Conference Call Notes with Futurama executive producer David X. Cohen

We had the esteemed pleasure of sitting in on a conference call with Futurama executive producer David X. Cohen where we got to talk to him about what could be the final season of Futurama. We had a chance to talk to David where we asked him about future spin-offs, the rabid fan base, and of course the Larry Bird appearance!

Working on the Larry Bird guest appearance: He only has one line, but it might be the funniest line in the funniest episode of the season aka the  Saturday Morning Fun Pit  which is airing somewhere in the middle of season (July 17th). The episode is a three-parter with weirder stories on an already weird show. This year’s Futurama is reborn as three crap-tastic morning cartoons of 70s and 80s, for example there is a group of dudes driving around solving mysteries in a van. The  episode is said to guest star to George Takei and Larry Bird. Hes there as opponent of the Futurama Harlem Globetrotters.  One of their opponents is a team comprised of Larry Bird clones and he was a pleasure to work with.

Fanbase on the internet: Favorites? We had a fridge in the office of the writers. The writers and I eat a lot of junk food and write Futurama. So we have a fridge covered with crazy fan art and tattoos. Couple of things that stand out: 1) Guy had huge mural of Futurama and we thought it was tattooed on his arm but realized to our horror that the mural was on the entire side of a naked body from shoulder to ankle.  It’s weird but appreciated! We’v seen Legos play sets of the world of Futurama. I’ve seen the wedding cakes for Zoidberg and also for Simpsons Kang and Kodos. Someone made a Futurama-X-men poster that was so good we had to hire this guy as an artist. We had a fan create home made vinyl action figures from Futurama. The fans are dedicated, we dont understand them but we appreciate them.

Could there be a spinoff with Futurama?? Good question, what we have talked about a few times is a Zapp and Kif spin off whilst flying around their space ship which would have more of a Star Trek model. On no less than 8 occasions we talked about doing JUST Zapp and Kif episoded that would be maybe a pilot but it’d be really hard to do cuz its one of the nuts we couldn’t crack. Its hard to take Fry and Leela out of the cast, but how about Benders life before Futurama on his own world of robots?

Favorite character to write for? We write single jokes for side characters and we never expect them to come back more  but they do because of the actors that portray them. Couple examples: Roberto the Homicidal Maniac robot, Dave Herman is absolutely a genius and he performed his part just screaming at 200 decibels. He embraced this idea that he just kinda brought everyone to their knees laughing. Hedonism Bot: Maurice LaMarche, we didnt have a name for him just a description, but he did this really lofty and degenerate voice as soon as you hear it I wanna learn more about this guy! 

Futurama is all new this Wednesday Night @ 10pm EST on Comedy Central, check your local listings! Also, check in tomorrow for back to back preview clips of the premier episodes!