In mid-2000, with financing from the website Z.com to deliver a 5-minute pilot, Roth wrote, directed, animated and produced a series of stop-motion shorts called "The Rotten Fruit". The company folded after several episodes were done, and its domain name was picked up by Nissan for its "Z" sports car. A portion of Roth's work for "The Rotten Fruit" was done at the Snake Pit studios in Burbank with miniature sets, posable clay, and foam figures, two high-end digital still cameras, and a pair of Macintosh computers. Noah Belson co-wrote and performed character voices.