PASADENA, Calif. (July 23, 1998 1:46 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) -- Today Springfield, tomorrow the universe. "Futurama," a midseason Fox replacement show -- translation: it will join the schedule when another newcomer tanks -- is cartoonist Matt Groening's first TV project since he fathered "The Simpsons" in 1987. Still literally on the drawing boards, the animated comedy will catapult a 20th-century man, Fry, into the year 3000, when the No. 1 rated program is "The Mass Hypnosis Hour" -- "It'll be on Fox, of course," Groening said -- and traffic is hell. Like "The Simpsons," the new show will have "dozens and dozens of characters in every episode," Groening promised. Thanks to superior technology, they'll roam the solar system and beyond, but they'll still look suspiciously like the saucer-eyed residents of "The Simpsons"' Springfield, U.S.A. "This is the tragedy of my limited drawing style," Groening confessed."I've been drawing things this way since I was a kid." Another peek into the year 3000, Groening-style: "The Simpsons" will still be running, as will "Dick Clark's Rockin' New Year's Eve." Looking not quite as far down the road, Groening leaked a few forthcoming "Simpsons" plots. The busy Homer Simpson raises a baby lobster in one episode and becomes a personal assistant to Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger in another. In a third, he and neighbor Ned Flanders go to Las Vegas and accidentally marry a pair of cocktail waitresses. Groening also promised a Halloween crossover with "Ally McBeal" and, "if Mr. Murdoch agrees," an episode featuring the voice and persona of Rupert Murdoch, owner of Fox and much else. By JOANNE WEINTRAUB, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service. |