Good News, Everyone!

Huzzah!

It’s official: ‘Futurama’ is reborn!

Six years after getting axed by Fox, Futurama is being resurrected on Comedy Central.

A spokesperson for 20th Century Fox Television confirms that the cable net has ordered 26 new episodes of Matt Groening and David X. Cohen’s late, great animated series to air beginning in 2010. The studio cites Futurama‘s “blockbuster” performance on DVD and in reruns on Comedy Central as the reason for its rebirth.

Also: ‘Futurama’ returns with new episodes

In another case of an animated primetime series resurrected from the dead, 20th Century Fox TV plans to produce 26 new episodes of “Futurama.”

Comedy Central will begin airing the new episodes in mid-2010. Voice actors Billy West (who played Philip Fry), Katey Sagal (Leela) and John DiMaggio (Bender) have all signed on to return.

Also also: Comedy Central resurrects ‘Futurama’

As for the story lines, the new episodes will pick up where “Yonder” took off — with the main characters fleeing death and flying into the unknown.

But after four epic feature-length films, “what we will try to do is go a little bit back to pure comedy, characters and sci-fi,” Cohen said.

As with “Family Guy,” 20th TV has the right to shop the new “Futurama” episodes to a broadcast network, with Comedy Central getting a second window for a reduced license fee. Fox is the prime target, and the studio had had a preliminary conversation but no serious talks are expected in the near future.

Huzzah, indeed!

At long last, one of the best series EVAR is coming back, hopefully for many more seasons. Futurama was produced by Matt Groening, who also gave the world the Simpsons… but Futurama was a far better series than the Simpsons could have ever dreamed of being. Not only was it a far smarter show (it had actual PhDs working on it, and produced truly hilarious gags, jokes and episodes based on clever scientific concepts), it was also a far more involving and touching show. Nobody who has ever loved and lost, or experienced unrequited love, could watch Fry attempt to woo Leela through such episodes as “Time Keeps On Slipping,” “The Sting” or “The Devils Hands are Idle Playthings” and not feel a stab through the heart in sympathy for the poor goof.

And of course, anybody who watched “Jurassic Bark” (perhaps the most heartbreaking thing ever to be broadcast on US TV, behind the 9-11 coverage and Obama’s victory speech) all the way through the end and wasn’t reduced to a horrible gelatinous blob of sadness… well, that person just ain’t right.

I’ve watched all the movies; even in my financially depleted state, I’d race out and get ’em. But the movies were not quite what the series was, good though they were on the whole. With luck, Futurama will recover the magic it had, and will be a runaway success for years to come… as it deserved to be.

Now… if only we can get “Invader Zim” and “Firefly” back up and running…