(Spoilers I guess). We later learn that Nibbler nudged Fry into the cryo chamber, and we see that in a flashback. but was Nibbler’s shadow there in the original airing?
Well someone got hold of a promo tape and went to extreme lengths to make it hard to fake:
Answer yes, it was
Brian
Amazingly it was, but I see you already knew that. Futurama was amazing for things like that.
My search skills stink. But, I am reasonably sure we had a thread on this exact subject before. IIRC The verdict was the same. Plus before it was revealed that Leela was a mutant and not an alien, her parents appeared in crowd scenes and a few other walk ons.
I saw that the other night and had to chuckle at the !=<$%@^ing tape getting wrinkled and jammed like three seconds after he finally presses the button.
I have a vague memory of an interview with the writers, who said they weren’t sure what they were going to do with the shadow at the time, but knew they were setting something up.
I hate to put it this way but, until proven otherwise, that memory is as real as the alternate ending of Big. I’m just a regular couch fan of the show and only learned of the Nibbler backstory intrigue in the last few weeks myself. But surely, the guy in the vid would have mentioned such an interview in his (lengthy) step up.
I know they talked about it on the DVD commentary track, but I don’t quite remember the details of what they said.
I freely acknowledge that 
I actually thought about not posting it, but decided it wasn’t FQ so it might add to the discussion in case someone else had a cite or feedback. I probably should have clarified that in my comment.
FWIW, and I also acknowledge that this doesn’t have any more backing other than “it’s not JUST me”, this site has a similar claim:
My wife and I are binge watching Futurama, and I just noticed another cool callback to the pilot episode. In the pilot episode, after Fry gets frozen, there is a scene showing time passing while he’s in the chamber. One part of that scene shows a bunch of spaceships passing by, blowing up buildings outside.
Then in Bender’s Big Score part 2 (broadcast 9 years after the pilot), Bender goes back in time to 2308 and steals the Nobel Peace Prize during the award ceremony. He escapes in a space ship with a bunch of Swedish space ships chasing him and shooting at him. They pass by the cryolab where Fry is shown frozen in the chamber, blowing up buildings as they pass, the same scene that was shown in the pilot episode.
Us, too. Starting from the beginning, not sure what the last one I saw live was. It’s an awesome series.
There’s nothing preventing the truth that Nibbler’s shadow was there in the first airing, but…I don’t trust people. It’s just too easy to change things.
I mean, when people of my generation are gone, there will be no one left that remembers all the things in the original 1977 Star Wars that have changed. It will always have been the way it is now.
So who can say Nibbler was always there? Someone with a VHS made March 28, 1999. Other than that…
Nibbler was there in a pre-release screener so even before original airing.
Brian
There exist old tapes and laserdiscs of original Star Wars
My VHS and laserdisc are both the 1980 version. I don’t think there is anything older.
And remember, I wasn’t arguing Nibbler isn’t there, just that the creators saying so isn’t sufficient evidence.
Agreed that you can’t trust the creators, but the evidence is pretty solid, if you watch the Youtube video linked.
So if Penny Marshall had sworn on her grandkids that she never filmed a scene where a little Susan ends up in little Josh’s class, that wouldn’t be enough for you?
They’ll love you in the “Anyone else remember the alternate ending to ‘Big’?” thread.
In other words, if George Lucas said Greedo always shot first, is that enough for you?
And I did misunderstand the nature of the intrigue. My Big ending snark is retracted with sincere apologies. The writers’ interview/remarks you referred to was not in doubt. Rather, was a Nibbler shadow backstory planned all along? And we now see that it was which is pretty neat.
That’s a good way to put it.