is everyone reading too much into it?

Thanks to Wild Bill for the link.

David X. Cohen spilled a few beans recently to Toyfare Magazine about the upcoming new Futurama season that'll be both direct to DVD, and appearing on Comedy Central. Right now it's like the chicken and egg, and nobody knows which will come first, but I know that one way or another, I'll be watching. Here's a couple of tidbits:

• The entire original cast is returning
• You'll find out some of Nibbler's secrets
• Al Gore is back

What more can you ask for? Except of course, for them to hurry up and finish it. How long does someone have to wait for some new Futurama goodness? Apparently at least a year longer. The new Futurama won't be ready until 2008, meaning that five years will have passed since a new episode has been seen. Five years! Still, I suppose it's a small price to pay. How many shows come back from the dead after that long? Does this mean I shouldn't give up hope on Gilligan's Island?

[Thanks, Justin and Jeff]

Big huzzahs to reader John Geezer, who sent us a link to this fantastic promo for the upcoming new season of Futurama. The promo was created by Speed Bump Studios in an effort to get a job doing these for Comedy Central. It features a CGI version of Bender walking into a random house, drinking the owners' wine, and stealing their candlesticks. "Hello, peasants!" he yells as he walks in. Really great stuff.

Speed Bump also provides a clip showing the computer rough-draft of the CGI Bender, and an opportunity to download the Bender model (for fun only, of course). Good stuff, and a fun way to close out the week.

(S01E03) So, now we've seen how Fry gets to the year 3000, and we've met the Planet Express crew. Now's the time to tell some stories.

There were a bunch of interesting tidbits from the DVD commentary to this episode. One was the admission from Matt Groening that the storytelling in Futurama was more linear than it was on his other show, The Simpsons, mostly due to the fact that there's so much going on in the background of a typical Futurama epsiode. Well, with all due respect to Groening's genius, duh. I've always equated the storytelling on Futurama to what the early years of The Simpsons were like before the pop-culture asides and other wackiness started to dominate. This episode, where Fry and Bender become rommates, is a perfect example of the show's storytelling prowess; an episode like this would have been told completely differently on The Simpsons, or at least on the show from it's third season onward.

They are programmed to serve man, but only if they aren't programmed to kill man. They clean our homes, pilot our spacecraft, and battle our aliens. Today we honor that metal pal of ours, the robot. Here' s a few of my faves from television, share a few of your own in the comments:

Crow T. Robot: This robot, like his fellow automatons on Mystery Science Theater 3000, was created by original host Joel Hodgson ("Joel Robinson" on the series) using random objects. Crow consisted of bowling pin, a soapdish, lamp parts, and a lacrosse mask. He also penned the lovely holiday ditty, "(Let's Have) A Patrick Swayze Christmas," which I personally like to sing every year, even if my family insists on "O Holy Night."

Great interview with Simpsons/Futurama creator Matt Groening in today's issue of The Onion. In it he reveals that he is often freaked out by strangers who quote obscure Simpsons lines to him (at first he's frightened, but then relieved they're not crazy), talks about how FOX treated Futurama, and even mentions the Simpsons/Family Guy rivalry.

I don't know why, but I never got into Futurama. I thought the show looked great, but never thought it was that funny. I guess I was looking for Simpsons-level humor and found it lacking. Of course, I'm basing this on just the first season, when I last watched the show, so I probably don't know what the hell I'm talking about.

Also in The Onion: Simpsons quotes for everyday use.

Last month, Joel reported on an article in Australia's Sydney Morning Herald which suggested that Futurama may be making a return to television. This morning, America's own Variety magazine is reporting similar news. Although FOX refuses to confirm the report, Variety says that strong DVD sales and high ratings for Futurama reruns have led FOX executives to reconsider their 2003 cancellation of the animated program. Variety says that creator Matt Groening and writer David X. Cohen are in negotiations with FOX to revive Futurama for television. In that article last month, Groening and Cohen both said that they hoped to be in a similar situation to Family Guy, which was cancelled by FOX but then brought back to life when DVD sales reached the fourth-highest ever for a television show. Futurama had five seasons and three emmys.

What do you think? Would you like Futurama to return to weekly television? And then there's always that rumor about a Futurama movie...