'Futurama' was a big deal. People had already started to hear about me a little bit here and there, but that was the first series I booked to be a regular on.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
The nice thing about 'Futurama' for me personally was that it was a way to honor some of the traditional ideas in literary science fiction, not so much movie or television science fiction - although we have that too, obviously. Our situation, a workplace comedy, led to all sorts of stuff.
With 'Futurama,' I was just worried that somebody would beat us to it; it seemed so obvious that there should be an animated science fiction show set in the future. And one of the reasons why it's not, I learned, is that it's really, really difficult.
I'm a huge 'Futurama' fan, so that's my closest sci-fi tendency.
I like 'Futurama.' That's kind of the only thing that's my sci-fi thing, although I was big into zombies for a time.
'Star Trek' was a big thing for me. I kind of grew up with that. And 'Twilight Zone' is one of my all-time favorite shows. In fact me and Sam Witwer from 'Being Human' sit down and have marathons to get our little 'Twilight Zone' fix.
My first show was 'No Exit.' You couldn't find a more pretentious beginning, but it also instilled some sense of quality.
In the case of 'News Radio,' I loved that show. I loved the actors and the producers, but I was longing very much for something more to sink my teeth into me. I think it was an incredibly smart show, but I found myself on the peripheral of a lot of it.
I knew I wanted to do a show on NBC - it's rooted in its history; it's part rooted in nostalgia and part rooted in the potential of it. For me, there was no other choice.
'The Simpsons' basically - and 'Futurama' - are really smart shows. They're kind of disguised as these goofy animated sitcoms, but the references within the shows, if you're paying attention, are pretty smart and pretty sophisticated.
I don't get to watch Futurama, until it's on TV.