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

2 years ago by steal_your_face to c/futurama

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.

Hayduke 59 points 2 years ago

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.

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Whorehoarder 16 points 2 years ago

They made up for that with sexy Dagmar. And Merkimer..

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tacosanonymous 20 points 2 years ago

I may be some sort of weirdo but Oona should be considered.

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anarchrist 7 points 2 years ago

Seconded

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flicker 6 points 2 years ago

People like you give me hope. I really, really vibe with a grown woman slurping down drugs and pace-screaming in her garden.

And of course, piracy.

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Whorehoarder 5 points 2 years ago

I'll allow it. Honestly her "or is?" Is so great, but nobody gets it and they give me weird looks.

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Meron35 11 points 2 years ago

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

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flicker 10 points 2 years ago

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.

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SplashJackson 8 points 2 years ago

We stopped watching it when Netflix pulled their no families bullshit

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ComradeMiao 7 points 2 years ago

Tangent! ;)

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Renacles 6 points 2 years ago

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.

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jacksilver 4 points 2 years ago

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.

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Renacles 2 points 2 years ago

The only constant was that Magdar would show up at the last and first episodes of the season with a new random evil plan.

The whole thing was such a mess.

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jacksilver 2 points 2 years ago

Yeah, it was really a disappointment. The humor never quite landed so I was primarily there to see what they would do with the story. While I know it ended earlier than they planned, what/how they wrapped it up showed there wasn't too much there to begin with.

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Hayduke 3 points 2 years ago

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.

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Zozano 5 points 2 years ago

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.

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Hayduke 3 points 2 years ago

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.

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deadbeef79000 1 point 2 years ago

I kept thinking I was accidentally skipping episodes.

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Tenthrow 4 points 2 years ago

Very different show runners.

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Discover 48 points 2 years ago

IIRC Nibbler's shadow was in the storyboard for the pilot. Shown on the DVD extras

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hightrix 47 points 2 years ago

Answer: yes. It was there.

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SpaceNoodle 30 points 2 years ago

tl;dw?

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SatyrSack 42 points 2 years ago

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.

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SpaceNoodle 8 points 2 years ago

tl;dr

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SatyrSack 18 points 2 years ago

This person shows the shadow on a supposed pre-release promotional tape of the episode, so the answer is probably a yes.

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Kalothar 3 points 2 years ago

Tl;dr?

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steal_your_face 28 points 2 years ago

Tap for spoiler

The shadow is there

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SpaceNoodle 37 points 2 years ago

Instead of a half-hour video, it could have been a single word.

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SplashJackson 9 points 2 years ago

Strong agree

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juliebean 8 points 2 years ago

it could have been, but then it'd just be some guy claiming it was there without presenting the evidence, and it wouldn't have settled the debate at all.

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roofuskit 9 points 2 years ago

People prefer succinct bullshit over the truth. That's why the world is the way it is today.

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SpaceNoodle 4 points 2 years ago

They could at least have led with it, but then I guess it wouldn't be clickbait.

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hightrix 11 points 2 years ago

Yes.

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Juice260 26 points 2 years ago

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.

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OccamsTeapot 20 points 2 years ago

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

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MimicJar 35 points 2 years ago

Jurassic Bark.

And for reference, the pilot,

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OccamsTeapot 16 points 2 years ago

Nice! Clearly I blocked it out because of the trauma of the ending

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roofuskit 17 points 2 years ago

I thought this was well known? Or an I just a nerd for checking myself many years ago?

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jimbolauski 14 points 2 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.

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roofuskit 4 points 2 years ago

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.

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jimbolauski 1 point 2 years ago

Season 1 was released on DVD and VHS in Jan of 2002, season 4 started airing in Feb of 2002.

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zipzoopaboop 3 points 2 years ago

Oldest mystery? Just watch the fucking episode

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Squizzy 17 points 2 years ago

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.

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remotelove 12 points 2 years ago

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?

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ThatWeirdGuy1001 4 points 2 years ago

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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