While fans of Futurama are sure to enjoy the animated series' final feature-length DVD, they're bound to wonder what the future holds for Fry, Bender and company.
David X. Cohen, the show's executive producer, harbors similar curiosity in the wake of February's release of Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder, the last of four planned straight-to-DVD releases.
"I don't know if there will be more DVDs, or if the show might return to TV in some way," Cohen told Wired.com. "But the return of Futurama is being discussed. I'm just not privy to those discussions."
The popular sci-fi sitcom, which follows a cryogenically preserved pizza-delivery guy from the 20th century who gets thawed out as the year 3000 dawns, was launched in 1999 by The Simpsons animator Matt Groening, who developed the show with Cohen.
Fry, the pizza guy, winds up working for the Planet Express delivery company with one-eyed spaceship captain Leela, mad scientist Hubert J. Farnsworth, boozing robot Bender and a variety of other intergalactic misfits. Futurama's satirical look at the future, and its steady stream of nerdy jokes about science and sci-fi, earned the show a devoted cult following.
While the series pulled down decent ratings and won multiple Emmy and Annie awards, Fox Broadcasting canceled Futurama in 2003. But the show lived on in syndication and enjoyed strong ratings as part of Cartoon Network's late-night Adult Swim lineup. That success led Fox to sign off on the now-complete four DVD Futurama series (other titles included Bender's Big Score, Bender's Game and The Beast With a Billion Backs).
According to Cohen, the popularity of the four Futurama DVD movies and the franchise's future as a TV series are directly connected.
"The response to the DVDs has been really strong," he said. "It's a surprise because obviously we'd been off the air for years. We wondered how deeply the fans cared about the show.
"We wanted to establish if fans were still out there with these DVDs, so we looked to bring back fans' favorite bits — building around Bender, of course. We also wanted to give fans more than they've seen before, so we went wide-screen and HD on all four discs."
Cohen credits Fox's willingness to give Futurama a second life with the straight-to-DVD movies to another television series that returned from the grave: "I think the fact that Family Guy was able to return and do so well made Fox more comfortable with the idea of bringing us back," he said.
Will Futurama live on beyond these DVD releases? Will it ever find its way back to prime-time television?
"There's no official word, but I think the future looks positive," Cohen said. "The DVDs are selling well, and that helps. I admit I've developed an addiction to checking our sales rankings on Amazon."
Despite multiple attempts to confirm Fox's plans, if any, for Futurama, network executives declined to comment. That's not surprising when you consider network scheduling is a mix of open warfare and intelligence operations. Every show is a potential weapon.
For proof of the studio's continued enthusiasm for Futurama, Cohen pointed to the Fox-maintained website at ILoveBender.com. Originally created as a joke URL for one of the DVDs, Fox built the site into a fun stop for Futurama fans.
"I probably have the same questions the fans have when it comes to our future," Cohen said. "But, there's a lot of reason for optimism."
Image courtesy Fox
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