by Mary Anne Butler and Bill Watters
CO Writer/Reporter/Code Monkey Bill Watters recently got to talk to David X. Cohen. Cohen has written for The Simpsons and is the head writer/executive producer of Futurama. They talked a bit about the final season of one of our favorite animated sci fi comedies.
Q: How do you guys come up with all your sci fi ideas?
David: Heh, I feel like I paid you to ask that question! Our take on it is Futurama IS a writing staff of science advisers. And I’m not kidding, my background is pretty mediocre compared to the rest. I have an undergraduate degree in physics, a master’s degree in theoretical computer science. And Ken Keeler, who’s been writing for the show a long time, has a master’s in electrical engineering, a PhD in applied math. I occasionally do call in outside experts who are friends of mine from my past academic life, but any science question can be answered pretty easily in house.
Q: Do you have a favorite episode or favorite crazy occurrence in an episode you’d like to talk about?
D: Well, one of the biggest changes of heart I’ve had since the show started was coming around to pro time travel episodes. When the show first started, I was always “Oh, you get into too much trouble with those”, but then we did ‘Roswell That Ends Well’, and we won the Emmy Award for it. So suddenly I had a change of heart for some reason! And another time travel episode we did that’s one of my favorites is a recent one called ‘The Late Philip J Fry’, which we won ANOTHER Emmy Award for when we came back on the air for Comedy Central. And I guess our approach has been to embrace the stupidity of time travel.
Q: You guys have gotten really good at an awesome final episode for Futurama, what is the secret?
D: Heh, yeah, this is number 4. And ok, let me give you MY definition of the “last episode EVER of Futurama”; it’s an episode at the time we write it, we think it is probably going to be the last ever, so this summer will be our 4th ‘last episode ever’. I think it’s probably our BEST last episode. And Ken Keeler, who I mentioned earlier, has written all 4 of them, it’s become a running joke….actually, I’ll say tradition, that sounds classier. We’re basically getting better and better at it. One thing we’ve learned from experience is not to have everybody blow up in an explosion in a final episode, because it makes it much harder to come back. Like the one time we had them disappear into a black hole, but there was still some mystery about that. But generally, the formula for some of the grandest Futurama episodes is one that both has a big epic sci fi premise, but also has some genuine emotion, usually Fry and Leela. This year’s final will be no exception, we’ll see Fry and Leela’s wedding for sure, no kidding around. Of course there will be giant sci fi extravagant, but I don’t want to give anything else away. But it is very sweet and touching, and if it is our FINAL final, I feel it’s a good way to go out.
Q: How’s the team handling the cancellation this time around?
D: I’ve described this season as sort of the bonus round, I mean we thought we were done, what, 9 years ago? Every stage after that initial cancellation, it’s just been a pleasant shock. The coming back is the shock, not the cancellation. I sort of have it penciled in on my calendar every time, ‘await cancellation’. I think we all sort of expected to end, but it went on longer, but then it ended. Most of the original team still working on these episodes, and that’s been nice that everyone comes back usually. The cast, the writers, the animators, always a nice reunion.
Q: Can you tell us about/describe the guest appearance of Larry Bird this season?
D: Well, it’s really a cameo, and my description of it will probably be longer than his actual appearance. And his line is possibly the funniest line in the funniest episode of the year. I can’t say too much, but I’ll give you a little bit of the scenario he appears in. It’s in one of the staff’s favorite episodes of the year, called ‘Saturday Morning Fun Pit’, it’ll be on somewhere in the middle of the summer. And this is one of our annual three parters, where we try to do three different weirder versions, for the 8 people who don’t think Futurama is weird enough already. So this year’s version Futurama is reborn in the style of, craptastic morning cartoons of the 70’s and 80’s. I’m not going to say specifically what types, but lets say there MIGHT be an episode where the crew drives around in a van solving mysteries, that type of thing. But it’s not exactly, legally, like anything you’ve seen before. And we have George Takei, making his record breaking 5th guest appearance, and Larry Byrd. Because the Harlem Globetrotters are involved, and are in training for the big game against the futuristic clone of Larry. It really wouldn’t have been the same without an NBA legend like him to take this role.
Q: How do you guys feel about the fan base that’s risen?
D: Our break room fridge was covered with internet print outs of fan art, fan tattoos which are often very disturbing. There was this one where this guy had a big mural of Futurama on what we thought was his arm, but it was actually on the entire side of his body from shoulder to ankle, much to our horror, but we appreciated it. We love the Lego city. Our favorite was the Futurama X-Men poster that was just so detailed, we wanted to hire the artist. These people are putting more time into the fan art than we are into the show. Then there was a fan who was making these high end figures of four different obscure characters, like Roberto, and Hedonism Bot, and they were incredible. Our fans are dedicated, and we appreciate it.
Q: What can you tell us about this final season?
D: We will see Calculon brought back to life, he was killed in a previous episode, and the robot devil voiced by Dan Castellaneta (Homer Simpson) brings him back, because we’re a sci fi show, and his very scientific way of bringing him back that just happens to look like a satanic ritual. We have Adam West and Burt Ward appearing as their heads in jars, we have Sarah Silverman, Seth McFarlane, in the”Game of Tones” episode about Fry’s mom, and Emilia Clark who will be playing Zoidberg’s love interest. And believe it or not, the question I get the most often is about Zoidberg. And yes, Dr. Zoidberg is going to find love, starts out as the perfect romance, our smelliest character falls in love with Emilia Clark’s character Mary Anne, who was born with no sense of smell. And it seems to be a match made in heaven. However, it comes to his attention, that he could cure her by giving her a nose transplant, but that would mean she could smell him.
Q: Is the team already working on other things?
D: In terms of our people looking for different projects, because it’s an animated show, we finished the writing awhile ago for this season. Our writing staff has already long since flown the coop, all over the TV world doing new things. The animators are just now starting to move on to other things. I’ve written pilots, and done things no one ever saw in my non-Futurama time. I always remain optimistic if we bring the show back to life somehow, we’ll be able to round everyone up again. But I’m ready for a break, I’m going to take a month or so to catch my breath.
Q: What will Futurama’s legacy be?
D: I might be overly optimistic, but I feel like it’ll rerun a long time, I mean it already has. I think it can last and be enjoyable for a longer amount of time, just by virtue of it’s subject matter. In our experience, the best way to make it funny was to really embrace the sci fi, where the settling was genuine sci fi, the motions and the jokes play better that way. There has not been a rich history of comedy sci fi, you can point to a few things, but not much that is there before us. In some ways, we laid some of the foundations on how to do that. Someone watches it in 20 years, you know IN THE FUTURE, it’ll be timeless.
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