it was obviously because of the lousy doll sales! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXU1RPxIE90
When Aliens Attack, from season 1 (couldn’t find a vid):
[Scene: Planet Express: Lounge. Farnsworth talks to a woman, a man and a robot who bear a striking resemblance to Leela, Fry and Bender. The woman is blonde and has two eyes; the man has brown hair that is combed down and he wears a green jacket; the robot is very crude and clunky.]
Farnsworth: You’ll be the captain, you’ll be the delivery boy, and you’ll be the alcoholic, foul-mouthed-- [The door behind him opens and the real crew walk in.] Oh, God, you’re alive. I mean, thank God you’re alive! [He turns back to the others.] Sorry, check back in three days, a week at the most.
Our favorite crew was always replaceable… who figured on the actual actors?
But seriously… no. No. No. No. No. I will not be watching if this goes down.
Alright, you want to be like this Fox? Fine, I’ll go find some new voice actors and do my own awful remake of Futurama … with blackjack … and hookers!
In fact, forget the new voice actors!
Fox released a statement saying “We love the Futurama voice performers and absolutely wanted to use them, but unfortunately, we could not meet their salary demands. While replacing these talented actors will be difficult, the show must go on. We are confident that we will find terrific new performers to give voice to Matt and David’s brilliantly subversive characters.”
Three words: jumping the shark.
It was nice to be excited about Futurama returning full time while THAT lasted. ugh!
I don’t accept this. They managed to keep the voice actors for The Simpsons around for over 20 years. There’s no acceptable reason for Fox to not hammer out an agreement with Billy, Katey and the gang.
I don’t know if this is such an apt comparison. The Simpsons has had a level of success that Futurama, even now, cannot match. While I in many ways prefer the humor in Futurama to that of The Simpsons (at least since about season 10 of the latter, which really should have been retired a while back), The Simpsons is pretty iconic while Futurama is still more or less a niche show.
Don’t get me wrong: this still sucks. Futurama will feel very different with other voice talent and I can’t imagine Matt Groening going along with this. Then again, they killed off Maude Flanders for the same reason: the voice actress wanted more money,so maybe he would.
Oh well! Zoidberg, away!
Let me say again: Foxtards!
AND I’d bet $6 that the actors are not being unreasonable in their requests. Having received Futuruma checks off & on for a decade, they probably have a pretty good idea of what’s what.
FFox!
I am in agreement with The3 on this issue. This is a business matter, not an artistic one. Fox is willing to bring the show back and set a specific budget. If the actors demanded more than Fox had budgeted then it is time to figure out alternatives. If the solution is to bring in new voice actors, so be it.
With that being said, I also agree I would prefer that they kick off new characters and retire the old ones. If they don’t I can live with it but I would prefer for my brain to not have to make the, “Oh, that voice isn’t right” everytime an episode starts. To this day whenever I see a Muppet special post-Henson my ear twitches at Kermit’s voice.
That’s insane. Those actors made the show.
Post-SDCC 09:
I’m sorry to say, both the Futurama and Simpsons panels sucked this year (they ran back to back on Saturday)… and I think this salary dispute was some of the reason.
None of the voice actors from Futurama showed up, and interesting, none of The Simpsons VAs showed up either (they weren’t scheduled, but that never prevents unscheduled guests from gatecrashing the panel)-- seems like the VAs from The Simpsons wanted to show some solidarity with Futurama (I wonder if it was a union thing – in any case, good for them). Both panels were basically Groening and a few of the writers from each show, and it was kinda boring. They both showed a few clips at the beginning (Simpsons did a minute or two of the next Treehouse of Horror, which wasn’t all that funny), made intros, talked a bit, and took questions for the rest of the time.
All pretty disappointing, since I’ve seen both panels do better in previous years… I used my bathroom pass to wait outside and munch jalapeno pretzel dogs.
Did Matt Selman (writer) show up? I know he was at the con.
I’ll be honest with you… I really don’t remember. He was scheduled, and it was Groening and 2-3 other guys on stage, so I’m pretty sure the answers yes… but I didn’t take video, and I was so bored out of my skull that I wasn’t paying attention. I was trying to keep my nephew entertained – I remember all I kept saying was, “Don’t worry, the V pilot is next, just wait a big longer”. Sorry.
Huh, maybe I started this all for naught. @EWAusielloFiles Just Tweeted: “Hearing ALL Futurama voice actors will be back.”
Hopefully that’s true. Torches and pitchforks are expensive
i guess maurice lamarche has verified.
oh my, yes.