Blame those pesky Network Execubots. They just didn’t believe Futurama could possibly last so long. But it was all the way back in 1999 that Philip J. Fry fell into that freezing chamber and awoke in the 31st century, and the show still has fans. Millions of them in fact. Nothing could stop Futurama, not even cancelation. Every time the show was taken away, fans screamed to have it back and cried, “Shut up and take my money!” It’s had quite the journey.
When was the last season of Futurama?
The last time anyone saw a full season of Futurama was all the way back in 2013. Season seven aired from June 2012 to September 2013. And after that it was seemingly really over for the Planet Express crew, except for one crossover Futurama/The Simpsons episode which aired in 2014. Still, fans at least didn’t have to agonize about the show being canceled on a cliffhanger, because the ‘finale’ of season seven was quite satisfying.
When was the last episode of Futurama?
The very last episode of Futurama, not counting the Simpsons crossover, aired September 4, 2013 and it gave fans one of the things they wanted most from the show. In “Meanwhile,” Fry and Leela not only got together, but grew old together in a universe frozen in time. Eventually, Professor Farnsworth came to rescue them, and the two agreed to “go round again” and return to their past lives. It’s considered, if not the perfect finale (not enough Bender or Zoidberg, if you ask me) a very, very good one.
Why did Futurama end?
“Meanwhile” wasn’t the first ‘finale’ of Futurama, though! It wasn’t even the first one to focus on Fry and Leela’s relationship. Originally, back in 2003, “The Devil’s Hands Are Idle Playthings” aired on Fox as the series finale. This episode, which saw Fry finally succeed in impressing his purple-haired love, aired August 10 of that year and that was seemingly it for the beloved series.
Unfortunately, being on Fox had done Futurama no favors. The timeslot of the show was constantly being switched around, which led to low viewership and thus low ratings. And social media barely existed back then, so there couldn’t be any sort of #BringBackFuturama fan campaign, even though the fans most certainly were out there.
But the show simply wouldn’t go away! When Comedy Central bought the cable syndication rights to Futurama in 2005, Fox gave them permission to create some new episodes if they wanted. And these turned into the four direct-to-DVD films Bender’s Big Score, The Beast With a Billion Backs, Bender’s Game, and Into the Wild Green Yonder. (Eventually, they would be chopped up to become the official season 5 of the show.)
The movies were successful enough that Comedy Central decided to do a whole new season of the show, and so this kicked off in June 2010 with an episode appropriately titled “Rebirth.” This was very exciting news for fans, and the excitement lasted all the way into a seventh season … and then the show was canceled for a second time. D’oh! (Sorry, wrong Matt Groening show.)
Entertainment Weekly broke the news of the second cancellation in April 2013 and said that Comedy Central pulling the plug did not “come as a shock” to Groening and executive producer David X. Cohen. Groening told EW,
“We’ve been in this situation before and it’s tempting when you’re doing episodes that are as good or better than anything you’ve ever done to continue doing it. We’re catching our breath and seeing what the fans have to say. The experience of this show has been so much fun from the very beginning to now—everybody is so happy to work on this show—that it’d be a shame if we all went our separate ways … We would love to continue. We have many more stories to tell. But if we don’t, this is a really great way to go out.”
It took a long time for that continuation to happen, but ten years later there was suddenly good news, everyone!
Is Futurama coming back in 2023?
Futurama has now risen from the dead a second time! New episodes are airing on Hulu as of July 2023. The first one featured a wrap-up of the “Meanwhile” plot and then it was straight back into business as usual. Who knows, at this rate, maybe the show will last until the actual 31st century.
(featured image: 20th Century Television)
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Sarah Barrett
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