Toon Zone Talkback - "Futurama" Voice Cast *WILL* Return for New Episodes in 2010

I have it on very good authority that The Hollywood Reporter's claim that the actors are demanding "a tenfold increase" is total BS. THR is serving as a shill for 20th Century Fox's propaganda horsepoop, citing that "sources indicated" such nonsense when in fact that's Fox's spin on this news.

I'll have an update on this on my blog later this weekend. In the meantime, the frontpage article has been updated with the correct links in question:

http://news.rabroad.net/articles/30489/futurama-voice-cast-may-not-return-for-new-episodes-in-2010

Nitpicking, but Billy uses his natural voice for the character he portrays in Comic Book: The Movie.
 
Oh, I don't think it's Variety making it up, but I wouldn't be at all surprised to find that their "sources" are from within Fox, who would love nothing more than gullible fans who would otherwise be staunchly on the VAs' side putting pressure on them to suck it up and go back to the negotiating table demanding less.

Even IF that "tenfold" number is accurate, starting out high so that you have someplace to go is a time-tested bargaining tactic.



Once again, I have to ask you where you're getting your numbers. I honestly have no idea how the VA salaries compare with those of the writers', but you'll notice I"m not pretending to, either. Link to a reputable source or else you're just pulling numbers out of, shall we say, a disreputable one.

But for the record, I find the amount of money they pay professional athletes to throw a ball good to be insane. VA salaries, even at the higher end, are peanuts in comparison.
 
ohh. the update makes it look like that "ten-fold" number was BS. Ok so we already know that someone is not quite playing fair.

If they really are going to sell out money to bring the show back, how come they are not even thinking of putting it on Fox ( or any other non-cable) network too? They make it sound as if they don't want it on non-cable and slashed the budget because of that.
 
Yeah, and to expect them to be paid as much as the Simpson's actors is a little overboard. Futurama is a great show, and it has a talented voice cast, but compared to the popularity of the Simpsons, a tv legend in a number of ways, it's nothing.

And let's be honest here, the voice cast changing probably wouldn't affect ratings that much. I mean sure, they'd lose a lot of viewership from fans who care a lot about the voice actors (like us), but the vast majority of viewers probably don't have an emotional attachment to the VAs the way a lot of us do.
 
If Fox wanted to drum up publicity for the show, they have succeeded.

And that's all this is. The VA's were going to negotiate their pay, anyway. The Fox executive at SDCC will announce the show's return with the cast intact (if the ridiculous panel description is correct), people will celebrate, and the fans will totally buy into every single bit of it.

Oh, don't you love the theater.

All of this, assuming I have it right, is insulting. Fans of Futurama, Fox hates you.
 
See, I feel Futurama is nothing without the fans. And it will be these fans who will turn away from the show if the entire voice cast is gone. Futurama isn't some piddly little childrens show that could conceivably get by without it's cast of voice actors as it's target audience is too young to care. Futurama is a show that's been around for a decade and has built a lot of it's popularity on the strength of it's characters and the devotion of it's fanbase to those characters. And a lot of what makes those characters strong are the people who voice them. As I've said before, Fry, Farnsworth and Zoidberg are nothing without Billy west. And John DiMaggio IS Bender. Futurama is in the same category as Family Guy, King of the Hill, South Park and The Simpsons. Lose the main voice cast and the show isn't worth watching.

I stand by that. I will not accept anyone else as Fry, Bender, Leela, Zoidberg and Farnsworth other than the actors who gave them life in the first place.
 
Fox has no interest in carrying Futurama; they haven't been interested in the show for some time. When Futurama first debuted, Fox was expecting the series to be The Simpsons in space, and when they found out that it wasn't Fox officially stopped caring about the show. Witness how the network under-promoted Futurama and pre-empted it for football and baseball whenever they got the chance.

Fox only cares about animated domestic sitcoms; any cartoon show that's not about a family gets the red-headed stepchild treatment, and ultimately the shaft. Case in point: Sit Down, Shut Up. (Mind you, SDSU also suffered from just not being very good, but I digress...)

The other non-cable broadcast networks simply don't have an impressive track record when it comes to airing prime-time cartoons. Few if any animation studios are about to pursue them actively. Cable's the best bet for an animated sitcom right now.
 
If it was, say, just Maurice LaMarche and Tress MacNeil they couldn't get back, I'd be okay with it.

But Fry, Leela, Bender, Farnsworth, Zoidberg? That's ridiculous. So what, Amy and Hermes would keep their voices and that's it?

The fact that they think they can still go on without most of their main cast is ludicrous. If they can't meet salary demands they should just torpedo this whole revival then.
 
I agree with you, the voice actors that have worked for this show made the show what it is. Without them they might as well not even bother.
 
I reiterate...

Why bother continuing the show if you can't use the voice actors who were instrumental in making it a success in the first flippin' place. No one is going to watch this without the original voice actors and it's going to die a very quick death.

And I'll be happy when it does.
 
Toon Zone Talkback - "Futurama" Voice Cast *WILL* Return for New Episodes in 2010

Again, it?s a gambit. Chances are they?ll work out a deal with the original voice actors. Even the article that Speedy Boris linked to mentioned?
 
This is different from Ren and Stimpy because Billy had no interset in working with John K. again.

But with this Billy stated on his forum that he hopes that "things will work", so it seems he does have a desire to do it.

(Also Billy will still be at the Comic Con with Matt and David for the "Bender Head" signings)
 
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