Futurama General Discussion

I did enjoy the run on Comedy Central and I was glad to see the show get more of a chance, but those seasons did feel weaker overall. I've never really been able to put my finger on why I didn't enjoy them as much, though. It's not as clear-cut as, say, The Simpsons, where there was a noticeable tone shift after the classic era, with the characters suffering from pronounced Flanderization and the humour becoming a bit dumber and more acerbic in an attempt to be edgy.
 
The Comedy Central era gets a bit too much flak, I think. It certainly wasn't as good as the original run and had problems (there is the Flanderization issue, a lot of poorly handled modern day references, shades of the Family Guy syndrome of characters becoming meaner and more jerk-ish and callous & the writing wasn't alway on top) but overall it had a lot of enjoyable and even great episodes in there.
 
I know that people have issues with the later Futurama episodes - Dated pop culture references, trying to hard to stay relevant, some flanderizations of some characters and edgier humor than what was on FOX, but am I the only one who thinks the popularity of the MacFarlane shows contributed to Futurama's second death? In the late 2000s, Family Guy had exploded into pop culture and became a giant hit. It became the highest rated show on FOX, overtaking The Simpsons, people would recite lines from it everyday, clips on YouTube would be the highest rated, Stewie mania was everywhere, and everyone acted like it was a blessing to comedy because it was much edgier than The Simpsons and South Park. You couldn't turn a blind eye without someone talking about it. Seth MacFarlane was even the highest paid animator for a period. Futurama was never as popular as Family Guy post cancellation, but it did have a moderately high fanbase when it went into reruns on Adult Swim and even when the DVD movies were released. But I remember that when Family Guy became popular, people in the general public viewed the Matt Groening shows as lame and safe compared to Family Guy and American Dad. Very few people admitted to enjoying Simpsons or Futurama anymore. By the time Futurama had been revived, very few people cared anymore because it wasn't as edgy or as vulgar as the MacFarlane shows, which resulted in the ratings tanking and the show being cancelled again. Say what you want about American Dad, but it's been more positively received and successful than Futurama. Of course, the tables have turned because both Family Guy and American Dad are no longer popular thanks to Rick and Morty.
 
I know that people have issues with the later Futurama episodes - Dated pop culture references, trying to hard to stay relevant, some flanderizations of some characters and edgier humor than what was on FOX, but am I the only one who thinks the popularity of the MacFarlane shows contributed to Futurama's second death? In the late 2000s, Family Guy had exploded into pop culture and became a giant hit. It became the highest rated show on FOX, overtaking The Simpsons, people would recite lines from it everyday, clips on YouTube would be the highest rated, Stewie mania was everywhere, and everyone acted like it was a blessing to comedy because it was much edgier than The Simpsons and South Park. You couldn't turn a blind eye without someone talking about it. Seth MacFarlane was even the highest paid animator for a period. Futurama was never as popular as Family Guy post cancellation, but it did have a moderately high fanbase when it went into reruns on Adult Swim and even when the DVD movies were released. But I remember that when Family Guy became popular, people in the general public viewed the Matt Groening shows as lame and safe compared to Family Guy and American Dad. Very few people admitted to enjoying Simpsons or Futurama anymore. By the time Futurama had been revived, very few people cared anymore because it wasn't as edgy or as vulgar as the MacFarlane shows, which resulted in the ratings tanking and the show being cancelled again. Say what you want about American Dad, but it's been more positively received and successful than Futurama. Of course, the tables have turned because both Family Guy and American Dad are no longer popular thanks to Rick and Morty.
Your'e right about Rick and Morty. It knocks both of Seths' shows out of the ball park.
 
The revival series probably did bank a little too heavily on commenting on and satirising current events by transplanting them into the future. It's not that they never did that during the original run, but it was a little more common (and arguably more heavy-handed as well) in the revival run.
 
I know that people have issues with the later Futurama episodes - Dated pop culture references, trying to hard to stay relevant, some flanderizations of some characters and edgier humor than what was on FOX, but am I the only one who thinks the popularity of the MacFarlane shows contributed to Futurama's second death? In the late 2000s, Family Guy had exploded into pop culture and became a giant hit. It became the highest rated show on FOX, overtaking The Simpsons, people would recite lines from it everyday, clips on YouTube would be the highest rated, Stewie mania was everywhere, and everyone acted like it was a blessing to comedy because it was much edgier than The Simpsons and South Park. You couldn't turn a blind eye without someone talking about it. Seth MacFarlane was even the highest paid animator for a period. Futurama was never as popular as Family Guy post cancellation, but it did have a moderately high fanbase when it went into reruns on Adult Swim and even when the DVD movies were released. But I remember that when Family Guy became popular, people in the general public viewed the Matt Groening shows as lame and safe compared to Family Guy and American Dad. Very few people admitted to enjoying Simpsons or Futurama anymore. By the time Futurama had been revived, very few people cared anymore because it wasn't as edgy or as vulgar as the MacFarlane shows, which resulted in the ratings tanking and the show being cancelled again. Say what you want about American Dad, but it's been more positively received and successful than Futurama. Of course, the tables have turned because both Family Guy and American Dad are no longer popular thanks to Rick and Morty.

I think It comes down to What the creators of the show have reiterated on the commentaries, Fox never really got the concept of the show and did not like it. And when Fox tried to dictate to Groening and Company how to make there show and Groening told Fox to pound salt, Fox didn't like that and put Futurama on at a time when It got preempted by Football Games. A show cant survive when they don't show it and instead show a Football game. They could have put it on another night but at the time American Idol was on every night of the week that could have hurt its chances as well. There Is no reason Futurama couldn't have lasted at least 15 seasons on Fox It was a great show that deserved better. Just because Fox didn't like it the show got canceled.
 
I was thinking about the show since it came up in the discussion of a thread in Simpsons general discussion and I started to wonder: whom has the rights to the show as of now?

The series was produced by Fox/20th Century TV (that aired the first four seasons & released the four DTV films), but the revival era was produced and released for Comedy Central (and the show still airs there as a whole IIRC) so does CBS/Paramount own part of the rights? If Disney (who owns 20th now) would want to put the full series on Disney+, would they be able to do so freely or would have to get the rights from Comedy Central for the revival seasons (or have to leave them off)?
 
I'd say that they might ask Comedy Central for the rights, rather than leave them out together. If they can't, I don't think it'll be put on Disney+ at all, even though it being family friendly enough to be on there.
 
I was thinking about the show since it came up in the discussion of a thread in Simpsons general discussion and I started to wonder: whom has the rights to the show as of now?

The series was produced by Fox/20th Century TV (that aired the first four seasons & released the four DTV films), but the revival era was produced and released for Comedy Central (and the show still airs there as a whole IIRC) so does CBS/Paramount own part of the rights? If Disney (who owns 20th now) would want to put the full series on Disney+, would they be able to do so freely or would have to get the rights from Comedy Central for the revival seasons (or have to leave them off)?

While the show was revived at Comedy Central it’s still owned by 20th Century Fox.
 
I was thinking about the show since it came up in the discussion of a thread in Simpsons general discussion and I started to wonder: whom has the rights to the show as of now?

The series was produced by Fox/20th Century TV (that aired the first four seasons & released the four DTV films), but the revival era was produced and released for Comedy Central (and the show still airs there as a whole IIRC) so does CBS/Paramount own part of the rights? If Disney (who owns 20th now) would want to put the full series on Disney+, would they be able to do so freely or would have to get the rights from Comedy Central for the revival seasons (or have to leave them off)?

The full series is currently streaming on Hulu which is majority-controlled by Disney so I assume they own the streaming rights and could just add it to Disney+ if they wanted to (although Hulu is US-only so there might be some international rights to deal with). I kinda don't think they would want to, since they seem a little weird about what constitutes family-friendly (they announced Malcolm in the Middle was going to be on Disney+ and then changed their minds); on the other hand Simpsons has been Disney+'s #1 show on a regular basis

It also airs on syfy which is owned by nbc universal
 
[MENTION=191]Dark Homer[/MENTION], thanks for the informative reply.

Seems like the show is shown on several places then, yet Disney formally owns the rights. I see no problems in putting it on Disney+ as I would say it is family-friendly overall despite a little more raunchy than 'The Simpsons' (which is already not the perfect family-friendly show, but then again, a lot of the Disney live-action films ranging from the 'Pirates Of The Caribbean' series to the Marvel Cinematic Universe are kinda pushing the boundaries of what can be called truly family friendly). 'Futurama' should be all fine on there.

Also, I haven't seen much of 'Malcolm in the Middle' (I cannot even remember seeing a single full episode), but still seems odd they pulled it from release on the service as it does seem like a family-friendly one for sure. I wonder what turned them off of it.
 
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