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Todd Jensen writes...
When you first had Xanatos and Owen mention the Emir in "The Edge", did you know that he'd feature in an episode in a prominent role at that time? Did you when you got to their mention of him in "Double Jeopardy"?
Greg responds...
Edge - No.
DJ - I was beginning to suspect that everything would eventually be used.
Tony Scrima writes...
Hey Mr. Weisman,
I just have one question that I've been thinking about. I know you created Gargoyles back in 1991, but how come it was three years before the series was put on T.V.? Surely it didn't take three years to write, animate, voice record, and edit/censor the first thirteen episodes did it? So what happened? Why'd it take three years from the time you created the series to the time it was put on T.V.?
Greg responds...
We started creating the show in 1991. As a comedy-adventure. (Take a look at the "Original Development File" archive at ASK GREG.)
We failed to sell it to Michael Eisner. Then we tried again as an Action-Drama. We failed to sell it again.
We reworked the pitch and tried a third time. (The show didn't change this time, just the way we pitched it.) Third time was the charm. He bought off on it. And we went into production. But that process took about two years total. (We only got to meet with Eisner once every six months in those days.) That brings us to 1993. We then had ten months to produce the first thirteen episodes (on a sliding schedule). Which takes us to the fall of '94. Which is when we premeired.
(But what are you implying with the word "censor"?)
matt writes...
i have a question about the process of gargs turning to stone, i've noticed that they turn to stone differently at different times. sometimes they convert to stone all at once, sometimes they do this fast and sometimes they do it slowly, and sometimes they turn to stone from the ground up or from one direction to another. my question is, why do they turn to stone different ways? is it because of their mindset at dawn or is it just random? i've noticed that they turn to stone slowly from the ground up when they don't want to turn to stone, like when Goliath and Hudson were returning to Wyvern the night of the massacre, or when Goliath was told Elisa was shot, or when Broadway was caught in midair at dawn. in a way are they trying to to forstall the change to stone and this causes the change to happen in a different way? am i looking at this way too hard, i don't think i am, the stone changing process just seems slower and more "forced" when the gargs are in distress or don't want it to be dawn...
i think thats all i have to say...
Greg responds...
Well, the obvious real world answer is that we're using artistic license all over the damn place.
But in the garg universe, I think you've answered your own question. If they don't want to change, they can fight it for a few seconds. Slow the process a bit. But just a bit.
Demoness writes...
Were all the characters drawn to resemble, in some way, the actors/actresses that voiced them? Like Xanatos and Franks for example.
Greg responds...
No. Or at least largely no.
Xanatos was literally designed years before Jonathan Frakes was cast in the role.
Elisa's basic design didn't change much either, but we did send pictures of Salli Richardson to Mr. Takeuchi, the character designer who was working on her final model in Japan.
The human versions of Goliath, Hudson, Lex, Brooklyn and Broadway were influenced by the actors who played them. But only a bit. We had to stay faithful to the gargoyle base forms.
(handel)Luna Wyvern writes...
Why was Gargoyles canceled off the air?
Will it ever be on ever again?
Can I do something about this situation?
Greg responds...
Start by taking a look at the archives for a good answer.
At this point, I might suggest that the most pragmatic thing people could do is to petition Disney for a DVD release. Politely.
Anonymous writes...
Why is it that you couldn't afford to design the Avalon clan yet you could afford to design Raven's fake clan?
Greg responds...
Can't you see the difference?
Raven's "fake clan" had, what, like three members?
We didn't have the man-hours to design 36 separate gargoyles for Avalon. But we did design some members of the Avalon clan. Angela, Gabriel, Ophelia, Boudicca, at least.
Rob Irwin (the Sloth) writes...
1. were all the episodes in TGC a "mutation" of your ideas.
2. You said before that if the show started agian, you would discard these eps. Does this mean you would use the same ideas that were put in thoes shows but make it the way you wanted to?
Greg responds...
1. It seemed that way. Though some were mutated to the point of unrecognizability.
2. I think so.
Sapphire writes...
Dear Mr. Weisman
When creating Gargoyles have you ever been under attack by the super conservative Southern Bapitist convention and other religious groups for giving reference to magic and a gothic atmosphere in the Gargoyles television show? I'm asking this question because when I accidentially stumbled across the Focus on the Family with Dr. Dobson official web site movie and television review web page They give two thumbs down to every movie and television show for showing magic.
Greg responds...
We got a couple letters from people who had clearly seen the commercials and not the show itself.
That was a very limited hostile response. Much less than we expected.
Magica de Spell on DuckTales got more mail.
LSZ writes...
The issue of gargoyles turning to stone being a biological and non-magical process seems important to you, and it does make a more interesting universe; it was also firmly mentioned in the Gargoyles' bible..so out of curiosity, if this fact was so important, why was it never mentioned in the series itself, when other biological details like the solar and aging thing were mentioned?
Greg responds...
I probably thought of it as so self-evident that it didn't occur to me to mention it.
And/or it was nearly impossible to work into a conversation naturally.
Siren writes...
On the eye color thing...
What biological and creative reason is it that females have red glowing eyes and males white?
I found this is a strange, but really cool thing on the show.
Greg responds...
Well, behind the scenes, I think it was a result of Demona having glowing red eyes in the pilot and everyone else (i.e. the guys) all having glowing white eyes. I'm not sure I remember us planning it then. It just happened. Then we strove to be consistent.
Biologically, I dunno... hormones?
Phil writes...
I've enjoyed reading your development files for Gargoyles. The fact that you're here and still working on the concept years after it's been cancelled leads me to a question:
At what point did you realize that Gargoyles was not just another cartoon series? It's obvious now how different Gargoyles is from Bonkers or Tale Spin, but at what point in development did that emerge?
Greg responds...
There came a point when Frank Paur was hired to join the project, when I realized I didn't want to let go of it. That it was too personal, too in synch with my own head. Normally at that time, I developed shows (like Bonkers) and handed them off to a producer. This one, I could not let go of.
Which is not to say I knew there'd be conventions, websites, fanfic, fanart, etc., way back then. I had no idea the series would generate that kind of loyalty. I just knew I cared about it.
Siren writes...
When they began designing the characters from 994 A.D. do you know of what books they used to find out the clothing of the first century? I am looking myself as well, but maybe a book the creators used themselves would be wonderful. Thanks Greg!
Greg responds...
I don't know. Sorry.
Vic writes...
Hellos again,
(typing this as a rerun of 'Thrill of the Hunt' concludes, such apprpriate atmosphere)
Several questiones focused more on the conception and creative procees behind Gargoyles:
1. How long did you think Gargoyles would last on TV initially?
2. Was the whole Saga to you a finite story, or something that would go on as long as some one was writing it?
3. What's your involvement in the Gargoyles Saga presently? Speciffically, do you just give those writing it down an outline to go with, or have more active involvement?
That's all,
Thanks for your attention.
2.
Greg responds...
1. Initially, I had no idea. But I had hopes it would go on forever.
2. It was never finite. Still isn't .
3. If you're talking about TGS, the fan-fiction, I literally have ZERO involvement. Nada. Never read any of it. Don't participate. And though it's great that the fans are doing that, it's not canon in my mind.
Demona Taina writes...
This is another stupid question.. but you've said before that when one of your voice actors had a busy schedule that he/she could not get out of, you simply got another actor to play the part, like what happened with Maria Chavez and Margot Yale. What happened when one of the main characters' voices was unavailable? (Keith David, Thom Adcox, Marina Sirtis..) Did you postpone the recording session or something?
Thanks!
Greg responds...
We postponed recording them. We'd record the other actors and get Keith or whomever when we could. It wasn't usually too long a wait.
Anonymous writes...
You once said that you had a medusa character in NO that was eventually replaced by Sphinx. So did you take out the medusa character because you wanted to show that there were also human looking NOs?
Greg responds...
Sphinx isn't particularly human-looking. She's certainly less human looking than Boreas, for example.
Mostly we took out Medusa in a lead role, for two reasons...
1. We thought she'd be very hard to animate. So we wanted to be able to use her sparingly.
2. I liked the ability to use angelic imagery for the first meeting of Terry and Sphinx.
Jill HV writes...
Hi, Why did they stop making new show?
Greg responds...
Oh, that's a big long complex question that I've just answered so many times before. In fact I once wrote a borderline discertation on the subject that multiple people have posted on various websites. Ask around in the comment room for a link.
Todd Jensen writes...
Was part of the purpose of the eggs' brief mention in "Awakening" (aside from the preparation for their re-introduction in "Avalon" later on, when you got around to it) an indication to the audience that the gargoyles were genuine living beings rather than statues brought to life by magic? The presence of gargoyle eggs, after all, does indeed indicate that the gargoyles weren't mere magical creations (I doubt that animated statues would be able to breed).
Greg responds...
Yes, in a way, anyhow. It was part of the whole picture to that end. Goliath bled. He could be killed, etc.
Duncan Devlin writes...
I noticed a contuning theme with the drawing of Xanatos. When there are other characters around, he seems to dominate everyone in size, with the notable exception of Goliath.
This was strongly evident in Future Tense, when Demona kicked him. She was about 1/3 his size.
Any comments? Did this happen on purpose? Was it your idea or animation's?
Greg responds...
Part of it is a function of design.
Some of it I'm sure came from the board artists/director and producers.
Some from the animators.
matt writes...
another thing about Lex flying a helicopter... he'd only been in the modern world with modern technology for a couple months and even with the video game, he's flying a complex aircraft after one night! thats what i call a stretch... i've lived among modern technology most of my life and i've played plenty of flight simulator games and if you put me into an even simple plane or helicopter i wouldn't be able to fly it! and even if i was allowed to fiddle around with the controls for a couple days, i'd be lucky if i could fly it, my point is, was Lex's sudden skill with the helicopter another result of Kenner wanting to make a toy helicopter?
Greg responds...
Largely.
Kathy Lowe writes...
As I understand it, you wrote the beat sheets in response to an outline or script that was submitted to you. I really enjoy reading the summaries that you wrote; I am curious about the purpose of these summaries. Were you writing down what you interpreted the story to be from the script (thinking out loud on paper)? The way it is presented in the beat sheet, seems (to me at any rate) like most of the episode ideas are coming from you rather than the other way around.
It would be nice to see one of the scripts that you did a beat sheet on, but I can certainly understand if they no longer exist. Just seeing the evolution from Beat Sheet to final episode extremely interesting.
Greg responds...
I don't do the beat sheets based on the scripts. I did them based on rough outlines from my writers and story editors. Then THEY did the scripts.
Since you aren't seeing the outlines... and you can't (at least not from me) since I don't have them anymore. It's hard to tell what ideas were coming from me and what was coming from the original outlines, or for that matter the writers' original premises or my original springboards. The best clues are when I say, "Change this to this." But mostly the whole thing needs to be viewed as an organic process. With multiple people involved. Writer/Story Editor/Supervising Story Editor (at minimum). Plus various people like Frank Paur kibitzing.
matt writes...
you've said that the Guatemalan, Ishimura, and London all had rookeries with eggs when Goliath and co. visited, why didn't you decide to show that any of these clans had eggs on screen? i think it would've been great to see that gargoyles do have a future and their not slowly dying out. was the problem time constraints? how hard is it to show some eggs in the background of certain scenes?
Greg responds...
Harder than you obviously think.
Cause for starters you're limiting my ideas to eggs.
Every episode was (at least in my opinion) bursting with ideas. As many as we could fit in and do justice too. Certain things were explicit. Some were implied. And some were just logical extrapolations of what was explicit or implied.
There was NEVER going to be room for every notion, every facet of everything. We put in what would fit and what we felt we NEEDED.
Blah writes...
Want to know something creepy? There is a real company called Xanatos Enterprises, and the guy who owns it is named David Xanatos. Check it out at www.xanatos.com
This company designs websites and has only been in existance for the last 2 years or so. But seriously, that's the guy's real name. He didn't get the idea from Gargoyles.
Just curious... if there ever was a spin off or continuation of Gargoyles, as you hope, would the fact that this company now exists cause name problems for the fictional Xanatos Enterprises? I mean, I know that Disney, as well as any other company involved in show business tends to stear away from potential legal issues like this. It's true that the name has been with Gargoyles longer, but I've seen similar changes made for lesser reasons.
Greg responds...
Well, you're not the first to mention this guy. And I'll simply repeat what I've said all along. There was no Xanatos Enterprises when the show began. There was a "Xanacorp" however. I know this because Disney did a very thorough legal search. That makes us safe to continue using our name.
Someone once told me that this guy's middle name is "David". And that he got the name for his company (and the idea to feature his middle name over his first) from our series. I'm not sure if that's true. But if it is, it's flattering.
Dexter writes...
Hello Greg-Alright, so this one is about Angela's hair. It's it just coincidence that her hair style is exactly like Princess Jasmine's from Alladin, or did you guys over a Disney just do that to be cute? I'm not trying to be an asshole (wow it's a miracle) I like her hair. Hmmm, she'd look pretty gorgeous with it down though, rrrrrrrroaw!
Greg responds...
I don't know. I assume it's a coincidence, but we were all in the same building so maybe we were influenced some. Greg Guler's original design for Demona had that sort of pony-tail. Frank didn't want that for Demona, so I had it brought back for Angela.
LittleLotusFlower writes...
Hey, I'm new to the whole question thing, but I've been a fan for years. I've been wanting to ask a question that's bothered me and my brother for years. Can you possibly tell me the make and model od Elisa's car? Is it a real car in existance, or just a creation from the fine people at Disny?
Greg responds...
There's some disagreement about this. I was always under the impression that it was a Ford Fairlane. Or largely a Ford Fairlane. Roy Sato tells me it isn't exactly that. I forget what he said it was. A combo of a few models and makes, I think. I assume the Fairlane's in there, but I'm no longer even sure of that.
Roy?
Todd Jensen writes...
You indicated in one of your recent responses that Shangri-La came to mind as the site of a possible, but unmade, Avalon World Tour adventure. What I'm curious about is whether it'd be possible to include Shangri-La in "Gargoyles". I believe that it was invented by James Hilton in his novel "Lost Horizon", written and published in the 1930's, which could make it a little too recent to be quite in the public domain as yet, though I'm not certain on that.
Greg responds...
Yeah, I'm not certain either. Shangri-La was mentioned in passing in the comic book story that I wrote for Marvel, which was never published. That was allowed, because it was a "diminimous" reference.
Before I actually set an adventure there, I'd need to make sure I was legally allowed to. If in fact, Shangri-La was created by Hilton and wasn't in the public domain, I'd probably shift to something like Kun-Lun. Tell the same kind of story there.
You know, on a related note, we did check Brigadoon (which was mentioned in a similar diminimous fashion in the Gargoyles/Captain Atom/Justice League Europe parody story I wrote, which WAS published by DC Comics) way back when, as a kind of proto-Avalon. We found out that wasn't legendary, but a creation of the modern non-public domain musical. So I went with my initial plan and used Avalon.
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