Futurama: 10 Things It Did Better Than The Simpsons
5. The Setting
There are a number of differences related to the setting of both The Simpsons and Futurama. The Simpsons is set in Springfield, a town just like every town in America. It appears to be static, but changes whenever the story needs it to. New New York is similar, but the scenery of Futurama changes constantly thanks to space-travel.
The reason the setting for Futurama is better than Springfield for The Simpsons has to do with the way it remains contemporary while still existing in the future. This gave the writers an opportunity their peers lacked while working on The Simpsons: imagine a reality 1,000 years in the future, but make it relatable to a modern audience.
Throughout the series, they writers clearly had a lot of fun exploring the setting of New New York. They created the ruins of Old New York, which remained below the newer city. They even had an episode about Fry scoring billions of dollars in interest, which led him to reinvent his 20th-Century lifestyle 1,000 years in the future.
Ultimately, the comparison in settings comes down to how much creativity the writers had. Springfield has to remain (somewhat) grounded in reality, while New New York can be however the writers wanted.