Springfield will be the site of another crossover episode besides the invasion of the Griffins from Family Guy when the Simpsons encounter a familiar pack of now-homeless space adventurers. Futurama, the 31st-century animated comedy that was canceled last year, will return to life—or at least Fry, Leela & Co. will—in a special episode of The Simpsons airing Nov. 9.
“That was a really tough one to negotiate, because I had to talk to myself,” says Matt Groening, creator of, well, both shows.“Simpsorama” is taglined in the opening credits as “a show out of ideas teams up with a show out of episodes,” and the second half of that joke is one reason for this installment. “
They were going off the air, so I thought people would really love it if we had one more chance to see those characters,” says Simpsons exec producer Al Jean, adding, “We’re always looking for things that are compatible with us, and I thought, ‘Well, what’s more compatible?’ We do a joke, actually, about how similar Bender and Homer look. Like, they just erased Homer’s hair.”
