Cartoon Networks' slogan as seen in a Long Island train station by Seth: "See the future. Again and again and again."
Sun 02nd: A Head in The Polls
Mon 03rd: Xmas Story
Tue 04th: Why Must I Be A Crustacean In Love?
Wed 05th: Lesser of Two Evils
Thu 06th: Put Your Head On My Shoulder
Futurama starts the adult swim block at 11pm.

Been listening to radio lately? That funny thing with the defective picture signal? You might just have picked up another Futurama promotion by Cartoon Network then. After having ads for Futurama on diverse TV channels such as CNN, sides of busses in the bigger cities and in men's restrooms(!), Cartoon Network continues its fabulous treatment of Futurama with these goodies. Does it pay? Hear (read) from them yourself:

Young adults, and particularly young men, also are flocking to Cartoon Network, thanks to the Sunday-Thursday presentation of Adult Swim (11 p.m.-2 a.m.). Futurama on Sunday night (11 p.m.) showed triple-digit increases with all key demos, scoring its highest delivery/ratings to-date with adults 18-34 (557,000/0.9), men 18-34 (435,000/1.4) and men 18-24 (186,000/1.4). As a result of Futurama

As my master plan to have a new Dub the Framegrab every week with the new episodes got somewhat beaten up by FOX, I'll just start a new round today using a screen shot from "Mars University".
With the screaming Kif one last time, my favourite was entry 1 already which was so obvious that it took me by surprise: "Waaazzzzzzuuuuppppp?!" by Bender-1729.

Though I like to spread rumours myself, I feel like I have to work against a current one.
A week ago the Houston Chronicle announced "Fox fates smile on 'Simpsons,' bag 'Futurama'", saying "Futurama will not be back next year". While that might ultimately be the case, I have to assume that this is nothing but an interpretation of the Variety article we mentioned 9 days ago in which FOX's decision to renew The Simpsons and KotH was revealed - no mention of Futurama. This does NOT mean that there had been a decision against Futurama yet.
No news outlet closer to Hollywood than the Texan Houston Chronicle has picked up this story in regards to Futurama in over a week now. In fact, I talked to one of the more important people on the Futurama staff only 4 days ago and today again. NO confirmation of a final decision has been forwarded to them. There is a slight risk that FOX simply forgot about Futurama and will never tell, but the active "no" the Houston Chronicle reports did not yet happen.

While Americans are still anxiously awaiting their Futurama Season 1 DVD release due on March 25th, some more details from the emerging European Futurama Season 3 DVD release are available through the British content rating board:

• The season "5" episode "Route of All Evil" was reviewed, so we can expect to see it in the mix of the 22 episodes.
  
• There will be 4 discs, just like with the season 2 DVDs.
  
• There will be an animatic of the season "4" episode "Anthology of Interest 2".
  
• Disc 4 has 3D models of the Momcorp ship, Robo Santa's sleigh, the Titanic, Nibbler's ship, the VW van, a tornado, a buggalo walk, the robot arm neighbourhood backlot and some hover convertible.
  
• There are full length commentaries listed for 19 of the episodes. I'm somewhat confident that the remaining 3 will be on there in the end, too. We'll have to keep checking on this one.
  
• A total of 15+ minutes of deleted scenes from 17 episodes.

There is no set release date, but the hints are pointing at late April or early May. I've added some extended info to our Futurama Season 3 DVD details page.
Thanks to the Puny Human for telling me that the info is there today after I looked for it in vain yesterday

Sun 26th: No Futurama (Independence Day)
Sun 02nd: No Futurama (King of the Hills repeat)
Sun 09th: No Futurama (King of the Hills repeat)

I'm about to code some automatic "no Futurama" posting bot. This is getting tedious. Don't expect any Futurama on the other two Sundays in February either. 5 more pre-emptions after the 9th of February and we won't see all episodes this season.

With the great success of Futurama on Cartoon Network, the cable channel will go on actually showing us more episodes, unlike some other network:
Sun 26th: Mars University
Mon 27th: When Aliens Attack
Tue 28th: Fry & the Slurm Factory
Wed 29th: I Second That Emotion
Thu 30th: Brannigan Begin Again
Futurama starts the adult swim block at 11pm.

The sounds and quotes for yesterday's "A Flight to remember" on Cartoon Network are now up for you to enjoy.

Brannigan: "But as a gentleman, I must warn you. If you so much as glance at another woman, I'll be all over Leela like a fly on a pile of very seductive manure."

In a press release from today, Turner Media is overjoyed about its new Adult Swim block spear headed by Futurama at 11pm:

Cartoon Network #1 in Late-Night Delivery of Men 18-34, Thanks to Adult Swim
Futurama Cable Debut Scores Double, Triple-Digit Delivery/Ratings Increases in Its First Week.

The Sunday-Thursday late-night premiere of Cartoon Network

We got some exclusive information about the next Titan Publishing Futurama comic book featuring the first crossover issue. It will be on sale in the UK starting February 6th for £1.99. Inside is a contest to win a Wind-up Walking Homer and Bender from Unique Concepts and a Futurama Season Two DVD Boxset From Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. During February, you can subscribe to both Futurama Comics and Simpsons Comics and get 10% off.
Here is the Press text:

What do you get when you cross Futurama with the Simpsons? You get a cosmically colossal crossover comic, of course!

It is here! The much rumoured, much anticipated crossover of your two favourite shows, with all of the wit and hilarity that you have come to expect from Matt Groening has arrived.

Issue 3 of Futurama Comics sees the meeting of Homer and Bender, doing what they do best (with plenty of Duff), Bart up to his old tricks forcing Fry to face the consequences, and Leela looking after Lisa. How can this be? How can two shows, set in different realities, come together? All will be revealed in Futurama Comics Issue no3. Don't miss chapter one of the two-part miniseries. It is certainly worth the wait!Thanks to Titan for the info, to subscribe to Titan Comics and get 10% off email futuramasubs@titanemail.com or call 01536 764 646.

The Squishy Brain Slug toy is now listed as available at TFAW. As they have a live-stock system and it's this week's #1 bestselling toy there, you might get a "not available" if you are too late. With $9.99 it comes quite cheap.
I suggest you all go to the Brain Slug seller right now and don't wear any helmets.

TFAW also stocked up on some other hard to find Futurama Stuff, like the Tin Coaster Set and Playing Cards in a Tin by Rix.

Sun 19th: No Futurama (Simpsons)
Sun 26th: No Futurama (Independence Day)
Sun 02nd: No Futurama (King of the Hills repeat)

That means, if we assert that FOX airs Futurama every week after these three Sundays (ha!), the last episode would air on April the 20th. 6 more pre-emptions and the last episode won't make it this season. Average pre-emption amount in past years was about 4 times when not holding the early season end last year against them.

But no word of Futurama. Which is probably a bad sign.

In a Variety article, president Gail Berman says about the Simpsons: "In its 14th season, the show is doing some of its funniest episodes and best numbers.
"King of the Hill," meanwhile, has "aided in the branding of our network as the only broadcaster that's been able to tackle primetime animation," she said.

Ahem, "tackled" and killed two of the funnier animation shows on TV.

After the first week of nicely uncut Futurama episodes complete with credits on Cartoon Network, it's time to look at week 2:
Sun 19th: A Fishful of Dollars
Mon 20th: My Three Suns
Tue 21st: A Big Piece of Garbage
Wed 22nd: Hell is Other Robots
Thu 23rd: A Flight To Remember
Futurama starts the adult swim block at 11pm.

Ian Boothby - writer for Bongo Comics' Simpsons and Futurama series including the two crossover issues - will be on the Feb 9th Emerald City Comicon in Seattle, Washington. If you want to ask him questions, annoy him with continuity goofs you found, tell him how great/weak his comics are, see how he looks like or just want to breath the same air, go there and make sure to tell him hi from CGEF.
Admission is $8.00 with children under 8 being admitted for free.
Thanks go to "C. Line" for the tip.

Although some here seemingly aren't fans of it, enough others are to start the next round of "Dub the Framegrab". Come up with a funny idea what the people on the picture could be saying or thinking and post it!

My favourite from the spagetthi Zoidberg picture of last round by "Bender the Offender":
"And I'm telling you, the spaghetti started it!"

While the ratings for "Kif gets knocked up a notch" on FOX were on the lower average side with a 4.3/6 in Primetime Metered Market Ratings (King of the Hill 5.1/7, The Simpsons 8.9/12, King of the Hill again 7.3/10, Malcolm in the Middle 6.8/9 and Andy Richter Controls the Universe 4.7/7), Cartoon Network can be quite happy about their airing of "Space Pilot 3000" according to a Turner press release:

The cable debut of Emmy Award-winning Futurama within Cartoon Network

The second and last issue of the Futurama Simpsons Crossover Comic is now available at your local comic book guy's realm. In this one, Fry and the rest of the Planet Express crew try to escape the comic world in which they have been trapped. Once you bought and read it, come back here to give it a review.

The Futurama Comic #11 will be released around January 23rd with this plot:

Fry catches a cold. One problem. The cure for the common cold was discovered and then forgotten hundreds of years ago. Now the 20th century virus is wreaking havoc on the 30th century populace, and there's only one race that can save New New York City... the sewer mutants!

while number 12 has no fixed date announced yet, but will feature how

Fry, Leela, Bender, and Zoidberg are taken for sideshow freaks, literally, in a traveling intergalactic circus. Bender has dreams of center ring stardom, and Fry finds what would appear to be the love of his life ... with the Bearded Lady.

Hope you enjoyed watching Futurama's latest episode yesterday. Here we go with our features:

• Episode Reviews: Tell us and others what you thought about the episode (if possible, not just two words)


• Episode Capsule: This one needs your help. Saw anything worth a note? Goofs? References? Add them to the capsule.


• Frame Grab: Lazy Andie dude gives you a nice set of screen shots in case you need to have a detail look at something that went by too fast.


• Sounds & Quotes: 15 of the best lines in listen & read format


• Trivia Quiz: If you want to see whether you paid enough attention to Futurama, have a look at this.

We are a bit behind with the trivia section and the capsule really needs your help this time due to time constraints on our side.

Don't forget to watch today's episode "Kif gets knocked up a notch" at 7pm on FOX as it will be the last new Futurama episode for at least 20 days.

At 11pm, you get the chance to see the series premiere "Space Pilot 3000" on Cartoon Network. To reflect their schedule, we'll post a short news entry every week showing which episodes are on and have a link in the right side box. Don't miss this chance to see or tape episodes you missed the first time around.

"Well informed rumours" on PEEL has it that the European Futurama Season 3 DVDs have a tentative release date of either April or May 2003. This would work out to this time line for now:

28 January, 2002: Season 1 DVDs in the UK/Europe
11 November, 2002: Season 2 DVDs in the UK/Europe
27 November, 2002: Season 1 DVDs in Australia
25 March, 2003: Season 1 DVDs in the USA
April/May, 2003: Season 3 DVDs in the UK/Europe

We'll keep you updated.

The latest issue of Entertainment Weekly (#690, January 10th) has a small snippet by Dalton Ross about Futurama's debut on the Cartoon Network which reads:

"Maybe the expectations - that Simpsons creator Matt Groening could create another gem - were too high. Or maybe it just wasn't all that funny. Either way, reruns are here."

If you want to enlighten them on other possibilites why Futurama didn't take of that well, they encourage emails to ew_letters@ew.com (make sure to mention your real name, address, and daytime phone number if you want it to be considered for publication. Also make it clear that you are refereing to #610, Futurama snippet by Dalton Ross).
Thanks go to Eric Clark for bringing this to my attention.

In case you missed the quite substantial Futurama promotion on Cartoon Network, TNT, CNN and the local bus sides, here is the schedule for the first week of Futurama-goodness on Cartoon Network:

Sun 12th: Space Pilot 3000
Mon 13th: The Series Has Landed
Tue 14th: I, Roommate
Wed 15th: Love's Labour's Lost In Space
Thu 16th: Fear of a Bot Planet

All Futurama episodes air Sunday through Thursday at 11pm (E/P) in the original production order, which you can check at our Futurama Episode Guide by clicking the ACV links at the bottom.

In addition, Cartoon Network released their (rather simple) Futurama webpage which includes character profiles of Fry, Leela and Bender and 3 short video extracts from the first few Futurama episodes.

Paul and Astrozombie sent in their second co-authored Fan Fic called "Minds apart 2". Read and rate it.

After several people asked for it, the Futurama Encyclopedia is now available as a zip-file for off-line browsing. New entries will be added over this week and reflected in the zip-file.

The 2002 Annie award nominations have been released and Futurama has been given one of the 5 slots in the category "Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Television Production". In addition, Futurama Director Rich Moore was nominated for his work on the Emmy Award winning episode "Roswell That Ends Well" (category "Directing in an Animated Television Production").

The complete contestant list for those two categories are:

Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Television Production:

• "Disney's Kim Possible" Walt Disney Television Animation
  
• "The Flinstones On The Rocks" Cartoon Network Studio
  
• "Futurama" Curiosity Company in association with 20th Century Fox Television
  
• "Invader Zim" Nickelodeon
  
• "The Simpsons" Gracie Films in association with 20th Century Fox Television

Directing in an Animated Television Production:

• Dave Chlystek "Static Shock - The Big Leagues"
  
• Rich Moore "Futurama - Roswell That Ends Well"
  
• Chris Roman "Disney's Fillmore - To Mar A Stall"
  
• Bruce W. Smith "The Proud Family - A Hero For Halloween"
  
• Guy Vasilovitch "Oh Yeah! Cartoons - The Boy Who Cried Alien"

This year, the 30th Annual Annie Awards will be held Saturday February 1st, 2003 in Glendale, California - 11 days before the first anniversary of Futurama's "no go" decision by FOX. Let's hope the recent recognition Futurama received from animation and media experts gives FOX a clue.

Back from the winter vacation comes the first Futurama news this year: Although we'll only see a repeat of "Jurassic Bark" this Sunday (west coast), the Sunday after (January 12th) will bring us the yet unaired 4ACV01 "Kif Gets Knocked Up A Notch", and here is its press text:

Amy's romance with Kif Kroker takes a twist when an unexpected pregnancy occurs -- he being the pregnant one. As Amy questions her commitment to the squishy green alien, Kif must return to his ancient, mysterious homeworld to give birth in the same muddy swamp where he was born.

As a footnote, I updated the capusle for Jurassic Bark and added read only versions of the 1ACV02 to 2ACV01 capsules.