Sci-Fi Storm

While it isn’t an order for new episodes, Futurama fans can still rejoice! And just maybe down the road…SYFY today announced that it has acquired the hit animated series Futurama from Twentieth Television in a multi-year, non-exclusive deal that includes all 140 HD episodes of the series. Futurama will make its SYFY debut in a special weekend stunt beginning Saturday, November 11, with the series airing regularly in primetime on Mondays and Tuesdays from 8PM-2AM ET/PT and on Saturday mornings from 8-11AM ET/PT.

The Futurama acquisition comes as SYFY continues to aggressively expand its genre programming following its summer 2017 brand reboot. Futurama – the first fully animated series in SYFY’s rebooted lineup – will join a growing roster of ambitious scripted and unscripted originals and high profile acquired series and movies that reflect the rich depth of the genre.

“We’re continuing to invest heavily to give our passionate fans the very best in genre programming, and I can think of no better addition to SYFY’s lineup than one of my personal favorites, Futurama,” said Chris McCumber, President, Entertainment Networks (USA and SYFY) for NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment.

First airing on FOX from 1999-2003, Futurama was brought back in 2007 with four direct-to-DVD movies that subsequently aired as 30-minute episodes on Comedy Central. Based on their success, Comedy Central ordered new seasons of the series which debuted in June 2010. Over the course of its storied run, Futurama has earned six Emmy Awards®–including two for Outstanding Animated Program, seven Annie Awards, two Environmental Media Awards and two Writers Guild of America Awards.

Futurama, created by Matt Groening, developed by Matt Groening and David X. Cohen, is produced by The Curiosity Company in association with 20th Century Fox Television.

In addition to current acclaimed series like The Expanse, The Magicians and Channel Zero, upcoming SYFY originals include the December 6 premiere of Happy!, an out-there graphic novel adaptation starring Christopher Meloni and featuring the voice of Patton Oswalt as the animated title character – and the highly anticipated Superman prequel Krypton (2018). SYFY is also currently developing several notable properties, including pilot orders for an adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s space opera novella Nightflyers and a reboot of the 1990 cult classic Tremors.

Comedy Central has decided not to pick up Futurama for more seasons, making the upcoming seventh season its last.

This is not the first time the show has been canceled, however. Fans will remember that the the show originally aired on Fox and was canceled after four seasons in 2003, but in 2007 re-appeared with several direct-to-DVD releases, which sold well enough to prompt Comedy Central to air the DVDs as episodes, and later to produce two more seasons of the show.

So who knows…perhaps the Planet Express and crew will crash land on yet another network someday…the final season starts June 19th.

There wasn’t a lot of genre stuff going on at the Emmys last night, but there were a few highlights. Although Game of Thrones was nominated 13 times, it only won one (aside from a Creative Arts award announced last week) – Peter Dinklage won Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his portrayal of Tyrion Lannister. Jim Parsons won Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for his role as Sheldon Cooper on The Big Bang Theory.

On other Creative Arts Emmys (where the genre shows tend to do well), Futurama won two, for Outstanding Animated Program and Outstanding Voice-Over Performance (Maurice LaMarche as Lrrr/Orson Welles). The Walking Dead also won for Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup.

Other little tidbits – the pre-filmed open included Leonard Nimoy as “Television Network President” (apparently a late replacement for Alec Baldwin, reportedly upset they cut a joke at NewsCorp’s expense – it was aired on NewsCorp-owned FOX), and Marcel Vigneron was briefly shown during the open wearing his Marcel’s Quantum Kitchen shirt – although he and his show were not nominated or otherwise part of the Emmys (and I still haven’t heard confirmation that it is or is not coming back).

Current Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat was in the audience, but for Outstanding Writing for his Sherlock mini-series. Alas he didn’t win (nor did Sherlock pick any of for it’s 3 other nominations), losing to Julian Fellowes and his Downton Abbey (which is an excellent series as well).

The 2011 Primetime Emmy nominations were announced today, and it looks like cable TV is the big winner this year. Read on for a list of the genre shows and their nominations.
(continue reading…)

Just hearing now that Comedy Central has renewed the resurrected Futurama for an additional 26 episodes to air in 2012 and 2013. The remaining 13 episodes from the first order are due to air this summer.

Futurama originally aired on Fox from 1999-2003, when it was canceled. 6 years later Comedy Central brought it back, with great success – Season 6 so far has average 2.5 million viewers.

If you took the surviving heads of Matt Groening and a bunch of other Comic-Con all stars, and put them on a panel in the 31st century, how would it pan out? Futurama lets us know – and gives us a peek into the future.