Next month Bill Morrison and Nathan Kane from Bongo Comics will be signing Futurama and Simpsons book related products in Santa Barbara, California. The signing is taking place at the Book Fair in De La Guerra Plaza on the 20th of September at Noon.

I don't know since exactly when, but here's your chance if you missed one of the first two European DVD sets (count yourself cursed if you did): Amazon in the UK is now offering the Futurama Season 1 DVD set at £20 (that's 50% off) while amazon in Germany sells the Season 2 set at €30 (45% off). Read our how to order for the German one (includes English sound and menus).

Quick notice to those ignoring the "Next airings" thing on top: Futurama's episode "The Sting" will be airing at 7:30 PM on FOX this Sunday instead of 7 (Fox will preview its Saturday morning program at that time).
The week after, "The Farnsworth Parabox" will show at 7.
In addition, this coming Monday, TBS will replace Fry and Bender with Dumb and Dumber.

Looks like someone magically ran out of cartoon shows. FOX Network is searching for new cartoon series ideas, scripts, characters and layouts in a program ironically (situational irony, stuff it, Bender) called Pitch-o-rama. Although it does kinda sound like a cheap ploy to get ideas with quotes like

"I understand and acknowledge that you and your employees have access to, may create or have created, literary materials and ideas which may be similar or identical to the Material in theme, idea, plot, format or other respects. I agree that I will not be entitled to any compensation because of the use of any such similar or identical material that may have been independently created by you or any of your employees or may have come to you or such employee from any other independent source, whether before or after the date of this Agreement."

among the 13 pages of the hard to find "Submission of Material - Release and Agreement" document, someone in charge please resubmit Futurama by the 15th of September.

UPDATE: Good news, everyone! I found this concept "somewhere" around here. Off to the post office I am!

I worked some on the Futurama Comics section to add a bit more info, replace our static comic info page and remodel the backend behind the reviews. If everything went right, you shouldn't notice much difference in the handling. If everything went wrong, use the comments
In addition, the Futurama-O-Rama comic collection book is now included and up for being reviewed.

Also *cough*Slurm Can available again*cough*

I got 6 new fan fictions submitted today from FryFan, I hope you'll enjoy them. I know I've been neglecting the Fan Fiction area a bit lately, but that will change

Currently on ebay.com is a 6 foot tall life size talking statue of our lovable rascal Bender. This statue was made to go along side an official Futurama Slot Machine, but because the show got cancelled, so did the line of Futurama gambling goods. At the moment, the auction is past 3k in price, but if you want the Bender Slot-Machine it will cost you an extra 2k. I obviously can't afford this, but if anyone thinks they love me enough, wanna buy this for me?

Well we seem to have some unfinished business now that Futurama has finished. I will try making the trivia section more up to date. I made 10 new trivia questions for Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles. Enjoy, if you find some mistakes in the other trivia questions, please contact me.

A few weeks ago, I got me this neat Futurama movie-style poster at a local merchandise shop. Others just aren't as lucky to find it in the shops nearby, so, you might want to try PosterNow which has it stocked online for $7.99 in the US or

Sorry for the downtime during last week. Let me recap the news that were on the temporary site in between:

• David X. Cohen on Cinescape - part 1
  
• David X. Cohen on Cinescape - part 2
  
• Futurama Video Game out in the US (review to follow).
  
• Futurama beat Banzai in ratings square and fair. No more Banzai this or next Sunday. Instead, Futurama at 7:30 (and also at 7:00 this Sunday).

There, that's it

I don't even know if it's the third or not, but in this interview with TVGuide, he seems to be speaking his mind just a tad more than in the previous ones. Topics are Futurama's success on cable and DVD, FOX and FOX's suckiness:

TVGO: It must be gratifying to see how well Futurama is performing on cable.
DXC: Incredibly so. We could not be happier with how it's doing on Cartoon Network and also how well Cartoon Network has treated us. I think they actually had a plan for the show

While FOX News is suing a liberal entertainment book called "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them" over the subtitle 'a Fair and Balanced Look at the Right', a newly released report by the ad agency Carat USA based on research by MRI found that there is a strong skew towards people describing themselves as "very liberal" when it comes to the audience of FOX Network's primetime shows. Futurama came out as the show with the most liberal skewed viewership within FOX's line-up. No flame wars in the comments please

A few notes on the scheduling of Futurama on TV.

You might have noticed that the "Top Futurama News" part on this site made way for a list of upcoming Futurama episodes on TV. If so, you may also have wondered why there is a FOX entry showing up on it.

The answer is that FOX is going to air a few more Futurama reruns during the offseason. This Sunday, it's time for Kif to get knocked up a notch. The Sunday after, there will be a Futurama double feature comprising of "Less Than Hero" and "The Why of Fry". Looks like watching old ladies playing a game of wheelchair chicken isn't as big a hit as it would sound like being (the ratings were lower than Futurama's for a few weeks now).

Another Futurama double feature is coming on the UK channel Sky|One: Starting at 19:00 this Sunday, British fans can see both "Bender Should not be allowed on TV" and the series finale "The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings".

The region 1 (USA / Canada) Futurama Season 2 DVD set is available from today on. The somewhat higher price compared to the Season 1 DVDs is well justified by the extra 6 episodes and way nicer menus. Go get it at 25% off and then start reviewing it.
Small trivia: The disc casing pictures were done using gotfuturama for referencing

This is the end of Futurama as far as FOX is concerned. Let's hope one day someone else at some other channel thinks differently about it. As Leela puts it in the last line on the show (highlight to read): "Please don't stop playing, Fry - I wanna hear how it ends."

Now, to the episode:

• Reviews: Time to tell Cohen, Keeler and the people around here what you thought about this one. Was it a good way to end the show? Sadly, this episode had to be produced with "Season finale, but maybe Series finale" in mind.
  
• Capsule: Every content bit you noticed, every goof you found, every reference you saw, every other comment you got: The capsule is the place for all that.
  
• Trivia: 10 questions to test your meat head.
  
• Quotes: The best lines in audio-textual form.
  
• Frame Grabs: This episode was full of great animation and poses.
  
• Opera: And as a final extra, a transcript of the opera, in case you missed something.

In addition, this episode was the A-pick of scifi.com weekly:

in the end, Futurama produced four seasons of consistently outstanding television. That fine run comes to a close with "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings," a superbly funny ending to the series.

Also, TVGuide gave the series a fare-well review:

With tonight's finale, in which Fry declares his feelings for Leela by writing and performing an opera, there will be 72 episodes in the can. I like to think that somewhere in the near future, a Fox executive will surf into an episode one starry night, or what passes for one in L.A., and laugh. And then cry.

Looks like Futurama executive producer David Cohen has been busy giving interviews the last few days. In this IGN front page linked article, he talks about what he did in the meantime, what he wants to do in the future (including a movie project with Ken Keeler - the writer of tomorrow's final episode), the long-shot hope for continuing Futurama with Cartoon Network, the slightly better Futurama movie possibility, the upcoming Season 2 DVDs, the Futurama Video Game and ... this very site A short excerpt:

IGN DVD: Has there been grassroots fan efforts to save the show like there was with other series?

Cohen: There have been huge efforts but the network hasn't been too interested. There is an online petition that as far as I know is the largest petition in TV history to save a show, and there's a Web site run by fans called GotFuturama.com. That site ended up being the central location for fans to go to, and I admit that I go there to see an air date or something I've forgotten. They have a link to it (the petition). I think at one point they delivered a hardcopy to Fox executives which must have been the size of five Manhattan phone books. (laughs)

And before questions flare up, I think he got the thing about the Game Cube Futurama video game wrong. All signs still point towards no go there.

Under that title, Kevin Williamson of the Calgary Sun wrote up an article on both the show's demise and lasting shine. A phone interview with Futurama executive producer David X. Cohen emerges as the highlight of the write-up:

"If you had asked me six months ago, I would have said there was no chance, forget it. But just strangely now, in the dying days of the show, it's suddenly a success on the Cartoon Network (which is airing the series in the U.S.). The ratings have been stellar by cable standards so the subject of bringing it back has arisen. But it's still an extremely long shot."

That it has any chance at all is because of the Cartoon Network, not Fox, he says.

Read the full article, but don't ignore the 'long shot' part.

The June top telecasts on Cartoon Network are out and Futurama managed to take the very top. Also, it got the third most watched cast. Also, the 4th. Also, the 6th. And then some more in the 10th to 100th area. A total of 15% of the list is Futurama with Family Guy filling up nearly all the left over spaces in the top 10. Here's the top 15:

#01 - Futurama "30% Iron Chef" - 2.4/5
#02 - Family Guy "Holy Crap!" - 2.3/5
#03 - Futurama "I, Roommate" - 2.3/5
#04 - Futurama "The Series Has Landed" - 2.3/5
#05 - Family Guy "A Hero Sits Next Door" - 2.3/6
#06 - Futurama "Leela's Homeworld" - 2.3/5
#07 - Family Guy "I Never Met the Dead Man" - 2.3/5
#08 - Family Guy "Death Has a Shadow" - 2.3/5
#09 - Dexters Laboratory - 2.3/5
#10 - Family Guy "There's s.th. About Paulie" - 2.2/5
#11 - Futurama "Space Pilot 3000" - 2.2/4
#12 - Family Guy "Chitty Chitty Death Bang" - 2.2/5
#13 - Futurama "Roswell That Ends Well" - 2.2/4
#14 - Code Name: Kids Next Door 2.2/4
#15 - X-Men 2.1/4

Futurama also got #17 #19 #25 #26 #34 #36 #43 #73 #82 #123 #130 #133 and #135

This might explain why the Futurama hiatus on CN didn't really last as long as planned for.

Thanks go to lfv for the data match up work.

Futurama is back on CN! But this time it's at 11:30PM after Family Guy. Also, at CN's website there is a short clip of John DiMaggio at Comic-Con. The clip is only 25 seconds, but it's cool seeing the voice of our beloved Bender nontheless.
Mon 11th: The Deep South
Tue 12th: Bender Gets Made
Wed 13th: Mother's Day
Thu 14th: Problem With Popplers

I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing that the TBS schedule is basically the same as CN's episode-wise. But here's a listing of this weeks EPs for your viewing enjoyment anyway!
Mon 11th: How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back
Tue 12th: The Deep South
Wed 13th: Bender Gets Made
Thu 14th: Mother's day
Fri 15th: Jaws Trilogy

As the US Futurama Season 2 DVD is going to be released in just a few days (Tuesday), it's time to read through my slightly updated review from November last year, preorder it and give it your own review once you got it. Maybe some of the Europeans and Australians who already got it want to weigh in, too.

For almost the second last time, multimedia! :

• Framegrabs: Bender is still allowed on CGEF You can check our framegrabs to check back your favorite moments of the episode.


• Sounds & Quotes: You can check out some classic lines and listen to them.

This is me signing off.

The interactive part of our soon to end weekly episode work is up now. Take your chance to participate:

1. Episode Reviews: Did this episode warrant Bender being on TV? You tell.
   
2. Episode Capsule: Submit all the weird stuff, all the wrong stuff and all the funny stuff. Once episode airings are over, these capsule documents will probably become one of the things still to remain on the internet in 10 years.
   
3. Episode Trivia: 10 questions to test your medium-term memory.

Sounds and grabs to follow shortly!

Lacking a console and the game itself, we currently can't offer our own review. As the game was already released in the UK and will shortly be released in the US, we suggest that you just do it yourselves

User reviews are accepted for both the XBox version and PS2 version. These are also accessible from the "Futurama, The Game" page.

If you didn't buy the game yet, find it here at amazon.com and amazon.co.uk

Airing on TBS at 2PM Estern time, 1PM Central time, 12PM Mountain time, 11AM Pacific time, and 10AM in Alaska and Hawaii, here's the line-up for all the Futurama fans around the US.
Mon 04th: The Lesser of Two Evils
Tue 05th: Put Your Head On My Shoulder
Wed 06th: Raging Bender
Thu 07th: A Bicyclops Built for Two
Fri 08th: A Clone Of My Own