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I'll avoid the obvious catchphrase, but Futurama fans were treated to some pretty positive developments this past week. It seems Comedy Central has ordered 26 new episodes of the cult Matt Groening sci-fi parody to begin airing in 2010. It started as an Internet rumor, but with Variety, Hollywood Reporter and Entertainment Weekly all proclaiming the story, I think it's pretty official. After over a decade of time slot juggling, cancellation, and DVD movies, Futurama now joins Family Guy and rises from the grave. Sweet zombie Jesus, indeed.

At first glance, it may look like an odd subject for a piece dedicated to television mythology shows. After all, such programs are usually hour long, arc heavy, genre projects. Then again, animation is a genre unto itself, and, in a broader sense, a part of the fantasy genre. For that matter, Futurama, in particular, while mocking sci-fi tropes, is a sci-fi show in its own right. As a brand, the adult animation boom of the past two decades has developed its own constructs and general rules that have pretty much become the expectations of the form.

It's hard to believe that The Simpsons is 20 years old. Well, maybe not for those who grew up with it always present in their lives, but I remember a pre-Simpsons America. Before Groening's now legendary family hit the airwaves, the longest running, and for that matter, most cutting edge, prime time animation was called the Flintstones, and that show had been off the air for over 20 years. I remember clearly how big of a phenomenon the Simpsons was when it started. I remember the controversy over Bart's underachiever pride. I remember the product saturation. When The Simpsons hit, it was like a cultural nuclear explosion.

Such phenomena, as we know, can often be fairly shallow and short-lived. Where The Simpsons went right is by delivering a consistent quality product. In the wake of the Simpson tsunami, it's easy to find its style rote, and perhaps it now is, but in the early '90s there had never been anything like it. The comedy was fast, with no laugh track, the characters were equal parts dysfunctional and relatable, the comedy undercut the emotion, and the emotion undercut the comedy, and the social satire was both biting and affectionate. Much of the humor rewarded the pop culture savvy Generation X who treated the show like one big in-joke. It was the poster child for the post-modern movement, the master of meta-commentary. Traditional sitcoms just didn't seem too relevant any more.

Where the mythology connection comes in is with the world of Springfield. Though certainly not a consistent fantasy world like Sunnydale or the Lost Island, Springfield is a universe unto itself. Located in a state bordering Nevada and Maine, Springfield contains pretty much any kind of climate or terrain found in the United States. It is considered one of the worst cities to live in America, yet has pretty much every conceivable industry. It has its own brands and celebrities and, even though it must be huge to house all it claims as its own, it remains a small town where everyone knows each other (though Moe never seems to get Marge's name right). The character base extends well beyond the family, a cast so huge, and a city so sprawling, only animation could contain it.

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