A future for ''Futurama''?

With the brilliant, unjustly canceled Futurama‘s last 18 episodes now out on DVD (Unrated, 6 hrs., 54 mins., 2002-03, Fox), we asked creator Matt Groening to reflect on the funniest show of the 31st century.

When did you realize that Fox wouldn’t make Futurama the next Simpsons? We had the guillotine hanging over our heads before the show even went on the air. Fox’s executives never understood the show, and I wasn’t able to explain it to them to their satisfaction.

Any chance of a Family Guy-like resuscitation? Our Adult Swim rerun ratings are fantastic, and [codeveloper] David X. Cohen and I are throwing around ideas of how to keep it alive. It’s a very ambitious and expensive show, which has been a sticking point.

Do you have unfinished business?

All science-fiction epics have an underlying theme that things are not what they seem, and we haven’t revealed all of the secrets embedded in the show. We even have characters we created at the beginning of the series that we haven’t gotten around to introducing yet!