Futurama Cancelled-- For Real This Time. Maybe. Probably.

Futurama has again been cancelled--but this time, it appears to be final. Fans of Futurama will know his isn't the first time it's been cancelled; the series aired from 1999 to 2003 on Fox, then, after reruns on Adult Swim did well, Futurama was picked up by Comedy Central in in 2007, who ran four-direct-to-DVD movies in half-hour increments as a 16-episode fifth season. After the show performed well again, they commissioned sixth and seventh seasons of 26 new episodes each. The first half of the seventh season aired in 2012.

Executive producer David X. Cohen said "I felt like we were already in the bonus round on these last couple of seasons, so I can't say I was devastated by the news." Cohen and creator Matt Groening weren't surprised at the cancellation-- they've already thought the show had gotten the ax on three previous occasions. "It was what I had expected two years earlier," Cohen said. "At this point I keep a suitcase by my office door so I can be cancelled at a moment's notice."

The series has won two Emmys for Outstanding Animated Program but declined in ratings in recent years.

Comedy Central's EVP of Programming Dave Bernath told Entertainment Weekly the show had had "a helluva run that few shows achieve" but that it has come to its "natural end" and that he feels "a sense of gratitude toward the whole process - and that we found a way to keep going for 52 more episodes. It's a blessing that it came back and lasted so long."

Cohen and Groening are exploring options to continue the show in some way, but there's nothing serious yet. Groening said Futurama might return "in another form, on the Internet, or as a puppet show in the park," says Groening. "Or maybe as a puppet show in the park on the Internet."

He also said, more seriously, that "it's tempting when you're doing episodes that are as good or better than anything you've ever done to continue", but that they're "catching our breath and seeing what the fans have to say. The experience of this show has been so much fun from the very beginning to now - everybody is so happy to work on this show - that it'd be a shame if we all went our separate ways... We would love to continue. We have many more stories to tell. But if we don't, this is a really great way to go out... I think these episodes are the best ones we've ever done."

Cohen agrees, calling the episodes slated to air ""our best 'last season ever' ever," and says he thinks many episodes will be "classics". He joked, "As I said three times before, this is definitely the absolute end of the show. I don't know why nobody believes me when I say that."