Futurama returns to life four years after the deep freeze of network cancellation as the DTV feature Futurama: Bender's Big Score. Futurama ™ &© 2007 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

When Philip J. Fry stumbled into that cryonic freezing chamber back on New Year's Eve 1999, he had to wait 1,000 years to be defrosted into the world of the far future. On the other hand, when Futurama itself fell into the deep freeze of cancellation, it only took four years for the show to come back to life. Vociferous, dedicated viewers have saved more than one series from cancellation, but it's an exceedingly rare television phenomenon when audience demand puts a cancelled show back into production.

Family Guy blazed that particular trail, vanishing from Fox's Sunday night schedule in 2002 (after a previous cancellation had been reversed at the last minute), only to return three years later when a succession of comedies flopped in its place. Surprisingly strong DVD sales convinced Fox there was still life (and money to be made) in the show and put it back on their Sunday night schedule, where it continues to thrive.

DVD sales also played a big role in Futurama's return. "Fox Home [Ent.] brought up" the idea of a Futurama revival, says Rough Draft Studios' Claudia Katz, one of the producers of the show's triumphant return as the direct-to-video feature Futurama: Bender's Big Score. "Ultimately there was a business model there from Family Guy [also distributed by FHE] and it started to make economic sense for them.

"We're very grateful they decided it was a good idea. They contacted Matt [Groening] and David [X. Cohen, the series' executive producers] with the idea. I think Matt and David went to the meeting hoping Fox was interested in a DTV feature. When they got there, Fox told them 'we're looking at the numbers and it would only make sense if we can do at least two of them.' Matt and David were like, 'oh, okay, that sounds great.' I think that meeting went better than they expected."

Ultimately Fox's decision to order four Futurama DTV movies was based on the Family Guy business model. A production partner was still needed and Comedy Central's loyalty to the show made the channel a natural fit.

As flush as Fox Home's pockets might've been with Family Guy cash, a production partner was still needed. It just so happened that Comedy Central had defeated Adult Swim in a fierce battle for the next round of rerun rights to Futurama, and both it and Family Guy were still attracting healthy audiences. Once they had the reruns locked up (and scheduled to begin airing in January), working out the financing with FHE for new episodes was "easy," according to Dave Bernath, Comedy Central's SVP of programming. "Getting fresh Futurama content was always very exciting for us."

The deal finally took shape: four direct-to-video movies that will be released by FHE, beginning with Big Score this past Tuesday (November 27), followed by three more at several-month intervals in 2008. Ultimately each of the four movies will be cut into half hours that will run on Comedy Central a few months after their DVD release, with the episodic version of Big Score airing sometime during the 1st quarter of 2008.

The next step was pulling together a new crew to work on a show that had been out of production for several years. "I was really the only person on board with what the series was like," says Dwayne Carey Hill, Big Score's director. Hill had been part of the series from the start, first as a designer, then as director of the fourth-season episode "Obsoletely Fabulous." "It was a big learning curve getting everyone on board and getting them to understand the way Matt and David tell a Futurama story.