So here are the new details on the return of Futurama.
Matt Groening: Talk about a day job and night job, my night job after The Simpsons is Futurama, which is coming back on Comedy Central in 2008, 16 new episodes, and we’re going to be running the old episodes, as well.
Rather than one movie it apears that we are now getting a full season on Comedy Central.
Matt Groening: Well, I was frustrated when it got cancelled, but Fox, 20th Television is the one who came back and said, “Would you like to do a DVD movie?” and we said, “Let’s do two” and they said, “Well, why not three?” and we said, “Well, why not four?” and they said, “Okay, four” and then that’s it.
Crave Online: Are they really full movies or just three episodes together?
Matt Groening: We’re writing them as movies and then we’re going to chop them up, reconfigure them, write new material and try to make them work as separate episodes.
Crave Online: Can DVD versions be more extreme than the ones for air?
Matt Groening: Those are the marching orders we gave ourselves, yes, to really try to push it and do things we might not be able to do on TV. And then Comedy Central picked up the show and we went, “Okay, probably there’s nothing we can think of that Comedy Central won’t run” because I’m astonished at what I see on Comedy Central every day.
I can’t wait. Though I am a little surprised that the Cartoon Network didn’t land this deal.
Interview: Rhymes with raining