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.
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.
Tap for spoiler
The shadow is there
Instead of a half-hour video, it could have been a single word.
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.
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.
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.
Very different show runners.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Pretty much, you had the Magdar plot twist at the end of season 1 but everything afterwards became: Magdar is doing something bad I guess.
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
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,
