Season 6

Season 6 is the current season of Futurama and the first season of the second run. With 26 episodes, season 6 is so far the largest season, beating season 3 during the original run, which had 22 episodes.

From a broadcasting perspective, season 6 will be the seventh and the eighth broadcast season, with 12 episodes in 2010 and 14 episodes following in 2011, which would make "The Mutants Are Revolting" broadcast season 7's season finale as previously hinted. "6ACV13" is scheduled to air outside the regular broadcast seasons in December 2010, as it is a holiday episode. Broadcast season 8 is scheduled to begin during the summer of 2011.

Season 6 began on 24 June 2010 with the airings of "Rebirth" and "In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela".

Overall plot
The new season opens right off the end of Into the Wild Green Yonder, where the crew crashes into ground near the Planet Express headquarters, and they must be reborn. In addition, there is a shift of focus on the Fry-Leela relationship as hinted by the end of the last film, where Leela certainly grants Fry more personal time.

Speculation before confirmation
Immediately after Bender's Game was announced, members of the media and fans started discussing the possibility of Futurama returning as a TV show. With the release of Into the Wild Green Yonder the speculation became intense. On 7 June, 2009, Collider.com posted a rumour about a new TV season. Two days later, Comedy Central officially announced its return.

Content
When the news of new production was announced, very little information about the upcoming season was made available by the show's producers. However, in an interview following the announcement of the comeback, producer David X. Cohen revealed some of the plots they were working on, such as addiction to Twitter and iPhones, as well as a "shocking relationship", but did not go further into what they would be about. Cohen went on to say that it will focus largely on everyday life in the future, and be more focused on characters.

At the San Diego Comic-Con, 2009, certain plot points were revealed for episodes of the coming season. Such as the "shocking relationship" being between Bender and Amy in a parody of the California regarding gay marriage, and the Twitter plot involving Mom taking over the future's version of it. Other plots included Fry and Professor Farnsworth finding a time machine that only goes forward, Zapp and Leela stranded on a planet alone, how Zoidberg met Professor Farnsworth, the origins of Scruffy and a new Anthology of Interest episode.

In an 28 August 2009 Newsday story, Cohen revealed that "[t]here are six scripts currently in the works, ranging in scale from 'it's a crazy idea that someone's grandmother thought of' to 'it's all on paper.' Without giving away too much, I'll say the first episode is tentatively titled "Rebirth" - and in a surprisingly literal fashion, as things turn out."

On a 3 October sneak preview, more plots were revealed. One episode will involve Bender grave robbing in the Vatican, and as a result it will involve the Space Pope as well. There will also be another Nibbler episode and the iPhone episode would revolve around how it is implanted into the eye in the future.

Talk of possible reboot
Briefly after the show was revived, Matt Groening explained that he had been inspired by J.J. Abrams' Star Trek film, in regards to a franchise, though Cohen clarified it, explaining that they "will not re-cast the actors" or anything that extreme, though he never outright denies it in this interview.

At the San Diego Comic-Con 2009, a question was asked to the panel about the ending of Into the Wild Green Yonder, to which Matt Groening talked about ignoring it all together, while David X. Cohen wanted to address the conflicts, but warned viewers might want to "turn away" for a "literal rebirth" of the show.

It seems now that the original concept of the first episode was to be set in another universe, but Matt Groening moved to make a "rebirth" of the characters, which apparently involves some reboot.

Revelations during production


During the course of the production, writing and recording of the sixth season, several partial details about plots have been revealed through Internet services like Facebook and Twitter by Maurice LaMarche, Mike Rowe and an unnamed production staff member. In addition, Katey Sagal has talked about the plot of 6ACV12 in an interview. Pictures of scripts and production script covers emerged, revealing the title of the hundredth episode as "The Mutants Are Revolting", as well as "The Silence of the Clamps" for the hundred and second episode.

"The Mutants Are Revolting" appears to deal with the mutants, as well as Amy Wong's doctorate degree, while "The Silence of the Clamps" appears to be an episode focused on Clamps, bringing back the Robot Mafia.

The Futurama voice actors have expressed praise of the new season, explaining it is not only en par with the original run, but many times better, explaining that the writers and producers have come back with renewed energy. This could be attributed to the hiatus time between the films and the new season, for instance, David X. Cohen explained he had been considering the plot for "Rebirth" long before the show actually got renewed; it is arguable that many of the writers had many ideas lying around, just waiting to get them down.



Guest stars for season 6 has been confirmed to include Craig Ferguson, Katee Sackhoff and Al Gore.

The copyright for the titles for the first eight episodes of season 6 was approved on 18 March 2010. The U.S. copyright catalogue listing them as (listed alphabetic) "A Clockwork Origin", "Attack of the Killer App", "Inspector #5", "Rebirth", "That Darn Katz!", "The Duh-Vinci Code", "The Late Philip J. Fry" and "The Prisoner of Benda". Further copyrighted titles for the following three episodes was confirmed before 16 April 2010, which the U.S. copyright catalogue lists as (alphabetic) "In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela", "Lrrreconcilable Ndndifferences" and "Proposition Infinity".

Countdown to Futurama
Starting on 5 May, Comedy Central Insider began posting daily updates and revelations about the upcoming season in a session they call Countdown to Futurama, starting with a promo picture for "Rebirth", showing the crew members hanging with only their skeletons left, except their heads which were saved during the crash. The promotional content for the second episode of the new season began on 12 May, with a piece entitled "The End Is Near", where the crew announces the Last Judgement.

Recasting ploy


On 17 July, 2009, 20th Century Fox Television announced that the main characters of Futurama would be recast, opening the door for new actors to audition. 20th Century Fox Television cited that salary negotiations had collapsed with the voice actors, who, according to several reports wanted 75,000 dollars per episode in salary, however this number remains unconfirmed by 20th Century Fox Television or the voice actors' reps, Phil LaMarr later denied the 75,000 dollar per episode claim as greatly exaggerated. Meanwhile, others firmly believed that 20th Century Fox Television were using a negotiation ploy to get the voice actors to cut their salary demands, and cited cases where 20th Century Fox Television had done the same thing for The Simpsons in the past, and they all still have the same voice actors.

Despite anticipation for news at the San Diego Comic-Con, 2009, Futurama panel, Matt Groening and David X. Cohen revealed nothing on the situation with the voice actors, only that they were hoping for the best. The voice actors were, as expected, not present at the panel, effectively putting an end to the debates on whether it was a hoax to stir up more talk about the show.

However, the whole ordeal ended on 31 July, 2009, when 20th Century Fox Television and Katey Sagal, Maurice LaMarche, Tress MacNeille, Billy West and John DiMaggio came to a deal.

Back to work


Since Futurama was announced back in June, 2009, the writers room had been working on a non-stop basis. Unfortunately, the actors were settled later. However, on 7 August, 2009 the first table reading began, and the first recording session would begin the following week according to Katey Sagal. While the voice acting is early in the process, the far larger portion of the production is the animation, as evident by voice acting for the films being completed in June, 2007, while the last film was released in February, 2009.

The first table readings began in August 2009 after the dispute had been settled. In February 2010, covers of episodes "The Mutants Are Revolting" and "The Silence of the Clamps" were revealed. Phil LaMarr and Katey Sagal have both expressed extreme optimism about the new season and highlight the episodes as the funniest episodes in Futurama history.

Maurice LaMarche has kept the fans updated on episodes content via his Facebook updates. David X. Cohen approached Can't Get Enough Futurama on their 10th birthday with details surrounding episode "The Mutants Are Revolting" and "6ACV13". Table readings for "6ACV11", "The Mutants Are Revolting" and "6ACV13" took place in January and February 2010. The first coloured footage was presented by Rough Draft Studios on 11 March 2010 to the producers.

Animation
As in the original run, Rough Draft Studios will continue to do the animation for Futurama.

Animation wise, technology has developed significantly since Futurama first aired, and in addition to the high-definition technology used for the films, season 6 (and presumably any subsequent seasons) will be broadcast in widescreen and high-definition where available. In contrast to earlier seasons, more animation work will be done by Rough Draft Studios Korea, an overseas department of Rough Draft Studios in South Korea. While this is a measure to cut cost, producers do note that the quality of the show has not been diminished as a result.