Futurama @lemmy.world steal_your_face @lemmy.ml 3 wk. ago

Futurama's Oldest Mystery SOLVED: Was Nibbler's shadow in the FIRST AIRING of Space Pilot 3000?

Interesting video I saw on YouTube which definitively shows whether Nibbler’s shadow was in the original airing of the pilot. Skip to 23:50 for the answer.

48 comments

Meanwhile, Disenchantment seemed like it was written episode by episode. I guess it all tied up in the end, but I didn't care about 90+ percent of the arcs, so the whole series felt half-baked to me. I enjoyed it, but something felt off, by miles.
- They made up for that with sexy Dagmar. And Merkimer..
  
  I may be some sort of weirdo but Oona should be considered.
- Disenchantment's plot felt like a D&D campaign where the DM winged it every week.
  
  There's a reason why most D&D campaigns aren't adapted into TV shows
- I'm glad you mentioned it. I had a whole rant about how we cheer for Fry, because he's stupid and means well, and we despise Elfo, because he's an underhanded little prick.
- We stopped watching it when Netflix pulled their no families bullshit
- Tangent! ;)
- Did it all tie up? The whole steamland plotline got dropped completely by the end and that was basically half the show's worth of plot.
  
  Yeah, "tied up" just means it had an ending. I'm not sure I really even understood what really happened in that show. It felt like a new arc started before the previous was halfway through and then different subtle parts of previous arcs sorta mattered for the current, but not in any meaningful way.
  
  I am not sure, I was just guessing it did. The last episode just had me going, "oh, OK. Fair enough." and didn't really provoke any more curiosity out of me. I think between the general fractured feel of it all and duration between seasons... Should have named it Disengagement.
  
  I kid, sort of.
- I guess I'm in the minority who liked Disenchantment. Many of the jokes fell flat, but it was cozy.
  
  Also Laughing Horse always made me lose my shit, it was so stupid but the animation, combined with John DiMaggio's stupid laugh was perfect.
  
  Also Jerry's ability as a moron to rightfully question God's ethics was so delicious.
  
  I enjoyed it for the most part. I just had a hard time shaking how disjointed it all felt. It was missing something to keep it cohesive and flowing properly. I can't put my finger on it.
- Very different show runners.
IIRC Nibbler's shadow was in the storyboard for the pilot. Shown on the DVD extras
Answer: yes. It was there.
tl;dw?
- In season 4, an episode shows a character going back in time to the events that occurred during the pilot episode. Even though the character was not in the pilot episode, this S4 episode implies that they were there in the background, off-camera, the entire time, and playing a pivotal role in the events that kicked off the series.
  
  If you watch a certain scene in the actual pilot episode, you can briefly see that character's shadow in the background, implying that the creators had actually planned these time travel shenanigans from the beginning.
  
  Many fans claim that the shadow was not actually in the pilot when it was first aired; that it was only added in reruns and home releases after that S4 episode was written. Other fans claim to have a home-taped recording of the very original broadcast and that they do see the shadow.
  
  The person that made this video came across a social media post where a user showed off a pre-release promotional tape of the pilot episode. They contacted the user and purchased the tape for an undisclosed amount.
  
  After a drawn out sequence detailing their multi-camera setup used to record the tape playing on their TV (in an attempt to prove nothing is being faked), we see that the shadow does indeed appear in the scene just as it does in all reruns, etc.
  
  tl;dr
- Tap for spoiler
  
  The shadow is there
  
  Instead of a half-hour video, it could have been a single word.
- Yes.
Mystery solved? I see comments mentioning Netflix so maybe it’s a generational thing but that’s been common knowledge to futurama fans for decades.
They did a minor retcon later. The scene is shown again and as well as the original shadow (And nibbler's eye in the bin), you see Fry's shadow too, since he time travels back there in the Why of Fry. Unfortunately I can't remember which episode this is in at the minute
- Jurassic Bark.
  
  And for reference, the pilot,
  
  Nice! Clearly I blocked it out because of the trauma of the ending
I thought this was well known? Or an I just a nerd for checking myself many years ago?
- The issue was that the only way to know for sure was to watch a recording of the original airing, the episode could have been modified in reruns.
  
  They were released almost 4 years apart. There were plenty of copies available everywhere to reference back when this first happened. I think this is more of the show finding a new audience who now doesn't have access to those recordings. When this originally happened streaming services weren't even really a defacto thing like they are today.
  
  Edit: The original episode is over 25 years old. The first season would have been released on DVD 3 years before the Nibbler reveal. But there were also VHS recordings and DivX/XviD copies available online.
Oldest mystery? Just watch the fucking episode
- Thats the whole point, it was said they made chabges for physical copies and reairing to close the plot hole.
  
  Its a bit over the top but it seems to actually close an ongoing discussion.
- That is the point of the video. There were already known differences between the pre-release pilot and the one that actually aired on TV.
  
  So, was the Nibbler-Fry plotline part of the first episode, or was it added later?
- Yeah go back and watch older South park episodes and look at how they changed Token's name to Tolkien all to make a joke about Cartman being racist.

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