2. The New Seasons Lost Futurama Its Cult Status
Futurama was and should have stayed as a show made by geeks and nerds, for geeks and nerds, and yet could be generally accepted by anyone else who didn't mind a sci-fi coating on their workplace comedy. Once the show was rebooted on Comedy Central, this dynamic was completely reversed. The lazy pop culture gags, catchphrases, and cheap nudity and injury based laughs (that don't have any threat or weight or emotion to them as dismemberment is easily solved now thanks to stem cells and cloning), are all there to make the show accessible to anyone watching at anytime, rather than being a passion project struggling to get made. Once the production team knew that they had a solid 26 episodes to make, they were contractually obliged to get them out as quickly as possible regardless of quality, a principle that seemed to be either infrequently or never abided to in the original run. Developer David X Cohen was interviewed for Wired, back in 2007 around the release of Bender's Big Score, and described a situation when writing a small moment in the episode Kif Gets Knocked Up A Notch, regarding the use of the programming language BASIC. Another writer had suggested that "99% of the audience wouldn't get the reference" and Eric Kaplan, writer-producer, responded "Fuck them!". As long as the nerdiest 1% is happy, without spoiling it for the rest, the jokes should be tailored to them, which rarely seemed to be the case in seasons 6 and 7. Futurama's cult status was assured from the beginning, when it was clear that Fox generally didn't like Futurama. Time slots for new episodes were moved about the place all the time, different times of the week, different times of day, and yet the fans did seek it out. It has been reported that Fox disliked the idea of a more adult animated comedy show, that they wouldn't be able to merchandise, and yet they still did: calendars, clothes, figurines and even a video game. Fox must have just allowed the show to be made on the clout of Matt Groening and kept allowing it to be made under Comedy Central after the films did so well.