September 1. The Nerdist Podcast entitled Futurama Worlds of Tomorrow Presents, RADIORAMA1. Throughout its run, Futurama has received critical acclaim. The show has been nominated for 1. Annie Awards and 1. Emmy Awards, winning seven of the former and six of the latter. It has also been nominated four times for a Writers Guild of America Award, winning two for the episodes Godfellas and The Prisoner of Benda, been nominated for a Nebula Award and has received Environmental Media Awards for episodes The Problem with Popplers and The Futurama Holiday Spectacular. Futurama related merchandise has also been released, including a tie incomic book series, video games, calendars, clothes and figurines. In 2. 01. 3, TV Guide ranked Futurama as one of the top 6. Greatest TV Cartoons of All Time. ProductioneditDevelopmenteditFox expressed a strong desire in the mid 1. Matt Groening to create a new series, and he began conceiving Futurama during this period. In 1. 99. 6, he enlisted David X. Cohen, then a writer and producer for The Simpsons, to assist in developing the show. The two spent time researching science fiction books, television shows, and films. When they pitched the series to Fox in April 1. Groening and Cohen had composed many characters and story lines Groening claimed they had gone overboard in their discussions. Groening described trying to get the show on the air as by far the worst experience of my grown up life. Fox ordered thirteen episodes. Immediately after, however, Fox feared the themes of the show were not suitable for the network and Groening and Fox executives argued over whether the network would have any creative input into the show. With The Simpsons, the network has no input. Fox was particularly disturbed by the concept of suicide booths, Doctor Zoidberg, and Benders anti social behavior. Groening explains, When they tried to give me notes on Futurama, I just said No, were going to do this just the way we did Simpsons. And they said, Well, we dont do business that way anymore. And I said, Oh, well, thats the only way I do business. The episode I, Roommate was produced to address Foxs concerns, with the script written to their specifications. Fox strongly disliked the episode, but after negotiations, Groening received the same independence with Futurama. The name Futurama comes from a pavilion at the 1. New York Worlds Fair. Designed by Norman Bel Geddes, the Futurama pavilion depicted how he imagined the world would look in 1. Many other titles were considered for the series, including Aloha, Mars and Doomsville, which Groening notes were resoundly rejected, by everyone concerned with it. It takes approximately six to nine months to produce an episode of Futurama. The long production time results in several episodes being worked on simultaneously. Executive producerseditGroening and Cohen served as executive producers and showrunners during the shows entire run, and also functioned as creative consultants. Ken Keeler became an executive producer for Season 4 and subsequent seasons. WritingeditThe planning for each episode began with a table meeting of writers, who discussed the plot ideas as a group. The writers are given index cards with plot points that they are required to use as the center of activity in each episode. A single staff writer wrote an outline and then produced a script. Once the first draft of a script was finished, the writers and executive producers called in the actors for a table read. After this script reading, the writers collaborated to rewrite the script as a group before sending it to the animation team. At this point the voice recording was also started and the script was out of the writers hands. The writing staff held three Ph. D. s, seven masters degrees, and cumulatively had more than 5. Harvard University. Series writer Patric M. Verrone stated, we were easily the most overeducated cartoon writers in history. Voice actorseditFuturama had eight main cast members. Billy West performed the voices of Philip J. Fry, Professor Farnsworth, Doctor Zoidberg, Zapp Brannigan and many other incidental characters. West auditioned for just about every part, landing the roles of the Professor and Doctor Zoidberg. Although West read for Fry, his friend Charlie Schlatter was initially given the role of Fry. Due to a casting change, West was called back to audition again and was given the role. West claims that the voice of Fry is deliberately modeled on his own, so as to make it difficult for another person to replicate the voice. Doctor Zoidbergs voice was based on Lou Jacobi and George Jessel. The character of Zapp Brannigan was originally created and intended to be performed by Phil Hartman. Hartman insisted on auditioning for the role, and just nailed it according to Groening. Due to Hartmans death, West was given the role. West states that his version of Zapp Brannigan was an imitation of Hartman and also modeled after a couple of big dumb announcers I knew. Katey Sagal voiced Leela, and is the only member of the main cast to voice only one character. The role of Leela was originally assigned to Nicole Sullivan. In an interview in June 2. Sagal remarked that she did not know that another person was to originally voice Leela until many years after the show first began. John Di. Maggio performed the voice of the robot Bender Bending Rodrguez and other, more minor, characters. Bender was the most difficult character to cast, as the shows creators had not decided what a robot should sound like. Di. Maggio originally auditioned for the role of Professor Farnsworth, using the voice he uses to perform Bender, and also auditioned for Bender using a different voice. Di. Maggio described Benders voice as a combination of a sloppy drunk, Slim Pickens and a character his college friend created named Charlie the sausage lover. Phil La. Marr voices Hermes Conrad, his son Dwight, Ethan Bubblegum Tate, and Reverend Preacherbot. Lauren Tom voiced Amy Wong, and Tress Mac. Neille voices Mom and various other characters. Maurice La. Marche voices Kif Kroker and several supporting characters. La. Marche won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice Over Performance in 2. Lrrr and Orson Welles in the episode Lrrreconcilable Ndndifferences. David Herman voiced Scruffy and various supporting characters. During seasons 14, La. Marche is billed as supporting cast and Tom, La.