Billy West, Lauren Tom, and Phil LaMarr unpack Season 13’s mix of sharp scripts, group records, and character beats - from a crankier Farnsworth to Amy and Kif’s parenting - while explaining why honoring the writers’ words matters more than ad-libbing; now on FXX and Hulu.
When Matt Groening and David X. Cohen threw their hats into the animated series revival ring back in February 2022, Futurama, one of animation’s funniest sci-fi comedies found its new lease on life. With a two-season order in hand, production began that month; and now the second of those new seasons is airing on FXX and streaming on Hulu.
Season 13 is filled with the same irreverent humor fans have loved about the show since it first hit the airwaves 26 years ago. Bender is rampaging out of control! A volcano is about to explode! Fry confronts a rival for Leela's love! And Dr. Zoidberg is rising up to heaven?!
Futurama originally premiered in 1999 and follows Philip J. Fry (Billy West), a New York City pizza delivery boy, who accidentally freezes himself and gets defrosted in the year 3000. In this astonishing New New York, he befriends hard-drinking robot Bender (John DiMaggio) and falls in love with cyclops Leela (Katey Sagal). The trio finds work at the Planet Express Delivery Company, founded by Fry’s doddering descendant, Professor Hubert Farnsworth (West). Together with accountant Hermes Conrad (Phil LaMarr), assistant Amy Wong (Lauren Tom), and alien lobster Dr. John Zoidberg (West again), they embark on thrilling adventures that take them to every corner of the universe.
After its initial run on the Fox Broadcasting Network, a roller-coaster of cancellations and resurrections ensued. After a brief 10-year freeze in the cryogenic chamber, Futurama emerged with a 20-episode order on Hulu in 2023.
Created by Groening and developed by Groening and Cohen, the show is executive produced by Groening, Cohen, Ken Keeler, and Claudia Katz. The voice cast includes DiMaggio, West, Katey Sagal, Tress MacNeille, Maurice LaMarche, Tom, Lamar, and David Herman. Rough Draft handles animation.
Here’s the trailer:
For three of the show’s long-time stars, veterans West, Tom and LaMarr, their voice acting provides a chance to work freed from the visual constraints of live-action character casting, though their efforts on the series are guided by David X. Cohen’s disciplined and exacting direction and unique sense of humor, where the volume of a single word can make or break a joke. Here’s what they shared with AWN about Season 13.
Dan Sarto: You're part of a storied cast on an iconic show that’s been resurrected more than once. What can you share about the new season?
Billy West: The character direction is usually consistent, but I keep going back to the fact that David X. Cohen keeps telling me to make Professor Farnsworth angrier. He just keeps getting crankier and more impatient. I just think it's really funny. And Zoidberg is always Zoidberg. You know, the most hellaciously funny thing about him to me is that he's a doctor and he's poor. I've never heard of a poor doctor. Sorry.
DS: Not unless they're gamblers.
BW: Right, right.
DS: Phil, what about for you?
Phil LaMarr: Well, we just found out some information about the Hermes character’s family’s past. But in the upcoming season, Hermes and his family are still together.
DS: Lauren?
Lauren Tom: I just love that they're continuing to show Amy and Kif as parents and what that's like. And I just love that that's added another layer of depth to Amy, moving from being so fun loving and ditzy to being fun loving and ditzy and now a mom too.
DS: You’ve all had prolific careers. Some voice actors I talk to can speak in detail about how they prep for a role, how they find the voice and inspiration. Others are like, “I do not prep at all. I like to just show up because I like the dynamic of everything being fresh.” I realize these are characters you've been voicing for years, so it's not like this is the first season and you had to find the character. But every season is different. How did you prepare for your work this season?
PM: Well, you usually read the script, which they send you before the record, so you can see what the character is feeling. Which can vary from episode to episode.
BW: Just give me a Red bull and I'm good to go. That's my prep.
LT: For me, I’ll read the script, like Phil said, and just get my head around the basic story, trying to find the emotional truth of what's going on for Amy. And because we have the luxury and the beauty of recording together, just being in the moment and working off my fellow actors, that's when the acting really becomes more alive than just recording it all by yourself, line by line.
DS: It’s so unique to record as a group. My understanding is it’s mostly done individually, in some cases years before a show releases. It must be great to record together.
LT: Yeah. It's such a gift.
BW: The pandemic changed everything for most voice acting. You know, I think a lot of people recorded fairly ensemble style. And during the pandemic, we couldn't go to recording studios anymore. We had record from home. The studios helped us put together little setups at home. And we became individualized. I still love coming into the studio. I'm always grateful to see who I see. It's always really serendipitous. It's the writers that we don't get to see anymore. You know, they're not physically there. I mean, they're there, but separate from when we record. But now when we see them, they're on a screen from Montana or wherever they moved to. They got the hell out of LA.
DS: How much do ad lib as opposed to following the scripts? I would imagine that recording together as a group might lead to more spontaneous riffing. Tell me a little bit about how that has worked for you on this show.
LT: Our writing is so strong, and we're respectful of the writers, so there isn't actually a lot of ad-libbing. Maybe a word here or there. But I find that in the shows that I'm on in general for voiceover, I don't think there's a whole lot of that compared to on-screen acting.
BW: In animation we can't overlap each other when we're recording. And a lot of ad lib or improv is based on people’s kind of give and take amongst each other. But here, there are spaces between everything that gets recorded, so the director and the producers have control. They can overlap the voices later to make it seem like mayhem or improv. But like Lauren said, your job really is to honor those words and to make the director happy.
DS: What are the biggest challenges for you on this show? And is it appreciably different for you than on other shows that you’ve done?
LT: For me, I can't think of anything that’s more challenging. It’s more fun. But it’s not more challenging.
BW: David Cohen is very discerning, and he works hard to get the best work out of us. He has such a unique sense of humor that there can be a slight difference in the volume of one word in a sentence that makes him crack up laughing as opposed to a different delivery. He just kind of thinks for a moment, then goes, “Can you…” I love that he's fussy about what he gets from us. As far as preparation, it doesn't matter how much you do because you may come in with all these ideas, but they want you to fulfill the objective that they have in mind. It’s only then that they say, “OK, we got what we need, but do you have any ideas? Anything you want to try?” I love those moments. And that’s where you might get some serendipitous event where they leave in something that you said.
DS: What creative itch does your voice work scratch that that your live-action work doesn't?
LT: The beauty of voiceover work is that you can just play anything, whereas on camera, it's just 95% visual. So, I can play a five-year-old Jewish girl, or a 90-year-old man. And it doesn't matter. So, wow, so much freedom as far as colorblind casting and age that doesn't matter. And, you know, even in our show, being able to play aliens… what would that sound like? It's just a very open, free, wide-open escape.
PL: Well, the best thing about voice acting versus face acting is, like Lauren just said, the range of characters that you can play. You can make different sounds and voices in a much wider range than on camera. You can only be cast how you look. You know, I'm too short to play a basketball player on camera.
LT: And too young looking, even with the mustache. Sorry.
PL: I know I can't play my actual age. On camera? Yeah. African American, 50 to 60.
LT: Black don't crack. Asian don't raisin. You know?
PL: Yeah.
BW: I haven't done lots of on camera. Very, very little. It's not something that I wanted to do. I found myself at a very, very early age gravitating towards the sonic realm as my heroes were people like Mel Blanc, Daws Butler, Don Messick, June Foray. At a very young age, I used to wonder what kind of people are these people? I was fascinated. I know there are adults somewhere behind all this, but what must they be like? And you know, I was lucky enough to one day find myself in a capacity to be one of them. And I'm grateful for that. I just never had any more aspirations other than being a good voice actor. And the actor part is really important. You have to be able to act honestly on these characters, and all you have is your throat. You know, it's a little challenging. But for me, it's joyous.
Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.
