Futurama Gets New Life on Comedy Central

NEW YORK: Twentieth Century Fox Television is returning to production on the animated sci-fi comedy Futurama more than six years after the series aired its last original episode on FOX, with 26 new half-hours to debut on Comedy Central in mid 2010.

Futurama aired in FOX’s Sunday night animation block from 1999 to 2003, but then ceased production of original episodes. In June 2006, Comedy Central acquired the rights to the existing 72 episodes, and four recently produced extended-length Futurama adventures: "Bender’s Big Score," "The Beast with a Billion Backs," "Bender’s Game" and "Into the Wild Green Yonder."

The show becomes only the second in history to go back into production based on the strength of its DVD sales and repeat cable airings, the other being Family Guy, also resurrected by Twentieth Century Fox Television. Futurama was created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen. Twentieth Century Fox Television retains the option to license the original runs of the new episodes to a broadcast network.

"We are excited to continue our relationship with Matt, David and 20th Century Fox TV and to be able to offer Comedy Central viewers the first opportunity to see new episodes of Futurama," said David Bernath, the senior VP of programming for the network. "As evidenced by the strong performance of the extended length epics, there remains a deep and passionate fan base for this intelligent and very funny show that matches perfectly with our audience. It’s fantastic that we can add brand-new installments of Leela, Fry and Bender’s adventures to our existing library."

Groening commented, "We’re thrilled Futurama is coming back. We now have only 25,766 episodes to make before we catch up with Bender and Fry in the year 3000." Added Cohen, "We’re excited and amazed that the show is coming back, perhaps due to some sort of mysterious time loop. We look forward to working with Comedy Central and 20th Television to make this the best iteration of the loop yet!"

"When we brought back Family Guy several years ago, everyone said that it was a once-in-a-lifetime thing—that canceled series stay canceled and cannot be revived," commented Twentieth Century Fox TV’s chairmen Gary Newman and Dana Walden. "But Futurama was another series that fans simply demanded we bring back, and we couldn’t have been happier when Matt and David agreed that there were many more stories yet to tell."