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



Most Futurama fans know that Nibbler’s shadow can be seen in Space Pilot 3000, the show’s first episode. It appears just before Fry falls into the cryogenic chamber. The reason why was revealed in the season 5 episode The Why of Fry. One question remained: was the shadow visible the FIRST time Space Pilot 3000 aired, suggesting that Futurama’s creators had Nibbler’s role planned from the beginning? Or was it added later on for re-airings and other releases? This question has been debated for decades. Both sides have reasonable arguments and adamant supporters, but actual evidence was elusive…until now. Welcome to the Nibbler’s Shadow Saga.

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32 thoughts on “Futurama's Oldest Mystery SOLVED: Was Nibbler's shadow in the FIRST AIRING of Space Pilot 3000?”

  1. I'm blown away by all the love for this video! I wish I could respond to every comment, but — I just did some quick math — as of posting this, about one-third of the comments on my channel are on this video alone. And it's only been out for a day! Thank you all so much. If you're new to my content, I hope you enjoy what you find here!

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  2. Regarding the re-dubbed line, it would most likely be just as easy or easier to fix the lip sync than to remove a shadow. The original lip sync being present in the final episode is evidence that the animation itself was not altered in a situation where edits were being made, and circumstantial evidence that the shadow was not altered.

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  3. I'm shocked—I remember watching it as a kid on Fox when it first aired. I never would have thought Nibbler appeared in the very first episode! Maybe I assumed it happened later, like during the continuation when Futurama moved to Adult Swim or Comedy Central.

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  4. Wow, I'm stunned. 100% thought it wasn't going to be there. I started Futurama just a few years ago and when I heard the rumors, I wholeheartedly just decided that it was added in later. Which is why this video is clearly fake. There's no way this evidence is legitimate considering the absurdity of it conflicting with my preconceived notions. Let this be a lessons to all you fakers out there that you can't pull one over on us! /s

    Great job on putting this internet debate to rest and I extend the sentiment to the writers of Futurama for having such a robust show with incredible foresight. Thank you!

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  5. the layer on the tape is probably mold, and that's normal by now I think :/
    Some moldy tapes have visible spots or colorization on the edge of the film-rolls, easily seen thru the plastic it can give a indication of the picture quality 🙂

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  6. @14:42 Your LuhCuhDuh TuV is HuD compatible, perfect for DuVuDuhs.

    Lol the guy from Four Lions who did the whole "rubber dinghy rapids bro" line used to have a couple shows called Fonejacker and Facejacker, they were prank shows, in the first one it was prank phone calls and one of them was him calling up a TV shop and asking about their LCD TV's, you might get a kick out of that!

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  7. Honestly, I really doubted this being the case but I guess it's cooler that they did actually plan it all along. There's still a not completely zero chance that this is bs, if YOU were faking it… but my god the amount of effort to do that would be ridiculous. And for what payoff? If my grandparents hadn't closed their video store like ~15 years ago I think? I'd probably be able to at least find the s1 screener and compare, but I doubt they got a pre-release pilot episode promotional screener. They basically only got movies and some video games, and then of course when entire seasons of a show were released, primarily on DVD and Blu-Ray. (Though I think some were on VHS? Honestly, idr that far back)

    If I could get my hands on what I knew for certain was a promo screener, I'd take the minimal effort of verifying it myself, just to double confirm this (or call you out if you really did fake it, but that seems insane lol), but I can't do I'll just choose to believe I was wrong. As rare as it is. I mean, I thought I was wrong once, but I was mistaken… So… >.>

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