{"id":202099,"date":"2025-12-26T02:32:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T02:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/202099\/"},"modified":"2025-12-26T02:32:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T02:32:07","slug":"15-years-ago-1-futurama-insult-made-fox-change-the-episode-after-airing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/202099\/","title":{"rendered":"15 Years Ago, 1 Futurama Insult Made Fox Change the Episode After Airing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Animated classic Futurama<\/a> has a surprisingly turbulent history with television networks, especially considering its long-standing popularity. Created by Matt Groening and developed by David X. Cohen, the sci-fi comedy series spent its original Fox run dealing with constant scheduling issues. They also faced an early cancellation that left entire episodes unaired. Strong DVD sales and fan support eventually brought the series back as a set of direct-to-video movies, paving the way for a full revival.<\/p>\n

Futurama\u2019s Comedy Central revival began in earnest with Season 6. The first new episode, titled \u201cRebirth,\u201d starts with a cold open narrated by Bender, immediately acknowledging the show\u2019s history by announcing that viewers would forget the series was ever canceled \u201cby idiots\u201d and later revived \u201cby bigger idiots.\u201d Unfortunately, the insult proved too sharp and pointed, even hurting the feelings of the network execs enough for them to remove it entirely.<\/p>\n

The Futurama Joke That Didn\u2019t Survive the Revival<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Though the joke in question existed only briefly, it was an excellent distillation of Futurama\u2019s relationship with the networks. Seen in the original U.S. broadcast of \u201cRebirth,\u201d Bender\u2019s one-liner explicitly frames the show\u2019s death and renaissance as the result of incompetence by the networks, poking fun at both Fox and Comedy Central. While it was meant in good fun and a great example of the referential humor the show does so well, the line in question apparently had a little too much truth to it. It remains a mystery whether Fox or Comedy Central requested the revision, but fans have speculated it was the show\u2019s former network.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In all subsequent airings, including reruns and the Futurama: Volume 5 DVD, the opening joke was replaced with Bender announcing a test of \u201cthe Emergency Hypnotoad System.\u201d With Hypnotoad already one of the show\u2019s most recognizable gags, it was a safe, network-friendly sub that allowed them to swap out the insult without much commotion. Thankfully, the original opening wasn\u2019t erased, and you can still find it on the DVD\u2019s bonus features.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bender\u2019s \u201cby idiots\u201d and \u201cbigger idiots\u201d wasn\u2019t the only Futurama lines to get the axe, however. In the series premiere, \u201cSpace Pilot 3000,\u201d Fry originally overhears a man entering a people tube bound for \u201cJFK Jr. Airport.\u201d After John F. Kennedy Jr.\u2019s fatal plane crash in 1999, the line was replaced with \u201cRadio City Mutant Hall\u201d for all later broadcasts and home releases. Additionally, after Fox received complaints about the violence in Season 2\u2019s \u201cXmas Story,\u201d the network delayed airing \u201cA Tale of Two Santas\u201d for a full year, so it could be moved to a later time slot, despite being a continuation of the story. <\/p>\n

As Matt Groening later noted, Futurama was never designed for young kids, regardless of its animated format. And despite the myriad challenges Futurama faced along the way, it\u2019s still going strong with yet another revival, this time on Hulu, and its status as an animated classic has long been cemented.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Do you remember seeing the original \u201cRebirth\u201d opening? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Animated classic Futurama has a surprisingly turbulent history with television networks, especially considering its long-standing popularity. Created by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[61212,123843,62388,156,4131,123844,111,139,69,437],"class_list":{"0":"post-202099","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-answer-feature","9":"tag-bender","10":"tag-comedy-central","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-fox","13":"tag-futurama","14":"tag-new-zealand","15":"tag-newzealand","16":"tag-nz","17":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}