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In a world where many of our favorite animated shows die sad, sudden deaths, it is great to know that Matt Groening and David X. Cohen’s much-loved Futurama has been given another lease on life on Hulu this summer! The hilarious sci-fi sitcom enjoyed its first run on FOX-TV from 1999 to 2003, had a healthy rerun period on Adult Swim from 2003 to 2007, returned with four direct-to-video movies, and then began a new life on Comedy Central from 2010 to 2013.
This July, we are treated to the 11th season (10 episodes) of the six-time Emmy-winning show, and it looks like it will be another wild ride to 31st century Earth and its neighboring galaxies! The voice cast — John DiMaggio, Billy West, Katey Sagal, Tress MacNeille, Maurice LaMarche, Lauren Tom, Phil LaMarr and David Herman — are all back for more madcap adventures, as are executive producers Groening, Cohen, Ken Keeler and Claudia Katz.
The return of Fry, Bender, Leela, Hermes, Amy, Zoidberg and the rest of the gang had been in the works for a few years. As Claudia Katz, the show’s longtime producer and partner, and senior VP at Rough Draft Studios, tells us, things started moving when she got a call from Matt Groening. “I was driving, and when Matt told me the show was coming back, I had to pull over,” she recalls. “Marci Proietto and 20th Television played a big role in bringing it back, and Hulu was very supportive and excited by the prospect of promoting and marketing the show. So, coming back this time has been a lovely experience. We are always happy when it comes back! This time around, David [X. Cohen] and the writers have found a very elegant way for us to return after the last series’ finale that Peter [Avanzino] directed. So, now we’re doing two seasons with 10 episodes each.”
Claudia and long-time supervising animation director Peter Avanzino were kind enough to answer a few of our questions about the new season:
Animation Magazine: Congrats on this new incarnation of your show. So, how does it feel to have the show revived one more time? What’s different this time around?
Peter Avanzino: Well, you know the show is still hand-drawn, but we’re using Storyboard Pro and Cintiqs now. In the older seasons, we were still doing pencil cleanups and we were still getting paper storyboards. Everything is a lot more streamlined now, but then again, those pencil and paper storyboards had a lot of charm. These days there would be thousands of pages and if we had to print them, that would kill a lot of trees! But beyond that, everyone is still drawing by hand, and we have a lot of great new storyboard artists as well as bringing back some of the old ones. Thank God they kept the same supervising director — me!
Claudia Katz: We are producing these new episodes in 4K, so that’s different because it’s four times the resolution is HD. We have done our other show Disenchantment in 4K, so we’re pretty seasoned in the production flow. But this time around, we had to completely redo the title sequence, literally shot for shot in 4K. The nice thing is that we were able to add some cool new elements, so it will be fun for viewers to pause and figure them out. When David [X.Cohen] saw it, he said, “Wow, there are things here that you could never see before, because they weren’t crisp enough.” It really does hold up very well for something that’s is more than 20 years old!”
We know you are sworn to secrecy, but can you tell us about the new season in terms of plot points or special qualities that stand out?
Claudia: The writers were off for at least 10 years, and there’s such an embarrassment of riches for them to comment and poke fun at, and they’ve taken full advantage of that in the classic Futurama way. We do have some new additions this season, but I can’t talk about them.
There’s a great vaccine episode that’s really great. I think in 3023 we have finally conquered COVID-19. We also have a great Bitcoin episode. The worms are back, which is a throwback to an old episode that Peter directed. And Zapp Brannigan gets cancelled — and he’s equally incapable of learning his lesson, as it has always been the case, which is sort of fantastic. I think we offer our classic blend of smart humor and heart.
Peter: We missed having an AI episode by four months, but we’ll get to that in the next batch.
Claudia: We have the great combination of Matt and David and some of the original writers, mixed in with some new writers, which brought in some fresh points of view. We were lucky enough to get some returning directors, as well as a lot of new artists. We also seemed to have a lot of bigger episodes. In the past, we had an ebb and flow, where there were some simpler episodes mixed in with more complex ones, but I feel we have like a lot of them tend to be on the bigger scale this season.
Peter: Yes, now I realize why I’m so tired! I remember working on Season 4’s “Parasites Lost” episode, which had the worms sword fighting inside Fry’s body. But we also had “Insane in the Mainframe,” where Fry goes to the robot asylum, which was really nice and quiet and had three different lighting schemes. This season, it felt like the rollercoaster would go up and just stay there.
Why do you think the show has been so consistently loved by fans all over the world?
Claudia: We have never been able to outstay our welcome! We always kind of have these comebacks before anyone can get sick of us. But more than anything, it is because of the quality of the writing and the likeability of the characters. These are characters who really are there for each even though they’re sort of a very hodgepodge group. Even Bender has his moments of thoughtfulness. The show is not just a joke delivery system — you can really buy into these characters, and you’re invested in their relationships. The sci-fi aspect of the show also allows us to go anywhere. It lends itself to a very open sort of storytelling.
What do you love about working on Futurama?
Peter: I came up through storyboarding, so I enjoy getting a new script and enjoying all the funny character stuff as a supervising director. I love the challenges of things like a Murder-lator scene or street-car racing or other things in the season, like wrapping my head around a time freezing concept. Basically, it’s just always a new challenge every two weeks. There’s the challenge of juggling everything and getting the acting right. Sure, it’s a lot of work but it’s also a lot of fun — like making a robot who doesn’t even have eyebrows make you cry!
Claudia: We’re on this adventure with these familiar characters, and it’s fun to look at our crazy world through the lens of a thousand years in the future.
Peter: I hope our audience will enjoy the new season and that they’ll compare them favorably to the past one. I’m on the Futurama fan group online, and I swear there’s always that one person who says, “Oh, they’re going to ruin it.” That’s always in my head!
Claudia: Our goal was to make sure the new episodes look as good or better than the last batch of shows we did. So we really tried to deliver that. Ultimately, we just hope people love them and think that we’ve done justice to the show, and that they want more.
Futurama Season 11 will premiere on Hulu on Monday, July 24. New episodes will drop weekly.
Billy Goes Back to the Future
Getting the News: When I got the phone call from Matt Groening telling me the great news that show was coming back, I told him I could still do the voices, and he said, “I know you can!” The great thing about the show is that the writers always have a trick or two up their sleeves, and that’s a good thing because our fans don’t let the show die. They lobby, and it ends up being effective. It’s like a zombie — it just feels like we never left.
Everything felt very natural. The only thing that was different this time was that a lot of us were working from home on Zoom, but eventually the studio started letting people come in. Then, I was back to working with one or two people and eventually it became a bigger ensemble. I was thrilled about that because I hate working alone.
Secrets of the His Success: The show has been such a big success because there has been a concerted effort from everybody involved to make it all ring true. For my own performances, I try to think long and hard before I open my mouth to do any of those characters because we want them to ring true and be authentic. The audience is not stupid, and they can tell if a character is contrived, or if it resonates with them like someone they know in real life.
When I first read for the show, I auditioned for the Professor and for Zoidberg. Just for the heck of it, they asked me read for Fry, which had already been cast. So, I had to pull something out of my hat really fast. I tried to remember what I sounded like when I was 25, which was all whiny and needy, because I thought that’s what Fry would sound like.
Favorites: The episode that makes me cry is “Jurassic Bark,” the one with Fry’s dog. I weep every time I see it because I’m a big animal lover. Another favorite one is “The Devil’s Hands Are Idle Playthings,” in which Dan Castellaneta plays The Robot Devil. I think his performances are so sublime and exquisite. I also love the Season 3 episode “Roswell That Ends Well,” in which Fry goes back in time and convinces his great grandfather to marry a local girl.
On Matt, David and the Fans: Our fans are such beautiful people. I look forward to going to Comic-Con again this year. I come from a place of great gratitude. I’m so thankful that this show means so much to people. Matt Groening and David X. Cohen are brilliant and energetic people. When people come up to me and tell me, “Wow, you do all the characters!” I tell them I didn’t create anything. I just create the voices: Matt is the one who has created a few thousand amazing characters. And David is such a funny bastard, too!
Hulu Animayhem at Comic-Con: Enter the 2nd Dimension!
Hulu Animayhem invites you to enter the 2nd Dimension with your favorite adult animated series at Comic-Con in San Diego. This delightfully out-of-whack experience immerses you in the 2D worlds of Futurama, Solar Opposites, The Great North, Family Guy, Archer, Bob’s Burgers and American Dad. Surprises and exclusives await those who travel to the 2nd Dimension with Hulu Animayhem!
Location: 501 Convention Way [Convention Center Parking Lot, Bayfront]
Times: July 20: 11:30 a.m. – 7 p.m. | July 21: 9:30 a.m. – 7 p.m. | July 22: 9:30 a.m. – 7 p.m. | July 23: 9:30 a.m. – 5 p.m
