futurama-related stories
Posted Oct 12th 2009 6:02PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: TV on DVD, Reality-Free
Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.
I don't know if
Legend of the Seeker could be considered a guilty pleasure or not. I mean, if you like something, why does it have to be a "guilty" pleasure? Having said that, I think a lot of people would consider this show something they're not willing to admit they like. But I'll admit it: I like it. It's a fun show.
Holiday TV Comedy Collection is a mix of Christmas episodes from various shows, including
The Office,
30 Rock,
Psych,
Monk, and
House.
- Bugs Bunny/Looney Tunes - Spotlight Collection Vol. 7
- Curious George - A Very Monkey Christmas
- Flashpoint - Season 1
Continue reading New TV on DVD releases this week
Posted Sep 8th 2009 11:05AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Interviews, Reality-Free
I haven't been here from the beginning, so I don't know the exact number of times actress and singer Katey Sagal has sat down to talk to someone from our humble site. But within the last year, someone Squadder has either called her up on the phone or bumped into her in person to chat her up about
the return of Futurama or her more serious but equally kick-ass role on
Sons of Anarchy.
I'm seriously thinking that we need to institute some kind of frequent visitor punch card that rewards stars with a free pizza, a round of drinks or half off a new muffler (not including labor) for their 10th interview.
Sagal was nice enough to talk to us yet again in anticipation of the new season of
Sons of Anarachy that premieres this tonight at 10 p.m. Eastern/9 p.m. Central on FX. We talked about her character Gemma's place in SAMCRO and what she has to endure for the club, and why women are such big fans of the show.
Continue reading Sons of Anarchy's Katey Sagal talks to TV Squad...again
Posted Sep 2nd 2009 7:29PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Web, Reality-Free
The science fiction blog
Io9 has a chart up at their site that tracks the themes that have been used on sci-fi TV shows since 1970. How many shows have been about time travel, robots, aliens, space travel, and/or mutants? Is there a trend to the themes of sci-fi shows over the years? (
Here's the complete list of shows they looked at to create the chart.)
Continue reading Io9's sci-fi chart: possibly the geekiest post ever
Posted Aug 30th 2009 4:00PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Programming, What To Watch Tonight, Reality-Free
A 7, NBC has a new Dateline, then Pre-Season Football, the Bears vs. the Broncos.
- At 8, CBS has a new Big Brother, followed by a new There Goes The Neighborhood.
- The CW has the Daytime Emmy Awards at 8.
- Food Network has a new Challenge at 8, followed by a new Iron Chef America.
- At 9, ABC has a new Shark Tank, then a new Defying Gravity.
- PBS has a new Masterpiece Mystery! at 9.
- Comedy Central has Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder at 9.
- There's a new Drop Dead Diva on Lifetime at 8, then a new Army Wives.
- National Geographic Channel has the series premiere of The Human Family Tree at 9.
- HBO has a new True Blood at 9, followed by new episodes of Hung and Entourage.
- Also at 9: Syfy has the movie High Plains Invaders.
- At 10, AMC has a new Mad Men.
- HGTV has a new Design Star at 10.
- History Channel has two new episodes of Pawn Stars at 10.
- At 11:30, Cartoon Network has a new Robot Chicken.
Check your
local TV listings for more.
Posted Aug 28th 2009 12:02PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: TV on DVD, OpEd, Reality-Free
Straight from the Press Room at Fox, the complete series of
Futurama (Seasons 1 to 4, plus the four movies) is being released October 13 in a collectible Bender head for the low, low price of $169.98 ($199.98 Canadian). Of course, once those new Comedy Central episodes are shown, this won't be the complete series anymore. Don't tell Fox. They need to sell DVDs.
I wish I could justify getting this set, but I already purchased the first four seasons of the show on DVD and this isn't worth getting just for the four direct-to-DVD movies. Dear Fox: please release the four movies in a collectible head of Richard Nixon. Or one of the other characters. Which collectible head would you prefer to have?
The box set is also being released in honor of
Futurama's ten-year anniversary. Can you believe this
Simpsons knock-off is ten years old already? Just kidding.
Family Guy is the
Simpsons knock-off.
Posted Aug 7th 2009 1:45PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Industry, Animation, Interviews, TCA Press Tour, Reality-Free
At last night's FOX party at the Langham Huntington's "Horseshoe Garden," I ran into (TV Squad reader) Katey Sagal, who was there in support of her excellent FX show
Sons of Anarchy. Before we could get into any questions about that show, though, I wanted to know about the contentious negotiations between 20th Century Fox and the voice cast of
Futurama that finally were wrapped up last week.
Her reaction? Slightly perturbed, but not surprised, given her industry experience. "Well, it's what always happens. We're starting our sixth season, and the actors felt that it was deserving of a sixth-season salary. And we weren't being offered that. We were united in our search for... we wanted what's fair, that's all."
When 20th put out a
casting notice looking for replacement voices, Sagal said, "I wasn't surprised. It's business."
Continue reading Katey Sagal talks about contentious Futurama negotiations - TCA Report
Posted Aug 6th 2009 2:41PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Industry, TCA Press Tour, Reality-Free, Dollhouse
Believe it or not, FOX execs Kevin Reilly and Peter Rice did field questions that didn't have the words "Idol" our "Paula" in them. But there weren't many. Here are the highlights:
- When Reilly was asked about the "Save Dollhouse" campaigns out there, he joked, "you mean the campaign that started before we starting making episodes?" He cited the solid cumulative numbers the show put up (which included DVR numbers) as to why it was brought back, and the fact that "the fans were there every week. We were there with Joss, and he delivered." While Whedon "wasn't having a lot of fun" in the first half of the season because of the struggles he and the network had to focus on what the vision of the show would be, in the "second half of year he found his voice on the show and had a lot of fun," according to Reilly.
- On Futurama and the option the show has to do a first run on the network level: The show will "do its run on Comedy Central first and we'll see what happens. If we see a renaissance of that show, sure. It's not out of the question." But right now, there are no talks to air it on Fox.
Continue reading More from Fox execs: Futurama, Glee, Dollhouse... but no more King of the Hill - TCA Report
Posted Aug 3rd 2009 10:02AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Animation, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
Despite a minor derailment that nearly
threw all of the show's voice talent head first through a windshield,
Futurama is finally full steam ahead ...
again.
Variety reports that production on the new Comedy Central episodes has been restarted now that the principal voice talent has been coaxed back to the studio. This means that the show will be able to meet its 2010 target date.
That is, of course, unless there are unforeseen complications like, say, another writers' strike, an animator ink shortage, or an impromptu invasion led by the planet Omicron Persei 8. Negotiations with Lur are still pending.
Continue reading Futurama back on track again
Posted Aug 1st 2009 9:02AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Animation, Casting, Reality-Free
It looks like
it may have all been tactics after all. At least so far. While I'm thrilled that the majority of the
Futurama voice actors have signed deals to reprise their roles, they're still missing two of the key talents. Can you really imagine
Futurama with different voices for Fry, Zoidberg, Farnsworth
and Bender? At the same time, I can't really see Billy West (Fry, Zoidberg, Farnsworth) and John Di Maggio (Bender) walking away from this.
Di Maggio is currently working on
Penguins of Madagascar, but neither is working on anything as high profile as
Futurama. I can't imagine they have any intention of truly walking away from a revival getting this much press. They were just trying to play hardball, and realized that 20th Century wasn't going to play.
I think it would have been fun if they'd recast the characters. They would have probably even addressed it right in the episodes, having them talk about how they all sound different and coming up with some ridiculous reason for it.
[
UPDATE: - Since the composition of this post, all principal cast members have been signed.]
Posted Jul 26th 2009 7:00PM by TV Squad blogger
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Animation, Reality-Free, Comic-Con
Our friends at
ComicsAlliance attended the Comic-Con panel for
Futurama. Laura Hudson reports a curious absence there:
The original panel for
Futurama was billed as event where we would "join executive producers Matt Groening and David X. Cohen, and stars Billy West, Katey Sagal, John DiMaggio, and Maurice LaMarche for high-stakes thrills as a top-ranking FOX executive decides live, on stage, whether Futurama will make yet another triumphant return or whether it is gone forever!"
It was an obvious setup for a Fox exec to reunite the cast and creator and cue wild applause from fans for the
revival of the cult favorite cartoon. Unfortunately, as a result of the recent contract disputes and salary cuts for the voice cast -- and the
subsequent threats from Fox that they would recast the characters -- none of the voice actors were in attendance, although series creator Matt Groening voiced his support for them, saying that "we love our
Futurama actors. We hope that FOX and the actors can come to an agreement as soon as possible."
Continue reading Futurama cast absent from Comic-Con panel
Posted Jul 17th 2009 3:02PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Celebrities, Casting, Reality-Free
What the....? What do you mean that Fox
has put out a casting notice to replace the voice leads on
Futurama? Katey Sagal and Billy West didn't mention that
when they spoke to Danny in June. What kind of colossal cluster-frak is Fox doing?
As the article notes, this is either a salary negotiation tactic or the dumbest marketing move since new Coke. This is like replacing Seth MacFarlane on
Family Guy (which I wouldn't put past the Fox executives in looking to save a buck or two). Everybody, and I mean everybody, would notice if the characters suddenly spoke with a different voice, no matter how much the voice tried to be like the original.
This is a bad idea. Even if they did some sort of lame plot device like having Professor Farnsworth invent a machine that would change everybody's voice, this is a bad idea.
They tried this same tactic years ago with the voices on
The Simpsons and that didn't work either. Here's hoping that Fox has similar luck.
Posted Jun 22nd 2009 11:08AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Animation, Interviews, Celebrities, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
Futurama has gone through more frustrating cancellations than a United Airlines flight leaving Chicago's O'Hare Airport. No one knows that better than voice actor
Billy West and actress
Katey Sagal who respectively provide the voice, heart and soul of the show's two main characters, Fry and Leela.
But what has kept the show going is the camaraderie of the cast and crew. Everyone from the show still keep in touch in between other jobs and even have the occasional reunion from their regular crowded visits at ComicCon to smaller get togethers like when Katey said the cast got together to watch her last concert at the
MBar in Hollywood.
Most of all, they said they have the fans to thank for their next big reunion when
Futurama goes back into production. They both took a short time out of their busy schedules to chat about Comedy Central's two season order.
Continue reading Katey Sagal and Billy West on the return of Futurama
Posted Jun 13th 2009 9:02AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Animation, Reality-Free
If you thought
Futurama had nowhere to go after the climatic series-long ending with
Into the Wild Green Yonder (and notice I'm not revealing what that ending is so you spoiler-hating surprise junkies don't lose your half-daily hit of whahuh?!?), think again.
Futurama's executive producer David X. Cohen talked to
Wired Magazine's Underwire blog about just what lies ahead for the
new Comedy Central episodes.
The good news is Cohen seems to be brimming with more crazy ideas than a Hardee's product development retreat, but he doesn't reveal anything too specific in terms of what Fry, Leela and Bender will be doing in the episodes to come.
Continue reading David X. Cohen spills some dark matter on Futurama's future
Posted Jun 9th 2009 7:21PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Animation, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
What was once just internet gossip that spread across the web like a persistent skin rash has now become confirmed fact.
20th Century Fox and Comedy Central are not only reviving
Futurama, but they want double the initial number of episodes that
Collider.com reported meaning fans can look forward to 26 new episodes the sci-fi comedy series around the middle of 2010.
Variety also reports that actors Billy West, Katey Sagal and John DiMaggio have also signed up to once again provide the voices for Fry, Leela and Bender. I believe that sound you just heard was the universe being ripped open by this awesome time loop.
Continue reading It's confirmed! Bender is back! And his banjo! And so is the rest of the Futurama crew!
Posted Jun 8th 2009 11:05AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Animation, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
Have you grown tired of bad TV news? And by bad TV news, I mean bad news about television shows. Bad "TV news" is redundant.
Well, get ready for some good news. No wait, get ready for some great news. No, great doesn't really describe it. Here is some grantasticularly wondergasmiclicious news! (And my 12th grade English teacher said I'd never amount to anything as a writer.)
Comedy Central has ordered all brand new episodes of
Futurama, and the show has officially gone back into production.
Continue reading Bender's back, baby! New Futurama episodes are in our future
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