For Futurama fans it isn’t just ‘good news everyone’, but very good news, with confirmation it has won a 26 episode renewal from Comedy Central.

It follows a rumour the show would win 13 new eps.

Futurama creators Matt Groening and David X. Cohen already are working on stories for the new batch of episodes of the sci-fi cartoon to run over two seasons from mid-2010.

Of course this isn’t the first time an animated series has been given a new lease of life.

As with Family Guy, whose improbable return was triggered by big DVD sales and solid ratings for the show’s reruns on Cartoon Network, the performance of Futurama’s repeats on Comedy Central and on disc was a key to its resurrection.

“When we brought back Family Guy several years ago, everyone said that it was a once in a lifetime thing — that cancelled series stay cancelled and cannot be revived,” 20th TV chairman Gary Newman said. “But Futurama was another series that fans simply demanded we bring back.”

When the series returns with original episodes, it will have been seven years after the show’s last original episode aired on FOX.

Four Futurama specials, produced in the past 2 1/2 years, helped bridge the gap, said Groening.

“It was a great way of keeping the show alive,” he said, “and one of the great things was that everyone enjoyed doing them, so it’s been relatively easy trying to get everyone who was originally on the show to come back.”

All key voice cast members are expected to return for the new episodes, along with the series’ core writing team.

Source: Hollywood Reporter