Bad news, everyone!

[The Space Pope]

'Futurama' getting new voices for Fry, Leela, Bender, and others | PopWatch Blog | EW.com (http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2009/07/futurama-new-voices.html)

In case you're too lazy to click a link and read for about 15 seconds the bottom line is that when Futurama comes back NONE of the old voice actors will be returning.

The Space Pope has condemend this show in the past, but now I'm saddened by this supposed fact. Part of me doesn't want to believe it but I'm guessing it's true.

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

After seemingly everyone agreed that only one or two of the four movies representing the show's glorious return were actually worth watching, this seems like an even more focused effort to drive every last fan away from a once-beloved program.

[Fonzie]

Gears of War guy is no longer Bender. :cry:

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

Worse, <i>Bender</i> guy is no longer Bender.

[LunarWeaver]

No Peggy Bundy? Goddamnit.

[qwertysaur]

:(

[The Space Pope]

The Space Pope never had a speaking role or even an animated one so the Space Pope feels a sense of justice.

[Jessweeee♪]

<img src="http://forums.eyesonff.com/images/eoff_smilies/nonono.gif" alt="NO NO NO NO NO" width="500" height="500" />

[Quindiana Jones]

This is sacrilege.

[Madame Adequate]

Is anyone actually remaining? :eyebrow:

Wow. I guess if they can't meet the demands then they can't meet them, but if I was a voice actor I'd probably do Futurama for free.

[The Space Pope]

Except for Leela, who wasn't a cartoony voice, the others should be easy enough to imitate. Look at Zoidberg, get a guy who does a good Jew impression or a real Jew and boom. I wish they would've at least kept Bender if nobody else.

[Jessweeee♪]

No more Wakka in my Futurama ;_;

[Yar]

Except for Leela, who wasn't a cartoony voice, the others should be easy enough to imitate. Look at Zoidberg, get a guy who does a good Jew impression or a real Jew and boom. I wish they would've at least kept Bender if nobody else.Katey Sagal is easily replaced, just hire Allison Janney. :)

[The Space Pope]

Never heard of her tbh

Speaking of Katey Sagal, I hope Sons of Anarchy comes back soon.

[Rostum]

This makes me sad, and to think I was looking forward to the return of Futurama. It can't be true! I choose to deny.

[Darkswordofchaos]

Never heard of her tbh

Speaking of Katey Sagal, I hope Sons of Anarchy comes back soon.


I saw the comercial and i think it said new season in aug im not sure though but i cant belive the voices are changing this suck.
but hey there is always a chance that they will get very similar VA and you wont really be able to tell a dif on most of the characters

[Goldenboko]

Game over man, game over.

[Big D]

Hmm.

I agree that the recent movies were disturbingly weak, and they're probably a good place to leave the show entirely. Replacing the main voice cast, however... There's a chance it could work. After all, 'cartoon voices' are easily copied by a talented actor. If you've listened to all the DVD commentaries, you'd have heard things like John DiMaggio (Bender, Wakka, etc) giving a flawless rendition of Space Oddity in the voice of Billy West's Prof. Farnsworth.

But these actors - especially DiMaggio and West - put a ton of character and enthusiasm into their performances, and that'd be very difficult to replace. With the recent movies, I enjoyed the commentaries more than the films themselves, because of the hilarious and engaging performances of the cast and crew. Having lead actors who genuinely care about the material, and what they're doing with it, can make a big difference.

None of this'll matter if they can't lift their game on the writing, though. Each of the DVD movies had some great moments and lines, but failed to truly ignite or engage in the way the older TV show did.

[eestlinc]

Never heard of her tbh
Allison Janney was CJ the press secretary on the West Wing.

[The Space Pope]

I never watched it before.

But perhaps if we were to pitch in and get a bunch of cats, I could sew them together and make a magic carpet out of them and present them as an offering to the apparently now ex-Futurama VAs.

[Shlup]

I thought the most recent of the Futurama "movies" was good, all things considered.

But this smells of doom.

[Darkswordofchaos]

haha every single post the space pope makes is crazy he is the best member on all of EoFF

[The Space Pope]

I thought the most recent of the Futurama "movies" was good, all things considered.

But this smells of doom.
I only saw the D&D one..I liked the first half at least ;/
I heard Beast With a Billion backs sucked though.


haha every single post the space pope makes is crazy he is the best member on all of EoFF
Yes, it seems some of the people embrace me and my religion while others condemn it. They're all racist and one day their bones shall be made into gourmet toothpicks.

[Darkswordofchaos]

seem like a promising aspect for an erntrepreneur like your self.

theres good money in gormet tooth picks

[Breine]

Only saw maybe two episodes of Futurama in my life, but I can still agree to the fact that these news suck.

[Krisp]

No loss really. Futurama was one of the things that killed Adult Swim for me, and even though I wouldn't watch Adult Swim nowadays anyway, I still watch Comedy Central occasionally.

[Unbreakable Will]

Noooooo....
I loved that show, I was watching it just the other night thinking I can't wait till it's back. Now, I have the fury of a viewer scorned... beware new voice actors, the pain cometh.

[SomethingBig]

It's probably a publicity stunt. Futurama has a huge fanbase and there's no way Fox wouldn't have the money to pay for their salaries. Recasts are also guaranteed suicide for TV shows and movies and Fox knows better than to do this to a hit like Futurama.

Of course I could be wrong and the world WILL end on December 21, 2012.

[Dolentrean]

Game over man, game over.

...

:cry:

[NeoCracker]

Its surprising how many people won't even give a new voicecast a chance, already claiming Future-ama a dead show.

Heres a possibility, what if, by chance, the voice actors can do it justice? Is it so hard to believe more then one person in this world is capable of delivering a good preformance as Fry?

As long as the scripts are good, and the VA's are good, I'll continue watching, even if they aren't the same.

[drotato]

That really sucks. D:<

[charliepanayi]

Its surprising how many people won't even give a new voicecast a chance, already claiming Future-ama a dead show.

Heres a possibility, what if, by chance, the voice actors can do it justice? Is it so hard to believe more then one person in this world is capable of delivering a good preformance as Fry?

As long as the scripts are good, and the VA's are good, I'll continue watching, even if they aren't the same.

Wouldn't you find it a bit disconcerting though if your favourite show (be it animated or live action) had its entire main cast/voicecast changed? It's a pretty extreme thing to happen. And it also seems so needless - is all this just because people can't agree on wages?

[The Space Pope]

It's probably a publicity stunt. Futurama has a huge fanbase and there's no way Fox wouldn't have the money to pay for their salaries. Recasts are also guaranteed suicide for TV shows and movies and Fox knows better than to do this to a hit like Futurama.

Of course I could be wrong and the world WILL end on December 21, 2012.
Why would they need to make a publicity stunt? People have known it was coming back for awhile now.

As for what NeoCracker said, the show's budget has been greatly cut, and production will be rushed, it's not just a new voice cast, it's why they had to do it.

[NeoCracker]

Its surprising how many people won't even give a new voicecast a chance, already claiming Future-ama a dead show.

Heres a possibility, what if, by chance, the voice actors can do it justice? Is it so hard to believe more then one person in this world is capable of delivering a good preformance as Fry?

As long as the scripts are good, and the VA's are good, I'll continue watching, even if they aren't the same.

Wouldn't you find it a bit disconcerting though if your favourite show (be it animated or live action) had its entire main cast/voicecast changed? It's a pretty extreme thing to happen. And it also seems so needless - is all this just because people can't agree on wages?

It's a bit different with Live action, though still very possible. I mean just look at Harry Potter, the new Dumbledore did just as well as the first. True, they HAD to replace him to do the show, but same principle.

And it could bother me a bit at first, but not nearly enough to abandon a show all together. It all depends on their talent and ability to play that roll.




It's probably a publicity stunt. Futurama has a huge fanbase and there's no way Fox wouldn't have the money to pay for their salaries. Recasts are also guaranteed suicide for TV shows and movies and Fox knows better than to do this to a hit like Futurama.

Of course I could be wrong and the world WILL end on December 21, 2012.
Why would they need to make a publicity stunt? People have known it was coming back for awhile now.

As for what NeoCracker said, the show's budget has been greatly cut, and production will be rushed, it's not just a new voice cast, it's why they had to do it.

Well then maybe people should stop bitching about the VA thing and bitch about that instead. :p

[The Space Pope]

Well then maybe people should stop bitching about the VA thing and bitch about that instead. :p

I never flat-out said I wasn't going to give it a try, of course I will. And yeah some of the voices can be easily replaced, I think I used Zoidberg as an example in some other post. But going from experience, I've almost never liked when a show/game changes the voices up on me, I dunno, I get used to the old ones.

[NeoCracker]

I wasn't really reffering to you, more of a general statement. :p

[The Space Pope]

But you quoted me and I want to feel important. ;c

Also update from IGN for those too lazy to google.

Update: Variety is now chiming in on the Futurama situation, and it looks like this is indeed the real deal, as in not any sort of hoax. Variety confirms that the show has a dramatically slashed budget, and that the salary offers made to the cast were far below what they were asking – which Variety says was likely around $75,000 an episode. The budget cuts (compared to what the show had when it originally was produced) have also led to a smaller writing staff and a shorter schedule to produce episodes.

If there's any hope for fans, it's the fact that a casting call for new voice actors doesn't necessarily mean that a deal still can't be made. In fact, Variety points out that when negotiations were going badly for new deals with The Simpsons cast several years ago, similar casting inquiries were made for new actors – and obviously, in that case, the original cast did eventually come to terms on a new deal. Let's all cross our fingers that history repeats itself here...

So it looks definite, but as they pointed out, the Simpsons went through the same thing, even though I haven't watched the Simpsons in many seasons.

[black orb]

>>> Maybe the new voices are better..
Anyway this doesnt concern me since i just watch the spanish dub (and is great)..

[Heath]

I'm disappointed by this, but I'm also disappointed by the all-round budget cuts which means they'll have a smaller staff and less time to produce the episodes. I was really looking forward to the new series of Futurama and I don't think that these changes will make it terrible, but I do worry that these factors will mean that the new episodes don't reach the standards of the previous four series. I'm still looking forward to it in spite of this, however. I certainly consider it a loss though.

[Darkswordofchaos]

yeah tv networks are pretty stupid the're so afraid to lose money on somthing like this that they wont spend the enitial money to make it good witch would in turn make lots of money but instead they cut budgets so as to not lose money then its a crap show unlike it used to be and no body watches so it ends up costing the network money. kinda like they casused it to happen by trying to avoid it.

[Slade]

Being quite a huge fan of the series, this is probably the worst news I've heard in ages. It came as a huge shock because I distinctly remember during the numerous commentaries I've watched the voice actors claiming that they loved the show and it was one of the best shows they'd worked on, or at least they acted that way. If this whole salary thing is the issue then they couldn't have loved the show that much.

*sigh*

I was very excited for a 6th season. Not so much anymore. We'll see though I spose. It may not turn out as bad as everyone thinks. Although, apparently only a few of the writing staff returned too. That kind of crushes my hope even more.
Time will tell....

[McLovin']

Bender is irreplaceable!

[The Space Pope]

Phil LaMarr (Hermes) had this to say:


"Anytime you work on a show this good it's a very collaborative process. The ideas begin with the very talented writers, obviously, but once the actors give voice to the words the influence starts to go both ways. On a show that was less well-written, less character-based with less actual acting in it, changing the cast would make much less of a difference. But it's going to take at least three people to replace Billy West and if they get anybody else to do Bender -- it's just going to be a different character."

'Futurama' Voice Actor Speaks Out About Potential Recasting - ComicsAlliance.com (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2009/07/18/futurama-voice-actor-speaks-out-about-potential-recasting/)

[Denmark]

Heres a possibility, what if, by chance, the voice actors can do it justice? Is it so hard to believe more then one person in this world is capable of delivering a good preformance as Fry?

And Zoidberg? And the Professor? And Zapp Brannigan? And Richard Nixon? And Leo Wong? And Ren? And Stimpy? And Doug Funnie? And Roger Klotz? And the Red M&M? And the Honey Nut Cheerios Bee?

tldr Billy West is irreplaceable.

[The Space Pope]

To be honest, the Fry/Zoidberg voices wouldn't be hard to mimic by even a semi-talented voice actor. And Zapp Brannigan could be done by just about any guy with even a semi-deep voice. Hell he sounded like a voice Phil Hartman could do (who was supposed to play him before he died, West just mimicked the voice.)

Also, Billy West wasn't always Ren, the creator, John Kricfalusi used to be and you never noticed the change, which shows that it's not impossible to switch voice actors smoothly.

[Del Murder]

Yeah it's pretty dumb, but it's odd for a show to come back after being gone this long anyway. You can't expect it to be exactly the same. I'll probably still check it out, and if it sucks, move on.

[eestlinc]

do the voice actors have a bunch of other work keeping them busy? seems like they will cave to less than $75,000 an episode if they want work, which I'm assuming they do.

[The Space Pope]

Well most of them have done or still do stand up comedy and/or work on other shows, and Katey Sagel is on Sons of Anarchy so I'm assuming they all have at least some cash.

[Wolf Kanno]

Not happy about the voice changes but I'll still check out the show to see how I feel about the new season.

[Rachran]

*sigh* :(
i might still watch it if it pops up on tv but this usally means the death of a series ,R.I.P good Futurama i will miss thy

[Darkswordofchaos]

in the first new epsd. they should put every one important thats getting a voice change in some horrible space gas accedint that changes their voice. then it will make sense:D

[arcanedude34]

Also, Billy West wasn't always Ren, the creator, John Kricfalusi used to be and you never noticed the change, which shows that it's not impossible to switch voice actors smoothly.
I tried to come up with a clever quip for this, I really did. But all I got was "I Can't Believe It's Not Ren." I'm sorry

I'm severely disappointed in Billy West, John DiMaggio and Katey Sagal. I too was under the impression that they loved the show. All the commentaries where they said their characters were alive, fully fleshed out characters, and then they do this... it's like... it's like putting your child up for adoption for money, it's just sickening.

I'll give whoever they get a shot (a shot. One episode) before I give up on the show.

If Calculon's wedding the Futurama comeback doesn't go just right, I'll be emotionally and electrically drained.

[The Space Pope]

Well nothing's set in stone yet. They're supposed to appear somewhere to talk about the issue, so this could be all an elaborate hoax, but that's probably just wishful thinking.

Jah hopes this is the case, or Jah will not be pleased as Jah will have nothing to watch while Jah smokes Jah's herb.

[Medi]

There was to be a Futurama panel at Comic-Con earlier today, but G4 doesn't work on my television so I don't know if it were shown or not. I've been curious about what they were planning to announce, hopefully a negotiation with the voice actors or something. :D

Anyone know?

[guffman]

Except for Leela, who wasn't a cartoony voice, the others should be easy enough to imitate. Look at Zoidberg, get a guy who does a good Jew impression or a real Jew and boom. I wish they would've at least kept Bender if nobody else.
not good enough, i dont want imitations, i want the real thing! i will not waste my time, the series ended with "the devil's hands are idle playthings" and thats that.

[Jessweeee♪]

in the first new epsd. they should put every one important thats getting a voice change in some horrible space gas accedint that changes their voice. then it will make sense:D

It wouldn't surprise me if they actually did that xD

[Crimson]

Had this been about 2 years ago when Futurama was still cool I probably would've raged.



Meh.

[guffman]

i dont know, i dont see futurama as a fad. its kinda timeless to me. unless they bone it all up...

[The Captain]

Let everyone now rejoice:

TheStar.com | entertainment | Futurama cast signs new deal with Fox (http://www.thestar.com/comment/columnists/article/674841)


Take care all.

[NeoCracker]

YAY!

[The Space Pope]

Had this been about 2 years ago when Futurama was still cool I probably would've raged.



Meh.
This may or may not surprise you, but there are those who like things simply because they do and not because their friends do.

Also Captain you stole my thunder, I was gonna post that very same link.

[Crimson]

Had this been about 2 years ago when Futurama was still cool I probably would've raged.



Meh.
This may or may not surprise you, but there are those who like things simply because they do and not because their friends do.

Also Captain you stole my thunder, I was gonna post that very same link.


As I said, when Futurama was still cool I probably would've give a damn.


This may or may not surprise you, but not everyone who uses the word cool is a stereotypical tv addict who only watches the stuff that critics give thumbs up too.


Futurama used to be good, FOR ME, now it isnt, FOR ME.


lrn2troll plz.

[The Space Pope]

cool longwinded post bro

[Crimson]

cool longwinded post bro

short version: NO U

[The Space Pope]

+1

[guffman]

as happy as i am, i am still afraid. please God dont let the new season suck...

[Madame Adequate]

Let everyone now rejoice:

TheStar.com | entertainment | Futurama cast signs new deal with Fox (http://www.thestar.com/comment/columnists/article/674841)


Take care all.

I'll be more than pleased to obey your final admonition with this good news you have brought. :love:

[The Space Pope]

Well so far it does look like the original VAs will be back. But given the other slashes within the show's budget, the show may feel recycled and/or rushed with sloppy writing, which was pretty evident in the last two seasons when Fry was becoming more and more like Homer-lite.

Still, I will definitely watch the new episodes, I have to at least give it a chance.

The Space Pope demands a speaking role this time around! :moomba: