The Showrunner of ‘Futurama’ Explains the Upside to Getting Canceled So Frequently

It’s a time of unprecedented stability for Futurama fans. After enduring decades of uncertainty, and multiple apparent series finales, the show has settled in at Hulu where it’s getting two more seasons after this one. Possibly even more, if it does well, or if Futurama’s producers opt to unleash the Hypnotoad on Disney executives.

While one might assume that the on-and-off-again roller coaster of a production schedule has been a detriment to Futurama, long-time producer and showrunner David X. Cohen recently pointed out that being canceled on a semi-regular basis hasn’t been without some benefits.

Men’s Journal recently published an interview with Cohen about the current state of Futurama, in which he first discussed his evolution as a writer, recalling that, to begin with, they weren’t sure just how “emotional” to make Futurama. Obviously they got over that problem by the time of “Jurassic Bark,” aka the dead dog episode that makes everyone who isn’t a robot with a heart of stone weep uncontrollably.

“I do kind of laugh gleefully sometimes, if we’re working on our approximately once-a-year attempt to break people’s hearts,” Cohen admitted.

Cohen also discussed his favorite guest star of the season: Cara Delevingne, who played not only a Frankenstein monster version of herself, but also various owls. That’s because Delevingne “surprised us at the end of the recording session by asking if we had any use for her owl impression. It was quite good,” Cohen noted.  

When asked about the “hardest” part of making Futurama, Cohen explained that “the thing that gets more and more difficult is coming up with subject matter we haven’t previously covered. It’s harder than it sounds, because the show moves at a fast pace and grinds up vast heaps of ideas per episode.” 

The silver lining here is that the show hasn’t been on the air consistently for the past 20-plus years. “Luckily, we get canceled once in a while,” Cohen confessed, “which allows real-life technology to catch up and move into the future, inevitably causing horrible problems for the world and giving us new funny storylines.” 

Of course, it’s also arguable that the process that Cohen is describing has become the one of the show’s weakness. Futurama’s intermittent hiatuses may have saved it from burning out entirely, but it never felt like a show that necessarily needed to specifically comment on real-world events or technologies, especially not belatedly. Waiting for news stories to pile up, then addressing them in Futurama is likely the reason why we got episodes devoted to NFTs and Squid Game this year — which felt about as fresh as a parody of Betamax machines. 

And the season’s best episode so far is probably “The Temp,” about a temp worker who hijacks Fry’s life. It could have been written back in 2000 just as easily as today.

Just don’t tell John DiMaggio that we said that. 

You (yes, you) should follow JM on Twitter (if it still exists by the time you’re reading this).