Anaheim Comic Con
April 16-18th, 2010

REPORT:
The Futurama panel featured a question and answer session with voice actors Billy West and Phil LaMarr and some general fun and foolishness. They opened the panel with a few lines from some of their characters over the years and announced to those of us who had not been following the drama of Futurama's return that the show would definitely be back starting on June 24 on Comedy Central at 10pm. The actors thanked the fans for putting the pressure on the networks to bring back the show and for buying the DVD's as they were released. They have been busy making 26 new episodes, and have about 7 of those remaining. As for the quality of the new episodes? Billy remarked that the writers came back "on fire," and that the show is as funny if not funnier than it was when it went off the air.

While the panel consisted of audience asking questions of the actors, the panel was really about Billy and Phil playing off each other's energy and having fun with the questions. One person asked Phil if he ever had used any of his old characters in his newer work - he noted that occasionally he would get a character that reminded him a little bit of his "UPS Guy" character (accompanied by an impression), but in general, not really. Billy couldn’t think of any situations where he blended any of his characters, either. When someone marveled at how many voices he actually did (who knew that he was also the voice of the "Red M&M" in the candy commercials?), Billy replied "well, I guess that means that I'm doing my job if the characters sound that unique."

The panel concluded with a heartfelt thanks from Billy and Phil for all of the support from the fans who helped bring back Futurama. They are very excited about the show’s return and are confident that it will be everything that the fans want.