Futurama Live!
The latest series finale of Futurama airs tomorrow-Wednesday, September 4th-on Comedy Central; the final episode will be accompanied by a live, online pre-show and post-show, each to be hosted by Chris Hardwick.
The final episode of the oft-canceled, twice-revived animated series is titled “Meanwhile” and is set to see the character of Fry propose to his almost-never-but-then-finally on-again-off-again love interest Leela.
On April 22nd of this year, fans of the show-of which I am one-were hit with the news that Comedy Central had decided not to renew Futurama. While it was tough to hear, we’re kind of getting used to it. After all, “Meanwhile” makes the fourth “series finale” we’ve endured. That’s not to say it’s fun to see such a great show repeatedly canceled, but the constant fight to bring it back has somewhat hardened us-as hardened as fans of an animated, sci-fi series written by a bunch of nerds for a bunch of nerds can be (I believe that amount is found using the Hollomon-Poindexter Equation). In fact, it has even become a running joke/point of pride that prolific Futurama writer Ken Keeler, himself a PhD in Applied Mathematics, has now written each of the four “series finales” (“The Devil’s Hands are Idle Playthings”, “Into the Wild Green Yonder”, “Overclockwise”, “Meanwhile”). I’d say we all hope he gets a chance to write a fifth one (perhaps for Netflix *hint*hint*), but Futurama fans have evolved beyond hope; now we just wait.
Futurama Live! the pre-show will begin at 9:30pm EST, leading into the series finale’s east coast airtime of 10pm; the post-show will then take place at 10:30pm EST. Both segments of Futurama Live! will be moderated by the Nerdist himself Chris Hardwick (host of the Nerdist podcast, as well as AMC’s live Talking Dead and Talking Bad aftershows). Hardwick will be joined by Futurama creators Matt Groening and David X. Cohen, as well as cast members Billy West, Maurice LaMarche, Phil LaMarr, and Lauren Tom; writer Patric M. Verrone; and animator Pete Avanzino. The Live! segments will stream simultaneously on Comedy Central’s Futurama page and the Nerdist Youtube channel.
