Greg responds...

The recording would work as well as viewing the broadcast for anyone who saw it before Xanatos set the sky aflame. The question is whether the recording could start the trouble over again after the sky was done burning. I really hadn't thought of that, but I have to assume the answer is no. Because a lot of people own VCR's, and if that would have worked, we'd certainly know about it by now.

Greg responds...

No. Oberon is not Sevarius. Sevarius is not Oberon.
And while I'm here: Bronx is not a dog. A dog is not Bronx. Bronx is a Gargoyle Beast. So's Boudicca. Gargoyle beasts and dogs have a few superficial traits in common, but truly a better comparison would be:
A gargoyle is to a beast as a human is to a chimpanzee.
And even that comparison isn't totally accurate. The lifespan of a gargoyle beast is the same as that of a gargoyle.

Greg responds...

I love this question. I don't know if you'll love the answer. Demona isn't sure. Neither is Macbeth. They haven't been hit by something as catastrophic as a beheading (or whatever). Neither, at this stage, are that eager to test it. Now you might ask, why haven't they been hit by something that blatant. Good luck, or is the spell itself somehow preventing anyone from succeeding in that fashion (in a similar way that Goliath was prevented from returning Griff to Una in 1940)? Puts a wicked grin on my face just thinking about it.

Greg responds...

A very good question. In my dreams, Disney comes to me and says "We want to honor the Gargoyles show by letting you do whatever you want at any budget." In that (completely divorced-from-reality) scenario I fix any little niggling things that bother me in the first 66 episodes, completely ignore everything after Journey and restart there.
But realistically, that's preposterous. GOLIATH CHRONICLES was out there on the air. "The Journey" was one of those episodes. How can I keep one of them as cannon and ditch the rest? I think I'd have to include Goliath Chronicles, but I'd do my best to minimize the "damage" to my plans. The "acceptance" in "Angels" would not be complete. It would be one step in a continuum. Basically, I'd have to force myself to rewatch the last 12 Goliath Chronicles. Identify anything that seemed problematic and deal with each of these things on a case-by-case basis.

Greg responds...

Canmore had many children. Not all of them became king. In "City of Stone, Part Four" Canmore thought it was over. But he was wrong.

Greg responds...

Maybe a little of both.

Greg responds...

Another question to complex to answer here. Sorry.

Greg responds...

You don't sound like a dope. It's a good question, but a thousand and one years is a long time and so there isn't one simple answer to the question. Sorry.

Greg responds...

The terrorist was hitting the bank to get money to fund her cause. That cause wasn't mentioned in City of Stone, because it didn't matter there. The terrorists' role was representative (of Demona). But that specific terrorist would have reappeared in BAD GUYS and her cause would have been revealed there.

Greg responds...

Yes.

Greg responds...

1. Well, you can ask me not to say "a lot", but it won't change much. I'm not going to sit down today and write a novel-length response to a question that took you ten seconds to type in. Leave it at this, Macbeth was on the side of the Allies.
2. Very good question. She died in 971. She had no name. She was a fierce warrior and a lovely individual.
3. He's afraid of things he can't control. He's afraid of death. (I can relate. I just seek for immortality in a different way. Through my writing and through my children. As long as I'm remembered, I live on. That's something David hasn't fully learned yet. But he's getting there.)
4. Not yet.
5. Well, I had a lot of plans for them in BAD GUYS. (There's that "a lot" phrase again.) Matrix had a lot to learn, and Dingo had a lot to redeem. And working for Robyn Canmore wasn't going to be a piece of cake either.

Greg responds...

At sunrise (more or less), the entire gargoyle body turns into an organic substance that resembles stone, placing the gargoyle in a state of suspended animation. The body does function to some degree. The organic "stone-like" substance absorbs solar energy. The internal biological clock continues to function. Healing takes place. Dreaming too. But to a large degree, a daytime gargoyle is for all intents and purposes a stone statue.
At sunset (more or less), the transformation reverses from the inside out, leaving only a shedable outer layer of "stone" that cracks off as the gargoyle awakens.

Greg responds...

No hope for a fourth season for this coming fall. But maybe some day.

I've been invited to come speak at the Gathering. I'm going to try to make it. Otherwise, I have no official connection to it.

Greg responds...

Because Goliath was the main character. Lex got his episodes, and he would have gotten more. But when you have a large ensemble cast, it's hard to give everyone enough moments in the sun, (so to speak).

Greg responds...

TIMEDANCER was a proposed spin-off series that would have starred Brooklyn.
Disney didn't go for it. I suggested that the idea be incorporated into GOLIATH CHRONICLES. I laid out a story for an episode. It never happened.
They went another way, a totally other way, and wound up with that RUNAWAYS episode of Chronicles.

Greg responds...

The notion of a universe of characters inspired me, ala Simpsons or Yoknapatawpha. Not any of the specific characters.

I'm not that familiar with Azrael. Is he the guy who was Batman for awhile?
I hated the notion that someone other than Dick Grayson might take over that role, so I didn't bother to read any of that.

I haven't sat down and counted all the Hunters. I won't pretend I know every detail about every Hunter. At least, not yet.

Greg responds...

I'd love to. As I've mentioned before, I've been working on a GARGOYLES ENCYCLOPEDIA on and off for years. I'm almost done. A "Making Of" book or a GARGOYLES COMPANION would be fun too. I don't know how likely publication is, though. Maybe when the movie comes out. We can keep our fingers crossed.

Greg responds...

It depends what you mean. Elisa tends to get involved with most things that involve her friends. But obviously, the point person for my next Illuminati story would have been either Matt or David.

Greg responds...

He's the founder.

Greg responds...

The organization that would eventually be known as the Illuminati was founded a century after the "death" of King Arthur.

Greg responds...

I don't know if Disney "officially" knows about the Gathering.

Greg responds...

I need to let Producer Tom Jacobson decide what information he wants "leaked". It's his movie. I'm just along for the ride.

Greg responds...

I had a lot of control vis-a-vis Disney Management. The executives largely left me alone to do the stories I wanted to do. Only one story ever got rejected, and even I have to admit it was a pretty risky endeavor.

But keep in mind, I didn't produce the show alone. Frank Paur was my equal partner from day one. Also Dennis Woodyard and Bob Kline had producing duties as well. We all worked together.

I also like to think we were open to input from anyone on the staff. A lot of great ideas originated from other sources.

But I did get to tell the stories I wanted to tell. 66 of them at least.
And I was the one guy who had been on the project from the beginning of development through the end of post-production, so I had a more comprehensive point-of-view.

But no, no matter how much it might have pleased (I mean embarrassed) me, no one ever referred to me as "God".

Greg responds...

I've read a lot of Arthurian stuff. The Mary Stewart books. Geoffrey of Monmouth. Roger Lanclyn Greene. Thomas Berger. T.H. White. John Steinbeck. Goodrich. I've skimmed Thomas Malory. These off the top of my head. I'm sure there are others too.

Although I know others disagree, for me adding Arthur was a natural step. I couldn't imagine going to Avalon and not seeing him there. The way we created the "Gargoyles Universe" everything was interconnected. Locked together by fate. The eggs are connected to Avalon which is connected to Arthur who is connected to the Illuminati which is connected to Xanatos who has a son whose grandmother is the queen of the fair folk who live on Avalon with the eggs, etc. How could I not include Arthur?

The Pendragon series would have featured King Arthur and Sir Griff. It would have begun with the Quest for Merlin. There were plans for one more regular: a female acquaintance of Arthur's from his past. The Illuminati would have played a prominent role, particularly the enigmatic Mr. Duval.

Greg responds...

Elisa's apartment wasn't targeted. They spotted Goliath there and investigated. But certainly Castaway wouldn't have had much trouble making the Elisa/Gargoyle connection. Moving really would not have been the answer -- not if she intended on keeping her job. And I can't imagine Elisa quitting the force. Precautions would have to be taken. But, heck, Demona's known where Elisa lives for over a year. Sometimes that information isn't enough.

Greg responds...

Jason is a parapalegic. Why must he have fully recovered in order to go on a date? I think Jason was released on probation. In my mind, he spends a lot of time failing to save his brother's soul.

Greg responds...

Ever is a long time. Not for centuries at least. Oberon isn't exactly forgiving.

Greg responds...

Merlin isn't Duval. And Arthur's been asleep for some time, so he isn't presently on any kind of terms with anyone from his past.

Greg responds...

"Future Tense" the episode or the proposed spin-off series?

I had a lot of plans for the clones, too many to relate them all here. As you all may be noticing, when I'm asked a question THAT large, I'm less likely to give a worthwhile response. I'm not saying you can't ask, just that this Q&A format may not be the best forum for questions that require novel- length responses.

Greg responds...

Good question. I'd have to ask them, but I'm pretty sure we're looking at an only child. And a handful.

Greg responds...

1) We tried to make it clear, but I can see how it would have been tough to catch it. Phoebe is the blonde, pleasant one. Seline is the raven-haired hardcase. Luna is the silver-haired mystic.

2) Carefully.

3) A lot. (Actually, I think someone did ask this, and I gave the same response. Well at least you got one worthwhile answer.)

Greg responds...

You can't reach your mother who has an apartment in Manhattan. You drive into the city. Traffic is at an absolute standstill. It isn't barely moving -- it's flat-out stopped. You begin to worry about your mom so you abandon your car. You move toward the car in front of you. It's empty, because the person in front of you had the same impulse. But what's really weird is that the car in front of that car has a stone statue sitting behind the wheel. What is this, some kind of gag? You keep going, heading for a subway station. Cars are either empty or filled with statues. For a second, you ask yourself if these could be people turned to stone. But come on, that's just too crazy. There are a few other people running around the streets in a similar state of confusion. Some of them are hysterical. You get more determined to reach your elderly mother.

You head down into the subway station. Loaded with stone statues. No people. No trains. You wait. And wait. But it's damn creepy down here at night with all these statues. You decide to walk. It's twenty-nine blocks, but if that's what it takes....

The further into the city you go, the fewer people you see. The fewer non-statues you see. The conclusion is inescapable. Everyone has been turned to stone. Just then a woman runs up to you. Clearly homeless. You like to think of yourself as open-minded, but you can't help having a visceral reaction to her odor. You're nearly overwhelmed by the unwashed urine-soaked smell. She yells something about "the T.V.'s". And runs off.
She's the only living human in sight, and still you can't help being relieved that she's gone.

Finally, you reach your mother's apartment building. Now, you know. There's Joe the Doorman. You've known Joe for fifteen years. He's a sweet old guy, who never drinks on the job, except a nip now and then when it's really cold. And he's a statue. That face. That twinkle in his eye. It's Joe. And he's stoned -- literally.

Fortunately, Joe's frozen on the job. He's holding the door open for you.
You swallow hard and enter. There's a little girl in the lobby with her parents and a poodle. They're all stone statues. You press the elevator button. The doors open immediately. There are five statues facing you calmly. One of them is Mrs. Vasquez, you're mother's neighbor. Suddenly, you realize that you are more pissed off than frightened. With a new determination you get on the elevator and press the button for the eighth floor.

The doors close. You've had to squeeze in, because the five statues aren't exactly making room for you. You turn to Mrs. Vasquez. "Nice weather we're having," you say grimly. Finally, the elevator opens. You squeeze out, struggling for your key ring.

Your hands are sweating. You have trouble getting your mom's key into the lock. Then it slides in. You mentally prepare yourself. The odds are good that Mom is a statue. You turn the key. Enter the apartment. The television is on. You move into the living room. There are tears in your eyes, even before you see mom, sitting with a bemused expression on her face in front of the t.v. She's frozen in stone on the chair, which seems to be buckling under the weight. You suddenly panic that the chair will break, that your mother will fall to the floor and... and... what? Break?
Shatter? You can't take the chance. You dry your palms on your shirt and then ease her frozen body out of the chair. She seems to weigh a ton, but YOU WILL NOT DROP HER. Slowly, you lower her to the ground, on her side, still frozen in the sitting position.

It's only then that you focus on the sound coming from the t.v. Gibberish?
You turn to look. There's some kind of... creature, speaking, what? Latin, maybe? You move closer to the t.v. Suddenly, the video skips and the image repeats from the beginning. And that's the last thing you remember.

In the morning, you help your mother up off of the floor. She's extremely confused. Did she pass out? Have a heart attack? How'd she get on the floor? When did you get here? You don't want to worry or panic her and even as you start to form the words, it all seems too crazy to say out loud.

The television is still on. Travis Marshall is on, reporting on how everyone in Manhattan seems to have experienced blackouts last night. Your mother mumbles something about pollution in the water. A woman is interviewed. She says that everyone in Manhattan was turned to stone. You can hear your mother snort, but you don't dare look at her now. The reporter looks at the woman. And you know what that look means. He asks her dubiously why she wasn't effected. She responds by saying that she never watches television. Marshall, nods. A nod that clearly means that he thinks she's nuts.

Interviews follow with government officials, psychiatrists, hypnotists, etc.
Every theory in the world is offered up. But no one else says anything about stone statues.

So what kind of person are you? Do you make it your life's work to make sure everyone knows the truth? Do you try to convince yourself it was all a hallucination? Do you just shut your mouth and keep it shut? You're mother offers to cook you breakfast. She'll cut the french toast into a little house with a chimney, windows and a door. Just like she did when you were young. "Yeah, Mom," you say, "That would be nice." While she's cooking, you go into the bathroom and throw up.

As to why Xanatos and Demona didn't cast their spell over the whole world, the answer is simple: They couldn't.

Greg responds...

New.

Greg responds...

Right.

Greg responds...

1) Exactly.

2) To some extent. Puck was on trial as well, and he knew it.

3) N.A.

4) At the time of the choice, Xanatos knew. Although by then he had known Owen for some period of time.

5) Why would he?

6) Not unaided. Maybe not at all. I'm sure Sevarius might like to "help".
Prospero too.

7) N.A. (What are you trying to do, trip me up? :))

By the way gang, Gore has informed me that we've had to kick a number of good questions because they were posted with questions that contained the kind of ideas that I warned I couldn't look at in Guideline #2. If you want your questions answered, please be more careful.

Greg responds...

If your talking biological relationships, no.

Greg responds...

Hmmmm. The show had much the same set-up: tenth century gargoyles put to sleep for a thousand years by a magic spell. Their castle was moved to the tallest skyscraper in Manhattan and they woke up and tried to adjust to 20th century life. The gargoyles were all diminutive, kinda like Gummi Bears with a modern edge. The whole development went through a number of changes over time, and I won't attempt to list every permutation but here's the basics on the characters. The name that heads each paragraph is the name the character ended up with in the show that you guys ultimately saw on television.

Demona - Dakota was the leader of the gargoyles, and she was, in a word, boring. Too straight to be the leader of a comedy ensemble. So we changed her name to Demona and turned her into a traitor working with the enemy....

Xanatos - Xavier was a human descendent of the wizard who had cursed the gargoyles a millenium ago. He was rich, powerful and petulant. Very Captain Hook.

Owen Burnett - Mr. Owen was Xavier's assistant. In the first episode, he got hit by a magic spell that permanently tranformed him into an anthropomorphic aardvark.

Brooklyn - Amp became the leader after we changed Dakota into Demona. He was a little guy who looked more like Lexington than Brooklyn, but he had Brooklyn's out-there adventurous personality.

Broadway - Cocoa was a heavy-set female gargoyle with artistic pretensions and a great love of food. This always made us uncomfortable, which is why she eventually became a he.

Lexington - Lassie looked a little more like Brooklyn than Lex, but he was the closest thing we had to Lex. He was an idiot savant, fascinated with technology. He could spend hours working on a computer. He could also spend hours watching a traffic light change colors.

Hudson - Ralph was the couch potato gargoyle. A bit older than the others.
Content to stay at home and watch tv.

Elisa - Morgan Reed was a human school teacher who befriended the gargoyles.
She was also a firefighter for awhile. And a museum curator. And an archeologist. And Xavier's former partner. She had a daughter for awhile too. For awhile we played it like she was Princess Katharine's descendent.
We had the Gargoyles move onto the roof of the apartment building where she lived and cause a lot of trouble for her.

There was no parallel character to GOLIATH. After the comedy development was rejected, Tad Stones (Producer of Darkwing Duck and Aladdin: the Animated Series, among others) suggested adding a dramatic male lead. We came up with Goliath and put the whole show through the prism of who Goliath was. That was the turning point, obviously.

I still maintain that the original comedy development would have made a great comedy-adventure series. Something to be proud of. That's not to say that I don't greatly prefer how things turned out, but it's apples and oranges.

Greg responds...

Yes. Exactly. It would have been something for King Arthur and Sir Griff to follow up on after their quest for Merlin -- IF we had ever done the PENDRAGON spin-off. And because we "promised" it in "Sentinel", Elisa and Goliath would have had at least some minor involvement in the quest.

Greg responds...

As I said, the script for the movie hasn't been turned in yet. All I know is that Goliath is the lead.

Cops have partners. It didn't seem realistic for Elisa to be an exception.
Why make her life that easy? We all have connections which enrich and complicate our lives. Elisa has parents, siblings, a boss, a cat, gargoyles, supervillains... and a partner.

Greg responds...

She seems to be Hopi or Zuni to me in the series, though I don't pretend to be an expert. I can't even remember if "maza" is the Sioux or Navajo word for "iron". As you can see, we weren't tremendously consistent on Elisa's paternal ethnicity. That's mostly my fault. I should have done a better job on research. Part of the problem was that different people gave us different advice as the series progressed. But that only compounded inconsistencies that we had already built into the stories. I'll try to do better in the future.

Greg responds...

O.K. Once again, GARGOYLES had no censors. We had one Disney Standards & Practices executive. We also had our own sensibilities as guides. Goliath Chronicles had ABC's Broadcast S&P staff to worry about also. I don't know if they had problems with the Goliath/Elisa relationship. On the one script I wrote for Chronicles, they didn't seem to have any trouble with any of the romance stuff I wrote. The one thing they did object to was Elisa punching Banquo in the face, off-camera. That surprised me, because we had done that sort of thing all the time during the first two seasons. Again, you'd have to ask Eric Lewald or Scott Thomas if the Chronicles had substantial S&P problems at ABC.

Greg responds...

Angela and Broadway will ultimately have three biological children: Artus, Gwenyvere and Samson. None of these characters have been designed yet, and I don't want to paint/write myself into a corner, but in my head, Artus bares a strong physical resemblance to Hudson & Broadway; Gwenyvere looks quite a bit like Angela & Demona; Samson looks very much like Goliath. But they won't be carbon copies, and each child should inherit at least a little bit from each parent.

Greg responds...

Coldfire is her name now. She had no name in the tenth century, since naming is a human, not a gargoyle, trait. However, those of us who worked on the GARGOYLES series are all humans, so we felt the need to name her in scripts and in the credits. So we called her Desdemona. But that name was simply a convenient designation for us. She would not recognize it as her own. Neither would anyone operating within the universe of the series.

Greg responds...

When Puck transforms into Owen, he transforms into a human being, with all a human's weaknesses and vulnerabilities. Now Owen can transform back into Puck, but he can't perform magic as Owen. And Demona caught Owen off- guard with a spell that affected his all-too-human form. I suppose Owen could have transformed back into Puck in between the two nights of the curse, but that would mean he couldn't help Xanatos at all. Remember their deal: one wish from the Puck or a lifetime of service from Owen. Xanatos chose Owen.

As for "The Mirror", Xanatos went without Owen for a few hours. Who knows whether he even noticed.

Greg responds...

1) Cary's done some movie and television work. (Columbus & Superboy immediately spring to mind.) He also happens to be one of my best friends and my former writing partner. When I expanded the story editing staff beyond Michael Reaves, he was one of the first people I thought of.

2) I've never met David Wise. I don't ever remember considering him for the show, not even when I was an executive with no real intention of producing the show myself. Maybe David was considered for Goliath Chronicles. I didn't participate in that decision at all. (This is not to imply that I have something against David, it's just that I was going with people I knew.
Michael Reaves had shown me his excellent work on Batman. Brynne Chandler Reaves did great stuff on the first season of GARGOYLES and had earned her promotion. I had known Cary from as far back as my DC Comics days. And I had worked with Gary Sperling at Disney on a number of shows. I didn't know David, and wasn't too familiar with his work, so he was never in the running.)

Greg responds...

Time is the factor that it all comes back to. I do think that the lack of continuity, i.e. the near-complete change-over in creative staff was another major factor. But they still had some good people, who given more time could have done better. Though I immodestly believe that since the episodes only incidentally reflected my plans for the characters, the series lost some focus.

Money and resources were other important factors. Less was spent per episode. And much of the work was sub-contracted out to Nelvana.

(I should say, that I'm hardly objective about Chronicles. Someone said that Chronicles is a good show if judged outside the context of the original series. I'd guess that's accurate. God knows I was pleasantly surprised by "The Journey" which turned out much better than I had a right to expect.)

Greg responds...

Thirteen or fourteen, unless we decided to incorporate the 2158 Future Tense spin-off into TimeDancer. In which case it could be much more open-ended.

Greg responds...

I believe that some things are eternal.

Greg responds...

By 2158, Elisa & Goliath were both dead.

Greg responds...

How many would they give me? How long will I live? I promise I would never have run out of stories. Hell, I have the damn thing laid out beyond the year 2158. It would be fun to meet up in the middle. Plus there was a lot of interesting stories in the past that still needed to be told. (Ever wonder how Wyvern Hill got it's name?) And as the "gargoyles universe" expanded and added characters, that gave me even more stories to tell.

Greg responds...

Define "peace". Is white and black America at peace with each other today?
I don't think we would have seen an end to racism, but overt discrimination would be a thing of the past by the year 2158. Yes, 2158. I can't say for sure how fast each step forward would have come. The point of a "Master Plan" is to know the general direction and have specific tentpoles, without tying one's hands thus allowing for creativity and serendipity.

Goliath Chronicles did go a bit fast for my taste. They skipped a lot of steps even within episodes. The trial of Goliath is a fascinating idea that I had had myself, but I would have done it quite differently. Beginning with the notion that most of humanity wouldn't think about putting Goliath on trial for a crime, anymore than it would occur to them to drag a dangerous mountain lion into a courtroom. Before you can agree to have a trial, you have to agree that what your trying isn't a beast, but a sentient individual. I don't think Margot would have made that jump very quickly.

Ironically, I believe that the presence of Gargoyles would have done a lot to help real race relations between humans. Nothing like something even more different to make people realize how much they have in common with each other. In "The Journey" I tried to show that the Quarrymen appealed to a multitude of human "races".

Greg responds...

What are you basing your analysis of their characters on?

I've heard a lot of complaints about the Weird Sisters. At first they struck me as odd, but now I think I know where the confusion came from.

A. People took the way they presented themselves in "City of Stone" and in "High Noon" at face value.

B. When they saw the Sisters again in "Avalon" and "Ill Met by Moonlight", people didn't like the way they were behaving as much. The Sisters weren't as mysterious or powerful or something. So they rejected the "face value" version that was presented in those episodes.

C. People were less enamored of the Archmage than I was. When we first used the Archmage in "Long Way to Morning" I was phenominally impressed with David Warner, the actor who voiced the part. The character was just a cliched sorcerer, but I felt David added a level of menace that was irresistable. So even though we had killed off the character, I was determined to bring the Archmage back in a way that would let David go to town, and make the cliched Archmage into the near Satanic villain I envisioned he could be. That was what "Avalon, Part II" was supposed to accomplish. David didn't let me down. His dual performances as both versions of the Archmage was a true tour-de-force. But perhaps I failed David. The "Archmage-plus" was supposed to be all-but-omnipotent and all-but-omniscient. Once he had the Grimorum, the Eye and the Gate, he was supposed to be much more threatening than any villain we had encountered up to that point, including the Sisters. His fatal flaw (demonstrated in parts two and three) was his unwavering arrogance. He could have finished all his enemies off instantly. But at heart, he was still this cliched guy who had to toy with his enemies and make them suffer before he wiped them out. That gave the good guys time to rally and defeat him. I'm sure most of you basically got this, but you didn't FEEL it enough, so the Archmage didn't seem tough enough to boss the Sisters around. So everyone assumes that the Sisters are using HIM in some way.

D. Part of the reason for this is probably due to the fact that the final script for "Avalon, Part II" was WAY, WAY too long. We had to cut a lot of stuff before we shipped in order to get the show down to the correct length.
You didn't miss any important info, but I do think we lost a bit of the scope of the Archmage's plans, as well as some nice character moments and a bit of helpful expository stuff.

E. People didn't get the Sister's constraints vis-a-vis Oberon. Their hands were much more tied than people seemed to realize. They couldn't enter Avalon of their own volition. They were banished to the barge to guard it. The Archmage's commands gave them their excuse. And they wanted that excuse. So let me make something clear here: THEY ARE A VENGEFUL TRIO OF WITCHES. They wanted vengeance. But as immortals, they could afford to be patient. It didn't matter whether vengeance came in nine days or nine centuries. So, they were using the Archmage. Using him to extract their vengeance. That doesn't mean they wouldn't have eventually turned on the Archmage to get him off Avalon, but that would have been some fight, let me tell you.

F. Having said all that, don't imagine that helping the Archmage is the only thing they did for a millenium. They didn't follow Demona and Macbeth around every minute. They do have other things going on. Other plans. And I'm not saying that what they did for the Archmage doesn't dovetail with these other plans, but that doesn't mean they didn't sincerely want revenge on the Magus and his friends.

G. And they still do. The Magus may be largely beyond their reach, but Goliath and the others aren't. They still need to tread carefully because they can't risk Oberon or Titania's wrath, but believe me, they've got something up their sleeves.

I'm sure this "answer" raises a lot more questions. I can probably predict some of them, but it's much more fun to wait for you guys to ask them.

Greg responds...

Masquerading isn't really the correct word. They sort of possessed Desdemona briefly, splitting her image into the three facets of their personality. Keep in mind, that Desdemona didn't exist in bodily form. She was just a wisp of soul inside a crashed computer. The Sisters stepped in for one brief moment. Desdemona was there the whole time, and it was all her in every other scene she appeared in. Sorry if that wasn't clear.

Greg responds...

I feel like I've answered this one too, but I'm not as sure, so...

Do you want the "Story" answer or the "Behind the scenes" answer?

The story answer to your question is "yes".

Behind the scenes, Frank Paur was not satisfied with the designs that we had in "Metamorphosis", but we had run out of time. So he had to run with what we had. After "Metamophosis" shipped, he had time to revise them for "The Cage". So he did. This was o.k. with me because I could easily believe they were still mutating. Also, I didn't think they'd spend their lives dressed in the tattered clothes they were wearing when they were first injected.

Greg responds...

Define "mate". Define "make". New gargoyles would have been introduced.

Greg responds...

Appearances can be deceiving. Una is all gargoyle. Gargoyle's lay eggs.

Greg responds...

1. Yes.

2. That's not a quick question. Well, at any rate, it's not a quick answer.

3. I don't remember exact numbers. The first season was promising, especially considering we were only on once a week. The second season was solid but disappointing to many Disney executives, because they had high hopes that once we went daily, we'd start kicking butt. Instead, we placed 2nd consistently, usually to Power Rangers. Third season ratings weakened even more, or so I'm told. I never saw any numbers for either the reruns or for the Goliath Chronicles. There are a lot of mitigating factors, the biggest being FOX's overall strength in kid's programming, but it doesn't change the fact that we didn't put up winning numbers with any consistency.

Greg responds...

I'm struggling with three or four year old memories here, but I think this is what happened. When we had finished casting the lead characters, my development associate, Paul Lacy, made some phone calls to a number of tribal reps and got a bunch of different Elisa surnames for us to choose from. (We were initially leaning towards "Bluestone". We even recorded the first couple episodes using the "Bluestone" name. And that's after we had already recorded those same lines using the name "Chavez".) My boss, Gary Krisel, chose "Maza", which was fine with me also. We were under the impression that "maza" was the Sioux word for "iron". That appealed to me. (So we rerecorded again.)

Later in the season, when Elisa was shot, her parents made reference to her sister Beth who was in school in Arizona. That was my mistake. No real Sioux population in Arizona, as it turns out. Brynne Reaves and Lydia Marano found that out pretty quick when they started doing their research for what would eventually be titled "Cloud Fathers". I had recently read Tony Hillerman's novel COYOTE WAITS, so I suggested a Navajo connection, but by the time the story was done, we clearly had a Hopi ritual. (Or maybe Zuñi. Even now, I certainly don't pretend to be an expert.)

To top things off, Michael Horse, the voice of Peter and Carlos Maza, read the script and gave us a few tips. He also told us that "Maza" was not a Sioux name, so we got that wrong too somehow.

So the long answer is... I screwed up. And it pains me, because we had such good intentions. Next time, I'll be much more careful.

The short answer (the explanation) is that Carlos Maza's ancestors are largely, but not exclusively, Hopi. This is some consolation to me, since (1) it helps us understand the interracial marriage that Peter and Diane have (not to mention Elisa's interspecies attraction) and (2) it offers us the possibility of exploring more Native American legends while simultaneously exploring more of Carlos, Peter, Elisa, Derek and Beth's ancestry. Trust that if I ever get the chance to do these further stories, I will research the hell out of the whole thing before I even begin.

Greg responds...

Inspirations, I think I've discussed. If you read the archives and have a more specific question about what did or didn't inspire me, let it fly.

As to who the characters were based on... well, no one was based on anybody specific from my life. Though all of them came out of my life experience and (I'm sure) the life experiences of the other writers, editors, artists and producers who worked on the series.

[It's an inherent danger of this whole ASK GREG set-up, that it always comes off as if I was working by myself. Let me state again that a LOT OF PEOPLE contributed a lot of extremely creative material to this show.]

Greg responds...

The Ultra-Pack was not supposed to be part of the "Future Tense" spin-off.
It was just going to be part of the on-going Gargoyles series. The "fifth member" would have been an all-new character. No one you know.

Greg responds...

It depends what you mean. Internally, we would have done what we did with Othello, Desdemona and Iago. That is, we would have given them designations in the script, so the artists and animators, etc, knew who we were talking about. In the show itself, we would have avoided using those names.
The gargoyles would refer to each other by relationship, just as they did in our very first episode. At least, that was the plan. I had a back-up plan if that just didn't seem to be working, which entailed Prince Malcolm giving each of his gargoyle warriors a Biblical or Mythological name. They never would use those names with each other, but the humans could use them and the audience could too. By the way, this series would have been set in the year 971.

Greg responds...

I don't remember if I had any. I may not even have been the person who came up with it. What I do remember is that from the moment I saw Bob Kline's drawing of a castle atop a skyscraper, I knew it was cool.

Greg responds...

People love to toss around incendiary terms. We had no "censor".

Yes, of course, the romantic relationship between Goliath and Elisa was planned from the start. I'm sure that's self-evident. I wouldn't call it "Lois & Clark-ish" though; I don't really see the parallel there.

I wanted to play their "courtship" realistically. I had two individuals who were destined for each other. But that doesn't mean things would progress quickly. Elisa is an extremely guarded woman in many ways. She's had to be. She's succeeded in a career that is traditionally male. Dating fellow cops is a dangerous move for a female detective. Double standards, sexual harrassment claims, precinct harmony etc. make it less than ideal. Dating crooks isn't too appealing either, for obvious reasons. Who else does she meet working the night shift as she does? You'll notice that the person who was always putting the breaks on any romantic discussion that Goliath tried to initiate was Elisa. She has trouble admitting her feelings, even to her mother. She's fairly secretive.

In addition, Elisa had, and still has, a keen sense of the situation's impossibility. I think Elisa would like to have kids someday. Not necessarily right away, but someday. That's not possible with Goliath. At least not in the traditional way. I hope "High Noon" revealed that Elisa is not Fox Mulder. She was never looking for weirdness to enter her life. She wanted, and to some extent still wants, a normal life. She could never have that with Goliath.

Goliath had a totally different problem. He had a wounded heart. Gargoyles mate for life. Mates die, but it was beyond his understanding that his mate could still be alive, and they would not be together. That's why Goliath was still trying to win Demona back as late as "Vows". That's why he never quite knows what to do with her. What to make of her. That was a huge distraction from Elisa. His feelings for Elisa were already present, as early as "Awakening, Part Three". But it took him awhile to recognize them. And when he did, he was ashamed. He felt he shouldn't be able to fall in love again.Certainly not with a human. (Don't for a minute believe that Goliath is immune to prejudice. No one is. At least no one I've ever met.) What's interesting is that Goliath fell in love with Elisa even before he understood how physically attractive she was. He didn't realize that until "The Mirror". He tried to talk to her about his feelings on numerous occasions. She always cut him off. And maybe, he thought, that was for the best. But that's also why the events of "Sentinel" were so painful to him. She didn't remember him or their life together. She didn't trust him. She even tried to shoot him. It broke his heart. (Again.) Of course, it wasn't her fault, and he knew it. And when push came to shove, she instinctively knew that they were connected and so saved him from Nokkar.

And that's the problem they were both faced with. Not having anything more than a platonic friendship made sense to both of them. But that wasn't possible. They didn't have a choice. They loved each other. It was almost a curse.

That's what was going on with Elisa in "Hunter's Moon". Jason and Goliath actually have a number of things in common. Jason's the kind of guy she goes for, and gee whiz, he was human. (Of course, he was also a Hunter, but she didn't know that at first.) She really liked him. And if she had never met Goliath... who knows? I think Officer Morgan is another guy who could have made Elisa very happy -- if she had never met Goliath. But she had.
And her love for Goliath transcended their differences. That's why she kissed Goliath at the end of "Hunter's Moon". That's what was going on between them at the end of "The Journey".

But that didn't solve the problem. Eventually, they'd have to TALK about it. Really talk about it. They'd have to discuss the pragmatic aspects of it. Not to get too crude, but how does a gargoyle make love? (I know the answer to that, by the way, but let's try to keep things clean.) What about children? Goliath has Angela and a whole clan of rookery kids on Avalon, but Elisa's never going to be a mother to Angela. And what about their future?

If I had continued on the show, I would have dramatized this conversation, with the end result being that they would have decided once and for all NOT to have a romantic relationship. The realities of the discussion would temporarily overwhelm their feelings for each other.

That break-up wouldn't last long. Because, ultimately, they have no choice.
They love each other with one of those great mythic loves of song and story.
But again, that doesn't solve any problems. (Well, actually, it does, but not the problems I'm talking about.) They'd have dealt with each issue as it came up.

Now back to your original question about censorship. Who knows what problems we might or might not have run into down the line? I can't answer that. But we had ZERO problems during the 66 episodes that I worked on. Elisa and Goliath loved each other. That was a given. But the characters we created weren't about to jump into interspecies sex, so there was nothing to object to. Heck, it took 65 episodes for them to kiss on the lips. What I'm getting at is that the slow pace was intentional. It suited the characters to go slow. But that dovetailed nicely with the fact that there was nothing for anyone to object to.

We also had the added help that Disney's Beauty and the Beast had just come out and raised everyone's consciousness. The animated lesson not to judge a book by it's cover was well-learned throughout the halls of Disney.

Greg responds...

Yes, I had plenty of stories planned for TimeDancer. The meeting of Xanatos and Demona was the second story. The first one was a Constantine/Finella/ Mary adventure. There was also, as I've mentioned, an extended visit to the year 2158. Plus a couple more trips to the past, including one to Ishimura in Japan's feudal era. And, yes, ultimately, Brooklyn would have rejoined the Manhattan clan -- five minutes after he left, from their point of view. (From his, forty years would have passed.)

Greg responds...

I don't feel like revealing that right now. Sorry. Ask me again sometime.

Greg responds...

It's not at all true. Who'd you hear that from? "Avalon" was always supposed to be a triptych. Not one long story, but three connected stories.
What IS true is that the final script for "Avalon, Part Two" came in very long. We did have to cut some stuff for time. Nothing important. But the Archmage did walk his allies and the audience through his plans a little bit more. There was some helpful expository stuff and a few nice character bits lost, but no story points.

Greg responds...

I did have plans.

Seriously, Coldsteel would have remained a threat. Coldstone & Coldfire would have eventually joined a clan. But I'm not saying which one.

Greg responds...

1. Sevarius was hypothesizing, but he was more right than wrong. Demona's
transformation was magical. Magic compensated. Why wouldn't it work for the
Mayan gargoyles?

2. Yes.

Greg responds...

Damn good question. Most people reading this won't like the answer, but NO,
Gargoyles were never THAT popular. We had midling success, and a core group
of extremely loyal followers, but it never made the impact that Power Rangers
made. Some merchandise did well. Some of it died. Our ratings started out
promising. Moved on to respectable. Moved to disappointing and ended up
being lousy. I wish it weren't so, and there were tons of mitigating
factors. But they don't alter the facts.

Greg responds...

1) Brooklyn developed overtime. He began as two characters in the show's
original comedy development. "Amp" looked more like Lexington, but had
Brooklyn's basic personality. "Lassie" (a male gargoyle who admired the
collie's heroic qualities) was an idiot-savant character. But he looked a
bit like Brooklyn. I think Bob Kline did the original designs on these
comedy characters. (They were all diminutive.) Dave Schwartz redesigned
Brooklyn, Lex and Broadway. The final models were done by Kazuyoshi Takeuchi
based on Dave's inspirational design. Frank Paur also made some minor
changes to it.

2) One answer is because the character demanded it. That is the stories of
his life seemed to exist and need to be told. On another level, I felt that
childhood friendships must evolve or die. Brooklyn, Lex and Broadway
couldn't go through life as The Three Musketeers. By sending Brooklyn away
for five minutes of Broadway's life, but forty years of Brooklyn's it would
demonstrate that although the trio would always be the best of friends, the
days of being joined at the hip were quite, quite over.

Greg responds...

She was fated to a lot more self-delusion, but eventually she would have had
a true epiphany. And two more great loves. (Aren't I a stinker?)

Greg responds...

I've answered that question a lot. Gore, maybe you could repost that long
message I sent you to the AskGreg Archives. You know the one where I
list the factors why the show was cancelled and explain what steps might
be taken down the line. It's been passed around a lot, but some people may
not have seen it.

The short answer to your question is to keep the flame burning and hope the
live-action movie spurs renewed interest.

Greg responds...

Well, first of all I'd have them discuss it.

Then come to the conclusion that it was impossible.

Then I was going to send them on a Halloween double date. Goliath with
Delilah. Elisa with either Morgan or Jason (I hadn't decided). The date
would have made it clear that no matter how impossible their relationship
seemed, they would just have to find a way to make it work.

Eventually, there would have been some kind of commitment ceremony. I don't
know if you'd call it a wedding per se, but the purpose would have been clear
enough.

I know more, but that's enough for now. (Boy, this is my day to be coy.)

Greg responds...

I once said that given enough time and episodes, Gargoyles would have
included every legend ever. I was scoffed at. Completely scoffed at. But I
meant it.

Greg responds...

Well, I'm not going to give these all away right now, but I'm feeling
obnoxious, so I'll give you some useless clues just to drive you crazy.

Keep in mind that there were once hundreds of clans, but most of them died
out by the end of the middle ages. We're talking about new and/or surviving
clans, not every clan that ever existed.

The first Eight existed at the time of "Awakenings" (1994).
1. London - Most of the clan actually lives on an estate just outside
London.
2. Ishimura.
3. Guatemala - down to only four gargoyles, but poised for a
comeback.
4. No way you could guess this one. I don't think there are any
clues in the show's content.
5. Ditto.
6. This one could be guessed by a sharp viewer who understands the
way we planted clues in the show. For example, Elisa and Matt's
first conversation in her car, re: the Illuminati, Loch Ness
Monster, etc.
7. Ditto.
8. Avalon - formed after the eggs hatched on Avalon. Duh.

Two more existed (barely) by the end of "The Journey" (1996).

9. Manhattan - Our guys, of course, as a start.
10. Shouldn't be too hard to guess. Though "Goliath Chronicles" might
be a trifle distracting. Two more existed by 2158.
11. This one would take some extrapolation, but it's possible it could
be figured out if the life-purpose of certain existing characters
were followed to their logical conclusions.
12. This would also take some extrapolation. Think "nostalgia".

Two more clans would be formed in the years that follow.

13. Very tough to guess, but possible via the same kind of thinking
as #6.
14. Even harder to guess, but an absolute natural.

Anyone who can guess 8 out of 14 is a true fan.

Anyone who can guess 10 is a true fan with too much time on his or her hands.

Anyone who can guess 12 is a true fan with too much time and a lot of
intuitive ability.

Anyone who can guess all 14 is just a psychic freak.

Greg responds...

Some things have already come true. Alexander was born. The Clock Tower was
destroyed. Other things have already been proven untrue. Primarily, Goliath
did return to Manhattan before 2036. As for the rest, well, ask me some
other time.

Greg responds...

He survived. The Thailogs of this world always survive.

Greg responds...

1. No.

2. Disney would NEVER consider selling the rights.

3. Michael Reaves and I are officially co-producers on the movie. I'm not
sure what that means exactly yet. But we are being kept abreast of things.

Which brings me to my first set of as promised RAMBLINGS.

RUMORS AND THE MOVIES
I'm relatively new to the internet, but I've just been appalled by the way
people clearly start rumors based on nothing with the
explicit purpose, to my thinking, of misleading dedicated fans. Does this
make them feel superior? Why aren't they ever called to account for it?

For example, who started the Jean-Claude VanDamme rumor? Ask yourself where
you first saw it. Track down who told you. Ask that person who told him or
her. When you find the guy or gal who first stated that Mr. Van Damme was
going to be in the GARGOYLES live-action movie, mark him down on some kind of
list as untrustworthy.

Anyway, here's what's going on with the Live-Action Feature, in development
at Touchstone Pictures, as of 4-10-97.

There are NO ACTORS attached. NONE. Not Jean-Claude. Not Jonathan Frakes
or Marina Sirtis or anyone. No one. It's way too soon.

Tom Jacobson is the producer. Dean Devlin is the writer. They are the only
two people currently attached to the project. The only ones. (Besides
Michael and myself, in our minor roles as co-producers.)

The script is supposed to come in from Dean by the end of this month.
GOLIATH is the lead character. Other gargoyles will appear but this is
basically Goliath's movie. Saying anything else before the first draft is
even completed is folly. If someone claims to know more, and he or she isn't
Dean Devlin, then I'd take the info with a boulder of salt.

Anyway, end of ramble.

Greg responds...

Frank doesn't work at DreamWorks anymore, so I don't know when I'll next talk
to him, but when I do, I'll let him know you guys want him to show. Maybe
we'll set up a special "Ask Frank" day or something later. Angela, I'm a
writer, not an artist, so I don't have a lot of advise to offer to
animators. Learn your craft. Compile a portfolio. Hustle yourself some
work. I know that's not much, but I hope it helps.

Greg responds...

Again, no censors. One very understanding lady. I think while I was at
Disney, we received two letters of complaint about the show. Both had
nothing to do with content. In fact, it was clear from the content of the
letters that neither complaintant had ever watched an episode. They objected
to the show's Satanic content, basing their objections on the way the
Gargoyles looked in the commercials or opening titles.

Actually, we were expecting a flood of this type of mail. It never came.

Greg responds...

O.k. I can only speak to Gargoyles, not to the Goliath Chronicles. We had no
censors on Gargoyles. We did have an executive in charge of Broadcast
Standards and Practices. Her name was Adrienne Bello. (Still is,
actually.) She loved the show and is a personal friend. She understood that
some things were necessary to story, and that in context they wouldn't be
that bad. Duncan's magical death wasn't problematic. But we weren't allowed
to stab him, because we didn't want anyone getting a kitchen knife and
imitating that. Fox and Xanatos did live together at the Eyrie before they
got married, but they also had separate bedrooms until they got married. I'm
not saying nothing ever happened between them, and certainly we were walking
a line, but I think we were always responsible to the young end of our
audience. Adrienne allowed us to do this without compromising the shows
integrity.

Greg responds...

Disney's Gummi Bears. Hill Street Blues. Yoknapatwpha County, i.e. the
complete works of William Faulkner. The Complete works of William
Shakespeare. The Simpsons. Various comic book universes. The novels of
Tony Hillerman. Lots of myth, legends, etc, which I have always been
interested in. Plus the input of all the other talented people who put the
show together with me. I was not a one-man band here.

Greg responds...

Depends on how you define "mortal".

Greg responds...

Yes. Magic isn't an exact science. There are glitches. If Demona gets
angry enough, we get a glitch.

Greg responds...

Magic powers the Phoenix Gate. The idea for the gate came to me in a fevered
dream (well, actually in an editorial panic), while we were working on
"Vows". We new we needed a maguffin for that story. Something that both
Xanatos and Demona would want to get from Goliath. Something that Goliath
associated with his love for Demona, but didn't know the true nature of.
Originally there was no time travel in that episode. Then I came up for with
the idea of the Gate for the maguffin. I squashed the entire episode into
Act One, so that we could have two acts of time travel. That's one reason,
why that episode might seem a little rushed. It really should have been a
two-parter.

Greg responds...

Ah, the mystery of genetics....

Greg responds...

We had very specific plans for Yama. I had a few ideas for Sora and Zafiro
as well. And we had long term plans for all of the surviving clans. There
were ten clans at the time of "The Journey". Although some of those clans,
were either in pretty sorry shape or just beginning. I had planned on having
fourteen clans eventually.

Greg responds...

I've been fascinated by Gargoyles since at least my college days. But
someone else at Disney made the suggestion to do a show about Gargoyles.
That's all they gave me. That one word. Gargoyles. I ran with it. Though
I had a LOT of help. It was a real team effort.

Greg responds...

I like cartoons. I always have. But I don't know if I was inspired to work
in animation. As I was finishing graduate school, I began looking for jobs.
Disney TV Animation offered me one. So I took it. Sorry, it's not much of a
story.

Greg responds...

A lot.

Greg responds...

The magus comes up? I'm not sure what you mean. The Magus was a human
being. He trained under the Archmage, after Demona gave up being the
Archmage's apprentice. The Children of Oberon have a lot of stories. I'm
not going to tell any here. Not today, anyway.

Greg responds...

Macbeth was reading Merlin's writing. Merlin sealed those scrolls with his
own hand. Macbeth wasn't even born when Arthur first surfaced. To Macbeth,
Arthur was a great and legendary king.

Greg responds...

Whoah, slow down there. Demona came to America for many of the same
reasons most immigrants came. There's a story behind it, but I'm not
ready to give that away yet. As I've mentioned once or twice before, Demona
and Xanatos were introduced by Owen/Puck, who had met Demona centuries
before. The Weird Sisters kept a careful watch on Demona, but largely stayed
out of her life. With two exceptions.

Greg responds...

After events in "City of Stone", Demona was persona non grata in Scotland.
She began to travel a lot. She also began to study sorcery. To accumulate
wealth. Her immortality allowed her to make long term plans. To gather
materials that might not be of use to her now, but might be very useful
later. The reason she was in Italy was to steal the Medici Tablet, which
contained a powerful magical spell. Too powerful for her to control during
the fifteenth century. But she had time.

Greg responds...

Basically, she survived. She gathered the tattered remains of the various
clans of Gargoyles in Scotland. She became their leader. She stole food to
survive, and she wasn't very careful about the humans, innocent or otherwise
that got in her way. After the original Hunter surfaced, she alternated
hunting him and being hunted by him. She hid. It was a miserable existence.

Greg responds...

You're mistaken. She doesn't smash Brendan & Margot. All those Stone
Statues look alike. That's my answer, and I'm sticking with it.

Greg responds...

The character of "Elisa Chavez" was created before Salli was cast. We had a
basic look for the character, but no final models. After Salli was cast, we
asked her what her ethnic background was. (African-American largely, but
also Native American.) That seemed like an interesting background for Elisa,
so we changed her name to "Maza" which means "iron" in the Navajo language
(or at least that's what I was told by my assistant). We gave Elisa an
African-American mother and a Native American father. Then we asked Salli if
we could give photographs of her to our character designers. She said yes,
and they adjusted our existing models to look a bit more like Salli. So her
"look" was inspirational rather than, say, "traced".

By the way, we obviously reused the Chavez name for Elisa's boss Maria.
Two other discarded Elisa last names that were reused are (Maggie) Reed and
(Matt) Bluestone.

Greg responds...

That wasn't a scientific estimate. It also depends on how you define an
in-joke. It amused me to have Xanatos quote Hamlet and Monty Python in the
same scene in "Future Tense". Is that an in-joke? Probably not. It's part
of Xanatos' personality. I'd have to watch the episodes again. Maybe when
the questions calm down, I'll do that. Watch one episode per week and write
up whatever thoughts come to my head as I'm watching. Post them as ramblings.
I'll include any in-jokes I remember. Maybe. We'll see.

Greg responds...

Ages in parenthesis represent biological age when that age differs from the character's chronological age.

As of December 31, 1996:
Hudson - 1118 (59)
Goliath - 1058 (29)
Trio - 1038 (19)
Angela - 952 (21)
Bronx - 1018 (9)
Demona - 1058 (35)
Coldstone - 1058 (28)
Macbeth - 991 (52)
Xanatos - 41
Fox - 30
Alexander - not yet 1
Elisa - 28
Talon, Dracon - 26
Beth - 21
Katharine - 1020 (62)
Tom - 1010 (52)
Gabriel, Ophelia, Boudicca - 952 (20)

Greg responds...

Yeah. Titanium mesh. That's the ticket. C'mon, do you really want to see
Broadway's loincloth get shredded? It's a family show, after all.