The Planet Express crew is about to make its final delivery with the news Comedy Central has cancelled Futurama. The show will end Sept. 4 after seven seasons of 140 episodes.
Comedy Central has decided not to renew the animated science fiction comedy, which the network resurrected after Fox cancelled it in 2003.
“If this is indeed the end of Futurama, it’s a fantastic finish to a good, long run,” show co-creator and executive producer David X. Cohen said in a statement accompanying Comedy Central’s announcement.
Cohen had been a writer and producer for The Simpsons when Groening brought him aboard for the lengthy process of creating, and then running, Futurama. Work started in 1996, three years before the show made its debut. At Fox the off-beat comedy drew uneven ratings — something that almost certainly was due in part to the fact Fox kept changing the time slot and sometime even failed to promote new episodes. When Fox finally pulled the plug in 2003, everyone assumed the show was dead.
Then Comedy Central came into the mix. CC syndicated the show in 2005 with an option to to make new episodes. It exercised that option a year later, announcing four direct-to-DVD movies it split into sixteen television episodes. That was followed by an order for another twenty-six episodes, and after that, yet another order for the same. When the show ends, 68 of the 140 episodes were due to Comedy Central efforts.
The most-likely-final season launches June 19, with guest stars for the run including George Takei, Adam West, Burt Ward and the voice of Homer Simpson Dan Castellaneta.
