Backstage Television Good News Everyone!
| 03 August 2009
What I consider to be perhaps one the the best and most under-appreciated animated shows is back for at least 26 episodes airing on Comedy Central in the next couple years. Following the success of four straight to DVD movies turned episodes, Futurama followed Family Guy with a rebirth thanks to the popularity of its syndication. Most people (myself included) did not really appreciate the show until it appeared in syndication on Cartoon Network and Comedy Central. It is my opinion that Fox really mishandled the show when it originally aired. They were bumped around too much and were too often set in terrible time slots (7pm on Sunday). Seriously, who watches anything at 7pm on a Sunday?
Anyways, this is old news. What has been in the news lately is the salary negotiations with the original voice cast. The voice actors including John DiMaggio, Maurice LaMarche, Billy West, Tress MacNeille and Katey Sagal were offered significantly reduced contracts due to the series moving to cable. The show was prepared to move ahead with an all new voice cast. The contract negotiations seem to have fallen through, and at Comic-Con last week, the Futurama panel (without any voice actors) kind of played it off as a joke by starting off the panel with HYPNOTOAD telling the crowd to ignore the fact that no voice actors were there.
I was always optimistic about something getting worked out. I know all the actors truly love the show. I read Billy West's blog occasionally, and he is a huge proponent of the show. He really pushed for the show to return in some form, even before the DVD movies.
Late last week, they finally announced a deal with the actors. The studio agreed to pay more, and the actors agreed to accept less. The show will return with the entire voice cast and the writers that make the show so great. "We are thrilled to have our incredible cast back. The call has already `gone out to the animators to put the mouths back on the characters," Futurama creators Groening and David X. Cohen said in a joint statement. Hopefully this time the show will turn from a cult hit to a mainstream one. The voice cast was originally asking $75,000 per episode. They have reportedly agreed on a sum less than, $40,000 per episode. Those poor, poor bastards!
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