Commentary:Roswell that Ends Well

Production Number: 3ACV19

DVD: Season 3, Disc 4 & Monster Robot Maniac Fun Collection

Topics of Discussion

 * This episode won an Emmy (Outstanding Animated Program 2002).
 * This episode was considered for use as part of Anthology of Interest II.
 * There is no scientific basis for the time travel, they however chose a rarely occurring cause.
 * Noted a few potentially disturbing things that were removed from the time tunnel.
 * Making fun of Star Trek's lack of seatbelts.
 * J. Stewart Burns found a copy of the actual Roswell newspaper from the crash on the internet and based the one in the episode on it.
 * Noting the distributed brain of Bender.
 * About five minutes of Zoidberg interrogation cut.
 * Same All Purpose Spray from when aliens attack.
 * Enos and the sergeant are based on Gomer Pyle.
 * The similar hair shows that they are related.
 * Noting the use of "aks" from ep. 204.
 * You can have an animation cel made for US$250 - US$300.
 * Maurice LaMarche studied CDs of Truman to get the voice right.
 * They had to make sure that Fry was sure it wasn't his grandma when they had sex.
 * They lost several days deciding if this was too tasteless.
 * Where does Fry's DNA come from? they determined that about one third is from each of his other grandparents and the Y chromosome is unaccounted for.
 * Cohen sets a challenge to find the steady state solution for the amount of DNA Fry gave himself (and provides his email address to send the answer to).
 * Possible that the first time Enos was the grandfather.
 * Noting the various degrees staff has received.

Highlights / Quotes

 * David X. Cohen: What Stewart meant about the Emmy was that we've submitted this for the Emmy award, but we don't even know if we're nominated yet, but we're just assuming, we're pretty much clearing our mantle pieces off.
 * J. Stewart Burns: You guys get all the chicks though, so... Billy West: only if I'm wearing my Futurama jacket. John DiMaggio: Yeah, exactly. If I put the Bender suit on.
 * Billy West: Ever see a guy driving a car on blocks? [Enos] That's where it comes from.
 * David X. Cohen: Matt, that gesture you just made, that's not going to show up in the DVD commentary.
 * J. Stewart Burns: Who that calendar was made for... Matt Groening: Well one month is for... J. Stewart Burns: Crap, it's June.

Commentators
Note: DVD lists Rich Moore being in this commentary, but he is not.
 * Matt Groening
 * Executive Producer
 * David X. Cohen
 * Executive Producer
 * J. Stewart Burns
 * Writer
 * Susan Dietter
 * Guest Director
 * John DiMaggio
 * Actor (Bender, miscellaneous)
 * Billy West
 * Actor (Fry, The Professor, miscellaneous)

Second Commentary

 * This episode is one of the only three with two commentaries, and the only one where they are both on the original DVDs. The other episodes are Hell is Other Robots and Jurassic Bark.

Topics of Discussion

 * Track intends to discuss animation.
 * The Emmy for this episode was won between the recording of the previous commentary and this one.
 * Largest corona they've had to render.
 * Rich's episodes are always heavy on 3D.
 * The episode plays out so that any progress that is made is toward screen right and setbacks are to the left.
 * Roswell type stuff was mostly taken from the internet, Bill Morrison from Bongo Comics lent them some things that he had from a previous comic series.
 * Process of animating an episode discussed at length.
 * Everyone is very pleased by the explosion sequence.
 * Which bits the software does for them.
 * A picture of the empire state building is on the wall as an attempt to explain why Fry ended up in New York.
 * The tank makes it look like a movie.
 * Discussed the decoration of Mildred's house.
 * Various effects discussed.
 * Running overtime discussing a trick the animators played on each other during production of Crimes of the Hot.

Highlights / Quotes

 * Scott Vanzo: I remember, like, that effect is all done in 3D and I remember Rich was trying to describe it to me and I was like... Rich Moore: What the hell are you talking about? Scott Vanzo: So a red thing is happening and a blue thing is happening and they somehow come together?
 * Claudia Katz: We tried to go through the government but they were strangely uncooperative.
 * Unknown: That's the Ten Commandments on the wall. I put them there because so many of them are broken in this episode. Matt Groening: Ones that are very rarely broken.

Goofs

 * This commentary is exceedingly long, which has the effect of causing the DVD, when other audio tracks are used, to produce no audio or video for a few minutes after the episode

Commentators (Second Group)

 * Matt Groening
 * Executive Producer
 * David X. Cohen
 * Executive Producer
 * Rich Moore
 * Director
 * Supervising Director
 * Claudia Katz
 * Producer for Rough Draft Studios
 * Scott Vanzo
 * Director of computer graphics