csaThe long afterlife of Futurama may finally be coming to an end. There’s been a lot of talk about a Futurama movie, or a straight to DVD release, but that all seems to be out the window, as plans for a brand new TV show has begun to form.

That’s right, a whole new Futurama series could be hitting TV sometime soon. It’s not just the sales of the DVDs that have convinced 20th Century Fox TV to revisit one of the all-time funniest TV shows – the ratings of Futurama on the Cartoon Network have been through the roof. So much so that Comedy Channel has stolen away the rights and will begin airing the repeats in 2008.

Obviously this is just beginning, and lots of deals still need to get done, including with the voice talent, but things are actually looking up for once in a Futurama fan’s life.

As always, I have a small complaint about this. I love Futurama. I think that Futurama is, pound for pound, funnier than The Simpsons. And with that in mind, I think it’s something of a blessing that the show got cancelled. Sure, I think that Futurama had more gas in it (the fact that unlike The Simpsons it allowed characters to change gave the show more places to go), but I fear what happened to the residents of Springfield. The Simpsons stopped being watchable years ago – people who are saying it’s funny now are either delusional or just so emotionally scarred by some of the truly awful seasons that they have lost the ability to compare with the show’s hilarious first seven years. I don’t want that to happen to Futurama.

Tread with caution, Matt Groening and David X Cohen!