What is the show about? It is about a twentieth-century everyman named "Fry" who is accidentally cryogenically frozen on New Year's Eve 1999. He wakes up from suspended animation a thousand years in the future, where (when?) he gets a job as a sort of futuristic FedEx guy. Fry is befriended by a kleptomaniac robot named "Bender" and a beautiful alien woman (a cyclops!) named "Leela." In the words of the Fox press release, "Fry realizes that the future holds some major changes, but life's everyday challenges and joys still hold true. And, of course, traffic is still a bitch." (Although I have been told that traffic is never actually depicted as "a bitch.")
What will the tone and look of the show be like? Apparently, the humor of Futurama should be much more off-the-wall than for The Simpsons. People involved with series production have said that every episode of Futurama will be like a Simpsons "Treehouse of Horror." Official press releases have said that the tone of the series will be both futuristic and nostalgic. The artwork released to date looks very bold and colorful, a sort of retro-looking future, vaguely like Roswell, the science-fiction comic book from Groening's Bongo Comics. The characters are similar to those from The Simpsons, but without yellow skin. (One of the show's producers told me "the only yellow characters will be the ones with jaundice.")
Matt Groening has said "I love Star Trek and Star Wars and all the variations on them. But I wanted a show in which the problems of the universe are not solved by militarism guided by New Age spirituality." I think that is Futurama in a nutshell.
Who's involved with the show? The Executive Producers of the show will be Groening and David X. Cohen, a Simpsons writer/producer, who will serve as the "show runner." Rather than using Film Roman, the animation studio that produces The Simpsons, Groening and Cohen will be using Rough Draft Animation, based in Los Angeles and Korea. The show will be a co-production of Fox and Groening's Curiosity Company.
The show's writers include (in alphabetical order) Justin Adler, Stewart Burns, Tom Gammill, Eric Horsted, Eric Kaplan, Matt Karis, Ken Keeler, Lewis Morton, Max Pross, and Patric M. Verrone. The members of this august group have worked on such shows as Seinfeld, NewsRadio, The Late Show with David Letterman, Unhappily Ever After, The Critic, and The Simpsons. Animation directors for the show include (also in alphabetical order) Susie Dietter, Bret Haaland, Claudia Katz, Rich Moore, and Greg Vanzo.
Fry will be portrayed by animation veteran Billy West, best known as Stimpy of Ren & Stimpy and Doug of Nickelodeon's Doug (not ABC's). Katey Sagal, best known as Peggy Bundy on Married with Children, will provide the voice for the beautiful alien Leela. John DiMaggio plays Bender the robot. I am not familiar with Mr. DiMaggio's career, however, I understand that he plays a character on Chicago Hope.
The supporting cast includes a number of animation veterans, including two from Animaniacs, Tress MacNeille and Maurice LaMarche. Tress is best known as Dot Warner, although she has done just about every cartoon in the last twenty years. Maurice LaMarche is, of course, The Brain (of Pinky and), although he has about as ubiquitous as Ms. MacNeille. Other supporting cast members include Phil Lamar (of Mad TV) and Lauren Tom (of King of the Hill).
For awhile, it looked as though David Silverman, one of the original animators for The Simpsons, might join Futurama after leaving the helm of the DreamWorks movie Road to El Dorado. Instead, however, it seems that he has got a job with Pixar (the Toy Story people) instead. C'est la vie. And Phil Hartman had been offered a number of voice roles on the show, but did not record any before his untimely death. So it goes. Apparently, a recurring character has been named "Phil" in his memory.
There have already been a number of guest appearances lined up. Leonard Nimoy (who I believe used to star on some science-fiction TV show), Dick Clark, "Ronco" founder Ron Popeil, Dan Castellaneta (aka the voice of Homer Simpson), and Pamela "Insert salacious comment here" Anderson. Groening has said that he will make an appearance himself in the first episode, although it will be a visual appearance only.
How many episodes will there be, and when will they air? Fox has ordered 13 episodes of the series, which will serve as a mid-season replacement, much as The Simpsons did in the 1989-90 season. If all goes well, ten episodes will air during from March through May. I don't know what day and time they will air (the Fox programmers probably don't know either), since it appears that That 70's Show, the program currently after The Simpsons, is a minor hit. More on this as it gets closer to March. I promise!
Is Fox planning any other animated shows? Well, besides the tenth season of The Simpsons and the third season of King of the Hill, Fox has two new animated shows on deck besides Futurama. The PJs is stop-motion animation from Will Vinton studios (the same guys that brought you the California Raisins), and features the vocal talents of Eddie Murphy: his first television venture since he left Saturday Night Live. It will begin airing on January 10th, after The Simpsons, and will move to Tuesday nights after King of the Hill. Family Guy is a South Park-esque view of a New England family, created by a young animator named Seth MacFarlane. Its first episode will air after the Super Bowl, along with a new episode of The Simpsons.
Currently, there is something of a prime-time animation boom: this summer has seen Invasion America on the WB (it sucked), Stressed Eric on NBC (all reports indicate that it sucked), and the future months will bring us these three new Fox shows, Dilbert and Baby Blues on UPN, and Downtowners (by former Simpsons exec. producers Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein) on the WB, and Peewee from David Spade on NBC. And there will probably be more than that!
How about a Futurama movie? Available details are sketchy, but Groening also arranged for a film deal along with the television package. Although there will probably never be a Simpsons movie, there very likely will be a Futurama film, assuming the show is a success.
Can I get a job on the show? I don't know if they are still hiring, but apparently Rough Draft Studios has been hiring personnel to work on Futurama. If you happen to be an animation professional and want to work on this series (or if you're just curious), you can check out their call for applications here. As the show is already well into production, however, I'm afraid it may be too late now.
How did you find all of this out? A lot of it came through careful observation of my own: I read everything I could find about Futurama, and placed the distillation of that news here. More recent pieces of news have come from "the horse's mouth": personnel currently working on the show. And if you hear anything interesting, always feel free to Email me. I'll be happy to credit anyone who brings an item of news to my attention. And, of course, if you don't want to be credited for providing me with a scoop, I will protect your identity.
Are there any other Futurama websites? Why yes! Please examine the links page for fuller details.
Copyright 1998-1999 by Dale G. Abersold
Disclaimer: "Futurama" TM and copyright Fox and the Curiosity Company. All rights reserved. This website and its contents is neither authorized nor endorsed by Fox.