TVSquad

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

Day three of Comic-Con 2008 began with waiting in a line that streched the length of the convention center for the Futurama panel, which was followed by The Simpsons panel. Futurama featured the primary voice cast of Billy West, Katey Sagal, and John DiMaggio as well as creators Matt Groening and David X. Cohen.

Due to time limitations the panel when right into audience questions. One that was asked pertained to Matt and David's plans for the show. Both meant said that they had the entire story of Futurama planned even before the show began. They didn't know where the show would go, and they still have plenty of secrets to reveal in upcoming DVD releases.

Thanks to the extreme generosity of Fox Home Entertainment, TV Squad has scored an advance copy of the latest direct-to-DVD Futurama release titled The Beast With A Billion Backs. Previously, we directed you to another DVD review of the show, but now this one is ours! All ours! MWA HA HA HA!

A-hem.

The second direct-to-DVD release of Futurama is a fun movie with loads of extras that make the purchase worth it. They include outtakes, deleted scenes, commentary tracks, and an extra I particularly enjoyed: a "Lost Episode" made from a Futurama video game (which was a bit like watching a video game demo, but with jokes). The DVD also comes with a preview of the next Futurama DVD release which looks to be a satire of Lord of the Rings. Guest voices include Brittany Murphy as Fry's new girlfriend, David Cross as the planet-sized Yivo and Professor Stephen Hawking as himself.

Spoilers after the jump...

(S01E13) So we've come to the last episode of Futurama Season One (or, if you believe Fox, the fourth episode of Season Two). As you can tell, it was a good start to a show that continued to get better over its four years on the air. Even in this season, you could tell that the characters became more refined, and the episodes got progressively funnier as the year went on. It all seemed to culimnate with this episode, which I think is the funniest of the season. It shows us what's really in the ubiquitous drink Slurm, whose tagline is the one I think Red Bull should use: "It's Highly Addictive!"

(S01E11) Is it me or does it seem like a lot of television comedies -- especially cartoons -- do parodies of Animal House? I mean, I've seen that movie's ending scene, where each main character gets freeze-framed as a caption describing what happened to them after college flashes on the screen, mocked a number of times. But, as the old adage goes, it's not the topic, it's the writer's take on the topic that counts. The writers of Futurama do a decent job of making their own version of the venerable movie... complete with a chubby robot with the oh-so-simple name of Fatbot.

Oh, and there's a talking monkey in a bowler. But that's a whole 'nother story.

(S01E09) In the DVD commentary for this episode, David Cohen, Matt Groening, and writer Eric Kaplan all agree that by this juncture, the writers were comfortable enough with the characters to take them in some far-out directions. What's interesting about this episode, though, is that as far out as Leela, Fry and Bender go here, they barely leave Earth (heck, they don't even leave the Northeast).

Oh, sure they go out to the mob planet Sicily 8, but we just see them go out and come back. But that scene is important, for plot forwarding purposes, and for one hell of a funny visual. More on that in a second.

(S01E05) Now that we all know that Futurama is coming back, I'm now watching these early episodes with even more zeal than I had before. Don't know why; I think it's the temptation of new episodes that's making me dissect the old ones, trying to catch all the in-jokes and details so I'm completely up to speed in time for the 2008 re-premiere.

This episode is full of little references that brought out the computer geek in me, which, judging by the commentary on the DVD, was what it did for the show's braintrust.

(S01E04) There's so much packed into this episode, it's hard to figure out where to begin. First, we have the Planet Express crew's first trip to another planet. Then we are introduced to both Zapp Brannigan and Kif Kroker. Finally, we see little Nibbler for the first time, who is introduced as a dumb, so-ugly-he's-cute alien with a voracious appetite and the ability to crap out rocket fuel. But all Futurama fans know Nibbler will play a much larger role later on.

Here's a quickie plot summary: The crew go on a humanitarian mission to Vergon 6, which is about to collapse since its core of dark matter has been over-mined. On the way, the crew runs into Zapp Brannigan and his ship. Zapp is your typical Kirk-esque starship captain, only clumsier and lonlier. He tries to seduce a lonely Leela, who gives him pity sex. He almost has to rescue them from the planet, but Nibbler saves them with his poop.

If you've watched any cartoon on TV in the last fifteen years, chances are you've heard Billy West's voice. West is one of the premier voice actors working today, and during those fifteen years, he's used his versatile voice to create new characters -- and resuurect old ones -- all over the television and movie landscape. From Shaggy to Bugs Bunny to Woody Woodpecker to the Cherios Honey Bee to the Red M&M, the 54-year old West has put his imprint on all of them. But most people know him from two classic cartoon series: On Ren & Stmpy, he did the voices of both main characters (he picked up Ren after creator John Kricfalusi was fired after the first season), and on Futurama he did the voices of Philip Fry, Professor Farnsworth, Dr. John Zoidberg, and Zapp Brannigan, among others.

In this wide-ranging interview, conducted by phone on May 31, Billy and I talked about his history with John K., the way he went about creating some of his Futurama characters, his early-'90s role on "The Howard Stern Show", and the influx of celebrity voices in current cartoon movies (let's just say he's against it). We also went over all the Futurama Season One episodes in the 90-minute (!) interview, which you will see in my Retro Squad coverage of the show. He was even nice enough to do a Futurama / R&S -themed intro for our APB podcast, which we used to open podcast #13 last week. Needless to say, Billy West is a mensch.

Do not adjust your web browser. You are now entering the Retro Squad, where we are reviewing past episodes of your favorite shows, in order, every week.

(S01E01) First, some good news for Futurama fans: last week, I conducted a lengthy interview with Billy West, where, among other things, I was able to get his thoughts on the vast majority of Season One episodes. What I plan to do is to intersperse those thoughts (some are a sentence or two, others are a bit more in-depth) into my Retro Squad reviews of Season One.

West did have some thoughts about the series pilot, but I think I'll leave those for the general interview, which will likely be posted sometime this week (we spoke for 90 minutes, so I'm not looking forward to transcribing that monster). So I'll just give my thoughts; yes, I know, I'm not Billy, but you'll just have to wait for him. Nyah.