5/6 - Time Keeps On Slipping (3ACV14)
Professor Farnsworth's basketball team has a secret that can
beat the Harlem Globetrotters - they can make time jump ahead
at random intervals - but it has a few intended side effects,
especially for Fry and Leela
5/13 - SEASON FINALE - I Dated A Robot (3ACV15)
Fry falls in love with a robot that's modeled after (and is
voiced by) Lucy Liu...and is being bootlegged
5/20 - What if...Fox decided to replace "Anthology of Interest II"
with a repeat of, of all things, the latest Simpsons
Halloween Special?
(It's not just Futurama; the planned season finale of King
Of The Hill has been replaced that night with a Simpsons
repeat as well)
Okay, this is concrete proof that FOX has a vendetta against the show. I mean, yeah you could infer that with the 7PM timeslot and the constant football pre-empting, but this is the most pointless thing they've ever done.
On Sun, 06 May 2001 18:44:52 GMT, "Rich Bunnell" wrote:
And that says a lot! It has to beat out "The world's Funniest Road Kill" and Emalda Marcos' reality show "Shoecamp".
Considering both the short term goal of higher rating and the long term goal of viewer loyalty, as well as recent changes in the advertising market weighing all factors equally on scale from 1 to 100, FOX SUCKS!!!!!
In alt.tv.futurama, on the "Re: Upcoming Episodes - WHAT'S on 5/20?!" thread, Rich Bunnell wrote:
If Fox had a vendetta against the show, they'd just cancel it outright. They don't need to worry about pissing off Matt Groening -- "The Simpsons" can clearly continue whether it has his blessing, or not.
Fox's actions really constitute a "no confidence" vote in "Futurama" (and apparently "King of the Hill," as well). We recently saw a "Simpsons" triple-feature, and I think there was one earlier in the year. Fox probably compared the numbers generated by these back-to-back repeats to the ratings of new "Futurama," and concluded "The Simpsons," even in repeats, was the stronger program. Since they want to give the "Simpsons" and "Malcolm in the Middle" finales the best lead-in possible, Fox scrapped "Futurama" and "King of the Hill." A harsh move, and not one that is fair to fans of those two shows, put not a pointless action.
Actualy I have a theory about that one. ABC is showing Anne Frank the 20th. Maby they think Futurama and KOTH dont have enough power to draw viewers so they just skip them to try and get Simpsons viewers to watch repeats instead of going to ABC.
On Wed, 09 May 2001 05:26:43 GMT, Mike Zaite wrote:
Alternately, they may have thought that they were going to lose out to ABC anyway, why waste new material.
Also, I don't know what the demographics of Futurama's viewers are, but Fox definitely does. Perhaps they found that the show does well in Jewish households so competing with Anne Frank would be foolish.
Whatever the rational, I think you're right that it's due to Anne Frank's airing.
But then why run the finales of Simpsons and Malcom that night? Or is my information incorrect?
I still think it's crap that they don't end on Anthology II. But at least I don't have to choose. I'll probably be watching Anne Frank because I'm a WW2 buff.
On Wed, 09 May 2001 06:36:46 GMT, Mike Zaite wrote:
I went to www.tvguide.com and did some research. In both Denver and Phoenix, The Simpsons and Malcolm are on opposite "Who wants to be a Millionaire". Anne Frank is on Opposite "The X Files" and the news.
The Simpsons repeats, which replaced Futurama and KOTH are on opposite "Classic TV Bloopers".
Well, maybe not.
Focks Sux! (They don't deserve real words)
Ditto. As if The History Channel doesn't show enough WWII material.
This production is supposed to show more of the events around the Franks that wasn't contained in Anne's diary. It should be good.
When I heard Anne Frank was on ABC on the 20th, I thought that as well...but then I checked the TV listings, and Anne Frank doesn't start until 9:00 (Eastern / Pacific). At 7:00, they're showing "All-Star All-Time Greatest Bloopers".
I don't think they'd just cancel it. My theory is that they just want to produce enough episodes to sell it to other stations. 4 seasons of Futurama are a pretty good number for such a strategy. I seriously doubt that there will be a fifth season. :(
Most shows make it to syndication with 50 or so these days not 100. Didn't anyone watch the Popup video version of 'Our Fiftieth Episode' episode of News Radio? It says it around the beginning of the episode that 50 is an important number to shows because then they could start syndication.
This is true, episodics can "start" syndication at 50, but most packages start at 100 episodes. The 50 episode packages are usually reserved for the "mega-hits" such as Friends or ER.
The magic number for syndication is 100. Sometimes exceptions are made, but that's the generally agreed upon number in the industry. That's why TV shows celebrate reaching this landmark.
On Wed, 9 May 2001 11:58:00 +0200, "Michael Herzog" wrote:
Very true. But the milestone is measured in episodes, not seasons. There's a reason why shows celebrate their 100th episode- after 100 it becomes very ripe and marketable for syndication. (although there are odd exceptions where some series have been syndicated with even less than 100) At 100 an affiliate station can run it five times a week. Reach 200, and you can run double shots every day much like the Simpsons, Friends, Roseanne and MASH have done.
I confess I love the idea of watching a hour block of Futurama every day...It'd be a great after-work, stress relieving bliss-out period if scheduled properly.
All of this of course is problematic. Only after 2 1/2 "seasons" (27 months to you and me) Futurama has only 44 eps in the can. Barely half way to a marketable syndication benchmark. At this rate, it's gonna take more than 4 seasons to get there.
I can't picture FOX cancelling it. I wouldn't put it past them, I just can't picture it. Despite lackluster ratings, they've kept it on the air. Despite a really dismal timeslot, they've kept it on the air. And they they don't shuffle the timeslot so viewers can't find it--a practice that virtually destroyed 3rd Rock on NBC.
Fox may treat the show like a red-headed stepchild, but if they wanted to dump it they would have done it after season two. It still scores better ratings than America's Blankiest Blanks, and it's a solid lead-off into Sunday nite Fox-a-rama- basically the best programs on the Fox arsenal. I'd bet the producers of Ally, Boston, Dark Angel and LoneGunmen would kill for a Sunday nite slot- even if it's at 7PM/6.
Futurama has to do three things to survive: -rerun season 1 & 2 eps with the current reruns -maintain it's current ratings -still stand when The Simpsons finally ends it's run.
And even if Fox does drop the show, even money says another network picks it up. WB picked up PJs and it survives (barely) UPN would love to score Futurama since Voyager's end is around the corner and a fifth Trek is still up in the air. Hell, since their success with Farscape, even the SciFi channel could afford buying Bender.
Way too long post I know. But season three is my personal favorite so far. I'm optimistic for Futurama's future.