Some fans were upset when Netflix lost the rights to ‘Futurama’. The long-running Matt Groening series flew from Netflix to Hulu exclusively, but for those who still haven’t cut the cable, rejoice! All 140 episodes of ‘Futurama’ will be available for free (well… minus whatever you already pay for cable or satellite) on Syfy.
Syfy has been attempting to overhaul its image in recent years, distancing itself from low-budget camp-fests like ‘Sharknado’ etc. and adding more high quality programming. Most of that is original material, but there’s no need to shy away from proven crowd-pleasers. ‘Futurama’ is not just a tried and true hit, it will become the only animated series on the channel, but it is expected that this is just the first step to possibly incorporating more in the future.
To celebrate, Syfy will kick off the event on Saturday, November 11. After that, ‘Futurama’ will air on Monday and Tuesday nights from 8pm until 2am EST, then on Saturday mornings from 8am until 11am.
Chris McCumber, President, Entertainment Networks (USA and SYFY) for NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment said in a statement:
“We’re continuing to invest heavily to give our passionate fans the very best in genre programming, and I can think of no better addition to SYFY’s lineup than one of my personal favorites, Futurama.”
‘Futurama’ first aired on FOX from 1999-2003. In 2007, four direct-to-video films were produced, then chopped up into 16 30-minute episodes. Then in 2010, Comedy Central commissioned two additional seasons. The show earned seven Annie Awards and six Emmys over the course of its run. The Nerdist podcast recently offered a cast recording entitled ‘Radiorama’ as an unofficial last audio-only episode which connected to the mobile game ‘Worlds of Tomorrow’.
The series was created by Groening, David X. Cohen and Ken Keeler and featured the voices of John DiMaggio as Bender, Katey Sagal as Leela, and Billy West as Fry (first name Philip), Professor Farnsworth, Doctor Zoidberg, Zapp Brannigan and more.
Are you ready to take another trip to this fantastic future world?
