FuturamaRama: The Opinion Page
Last Updated February 1999

Warning: Caustic opinions ahead
Eye protection recommended

Howdy, and welcome to the FuturamaRama opinion page. I created this page to clearly dilineate things: everything appearing on this page is ABSOLUTELY and SOLELY my opinion. It's all just my deluded, deranged ranting, giving me a chance to vent my spleen (and any other organs of mine in need of venting.)

Anyway, today's rant is this: What in Sam Hill is going on with the scheduling of Futurama? Okay, we all know that the first two episodes will air on Sundays after The Simpsons (March 28th and April 4th to be precise). That, of course, is a good idea, since both series are created by Matt Groening, and most Simpsons fans have some curiosity in the new series. It is reasonable to believe that Futurama will retain virtually all of its lead-in audience, perhaps even build on it.

On April 6th, however, the show is moving to Tuesday nights. Why Tuesday? Well, on the one hand it will give Fox the ability to create a weekly two-hour animation block (King of the Hill, Futurama, The PJs, and Simpsons reruns), something (I believe) unprecedented in prime-time network television history. On the other hand, Tuesday has been a weak night for Fox, facing strong competition from NBC and ABC: King of the Hill's ratings have plummeted since it moved to Tuesday.

Meanwhile, who gets the plum post-Simpsons spot? Family Guy, the puerile, unfunny, cheap-looking cartoon that was previewed after the Super Bowl on January 31st. Why does Family Guy rate? Is it because Doug Herzog (recently installed as network czar) remembers his experiences as Comedy ("Official Network of South Park") Central president too well? (I can imagine him thinking, "Hey, I've never gone wrong before with ugly cartoons without an ounce of wit!") Is it because the network has forgotten how to be grateful to Matt Groening, the man who has created Fox Network's biggest cash cow?

Well, all we can do is hope for the best: hope that Futurama thrives despite a less-than-ideal time slot, and hope that Family Guy improves on its awful first episode. If, however, Futurama is (Mom forbid) a ratings victim, I'd hate to think that it was because of stupid network politics.

Thanks you for reading.

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Copyright 1999 by Dale G. Abersold
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