Futurama

Futurama
genre	Comedy , science fiction
Television series
Country of production	United States , South Korea (animation)
original language	English
Year (s)	1999–2003 2007–2013
Production company	20th Century Fox , Rough Draft Studios , Rough Draft Korea
length	22 minutes
Episodes	140 in 7 seasons ( list )
idea	Matt Groening, David X. Cohen
production	David X. Cohen , Matt Groening , Ken Keeler
music	Christopher Tyng
First broadcast	March 28, 1999 (USA) on Fox
German-language first broadcast	September 4, 2000 on ProSieben
occupation
Billy West : Fry, Professor Farnsworth, Dr. Zoidberg and Zapp Brannigan Katey Sagal : Leela John DiMaggio : Bender, Elzar, Robot Santa, Barbados Slim, Hermaphrobot, Yancy Fry Sr., Igner, Mr. Panucci, Joey Mousepad, The Space Pope Lauren Tom : Amy Wong, Inez Wong Phil LaMarr : Hermes Conrad, Dwight Conrad, Ethan 'Bubblegum' Tate, Reverend Preacherbot Tress MacNeille : Mom, Linda, Rose Mary, Petunia, Esther, Tinny Tim, Mrs. Fry, Turanga Munda, Ndnd, Mrs. Astor, Hattie McDoogal, Dr. Cahill, Bret Blob Maurice LaMarche : Kif Kroker, Morbo, Calculon, Hedonismbot, Horrible Gelatinous Blob, Dr. Banjo, Donbot, Clamps, Lrrr, The Hyperchicken, Headless Clone of Agnew, The Borax Kid, Fishy Joseph Gillman David Herman : Scruffy, Turanga Morris, Ogden Wernstrom, Mayor C. Randall Poopenmeyer, Roberto, Fat-Bot, Dwayne, Dr. Ben Beeler, Larry, Terry, Warden Vogel
synchronization
Movies
► Futurama: Bender's Big Score (2007) ► Futurama: the era of the tentacle (2008) ► Futurama: Bender's Game (2008) ► Futurama: Leela and the Encyclopods (2009)
Comic
title	Futurama Comics
Original title	Futurama Comics
country	United States
publishing company	Bongo Comics
First publication	November 22, 2000 - July 18, 2018
expenditure	81

Futurama is a science fiction - animated series from Matt Groening and David X. Cohen , who plays at the beginning of the 31st century and of everyday life and adventures of the friendly staff of the interstellar delivery company Planet Express , based in New New York told.

The first episode was broadcast on the US television station Fox on March 28, 1999, the first episode of the German dubbed version on September 4, 2000 by ProSieben . In 2003 the series was canceled. After reruns achieved good ratings, they made a comeback in 2007 in the form of four direct-to-video productions in feature length. Divided into four episodes each, these were broadcast as a new season on Comedy Central from 2008 . The station began broadcasting two more seasons in June 2010, after which the series was discontinued again. On September 4, 2013, the last of a total of 140 episodes was published.

Critics praised the work primarily for its humor. It has received six Emmy and seven Annie awards , among others .

content

Logo of the fictional transportation company Planet Express , where the main characters work

The plot of the series begins on New Year's Eve 1999, when New York pizza delivery boy Philip J. Fry is put into a deep cryostatic sleep at midnight - apparently by accident - from which he wakes up a thousand years later on New Year's 2999. He takes a job at Planet Express , an interplanetary delivery service run by his distant descendant Professor Farnsworth. He finds friends in his employees. The following episodes plunge colleagues into bizarre adventures that are triggered, for example, by delivery orders to distant planets or the professor's inventions. It deals with topics of young adults who define themselves more through their work and their social network than through a family: employment, friendship, love, sex.

The individual episodes are self-contained and essentially return to the original situation at the end. At the same time, they build on each other, and the characters evolve as the series progresses. To the extent, however details of the series remain secondary, are connection errors accepted to contemporary themes and clichés of science fiction genres to satirize .

characters

→ Main article : Figures from Futurama

The Planet Express workforce represents the main characters of Futurama : a small group of individualists who do not fit into the uniformity of their future society. The central trio, consisting of Fry, Leela and the robot Bender, appears in every episode, although the focus of individual stories is sometimes on one of the other main or secondary characters.

Philip J. Fry

The protagonist of the series is Philip J. Fry , who is in his twenties and is called by his last name. The antihero is characterized as immature, simple-minded, lazy and lackluster , a couch potato and college dropout with no special talents or ambitions. Fry was dissatisfied with his life at the end of the 20th century; a thousand years later he is still considered a failure, but he likes his new life better. His long unrequited love is for his colleague Leela.

Turanga Leela

Leela is the competent and responsible pilot of the Planet Express delivery space ship . She is Fry's age and frustrated single despite her sexy looks. Abandoned by her parents shortly after birth, the one-eyed Leela grew up in an orphanage believing that she was an alien of unknown origin, possibly the last of her kind. Only in the course of the series does she learn that she is a child of human mutants . Thanks to sophisticated martial arts skills, she regularly defeats her opponents in physical confrontations.

Bender Bieger Rodriguez

Fry's best friend and roommate is Bender , a humanoid robot . Originally built to bend steel girders, he leads an egocentric life that is vicious by human standards: he curses, drinks, smokes cigars, is lazy, likes gambling, consumes robot pornography, visits robot prostitutes and even steals from his friends on a regular basis.

Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth

Fry's only living relative is 160-year-old Professor Farnsworth , founder and director of Planet Express . At the same time, the quirky, absent-minded scientist teaches at Mars University . He has no qualms about sending his team on perilous missions over and over again. Despite his advanced dementia , he always succeeds in inventing new equipment.

Hermes Conrad

Hermes takes care of the administration and bookkeeping at Planet Express . Always trying to increase the productivity of the company, he regularly admonishes his colleagues to try harder at work. The Jamaican is a conscientious and meticulous bureaucrat by conviction, but also a loyal family man and former Olympic participant in the limbo discipline .

Dr. John Zoidberg

Dr. Zoidberg is a human-sized, crab-like alien. Although he hardly knows anything about the human anatomy , he works as a staff doctor at Planet Express and he sometimes manages surprisingly complex interventions. Despite this job, he lives in poverty and is desperately looking for friendship and recognition.

Amy Wong

Amy , the youngest of the main characters, is studying engineering at Mars University and is an intern at Planet Express . Although she is simple-minded and clumsy, she is considered particularly attractive because of her cute and pretty appearance. The spoiled only child of extremely wealthy parents of Chinese descent likes to go out and flirt. Over the course of the series, she begins a romantic relationship with Kif Kroker .

More figures

In addition, a number of recurring minor characters belong to the ensemble of the series. The most important, who sometimes become the central characters of individual episodes, include the spacecraft captain Zapp Brannigan , his alien first officer Kif Kroker , Leela's pet Nibbler and the monopoly Mom . Characters that have no meaning for the plot also appear at irregular intervals, for example worker Sal and Planet Express caretaker Scruffy . Behind the high figure density is the intention to reward the loyal viewer for their attention.

An integral part of Futurama is the idea that in the future it will be possible to keep human heads alive in oversized mason jars. This allows contemporary celebrities and historical personalities to be incorporated into the series, either in the form of a guest appearance or a parody . The Beastie Boys , Stephen W. Hawking , Beck , Lucy Liu , Al Gore , Conan O'Brien and the bridge crew from the science fiction series Spaceship Enterprise ( William Shatner , Leonard Nimoy , Nichelle) have made bigger guest appearances than heads in mason jars Nichols , Walter Koenig and George Takei ). In contrast, the former US President Richard Nixon is parodied in numerous appearances with a fundamentally unsympathetic coloration.

Location

New New York

Futurama is set at the beginning of the 31st century, a time full of technological wonders. The main location of the series is the futuristic New York , where Planet Express is based. The metropolis was built over the devastated New York . Its ruins lie, now referred to as "old New York", like in a catacomb in the sewage system of the new city and serve as a home for a group of mutants banished from the surface. New New York is a city of extremes, full of crime, poverty and prostitution, and a melting pot of cultures. Many places in the city represent a reference to places in contemporary New York, but present themselves as their further development - for example, the Madison Cube Garden takes the place of Madison Square Garden . The automobile has been replaced by the hovering hovercar and conventional public transport has been replaced by a system of tubes that draws in passengers like a tube and transports them to their destination.

Society and culture

Futurama shows the future of a capitalist society. In contrast to other science fiction works, the series cannot be divided into the categories of utopia or dystopia ; Rather, the future serves here as a backdrop for an exaggerated representation of today's society. Their problems persist (such as the division into rich and poor ) or have worsened (such as monopoly , drug abuse , bureaucracy and corruption , organ trafficking ). In contrast to today's widespread belief in the self-made man and his ability to take his fate into his own hands, Futurama's image of society was designed according to deterministic principles. Professions are assigned by the state according to ability, the system does not provide for a career change. For a small fee, suicide cells offer a quick, painless or a slow, excruciating possibility of suicide, depending on your needs . Everyday life is made easier by a myriad of small inventions. Robots with a sense of self are a common sight. They do a lot of the physical work, their alcohol drive is the main cause of global warming .

The flag of the earth, similar to the flag of the United States , but the stars have been replaced with an image of the earth

In Futurama the earth is completely globalized , the entire universe is explored and the world population is integrated into a multicultural interplanetary society. Humanity has terraformed and colonized various planets and, for example, founded a university on Mars in 2636. Politically, the entire population of the world is united under a government that is strongly influenced by the United States. For example, the flag of Earth differs from the flag of the United States in that it shows a globe in place of the stars. The capital of the earth is Washington, DC , its president from the second season Richard Nixon's head . Robots have both active and passive voting rights . The earth is a member of the Democratic Order of Planets , in short: DOOP (Democratic Order of Planets) , an interstellar organization that is compared in the series with the UN and at the same time with the federation from the Star Trek universe.

In Futurama , society is driven by commercial interests. Mom's economic power and wealth seem almost infinite. She dominates several markets, including a quasi-monopoly on the manufacture of robots. In contrast, the soft drink market is dominated by Slurm , an allusion to Coca-Cola . The soft drink is advertised in the series, among other things, that it is highly addictive. Many other brands are also reminiscent of the real ones, for example National Geographic magazine was reduced to National Pornographic magazine . Advertising is omnipresent: billboards dominate the street scene, advertising appears in TV spots and is even broadcast in people's dreams.

Religion is still an important social issue, although the major beliefs no longer exist in their present form. The First Amalgamated Church (in German: First United Church) emerged from a merger of the world religions , and is headed by an extraterrestrial space pope. Voodoo is a recognized religion. Oprahism (probably after Oprah Winfrey ), the robot religion Robotology , which knows a robot devil and a robot hell, and the banished religion of the Star Trek fan community belong to the multitude of the new religious communities .

As it is today, television fulfills the function of a primary mass medium . The most popular programs include the robotic soap opera Alle Meine Stromkreise and the cooking program by celebrity chef Elzar vom Neptun. The show of the hypnosis toad , which hypnotizes viewers so that they can enjoy their otherwise uneventful broadcast, achieved the highest ratings . The Internet can be displayed on screens as well as virtual reality - similar to Tron or the Matrix - can be entered. It's slow and consists mostly of pornographic offerings, chat rooms, and pop-up ads.

Fonts and languages

An alien alphabet and its corresponding Latin letters

Different languages ​​continue to be spoken in different parts of the world. However, French became a dead language . In the French dubbed version of the series, the German language takes on this role.

Two different alphabets were developed for the series to represent extraterrestrial writing. These are often used in the background as graffiti , on billboards or information signs. Both can be converted directly into English . The more commonly used is a monoalphabetic substitution of the Latin alphabet; this is simply referred to as "extraterrestrial" in the series. Macabre black humor is often hidden behind the extraterrestrial texts . In the opening sequence, for example, comes before a billboard on which to Alien " Tasty Human Burgers (" English for "Yummy burgers People") stands.

Episodes

→ Main article : Futurama / Episode List

Futurama consists of 140 episodes. The first 72 episodes were produced in four seasons for Fox television. Each episode tells a self-contained story in around 22 minutes, making it suitable for half-hour broadcasts with commercial breaks . For the initial release, Fox changed the order of the episodes and divided them into five broadcast seasons.

In 2007, Bender's Big Score was the first full-length Futurama production. The era of the tentacle and Bender's Game followed in 2008, followed by Leela and the Encyclopods in 2009 . As a so-called direct-to-DVD production, the four films were created for the home cinema market and initially released on DVD. Then they ran, divided into four episodes each, as the sixth broadcast season on the cable television channel Comedy Central.

The films were followed by two more seasons of 26 episodes each. These are again in the television format of the first seasons. For the first broadcast, Comedy Central halved the production seasons into two broadcast seasons of 13 episodes each.

Design elements

Drawing style

The drawing style of Futurama is very reminiscent of The Simpsons . In both series, the figures have similar anatomical features: the lower jaw is very short, the eyes are large and protruding, human hands have only four fingers. While the latter is not untypical of cartoon characters, leads Matt Groening , who as the creator of both series whose appearance has influenced fundamentally, the other peculiarities back on itself ". No matter what I draw, always come out Glubschaugen and overbite" Even the planet- Express spaceship has an overbite.

The optical aesthetics of the series can be classified as retro-futuristic . It is compared to the future visions of the 1950s, but the science fiction universe of the 1930s also served as inspiration. The design of the buildings, vehicles and other objects is strongly reminiscent of the Googie design of the 1950s and 1960s. The well-known product designer Syd Mead was consulted for the designs , whose work for science fiction films such as Blade Runner and Tron was a style- defining feature.

Futurama uses a mix of hand-drawn and computer-generated images. The latter are mainly used for fast or complex settings , for example for complex tracking shots when a spaceship is moving, for explosions or when a hologram is shown. The effect of space and movements can thus be represented lifelike and at the same time cost-effectively. In order for the computer animation in three dimensions created in addition to the two-dimensional drawings not "look too realistic," said Scott Vanzo from responsible animation studio Rough Draft were, the 3-D models equipped with imperfections that effect limited by light sources and the rendering of images with so-called cel shading worked. With this technique, the outlines of three-dimensional computer models are reinforced and color gradients are replaced by a few flat color fields, which gives the picture a hand-painted, comic-like appearance. The style created in this way was described as "innovative" and "distinctive", the differently produced images fit together seamlessly.

Opening credits

The opening credits, with which each episode begins, contains - similar to the opening sequence of the Simpsons - variable elements: At the beginning, blue rays of light fill the screen and the words "Futurama" are shown. A humorous subtitle is often faded in underneath, for example “In color”, “Filmed at the original location”, “Proudly made on earth” or “By the makers of Futurama”. Then the Planet Express spaceship flies through the title and New York City Center, past various recurring characters to a large screen each showing a sequence from a classic cartoon, for example from Looney Tunes and Betty Boop . Eventually the spaceship crashes into the screen, destroys it and gets stuck in it. The opening credits for the films were varied and expanded.

Most episodes of the first and some of the second season begin with a so-called cold open , that is, a prologue is shown before the opening credits .

The theme music was composed by Christopher Tyng and is based on the title Psyche Rock by Pierre Henry from 1967.

humor

The humor of Futurama is mainly due to the satirical portrayal of everyday life in the future and the parodic compared to the present as well as the satire of individual science fiction -Werke and the genre as such. It covers a broad spectrum of manifestations: On the one hand, the series makes use of typical elements of childish humor; she uses, for example, silliness , absurdity , simple situation comedy, and slapstick . On the other hand, the joke of the series - in a manner typical of Groening's creations - also addresses the "mature" humor by criticizing contemporary (US) society or films, television series, literary works, historical events or alludes to scientific knowledge.

The series also contains a number of running gags . For example, the Planet Express caretaker Scruffy is not recognized by his work colleagues every time he performs, although he has worked there for many years. Owls are regularly portrayed as the pest of the 31st century, much like rats or pigeons today . In addition, many of the characters have a characteristic sentence, a so-called catch phrase . Bender insults his counterpart again and again with the request: “You can lick my bare metal ass! ” (In the English original: “ Bite my shiny metal ass! ”), And Professor Farnsworth greets his crew with the sentence in almost every episode : “Good news, friends!” (In the English original: “ Good news, everyone! ”) Or a slight variation of it, in order to then communicate bad news to you, often in direct contradiction.

A Klein bottle . In Futurama , Klein's beer is sold in such bottles.

The series also uses scientific jokes , alluding to the importance of scientific and technological advances in science fiction. For example, a supermarket sells Klein’s beer in small bottles , and two books with the titles P and NP placed side by side allude to the P-NP problem of mathematics and theoretical computer science. Elsewhere, Professor Farnsworth complains that the result of a “ quantum finish ” in horse racing “was falsified by the measurement,” an allusion to quantum mechanics , especially the problems with quantum mechanical measurement . And because the speed of light represents an absolute upper limit for the speed of objects for physical reasons, "scientists have increased the speed of light" to enable faster travel. In an interview, David X. Cohen stated that such jokes are intended to encourage loyalty among viewers:

“We wanted to get in as much science as possible where it didn't clog up the gears of the story. […] Our hope is that, although such material will fly by most people unnoticed, it might make die-hard fans of the people who do appreciate it. "

“We wanted to get as much science as possible into it, where it doesn't slow the flow of the story. […] Our hope is that although such material will pass most of the people unnoticed, it will turn those who notice it into die-hard fans. "

- David X. Cohen : Interview

Some jokes in Futurama remain hidden from most viewers because they have been "hidden" through conversions or encryption. These are usually combinations of letters and / or numbers that do not make sense at first glance, but can be transformed into meaningful expressions. For example, Bender lives in Robot Arms Apts. in apartment no. 00100100, which, converted into ASCII, corresponds to the dollar sign - an allusion to Bender's greed for money. Probably the most common example are texts in the imaginary script " extraterrestrial ". Most of them, according to David Cohen, revolve around aliens eating people. Since working on The Simpsons, Cohen has been fascinated by so-called freeze framers , obsessive fans who record programs on video so they can pause the picture and look for gags that only last a split second. He started hiding Easter eggs in his work and watched fan reactions on the internet. Like the scientific humor, the cryptic jokes are meant to serve as audience loyalty. Speaking to a Wired reporter , Cohen said of these:

“The operating principle of Futurama was that you can do a joke that 1 percent of the audience gets, as long as it doesn't derail the enjoyment of the mass audience. And that 1 percent becomes a fan for life. "

“The working principle of Futurama was that you can make a joke that only one percent of the audience understands, as long as it doesn't disturb the entertainment of the general public. And this one percent becomes a fan for life. "

- David X. Cohen : Article in Wired

Production and publication

Emergence

David X. Cohen (left) and Matt Groening at Comic-Con 2009

In the mid-1990s, Simpsons creator Matt Groening had the first ideas for Futurama . According to him, the trigger for this was the song Robot Blues by the Incredible String Band . Groening, from childhood on a science fiction fan, collected first several years material by connecting to the relevant literature - from genre classics written by HG Wells , to more recent works by Neal Stephenson or Rudy Rucker  - familiar made. After collecting hundreds of pages of notes and ideas in this way, in 1997 he won David X. Cohen , another science fiction lover with a broad knowledge of science and mathematics, whom he knew as a producer and screenwriter for The Simpsons , for the project. Together they researched other material for a science fiction cartoon series from films, television series and books. By the time they presented the concept for Futurama to Fox in April 1998 , they had already worked out more characters and plots than they could present at the first meeting. The decision-makers at Fox initially had concerns about some details of the series, such as suicide cells or the handling of stereotypes . Against her initial opposition, Groening made sure that the broadcaster would not influence the content of the series.

The name “Futurama” goes back to the General Motors pavilion of the same name at the 1939 World's Fair in New York , which was supposed to depict what the world might look like 20 years later. At the world exhibition, among other things, television was presented to the US public for the first time.

occupation

Some of the original speakers at Comic-Con 2010, from left to right:
Phil LaMarr (Hermes Conrad), John DiMaggio (Bender), Billy West (Fry, Prof. Farnsworth, Dr. Zoidberg and Zapp Brannigan), Katey Sagal (Leela) and Lauren Tom (Amy)

Futurama has a permanent cast of eight speakers . Four of the bigger roles, namely Fry, Professor Farnsworth, Dr. Zoidberg and Zapp Brannigan, as well as a number of secondary characters, share the voice of Billy West in the original English , one of the best-known speakers for cartoon characters in the USA, who had already set Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd , Ren and Stimpy and Doug from the series of the same name to music . After initially auditioning for "virtually all of the roles," West was initially invited to Professor Farnsworth and Dr. Zoidberg assigned. Fry should be spoken of initially by Charlie Schlatter ; after a line-up change, West also got this role. He speaks them in a raised pitch to achieve the youthful, naive sound of a 25-year-old, otherwise in an almost undisguised voice so that it is more difficult for others to imitate them. On the other hand, he has the votes of Professor Farnsworth and Dr. Zoidberg put on exaggerated comic book style. Zapp Brannigan was tailor-made for Phil Hartman . After reading aloud, the actor got the speaking role, but he died in 1998. West then took over that part too. According to West, his interpretation is influenced by Hartman and the "big, stupid announcers" that Hartman and West like to imitate. If two of the characters spoken by West were talking to each other in Futurama , he was talking to himself in real time during the recording.

Leela's voice is from Katey Sagal , best known as an actress for her role as Peggy Bundy on the sitcom A Terribly Nice Family . Sagal is the only core cast spokeswoman who only speaks one role. This was initially awarded to Nicole Sullivan , but was then replaced in favor of Sagal. Sagal hardly adjusts her voice for the recordings, she just speaks in a slightly higher pitch.

Bender's spokesman, John DiMaggio , had previously done mostly stand-up comedy and a few minor speaking roles, but it wasn't until his work on Futurama that he became more famous. DiMaggio described his take on Bender's voice as a rotten drunk with influences from Slim Pickens and a role made up by a school friend. With that he had originally auditioned for the part of professor. After many speakers had been heard unsuccessfully for Bender's role, a producer came up with the idea of ​​having DiMaggio audition for Bender again with this voice.

The main cast also includes David Herman (Scruffy et al.), Maurice LaMarche (Kif Kroker et al.), Phil LaMarr (Hermes Conrad et al.), Tress MacNeille (Mom et al.) And Lauren Tom (Amy Wong et al.). Although they appear in almost all episodes, Tom, LaMarche, LaMarr, and Herman were initially featured as guest starring in the credits . LaMarche was classified as a supporting role (Also Starring) from the second season , since the fifth he has been part of the main cast (Starring) . Tom, LaMarr and Herman were elevated to this status at the beginning of the sixth season.

In addition to the main cast , Frank Welker as Nibbler or Kath Soucie and Danny Jacobs in various smaller roles can be heard in recurring guest roles.

Production process

20th Century Fox production company logo

From the first idea to the finished episode, the production of a Futurama episode took around six to nine months. The production costs per episode were put at over $ 500,000. Because of the long overall duration of the production process, 20th Century Fox worked on several episodes in parallel.

About two months of this was used to create the script . The scriptwriters initially drafted this in relatively detailed group work. The draft was formulated by the responsible author and then - again in group work - revised and refined. Then the authors and producers met with the speakers for a reading sample, after which the authors revised the script together again. So much was the amount of work done in the team that producer and chief writer David X. Cohen said, “ the person who is credited as the writer usually gets too much credit or blame. ”(German:“ The person to whom the script is ascribed usually receives too much recognition or reprimand. ”) Then the writers gave up the script and the recording of the voices began.

It took another two to three months to develop the animatics , a rough version of black and white pencil drawings with a low frame rate (about one frame per second). It gave an impression of the finished episode and thus offered the opportunity to make further improvements. The Californian animation studio Rough Draft Studios was responsible for developing the animatics; its South Korean sister company Rough Draft Korea animated the final version, which consists of around 20,000 to 25,000 hand-drawn frames per episode. Matt Groening had insisted on hiring Rough Draft after their work on the Simpsons received awards. The studio in Glendale , California employed 130 animators during production for the first four seasons; when the series was canceled, 30 of them remained.

First broadcast

Logos of the television stations Fox (left) and ProSieben , where the series and its German dubbed version premiered

Futurama first aired on US broadcaster Fox , a sister company of 20th Century Fox. It started on March 28, 1999 with the pilot episode Zeit und Raum 3000 , which is also the only episode of the first five seasons written by Matt Groening and David X. Cohen. Although a total of thirteen episodes had been produced for the first season, Fox broadcasted only nine as a contiguous first season until May 18, 1999, the rest were moved to the second broadcast season. This became the longest of the five broadcast seasons with a total of 20 episodes broadcast between September 26, 1999 and May 21, 2000. The third season started on November 5, 2000, but only four episodes were broadcast in the following three months. Fox decided to end the season again earlier than planned, and showed the final episode on May 13, 2001. The actual final episode, Stories of Interest # 2 , was moved to season four. Its broadcast began on December 9, 2001 with the episode Roswell Well - All Well and ended on April 21, 2002 after twelve episodes, nine of which are from the third production season. In early 2002, it became known that Fox had decided not to have any more episodes made. The total of 16 previously unseen episodes that were produced for the third and fourth seasons were broadcast by Fox as the fifth season in loose episode between November 10, 2002 and August 10, 2003.

The order of the episodes was partially changed for the broadcast, apparently so that the content of the respective episodes matched calendar events on the broadcast dates. For example, the episode Mother's Day was brought forward so that the broadcast date fell on Mother's Day . The order in which the synchronized German version ran for the first time on September 4, 2000 on the ProSieben broadcaster does not correspond to the first broadcast on Fox or the production.

The series was broadcast in over 20 countries; In addition to the United States and Canada , these include European , Central and South American countries, Israel , Russia , Australia , New Zealand and Japan .

Channel change

CBS logo Cartoon Network the Futurama repeated 2003-2007

In late 2002, Cartoon Network acquired the exclusive rights to broadcast Futurama for $ 10 million for a period of five years, beginning in January 2003. The station included the series in its adult swim program, which was specifically aimed at adults. Adult Swim was legally converted into an independent broadcaster in spring 2005, but continued to share a channel with Cartoon Network.

The reruns on Cartoon Network and Adult Swim achieved good ratings , and the DVDs of the first seasons, which have now been released, also sold well. And so Comedy Central secured the rights in October 2005 to repeat Futurama for five years from 2008 onwards. With around $ 400,000 for each of the 72 episodes produced to date, this is said to have been the most expensive purchase in the station's history.

Movies

See also : Season five production

Because of the stable ratings and good DVD sales, Comedy Central had also expressed interest in new episodes. 20th Century Fox came back to a proposal that Matt Groening and David X. Cohen had made years earlier: to continue the series through so-called direct-to-DVD productions, i.e. material that is not only available on television but directly for the home video market is released on DVD. Contrary to what was originally suggested by Groening and Cohen, there should not be just one DVD, but several, in order to be able to cover costs. Comedy Central secured the rights to broadcast new material if any should be produced. On June 22, 2006, Matt Groening and 20th Century Fox Television announced that at least 13 new episodes would be created to air on Comedy Central starting in 2008 along with previous seasons. The comeback of Futurama finally took place in the form of four full-length and 16: 9 films, which were initially released as direct-to-DVD production and then - divided into a total of 16 episodes of around half an hour each - as a continuation of the television series in in the US on Comedy Central. With this number, the resumption of production was financially promising. Comedy Central paid for part of the cost, and the remainder was to be collected by selling the DVDs. All previous English voice actors were hired for the new series, so that the usual voices can be heard in the new episodes.

Bender's Big Score

→ Main article : Futurama: Bender's Big Score

The first film, Bender's Big Score , was released on DVD in the US on November 27, 2007 and in Germany on March 28, 2008 . Divided into four episodes, it was first seen on television on March 30, 2008. The script was written by Ken Keeler based on a story by Keeler and David X. Cohen; this has an open ending and is told through the next film. The work is the first CO ₂ -neutral production of 20th Century Fox. It won an Annie Award in the Best Home Entertainment Production category.

The era of the tentacle

→ Main article : Futurama: The Era of the Tentacle

The second of the films, The Age of the Tentacle , ties in directly with the events of its predecessor. It was released on June 24, 2008 in the USA and on September 12, 2008 in Germany on DVD. The television premiere took place on October 19, 2008. The English title is The Beast with a Billion Backs and alludes to the expression “ the beast with two backs ” (literally: “the animal with two backs”), which describes sexual intercourse. The film won the Annie Award for Best Animated Home Entertainment Production .

Bender's Game

→ Main article : Futurama: Bender's Game

The third film, Bender's Game , was released in the US on November 4, 2008, both on DVD and as a high-definition version on Blu-ray . The DVD has been available in Germany since January 30, 2009; the film has been on distribution since December 5, 2008.

Leela and the encyclopods

→ Main article : Futurama: Leela and the Encyclopods

The fourth film, with the original title Into the Wild Green Yonder , was first presented on February 6, 2009 at New York Comic Con, a so-called convention for comic fans. It was released in the UK on February 23, 2009 and the following day in the US on DVD and Blu-ray Disc. In Germany it has been available as a rental DVD under the title Leela und die Enzyklopoden since March 27, 2009 and as a DVD for sale since April 9, 2009. It won the Annie 2009 in the Best Home Entertainment Production category .

Resumption of series production

After Leela and the encyclopedias , the future of Futurama was again uncertain. Groening had repeatedly expressed the desire to continue the series in some form, for example as a feature film. On June 9, 2009, 20th Century Fox announced that Comedy Central had resumed series production for 26 new episodes. Both companies cite the good sales figures for DVDs as one of the reasons for this decision. On June 24, 2010, the first two episodes of the sixth season finally ran on Comedy Central. The average audience was 2.9 million; after South Park , this was the best season opener for Comedy Central's own series.

The series should be produced more cheaply in the future, among other things by downsizing the team of authors. After lengthy salary negotiations and the consideration of hiring new speakers, the original speakers for all of the main roles were recruited.

In March 2011, Comedy Central announced it had commissioned 26 more episodes. According to his press release, the station plans to broadcast 13 episodes each in summer 2012 and in summer 2013.

In April 2013, the discontinuation of the series was announced again after the broadcast of the seventh season. The number of viewers for the series had fallen again: from an average of 2.6 million viewers in 2010, to 2.3 million a year later and 1.7 million in 2012. The last of a total of 140 Futurama episodes were first broadcast in the USA on September 4, 2013 and in Germany on December 20, 2014.

German dubbed version

The German-language dubbed version of the first 72 episodes was created under the direction of Ivar Combrinck at the Munich company Taurus Media Synchron . This belonged to the Kirch group , which at that time also belonged to the ProSieben station , where the dubbed version was shown for the first time. Ivar Combrinck was responsible for the translation , directed and acted some roles himself. His work on Futurama came under considerable criticism, cf. Section criticism of the German dubbed version .

After Combrinck's death while the series was discontinued, Dubbing Brothers Germany took over the synchronization of the direct-to-DVD productions. The voice actors for the main leading roles once again gave the characters their voices. The dialogue books for the first two films are by Hans-Peter Kaufmann, who also directed Bender's Big Score and then passed this task on to Christian Schmidt-Golm. Carina Krause wrote the German dialogues for Bender's Game .

From the sixth season, the series was set to music at the Arena Synchron in Munich. Matthias von Stegmann wrote the dialogue books and was also responsible for the dialogue direction.

Spokesperson for the most important roles

role	Original speaker	German speakers
Philip J. Fry	Billy West	Dirk Meyer
Turanga Leela	Katey Sagal	Marion Sawatzki
Bender Bieger Rodriguez	John DiMaggio	Hans-Rainer Müller
Prof. Hubert J. Farnsworth	Billy West	Thomas Reiner
Dr. John Zoidberg	Billy West	Manfred Erdmann
Hermes Conrad	Phil LaMarr	Michael Rüth (up to episode 127) Thomas Albus (from episode 128)
Amy Wong	Lauren Tom	Shandra Schadt
Zapp Brannigan	Billy West	Ivar Combrinck (season 1-4) Crock Krumbiegel (season 5) Walter von Hauff (from season 6)
Kif Kroker	Maurice LaMarche	Kai Taschner
Carol "Mom" Miller	Tress MacNeille	Anita Höfer (seasons 1–3) Inge Solbrig (seasons 4–5) Marion Hartmann (seasons 6–7)
Lord Nibbler	Frank Welker	Caroline Combrinck (season 1) Butz Combrinck (seasons 2–4) Ivar Combrinck (season 5) Frank Engelhardt (seasons 6–7)

Home theater publication

See also : Overview of the Futurama Seasons

For the home cinema market, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment released the series on DVD , partly also on VHS , Blu-ray or other carrier media.

The individual seasons of the series appeared in box sets . Up to the fourth season, the boxes correspond to the production seasons; in German-speaking countries they carry the titles Season 1 to Season 4 . The four films are available - in addition to the individual publications - in a box entitled Futurama - The collected Epics . The television version of the films was not combined as a season for the home theater market, so the counting of the DVD release continues with Season 5 . At the same time, as with the first broadcast, the production series will be split into two smaller ones. The sixth production season will be sold in DVD boxes as Season 5 and Season 6 .

Releases of the individual seasons in DVD box sets

Season	DVD box set				other formats
	title	publication		content
		United States	DE
1	Season 1	03/25/2003	02/07/2002	3 DVDs	3 VHS cassettes 3 video CDs
2	Season 2	08/12/2003	07/11/2002	4 DVDs	4 VHS cassettes
3	Season 3	03/09/2004	09/06/2003	4 DVDs	4 VHS cassettes
4th	Season 4	08/24/2004	04/11/2004	4 DVDs	4 VHS cassettes
5	The collected Epics ∗	10/12/2009	03/05/2010	4 DVDs
6th	Season 5	December 21, 2010	05/25/2012	2 DVDs	2 Blu-ray discs
	Season 6	December 20, 2011	October 12, 2012	2 DVDs	2 Blu-ray discs
7th	Season 7	12/11/2012	02/28/2014	2 DVDs	2 Blu-ray discs
	Season 8	12/10/2013	05.03.2015	2 DVDs

annotation

^∗ Contains the fifth season in the form of the four films, not their television version.

On June 17, 2012, new editions of the box sets of the first four seasons appeared. The changed design of the DVD boxes has been adapted to the DVD boxes from season 5 .

In addition to the boxes with individual seasons, various compilations were brought onto the market that unite all the seasons broadcast up to then. For example, on May 20, 2005, a box with all episodes of the first four production seasons on 15 DVDs was released in Germany. The same compilation was marketed in changed packaging as of January 28, 2009 as The Complete Series . Under the same title, 20th Century Fox in Germany offered a set of 19 DVDs from October 29, 2010, which was expanded to include the four films and is designed like Bender's head.

reception

Development of audience numbers

When the first Futurama episode aired on Fox on March 28, 1999, a Sunday from 8:30 p.m. between The Simpsons and The X-Files , it was seen by 19 million viewers. The audience rating was ahead of that of the Simpsons , which no television program had achieved before . In the following week, the second show was seen by over 14 million viewers. Then the series was moved from the previous broadcasting slot to Tuesday evening, whereupon the audience numbers fell to 8.85 million. So it was in the Nielsen ratings well behind the Simpsons , but still ahead of competing cartoon series such as King of the Hill , Family Guy and South Park .

In the further course of the series, the slot of the series was moved again and again; in addition, programs were canceled due to the broadcast of sports events. The Futurama makers Groening and Cohen as well as critics see this as a main reason for the drop in audience numbers. When Fox decided not to commission any more episodes during the fourth season due to the poor ratings, the audience numbers had fallen to 6.4 million per episode.

The repeats on the Cartoon Network from 2003 onwards achieved surprisingly good audience ratings. Around 2.1 million viewers per episode were registered.

The number of viewers in Germany was stable: the first broadcast on ProSieben , together with the new Simpsons episodes, achieved a market share of around 13 percent on Monday evenings between 9.15pm and 10.15pm, a satisfactory rate for the target group. “Disappointing” on the other hand were the odds of the comeback with the fifth season . When ProSieben showed the first new episode on Sunday, September 19, 2010, shortly after 5 p.m. around six years after the last first broadcast, only 650,000 tuned in, which corresponds to a market share of 8.9 percent. When the first episode of the series was repeated immediately afterwards, the number of viewers rose to 820,000; the market share thus reached 11.0 percent.

Interpretations

"The secret of all science fiction: it's not really about the future, it's about here and now."

"The secret of all science fiction: It's actually not about the future, it's about the here and now."

- Matt Groening : Futurama: Welcome To The World Of Tomorrow , 1999

In a number of analyzes and reviews, Futurama is not understood as a blueprint for a possible or dreamed of future, but as a satirically distorted representation of the current situation. Science fiction is not the message of the series, but rather the medium with which the message is conveyed. Therefore, the references to the viewer's present time would be made openly and with great clarity; Institutions, places and people of the 20th and 21st centuries are just as easy to recognize for every viewer as social and political concepts and positions. According to David X. Cohen, the series was also, unlike many science fiction works, not designed as a bleak dystopia like Blade Runner or contemplative utopia like The Jetsons , it should be "somewhere in between, like the real world". To the extent that the series plays with viewers' fears, it is seen in the tradition of great science fiction writers such as HG Wells , Aldous Huxley , George Orwell and Isaac Asimov . Nevertheless, dystopian plot elements remained marginal phenomena. Suicide cells, career chips and mutants played a subordinate role and, according to Matt Groening, quite deliberately: An alternative should be offered, “ that's more like the way things are right now, which is a mix of the wonderful and horrible. ”(German:“ which is more like the way things are now, a mixture of the wonderful and the terrible. ”) Accordingly, Wired Magazine also comes to the conclusion that the future designed here is“ a time that seems wonderful or awful depending on how you look at it - just like the present ”(German:“ a time that is wonderful or terrible, depending on how you look at it - just like the present ”). According to an analysis by the New York Times, an image of the future emerges from the tension between “ a hope that things will be better in the future and the knowledge that they probably won't ” (German: “the hope that things will be better in the future , and knowing that they probably won't be ”). This lays the foundation for a social criticism that encompasses the topics of family, commerce, politics, media and environmental pollution.

The main character Fry, created as an identification figure, is assigned a double special role. On the one hand, since the future is unknown to him and the viewer, it functions as an explanatory element: if a new concept has to be presented to the audience, it can be explained to Fry without interrupting the flow of the narrative. On the other hand, he officiates as a representative of the twentieth century, who criticizes the values ​​of the present by measuring them against Futurama's vision of the future .

The work is ascribed to addressing the progressive breakdown of classic family structures . The central location of the story is not a nuclear family household, but the workplace. After the traditional family association of the 1960s sitcoms disbanded, the separated members formed a substitute community here. In particular, Fry's relationship with his only surviving relative turns traditional family images upside down: the old descendant becomes the boss of the young ancestor, and they are more connected to one another through the workplace than a family feeling. Leela and Bender also lacked family ties. Although Leela's parents were shown from the fourth season onwards, they had little contact with the daughter and lived apart from her. Working for a delivery service makes it even more difficult for the main characters to forge personal relationships outside of the working world by often sending them on long journeys.

In Futurama an unsparing critique of the commercialization of the twentieth century and the amalgamation of American politics by the capitalist economy is recognized. The series blames the disappearance of radical political ideas and the increasing homogenization of the established parties for the growing disenchantment with politics . The episode Separated from Head and Body is cited as an example , in which the clones Jack Johnson and John Jackson run for the presidency of the Earth with an identical election platform. Futurama also criticizes the role of the mass media within this system, especially television. This exerts a greater influence than in the real world, because the characters in the series relied solely on television as a competent information broker, instead of reading newspapers, for example. However, the television reporting is superficial, sensational and tendentious , its primary interests are high ratings and manipulation. Due to the similarities with real existing formats, the criticism of programs from Futurama can easily be related to the presence of the viewer. The fact that Futurama itself is a television program is not ignored. In both worlds, films and television series are now taking on the status of religions. Futurama suggests a connection between television consumption and childish misconduct, but questions the strict allocation of blame to the medium. In this context, the episode Who's Cool Here? referenced, in which the children are allowed to spend time with Bender, but should not watch him on television because of his role model function. This exposes a double standard of adults who are also criticized for spending too little time with children.

The series also accords special importance to questions of environmental protection ; in addition to Leela and the encyclopedias , three episodes essentially deal with it. In Garbage makes inventive and the stinking medal of pollution is shown that the current production of waste and pollutant emissions will have long-term effects on the future. A utopian element gives this criticism additional weight: through extensive recycling , Futurama's future society avoids all waste. In Garbage Makes Invention , however, the destruction of New York by garbage from the twentieth century can only be prevented by deliberately generating waste again, i.e. by giving up the progress made. At the time the episodes were written, environmental policy and climate protection were still issues that were of little importance in the public eye. Futurama is among the first prime-time television programs in the US to openly condemn pollution and poor environmental policies.

Reviews

Some criticism

Critics in German and English-speaking countries often praise Futurama for its biting, socially critical humor and intelligent joke. The US television magazine TV Guide calls the series “ sharply satiric ” (German: “sharply satiric”), the news channel MSNBC describes it as “intelligent satire.” In its online edition, Der Spiegel also confirms that it “has always been known for doing without the light puns and preferring to devote himself to fine and subtle humor. "

The high density of gags in particular is mentioned again and again. For example, the critic magazine Entertainment Weekly states, not without rhetorical exaggeration , “ the jokes are flying faster than the speed of light ” (German: “the jokes fly faster than the speed of light ”). The same applies to the abundant references to contemporary and media culture. An author of the weekly newspaper Die Zeit writes: "Right down to the drawing details, the series is bursting with allusions and parodies of US culture and science fiction." The critics often point out that this is not just one mere stringing together of punchlines in quick succession, but that the humor takes place on several levels - apparently, inconspicuously in the background or even encrypted - and it is precisely from this that it gains its special charm. Even the pilot film , writes the Internet magazine Salon.com , was “ too richly layered with sight gags and nuances to absorb in one viewing ” (German: “too multi-layered enriched with pictorial wit and nuances to be seen at first sight could perceive "), and in an article of Time magazine is Bender's Big Score regarding the richness of detail with Brueghel -Painting and MAD compared comics.

Because both cartoon series are penned by Matt Groening , The Simpsons are often used for comparison. In the online edition of Die Zeit , Futurama is referred to as the “successor series” of the Simpsons . One author in the world comes to the conclusion that Futurama is "better [...] than the Simpsons", and gives the reason, among other things, the development of the characters in the course of the episodes, which is untypical for cartoon series; Futurama shows "[...] a number of lovable characters who develop further over the course of the series. In contrast to the Simpsons, the individual 'Futurama' episodes build more closely on one another. "

The strong focus on science fiction is regularly cited as a weakness of the series . For example, two other authors of the daily newspaper Die Welt write , also in comparison with The Simpsons : “After all, 'Futurama' is the even better series with complex computer animation, digital graphics, extreme tracking shots and three-dimensional technology, but science fiction is not for everyone. “ Der Spiegel writes in its online edition on this subject:“ An intelligent, funny show - as if made for every science fiction nerd with an affinity for comics. The masses, however, were rather indifferent. ”In a similar way, the US American Wired Magazine judged :“ Futurama was never a mass market success […] It just attracted a niche of enthusiastic devotees. "(German:" Futurama was never a success in the mass market [...] It only attracted a niche of enthusiastic followers. ")

Criticism of the German dubbed version

As critics note, the quality of Futurama in the German dubbed version is declining because translations are incorrect and because word games from English cannot be translated into German. In addition to this general problem of synchronization, synchronization has come under fire because some translation errors are so serious and at the same time often unnecessary that the meaning of the statements in German is completely lost. Because the dialogues were often strictly translated word for word, but not meaningfully. This goes so far that the German text sometimes seems completely meaningless, for example “ Motherboard ” (English for “ main board ”) with “Mother Council”, “Piggybackride” (English for “ Huckepack ”) with “Pig back riding” and “Role model” "(English for" role model ") translated as " role model ". In addition, proper names are sometimes translated, for example that of the role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons as “dungeons and dragons” or that of the chess computer Deep Blue as “deep blue”.

In addition, some allusions, which are expressed by accentuation in the original, were not reproduced in the German version. For example, Hermes Conrad's Jamaican accent is missing in the German dubbing . This has now been taken into account when the films were dubbed.

Some episode titles contain an English allusion to well-known film or book titles. Since the titles of the episodes were freely translated into German, these references are regularly omitted. For example, the episode House Finding in New New York has the original title I, Roommate , which alludes to the book Ich, der Robot ( I, Robot ); the episode barking from the Stone Age is called Jurassic Bark in English and sounds almost like the movie Jurassic Park . In some cases, the translators succeeded in placing new German word games in the German titles instead of the English puns that were lost due to the translation; The title of the episode Like the father so the clone is an allusion to the saying “Like the father, like the son” and the title The strange behavior of sexually mature crustaceans during the mating season refers to the film The strange behavior of sexually mature urbanites during the mating season .

Awards

Futurama has been nominated for a variety of awards and has received a number of awards.

Emmy

Maurice LaMarche (photo from 2010) won the Emmy for best speaker twice in a row with Futurama

The series has been nominated twelve times for the Emmy , six of them successful. With seven of the nominations, Futurama was proposed as the best animated series ( Outstanding Animated Program , formerly Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming One Hour or Less) ); it was awarded twice in this category.

Tabular overview of Emmy awards and nominations
year	category	person	episode	Result
1999	Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming One Hour or Less)	-	Garbage makes you inventive	Nominated
2000	Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation	Bari Kumar	Wedding day on Cyclopia	Won
2001	Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming One Hour or Less)	-	Amazons make snu snu	Nominated
	Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation	Rodney Clouden	In the realm of parasites	Won
2002	Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming One Hour or Less)	-	Roswell good - all good	Won
2003	Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming One Hour or Less)	-	Barking from the Stone Age	Nominated
2004	Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming One Hour or Less)	-	The sting	Nominated
	Outstanding Music and Lyrics	Ken Keeler	The Devil's Hands for the song I Want My Hands Back	Nominated
2011	Outstanding Animated Program	-	The incredible journey in a crazy time machine	Won
	Outstanding voice-over performance	Maurice LaMarche	Go back to Ndndir	Won
2012	Outstanding voice-over performance	Maurice LaMarche	The silence of the clamps	Won
	Outstanding Animated Program	-	The top of the Zoidberg	Nominated

Annie

John DiMaggio , here at Comic-Con 2007, was honored with the Annie Award in 2001 for his performance as a speaker .

Futurama has received seven Annie Awards to date and was nominated for 13 more. Apart from one award each for the films Bender's Big Score , Die Ära des Tentakels and Leela and the Encyclopods , Annie has so far only been given to individuals for individual achievements, although the series has already been nominated several times as a complete work, most recently as the best animation series (Best Animated Television Production) in 2011 (as of 2012).

In addition, Matt Groening was honored with the Winsor McCay Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011 for his life's work .

Tabular overview of Annie awards and nominations
year	category	person	episode	Result
1999	Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Television Program	-	-	Nominated
	Outstanding Individual Achievement for Writing in an Animated Television Production	Ken Keeler	His first flight to the moon	Nominated
2000	Outstanding Achievement in a Primetime or Late Night Animated Television Program	-	-	Nominated
	Outstanding Individual Achievement for Directing in an Animated Television Production	Brian Sheesley	The strange behavior of sexually mature crustaceans during the mating season	Won
	Outstanding Individual Achievement for Directing in an Animated Television Production	Susie Dietter	Wedding day on Cyclopia	Nominated
2001	Outstanding Achievement in a Primetime or Late Night Animated Television Production	-	-	Nominated
	Outstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting by a Male Performer in an Animated Television Production	John DiMaggio	Bender - up to your ears	Won
	Outstanding Individual Achievement for Writing in an Animated Television Production	Ron Weiner	The happiness of Philip J. Fry	Won
2003	Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Television Production	-	-	Nominated
	Outstanding Directing in an Animated Television Production	Rich Moore	Roswell good - all good	Won
2004	Outstanding Music in an Animated Television Production	Ken Keeler	The hands of the devil	Nominated
	Outstanding Writing in an Animated Television Production	Patric Verrone	The sting	Nominated
2007	Best Home Entertainment Production	-	Bender's Big Score	Won
2008	Best Animated Home Entertainment Production	-	The era of the tentacle	Won
2009	Best Home Entertainment Production	-	Leela and the encyclopods	Won
2011	Best Animated Television Production	-	-	Nominated
	Writing in a Television Production	Michael Rowe		Nominated
2012	Writing in Television Production	Josh Weinstein	Dead Presidents	Nominated
	Editing in Television Production	Paul D. Calder	-	Nominated
2013	Outstanding Achievement, Writing in an Animated Television or other Broadcast Venue Production	Eric Horsted	The Bots and the Bees	Nominated

WGA

Ken Keeler was honored with two WGA awards for his scripts , here at Comic-Con 2010 ; He was also nominated for an Emmy and two Annie Awards.

The Writers Guild of America honored Ken Keeler with the 2003 WGA Award in the animation category for his screenplay for the episode The Divine Bender . In the following year it remained for his colleague Patric M. Verrone and the episode The Sting with a nomination in the same category. In 2011 both Keeler and Verrone were nominated; with the script for the episode In the Body of the Friend , Keeler won the award a second time. In 2012, Eric Rogers was nominated for the script for the episode The Silence of the Terminals , but the award went to the four-time nominee The Simpsons .

Further honors

In 2004, author David A. Goodman was nominated for a Nebula Award for Best Screenplay for the episode The Last Trekki , but the honor was given to the screenwriters of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers .

For addressing ecological issues, Futurama has already been honored twice with the Environmental Media Award , which the US Environmental Media Association has been presenting since 1991 for films or television programs that promote environmental awareness . In 2000, the episode Do You Know the Popplers? excellent, in 2012 the episode Das Ferienpektakel .

The British edition of the Internet rating portal IGN voted Futurama in January 2008 at number 8 in the Top 100 Animated TV Series .

Because of the many awards that Futurama has received so far, the Guinness Book of Records named Futurama at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con International as the current most critically-acclaimed animated series .

Resonance in contemporary culture

Matt Groening's major work The Simpsons - which does not share a series universe with Futurama - contains some references to Futurama . In the episode The Big News Fraud, a teenage boy, apparently with the intent to commit suicide, leaps down a precipice, screaming, “ Why did they cancel Futurama? ”(German:“ Why was Futurama discontinued? ”) Bender has several guest appearances in the series, the most striking in the episode Future-Drama , the title of which alludes to Futurama . When Matt Groening appears in Klingon in the episode Wedding , he is introduced as the creator of Futurama ; in the same role he is mentioned by Homer Simpson in the episode The Wild 90s . The episode The Intrepid Bodyguard shows a Futurama T-shirt at a science fiction convention .

Al Gore's two-time Oscar- winning environmental documentary An Inconvenient Truth uses an excerpt from Futurama's episode The Smelly Pollution Medal to explain in an unusual way what global warming is. The film was also equipped with an animated spot called A Terrifying Message from Al Gore advertised in which Bender with the Futurama - alter ego maintains Al Gore. The Futurama team returned the favor to Gore for several guest appearances. While the voices of most Futurama politicians are mimicked by the regular cast , Gore, whose daughter Kristin Gore Cusack worked for Futurama , even voiced his drawn version himself during his tenure as Vice President of the United States . This marked the first time a prominent politician had actually voiced his cartoon alter ego.

In allusion to Fry's disappearance in the twentieth century, the animated stop-motion series The PJs shows Fry as a missing person on a milk carton - a common method in the USA to help find missing children. With this, the makers of the PJs showed that an advertisement for their series can be seen on the manhole covers in Futurama.

In comics and cartoons , Futurama characters are repeatedly honored with small guest appearances. For example, Bender can be seen drinking in a bar in the Family Guy episode Blue Harvest , a tribute to Star Wars , and Dr. Zoidberg has guest roles on Daffy Duck in Looney Tunes as well as in an issue of Action Comics . Even the magazine MAD has Futurama repeatedly parodied. The Oscar-winning short film Logorama , which is composed of logos , shows the logo of the Futurama soft drink Slurm in addition to the symbols of around 2500 brands from the real world .

An Easter Egg in the Firefox web browser (version 3 or higher ) contains an allusion to Bender's catch phrase “ Bite my shiny metal ass ” (literally: “ Bite my shiny metal ass ”): If you enter it in the address line about:robots, an apparent system message with allusions appears displayed on various robots in pop culture. The last one reads: “ Robots have shiny metal posteriors which should not be ask. "(Literally in German:" Robots have shiny metal buttocks that shouldn't be bitten. ")

Adaptations

comics

On November 22, 2000, the first edition of the Futurama Comics appeared in the USA by Matt Groening's comic book publisher Bongo Comics . With Bill Morrison as creative director and Nathan Kane as art director , Groening found two proven people in charge of the comic series: both of them worked in this division of responsibilities for the Simpsons Comics , and Morrison was also responsible for the success of the Futurama television series as art director . The content of the comics revolved around the protagonists of the television series. They told new stories that were not carried over from the television series. The comic was discontinued in February 2017.

In Germany, the comics were initially published by Dino Verlag from October 2001 . At the beginning of 2003 this was taken over by Panini Verlag , which continued the series. The volumes appeared quarterly in four-color printing in 17.0 × 26.0 cm and are 36 pages thick. Panini discontinued the German comic version in September 2015 with issue # 59. From October 2002 the series was also available in Great Britain , Ireland and Australia .

Video game

Unique Development Studios acquired the license in 2000, Futurama - video games for computers, consoles and handhelds to develop. The games should be distributed in North America by Fox Interactive and elsewhere by Unique Development Studios, but ultimately Sierra Entertainment and SCi Entertainment took over the distribution of the game, which was released in August 2003 and is simply called "Futurama". It is available for PlayStation 2 and Xbox . Critics reacted cautiously to both versions. The plans for a GameCube version were not implemented. Cel shading is used for the graphical representation of the game to approximate the look of the television series. The characters were set to music by the speakers of the television counterparts - in the English original as well as in the German, French, Italian and Spanish synchronized versions. The player slips into the roles of Fry, Bender, Leela and Dr. Zoidberg. The aim of the third-person shooter is to prevent the sale of Planet Express to the monopoly Mom, who would otherwise enslave the earth and turn it into a gigantic battleship to conquer the universe. The cut scenes of the game were by J. Stewart Burns written, an author of the series, whose script for the episode Roswell good - all good was awarded the Emmy. Whoever has unlocked all the cutscenes can watch them one after the other. Taken together, they correspond in length and dramaturgy to a Futurama episode. Under the title Futurama: The Lost Adventure it counts as “73. Episode of the original series ”, says David X. Cohen, about the bonus material of the DVD The Era of the Tentacle .

Merchandise

In addition to the implementation in various media, a large number of different licensed articles on Futurama were published. These include items of clothing, posters, tin signs, fridge magnets, calendars, card, dice and board games and various collectible and toy figures. An energy drink with the name and logo of Slurm is also available .

literature

Scientific work

• Andreas Cirikovic: Social criticism in American cartoon series: Using the example of the Simpsons, South Park and Futurama . GRIN Verlag, 2009, ISBN 978-3-640-47575-9 , pp. 64 ff . ( Limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed October 29, 2010] Master's thesis).
• Sarah J. Greenwald: Klein's beer: Futurama Comedy and Writers in the Classroom . In: Primus: Problems, resources and issues in mathematics undergraduate studies . tape 17 , no. 1 , 2007, ISSN  1051-1970 , p. 52-66 , doi : 10.1080 / 10511970601126894 ( mathsci.appstate.edu [PDF]).
• Andreas Rauscher: The Hitchhikers Guide To Society . In: Michael Gruteser, Thomas Klein (Ed.): Subversion for Prime-Time. The Simpsons and the Myths of Society . 2nd Edition. Schüren, 2002, ISBN 978-3-89472-336-1 , pp. 184 ff .
• Christopher Gary Wood: Futurama: The Future Is Now - how Futurama uses the discourses and aesthetic of science fiction to critique contemporary social issues . (English, online at Futurama Madhouse [accessed February 20, 2008] dissertation ).

Press articles (selection)

• Alexander Menden: The gag killers from ProSieben . In: The time . No. 11/2001 , 2001 ( online version at Zeit online [accessed on May 15, 2008] report on the weaknesses of the synchronization of The Simpsons and Futurama utsch).
• Alex Needham: Nice Planet ... We'll Take It! In: The Face . No. 33 , October 1999, p. 70 ff . ( Article online ( Memento of August 24, 2000 on Internet Archive ) at Internet Archive , originally published on Futurama Chronicles ).
• Brian Doherty: Matt Groening . In: Mother Jones . March 1999 ( article online [accessed March 11, 2009] Interview with Matt Groening; March / April edition).
• Anita Gates: Groening's New World, 1,000 Years From Springfield . In: New York Times . January 24, 1999, p. 38 , col. 2 ( Article online [accessed May 10, 2009]).

Web links

Commons : Futurama  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Futurama in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Futurama in the online film database
• Futurama on Fox TV ( Memento from March 15, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
• Futurama at Comedy Central (English)
• Futurama at ProSieben MAXX
• Futurama-Area.de (German) Fan portal with current information and an attached wiki , the FuturamaPedia
• The Infosphere (English) Comprehensive fan wiki with current information and z. B. Provides transcripts of the individual episodes and summaries of the audio comments

Remarks

1. ↑ The true circumstances of the incident are revealed in the episode Philip J. Fry: VIP
2. ↑ For example, the episode is based The smelly Medal of pollution on the assumption that the global warming to the 31st century stopped while after the episode of invention trash as scientific swindle turned and loudly episode Xmas Story by a nuclear winter ended was .
3. ↑ In the German dubbed version this is translated as “First Amalgam Church”, probably a wrong friend .
4. ↑ Unless otherwise indicated, episodes and seasons in this article are named according to the order and division of production.
5. ↑ Details on the broadcast dates can be found in the list of Futurama episodes .
6. ↑ Only the most important prices are listed here. The IMDb : Awards for Futurama provides a detailed overview of the series' nominations and awards (excluding films) . In: IMDb. Retrieved June 22, 2008 .  For the awards of the films cf. the main articles on Bender's Big Score , The Era of the Tentacle , Bender's Game and Leela, and the Encyclopods .
7. ↑ From the perspective of Futurama this becomes clear, among other things, that in Futurama Simpsons merchandising appears in some places , so Futurama takes place in a world in which The Simpsons is a television series. Simpsons characters do not appear in the reality of the series. This policy was set by Matt Groening, as he revealed in an audio commentary . An overview at which points of Futurama , the Simpsons were installed, for example, is The Simpsons. In: The Infosphere, the Futurama Wiki. Retrieved December 30, 2009 . 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} James Sterngold: Bringing an Alien And a Robot to Life; The Gestation of the Simpsons' Heirs. In: The New York Times . July 22, 1999, accessed May 13, 2008 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Alex Needham: Nice Planet… We'll Take It! In: The Face . No. 33 , October 1999, p. 70 ff . ( Article online ( Memento of August 24, 2000 on Internet Archive ) at Internet Archive , originally published on Futurama Chronicles ).
3. ↑ ^{a b} Sandra Fomferek: Yellow TV: Why Futurama is better than the Simpsons. In: Welt online . June 18, 2007, accessed May 16, 2008 . 
4. ^ ^{A b c} Anita Gates: Groening's New World, 1,000 Years From Springfield . In: New York Times . January 24, 1999, p. 38 , col. 2 ( Article online [accessed May 10, 2009]).
5. ↑ Futurama: Leela's Homeworld. In: TV.com. Retrieved on March 17, 2009 (English, summary of the episode The Orphan of the Year ). 
6. ↑ ^{a b c d} Brian Doherty: Matt Groening . In: Mother Jones . March 1999 ( article online [accessed March 11, 2009] Interview with Matt Groening; March / April edition).
7. ^ Andreas Rauscher: Method Acting in the Kwik-E-Mart. The Simpsons Media Theories . In: Michael Gruteser, Thomas Klein (Ed.): Subversion for Prime-Time. The Simpsons and the Myths of Society . 2nd Edition. Schüren, 2002, ISBN 978-3-89472-336-1 , pp. 121 .
8. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Joyce Millman: That 31st Century Show. In: Salon.com . March 26, 1999, archived from the original on February 14, 2011 ; accessed on May 16, 2008 . 
9. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Chris Baker: Futurama Is Back! Grab a Can of Slurm and Settle In. In: Online edition of Wired . November 27, 2007, accessed May 16, 2008 . 
10. ↑ ^{a b} Johannes Kuhn: click view: The descent of the Monopoly man. In: sueddeutsche.de . December 17, 2007, archived from the original on January 5, 2008 ; Retrieved May 15, 2008 . 
11. ↑ Daniel Sorid: Futurama - 'Mechanical House'. October 4, 1999, archived from the original on June 11, 2009 ; accessed on March 17, 2009 (English, summary of episode 11: The Mars University Experiment ). 
12. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j} Christopher Gary Wood: Futurama: The Future Is Now - how Futurama uses the discourses and aesthetic of science fiction to critique contemporary social issues . (English, online at Futurama Madhouse [accessed February 20, 2008] dissertation ).
13. ↑ Episode 15: Brannigan, Start Again
14. ↑ Christoph Petersen: Slurm - Bölkstoff, Duff & other film drinks that have become real. In: film starts . Retrieved June 18, 2013 . 
15. ↑ ^{a b} Kevin Kelly: Science fiction can be funny . In: KulturSPIEGEL . No. 9 , August 28, 2009, p. 22 ( Article online at Spiegel Online [accessed January 29, 2010] Interview with Matt Groening).
16. ↑ Mark Pinsky: The Gospel According to the Simpsons. Bigger and possibly even better! ISBN 978-0-664-23265-8 , pp. 229-235 .
17. ↑ Audio commentary on Episode 1: Time and Space 3000
18. ↑ Interesting Questions, Facts, and Information. In: funtrivia.com. Retrieved March 13, 2009 . 
19. ↑ ^{a b c} "Futurama" (1999) - Trivia. In: IMDb . Retrieved May 17, 2008 . 
20. ↑ Episode 56: The Orphan of the Year
21. ^ Ole Reissmann: Drinking, smoking, saving lives. In: Spiegel Online . June 24, 2010. Retrieved June 24, 2010 . 
22. ↑ Dieter Oßwald: Only God has five fingers . In: The Standard . July 14, 2007 ( article online at derStandard.at [accessed February 24, 2009] Interview with Matt Groening and Al Jean).
23. ↑ ^{a b c d} Futurama: "Simpsons" cut with bulging eyes and an overbite. In: Spiegel Online . August 31, 2000, accessed May 12, 2008 . 
24. ↑ ^{a b c} Jenna Wortham: Futurama Animators Roll 20-Sided Die With Bender's Game. In: Online edition of Wired . November 4, 2008, accessed January 20, 2010 (English, interview with Claudia Katz, Senior Vice President of Rough Draft, and Dwayne Carey-Hill, director of Bender's Game and Bender's Big Score ). 
25. ^ Googie: Architecture of The Space Age. (No longer available online.) May 13, 2008, archived from the original on January 7, 2009 ; Retrieved March 11, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
26. ↑ ^{a b c d} Gallery: Behind the Scenes of Futurama. In: Online edition of Wired . November 27, 2007, accessed January 25, 2010 . 
27. ↑ Email response from Scott Vanzo, CTO of Rough Draft, posted on a forum and on GotFuturama.com
28. ^ Profile of Pierre Henry. In: Internet pages of the BBC . Archived from the original on December 16, 2008 ; accessed on February 20, 2008 (English). 
29. ↑ The radio play and the big stage . In: Internet pages of the Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation . ( Article online ( Memento of March 5, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) at the Internet Archive [accessed on November 13, 2007]).
30. ↑ ^{a b c} Futurama on FOX. In: Internet pages of TV Guide . Retrieved May 16, 2008 . 
31. ^ My Science Fiction Live. In: Internet pages of the BBC . Retrieved May 16, 2008 . 
32. ↑ ^{a b} Andrea Kaiser: Frau Kaiser sees television from February 21 to February 27, In: Die Zeit . No. 09/2002 , 2002 ( article online at Zeit Online [accessed on May 15, 2008]).
33. ↑ ^{a b c d} Futurama: A critical comparison between the original and the dubbed version. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on April 11, 2008 ; accessed on June 22, 2008 (comparison with many translation examples). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
34. ↑ ^{a b} The Geekiest Show on TV. In: Online edition of Wired . November 27, 2007, accessed March 13, 2008 . 
35. ^ Sarah J. Greenwald: Dr. Sarah's Futurama Math: Mathematics in the Year 3000. (No longer available online.) In: Appalachian State University website . Archived from the original on June 16, 2010 ; Retrieved January 27, 2010 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
36. ^ Sarah J. Greenwald: Klein's beer: Futurama Comedy and Writers in the Classroom . In: Primus: Problems, resources and issues in mathematics undergraduate studies . tape 17 , no. 1 , 2007, ISSN  1051-1970 , p. 52-66 , doi : 10.1080 / 10511970601126894 ( mathsci.appstate.edu [PDF]). mathsci.appstate.edu ( Memento of the original from June 19, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
37. ↑ Audio commentary on episode 20: Valentine's Day 3000
38. ^ Quote from Professor Farnsworth from Episode 36: The Happiness of Philip J. Fry
39. ↑ Lucius Cook: “Hey Sexy Mama, Wanna Kill All Humans?”: Looking Backwards at Futurama, The Greatest SF Show You've Never Seen. In: Locus website . April 26, 2004, accessed February 24, 2011 . 
40. ↑ Quote from Professor Farnsworth from episode 23: Like father like clone
41. ^ Roy Christopher: David X. Cohen: Futurama's Head (In a Jar). (No longer available online.) January 29, 2002, archived from the original on March 1, 2010 ; Retrieved January 27, 2010 (English, interview with David X. Cohen). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
42. ↑ Audio commentary on Episode 3: Apartment Hunting in New York
43. ^ Groening Bites the Hand that Feeds. In: Mr. Showbiz, ABC News Internet Ventures. April 8, 1999, archived from the original on November 29, 2010 ; accessed on February 24, 2008 . 
44. ↑ Timothy Dean Taylor: Strange Sounds: Music, Technology & Culture . Routledge, 2001, ISBN 0-415-93684-5 , pp. 104-105 (English).
45. ^ The Original Futurama. In: Online edition of Wired . November 27, 2007, accessed May 13, 2008 . 
46. ↑ Michael Beuthner: Euphorion: Chronocracy & Technocracy in the Bit Age: Socio-ethical and technological-philosophical considerations for informatization and computerization of society . LIT Verlag, Berlin, Hamburg, Münster 1999, ISBN 978-3-8258-4139-3 , pp. 377 ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed March 4, 2009] 826 pages).
47. ↑ ^{a b} Billy West: The TV Squad Interview. In: TV Squad . June 15, 2006, accessed on May 21, 2012 (English, interview with Billy West ): “[…] I was gonna audition for just about every character. [...] The other characters are so cartoony and broad [...] " 
48. ↑ ^{a b c d} Dave Itzkoff: 'Futurama'-Rama: Welcome Back to the World of Tomorrow. In: Online edition of the New York Times . June 24, 2010, accessed May 21, 2012 (English, interview with Billy West, Katey Sagal and John DiMaggio). 
49. ^ ^{A b} IGN interviews with Billy West. In: IGN.com . September 22, 2005, accessed on May 21, 2012 (English, interview with Billy West ): "I knew him, and I talked to him, and we shared this love of big, dumb announcers ..." 
50. Jump up ↑ DVD audio commentary on Episode 1, Time and Space 3000 . 20th Century Fox (2003). ( . Transcript online In: . The InfoSphere Accessed 21 May 2012 .  )

    John DiMaggio: “ […] when I auditioned for this show, I auditioned and I auditioned for the professor as well. And I used that voice for the professor [...] ”

    David X. Cohen: “ It was actually a producer we worked with named Jason Grode, who came up with the idea that you should re-audition with your Professor voice as Bender and that's what we went with. It was very hard to decide what a robot should sound like, we auditioned dozen, scores, I don't know how many ... ”

51. ↑ ^{a b c} Kathie Huddleston: David X. Cohen boards the Planet Express to find meaning in Futurama. In: Internet pages of the SciFi-Channel . Archived from the original on March 4, 2009 ; Retrieved February 20, 2008 (English, interview with David X. Cohen). 
52. ↑ ^{a b} John Dempsey: Toon Net Gets 'Futurama' . In: Daily Variety . September 9, 2002 ( online article on Variety's website [accessed January 20, 2010]).
53. ↑ Online Chat with Matt Groening, TV Guide - Yahoo! Chat. Archived from the original on September 29, 2000 ; Retrieved February 20, 2008 (online chat with Matt Groening, originally published on Futurama Chronicles ). 
54. ↑ David X. Cohen Interview by Jon. In: GotFuturama.com. Retrieved February 20, 2008 (interview with David X. Cohen). 
55. ^ ^{A b} Dixon Galvez-Searle: Back To The “Futurama”: Rough Draft Studios Updates Animated Series For Home Video Market. (No longer available online.) February 4, 2008, archived from the original on December 2, 2012 ; accessed on September 12, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
56. ↑ Silver screen Simpsons, Futurama facing finish? BBC January 19, 2002, archived from the original April 19, 2003 ; accessed on November 10, 2012 . 
57. ↑ ^{a b} Fox puts 'Futurama' order on hold. (No longer available online.) February 14, 2002, formerly in the original ; accessed on May 13, 2008 (English).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
58. ^ Start dates for "Futurama" (1999). In: IMDb . Retrieved March 2, 2009 . 
59. ↑ TV Listings. In: GotFuturama.com. Retrieved March 9, 2009 . 
60. ↑ Adult Swim. In: Cartoon Network Pressroom. Archived from the original on January 2, 2008 ; Retrieved January 20, 2010 . 
61. ^ Adult Swim / CN Split Cements Strategy. March 3, 2005, accessed January 20, 2010 . 
62. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Marc D. Allan: Back to the 'Futurama'. In: AltWeeklies.com. November 16, 2007, accessed December 23, 2017 . 
63. ^ ^{A b} Nathan Rabin: Matt Groening. In: The Onion AV Club . April 26, 2006, accessed February 22, 2009 (Interview with Matt Groening). 
64. ^ John Dempsey: Animation central. 'Futurama' in Comedy's future via big deal. (No longer available online.) In: Online edition of Variety . October 27, 2005, formerly in the original ; accessed on March 9, 2009 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
65. ↑ Don Kaplan: Back to the 'Futurama'. In: Online edition of the New York Post . June 22, 2006, archived from the original on August 13, 2006 ; accessed on March 24, 2010 (English): "[...] Comedy Central outbid Adult Swim for the license to air all 52 [sic!] episodes of 'Futurama' and whatever new episodes might one day be produced." 
66. ^ Joel Keller: New episodes of Futurama coming to Comedy Central ... for real! June 22, 2006, accessed June 22, 2008 . 
67. ↑ Don Kaplan: Back to the 'Futurama'. June 22, 2006, archived from the original on August 13, 2006 ; accessed on March 24, 2010 (English). 
68. ↑ EXCLUSIVE: Claudia Katz on Futurama the Movie: Bender's Big Score. In: Movieweb. November 16, 2007, accessed on November 11, 2012 (English, interview with Claudia Katz). 
69. ↑ Molly Celaschi: “Futurama” Feature Length Movie DVD Specs. (No longer available online.) November 14, 2007, archived from the original on December 16, 2008 ; accessed on February 22, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
70. ↑ ^{a b} 35th Annual Annie Nominations and Awards Recipients. (No longer available online.) The International Animated Film Society , archived from the original on August 15, 2010 ; Retrieved March 26, 2012 (American English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
71. ↑ ^{a b} 36th Annual Annie Nominations and Awards Recipients. (No longer available online.) The International Animated Film Society , archived from the original on August 15, 2010 ; Retrieved March 26, 2012 (American English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
72. ↑ Futurama - Bender's Game. In: Cinefacts . Retrieved February 23, 2009 . 
73. ↑ Live from New York Comic Con! Fans Treated To Futurama World Premiere! (No longer available online.) February 7, 2009, archived from the original on August 7, 2009 ; accessed on January 24, 2010 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
74. ^ Into the Wild Green Yonder. Internet Movie Database , accessed June 8, 2015 . 
75. ^ Into the Wild Green Yonder. (No longer available online.) In: Fox online shop. Archived from the original on July 22, 2009 ; Retrieved March 9, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
76. ↑ Futurama - Leela and the Encyclopods. In: Cinefacts . Retrieved April 25, 2009 . 
77. ↑ Futurama - Leela and the Encyclopods. (No longer available online.) In: German Internet pages from Fox. Archived from the original on April 13, 2009 ; Retrieved March 9, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
78. ↑ ^{a b} 37th Annual Annie Nominations and Awards Recipients. (No longer available online.) The International Animated Film Society , archived from the original on August 15, 2010 ; Retrieved March 26, 2012 (American English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
79. ↑ Christoph Petersen: Futurama: The reboot is coming in mid-2010. (No longer available online.) August 1, 2009, archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; Retrieved December 9, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
80. ↑ Michael Ausiello: It's official: 'Futurama' is reborn! (No longer available online.) In: Internet pages from Entertainment Weekly . June 9, 2009, archived from the original on January 6, 2010 ; accessed on January 22, 2010 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
81. ^ Nellie Andreeva: Comedy Central resurrects 'Futurama'. In: The Hollywood Reporter . June 9, 2009, archived from the original on June 12, 2009 ; accessed on December 30, 2009 . 
82. ↑ ^{a b} Michael Schneider: 'Futurama' returns with new episodes. In: Variety . June 9, 2009, accessed June 14, 2009 . 
83. ^ Christian Richter: The experts: July 5th, 2010. In: quotenmeter.de. Retrieved July 15, 2010 . 
84. ↑ Michael Schneider: 'Futurama' without original voices? (No longer available online.) In: Variety . July 17, 2009, archived from the original on July 23, 2009 ; accessed on June 14, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
85. ↑ Michael Schneider: Variety: 'Futurama' cast returning for reboot. (No longer available online.) In: Variety . July 31, 2009, formerly in the original ; accessed on June 14, 2009 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
86. ^ Comedy Central Renews "Futurama" For 26 New Episodes. Comedy Central, March 28, 2011, accessed June 27, 2011 (press release). 
87. ↑ Dan Snierson: 'Futurama' to end seven-season run on Sept. 4 - EXCLUSIVE. In: Online edition of Entertainment Weekly . Retrieved May 15, 2013 . 
88. ↑ Futurama will be discontinued after Season 7. In: Moviepilot.de. April 22, 2013. Retrieved April 22, 2013 . 
89. ↑ ^{a b} Peter Mühlbauer: Bugged synchronization - Futurama lacks the debugger. In: Telepolis . September 7, 2000, accessed March 4, 2009 . 
90. ↑ Futurama. In: synchronkartei.de. German synchronous file , accessed on March 4, 2009 . 
91. ↑ Futurama. In: serien-synchron.de. Retrieved March 4, 2009 . 
92. ↑ synchronkartei.de
93. ↑ Futurama. (No longer available online.) In: Fox TV - Top TV series on DVD . Archived from the original on March 10, 2009 ; Retrieved March 9, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
94. ↑ ^{a b} Futurama: The Collected Epics. November 5, 2009, accessed January 22, 2010 . 
95. ↑ Futurama, Vol. 1 DVD. In: Blu-ray.com. Retrieved November 15, 2012 . 
96. ↑ Futurama (Season 1). In: online film database . Retrieved June 20, 2013 . 
97. ↑ ^{a b c d} VHS releases. In: The Infosphere. Retrieved November 1, 2012 . 
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99. ^ Niche Medium Releases. In: The Infosphere. Retrieved November 1, 2012 . 
100. ↑ Futurama, Vol. 2 DVD. In: Blu-ray.com. Retrieved November 15, 2012 . 
101. ↑ Futurama (Season 2). In: online film database . Retrieved June 20, 2013 . 
102. ↑ Futurama (Season 2). In: online film database . Retrieved June 20, 2013 . 
103. ↑ Futurama, Vol. 3 DVD. In: Blu-ray.com. Retrieved November 15, 2012 . 
104. ↑ Futurama (Season 3). In: online film database . Retrieved June 20, 2013 . 
105. ↑ Futurama (Season 3). In: online film database . Retrieved June 20, 2013 . 
106. ↑ Futurama, Vol. 4 DVD. In: Blu-ray.com. Retrieved November 15, 2012 . 
107. ↑ Futurama (Season 4). In: online film database . Retrieved June 20, 2013 . 
108. ↑ Futurama: The Collected Epics DVD. In: Blu-ray.com. Retrieved June 19, 2013 . 
109. ↑ Futurama - Movie Collection [4 DVDs]. In: Amazon.de . Retrieved January 13, 2015 . 
110. ↑ Futurama: Volume 5 DVD. In: Blu-ray.com. Retrieved November 15, 2012 . 
111. ↑ Futurama - Season 5 [2 DVDs]. In: Amazon.de . Retrieved January 8, 2013 . 
112. ↑ Futurama: Volume 5 Blu-ray. In: Blu-ray.com. Retrieved November 15, 2012 . 
113. ↑ Futurama: Volume 6 DVD. In: Blu-ray.com. Retrieved November 15, 2012 . 
114. ↑ Futurama - Season 6 [2 DVDs]. In: Amazon.de . Retrieved January 8, 2013 . 
115. ↑ Futurama: Volume 6 Blu-ray. In: Blu-ray.com. Retrieved November 15, 2012 . 
116. ↑ Futurama: Volume 7 DVD. In: Blu-ray.com. Retrieved January 8, 2013 . 
117. ↑ Futurama - Season 7 [2 DVDs]. In: Amazon.de . Retrieved April 9, 2014 . 
118. ↑ Futurama: Volume 7 Blu-ray. In: Blu-ray.com. Retrieved November 15, 2012 . 
119. ↑ Futurama, Vol. 8. In: Amazon.com. Accessed March 27, 2015 . 
120. ↑ Futurama: Season 8. In: Amazon.de. Retrieved March 27, 2015 . 
121. ↑ cf. Futurama: Volume 1 DVD , Volume 2 DVD , Volume 3 DVD and Volume 4 DVD . In: Blu-ray.com . Accessed on November 15, 2012 (English).
122. ↑ Futurama Monster Pack. In: online film database . Retrieved June 20, 2013 . 
123. ↑ Complete Season 1–4. In: online film database . Retrieved June 20, 2013 . 
124. ↑ Futurama - Complete Box Season 1–4 (15-disc set). In: Internet pages of Fox. Archived from the original on January 23, 2009 ; Retrieved March 9, 2009 . 
125. ↑ The complete series. In: online film database . Retrieved June 20, 2013 . 
126. ↑ ^{a b} Groening’s Gripe. April 1999, archived from the original on August 24, 2000 ; accessed on May 13, 2008 (English). 
127. ↑ Adam Winer: 'Futurama' Shock. In: Online edition of Entertainment Weekly . December 9, 1999, accessed April 11, 2008 . 
128. ↑ Nina Hämmerling Smith: Scoop: Futurama's Back with Bender's Big Score! In: Internet pages of TV Guide . November 27, 2007, accessed on September 12, 2012 (English, interview with David X. Cohen). 
129. ↑ ^{a b} Richard Corliss: Futurama: Bender's Big Score. In: Internet pages of Time Magazine . Retrieved May 16, 2008 . 
130. ^ ^{A b c} Daniel Sander: Cinema day ticket: Back from the future. In: Spiegel Online . April 10, 2008, accessed May 13, 2008 . 
131. ↑ ^{a b} Alexander Menden: The gag killers from ProSieben . In: The time . No. 11/2001 , 2001 ( online version at Zeit online [accessed on May 15, 2008] report on the weaknesses of the synchronization of The Simpsons and Futurama utsch).
132. ↑ Uwe Mantel: After 6 years: "Futurama" with a poor comeback. In: DWDL.de . September 20, 2010, accessed November 6, 2012 . 
133. ↑ ^{a b} Futurama: Welcome To The World Of Tomorrow , 1999. Futurama: Welcome To The World Of Tomorrow in the Internet Movie Database (English)
134. ↑ ^{a b c d} Andreas Cirikovic: Social criticism in American cartoon series: Using the example of the Simpsons, South Park and Futurama . GRIN Verlag, 2009, ISBN 978-3-640-47575-9 , pp. 64 ff . ( Limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed October 29, 2010] Master's thesis).
135. ^ Andreas Rauscher: The Hitchhikers Guide To Society . In: Michael Gruteser, Thomas Klein (Ed.): Subversion for Prime-Time. The Simpsons and the Myths of Society . 2nd Edition. Schüren, 2002, ISBN 978-3-89472-336-1 , pp. 184 ff .
136. ↑ Andreas Fischer: Futurama: Bender's Big Score. In: Internet pages of MSNBC . March 28, 2008, accessed May 16, 2008 . 
137. ^ Dan Snierson: Space Case . In: Entertainment Weekly . No. 478 , March 26, 1999 ( online article [accessed February 20, 2008]).
138. ↑ Eva C. Schweitzer: The Simpsons are America. In: time online . July 25, 2007, accessed May 15, 2008 . 
139. ^ Hendrik L. Meyer, Dirk Altemann: pigs in space. In: Welt online . September 4, 2000, accessed May 16, 2008 . 
140. ↑ Episode 17: Xmas Story
141. ↑ Episode 41: In the Eyes of an Orphan
142. ↑ Episode 60: Who's Cool Here?
143. ↑ Episode 29: Stories of Interest I.
144. ↑ Futurama. Academy of Television Arts & Sciences , accessed November 2, 2012 . 
145. ^ Futurama in the Primetime Emmy Award Database. Academy of Television Arts & Sciences , accessed March 28, 2012 . 
146. ↑ ^{a b} 38th Annual Annie Nominations. (No longer available online.) The International Animated Film Society , archived from the original on December 16, 2011 ; Retrieved March 26, 2012 (American English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
147. ↑ List of Annie Award nominees and laureates 1999. The International Animated Film Society , accessed May 13, 2008 (American English). 
148. ^ List of 2000 Annie Award nominees and laureates. The International Animated Film Society , accessed May 13, 2008 (American English). 
149. ^ List of 2001 Annie Award nominees and laureates. The International Animated Film Society , accessed May 13, 2008 (American English). 
150. ↑ List of Annie Award nominees and laureates 2003. The International Animated Film Society , accessed on May 13, 2008 (English). 
151. ↑ List of Annie Award nominees and laureates 2004. The International Animated Film Society , accessed May 13, 2008 (American English). 
152. ↑ 39th Annual Annie Nominations & Winners! (No longer available online.) The International Animated Film Society , archived from the original on December 4, 2009 ; Retrieved March 26, 2012 (American English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
153. ↑ Annie Awards Nominees. The International Animated Film Society , accessed July 15, 2013 (American English). 
154. ↑ ^{a b} Writers Guild Awards. Award winners. Writers Guild of America , archived from the original April 12, 2006 ; accessed on February 23, 2011 (English, list of WGA Award winners since 1996). 
155. ^ Awards for "Futurama". In: Internet Movie Database . Retrieved February 23, 2011 (American English). 
156. ↑ Futurama Grabs 2 WGA Noms! In: GotFuturama.com. Retrieved December 9, 2010, February 23, 2011 (American English). 
157. ^ Writers Guild Awards. 2012 nominations. Writers Guild of America , archived from the original March 8, 2006 ; accessed on November 2, 2012 . 
158. ^ Writers Guild Awards. 2012 Awards Winners. Writers Guild of America , archived from the original April 12, 2006 ; accessed on November 2, 2012 . 
159. ↑ Where No Fan Has Gone Before. In: TV.com. Retrieved September 13, 2010 . 
160. ↑ 2010 Nebula Award Winners Announced. Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , accessed September 12, 2012 . 
161. ^ The EMA Awards. (No longer available online.) Environmental Media Association , archived from the original on November 6, 2012 ; accessed on November 2, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
162. ↑ 21st Annual Environmental Media Awards. (No longer available online.) Environmental Media Association , archived from the original on April 7, 2012 ; accessed on November 2, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
163. ↑ 8. Futurama. (No longer available online.) IGN , archived from the original on June 3, 2010 ; accessed on September 13, 2010 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
164. ↑ Gonzalo Cordova: Comedy Central At Comic-Con: Day Three, Futurama Panel. Comedy Central , July 24, 2010, accessed September 13, 2010 . 
165. ↑ Nelson Abalos: [Comic Con 2010] Futurama Sets Guinness World Record. July 25, 2010, accessed September 13, 2010 . 
166. ^ Robert Levine: TELEVISION: THE EPISODE; The Season Finale That Isn't a Season Finale. May 23, 2004, accessed February 22, 2009 . 
167. ↑ Bender appears, for example, in the Simpsons episodes The Best Missionary of All Time , Class Warfare and Future Drama .
168. ^ Future drama. Internet Movie Database , accessed June 8, 2015 . 
169. ^ A Terrifying Message from Al Gore. Internet Movie Database , accessed June 8, 2015 . 
170. ^ Bella English, The Boston Globe : Books & Authors: A capital idea from a Gore daughter. (No longer available online.) In: Times Argus Online . Barre Montpelier Times Argus, September 19, 2004, archived from the original December 6, 2016 ; accessed on May 13, 2008 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
171. ↑ Audio Commentary on Episode 29: The Smelly Medal of Pollution
172. ↑ Al Gore. Internet Movie Database , accessed June 8, 2015 . 
173. ↑ Everyone wants to go to Springfield. In: Sueddeutsche.de . July 8, 2007, accessed May 12, 2008 (interview with Matt Groening ). 
174. ↑ N. Devrim Tuncel, Andreas Rauscher: The myths of Springfield everyday life. Simpsons as political satire . In: Michael Gruteser, Thomas Klein (Ed.): Subversion for Prime-Time. The Simpsons and the Myths of Society . 2nd Edition. Schüren, 2002, ISBN 978-3-89472-336-1 , pp. 157 .
175. ↑ From the audio commentary on the episode Emotional Chip Fancy? : “ They reciprocated, actually, by putting Fry on the side of a milk carton in The PJs as a lost person. ”
176. ↑ ^{a b} In popular culture. In: The Infosphere . Retrieved March 9, 2009 . 
177. ↑ Family Guy Presents: Blue Harvest. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on February 27, 2009 ; Retrieved February 23, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
178. ^ H5 , Nicolas Schmerkin : Logorama , 2009. Autour de Minuit Productions. After about 2:20 minutes (English).
179. ↑ Merchandise: Comics. Retrieved March 1, 2009 . 
180. ↑ Groening launches 'Futurama Comics'. In: The Gazette (Colorado Springs, CO). November 19, 2000, accessed March 1, 2009 . 
181. ↑ Futurama Comics. In: German Comic Guide . Retrieved March 17, 2009 . 
182. ↑ Futurama Canceled Again! theouthousers.com, February 20, 2017, accessed April 9, 2017 . 
183. ↑ ^{a b c} Futurama Comics. In: German Comic Guide . Retrieved March 1, 2009 . 
184. ↑ Futurama. In: Internet pages of Panini Verlag . Retrieved March 1, 2009 . 
185. ↑ FUTURAMA COMICS. (No longer available online.) In: Media-Daten Online . Formerly in the original ; Retrieved March 1, 2009 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
186. ↑ Futurama Comics. Panini, accessed April 9, 2017 . 
187. ↑ Do you want Fry with that? Retrieved March 2, 2009 ( press release from Titan Publishing). 
188. ^ Titan Comics. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on December 14, 2015 ; accessed on March 2, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
189. ↑ ^{a b} Shahed Ahmed: Futurama Finds a Developer. In: GameSpot . September 15, 2000, accessed March 2, 2009 . 
190. ↑ Jeff Gerstmann: Sierra to bring Futurama game to the US. In: GameSpot . April 24, 2003, accessed March 2, 2009 . 
191. ↑ ^{a b} Futurama The Game. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on February 7, 2009 ; accessed on March 2, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
192. ↑ ^{a b} Futurama. In: Metacritic . Retrieved March 2, 2009 (reviews of the Xbox version). 
193. ↑ Futurama. In: Metacritic . Retrieved March 2, 2009 (English, PS2 version reviews). 
194. ^ Futurama Release Information for GameCube. Retrieved March 2, 2009 . 
195. ^ ^{A b} Justin Thompson: E3 2003: Futurama Hands-On. (No longer available online.) May 15, 2003, archived from the original on October 9, 2009 ; Retrieved April 19, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
196. ^ Futurama (Video Game). Internet Movie Database , accessed June 8, 2015 . 
197. ↑ ^{a b c} Futurama. (No longer available online.) In: Futurama - The Game. Official website for the game. Archived from the original on June 3, 2008 ; accessed on April 19, 2009 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
198. ↑ Chris Baker: Videogames & Futurama, Part 4: The Lost Episode is on a PS2 Disc. In: Wired online edition . December 20, 2007, accessed January 22, 2010 . 
199. ^ David Lambert: Futurama - The Beast with a Billion Backs. April 1, 2008, accessed January 22, 2010 . 
200. ↑ Futurama. In: Comedy Central's online shop . Retrieved June 18, 2013 . 
201. ↑ Futurama Merchandise. In: GotFuturama.com. Retrieved February 22, 2010 . 
202. ↑ Futurama: Slurm Energy Drink. The Boston America Corp, archived from the original on February 1, 2012 ; accessed on February 22, 2010 (English). 

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