Commentary:Parasites Lost

Topics of Discussion

 * C.W. McCall's Convoy.
 * Cut material included Fry on a CB radio and the crew returning from a delivery to Zang the Cruel, who flirted with Leela.
 * Hermes Conrad used to explain budget cuts and lost silverware (eaten by Fry) as a reason for the crew to start using jai-alai scoops.
 * Sal's gradual addition of more 's'es on the ends of words throughout the series.
 * Owls have replaced rats, there are not supposed to be any rats but they forgot a few times and put them in anyway.
 * Censors forced the Zero-G Juggs cover to be hidden by steam in one shot.
 * The cover was originally dirtier.
 * Comparing Fry's lead pipe to a man in real life who got a pipe through his head and survived.
 * 3D used on colon, blood cells and various other items within Fry.
 * The episode overall took a longer than usual time to animate.
 * Based on a true story, Eric's friend picked up a worm-like intestinal parasite in Thailand, that seemed to make her smarter.
 * Difficulty of drawing things really small and regular size in one scene.
 * Scale is often wrong in other shows and movies that do this, such as King Kong.
 * Pollen shape is based on a dog toy.
 * Worms were not shown being killed because the writers thought they were nice guys.
 * Explanation of the Worms' presence in the sandwich.
 * There was a long debate about whether the crew should be shrunk down or use mini robots, the robots were chosen because it made more sense. Afterwards it was decided that Leela needed to chop the others up and Fry needed to go inside himself.
 * The Holophonor i based on the visisonar from the Foundation Trilogy.
 * Rodney Clouden won an Emmy for storyboarding of the episode.
 * The part about cellular/mobile phones damaging the brain was not medically substantiated.
 * During the writing process there was an idea for Fry to sleep with Leela and the worms to take over her body and form a two headed being.

Highlights / Quotes

 * David X. Cohen: That's a 3D colon right there. Unknown: They don't have that on Gilmore Girls.

Goofs

 * When pointing out that Fry was previously made sterile by the F-Ray, but that the Worms have undone the damage, someone calls it a Z-ray.

Related DVD Features

 * Deleted scenes discussed in the commentary are on the DVD.
 * The Emmy winning storyboards are also on the DVD.

Commentators

 * Matt Groening
 * Executive Producer
 * David X. Cohen
 * Executive Producer
 * Rich Moore
 * Supervising Director
 * Eric Kaplan
 * Writing
 * Peter Avanzino
 * Director
 * Scott Vanzo
 * Director of Computer Graphics