Why Futurama was more than just a pretty face

The first of a few articles to be rescued from the CassieNet Wiki. It's half finished and may not make sense but anyway...

It was doing so well when Fox brutually ravaged the show, destroying everything, also know as cancelling the show. Yes, I am still bitter about it. But that is life, one day you are turning down a Buffy the Vampire Slayer spin-off down to star in a new show about a girl who relives days and the next day Fox are replacing your second series with North Shore.

Ok, so I am bitter about the cancellation of Tru Calling as well. Actually as I write it hasn’t officially been cancelled and with me running a Tru Calling fan site I plan to live in denial for several months even after it happens.

Futurama really was a loss though – it is actually not apparent how good Futurama was. Picture the scene, your average viewer of the show is sprawled out over the sofa, working their way through a bag of Kettle chips if you so wish to add that into the vision and watching the episode “The Farnsworth Paradox” on DVD.

All seems normal enough. However for those of us who like a little more intellectual stimulus, a quick press of a button on the remote reveals the world of the audio commentary (which as it happens is featured in every single episode of the series four DVD box set).

The shows audio goes silent and the secret world of the people who make the show is brought to life. In this instance you would hear the team, lead by executive Producer David X. Cohen, discussing Graph Theory.

Do you know what Graph Theory is? I didn’t until I listened to the audio commentary. It is a hidden depth to Futurama that most people never see. For the record Graph Theory is about if you have boxes which are portals, how they all link together and that one may not lead back to where you came from. That of course is just applying the theory to the universe theme of the episode of course.

This is not uncommon throughout the show. When they bring in anything, they put extensive research into it. For instance in the final episode, the robot devil spins a wheel with robots names on. 59 to be exact, I went through frame by frame and counted, all of them real characters that have previously been on the show.

Would you get that kind of detail in South Park? Don’t get me wrong I love those crazy kids in South Park. I also love the wacky antics of Peter in Family Guy and the adjectiveless adventures of the crew on Tripping the Rift. But where is the little details that allows you to waste an hour of your life going through frame by frame?

Posted at 29 December 2007 14:57

Tags: Thoughts, TV