“Choke on that, causality!” – Professor Farnsworth The Futurama gang has traveled back in time on several occasions and by several different methods, but usually when they do they manage to find something a lot more interesting than in Simpsorama. They’ve looted ancient treasures, gone back to the American Revolution, and been in and around December 31st, 1999 more times than I can count. But for an episode that goes and stays in (relatively) contemporary America, the best comparison is easily Roswell That Ends Well. Both episodes put Fry, Leela, Bender and the Professor in fish-out-of-water situations, but Roswell That Ends Well not only gives them something meaningful to do along the way, it also puts them in an actually interesting place with actually interesting characters. Simpsorama has dull characters lurch from one unconnected situation to the next, never developing any kind of momentum (story wise or comedy wise). For starters, just look at the characters we get to see. Simpsorama has the one-note remains of Professor Frink making lots of weird noises because that’s his catchphrase. Roswell That Ends Well has all the government scientists who become increasingly frustrated in their attempts to study and dissect Zoidberg. One of these gives you “glaven flaven” for fifteen seconds, the other gives you “Uh, it’s free” when Zoidberg thinks their experiment is a buffet, “the same deviled egg” during their old fashioned alien autopsy, and “The President is gagging on my gas bladder. What an honor.” Is President Truman coming on to Dr. Zoidberg? He’s not hearing a no. Similarly, the entire Simpson family doesn’t possess nearly as much character as Fry’s grandparents. While they can be secretly gay, get blown up in an atomic blast, sleep with their own time traveling grandson, and hear about how the implosion trigger functioned perfectly, the Simpson family has become so flat that they can do little more than repeat catchphrases, or, as the case may be, catch-actions: with Homer strangling Bart-clones being something they thought so funny that they twice did it repeatedly. The respective settings are just as divergent. Springfield is a shell of itself at this point. The long established locales (Moe’s, Barney’s Bowlarama) don’t have anything left to offer, which is why all they could think to do in both was have Bender extend his arms. There’s something we’ve never seen in either place: a robot from the future with really long arms! The new spots, this mysterious horse track and (just for the hell of it) Panucci’s Pizza, were there as filler and fan service. The first was another interchangeable locale for Bender to be a jerk, which would be fine in a regular episode but feels, shall we say, a bit undercooked in a long promised crossover. The second was a quick and nonsensical reminder of one of Futurama‘s most memorable moments. It didn’t need to be there, but it did check one more item off the “let’s cram stuff in” list, so I guess there’s that. By contrast, in Roswell That Ends Well, we get an almost Simpsonized version…
Tag: Futurama
Behind Us Forever: Simpsorama
“Some Bart Simpson dolls!” – Fry “Eat my shorts.” – Bart Simpson Doll “Okay. Mmm, shorts.” – Bender Well, the Futurama crossover finally happened. It had a few good jokes here and there, which is above average for Zombie Simpsons, but mostly it was a mess and suffered from the same kinds of crossover problems we all so recently suffered through with Family Guy: cramming in as many characters from Futurama as possible, whether or not putting them there is funny or necessary. It’s a thing that happened, a little footnote to both shows that will never be confused with the cream of either canon. – I love Hedonismbot, but that couch gag was way too long. The tag “A Show Out of Ideas Teams Up With a Show Out of Episodes” is easily the best joke in the episode, though. – We open with Skinner telling the students they have to put something in a time capsule. Then Chalmers appears from nowhere to fire a spitwad at Skinner. This is not a promising start. – Chalmers just pulled a TV-VCR combo from out of nowhere. – The time capsule ceremony was just interrupted by an instant rain storm for some reason. – Bender just fell out of the sky during a thunderstorm. Which lead to a full minute of Homer and Bart trying to find him in the basement. They settled on hanging Bart upside down from a rope for some reason. Then they pointlessly smacked him around for ten seconds. – Now we’re at Moe’s. Bender belched fire. – The premise here is that Bender and Homer are friends. It’s charming enough, though predictably dumb. – Hey, how about some fan service?: Lisa: You know, they look a little similar. Bart: Yeah, like the guy who designed Bender just took a drawing of Dad and stuck an antenna on it. Lisa: A little lazy, if you ask me. – Lisa took Bender to see Frink. Frink reboots Bender. Now Bender’s supposed to kill Homer, who just showed up after not being there until now. – Writing “Crossovers Are Hell” on the wall in the future was nice. Even if it’s not funny for the reason they think it is. – I guess it’s nice that these mutant rabbits are another nod to Groening, but color me unsurprised that they went with mass chaos for their crossover. – More fourth wall jokes with Zoidberg. – They had to get Fry and Leela (and the Professor) back in time somehow, I get that. But it’s very out of character for Leela want to kill Homer. Obviously she doesn’t actually do it, but it’s pretty weird nevertheless. – Heh: “Okay, but remember, to me you’re incredibly stupid.” – Hey, it’s Seymour! The fan service is pointless and not that funny, but it’s easily the best part of this thing. – Homer and Bender are asleep on the couch together for yet more fan service. – Ugh, this scene where they’re trying to figure…
Reading Digest: Futurama Comparison Edition
“I can’t wait to see that play.” – University Student Futurama went off the air for the third time on Wednesday. (I’m saving the last episode for this weekend and haven’t watched it yet, but the internet seems to have generally liked it.) That departure prompted a slew of eulogies and comparisons to The Simpsons, and we have some of them. In addition to that we’ve got some really cool fan made stuff, a lot of video game links (two of which aren’t about Tapped Out), the return of Me Blog Write Good, and lots more. Enjoy. I WANT A BABY! – Smooth Charlie’s Link of the Week puts the Tapped Out game to a good end. The author used shrubs, lawn chairs and various other in-game items to create a great picture of Maggie . . . with Bobo! Excellent. So… – Our old friend Mike is back at Me Blog Write Good: Here’s the lowdown: after finishing those final extra reviews, I intended on writing up a grand finale, a “What Have We Learned?” if you will, to serve as a final recap of my thoughts about the entire series, or at least the first 444 episodes of it. But, alas, reality intervened. Hours at my new job skyrocketed, to the point that I was working six, seven day weeks up from February to about mid July, with nothing to show for it but crazy overtime pay and IMDB credit on six summer movies. At that point, my heart wasn’t up to completing the recap. Very understandable. Also, couldn’t have said this better: But is it even worth it? By the last couple seasons, I felt I was spinning my wheels with my reviews, because my complaints were becoming repetitive, since the show kept pulling the same shit over and over, whether it be ineffective joke telling, piss poor characterization, or inept attempts at parody or satire. Just remember, you’re in show business now. Repetitiveness is your job. Your job. Should Futurama Stay on the Air Until the 31st Century? – A point by point comparison of Futurama and its elder sibling (so Burns gets compared to Mom, Brockman to Morbo, etc). Unfortunately, it makes the classic blunder of conflating The Simpsons with Zombie Simpsons: Score: 6.75-6.5 Simpsons But wait! The Simpsons has 727 episodes while Futuramahas 140 which means the latter has run for 19.25% as long as The Simpsons. Futuramais 96.3% as good as The Simpsons (6.5/6.75) which means that Futuramashould ideally run for 700.1 episodes. I love Futurama, but believe me when I say that making another 560 episodes would be a soul crushing thing to sit through. Shows that go on too long are not a good thing. 5 Soul Crushingly Sad Fry Moments from “Futurama” – Yet more comparisons between the show and Futurama, and while you get three guesses as to which is #1, you’re only going to need one. i’m back. – The epic last nine months of a graduating nursing…
Quote of the Day
“Sure, FOX makes a fortune from advertising, but it’s still not enough.” – Telethon Guy “Not nearly enough!” – Rupert Murdoch So long (once again) Futurama!
Reading Digest: Futurama Returns Edition
“Fry, this stuff was garbage when it was new. Let’s blow it up already.” – Leela I have not yet watched the new Futurama episodes that were on last night, so I have no opinion on whether or not they suck. The reviews, both professional and from fans, have been almost universally positive, and I take that as a good sign. But in one respect the return of Futurama has already been a success, because every time someone mentions it they also mention The Simpsons, and that often leads to discussion of how badly the elder show has decayed. So this week we’ve got not one, not two, but three people who bashed Zombie Simpsons. It’s nice. There’s also some love for Lisa, something I didn’t know about “Homerpalooza”, a truly bizarre short story loosely based on “Lisa the Vegetarian”, Marge in both cake and fruit form, and the usual usage. Enjoy. Homer Simpson’s Duff Beer: Barley, Hops, and Cultural Stories? – Simpsons merchandise and the real Duff in Rome. Ten Great TV Cartoon Geeks – Lisa checks in at #3. Marge Gets Sweet – Marge done with fruit and what looks like whipped cream and chocolate. Celebrating and Nurturing the Miracle of Life – This is a rather long post about fatherhood, and this is poor usage: Homer says, “Hey boy! Wanna play catch?” Bart says: “No thanks dad.” Homer mutters under his breath, “When a son doesn’t want to play catch with his father something is definitely wrong.” Grandpa Simpson over hears his son and chimes in, “I’ll play catch with you son!” Homer says, “Go home old man.” It’s really not even close. The actual exchange is: Homer: Bart, son, you want to play catch? Bart: No. Homer: When a boy doesn’t want to play catch with his old man something is seriously wrong. Grandpa: I’ll play catch with you, son. Homer: Get the hell out! Grandpa: I’m gone. Disturbing Simpsons – A very strange, bizarrely animated take on “Lisa the Vegetarian”. Dr. Nick steals her kidney at one point. (via this and Springfield Springfield’s Twitter feed) Senior Quotes – Homer Simpson did, indeed, have a great quote in his yearbook. Simply The Best #36 (Cartoon Television Shows) – Simpsons is #1, though it comes with the usual Zombie Simpsons cliche: I don’t feel like it’s been at the top if it’s game for a while but it’s still better than 95% of the shows that currently air. Oh well. I Dreamed a Dream – Summer Story Tellers – I long ago lost count of the number of things I discovered through The Simpsons, this guy discovered show tunes. Homer Sees Homer – Click this, right now. Sadly there’s no location given, which probably saved me a lot of money because I would travel a very long way to get my picture taken in front of such a work of absolute genius. Here come the girls! – One writer’s list of her favorite female characters. Mom and…
Zombie Simpsons Is Off the Air, How About Some Futurama News?
I remain at least slightly nervous about the return of Futurama, but this interview with David X. Cohen (who was David S. Cohen during his time on The Simpsons) is pretty reassuring. Everybody’s back and Fry and Leela will not be getting married and moving to the suburbs. The concepts are a clever as ever, and Cohen discusses a number of them. This may be my favorite: the Professor invents a time machine that only goes forward in time. Once they start going, there is no hope of return. And the initial goal is to just go a minute forward into the future and test it out, but the Professor trips and they’re immediately 1,000 years in the future with nowhere to go but forward. So they spend the episode going further and further through all future history trying to find the technology for a backward time machine. There’s a lot more there for anyone else who’s looking forward to the return to the 31st century.
A Little First Hand Context
Yesterday we tweeted (twat?) about Groening saying the show would never end. Now comes some much needed context from someone who was actually there: Futurama: Sadly, none of the voice actors were at the panel because of labour disputes, but Matt Groening was hilarious. He was absolutely fixated on giving out prizes to people asking questions and he didn’t even seem to care about answering them. I wouldn’t be surprised to find him on the street corner trying to hustle with his own merch. In any case, not much was shown or talked about. Next! The Simpsons: Again, Matt Groening was mainly giving out prizes to Q&A people while other writers answered questions. Although, he did say that he and Danny Elfman make the “s” sound at the end of “The Simpsons” at the beginning of the credits. Fun trivia! Then someone from the Guiness Book of World Records came out and gave them two honours, one for the longest running sitcom in the world and another for being voted one of the most important records in the last 100 years. Good for them! To which Matt Groening shouted to the crowd, “There is no end in sight. Simpsons forever!” Okay, so he was getting his dick sucked by that Guinness Book of Records crowd and had a bunch of fanboys shouting his name when he said it. I had this horrible vision that he was in some kind of a sit down interview or something. So while we’re still saddled with two more seasons of Zombie Simpsons, nothing has substantively changed beyond that. Whew. (Also: I continue to think the Futurama voice actors will get back on the show once FOX gets them to agree to work for Itchy & Scratchy money, but that FOX is serious about going forward with new voices, which would amount to little more than a desperate money grab, cannot be doubted.)
Still Careful About What I Wish For
“You’ll be the captain; you’ll be the delivery boy; and you’ll be the alcoholic, foul mouthed-oh god, you’re alive! I mean, thank god you’re alive! Sorry, check back in three days, a week at the most.” – Prof. Farnsworth This is fresh in from the Rockin’ Rumor Department, but it looks as if FOX is at least thinking about recasting Futurama. Phil LaMarr’s Facebook page says this: Phil LaMarr is happy for my friends at Family Guy (Emmy nomination!) and very unhappy for my friends at Futurama (replacing the cast!) Forces of Geek has a full casting notice for Fry, Leela, Bender, Farnsworth, Zoidberg, Mom, Brannigan and Kif. This is, obviously, not a final decision and speculation is already rampant that this is just a squeeze play for salary negotiations. So it may be a tempest in an internet teacup, and let’s hope it is because if they replace the voices for the Futurama return it would suck balls. This is pretty much exactly what I was talking about last month when the news came that Futurama was coming back. A show like this is not something that can just be turned off and then turned back on again and the road back to production can be bumpy as hell. Anyway, here’s hoping. (Via Traveling With Jim’s Weblog)
Pointless Show Comparisons
When I was taking that quiz Dave put up yesterday I noticed that there were links to quizzes for Family Guy, South Park and Futurama as well. Rather than add to internet’s already vast archive of arguments over the relative merits of these shows, I’m simply going to point out a telling numerical discrepancy. In raw numbers The Simpsons quiz had 63 characters, the South Park and Family Guy quizzes had 42 each and the Futurama quiz had 30. But the Simpsons quiz doesn’t have more characters because it’s been on longer. In fact, all of the 63 characters were on the show by Season 9 (nary a Zombie Simpsons creation in the bunch). But that doesn’t tell the whole tale because there are, by my count, only six characters in the quiz that weren’t already on the show by Season 3. (Cletus didn’t show up until Season 5, Brandine, Disco Stu and Homer’s Mom appeared in Season 7, and Duffman and the Cat Lady showed up in Season 9.) In other words, it took The Simpsons less than sixty episodes to have 57 characters memorable enough to be on an internet quiz. Note: No Crazy Noises this week as Mad Jon is moving to Cypress Creek.
Being Careful About What You Wish For
“We’re back, baby!” – Bender Futurama is coming back. The news broke a couple of days ago, and plenty of different outlets used the same hook. Our beloved SimpsonsChannel: Good news, everyone! Collider.com reports today that an inside source tells them that another season of Futurama may be coming soon to Comedy Central. The Nintendians at N-Philes: Good News, Everyone! Futurama To Make A Return Even The New York Times couldn’t resist. Though, being the Times, they had to give it some preparatory context: In the immortal words of Professor Hubert Farnsworth: Good news, everyone! The animated science-fiction comedy “Futurama,” below, will be getting a new lease on life at Comedy Central It even translates into Czech: Good news, everyone, pozdraví zase Hubert J. Farnsworth svého příbuzného z minulosti Philipa J. Frye a vyšle ho s dalšími exoty na novou krkolomnou misi coby doručovatele v zásilkové společnosti Planet Express, která šílenému profesorovi vydělává peníze pro vědeckou činnost. So, lots of people are happy that Futurama is coming back with a full 26 episode season set to begin next year. Of course, the more circumspect are at least expressing some caution. Svip at Futurama Madhouse writes: But not everyone is cheering, and not just because they are pessimists, even the optimists are using caution. If you have paid any attention to a Futurama community lately, and by lately I mean since the release of Bender’s Big Score, you would have noticed a certain… opinion on the four films. And that opinion pretty simply sums up to that the four films are not en par with the original four seasons. Not as clever plots, not as good laughs, too much canon contradiction, excessive use of reset buttons, more creepy than entertaining, and so on. Generally, the four films, while most welcome by the fans, they are still not seen as being on the same level as season 1 to 4. So the main concern becomes; will season 6 be on the same level as the films? Svip concludes that the pessimism isn’t warranted because Futurama has always worked best in 22 minute chunks. The movies, which were essentially four 22-minute episodes smashed together (so they could be chopped up for syndication), were simply the wrong format. It’s a good point and I basically agree, but I’m not going to let go of my wariness just yet. A creative endeavor like Futurama isn’t something you can just turn on and off with a light switch (Cue Cletus: Duh, light switch?). Creating something as clever, funny and original as Futurama requires a lot of elements to fall into place, and not all of them can be controlled. Some of it is just luck and random timing. The obvious parallel here is the decomposition of The Simpsons into Zombie Simpsons, but there are a lot of other examples as well. Think of all the crappy movie sequels that didn’t need to be made. Think of novelists who keep using the same characters. Even keeping the…
Going Out In Style
“They say the greatest tragedy is when a father outlives his son; I’ve never fully understood why that is. Frankly, I can see an upside to it.” – Abe “Grandpa” Simpson Futurama, the longer surviving of the two Simpsons spin-offs, ends today, more or less on its own terms. It was cancelled back in 2003 but strong reruns on cable got it brought back for 4 direct to DVD movies (each of which is comprised of four episodes condensed together), the final one of which, Into the Wild Green Yonder, came out today. Whatever one thinks of the show (I happen to be a fan, but that’s just me), it, unlike Zombie Simpsons, has an ending. Into the Wild Green Yonder has a “series finale” feel to it, ties things up at the end, and is a pretty decent way to send off a beloved television show. Pointless debates will never rage back and forth about when the show went to hell, or if its even still funny. It was on; it was loved; it will be missed; and it will live forever in reruns and home video.