'Futurama' May Return Without Original Voices

[Zoneboy]

When "Futurama" returns to TV next year, it might be without the show's original voice cast.
Talks have broken down between 20th Century Fox TV and stars Billy West, Katey Sagal, John DiMaggio, Maurice LaMarche and Tress MacNeille over how much they should be paid to take part in the show.

The studio announced last month that it would produce 26 new episodes of "Futurama," and that Comedy Central was on board to begin airing the new episodes in mid-2010. As part of the announcement, the show's producers said stars including West, Sagal and DiMaggio had all signed on to return.

Turns out that wasn't true.

The stars had all expressed interest in returning. But with the budget for "Futurama" dramatically slashed, the salary offers came in well below what the thesps were asking.

As a result, 20th has put out a casting call to find replacement voice actors for the show.

It's not the first time 20th has gone that route during a tough negotiation on one of its toons. The studio previously made a similar move on "The Simpsons" when it couldn't come to a deal with its stars. Casting feelers were sent out for replacements, but a deal was eventually made with the original case.

The situation is unusual this time around in that 20th and Comedy Central have been kicking around ways to make "Futurama," originally produced for a broadcast network (Fox), make financial sense for a cable run. Yet there's also still a possibility -- and a window built in -- for "Futurama" to run on a broadcast network first.

It's believed that the "Futurama" cast members were asking for around $75,000 per episode; it was not clear what 20th was offering. Calls to the voice stars' reps were not immediately returned.

Created by Matt Groening and David X. Cohen, "Futurama" originally aired on Fox from 1999 to 2003. The success of the show's repeats on DVD and cable, as well as a series of first-run DVD releases, led to the decision to revive "Futurama."

Other costs slashed in the process led to a smaller writing staff and a shorter delivery schedule.

"We love the 'Futurama' voice performers and absolutely wanted to use them, but unfortunately, we could not meet their salary demands," 20th Century Fox TV said in a statement. "While replacing these talented actors will be difficult, the show must go on. We are confident that we will find terrific new performers to give voice to Matt and David's brilliantly subversive characters."


http://www.variety.com/article/VR111...goryid=14&cs=1

[R.jsheedy]

They can't replace the cast of Futurama. It's like 8 Simple Rules, they replaced John Ritter with David Spade, and that didn't work out.

[MrCleveland]

I can do one hell of a voice of Bender!

[comedyfreak]

I was never a fan of the show, it's a bad idea to have different voices. I think it will fail.

[robyrob]

i think the difference with the negotiations with the Simpsons voice cast was that at the time almost all of the voice actors in Hollywood acted in solidarity and refused to have any part in replacing the original cast.

I'm not so sure that will happen this time, the show is not nearly as big of a hit and the characters aren't the icons that the Simpsons characters are. Plus, the chances of the show making that kind of money on cable would make it impossible to pull off.

[MrRetro_08]

Originally Posted by Zoneboy

When "Futurama" returns to TV next year, it might be without the show's original voice cast.
Talks have broken down between 20th Century Fox TV and stars Billy West, Katey Sagal, John DiMaggio, Maurice LaMarche and Tress MacNeille over how much they should be paid to take part in the show.

The studio announced last month that it would produce 26 new episodes of "Futurama," and that Comedy Central was on board to begin airing the new episodes in mid-2010. As part of the announcement, the show's producers said stars including West, Sagal and DiMaggio had all signed on to return.

Turns out that wasn't true.

The stars had all expressed interest in returning. But with the budget for "Futurama" dramatically slashed, the salary offers came in well below what the thesps were asking.

As a result, 20th has put out a casting call to find replacement voice actors for the show.

It's not the first time 20th has gone that route during a tough negotiation on one of its toons. The studio previously made a similar move on "The Simpsons" when it couldn't come to a deal with its stars. Casting feelers were sent out for replacements, but a deal was eventually made with the original case.

The situation is unusual this time around in that 20th and Comedy Central have been kicking around ways to make "Futurama," originally produced for a broadcast network (Fox), make financial sense for a cable run. Yet there's also still a possibility -- and a window built in -- for "Futurama" to run on a broadcast network first.

It's believed that the "Futurama" cast members were asking for around $75,000 per episode; it was not clear what 20th was offering. Calls to the voice stars' reps were not immediately returned.

Created by Matt Groening and David X. Cohen, "Futurama" originally aired on Fox from 1999 to 2003. The success of the show's repeats on DVD and cable, as well as a series of first-run DVD releases, led to the decision to revive "Futurama."

Other costs slashed in the process led to a smaller writing staff and a shorter delivery schedule.

"We love the 'Futurama' voice performers and absolutely wanted to use them, but unfortunately, we could not meet their salary demands," 20th Century Fox TV said in a statement. "While replacing these talented actors will be difficult, the show must go on. We are confident that we will find terrific new performers to give voice to Matt and David's brilliantly subversive characters."


http://www.variety.com/article/VR111...goryid=14&cs=1

Lets hope that will be the case for Futurama as well because they shouldn't replace them at all.

[TJL]

It would be really stupid of them to replace the original voice cast after the show is given a second chance.
No time to agrue over money guys! Make it work!

[Adamantium]

I'm fine with cast changes in general. But when the show leaves the air for a few years and comes back with an all new voice cast, I'm gonna cut it off there. I'll consider the new episodes as a whole new Futurama series. And so the original seasons are, to me, the complete series. This is something I never do. That's how upset I am about this.

This is really heartbreaking news. Futurama without Billy West? Yes, I'm sad about all the other voices, but it can't be done without Billy West. He's Billy West!!

I don't understand why the voice actors are wanting so much money. Don't they understand they can't have the same budget as if the show was on FOX. You'd think they'd just be happy returning to this great show. That's how they all seemed recently. Personally, if I couldn't get the voice actors back, I would have just scrapped the whole thing. New voices is NOT the answer in my book.

Unfortunately, this will be like that Family Guy scene, where all of a sudden there were wrong sounding Muppets. Then it showed a clip of the Muppets with such obvious wrong voices. That's what this will be like.

Not to mention the DVD commentary!!!

[Retro4Life]

The show, one of my favorites, is going to bomb utterly unless they get the majority of the original voices back.

The importance of the viewers' connection with the voices coming out of these beloved characters should not be underestimated. It does seem like the actors are being a bit stubborn, but given the amount of money the show might make, maybe the studios should loosen the purse strings a bit too. I've signed on online petition to the studios demanding the return of the originals. I'd encourage everyone else to do so, too.

http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/futuramarecast/