Author: Emma Loggins
Date: 2007-12-05

Interview:
The future is back! The first new "Futurama" programming since 2003, Futurama: Bender's Big Score features out-of-this-world hilarity on DVD November 27, 2007 from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. In promotion with the release of the new DVD, we had the extreme honor of sitting down with Futurama's executive producer and co-creator David X. Cohen to talk about the new DVDs, the writers' strike, and Futurama's future.

It seems that you have almost unlimited creative freedom with setting a satirical comedy as a science fiction show that takes place in the future. Was that the main motivating factor in the creation of the show? Where you felt a bit limited with how far "out there" you could go with the Simpsons?"

It definitely is a double edge sword. You do have a lot more freedom with a sci-fi show, but you also run the risk of going to crazy and cranking out something that people can no longer identify with. If you go fully for crazy sci-fi stuff, you may loose track of the characters that the fans personally enjoy.

Our philosophy, which you've hit with this question, is what's difficult about writing the show. We have these crazy sci-fi settings, but we want people to care about these characters. The thing that took us several years to learn is that those things aren't mutually exclusive. We can put these characters in any kind of crazy sci-fi environment as long as they maintain their emotions and that people are able to relate to them.