10 TV Secrets That Were Hiding In Plain Sight

3. Nibbler's Shadow - Futurama

In Futurama's season four episode "The Why of Fry", it's revealed that Fry's (Billy West) cryogenic freezing "accident" was actually an intentional act on the part of Nibbler (Frank Welker) in an attempt to save the universe.

The episode shows Fry's accident from the perspective of Nibbler, who pushed him into the pod, but when fans went back to the show's pilot episode ("Space Pilot 3000") to check how these versions of events lined up, they were gobsmacked to find that Nibbler's shadow is indeed present in the original version.

Though writer David X. Cohen and others have commented that they weren't originally sure whether or not Nibbler's shadow would actually have a payoff, they intentionally included elements in the pilot which could be returned to (or discarded) if they so wished.

Watching the two versions of the accident simultaneously is quite the stunning testament to the show's attention-to-detail, and ensures that the outlandish nature of the reveal doesn't just seem like a cheap retcon. It was there all along, astoundingly.