Overly Positive

The good folks over at Multiplaying will probably get a bit of a kick out of this little article.

Those of you who are fans of Matt Groening’s OTHER series, Futurama, may have been treated to a bit of what I call “good news and bad news”. The good news? You just can’t kill Futurama and it was slated to come back into broadcasting on FOX. The bad news? The voice actors for the original characters and FOX struggled to reach a negotiated deal, to the point that FOX was holding screening tests to replace the voice actors with new ones.

Now, there are very few things that I actually struggle not to make sunny and positive and amazing, even when they potentially could be crappy and shitty and awful. In fact the saying that “every cloud has a silver lining” is pretty much the way I’ve written here right from the start. But I have to admit, it would have been quite difficult, if not interesting to see Futurama with a new cast. I’ve written about the impact of voice and character before, and just as it applies to MMOs, so too do animated series derive the imprint of a character from how they sound. If you don’t believe that Futurama would have taken a bit of a hit with a new cast, all you have to do is think about your favorite TV show, make it into an animated format, and then try to imagine that cast with different voices. Where would House be without Hugh Laurie‘s distinct faux-American behind it? What would Lost’s Sawyer actually be if it wasn’t for the sardonic drawl of Josh Holloway? You get the idea.

Thankfully, however, this story has a happy ending. It seems that just when it appeared that negotiations over cash paid for the original Futurama voice cast would take a turn into “holdout sports athlete” territory, the two sides compromised, inking a new Futurama voice cast deal that probably involved a bit of give on both sides of the table. It’s nice to see that both corporate and talent, management and labor, see eye-to-eye when it comes to the greater mission of delivering a product that is true to its vision and original flavor. While remakes and reduxes have a small measure of success at times (see: Star Trek, Lord of the Rings) it’s a bit harder to risk with an animated series, where presentation and audio cues are of paramount importance.

Honestly though, if this has taught us anything, is that fandom, especially geek fandom, is more powerful than you might think. While it’s been rare, there have been bright spots in the entertainment industry where fandom rose to a level that actually caused Hollywood to take notice – Firefly’s Serenity movie, Family Guy, Chuck, and now Futurama are examples where ordinary people can have the power to bring about extraordinary things. Could the numerous posts and opinions of the Futurama faithful swayed the hearts of both FOX and the show’s original cast? Maybe – but it’s nice to see that regardless of what the motivation is, we’ll be seeing more Futurama very soon.