Talk:List of Futurama episodes/FAQ

Q: Original run: Four seasons or five seasons?

Futurama was produced as and originally intended to be broadcast as four seasons. Due to erratic scheduling, the Fox Broadcasting Company held several episodes back and ultimately broadcast the series as five seasons. Four Futurama box sets, one for each season, were released with all episodes in production order. There are several reasons why Wikipedia has chosen to use the original four-season production ordering for Wikipedia's Futurama articles:

• The show's creators are on record hailing the box set order as the true and intended order of the series.
• The show's canon is disrupted by the broadcast order. Another example would be the episode Fry and Leela's Big Fling, which follows on from the ending of the previous episode in production order (which is T.: The Terrestrial), however, the previous episode in broadcast order is 2-D Blacktop.
• Different regions and networks use different ordering for the episodes. Some countries broadcasted Futurama in the intended four-season order. In the UK, the first 13 episodes of the series' second run were released on DVD/BD as "season five", which is entirely different to the "season five" shown by Fox. It's a matter of drawing the line as to which order to use, and the production order is the only consistent one among countries.
• The production order is the most practical for Wikipedia. Television season articles need to cover production aspects, and this would not be feasible with episodes from a particular season spread across multiple articles. The list of episodes transcludes these season articles.

The use of production order for Wikipedia's Futurama articles is the established consensus and should not be altered without discussion. While largely ignored here, the original broadcast order is acknowledged in the "television order" field.

Q: Why are seasons 6 and 7 split into "A" and "B", and not listed as "seventh/eighth/ninth broadcast season" etc.

Comedy Central has officially designated the two halves of both Season 6 and Season 7 as "A" and "B", considering them two parts of the same season and not as wholly separate seasons. The Comedy Central press release is the only reliable source for this; any other labelling is original research.

Q: Why is season 6-B listed in a different order to how it was broadcast?

Again, this is due to the consensus that has been established. Futurama: Volume 6 features all episodes in production order, just like the previous box sets, so we wish to remain consistent. The "television order" is, however, noted in the table.

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