Season 7

Season 7 is the seventh season of Futuramas second run, following the show's second cancellation. It began with broadcast season 9 on 20 June 2012 and ended with broadcast season 10 on 4 September 2013. With 26 episodes, it ties with season 6 as the Futurama season with the most episodes. Season 7 was mostly (but not completely) aired in production order with the exceptions "31st Century Fox" and "Viva Mars Vegas" being swapped and the first four episodes of broadcast season 10 ("Forty Percent Leadbelly" through "Fry and Leela's Big Fling") being shuffled around.

Production
On 16 June, Maurice LaMarche announced on his that he had started recording the first episode of season 7. On 11 November, voice actor Phil LaMarr revealed that this was the day of the recording of "7ACV13", the last episode of broadcast season 9.

Pre-production speculation
On 22 March, 2011, Maurice LaMarche announced on that there was going to be a seventh season of Futurama, as he stated he just closed his deal. In addition, according to Maurice LaMarche, the deal contains at least 13 episodes, to air in summer 2012, with an optional 13 extra, to air in summer 2013, making 26 in total, just like season 6. On 24 March, media reports including  began announcing that Comedy Central has indeed picked up the series for 26 episodes to be split up into the ninth and tenth broadcast seasons, each consisting of 13 episodes to be shown in 2012 and 2013. On 28 March, Comedy Central and Twentieth Century Fox Television announced the pick-up of broadcast seasons 9 and 10 (branded as Seasons '7-A' and '7-B', respectively).

Revelations from the production team


In a June 2011 interview with UGO.com, on the day of the broadcast season 8 premiere, David X. Cohen revealed the first plot points of season 7. He said that they had just recorded an episode that he believed would be the season 7 premiere, in which Planet Express gets a new soda machine and Bender impregnates it. He also said that they were going a bit more topical - they are doing an episode about the Earth presidential election of 3012 to mirror the, and they are doing an episode about someone predicting a 3012 doomsday to mirror the.

At the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con, more storylines were revealed. In one, Hermes will realize he is less efficient than a machine, so he will chop some unnecessary parts of his body and will become a cyborg. Another has Calculon competing in the World Acting Championship to the death. Others include Leela being shocked when Zapp Brannigan loses interest in her and he starts a romance with her mom and Professor Farnsworth's parents are still alive and living in the Near Death Star.

The US revealed two episode titles ("Farewell to Arms" and "The Bots and the Bees") in August 2011, four episode titles ("Blue Munda", "Decision 3012", "The Thief of Baghead" and "The Butterjunk Effect") in September,  one episode title ("The Six Million Dollar Mon") in October, five episode titles ("Viva Mars Vegas", "31st Century Fox", "Near-Death Wish", "Fun on a Bun" and "Naturama") in December,  two episode titles ("Forty Percent Leadbelly" and "2-D Blacktop") in February,  two episode titles ("T.: The Terrestrial" and "Assie Come Home") in April,  one episode title ("Leela and the Genestalk") in May and three episode titles ("Saturday Morning Fun Pit", "Fry and Leela's Big Fling" and "Calculon 2.0") in June.

On 27 November, Can't Get Enough Futurama revealed the title of "7ACV09" to be "Freewill Hunting". On 30 December, the episode was registered under the incomplete title "Free Will" on the US Copyright Catalog. On 29 February, Can't Get Enough Futurama revealed the title of the episode to actually be "Free Will Hunting", its writers and its directors as well as the titles of all the other episodes of broadcast season 9, their writers and their directors.

On 14 December 2011, geek blog posted an image of the production script cover of "7ACV15" to their  page, revealing the episode's title to be "2-D Blacktop". The picture was accompanied by the following description: "got to see Matt Groening, Leela AND Fry (Leela has two eyes and looks like FYI). No Bender though (I think he was scared)".

On 5 April, a photograph of Larry Bird and the revelation that he was "recording lines for a [Futurama] appearance" in broadcast season 10 were posted on Futurama's page.

By 25 April, had updated their Futurama episode guide, revealing that the season would premiere on 20 June with two back-to-back episodes, "The Bots and the Bees" and "A Farewell to Arms". The plot of the latter episode was revealed, along with that of a succeeding episode, "Decision 3012". In addition, Comedy Central aired an advertisement consisting of a meme based on a Fry scene from "The Lesser of Two Evils" and of new footage featuring Amy, Hermes, Fry, Bender, Leela, Zoidberg, Scruffy and Fat-bot.

On 1 May, Countdown to Futurama began releasing teaser material from broadcast season 9.

By 2 May, MSN TV had updated their Futurama episode guide once again, revealing the air dates and plots of "The Thief of Baghead" and "Zapp Dingbat".

On 14 May, Comedy Central issued a press release regarding the season, naming several guest stars for the season: George Takei, Patrick Stewart, Dan Castellaneta, Wanda Sykes and Estelle Harris. It later released four promotional pictures (three new ones and another previously released by Countdown to Futurama, two for "The Bots and the Bees" and two for "A Farewell to Arms").



On 31 May, the website published an article in which Matt Groening revealed, among other things, that Fry and Leela's relationship was progressing in broadcast season 9, that George Takei and Larry Bird would be playing themselves and that Dan Castellaneta would be playing the Robot Devil.

By 1 June, Comedy Central had aired another advertisement consisting of another variation of a meme featuring Fry used in a previous advertisment, and a clip from the episode "A Farewell to Arms".

By 8 June, had updated their Futurama episode guide a third time, revealing the air dates of "The Six Million Dollar Mon" and "Fun on a Bun" and the plot of "Fun on a Bun".

On 11 June, the website  published an article in which David X. Cohen, among other things, described the season as 100% full-blast, classic Futurama.

On 14 June, two previously unreleased images were uploaded to the "Cover Photos" album on the official Futurama Facebook page: one featuring two frames of a scene featuring a naked Fry holding a flagpole with an underwear labeled "Operation Cyclops Down" and another featuring six frames of a scene featuring Hermes stepping on and then off a hose, causing an explosion.

On 28 June, MSN TV updated their Futurama episode guide once again, revealing the air dates of "The Butterjunk Effect" and "Free Will Hunting" and revealing the plot of the latter episode. The next day, another update was made to the episode guide, revealing the air dates of "Near-Death Wish" and "31st Century Fox" and revealing the plot of the latter episode.

On 5 February 2013, a three-minute preview for broadcast season 10 was made available.

Twitter


Most prominently have writer Eric Rogers made several revelations online using the micro-blogging service, Twitter. On 26 September, he revealed that "Blue Munda" was not the actual title of an episode, but rather a working title. On 26 October, he revealed that one of his episodes for broadcast season 9 would contain a musical performance and confirmed that he would be writing two episodes for that season. On 8 November, he revealed that this was the day of the table read of "7ACV13", that the episode had been co-written by him and that the episode would air August 2012, also saying, "Different kind of story this time, but funny as ever!" On 16 November, he revealed that he was the author of "7ACV05" and, after watching the animatic for "7ACV08", that the episode "might be [the best episode of the ninth broadcast season]", calling it "EPIC". On 17 January, he revealed that he was the author of "7ACV17" and that "7ACV18" was being written. On 23 January, he revealed that the animatic for "7ACV17" would be screened two days later.

On 26 January, he revealed that the production team had just seen the first full-color animation for "7ACV01", calling it, "Un. Be. Lievable." On 27 January, he revealed that a recording session mentioned by voice actress Katey Sagal concerned an episode of his and that Sagal "kicked ass at the read" and "[knocked] it out of the park at the [session]". On 30 January, he revealed that his favourite episode from broadcast season 9 was either "7ACV01", "7ACV02" or "7ACV11". On 9 February, he revealed that "Forty Percent Leadbelly" was "Supergood". On 18 February, he revealed that "7ACV01" "Probably" was titled "The Bots and the Bees". On 19 February, he revealed that, due to time constraints, season 7 would not feature sponsors. On 15 March, he announced the "1st color screening of [his] 1st episode as a full time hack [there] on the show" - probably referring to "Zapp Dingbat" - and revealed that he "[Could not] wait to see what Rough Draft [had] done" and, later that day, that it had been "delightful", that he "Could not be happier with how [it] turned" and that it was "gonna be a great episode".

On 11 April, he revealed that "["7ACV25" and "7ACV26"] now [had] stories". On 20 April, he revealed that "7ACV26" was being "[pitched] out" and urged fans to buy merchandise in order for the show to "come back". On 21 April, he, in reply to assistant director Aimee Steinberger, revealed that "["7ACV08" was] a monster, for sure, but [that Rough Draft] always [delivered]" and that "[it would] be awesome as always". On 3 May, he called "7ACV08" the "2013 Emmy nominee", "Epic fun" and "awesome".



Other Futurama crew members have used Twitter as a platform to reveal small pieces of information to fans. Aimee Steinberger made several revelations as well. On 15 November, she revealed that "[the production team was] done with ["7ACV08"]", calling it "[her] most time intensive grueling ep ever", and that the animatic would be screened "on the FOX lot [on the next day]". On the next day, after leaving the screening, she said, "Everyone liked it!" On 13 January, she revealed that she had seen a "full animation in color" of act one of "7ACV01", describing it as "so pretty!"

On 27 January, she revealed that the first full-color animation for "7ACV01" had been screened on the FOX lot, that it received "lots of yays", that she could not go due to her work on "7ACV14", that she watched it nonetheless and that she found it "lovely". On 14 February, she revealed that the animatic for "7ACV14" was "done" and would be screened "[on the next day] at the FOX lot". On the next day, she revealed that she thought that it had gone "pretty well". On 9 March, she revealed that she had "Just read [her] next and last [Futurama] script for a while", the script for "7ACV20", that it was "really funny [and] cute" and that she was "Looking [forward to working] on it after [the production team finished "7ACV14"]".

On 30 March, she revealed that she was "Starting thumbnailing and storyboarding on ["7ACV20"]". On 20 April, she revealed that she "[had seen] fully animated color acts 2 and 3 back from Korea on [her "7ACV08" the previous day]" and that she "still [thought it was] a really great show". On the next day, she, after Eric Rogers jokingly asked her if "[she had been] expecting it to be worse", revealed that "[it had been] demanding a lot" and that "[she thought that] when [it was] done [it would] be nice". On 3 May, she revealed that "7ACV01" was one of the episodes which she had worked on, said that Wanda Sykes - who Countdown to Futurama, on the previous day, revealed would voice the new character Bev in "7ACV01" - "[had done] a great job on Bev's voice" and that she had "watched the finalish color, full animation for ["7ACV08"] at the FOX lot [on that day]", that "it really did turn out nice" and that she was "Really proud of [it]". On 16 May, she revealed that she had "screened [her] last [Futurama episode for] a while [on that day]" - "7ACV20" - and that it had "Turned out really nice [and] funny".

Voice actor John DiMaggio made one revelation. On 13 January, he revealed himself to be in a recording session with David X. Cohen and Patrick Stewart, thus announcing Stewart as a guest voice actor for season 7.

Katey Sagal made one revelation. On 27 January, she revealed that a recording session was taking place and that, among others, she, Billy West, John DiMaggio and David Herman were present.

On 7 February, an image of the production script cover of "7ACV18" was posted to Twitter, revealing the episode's title to be "The Inhuman Torch".

On 12 July, following the broadcast of the episode "Zapp Dingbat", the public were given the chance to participate in a live chat with the Futurama cast and crew. Several previews of then-upcoming Season 7 episodes were shown during the live stream, and several details about the season were revealed, including: returning appearances by the characters Guenter and Dr. Banjo in an episode of broadcast season 10, the debut of Lrrr's son, an episode about the origins of Scruffy, a three-part episode featuring 1980s-style animation, the status of Mars, and the possibility of "Möbius strip clubs".

Trivia

 * Season 7 features two planets with the number seven in their names &mdash; Simian 7 and Planet Z-7.