I got first reports of people getting preordered shipment confirmations by amazon.co.uk for their Futurama Season 3 DVD sets.
The actual release date is Monday, but I hope they ship out most sets over the weekend and that they keep the reduced price after the release (they should).
One more thing: The third installment will have a "play all" feature on each disc.

UPDATE: As I won't be able to review this set that soon myself, you'll have to do it yourselves. Hope this helps undecided people (if any left).

Cartoon Network published its top 100 telecasts for the month of April. Futurama's "The Lesser of Two Evils" showing on April 24th got a 2.3/4 rating, which made it #3 total behind two episodes of Dragonball Z. Additionally, slots #12, #15, #25, #27, #31, #33, #39, #44, #46 , #54 and #98 went to Futurama.

Compared to the February 1.9/4 and March 1.8/4 top ratings for Futurama, April was a big boost still.

With a 2.1/5 rating Family Guy got as high as #11 during its debut month and seemingly outperformed Futurama's reruns during May.

Enjoy June's first batch of Futurama episodes on Cartoon Network. Don't forget, if you're a Family Guy fan, it airs on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim right after Futurama at 11PM. Remember, there's no Futurama on Sundays on CN anymore.
Mon 02nd: Bendin' In The Wind
Tue 03rd: Time Keeps On Slippin
Wed 04th: I Dated A Robot
Thu 05th: A Leela Of Her Own

The weekly episode outlook is a bit early this time, but who'd mind:

June 1st: New Futurama "The Sting"
June 8th: New Futurama "The Farnsworth Parabox"
June 15th: New Futurama "Three Hundred Big Boys"

So, watch, watch, watch and then rewatch them. There are only so many more to look forward to.

The extended descriptions are already available for all of them (click the links). Thanks go to Brian at thefutoncritic who forwarded these to me.

XboxAddict.com recently had an interview with Futurama Video Game Lead Designer Mark McGinley:

Futurama is going to be the best representation of a Groening animation series on any console format to date. We

I added the Quotes and Sounds for the episode "The Problem with Popplers". Also, the edel-clean version of "The Honking".

Lrrr: "Dude, my hands are huuuge."
Crowd: *whispers*
Lrrr: "They can touch anything but themselves! Oh, wait..."
(listen)

This weekend, the National Cartoonists Society (NCS) crowned Matt Groening its Cartoonist of the Year during their 57th annual Reuben Awards ceremony in San Francisco. The award is voted on by general NCS members and special juries.

Prior winners of "The Cartoonists' Oscar" include cartoon legends such as Charles Schulz (2x for The Peanuts), Bill Watterson (Calvin & Hobbes), Jim Davis (Garfield) and Scott Adams (Dilbert).

I think being Groening, I'd be quite bitter now... Congrats anyway!

One more week to go for the UK version of the Futurama Season 3 DVD set to come out. For your various gods' sakes, go preorder it now if you haven't done so yet!

You might have heard of former TNN changing its name to SpikeTV and heavily targeting the male demographic. Among that, there will be an animation block (featuring Ren & Stimpy, for one). Thing is, Spike doesn't know what to put on and thusly ask you to recommend shows you want to see there. Now, what animated show for real sexlexic men would come to mind, hu?
Cartoon Network only has a non-exclusive rerun deal with FOX, so technically, we could hope for Futurama to go on both. Can't hurt to tell them what you want.

May 25th: No Futurama (Nascar Race)
June 1st: Futurama The Sting
June 8th: Futurama The Farnsworth Parabox

Finally, 2 episodes in a row again! And I got a bit more. Here's the long description to The Sting (a bit spoily)

After arriving at an asteroid field in deep space, Fry, Leela and Bender attempt to collect honey produced by vicious space bees. Leela decides to take a baby queen bee that incidentally kills Fry! While at Fry

For the time being, Thursday the 24th of July will be the last airing of Futurama on Cartoon Network. The 11PM slot will be taken over by Home Movies then. Don't worry though, Futurama will return and the remaining episodes will air on Cartoon Network at some point, too. With 56 episode in their repertoire currently (72 minus the 16 McSeason 5 ones), they couldn't keep showing them over and over.
Thanks to Corey for the notice.

Futurama wont be on Cartoon Network's Sunday Adult Swim line-up any longer, and is instead being replaced by Home Movies. So check out Home Movie's season final this Sunday and then watch Futurama on 4 days a week at 11PM.
Mon 26th: That's Lobstertainment!
Tue 27th: The Cyber House Rules
Wed 28th: Where The Buggalo Roam
Thu 29th: Insane In The Mainframe

'SRM' told me that the channel Mun2 is showing Futurama on Spanish in the US. I don't really understand that language, but from what I saw, it looks like they show it Monday through Friday at 2:30 and 7:00pm ET and Saturdays at 6pm. The channel numbers for the major US cities are listed on their site.

May 18th: No Futurama a new King Of The Hill
May 25th: No Futurama NASCAR Coca-Cola 600 race
June 1st : The Sting (4ACV12)

"The Planet Express crew attempts to collect honey produced by ferocious space bees, and Leela decides to adopt a baby queen bee. Battle with bees in space ensues."

And the day after the new episode the Season 3 DVD set will be released in Europe. Those will be happy days , do not confuse this with a renewal though. FOX is just airing its last 8 episodes :(

Be sure to check out IGN.com's E3 coverage of the Futurama Video Game - Futurama Hands-On. The article includes new E3 video footage of the game and many new screenshots. The video itself is a pretty large file (8MB), so don't try downloading it if you're on an ice-aged 56k modem. The video is very crisp, and in my opinion makes the game look amazing.

In many gaming circles, the word "licensed" is nearly synonymous with "not very good." [...] The upcoming Futurama game looks like its shaping up to be one of the exceptions.

Also, if you'd like to see the official fox trailer to this game, click here.

Futurama @ GameNation

Overall, Futurama is a great game license that has come to consoles exceptionally well. For fans who just can

Futurama might not be aired on FOX much any more, but we can always look forward to it on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim line up. Check out this weeks episodes at 11PM.
Sun 18th: A Tale Of Two Santas
Mon 19th: Luck of the Fryrish
Tue 20th: Birdbot of Ice-Catraz
Wed 21st: Bendless Love
Thu 22nd: Day The Earth Stood Stupid

Crew: "Surprise!"
Fry: "Happy funeral, Bender!"
Bender: "A surprise funeral? For me?"


Well, not really a surprise. FOX announced their Fall 2003 schedule and there's no place for our lovable rascal, says the entertaining FOX president Gail Berman. Instead, Oliver Beene will take over the 7PM death-slot for a while. He'll likely be replaced mid-season by a British-made Japan-style humiliation game show called Banzai featuring elderly people in wheelchairs playing a game of chicken to the commentary of a fake clich

So, today is the day we'll know whether Futurama gets a time slot in the 2003/2004 season. Time to recap what happened since production was put on hiatus in February 2002:

• Our petition reaches the 6 digit realm within 2 months.
  
• FOX keeps pre-empting Futurama, ending season 4 after no more than 12 episodes.
  
• Futurama's Roswell that Ends well is nominated for the Emmy and wins it, too.
  
• Season 2 DVDs are released in Europe - a huge success.
  
• The Animation Writing Award goes to Futurama producer/writer Patric Verrone.
  
• Futurama McSeason 5 starts and only gets to show 8 episodes in the traditional season time.
  
• Futurama gets two Annie nominations and wins one for director Rich Moore.
  
• Cartoon Network starts airing Futurama late the evening - with huge success for the station.
  
• Futurama Executive Producer gets a Writers Guild of America Award nomination and beats KotH and 3 Simpsons episodes to it.
  
• Our petition is handed in: 130,000 fan signatures - no reaction by FOX.
  
• Season 1 is dispatched on DVD in the USA - and about everyone gives it great reviews (scifi.com as the latest).
  
• gotfuturama's daily access and visitor numbers more than doubled in this time period.

All together, the logic thing to do for 2003/2004 seems to be replacing Futurama with a British-made Japan-style humiliation game show featuring elderly people in wheelchairs playing a game of chicken. I mean, instead of promoting Futurama and getting it a stable and more audience suitable time slot.

Look what I found buried on the UK FOX server: The Futurama Season 3 DVD/VHS Trailer in a small 1.64MB and a bigger 4MB version. Great job there. Really fun to watch.
The Season 3 DVD set is now constantly hovering in the top 10 preorders at amazon.co.uk (currently on #4). Among the DVD best sellers it's on #8 already. So, don't miss out and go preorder it, too.

Incidentally, the Futurama Season 2 DVD set will be released in Australia tomorrow.

UPDATE: The Futurama S3 DVD managed to get rank 2 on both DVD pre-orders and DVD bestsellers at amazon.co.uk. Rank 1 is LotR: TTT (unbeatable for the next months). This is quite remarkable seeing that the release is 3 weeks to go from now. If it manages to stay in the top 10 up to then, it should confirm the popularity and commercial potential Futurama still possesses. If only the heads would take notice ...

Amy website owner and Hotdog and DVD Review editor Andy McDermott managed to get a nice interview with Futurama executive producer David X. Cohen.

Q: Another show that had an emotional ending was the one with Fry's fossilised dog, 'Jurassic Bark'. I think the ending of that took a lot of people by surprise, because it was really quite harsh.

A: That one, some people felt we had gone too far, and you may have your own opinion about that! My assistant Michelle, she was literally mad at me for about a month that we chose that ending! People are all over the map on their responses to that episode. It seemed like once we actually started writing that one, it turned more and more into an episode about Fry and Bender and Fry's past, [...] and at some point we realised that we should not bring the dog back to life, because the episode is not really about that at all. That's why we decided to go the way we did. But I certainly sympathise with the people who think we went too far on that one! Personally I really liked it. I think we're going to submit that one to the Emmy awards, in fact, really go out on a limb and put out on that people either love or hate!

The questions were partly prepared on PEEL. Have a go and read it. Questions only paraphrazed will appear in the two aforementioned UK magazines, so, might as well try to buy them.

The capsules for 1ACV01 and 1ACV02 have now been revised and closed. Newly added: The 1ACV03 I, Roommate capsule. You can submit new entries till sometime later this coming week. Listening to the DVD commentaries might be useful.

Earth kicks some balls in this week's first episode. If that turns you off too much, watch "Amazon Women in the Mood". It might change your mood, what with Amy & Leela, and Fry & Zapp in skimpy outfits and all.
Sun 11th: War Is The H-Word
Mon 12th: The Honking
Tue 13th: Cryonic Woman
Wed 14th: Amazon Women In The Mood
Thu 15th: Parasites Lost

eMerchandise got a new shipment of the hard to find tin Slurm Can with playing cards ($7.95) and the Trash Can ($13.95) today. You can find some other Rix Tin products on their Futurama page. As you can see on the right, I got the Slurm can myself (for $12...) and really, it's a neat thing to have. Usually, when I announce these two items, they're out of stock within 2 days or so again. Maybe they got a bigger shipment this time... If you aren't sure yet, read the reviews for both the Slurm and the Trash can.
UPDATE: Told ya. The Slurm Can is out of stock after less than a day already. Act faster next time ;)

Vivendi Universal announced that they'll be showing the Futurama Video Game on this year's Electronic Entertainment Exposition (E3), which will be from Tuesday to Friday next week. You could find it at VU's booth (#1200) and meeting rooms located in the South Hall of the Los Angeles Convention Center. 'Could', because you need to be an editor with a press pass and such. It's not open to the general public.
I'd expect that they're going to drag someone from the show over there, as they're also showing The Simpsons Hit & Run. That's a guess only though.

Related: The game will be out in the US in late August for the PS2 and XBox. Unless it's postponed

It's May and it's time for FOX to decide which show will return and which won't. This time of the year is called "upfront week" where the big networks invite their biggest ad-dollar spenders to have a look at their fall line-up. For FOX, that will be Thursday 15th next week. Last year, mediaweek reported, the FOX event was a bit humiliating for some of the responsible persons:

Buyers were surprisingly outspoken about their disappointment with most of Fox's new shows, although executives of some Fox affiliate stations and some of the network's key advertisers were kinder. "Is this the best schedule they could come up with in order to turn around their ratings problems? God, I would have hoped not," said one top buyer.

At some point FOX Entertainment president Gail Berman had to stop the audience's laughter, assuring them that some casting decision was real and in fact not a joke.

Shows that yet have to hear from FOX are: Futurama, Fastlane, The Pitts, John Doe, Oliver Beene, Wanda at Large and Cedric with Wanda probably in and The Pitts probably out. The others are uncertain.

I've added the 1ACV02 The Series Has Landed capsule (txt format) for submitting purposes. It's a pretty complete capsule from the FrCr ages, but back then the DVDs with the commentaries weren't available. I'm going to give this one and the 1ACV01 Space Pilot 3000 capsule (txt format) till the end of the week before I'll go through new submissions and close these two for good. We hope to continue these "rolling updates", but can't promise as they take quite a time toll on us.

Next set of edel Sounds & Quotes is ready. This time it's for the Valentine's episode Put your Head on my Shoulder.

Fry: "Amy, you know how at first you like chocolate, but then you start to get tired of it because it always wants to hang out with you?"
Amy: "Huh? You don't like chocolate?"
Fry: "Look, could chocolate just let me finish?" (listen)

Must I always come up with something witty to say? I mean, c'mon! I'm just one lazy person in a huge world full of people that could come up with better update descriptions for 5 great Futurama episodes on CN.
Sun 04th: Deep south
Mon 05th: Bender Gets Made
Tue 06th: Mother's Day
Wed 07th: Problem With Popplers
Thu 08th: Anthology of Interest I

Alexei 'Pimpinslacher' E. sent me 7 new wallpapers which are now up for viewing on page #5. He somehow won a bet by getting these on CGEF, ... or something If you want to send some fan art or wallpaper in, annoy Andie with them.