![]() ![]() Into the Wild Green Yonder has Amy Wong's dad developing a new, improved "Mars Vegas" that is probably going to wipe out the remnants of at least a couple of species, including the running gag of a leach that takes every opportunity to attach itself to Leela (Katey Sagal). If Futurama tends to toe the line, more or less, it makes up for it with a frenetic joke a second ethos that keeps the proceedings manic and frequently very, very funny. Any particular setup is likely to take several brisk left turns into territory you could never have imagined. ![]() The Simpsons is typically so much fun because you never know quite where any episode is going. This particular outing has the usual share of pop cultural zingers as the main plot hovers around themes of environmentalism, feminism, and that old standby, people who wear foil hats to keep out the alien voices. ![]() The fourth of these features, Into the Wild Green Yonder, continues the exploits of hapless pizza delivery boy Fry, catapulted a thousand years into the future after he's cryogenically frozen. No Family Guy DVD sales ensued leading to a television revival, but maybe something better happened: Groening and company developed four straight to video releases which, if press release plan are to be believed, will be subdivided into new broadcast episodes somewhere down the line. Unfortunately, lightning didn't strike twice, and Futurama barely made it through four and a half seasons (not bad for most series, but somehow a disappointment when taking in Groening's one-hit wonder track record). Hopes were high when Fox greenlit Groening's long-delayed follow-up series, Futurama, which mixed in its own anarchic way that long ago animated series The Jetsons with the patented irreverent Homer and Company brand of humor. Matt Groening and crew have set the animated standard for our age with The Simpsons (recently renewed through its 22nd season). I wonder if the same theories are applicable to successive creations by more or less the same team for different television series. There have been a lot of studies on how birth order affects the success of siblings. ![]()
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