Debuting on Hulu Monday, July 24, Matt Groening and David X. Cohen’s regularly-rebirthing space comedy that just won’t die makes a triumphant return after being canceled twice by two different networks.
How ‘Futurama’ Became the Show That Won’t Stay Dead
GOOD NEWS, EVERYONE!
GOOD NEWS, EVERYONE!
On the eve of the sci-fi comedy’s third revival in 24 years, two longtime staffers tell the story of its surprising longevity.
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty/Hulu
". . .Katz and Avanzino have both been with Futurama for every step of its wild ride. Since day one, their team has provided Groening and Cohen’s show with the lush, vibrant visuals, subtle mix of 2D and 3D animation, brilliant physical comedy, and emotion-led character work that has made it a phoenix-like fan-favorite. However, according to Katz, they very nearly weren’t involved at all.
“Futurama for us almost wasn’t,” she tells us of Rough Draft’s rough road to getting involved with the show. While Groening brought herself, Rough Draft Studios owner Greg Vanzo, and their animation director and business partner, Rich Moore, into early Futurama development discussions, the network was opposed to work with the team.
“Futurama for us almost wasn’t,” she tells us of Rough Draft’s rough road to getting involved with the show. While Groening brought herself, Rough Draft Studios owner Greg Vanzo, and their animation director and business partner, Rich Moore, into early Futurama development discussions, the network was opposed to work with the team.
- “Behind the scenes, I think other parties were really pressuring Matt to go with the studio that did The Simpsons [Film Roman Inc.].
- We met with the head of production at Fox who basically said to us, ‘I know you’re all talented, super artistic, and your work is A+, but there’s a two-percent chance that you’re not going to deliver the show, and I’d rather take the C- of another studio than risk the two-percent failure,’” Katz recalls.
- “I was flummoxed. Who would forgo a 98-percent chance of A+ success?”
Not one to give up so easily, Katz decided they needed to prove their creative chops and show the powers that be exactly why they were the right choice. Taking it upon themselves, Rough Draft Studios whipped up a short, 90-second Futurama sizzle reel and brought it to Groening.
Bender and Leela in the new season of Futurama.
Matt Groening/Hulu
“He was like ‘Wow,’” she says.
- “Then he said, ‘Hold on a second,’ and quickly ran out of the room. It turns out, they were going to award the show to another studio that very afternoon, and he stopped that phone call from happening.”
- The timing of Groening’s intervention ended up changing the course of the show’s future for the better.
- “If it wasn’t for that happy accident, we wouldn’t have gotten the show and it wouldn’t be the same show visually—which is a big part of the series.”
Undeterred by the Fox executives’ skepticism, the team focused on producing something audiences hadn’t seen before in traditional TV animation.
- “In addition to having great voice acting, jokes, and storytelling, we really had to deliver on the sci-fi elements and the only way to do that was with a 2D-3D hybrid animation,” Katz says.
- “We love a challenge, and it was a great opportunity to try and figure that out.”
...The team’s interest in experimentation paid off and led to the show’s unique blend of 2D and 3D animation becoming a calling card, defining its style from The Simpsons immediately. “There’s a small section of things that it helps with but it’s bigger than you think, and I really like how we’ve expanded what we can use it for, alongside ships.”
The crew gets the new 'eyePhone' inserted into their heads.
20th Century Fox
Then there’s Futurama’s many hidden secrets: in-jokes, long-running story arcs, and even alien languages and codes that are fully translatable for determined, eagle-eyed viewers. Even today, more than 20 years since the show’s debut, the team has fun threading those in.
- “When it comes to alien languages, or if the writers do a time-travel episode, they’ll really mathematically figure out the logic behind the storytelling,” says Katz with a smile.
- “For us, it’s liberating, because we just have to work on the filmmaking and the jokes. They’ve done all of the intellectual heavy lifting for us.”
While Avanzino sometimes has to keep a keen eye on his animators sneakily adding in their own gags (“I don’t need a picture of your dog on the wall,” he says), others are inserted at the request of writers, sometimes with no clear end goal in sight.
- “Nibbler’s shadow is in Episode 1,” Avanzino points out, referencing one of Futurama’s longest-running yet barely noticeable story arcs. “We couldn’t add something like that ourselves, because I don’t think it applies until Season 3.”
- That’s when Nibbler, Leela’s alien pet, reveals that he was in fact responsible for sending Fry careening into the cryo-freezer in 1999 and bringing him to the year 3000. “[The writers] came to us and said they wanted to put Nibbler’s shadow in there because they had an inkling—or maybe they knew—it had potential for something. . .
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