Back to the "Futurama"? By Gina Serpe
Wed Jan 4, 2006 7:44 PM ET

What has Stewie Griffin wrought? How about a Bender rebirth? Following the hugely successful resurrection of Family Guy, Fox execs are reportedly in talks to bring Futurama back from the dead (to us fans, it never died, just went on vacation).

The studio has begun talks to revive the Emmy-winning animated series and produce a limited number of new episodes, thanks to a resurgence in the show's popularity on DVD and in reruns, Variety reports. Reps for 20th Century Fox have declined to comment on the news, but Variety says initial negotiations have begun.

If revived, it's unclear exactly which network would air the new episodes. While Fox housed the original series, the show found new life once reruns began showing on the Cartoon Network. Comedy Central subsequently snapped up the off-air rights and will exclusively air the repeats beginning in 2008.

The brainchild of Simpsons mastermind Matt Groening and writer David X. Cohen, Futurama debuted on Fox in March 1999. The series revolved around Fry, a pizza delivery boy, who is accidentally frozen for a thousand years. He wakes up in the year 3000 and befriends sassy one-eyed pilot Leela and cranky robot Bender, who both work for an intergalactic delivery service run by a distant nephew of Fry's.

After five seasons and three Emmys, including the 2002 prize for Best Animated Series, Futurama was shuttered in August 2003. Should the show make its way back to the airwaves, it would follow in the footsteps of another Fox cult 'toon, Family Guy.

The latter show was brought back in 2004, thanks to robust rerun ratings and staggeringly high DVD sales--the show ranks as the fourth-biggest TV-series seller ever. Since its comeback, Fox has produced two more seasons and the direct-to-DVD movie Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story.

For Futurama to return, the studio would need to re-sign the show's production team, as well as voice stars Billy West, Katey Sagal and John DiMaggio (they don't have to but would be nice). In the meantime, Futurama lives on in comic-book form, with all-new stories continuing to be released by Groening's Bongo Comics.

If you are unfamiliar with Futurama, here is a little history lesson I edited to bring you up to date.

'Futurama Season 1' premiered on March 28th 1999 with 'Space Pilot 3000' - the only episode Matt Groening himself (in cooperation with David X. Cohen) wrote. While the core characters are introduced in that episode, Amy, Hermes and Dr. Zoidberg had to wait for the second one. The 9th and last episode of Season 1 - 'Hell is other robots' - was aired May 18th 1999 and continued the Simpsons tradition to include some musical part now and then.

Futurama is the first Matt Groening's TV Animation series after the first well known TV Cartoon series, The Simpsons. Futurama uses High level Animation standards including awesome 3D scenes and Computer Coloring. Some of the jokes of the series will be difficult to understand if you expected Simpsons style jokes. Figure out everything (hidden jokes, messages or images) the first time you see an episode is almost impossible. The structure of the show (races, places, facts and time) is well done but not perfect (the writer states - which shows they are not a informed fan).

Futurama develops around Philip J. Fry, a NYC pizza delivery boy with no future. On December 31 of 1999, Fry delivered a pizza to a Cryogenic Laboratory. he discovered that the address was a phony so sat down and started eating the pizza during the new years countdown. The call, it turns out, was thought to be a crude joke. sitting down and enjoying the pizza & soda, Fry fell backwards into an open cryogenic cabinet and got Frozen for a thousand years. But to us faithful, we know that Fry didn't fall into the cryo chamber but was pushed by a dark matter pooping alien, Nibbler, to help save the universe from the "Brains" in the future.(It's too involved to explain here, watch the series reruns or DVD's.)

When Fry was awakened, he was in the year 3000. There's were he met Turanga Leela, an one-eyed Cryogenic counselor that used to assign jobs to the unfrozen people and implant them a career chip. Leela discovers Fry has a relative still alive in the future, his great(x26) nephew Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth. But when Fry found out that he was going to be a delivery boy once again, he ran off.

Figuring he would contact his nephew, Fry comes upon what he thought was a phone booth. Why waiting in line, Fry agees to share the booth with a robot [Bender - a girder bending bot]. To his horror, Fry soon discovered he was in a suicide booth. Barely emerging unscathed, he befriends the suicidal robot.

They became friends quickly but suddenly Leela and the police find them and they ran off again, going this time under New NYC, into the old NYC ruins. After a short pursuit, Fry gives up with an explaination that convinces Leela to remove her own chip and help Fry find his nephew who was sure to give them new jobs.

The group confronted the Professor at his business, Planet Express, they were able to convince him (through DNA test) that Fry was his uncle. With the police closing in, they escaped using the professors Starship. In space, the Professor gave them a job in the delivery company that he created, called Planet Express. At the end, Fry ends working as a delivery boy once again.

The show took the adventurers across and throughout the universe saving and destroying as needed for the story plots. The series was cancelled by FOX even when Futurama won an Emmy award for "Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming Less Than One Hour) with the show "3ACV19 - Roswell That Ends Well" and again in 2003 for "4ACV07 - Jurassic Bark". Cartoon Network demonstrated that with decent advertising the show can do anything and has been showing the reruns with great success.