HOT SEX

WHAT'S COOKIN': Futurama's risqué fifth and most likely last season.

WHAT ARE THEY UP TO: Hot, dirty sex and nudity.

WHEN & WHERE CAN YOU FIND 'EM: Sundays, 7 p.m., Fox (when it's not pre-empted by sports events, holidays and bar mitzvahs)

WHY IN THE WORLD: After years of being neglected by Fox, creator Matt Groening and executive producer David X. Cohen decided to go out with a loud, moaning bang.

HOW'S IT GOING DOWN: Since television animation requires a longer production schedule, Futurama will be finished posting and sound mixing the remaining 16 episodes originally intended for the series' third and fourth seasons even before season 5 debuts. And during the process, Cohen felt they nothing to lose by sexing things up.
 "We're trying our best to be unsuitable for 7 p.m. this season - we have nothing else to lose this season, so we felt we would throw caution to the wind," says Cohen. "I think we're daring them to keep us on at 7 p.m., essentially."
 So what kind of dirty stuff can fans expect? Cohen emphasizes "gratuitous sex."
 "With Futurama, we've really gone wild both with sci-fi concepts and with nudity," adds Groening. "There's a lot more nudity this upcoming season. I can't believe we're getting away with it. And it's nudity fans crave."
 True, Bender will be getting a sex change operation to become a Fembot so he can compete in the robot Olympics. but Groening says the sex he's talking about isn't of a robotic nature.  "Fans crave robot nudity? I don't think so," muses Groening. "There will be human and alien nudity. Sexy nudity. A lot of video frame grabs are going to be posted on the Internet."
 Other titillating episodes will be the birth of Kif and Amy's baby - but it's not Amy who is carrying. Meanwhile, alien poachers are after Fry's "horn." 'Nuff said.
 "This is a show we've always envisioned to be 8 p.m. or 8:30 p.m. to appeal to the same age demographics as The Simpsons," says Cohen. "We have a problem if we're too early or too late, which is a handicap for any show and it's especially a handicap since we're in one of those too-early slots."
 Only time will tell if sex will save Futurama or send its remaining episodes into television limbo, where last year's "A tale of Two Santas" ended for a full year before Fox finally had the Christmas balls to air it.
 "My buddies and I do adult animation," concludes Groening. "We can't help it if Fox has its own peculiar programming wisdom."

This article is from the October issue of Cinescape. Buy it if it's available in your country! Probably a rare direct interview which fans will want to own!