Futurama is an American animated television series that follows Philip J. Fry after he is cryogenically frozen at midnight, December 31, 1999, and is defrosted a thousand years later in the year 2999. The series, created by Matt Groening (creator of The Simpsons) and David X. Cohen and produced by The Curiosity Company for the Fox Network, aired from March 28, 1999, to August 10, 2003.
While Futurama was never officially cancelled, Fox decided not to buy the fifth season and the program fell apart soon after. On June 22, 2006, Comedy Central officially announced that they have ordered 13 new episodes of the series. In the meantime, Futurama is syndicated in many countries around the world.
The name Futurama comes from an exhibit from the 1939 New York World’s Fair of the same name. The exhibit, designed by Norman Bel Geddes depicted what he imagined the world to look like in 1959.
Season 1
After accidentally falling into a cryonic freezer, Fry awakens from a thousand years of cryogenic slumber to find that the world has completely changed. He meets Leela and Bender, and after a brief period of disorientation, finds his distant grand nephew Professor Hubert Farnsworth, who employs them in his intergalactic delivery service, where they meet Zoidberg, Amy, and Hermes. The Planet Express crew travels the galaxy, interacting with its strange and colorful inhabitants. During one mission Leela rescues Nibbler, a small creature with an unusually large appetite. On that same mission, she also has a brief sexual fling with Zapp Brannigan, forming the basis of a running theme of the series: Zapp refers publicly to the incident and wants to repeat it, and Leela is embarrassed and disgusted by him. Fry develops a strong friendship with Bender, and moves into his closet (which is the size of a normal apartment). Also in this season, Amy meets Kif for the first time.
Season 2
As the Planet Express crew continues to deliver items throughout the galaxy, love is in the air as Fry, Leela and Bender embark on a series of short lived romantic trysts throughout the season. Despite this, Fry’s feelings for Leela begin to become more apparent though his overtures are always swiftly rebuffed. Bender’s character is developed intensely during this season, with a few of the missions centering around him and his journey to overcome his contempt for humans. Early in the season Richard Nixon’s Head is elected President of Earth and reappears in this role throughout the rest of the series. This season also contains the first Xmas episode and the first Anthology Of Interest episode, both of which have a loosely tied “sequel” in season 3.
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Season 3
Fry’s feelings for Leela continue to deepen, even though they both have romances with other people throughout the season. Amy also begins her relationship with Kif which will span the rest of the show. Huge leaps in the advancement of the story are made with the discovery of Nibbler’s intelligence and Fry’s strange immunity to the Brainspawn’s attacks. We are also given a rare chance to see what Fry’s life was like back in the 20th century, as well as a brief glimpse of his grandparents’ lives.
Season 4
After a chance encounter, Leela discovers the truth of her heritage. The importance of Fry is finally made clear when he discovers the true reason he ended up in the 31st century. The relationship between Kif and Amy is sorely tested, but they weather the crisis and their love remains strong. And despite Leela’s continued rejection of Fry, he does not give up on her, going so far as to risk his life for her and even making a deal with the Robot Devil in an attempt to win her love.
Mid-way through the production of the fifth season of Futurama, FOX decided to let Futurama go out of production and told the writers and animators to look for new jobs. A Fox spokeswoman told Zap2it, "Fox has decided not to order more episodes at this time, but we may do so in the future." According to Ain't It Cool News, FOX did not like the show and had started giving it a secondary status, running it and dropping it sporadically. They also did not show several episodes between seasons 3 and 4.
In October 2005, Comedy Central picked up the exclusive cable syndication rights to air Futurama's 72-episode run at the start of 2008, following the expiration of Adult Swim's current deal. It was cited as the largest and most expensive acquisition in the network's history.
The following summer, on June 22, 2006, Comedy Central announced that 13 new episodes were to be produced, to air with the reruns in 2008. Comedy Central also confirmed that Billy West, Katey Sagal, and John DiMaggio will return for the new episodes, with a 2008 debut planned.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futurama |
