Greg's Ramblings : Gargoyles : Station Eight

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Rambled on Fri, December 22, 2000

Another pass at a test...

Still May. Still 1992. (More than two years before the first episode would air.) Ten days after my previous attempt, I took another pass at outlining a five minute animation test (which was never made). It's labeled as a "2nd Draft", but is in fact a third. Bronx is still a comedic character. Issues of scale with him are confused at best.

GARGOYLES (Weisman / 5-18-92)
2nd Draft Outline for five-minute animation test.

DISTRIBUTION: Cranston, Fair, Kline, Krisel, Lacy

I. Sundown.

A. Cityscape of Manhattan (at an angle) just before sundown. (Camera is "flying" west toward the setting sun.)

B. We quickly "fly" by castle-skyscraper.

C. We see the sun go down as we come upon the municipal building.
1. We push through an arch into rotunda of municipal building and hold on a giant stone gargoyle, frozen in a frightening pose in front of the clockface interior.
2. Tight in on gargoyle, as it gets dark, we see cracks forming in the stone.
3. Cut to exterior, silhouette of GOLIATH the GARGOYLE as seen through the face of the clock, bursting out of his shell. Fragments fly everywhere.
4. He suddenly leaps into the air and flies out thru top of rotunda and away from us. Roaring thru the new night. We do not get a clear view of him yet.

II. The Fight.

A. We continue our "flight" over the city and push in again on a slum neighborhood rooftop. Night has completely fallen.

B. ELISA (in plainclothes) is climbing up a fire escape ladder and onto the roof.

C. Suddenly, she is surrounded by three THUGS coming out from the shadows. (Two carry crowbars; one, a gun).

D. Pull back, we see glowing, inhuman eyes, watching the scene from the shadows of a higher rooftop.

E. The Gargoyle leaps down upon the criminals--this is our first clear view of him.
1. Elisa dives out of harm's way.

F. Quick cuts: The thug with the gun shoots at Goliath.
1. The bullets, glance off his stone-like hide, chipping off stone fragments.

G. Meanwhile the other two thugs, try to brain Goliath with their crowbars.
1. Goliath catches the downward swing of each crowbar in either hand.
2. He yanks the crowbars out of the hands of the two thugs.
3. He twists the crowbars into a pretzel.

H. The first thug runs out of bullets, turns to run, followed by #2.
1. Thug #3 starts to run as well, but he's not getting anywhere.
a. Goliath has a grip on his shoulder.
b. He lifts the thug to eye-level, and grins evilly. (Does the thug faint?)
2. From off-screen, the Gargoyle tosses Thug #3 at the other two, bowling them over.

I. Gargoyle drives his claws into the roof, peeling up a section (as if it were carpet) and rolls all three thugs up into it.
1. Imprisoning them in a "cylinder" of rooftop.

III. Romance Interruptus.

A. Elisa approaches the hulking Gargoyle from behind. What will happen to her?
1. He turns to face her, and we see they are already acquainted. She has a big grin on her face. He looks sheepish, puppy-dog like.

B. She touches the place where the bullet chipped his hide. Platonic, caring, gentle, concerned, etc.
1. He winces, less from pain, than from not being used to a kind touch.
2. Then he smiles. A romantic beauty medium two-shot in the moonlight.

C. Suddenly, BRONX tears between them.
1. Elisa looks amused; Goliath, perturbed.
2. Very dog-like, Bronx chews on the crowbar pretzyl.
3. Also very dog-like, Bronx takes off playfully, as soon as Goliath comes near him.
a. Bronx runs at full speed vertically down the side of the building.

E. Bronx runs into the street and right into the path (and headlights) of an oncoming truck, which breaks to a stop, right in front of him.
1. As the large TRUCK-DRIVER gets out of his cab to investigate, Bronx flaps his ears in an attempt to fly away. He never quite gets off the ground. His mace-like tail is too heavy.
2. The angst-ridden Bronx cowers, as the shadow of the Truck-Driver falls over him.
3. Suddenly a larger shadow looms over the Trucker.
4. Goliath stands there, relatively benign, but incredibly huge, and lifts Bronx by the scruff of the neck.
5. Truck-driver watches in absolute shock as Goliath majestically takes to the sky with Bronx in one massive hand.

F. Goliath (with Bronx in hand) wings over the slum rooftop.
1. Elisa already has two of the thugs handcuffed to the fire escape.
2. She's helping the third out of the "cylinder" of roofing.

G. The Gargoyle flies high above the city he's sworn to protect. Patrolling.
1. Bronx, scurries up and perches on Goliath's massive shoulders.
2. They fly into the moonlight and away from us.

IV. Sunrise.

A. Dissolve to a random Manhattan rooftop, just before dawn. Goliath and Elisa are sitting quietly, watching the sun come up.
1. Bronx is already asleep, snoring loudly in a gargoyle-esque "crouch" position.

B. Elisa mimics a Gargoyle pose. Goliath shakes his head.
1. She tries another. Still not right.
2. She tries a third, and he nods.

B. She pats him on the shoulder and walks away, turning to look over her shoulder as the first rays of the sun peak through.
1. He strikes her third pose, and though she looked pretty silly, he looks pretty frightening.

C. The sun rises and he freezes quite suddenly into a stone gargoyle perched on a ledge.

D. We pan back from him, past Elisa who is climbing down the fire-escape and then across our just waking city.

V. "GARGOYLES" logo.

Rambled on Fri, December 08, 2000

2nd Draft of Animation Test

Here's my second attempt to outline the Animation Test that we never did. The biggest change is that it's simply longer. Note that the [bracketed] material below is part of the original document.

GARGOYLES (Weisman / 5-8-92)
Outline for five-minute animation test. No dialogue.

DISTRIBUTION: Cranston, Fair, Kline, Krisel, Lacy

I. Cityscape of Manhattan (at an angle) just before sundown. (Camera is "flying" west toward the setting sun.)

A. We quickly "fly" by the castle at the top of Xavier's skyscraper.
1. We pause briefly to see XAVIER dressing down his SUITS inside his "throne-room" office.

B. We see the sun go down as we come upon the municipal building.

II. Top of municipal building, as the sun vanishes, we push through an arch into rotunda and hold on a giant stone gargoyle, frozen in a frightening pose in front of the clockface interior.

A. Tight in on gargoyle, as it gets dark, we see cracks forming in the stone.

B. Cut to exterior, silhouette of GOLIATH the GARGOYLE as seen through the face of the clock, bursting out of his shell. Fragments fly everywhere.

C. He suddenly leaps into the air and flies out thru top of rotunda and away from us. Roaring thru the new night. We do not get a clear view of him yet.

III. We continue our "flight" over the city and push in again on a slum neighborhood rooftop. Night has completely fallen.

A. ELISA (in plainclothes) is climbing up a fire escape ladder and onto the roof.

B. Suddenly, she is surrounded by three THUGS coming out from the shadows. (Two carry crowbars; one, a gun).

C. Pull back, we see glowing, inhuman eyes, watching the scene from the shadows of a higher rooftop.

IV. The Gargoyle leaps down upon the criminals--this is our first clear view of him.

A. Elisa gets out of the way.

B. Quick cuts: Goliath reaches into shot and grabs crowbars out of the hands of the first two thugs.
1. He twists them into pretzels.

C. He lifts these two thugs easily, while the third thug shoots at him. The bullets, glance off his stone-like hide, (maybe chipping off stone fragments).

D. From off-screen, the Gargoyle tosses each thug, one by one, onto a "thug pile".

E. Gargoyle rips up a section of the roof and rolls all three thugs up into it.
1. Imprisoning them in a "cylinder" of rooftop.

V. Elisa approaches the hulking Gargoyle from behind. What will happen to her?

A. But when he turns to face her, we see they are already acquainted. She has a big grin on her face. He looks sheepish, puppy-dog like.

VI. Suddenly, BRONX tears between them, followed by LEX, BROADWAY and BROOKLYN.

A. Bronx has half-eaten hockey stick in his mouth.
1. The others are outfitted w/roller blades, skating helmets, and hockey sticks.
a. Lex is without his stick since Bronx is eating it.
2. Elisa looks amused; Goliath, perturbed.

B. Bronx runs at full speed vertically down the side of the building.
1. The young gargoyles give chase.

C. Bronx runs into the street right into the path (and headlights) of an oncoming truck, which breaks to a stop, right in front of him.
1. The other gargoyles scatter.

D. The angst-ridden Bronx cowers, as the large TRUCK-DRIVER gets out of his cab to investigate.
1. He stands over Bronx.
2. Suddenly a shadow falls over him.
3. Goliath stands there, relatively benign, but incredibly huge, and lifts Bronx by the scruff of the neck.
4. Truck-driver watches in absolute shock as Goliath majestically takes to the sky with Bronx in one massive hand.

VII. The other three gargoyles fall into line behind Goliath, and the group wings over the slum rooftop.

A. Elisa waves to them as she handcuffs a thug to the fire escape.
1. One is already secured, the third is still stuck halfway inside the "cylinder" of roofing.

B. Following the flight of our gargoyles as they fly back the way we came.
1. Past the municipal building.
a. He drops off Bronx and the kids with HUDSON, who was waiting there annoyed as Uncle Charlie.
2. Past Xavier's castle skyscraper.
a. DEMONA makes a move to attack him, but Xavier restrains her.

C. The Gargoyle flies high above the city he's sworn to protect. He seems to hang in the air for a beat, framed by the over-sized moon, as if listening, watching...
1. Below we hear sirens and the red flashing light of a police cherry top.
2. And Goliath dives down suddenly into the city toward the unseen trouble spot. Leaving us.

[Note: Depending on how long a test we want, we could end here and bring up the "GARGOYLES" logo, or we could continue on.]

VIII. Goliath lands on a deserted street. The siren and flashing red light are emanating from a box in the middle of the street between two manholes. There is a water tower overlooking the street.

A. He studies the box with curiosity. Obviously, he was expecting to find cops, trouble, a crime.
1. On either side behind him, robotic tentacles lift the manhole covers up silently.
2. The tentacles rear back and then slam the manhole covers like cymbals against the unsuspecting Goliath.

B. While Goliath reels from the attack, we pull to a wide shot as the street cracks, collapses and shatters around him.
1. A SCARAB CORPORATION ROBOT bursts out from underground and presses it's attack.
a. The tentacles wrap around Goliath, pinning and strangling him.

C. Goliath looks doomed, he's being crushed by the robot.
1. Finally, he grabs hold of one tentacle with each hand, and with great effort, rips them right out of the robot.
a. The damaged robot, sparks with power from exposed circuits and wires.

D. Goliath tosses the tentacles aside and takes off like a shot into the air.
1. He crashes at an angle up through the water tower.
2. The water pours out onto the short-circuiting robot.
a. There is a flash of electricity, and then the whole thing explodes.
3. Tight in on the Gargoyle. Grimly triumphant.
a. He flies away.

IX. Dissolve to a random Manhattan rooftop, just before dawn. Goliath and Elisa are sitting quietly, watching the sun come up.

A. She mimics a Gargoyle pose. He shakes his head.
1. She tries another. Still not right.
2. She tries a third, and he nods.

C. The sun rises and he freezes quite suddenly into a stone gargoyle perched on a ledge.

D. We pan back from him, past Elisa who is climbing down the fire-escape and then across our just waking city.

E. "GARGOYLES" logo.

Rambled on Wed, December 06, 2000

ANIMATION TEST

Well, I'm reconstructing events from memory. But I believe in March or April of 1992, we pitched the series to Michael Eisner, who rejected the 38 card pitch (version seven) which I posted here yesterday. Jeffrey Katzenberg, however, saw something in the show and told us to pursue it further. One idea that my boss Gary Krisel came up with was to do a five minute animation test, in the hopes that that would sell everyone on the idea. Now, before you ask to see it, let me say right off that WE NEVER MADE THE ANIMATION TEST. But we sure spun our wheels on it for a long while. This was my first pass on what that test would contain.

You'll note that we still had the gargoyles capable of real flight. Also, the garg's skin, even at night, is stone-like. Both of these attributes would eventually change to make them more vulnerable, less all-powerful in battle.

GARGOYLES
Outline for five-minute animation test. No dialogue.
(Weisman / 4-23-92)

I. Cityscape of Manhattan (at an angle) just before sundown. (Camera is "flying" west toward the setting sun.)

A. We quickly "fly" by the castle at the top of Xavier's skyscraper.
1. We pause briefly to see XAVIER doing business inside his "throne-room" office.

B. We see the sun go down as we come upon the municipal building.

II. Top of municipal building, as the sun vanishes, we push through an arch into rotunda and hold on a giant stone gargoyle, frozen in a frightening pose in front of the clockface interior.

A. Tight in on gargoyle, as it gets dark, we see cracks forming in the stone.

B. Cut to exterior, silhouette of GOLIATH the GARGOYLE as seen through the face of the clock, bursting out of his shell. Fragments fly everywhere.

C. He suddenly leaps into the air and flies out thru top of rotunda and away from us. Roaring thru the new night. We do not get a clear view of him yet.

III. We continue our "flight" over the city and push in again on a slum neighborhood rooftop. Night has completely fallen.

A. ELISA (in plainclothes) is climbing up a fire escape ladder and onto the roof.

B. Suddenly, she is surrounded by three THUGS coming out from the shadows.

C. Pull back, we see glowing, inhuman eyes, watching the scene from the shadows of a higher rooftop.

IV. The Gargoyle leaps down upon the criminals; Elisa gets out of the way.

A. He lifts two easily, while the third thug shoots at him. The bullets, glance off his stone-like hide, (maybe chipping off stone fragments).

B. From off-screen, the Gargoyle tosses each thug, one by one, onto a "thug pile".

V. Elisa approaches the hulking Gargoyle from behind. What will happen to her?

A. But when he turns to face her, we see they are already acquainted. She has a big grin on her face. He looks sheepish, puppy-dog like.

VI. Suddenly, BRONX tears between them, followed by LEX, BROADWAY and BROOKLYN.

A. Elisa looks amused; Goliath, perturbed.

B. Bronx has half-eaten nunchaku in his mouth, as he runs at full speed vertically down the side of the building.
1. The young gargoyles give chase, outfitted like karate blackbelts.

C. Bronx runs into the street right into the path (and headlights) of an oncoming truck, which breaks to a stop, right in front of him.
1. The other gargoyles scatter.

VII. The other three gargoyles fall into line behind Goliath, and the group wings over the slum rooftop.

A. Elisa waves to them as she handcuffs the third thug to the fire escape. (The other two are already secure.)

C. The Gargoyle flies high above the city he's sworn to protect. He seems to hover for a beat, framed by the over-sized moon, as if listening, watching...
1. And then he dives down suddenly into the city toward some unseen trouble spot. Leaving us.

END

Rambled on Tue, December 05, 2000

Pitch version 7

I know what you're thinking. "What happened to Version 6?" Answer: I'm not sure. I don't seem to have that one anymore. But as you can see there aren't THAT many changes between five and seven. Six would have been probably just a couple more minor nuances.

THE major change here, is that now, finally, Goliath is also put to sleep for a thousand years. Up to this point, we had kept him awake and alone for a thousand years. It was such a tragic idea, I personally had been reluctant to abandon it. But ultimately it was unworkable. For starters, why hadn't he aged? And then it also prevented the full culture shock we wanted to put him through in twentieth century Manhattan. I'd just have to find another way to do the Battle of Britain story that I so wanted to do.

Also notice that with the renumbering this pitch consisted of nearly 40 cards. That would prove to be a problem later. Too much information.

GARGOYLES PITCH Seventh Pass (Weisman / 3-3-92)

1. Trio of typical stone GARGOYLES.

"We all think we know what GARGOYLES are. Ugly, stone statues squatting on the roofs of old buildings. But there was a time, one thousand years ago, when gargoyles were real, living creatures. During the day, they slept...frozen in stone."

2. GOLIATH, the GARGOYLE-MASTER. Proud and Noble.

"But when the sun went down, GOLIATH, the GARGOYLE-MASTER would lead his gargoyle-warriors in defense of the king's castle."

3. Goliath reading in library, sitting on small gargoyles.

"And if there was no battle to be fought, he'd retreat to the library to read and learn, all the while making sure that the other gargoyles stayed out of trouble."

4. HUMANS scorning the Gargoyles.

"For all these efforts, Goliath received no reward, no thanks or even kindness. In fact, the people of the castle treated all gargoyles with nothing but contempt."

5. The Gargoyle-Master alone in the throneroom.

"Still Goliath could no more stop guarding the castle than breathing the air. It's part of a gargoyle's nature to be territorial, protective. And so for years, he maintained his lonely vigil."

6. Close-up of Goliath.

"Then one night, Goliath was betrayed and lured away from his post. The castle was overrun and sacked."

7. SORCEROR curses Goliath and the other gargoyles on the castle ramparts.

"Goliath and the surviving gargoyles were unfairly blamed. The castle SORCEROR laid a curse upon them, and they fell into a stone sleep--that lasted a thousand years."

8. Castle on the skyscraper.

"New York City, 1994. A rich and powerful man has decided there's a better place for a medieval castle than a picturesque hill in Scotland. He's moved the whole place--lock, stock and gargoyle--to the top of the tallest skyscraper in Manhattan."

9. Police Detective ELISA REED.

"All of which means nothing to New York City Police Detective, ELISA REED. Castles and curses don't even enter her mind. She's hot on the trail of a major badguy."

10. She's ambushed on a rooftop by multiple THUGS. She's got the drop on most of them. But someone's about to nail her from behind. (And from another rooftop, someTHING is watching in the shadows.)

"Too bad that trail leads her right into an ambush. But thank goodness, a shadowy figure sees what's happening and decides to help."

11. Reveal THE GARGOYLE, determined, as he dives into fray from above.

"Thank goodness for THE GARGOYLE."

12. Gargoyle lifts a badguy with either hand. While a third shoots at him, the bullets glancing off his stone-like hide.

"When you're as strong as Goliath, benchpressing two badguys is easy. And that stone-like hide of his makes him practically invulnerable."

13. Romantic shot in moonlight. Close in. She reaches up to touch his face gently. He looks handsome and noble and just a bit uncomfortable and sad.

"...To everything but Elisa's kindness. She is the first human being who's ever offered him understanding and friendship, hope..."

14. From atop the skyscraper, she shows him Manhattan. The city as fortress. This is our showpiece card.

"...And a sense of purpose. Because by nature, a gargoyle protects his home from 'barbarians at the gate'. And Goliath's new home, Manhattan, has its fair share of barbarians."

15. HUDSON. (One pose, plus two headshots.)

"Fortunately, our hero doesn't have to face them alone. This is Goliath's old friend HUDSON, a Gargoyle-Warrior long past his prime. Hudson helps out by keeping an eye on the young Gargoyles-in-training..."

16. Trio of young Gargoyles, BROOKLYN, LEXINGTON and BROADWAY. Same as card 1. (But in color, perhaps?)

"...BROOKLYN, LEXINGTON and BROADWAY. (Uh, they picked their own names.)"

17. Lexington. (Central pose, ninja pose and gun-biting pose.)

"Lexington (or Lex) is the ring-leader. He's always looking for adventure. Always looking for trouble."

18. Broadway. (Central pose, party pose and banana pose.)

"Broadway, on the other hand, is always looking for a good time. She's been asleep for a thousand years, and now she's ready to party."

19. Brooklyn. (Central pose, motorcycle pose and hockey pose.)

"Brooklyn is fascinated with the twentieth century. He thinks watching television is great. Of course, he also thinks watching a traffic light change colors is great. He's ready for anything this brave, new world has to offer."

20. BRONX, the DOG. (Multiple poses.)

"Unlike BRONX. This Gargoyle-dog is one angst-ridden pet. Doesn't like adventure. Doesn't like new technology."

21. Bronx (two poses) chewing on a fire hydrant and flying.

"Just likes to eat a lot, sleep a lot..."

22. Trio chases Bronx through a fancy restaurant.

"...And make a general mess."

23. Trio uses Bronx to play trick on Hudson.

"All in all, it's a lot for Hudson to handle."

24. Goliath and Elisa try to be inconspicuous on the Subway.

"Not that Goliath has it any easier. It's hard for a seven-foot medieval monster to squeeze into the modern world."

25. Interior of Gargoyle lair.

"Sometimes he just needs to retreat back to the old castle and let time stand still. Of course that can be tough too..."

26. XAVIER.

"Particularly when you have to face villains like XAVIER. Rich, powerful and arrogant, Xavier is the master of behind-the-scenes manipulation. If something nefarious is happening in New York...odds are Xavier's behind it."

27. WOLF and FOX.

28. JACKAL and HYENA.

29. DINGO and CY.O.T.I.

"Then there's THE PACK. WOLF, FOX, JACKAL, HYENA, DINGO and their mechanical helper CY.O.T.I. To the public they're television's greatest Wrestling-Gladiator Team. But to the Gargoyle, they're the most dangerous enforcers he's ever faced."

30. ROBOT climbing building toward Gargoyle.

"Except maybe the ROBOTS built by the SCARAB CORPORATION. Modern-day nightmares worse than anything Goliath saw in the dark ages."

31. CATSCAN is discovered by Goliath and Elisa.

"But no worse than CATSCAN. A scientist mutated by his own experiments..."

32. Catscan, in full pose and "Night Vision" head shot.

"...Into a bitter criminal with deadly Night-Vision."

33. DEMONA with BIG GUN.

"Still, the toughest villain of them all is Goliath's old friend DEMONA, who's taken to the Twentieth Century like bullets take to guns."

34. Demona vs. Goliath, above the city.

"Once she was his most trusted Gargoyle-Warrior. But a thousand years ago, it was her betrayal that cost him the castle. Now she's his sworn enemy, and she won't rest 'til she owns the night..."

35. Stone version of our Gargoyle. Looking vicious and scary. Daylight.

"And the night is all that matters, because the gargoyles still sleep as stone statues during the day, finding an outdoor ledge just before sunrise and striking a pose that could give you nightmares."

36. Night. Goliath, handsome and noble again, on top of a skyscraper with the full moon, Elisa and the other Gargoyles right behind him. Gothic mood, but clearly set in the present.

"But when the sun goes down, they're our only protection from the city's dark terrors."

37. Title Card: "GARGOYLES".

"They are the GARGOYLES."

38. KID at Disneyland.

"Joining the Disney Family in 1994."

Rambled on Mon, December 04, 2000

PITCH 5.0

My fifth attempt to come up with a pitch for the show. (You'll notice it isn't THAT different from version 4. We really nuanced the hell out of these things back then.) Also note that [bracketed] material was original to the document. I'm guessing we were gearing up for a big pitch in March of '92.

I also think it's interesting that I was already targeting 1994 as our start date, despite the fact that I was writing this early in '92. Shows how long it takes for things to get going.

GARGOYLES PITCH
Fifth Pass (Weisman / 2-7-92)

[Information in Brackets [] is in preparation for March.]

1. Trio of typical stone GARGOYLES. (B&W)

2. GOLIATH, the GARGOYLE-MASTER. [Proud and Noble.]

"But when the sun went down, GOLIATH, the GARGOYLE-MASTER would lead his WARRIORS in defense of the king's castle.

[2a. HUMANS scorning the Gargoyles.]

"For these efforts, the gargoyles received no reward, no thanks or even kindness. In fact, the people of the castle treated the Gargoyles with nothing but contempt. Still the Gargoyles could no more stop guarding the castle than they could stop breathing the air. It's their nature to be territorial, protective."

3. Close-up of Goliath.

"But one night, Goliath was betrayed and lured away from his post. The castle was overrun and sacked."

4. Medieval Flashback continues: SORCEROR curses Goliath.

"Goliath was unfairly blamed. The SORCEROR MALACHITE laid a curse upon him, condemning Goliath to guard the empty rooms and ramparts of the castle...`til its spires touch the clouds.'"

[5. Goliath reading in library, amid stone gargoyles.]

"Now that's the kind of curse that's designed to last forever. The other gargoyles fell into a stone sleep and could not be roused. But Goliath was not granted that peace. Left with only the King's library for company, he passed the time reading, learning, changing..."

5[a]. Last Medieval Flashback: The Gargoyle-Master alone in the throneroom.

"And guarding that castle--for a thousand years."

6. Castle on the skyscraper. (Now, for the rest of the pitch, we're in color.)

7. Police Detective ELISA REED. (Following a CROOK? If so, it's nighttime.)

"All of which means nothing to New York Police Detective, ELISA REED. Castles and curses don't even enter her mind. She's hot on the trail of a major badguy."

8. She's ambushed on a rooftop by crook and multiple THUGS. She's holding her own. But someone's about to nail her from behind. (And from another rooftop, someTHING is watching in the shadows.)

"Unfortunately, that trail leads right to an ambush. Now, Elisa is tough. She can hold her own. But she doesn't have eyes in the back of her head."

9. Reveal THE GARGOYLE, as he dives into fray from above.

"Fortunately, someone else was watching out for her."

10. Gargoyle lifts a badguy with either hand. While a third shoots at him, the bullets glancing off his stone-like hide.

"The strength that served the Gargoyle so well in the past is doubly-dangerous today. And that stone-like hide of his makes him practically invulnerable to his enemies."

11. Romantic shot in moonlight. Close in. She reaches up to touch his face gently. He looks handsome and noble and just a bit sad.

"Though all too vulnerable to Elisa. She understands him, like no one else ever has. Goliath's been alive for one thousand years, but in all that time, she is the first human being who's ever offered him kindness and friendship, hope..."

12. From atop the skyscraper, she shows him Manhattan. The city as fortress. This is our showpiece card.

"...And a sense of purpose. Because if a gargoyle is supposed to protect his home from barbarians at the gate, then this one has found the right place to live. `Fortress Manhattan' has its fair share of barbarians."

13. XAVIER.

"Take XAVIER, for example. Rich, powerful and arrogant, a master at behind-the-scenes manipulation, Xavier is the man who's usurped possession of the Gargoyle's castle... and turned it into his own personal headquarters."

14. The PACK. WOLF, FOX, HYENA, JACKAL, DINGO and the CY.O.T.I. [All of them attacking our Gargoyle.]

"Then there's THE PACK. To the public they're television's greatest Wrestling-Gladiator Team. But to the Gargoyle, they're the most dangerous enforcers he's ever faced."

14a. Wolf and Fox.

"WOLF and FOX."

14b. Jackal and Hyena.

"The twins: JACKAL and HYENA."

14c. Dingo and CY.O.T.I.

"DINGO and the CY.O.T.I."

14d. CY.O.T.I-SHIP, etc.

"A versatile little fellow capable of transferring between multiple bodies or piloting the CY.O.T.I.-SHIP. The Pack purchased this technology from the SCARAB-CORPORATION."

15. ROBOT climbing building toward Gargoyle.

"But it's the least of their inventions. Most of their ROBOTS are modern-day nightmares worse than anything Goliath saw in the dark ages."

16. CATSCAN (grappling w/Gargoyle), blasting away w/"Night Vision" from his eyes.

"But no worse than CATSCAN. A scientist mutated by his own experiments into a bitter criminal with deadly `Night Vision'."

17. DEMONA facing off with BIG GUN.

"Still, the toughest villain of them all is an old friend. DEMONA was once Goliath's most trusted Gargoyle-Warrior. But she betrayed him. Now she's his sworn enemy, and unfortunately, Demona's taken to the twentieth Century like bullets take to guns."

18. HUDSON. (One pose, plus two headshots.)

"Fortunately, our hero doesn't have to face these villains alone. In addition to Elisa, Goliath has help from his old friend HUDSON. When the curse was lifted, the few remaining Gargoyles who survived the attack on the old castle woke up for the first time in 1000 years. Hudson is an old Gargoyle-Warrior long past his prime. Now his main duty is to keep a close watch on the young Gargoyles-in-training..."

19. Trio of young Gargoyles, BROOKLYN, LEXINGTON and BROADWAY. (Same as card 1 but in color, perhaps?)

"...BROOKLYN, LEXINGTON and BROADWAY. (Uh, they picked their own names.)"

20. Lexington.

"Lexington (or Lex) is the ring-leader. He's always looking for adventure. Always looking for trouble."

21. Broadway.

"Broadway, on the other hand, is always looking for a good time. She's been asleep for a thousand years, and now she's ready to party."

22. Brooklyn.

"Brooklyn's been asleep too, but he's just fascinated with the world he's woken up in. He thinks watching television is great. Of course, he also thinks watching a traffic light change colors is great. He's ready for anything this brave, new world has to offer.

23. BRONX, the DOG. (Multiple poses, definitely.)

"Unlike BRONX. This Gargoyle-dog is one angst-ridden pet. Doesn't like adventure. Doesn't like new technology. Just likes to eat a lot, sleep a lot, and make a general mess.

24. Exterior of municipal building.

"Together, they've all left the old castle behind and taken up residence in MUNICIPAL HALL."

25. Interior of municipal building.

"There, above the police station, above the library and the mayor's office, Elisa has found them the perfect home."

26. Stone version of our Gargoyle. Looking vicious and scary. Daylight.

"They still sleep during the day, finding an outdoor ledge just before sunrise and striking a pose that could give you nightmares."

27. Night. Goliath, handsome and noble again, on top of a skyscraper with the full moon, Elisa and the other Gargoyles right behind him. Gothic mood, but clearly set in the present.

"But when the sun goes down, they're our only protection from the city's dark terrors."

28. Title Card: "GARGOYLES".

"They are the GARGOYLES."

Rambled on Thu, November 30, 2000

THE PITCH: Version 4.0

We were still working on perfecting our pitch for Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg. You'll note we now had names for ALL the gargoyles, including Goliath.

You'll also note that Goliath still has Demona's curse of living through the thousand years. That Broadway is still a chick. That Brooklyn and Lex still have each other's personalities. That Elisa's last name is still Reed (a name we eventually gave to Maggie) and that at one point I forgot to correct her first name from Maria. That Catscan still combines Talan and Sevarius in one person. That Xanatos is still Xavier. That Coyote is still C.Y.O.T.I. and that he was an original member of the Pack. Etc. But we were definitely closing in on the show we wanted to make and sell.

Another interesting thing -- something I had completely forgotten -- is that the Magus was then called Malachite, which I believe wound up being the name of a villain on Sailor Moon.

GARGOYLES PITCH
Fourth Pass (Weisman / 2-6-92)

1. Trio of typical stone GARGOYLES. (B&W)

"We all think we know what GARGOYLES are. Ugly, stone statues squatting on the rooves of old buildings. But there was a time, one thousand years ago, when gargoyles were real, living creatures. During the day, they slept...frozen in stone."

2. GOLIATH, the GARGOYLE-MASTER. (Medieval Flashback: G-M in fg, HUDSON and DEMONA in bg tossing human barbarians off the ramparts of the castle.)

"But when the sun went down, GOLIATH, the GARGOYLE-MASTER would lead his WARRIORS in defense of the king's castle. For these efforts, the gargoyles received no reward, no thanks or even kindness. In fact, the people of the castle treated the Gargoyles with nothing but contempt. Still the Gargoyles could no more stop guarding the castle than they could stop breathing the air. It's their nature to be territorial, protective."

3. Close-up of Goliath.

"But one night, Goliath was betrayed and lured away from his post. The castle was overrun and sacked."

4. Medieval Flashback continues: SORCEROR curses Goliath.

"Goliath was unfairly blamed. The SORCEROR MALACHITE laid a curse upon him, condemning Goliath to guard the empty rooms and ramparts of the castle...`til its spires rest among the clouds.'"

5. Last Medieval Flashback: The Gargoyle-Master alone in the throneroom.

"Now that's the kind of curse that's designed to last forever. The other gargoyles fell into a stone sleep and could not be roused. But Goliath was not granted that peace. He guarded the castle alone--for a thousand years."

6. Castle on the skyscraper. (Now, for the rest of the pitch, we're in color.)

7. Police Detective ELISA REED. (Following a CROOK? If so, it's nighttime.)

"All of which means nothing to New York Police Detective, ELISA REED. Castles and curses don't even enter her mind. She's hot on the trail of a major badguy."

8. She's ambushed on a rooftop by crook and multiple THUGS. She's holding her own. But someone's about to nail her from behind. (And from another rooftop, someTHING is watching in the shadows.)

"Unfortunately, that trail leads right to an ambush. Now, Elisa is tough. She can hold her own. But she doesn't have eyes in the back of her head."

9. Reveal THE GARGOYLE, as he dives into fray from above.

"Fortunately, someone else was watching out for her."

10. Gargoyle lifts a badguy with either hand. While a third shoots at him, the bullets glancing off his stone-like hide.

"The strength that served the Gargoyle so well in the past is doubly-dangerous today. And that stone-like hide of his makes him practically invulnerable to his enemies."

11. Romantic shot in moonlight. Close in. She reaches up to touch his face gently. He looks handsome and noble and just a bit sad.

12. From atop the skyscraper, she shows him Manhattan. The city as fortress. This is our showpiece card.

13. XAVIER.

14. The PACK. WOLF, FOX, HYENA, JACKAL, DINGO and the CY.O.T.I. (All of them attacking our Gargoyle.)

"Then there's THE PACK: WOLF, FOX, JACKAL, HYENA, DINGO and the CY.O.T.I. To the public they're television's greatest Wrestling-Gladiator Team. But to the Gargoyle, they're the most dangerous enforcers he's ever faced."

15. ROBOT climbing building toward Gargoyle.

"Except maybe the ROBOTS from SCARAB-CORP. Modern-day nightmares worse than anything he saw in the dark ages."

16. CATSCAN (grappling w/Gargoyle), blasting away w/"Night Vision" from his eyes.

"But no worse than CATSCAN. A scientist mutated by his own experiments into a bitter criminal with deadly `Night Vision'."

17. DEMONA facing off with BIG GUN.

"Still, the toughest opponent of them all is an old friend. DEMONA was once Goliath's most trusted Gargoyle-Warrior. But she betrayed him. Now she's his sworn enemy, and unfortunately, Demona's taken to the twentieth Century like bullets take to guns."

18. HUDSON. (One pose, plus two headshots.)

19. Trio of young Gargoyles, BROOKLYN, LEXINGTON and BROADWAY. (Same as card 1 but in color, perhaps?)

"...BROOKLYN, LEXINGTON and BROADWAY. (Uh, they picked their own names.)"

20. Lexington.

"Lexington (or Lex) is the ring-leader. He's always looking for adventure. Always looking for trouble."

21. Broadway.

"Broadway, on the other hand, is always looking for a good time. She's been asleep for a thousand years, and now she's ready to party."

22. Brooklyn.

23. BRONX, the DOG. (Multiple poses, definitely.)

"Unlike BRONX. This Gargoyle-dog is one angst-ridden pet. Doesn't like adventure. Doesn't like new technology. Just likes to eat a lot, sleep a lot, and make a general mess.

24. Exterior of municipal building.

"Together, they've all left the old castle behind and taken up residence in the old MUNICIPLE HALL."

25. Interior of municipal building.

"There, above the police station, above the library and the mayor's office, Maria has found them the perfect home."

26. Stone version of our Gargoyle. Looking vicious and scary. Daylight.

"They still sleep during the day, finding an outdoor ledge just before sunrise and striking a pose that could give you nightmares."

27. Night. Goliath, handsome and noble again, on top of a skyscraper with the full moon, Elisa and the other Gargoyles right behind him. Gothic mood, but clearly set in the present.

"But when the sun goes down, they're our only protection from the city's dark terrors."

28. Title Card: "GARGOYLES".

"They are the GARGOYLES."

Rambled on Wed, November 29, 2000

Closing in...

[My immediate boss, Bruce Cranston, also responded to my call for names. Here are his choices, a few of which he marked with asterisks:]

Walt Disney Television

Bruce P. Cranston

LAFAYETTE
*HUDSON
STEALTH
VIDEO
MICROWAVE
QUARK
MERANGUE
MOUSSE
*BROADWAY
*BURBANK
BEDFORD STUYVESANT
AVE OF THE AMERICAS
GRAMMERCY
CARLYSLE
AMSTERDAM
COLUMBUS
CHELSEA
STEROID
MADISON
5TH
BROOKLYN
LEXINGTON
SOHO
GREENWICH
TRIBECA
BRONX
BATTERY

TOPEKA
BURBANK
SKIDMORE
RADCLIFFE
McGUIRE
McPHERESON
McKAY
McTAVITCH
McINTOSH
McINTYRE
McKANE

[My memory fails, but it certainly seems like the conceit of naming most of the gargs after New York locations was Bruce's idea. On the back of his note, I hand-wrote the following:]

[blank] - Master [Proto-Goliath]
Lexington - Cubbi
Brooklyn - Kramer
[blank] - Demona

Bronx - Dog
Broadway - Belushi
Hudson - RALPH

[Obviously, and finally (thanks to Bruce's inspiration), I found names that I liked. These names stuck, even through Broadway's gender switch. Cubbi, who looked like Lex but had Brooklyn's personality got the Lexington name. And that stuck, even when the personalities got switched. Same (in reverse) for Kramer/Brooklyn. The name stuck with the character's look, not his persona.]

Rambled on Tue, November 28, 2000

Still searching...

Bob Kline, our Development Art Director also answered my call for name suggestions for our characters. These are his suggestions:

NAMES AND MORE NAMES (GARGOYLE)

GARGOYLE MASTER:
OBSIDIAN
GRANITE
TITAN
RAGNAR

DEMONA:
SHALE
SLATE
MALACHITE
ANTHRACITE

RALPH:
BATHOLITH
TALUS
FELDSPAR
MARTIN

CUBBI: FLASH, ACE, KILLER, LANCE

BELUSHI: JENNIFER, MARILYN, LIZA, ANNETTE

KRAMER: HOWARD, MORTIMER, WALTER, FRANKLIN

DOG: REX (WRECKS), BUBBLE, DUMBO, PIGEON

XAVIER:
WINSTON SHARP
MATHEW SKRAG
LESLIE SLEAN
SIMPSON DEALE

CATSCAN:
JONATHAN RAGE
RICHARD SLASH
MARCUS KLAW
TRENTON PROWL

T.E.:
TERROR ENVOY
TECHNICAL EXPERT
TRANSMUTATE ENSIGN

ROBOT ORGANIZATION:
GENERAL MECHANICS
GENERAL AUTOMATICS
ELECTROSERV CORPORATION
GENERAL DYNATRON
SENSOSERV INC,
SERVOSENSE INC

Rambled on Mon, November 27, 2000

Still searching for names...

Tad Stones weighs in to suggest some names...

[3] From: Tad Stones 2/3/92 10:23AM (448 bytes: 12 ln)
To: Greg Weisman
Subject: Rock names

------------------------------- Message Contents -------------------------------

Good idea as long as no one takes them for granite!
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahhahahha

Actually I like Malachite as a name. Jaspar for a goofy type.

Agate
Feldspar - old guy?
Onyx
Obsidian
Pyrite - fool's gold

Rambled on Wed, November 22, 2000

Must you humans name everything...

...Actually, yes, we must. Names are very important to me. I love the names we wound up with on the show, but getting there wasn't quick or easy. (Except with Demona.) As you may recall, I had asked everyone on the development team to come up with new names for our characters. Here was Fred Schaefer's submission. Note how proud he was of it, he didn't want anyone but me to see it. Guess (nearly nine years later) I'm breaking a confidence. :)

Note that the stuff in [brackets] is Fred's comments on his own stuff. Not mine. My comments are in {fancy brackets}.

THE GARGOYLE -- NEW NAMES (Schaefer 2-3-92)

DISTRIBUTION: For Weisman's eyes only ...

THE GARGOYLE-MASTER {PROTO-GOLIATH}

Pleiades
Sirius
Procyon
Titan
Darius
Sparta [Greek city-state that emphasized training children (our smaller gargoyles) to be soldiers]
Cato
Mortar
Palisade [See how I cleverly slip in this name and the previous one, in the hope that the weis one
won't notice he's seen them before.]
Rubicon [A river in northern Italy. "Crossing the Rubicon" is an expression for taking a dangerous,
decisive, and irreversible step.]
Argus [constantly on alert]
Gauntlet [as in "fling down the..."]

DEMONA {PROTO-DEMONA}
Gelignite
Javelin
Fury
Electra

RALPH (The Caretaker) {PROTO-HUDSON}
Epoch
Stratus
Igneous
Stony
Shale
Millstone
Ockham

CUBBI {PROTO-BROOKLYN, though he looked more like Lex}
Crag
Pyrite
Stony
Shale

BELUSHI {PROTO-BROADWAY, but female}
Boulder
Eddy

KRAMER {PROTO-LEXINGTON, though he looked more like Brooklyn}
Cobble
Bluff
Clod
Clay

DOG {PROTO-BRONX}
Hydrant
Concrete
Asphalt
Bassett
Clod
Canis

MARIA CHAVEZ {PROTO ELISA MAZA}
Claire Porter
Katherine Duncan

XAVIER {PROTO-XANATOS}
Gordian
Mars
Marlowe
Tarnas
Iacoaca

MORE SCIENTIST NAMES_(aka CAT SCAN) {PROTO TALAN/SEVARIUS combo}
Dr. Gordax
Dr. Mortirip
Dr. Orthrag
Dr. Parox
Dr. Thenogen
Dr. Toral
Dr. Pendoom
Dr. Athalon
Dr. Penalt
Dr. Tath

Rambled on Thu, November 16, 2000

Chapter XXI: "Vows"

Written by Shari Goodhartz
Michael Reaves, Story Editor

Benny: "But Daddy, when it's dark they get alive. But when it's light, the get frozen like a statue."

Last night, the kids, my sister, my wife and I all watched "Vows" together. Time to ramble.

Back to the Golden Cup Bakery Building. As I noted in the previously posted memo about this episode, I wanted a little opening battle, but I didn't want to waste time in a tight, packed script explaining how this came about. It does beg the question though. Assume that X contacted Elisa. She told Goliath. He went ALONE? His friends allowed this? Hmmm.

Xanatos knows from the letter to himself what to do, but I sometimes wonder just how detailed the letter was. I like to think it was fairly sketchy. That exactly HOW Xanatos got Goliath to come was his own machinations. Otherwise, though he takes the credit for the letter, the truth is that the plan itself wasn't his idea. He got the idea from the letter. And he wrote the letter based on what he had done, which he had gotten from the letter. None of this is really his to own, though he does claim ownership. So I like to think that at least some of the details were X's. For example, X knows what G will respond to, i.e. Demona.

Hudson, on hearing about the wedding, suddenly makes the connection to the long ago incident when he met the Goliath from the future. So he's strangely ambivalent. Elisa on the other hand, seems flat out jealous to me. After the events of "The Mirror" and "Eye of the Beholder", she's much more aware and focused on her feelings for Goliath. SHE DOES NOT WANT TO ACT ON THOSE FEELINGS. At this time, she thinks it's impossible. But that doesn't change how she feels. And now, she's jealous. Goliath's feelings for Elisa are just as intense, but so are his feelings for the "Angel" of his youth. He HAS to give it one last chance. (And this will be the last chance. The final nail in the coffin of his and Demona's "marriage".) Brooklyn, meanwhile, is just knee-jerk against anything involving Demona.

PETROS XANATOS is introduced. Again, I wonder why he was invited. Was he also included in the letter? Or did Xanatos invite him to prove something to his father. Is X that needy? Or did X invite him to the wedding, because of course he'd invite his father to his wedding, and his already planned "honeymoon" to 975 shouldn't alter his decorum. Perhaps he's mildly surprised his father winds up coming along? Anyway, Petros was a fun character. A tough hard physical man. With morals. A great contrast to the son. I knew even then that we'd give Petros and David an arc to their relationship, (one that eventually would culminate in Gathering2).

"Oh, reason not the need." A little King Lear is always nice. And I love Petros' attitude on the line, "And the armor?" I mean what would you say to your son if you saw him dressed like that? I'd like to know how many people had sort of forgotten that X was even wearing armor (we're so used to it) until Petros made an issue of it?

I love all the irony in the dialogue between Petros and David. David knows what he's planning. He must be smiling when Petros says "I'd like to get my hands on the man who gave you that coin." And when David says, "Someday, I'll prove to you that I'm a self-made man," he must really be patting himself on the back.

I love the voice work of Keith and Marina when doing their teen-age counterparts. So subtle, yet it's always clear which Goliath and Demona is talking at any given moment.

CONTINUITY:
Gotta love that storage room in the clock tower. The Eye of Odin, the Grimorum, half the Phoenix Gate, and, oh, yes, a comatose Coldstone. By the way, despite what the memo said, I think generally, Goliath carried that Gate in the pouch attached to his belt. Not behind some brick. We hadn't actually come up with that pouch yet, not until the World Tour. But using RetCon, I think that's where he kept it until they moved to the clock tower and Demona tried to kill him, Hudson and Elisa in "Long Way to Morning".

One interesting thing: this is the first episode where we actually CONFIRM that the ILLUMINATI does exist. Matt's mentioned it. Even chased it in SILVER FALCON, but we've never been shown any proof of it's existence until now. Was anyone surprised by that?

Judge Roebling was interesting in theory, though not so much in the episode. I'd like to do more with him some day. I also thought that it was interesting that despite seeing the tape of the Gargoyles in advance. And not reacting outwardly when he saw Goliath, he still gasps when Demona enters. What is it about her? When she entered, Benny turned to me and said: "She's queen of the Gargoyles." Oh. So that's it.

(And everytime Xanatos and Fox are on screen together, Benny likes to point out that he and Erin dressed up as them at the last Gathering. "That's me. That's you, Erin.")

To some extent, X must have filled D in on his plan. I love her "acting" when she enters and gives her bitter "excuse" for being there to Goliath. She's playing hard to get!

I love Petros: "Unnacceptable." He's still trying to teach David the error of his ways.

The Gate itself is very idiosyncratic. It's size, the size of its portal, and the duration the portal stays open seems to vary not just from episode to episode but from scene to scene. Sometimes it annoys me, like when Princess Elena removes the Gate from her sleeve, and suddenly it's bigger than her hand. But now I'm just amused by it. Again, if you think of it as a steam valve for the timestream, it explains a lot.

I love the little sound that Paca put in when the two pieces of the Gate first come together. What a tip-off that was, yet it's subtle. Did anyone think about the significance of the talisman that Demona had shared with Goliath before she started speaking in Latin and flames appeared out of nowhere?

It was hard to make people understand the time loop a bit. But it seemed really hard to make them see why I kept wanting to repeat scenes to show the connective tissue. We had to squeeze in Owen's "Honeymoon" line the second time. No one left space for it.

For the first of many times in the series, someone (X) says the line: "It's not where, it's when". (Erin: "I know when.")

I love X & Fox's relationship. "Having fun." "A marvelous time." Great stuff.

Hudson gets a close look at 1995 Goliath and immediately sees the age and wear and tear on the guy. (I love the shot of Goliath gagging him.) That says a lot for Hudson, because the visual difference between the two Gs was extremely subtle in the animation -- when it existed at all.

Knowing what we had planned (more or less) for Avalon, we were already laying groundwork here for that. Setting up the combined power of the Gate, Grimorum and Eye. Setting up the Archmage's desire for that power. Further demonstrating his enmity for the people he'd wind up using. Of course, making Demona his apprentice was fun. Tells a lot about her own desire for power that even when she was a good girl, she was still willing to work for the Archmage in order to learn his secrets. Willing even to steal for him.

The Norman Ambassador and Prince Malcolm make a BIG deal about how odd the Xanatoses' clothes are. But were they THAT strange? Was Fox's wedding gown that odd? And even if they were strange, did they look as shabby as Prince Malcolm seemed to suggest?

Not every episode gives you a double wedding. Fox and David. Elena and Malcolm. Hey, did anyone notice that we married off our lead villain? That was very daring, and we all but threw it away in Act One. Was anyone expecting Fox and X to really get married? And once they were, did you think you'd see them have a kid by season's end? I think we broke new ground there.

I like the exchange between Goliath and Hudson. Goliath's trying to explain that he's not a creature of sorcery, but a time traveler. H: "And I suppose you came back in time on the wind." O.k., well sorcery was involved if you're gonna get technical. And Goliath has some amusing tense problems while trying to describe what happened in his recent past, Hudson's FAR future. Then Hudson looks him in the eye and decides to trust him on no further evidence. Cool.

I knew a girl named Bryant from Bar Harbor, Maine once. That's where we got X's home town.

Fox is so proud of her man. But I love Petros' "Mr. Big-Shot Time Traveler" line. Or rather I love the way Morgan Shepard read the line.

How hard did Demona try to do things differently from the way she remembered them being done? She knows Goliath is going to fly down to try and join her and her younger self. She tries to leave before he can get there. But the gate stays open long enough for him to go with. Did it ever occur to her to go somewhen else other than 994? I guess part of it could be chalked up to dim memory. It was over a thousand years ago. And Demona lived through that 1000 years. Even for a very significant event in her life, it must still be very hazy.

That exchange between Demona and Demona is a lot of fun. Demona is so brutal to Demona. (And, hey, she spells out the Gate's power to any audience member who hasn't yet caught on.) "Do not share it with-- Do not share it!" I love that line. Also:

"I am what you will become."
"I will never be like you."
"I don't want to hurt you."
"And I don't want to BE you."

pretty cool stuff.

I also like the moment when we have two gates rolling about on the floor and young Demona and older Goliath both bend over to pick them up. At first we had a lot of discussion as to who should pick up which gate. But the discussion became moot, since after the gate pieces were reunited, they almost always seemed like they had never been broken in the first place. Magic.

And the young Demona, older Goliath scene is also gorgeous.

"What am I to do?"
"Nothing."

Love that. Love his whole "Do nothing/attend the petty jealousy" speech. I think it's very pretty. Very sad. At that moment, does Goliath hope he's changing the future? Or is he simply trying to spare this young Angel a couple extra decades of pain?

Showing Demona's natural bents again: Goliath isn't sure if he remembers the incantation, though he's heard it multiple times by this point. Young Demona, having only heard it ONCE, does remember and uses the Gate perfectly.

"Time Travel's funny that way." At least it is in the Gargoyle Universe with the strict, strict rules that I imposed. Of course, I've always thought that those strict rules made the stories more challenging for the writer and, yet, more fun and satisfying for the viewer.

I also really like Petros' "American Penny" speech. For once the "Xanatos Tag" of victory doesn't go to David.

Where did the expression "More's the pity." come from? I've heard it many times. I know what it means, though that's more from sound and context than from the words themselves. What am I quoting when I use it? Does anyone know? (This isn't a contest. I really don't know.)

Finally, my tape has the weird mistake ending that first aired, which shows Demona and Goliath in the clock tower. It's pretty, but it drives me nuts and I think it's really confusing. But I've talked about that many times before, and I'm sick of it, so this time, I'll let it go.

COMMENTS WELCOME!

Rambled on Thu, November 16, 2000

VOWS memo

Saw "VOWS" last night with the family. I'll ramble on that one shortly, but here's the memo from November '94. Shari Goodhartz wrote the outline, which Michael Reaves edited. Shari's entire story was more or less set at the Eyrie Building. It was about Demona and Xanatos using the wedding to get half of a magical talisman from Goliath. Goliath prevents them from using this macguffin, but realizes once and for all that he and Demona are over.

As I noted below, it seemed like that wasn't enough. So I took ALL of Shari's story and CRUSHED it into Act One. Then I came up with the Time Travel story that was the heart of VOWS. All of Acts Two and Three as presented in the memo below are my work. But I think Shari and Michael did a great job of executing it in this jam-packed episode.

One little tidbit. Petros was my original name for Xanatos' father. (I went to college with a guy named Petros.) But Shari and/or Michael named the dad "Stefan", which I went with here. At the recording session, Marina Sirtis pointed out that the name didn't work for some reason that I can no longer recall. (Aris, any thoughts?) So I jumped in and rechristened him Petros. Later we realized that both Elisa and David had fathers who had been named variations on Peter. To me, that was a very cool thing.

WEISMAN 11-25-94

Notes on "Vows" Outline...

GENERAL
Basically, it still didn't seem like we had enough story. So I compressed what was here and tried to extrapolate forward to fill out acts 2 and 3.

THE TALISMAN
I'm calling it the PHOENIX GATE. It can be used as a gateway to anywhere and anywhen. (The Gate will, I believe, eventually give us our Battle of Britain Story. And give the Archmage a powerful weapon for reaching and conquering Avalon.) By combining the two halves of the Phoenix Gate and invoking the Latin translation of the phrase: "Burn down the walls of time and space!", the gate opens in flame and sucks up anyone in the immediate vicinity, transporting them to the place and time chosen by the invoker. But choosing requires incredible concentration. Otherwise, the chooser's emotional or mental whim of the moment may cause the gate to drop everyone off at Burger King instead of Fort Knox.

TIME TRAVEL
So we're going to do a time travel story. Which means we need to establish traveling rules for our series. I'm going with the most conservative, most restrictive rules possible, because more than any other type of fantasy or science fiction convention, time travel is really subject to logic abuse. So...

Whatever's happened in the past has already happened, including the actions of our time travelers. Recorded history may be incomplete or incorrect, but true history cannot be changed. When Demona and Goliath go back in time to meet the young Demona, both of the older gargoyles are seeking to change or influence the young Demona's history. But this meeting already took place. The older Demona remembers it. (Maybe not every precise detail, and maybe she didn't fully understand the event at the time, but she does remember it.) Whatever influence the modern gargoyles had on her has already been figured into the events that followed, many of which have already been depicted in other episodes. (Sadly, in this case, neither Goliath or Demona had any real sustained influence on the younger Demona at all. That's the tragic flaw of both Demonas. They just never learn.)

WHERE AND WHEN ARE WE GOING?
Castle Wyvern. 975 A.D. The castle is ruled by the 21 year old Prince Malcolm of Wyvern. Malcolm's chief advisors are the 35 year old Captain of the Guard [NOTE: per my recent work on the timeline, the Captain was 29 years old in 975.]; the Archmage (nine years younger than when he appeared in "Long Way to Morning"), and Hudson who is biologically 49. Young warriors, Goliath and Demona are both biologically 19, (in "Long Way..." they were more like 23). If you have space for them, Brooklyn, Lexington and Broadway are all biologically nine. Bronx hasn't hatched yet. In contrast, our modern Goliath is biologically 29 years old and Hudson's 59.

VOWS
That's the theme. Vows. When you keep them. When you can't. Why you do or don't. Don't hesitate to play it up.

STEFAN
In thinking about it, I think Stefan Xanatos should be a naturalized American Citizen living in a north eastern fishing community. Maybe somewhere in Maine. He's still Greek, but he emigrated before David was born. That way, David Xanatos could have been born and raised to pursue (and pervert) the American Dream.

BEAT OUTLINE
ACT ONE
1. Night by some landmark, (maybe the Goldencup Bakery Building or the Cyberbiotics Tower). DAVID XANATOS (in armor) and GOLIATH fight. No stolen Cyberbiotics devices. I really don't want to sweat this scene too much. There are a hundred ways that this could have begun, and in the interest of getting to our main story quicker, I don't want to spend a lot of time "prologing" our prologue. But for the sake of consistency, I'll posit the following: Xanatos left a vaguely menacing message for Goliath with ELISA, whom he can reach easily enough at the precinct house. (The location of the rendezvous itself may have suggested bad news.) Goliath, prepared for a trap but not about to hide from danger, went to the stated rendezvous and, expecting the worse, waded into battle before Xanatos could get a word in edgewise. Well, Xanatos is always up for a little workout, so he fought back with relish, taking his time to reveal the real reason he had asked Goliath to come: He wants Goliath to be best man at his wedding tomorrow night. As a little incentive, he's invited DEMONA, and wrested a promise that she'll be on her best behavior throughout the event. [Reveal as much or as little of the "prologing" as necessary in order to make the scene play.]

2. Clock Tower just before Dawn. HUDSON seems strangely ambivalent, but Elisa and BROOKLYN can't believe Goliath would even consider going to the wedding. They have a hundred reasons each why it's obvious lunacy. Goliath doesn't put up much of a counter-argument. He knows they're right. He won't go. Dawn comes. They all turn to stone. Elisa heads home.

3. Castle during the day. In the courtyard, Xanatos waits for something, still in his armor but with the helmet off. A helicopter lands, piloted by FOX and carrying STEFAN XANATOS, a big, tough, weathered but honest Greek fisherman. Stefan is a little put off by his son's armored attire, but tries at first to make the best of an awkward situation. He is teasingly superstitious about his son seeing Fox on the day of the wedding, but the happy couple make their own luck and patronizingly ignore his concerns, which darkens Stefan's mood. Fox exits to get dressed. David asks his dad, what he thinks of the place. Stefan is frankly appalled by the conspicuous consumption. Why does his son need a place like this? "Oh, reason not the need, father. I wanted it. So I took it." Stefan is disgusted by his son's attitude. Why does he need to wear armor? David assures him, the armor is purely defensive. Defense against what? What kind of life does his son lead? He think David would have been better off being a humble fisherman, like himself: "In fact, if I ever get my hands on the man who sent you that coin, I swear I'll teach him a lesson for meddling with my family." David smiles when his Dad brings up "the coin". That's ancient history, Pop. Besides, that coin was only worth about 20 grand. David's now worth "considerably more". But Dad's not letting him off the hook. If he had never received that coin anonymously, he'd never have become what he is now. "You know, Dad, someday I'm going to prove to you that I really am a self-made man. And that's a promise." Besides, if the castle and the armor upset you, wait until you meet the best man.
On cue, OWEN enters with the JUDGE who is to perform the ceremony. Owen has prepared a little videotape of the gargoyles for Stefan and the Judge to watch. That way, they won't swallow their tongues when they see Goliath and Demona. As they all head inside, Owen questions whether this is necessary, will Goliath really show? He'll be here, Xanatos assures him, "I'd take an oath on it."

4. Back at the clock tower during the day, we push in on the stone Goliath and ripple dissolve to his dream/memory.

5. Castle Wyvern, 975 A.D., night. YOUNG GOLIATH finds YOUNG DEMONA standing on the tower with YOUNGISH HUDSON. Demona seems ridiculously happy to see him. Goliath doesn't want to miss PRINCE MALCOLM'S Wedding. She seems a bit distracted. She looks at Hudson, who says "Go on, then." She and Goliath glide down to one of the upper windows of the Great Hall. From there, they watch this strange human ceremony of bonding, including the exchange of rings. Goliath comments on the beauty of the symbolism or something, and Demona takes out the PHOENIX GATE. She separates the two pieces and hands him one. She swears she will never stop loving him. (If she seems a little too intense, we'll chalk it up at this stage to the emotion of the moment.) Goliath takes his half of the gate, and somewhat awed by her intensity, makes a similar vow. They embrace, stroking each other's hair. (The Gargoyle equivalent of kissing.)

6. Dissolve back out to the Clock Tower at Dusk. Goliath and the others explode awake. Goliath goes to a secret hiding place in the clock tower. (Behind the comatose, COLDSTONE, perhaps.) We see the GRIMORUM and the EYE OF ODIN, as well as Goliath's half of the Gate. (He had hidden it a thousand years ago in a hollow brick at the castle, which Xanatos had transported to NYC unaware of its contents. Goliath had retrieved it before moving to the Clock Tower.) He clutches the gate-piece in his huge hand and leaves, never giving the other gargoyles a chance to talk him out of what even he must realize is a foolhardy quest. Hudson watches him go.

7. Night at the castle. Xanatos and Owen wait in the courtyard for Goliath. Both are now dressed in tuxedos, and Xanatos is wearing a lapel pin that depicts a pyramid with an eye at its apex radiating light. Owen questions whether he should be wearing the emblem of the ILLUMINATI SOCIETY in public. Xanatos says cryptically that it's a necessary risk. [By the way, I have no idea if this is an Illuminati symbol or not. But it seems to fit.] Goliath arrives. Owen offers him a bow-tie. Goliath is not amused. Xanatos gives him Fox's wedding ring to hold. That's what the best man does, you see. Hold the ring, until the couple exchanges vows.
The three enter the Great Hall. Everyone is there. The judge and Stefan have already seen Demona, but Goliath is even more startling thanks to his imposing size. Fox is wearing a white dress, but something non-traditional and sexy. And Demona broods. Goliath approaches her, clutching the gate-piece tightly in his fist. She does not even want to talk to him. She feels she has to attend this farce because Xanatos insisted, and she needs to keep him as an ally. But she cannot fathom why Xanatos wants Goliath here. Goliath attempts to remind her of the last wedding they attended together, but she is not interested in reminiscing.
The wedding ceremony begins, rather informally at first. Keep it very short. (At some point, the Judge should ask Fox's real name. Fox coldly informs him that "Fox" is legally her real name now.) We get to the exchange of rings. Goliath hands Xanatos one for Fox. Demona hands Fox one for Xanatos. Demona looks across at Goliath and seems to break down. Just as the Judge pronounces David and Fox, HUSBAND AND WIFE, Demona runs from the Hall. Goliath pursues. Xanatos & Fox, exchange glances. "Now the fun really begins." They start to follow the gargoyles. Stefan tries to restrain his son: What are you up to now? You'd interrupt your own wedding to engage in Machiavellian scheming? But Xanatos is in a bit of a hurry. He and Fox head out the door pursued by Stefan. The Judge turns to Owen very confused. Owen says something dry and witty. And then both men follow the rest.
Outside, Goliath catches up with Demona before she can glide away. Does she remember their vows? Is there still a chance for them? He shows her his gate-piece. He's always kept it. She gently removes it from his hand and takes out hers. So has she. She puts the interlocking pieces together to form the PHOENIX GATE. And then... she laughs. Goliath is such a fool. He's fallen right into Xanatos and Demona's sentimental trap. Now she has the Gate. And she intends to use it. And just as the Xanatos clan approaches, she speaks the incantation. A huge bird of fire seems to engulf Goliath, Demona, David, Fox and Stefan Xanatos. The fire consumes itself. Owen and the Judge arrive just in time to see the last spark go out. There is no sign of the wedding party. Owen: "It seems the honeymoon has begun earlier than expected."

8. Wyvern, Scotland, on the cliffside near the forest overlooking Castle Wyvern. (This is where Hudson and Goliath froze the morning of the gargoyle massacre of 994 A.D. Only now, it's 975 A.D. -- the night of Prince Malcolm's wedding.) Our five time travelers materialize out of the flaming gate. Stefan asks "Where are we?" David: "The question isn't where... but when?"

ACT TWO
9. Pick up right where we left off. Demona laughs and launches herself off the cliff. Goliath pursues, leaving the humans behind. Xanatos doesn't waste any time. "Follow me!" He runs back into the forest followed by Fox and a very confused Stefan.

10. Air chase. Demona manages to put some distance between herself and Goliath. She chants the incantation and vanishes into the flaming "Gate", leaving Goliath alone.

11. In the forest, Clan Xanatos comes upon TWO HOODED RIDERS who are being attacked by FOUR ARMED BANDITS on horseback. Although he is unarmed, Xanatos never hesitates, wading right in against the bandits. Xanatos, Fox, the larger of the two riders and even Stefan make short work of the bandits. The bandits are forced to flee without their horses, which Xanatos commandeers for his family. The large rider is grateful but suspicious of these strangers in bizarre garb. Then he notices Xanatos' Illuminati pin and warms up fast, briefly drawing back his cloak, to reveal that he wears the same Illuminati emblem. He tells Xanatos that he is the NORMAN AMBASSADOR. He and his "companion" bring "priceless gifts" to Prince Malcolm of Wyvern. Xanatos may wear strange garb, but he's a great fighter (and a fellow Illuminatus). The Ambassador would be honored if Xanatos' would accompany them the last few miles to Castle Wyvern. He also promises that Prince Malcolm will be very grateful for their help as well.

12. Having lost Demona, Goliath soars closer to the castle, debating with himself whether or not he should land there. Then he spots Demona again from a distance. He circles to intercept her, but as she lands on a castle battlement, she is greeted by a young Goliath. And the adult Goliath realizes that he wasn't tracking his enemy, but her younger counterpart. He comes in for a landing on one of the high towers of the castle, and surreptitiously watches the young lovers below him. It almost tears his heart out. And then he hears Hudson's voice behind him, demanding to know what he's doing up on the tower when he had been assigned to hold watch on the battlement. Adult Goliath turns to see his MENTOR, (the YOUNGER HUDSON). When Hudson gets a good look at him, he immediately sees that something is wrong. And when Hudson sees young Goliath and young Demona, below on the battlement, he's ready to cry sorcery, and Adult Goliath has to slap a hand over his mouth.

13. At the gates of the castle, Xanatos, Stefan, Fox, the Ambassador and the hooded rider are greeted by young Prince Malcolm and the ARCHMAGE. The rider is revealed to be PRINCESS ELENA of Normandy. (I made this name up, and have no idea if it's accurate to tenth century Normandy.) The Ambassador had hoped that by arriving in secret, he and the Princess would avoid just the kind of trouble that Clan Xanatos saved them from. Malcolm is very grateful. He was to marry Elena tomorrow, but because the princess was attacked, he has decided to move up the wedding to this very night. He tells his SERVANTS to prepare the Great Hall. At the Ambassador's prompting, Elena pulls out her father's wedding gift. It is a priceless golden treasure known as the PHOENIX GATE, which she will officially present to the Prince after the ceremony.

14. Meanwhile, with great difficulty, Goliath is trying to convince Hudson that he is not a sorcerous creature, but a visitor from the future. (He does not choose to reveal how far in the future.) Goliath is a bit flustered himself: he doesn't know how much to reveal, and he has to remind himself not to use anachronistic names like Hudson and Demona. He manages to babble out the fact that sometime in the future, he attended the wedding of an enemy and that he and his... enemies were sent back in time by some kind of sorcery. He is particularly concerned for the younger versions of himself and Demona. He needs his MENTOR's help. (This conversation will explain the older Hudson's ambivalence in Scene 2. He remembered meeting the adult Goliath after the latter had attended the wedding of an enemy.) Hudson isn't sure what to believe, but he looks deeply into adult Goliath's eyes and decides to trust him.

15. The Archmage returns to his laboratory. He is furious. At first we think he's ranting to himself, but then we realize he's talking to his apprentice, who cowers a bit in the shadows. It turns out that the Archmage hired the bandits to steal the Phoenix Gate from the Normans. To Malcolm, it is just a gaudy bauble, but to him it is the second talisman of power that he needs. (He has the Grimorum. Doesn't yet have the Eye of Odin.) With it he can transverse space and time in a thought. He needs his apprentice to steal it from the Princess before the wedding. Hesitantly, the apprentice steps forward out of the shadows. It is the young Demona.

16. Fox and Stefan watch as Xanatos hands the Ambassador a letter, and returns to face his father. He tells him that the letter contains instructions for the Illuminati society and two sealed envelopes. The Society is to wait 1000 years and then deliver the first envelope to a young David Xanatos of Bar Harbor, Maine. The envelope contains a small coin, a minor reward requested of the Prince for saving the Princess. The coin is practically worthless in 975, but by 1975 it will be worth about 20 grand. The second envelope is to be delivered twenty years after the first. It contains a detailed account of how the coin was obtained. That's how Xanatos knew how to set all this up. He had received instructions from himself last week. "So you see, Pop. I am indeed a self-made man." Fox beams with pride. Stefan is quiet for a beat. Then asks: "All right, Mr. Big Shot Time Traveler. You sent yourself your little letter before you answered one important question: How do we get home?"

17. Young Demona sneaks into the Princess' room through a window and grabs the Phoenix Gate, while Elena's back is turned. She leaves by the same window, but she doesn't get very far. Suddenly, her older counterpart appears before her in a fiery flash of Phoenix flame.

ACT THREE
18. Up on the tower, the burst of Phoenix flame attracts the attention of Goliath, Hudson -- and Young Goliath down on the battlement! Adult Goliath knows the flame signals the arrival of his... enemy. But his younger counterpart MUST NOT investigate. Hudson agrees to waylay young Goliath. Adult Goliath takes off in the direction of the fading flame.

19. Meanwhile, the older Demona confronts her younger self. Both hold a complete version of the Phoenix Gate. (Don't you just love time travel stories?) Anyway, the younger Demona is obviously stunned by what she sees. The older one is right to business. She knows for a fact that her arrival is about to attract some unwanted attention. They need to go somewhere private to talk! She invokes the Latin spell and her gate opens into fire that sucks in both Demonas. At the last possible second, Adult Goliath flies into the fiery gate, and all three vanish.

20. Castle Wyvern. The highest tower. 994 A.D. A few nights after the Massacre. The 994 counterpart of Goliath is frozen in stone (in Thinker pose) at night! Small fires still burn. Fragments of other gargoyles litter the ground. On the cut, the Phoenix Gate deposits Young Demona, Adult Demona and Adult Goliath a few yards above the tower. The Demona's drop down gently enough, but Goliath's momentum from scene 19 sends him crashing into the stone floor of the tower. Adult Demona seems ready for this as well. Before Goliath can recover, she slams him across the back with all her might, plus both fists and the anger of 1000 years. He is knocked unconscious.
And then her real work begins. Young Demona is still in a state of semi-shock. Adult Demona wastes no time. Yes, she is her older self returned from the future with a warning. See the destruction. The death. Goliath frozen in stone at night! Humans did this! And you can stop it! You have the Phoenix Gate. All you have to do is think of a place and time. Hold it in your mind, and by speaking the incantation you are there. With its power you can accomplish anything. Do not give it away to the Archmage. Do not share it with... Do not share it! USE IT!! Destroy all the humans! Rule the Gargoyles! Rule the world!! It's all within your grasp!!!
Goliath starts to come to. Young Demona rushes to his side. Adult Demona intercepts her. "Believe me, I know exactly how you feel." But you cannot trust Goliath. He is weak. He cares more about the humans than the gargoyle clan! The greatest favor you can do him would be to put him out of our misery. (And here is where our Demona has made her big mistake. A mistake made despite the power of hindsight. Because Demona never learns. And because at this time, the younger Demona loves Goliath with all her heart.) Adult Demona: "You must know I'm right! Can't you see I am what you will become?!" And young Demona, still largely innocent and good, snaps: "I will never become like you!" Young Demona attacks adult Demona! Fight scene. Frankly, Young Demona wouldn't be a match for adult Demona, except that the latter is a bit reluctant to trash "herself". Still, it's for her own good.
Goliath regains consciousness and joins the battle. The tide turns and Adult Demona is knocked out this time. Goliath takes her version of the Phoenix Gate from her. Young Demona is pretty near shattered by this whole experience! She turns to Goliath, pleadingly. What should she do?
Goliath is reluctant to use Adult Demona's methods. But he also wants to undo some of the damage the Adult Demona did. Young Demona is touching the frozen version of Goliath. Our Goliath approaches her. Tells her not to worry about this. Not to fear it or look for it. It is not the big catastrophes that must concern her. It is the little slights. The little jealousies and angers that prey upon the heart. Fortify yourself with love and trust, and you need not fear this future.
Goliath looks at Adult Demona. He holds up her Gate. He's not sure he knows how to use it. The younger one lifts her version. She knows how. She speaks the words and the three of them disappear in flames.

21. They reappear in flame on the same tower in 975. Xanatos, Fox and Stefan are there. (The highest point on the castle was the logical place to watch for the Phoenix flames.) Goliath would be tempted to leave Xanatos behind if he wasn't afraid of the damage the guy could do to the future. Goliath says good-bye to young Demona. By now, he's figured out how the gate works. Young Demona steps back out of range. With some hesitancy, Goliath speaks the Latin and our five time travelers disappear.
Young Demona is left alone. She still has her version of the Phoenix Gate, which she holds tightly behind her back. The Archmage comes running up the stairs, clutching the Grimorum. He had seen the Phoenix fire and jumps to the conclusion that young Demona let somebody else get away with the Gate. Before she can reveal that she still has her Gate, he punishes her with a bolt of lightning, and threatens to tell the Prince that she stole the Gate. Hudson glides in, landing between Demona and the Archmage. Hudson wonders why the Archmage would expect Demona to have the Prince's wedding present? If Demona did steal it, who would she be stealing it for? The Archmage takes the hint, begrudgingly. But he won't forget this. He heads back downstairs, grumbling: Those strangely dressed strangers have disappeared. The theft of the Gate can be blamed on them. Obviously, Young Demona never reveals that she still has the Gate.
Young Goliath glides in and in a repeat of the first half of scene 5, Demona seems ridiculously happy to see him. Goliath doesn't want to miss Prince Malcolm's Wedding. Demona seems a bit distracted. She looks at Hudson, who says "Go on, then." She and Goliath glide down to one of the upper windows of the Great Hall.

22. Xanatos' Castle in Manhattan, 1995. A repeat of the end of scene 7: Owen and the Judge arrive on the scene just in time to see the last spark go out. There is no sign of the wedding party. Owen: "It seems the honeymoon has begun earlier than expected."
Our five time travelers reappear. Demona is recovering. Goliath may have defeated her, but he failed too. Demona remembers his little speech from when she was young. She never forgot it. And it didn't change anything. "More's the pity," he says. And he glides off with the Gate.
In excellent spirits, Xanatos approaches his father. "Did you have a good time at the wedding?" Xanatos Senior takes a penny from his pocket and flips it to Xanatos Junior. David catches it and asks, what's this? Stefan says, "It's called a penny. It's not worth much now, but in a 1000 years, who knows. It's my wedding present to you. Because it's all you seem to care about." Stefan turns his back on his son, and walks away.

23. Goliath arrives back at the Clock Tower. Elisa and Brooklyn are there, ready to blast him for going to the wedding. But Hudson takes one look at Goliath and stops them. Goliath puts the Phoenix Gate back in its hiding place with the Grimorum and the Eye. When he turns to face us, there's a single tear rolling down his cheek. Push in on him and ripple dissolve...

24. Castle Wyvern, 975 A.D., night. M.O.S., Young Demona separates the two pieces of the Phoenix Gate and hands one to Young Goliath. They embrace, stroking each other's hair. FADE OUT.

Rambled on Thu, November 16, 2000

EYE OF THE BEHOLDER MEMO

Last week, I posted my ramble on EYE OF THE BEHOLDER. But I forgot to post the memo from that episode. Here it is.
This is from October of '94, though the episode wouldn't air until September of '95.

Steve Perry wrote a first draft script (which I know longer have), edited by Michael Reaves. This was my memo to Michael in response to that first draft. Usually, these memos come at the outline stage. I'm not sure why this waited until the script stage. Making changes at this stage creates pressure. And I think that pressure is reflected in my brusker tone. (A tone which I regret in rereading it now.)

WEISMAN 10-11-94

Notes on "EYE OF THE BEHOLDER" Script...
This will be a fairly extensive rewrite. Mostly necessitated by Xanatos coming across as weak and moonstruck for the entire episode. We've got to do some restructuring to solve that problem. Sorry.

GENERAL STUFF
XANATOS
We cannot weaken Xanatos to the degree we do here. He should appear to be his normal machiavellian self through the whole episode. Going through life, despite minor setbacks, with an ever-present ace up his sleeve. With only two exceptions... at the crisis point, when he finally has to admit to Goliath and himself that he cares about Fox, and at the end when he feels Goliath has the goods on him. Both of these are important but brief moments. At the very end, we need to feel like Xanatos is more well-rounded, but still formidable.

FOX
In the first scene, please mention Fox's facial tattoo in description. No matter how fancy she dresses, it's a reminder that she still has the beast within. Like Xanatos, let's not play her sappy or moony. She's cut from the same cloth as he is. She may truly love him. But she's not gonna easily be carried away by those feelings. Do we want to give Fox a real name? I feel like she would have had hers legally changed. Maybe not. But how about Janine instead of Janet? Sounds slightly more exotic. Do we want the Werefox to be proportioned like a bodybuilder? She'll have super-strength of course, but shouldn't her proportions remain similar to Fox's design?

TRAVIS, etc.
You'll see below, that I've added a bit for Travis Marshall. If you can figure a way to get the exposition smoothly across without Travis, you can skip him. In either case, during Elisa's first battle against the Werefox in the grocery store, let's reuse the store and store keeper from -013. Charlie H. did that voice and you'll probably need him for Travis. (This doesn't mean the store keeper has to speak, it just gives us a convenient option and saves our artists some work.)

IT'S A CHOKER NOT A PENDANT
I know we discussed that.

TODAY'S THEME: VULNERABILITY
It's there, but I think we could be hitting it harder. (It's not that I advocate a lack of subtlety, but in our scripts we need to emphasize the theme to maintain the audience's focus. We always have so much going on that it would be easy for them to feel like it's just a lot of fighting and not about anything.)

NO 40 PAGE SCRIPTS
I don't want to see any script that is longer than 39 pages. Even at the first draft stage. Please make sure that this is to length. This shouldn't be tough. The script seemed heavily padded to me. There are entire scenes that can come out.

CAST LIST
Please make sure that this is complete. Elisa was left off. I've cut Dr. Stein. Also don't forget to include characters with no lines. They are still needed for design purposes. And describe the costumes of Elisa, Brooklyn, Broadway, Lexington and the costumed man. You don't have to go into great detail. Just make sure that it's noted that they appear in normal garb and in these other costumes.

BEAT SHEET
ACT ONE
1. SUPER: OCTOBER 1st. Our prologue. Xanatos proposes, in a decidedly business-like manner. We don't get to see the Eye. (This scene is largely successful in Steve's draft.)

2. SUPER: OCTOBER 31st. On the streets, late afternoon. Halloween prep going on. Wind, leaves. And Elisa walking with her (unrevealed) costume by the store as the bookrack flies through the store window. She goes in, coming into conflict with this monster WEREFOX. We should see the Werefox eating. Establish that basic motivation. We should also see the EYE. Werefox escapes.

3. Time cut to aftermath. Brief moment between Elisa and Morgan, as Travis Marshall reports live. This is not the Werefox's first sighting.

4. Back at the castle, Xanatos and Owen click off the television (and the Travis Marshall report) as Fox enters. She's got an overcoat pulled tight around her neck. Xanatos asks her if she is wearing her engagement present. She says nervously, that she never takes it off. She exits. He and Owen look at each other. They clearly suspect something.

5. At clock tower, gargoyles EXPLODE awake. Elisa's there. Tells what happened. Brooklyn figures that blows his theory that the Monster sightings were all pre-Halloween shenanigans. (Let's get in here that they are excited about Halloween and being able to appear in public. Hudson's less sanguine.) Goliath takes Elisa aside: "I should have been with you." But Elisa won't let him feel guilty. He can't be with her all the time anymore than she can spend every hour of daylight guarding him. They're all vulnerable. It's scary, but knowing someone cares whether they make it through the day makes it worthwhile. (Or something like that.)

6. Back at the castle, Xanatos calmly approaches Fox and asks for her engagement present. He wants to have it engraved. She tries to demure. He insists, gently pulling her collar away from the EYE!!! She slams him back and transforms into the werefox!

ACT TWO
7. Xan was more-or-less ready for this, he has a tranquilizer gun, but she's much more powerful than he anticipated. The dart doesn't seem to slow her down. Owen enters prepared, with what appears to be another tranquilizer gun. But it's really a tagging device of some sort. The Werefox escapes. (This is tricky, given the setting.) Xanatos: "So much for doing things the easy way." Owen's tagger tracks the beast and sends back vital signs. Owen explains that her metabolic rate is skyrocketing, explaining why the tranquilizer had no effect, and also revealing that she's gonna burn out and die. Xanatos seems unconcerned. (This is a facade, but even he doesn't realize it yet.) He needs to get the Eye of Odin back. If he had known it was anything more than a fancy jewel he'd never have given it away. "Oh, well. On to plan B."

8. Elisa finds Goliath in the library. She's gotten an anonymous tip about where to find the Werefox. (She doesn't know it, but it's from Xanatos.)

9. Xanatos in his battle armor, tracks and confronts the Werefox on the rooftop. (Of a bakery? Or a meat packing warehouse? In any case, reestablish her metabolic hunger.) He tries to get in close enough to remove the Eye. Goliath and Elisa arrive and, thanks to a little play-acting by Xanatos, become convinced that the Werefox is another of Xanatos' victims (ala Maggie Reed). They try to intervene, but obviously the werefox isn't too helpful. Xanatos takes this opportunity to make his grab for the Eye. He's blasted by magical energy. And the Werefox trashes his armor. He's forced to flee. Goliath tries to talk to Werefox, but she slams him into Elisa, nearly knocking the latter off the rooftop. Goliath and Elisa recover, by which time, Werefox is gone. They confer. Elisa is convinced that Xanatos has victimized this poor creature just as he did her brother. He's clearly after the eye. They have to gather all the gargoyles and make sure they get it first. Goliath looks suspiciously toward the Castle in the distance. Maybe he can barely see Xanatos limping toward it.

10. Xanatos comes in for an unsteady landing at the castle. He's greeted by Owen: "So much for plan B." And Xanatos: "True. But now plan C is activated. Goliath and company are, as usual, determined to thwart me. They'll pull out all the stops to get the eye off Fox before I do. They'll do all my work for me." Owen is confused. How will this help him recover the eye? (This is a hint that the eye isn't really Xanatos' main concern.) But before Xanatos can address that question (or even give conscious thought to the answer), Goliath and Elisa dramatically reveal their presence. It's clear they've heard everything. (Or almost everything.)

ACT THREE
11. Goliath is major angry. (But kind of proud of himself that he didn't get fooled again.) Xanatos can do his own dirty work. Goliath and Elisa start to go. And suddenly, almost against his own will, Xanatos stops him. Reveals to himself, Goliath and audience that he really cares for Fox. He needs help to get the eye off of her. The legend says that this is what the Norse God Odin traded for POWER AND INSIGHT. He had no idea the legend had any basis in fact or that the eye had any real metamorphic abilities. Goliath comments wryly that it should give Xanatos some "insight" as to Fox's true bestial nature. It's made her more like herself. (Xanatos does not find that unattractive.) Why should Goliath help? Xanatos makes the Demona reference. (At some point in here, Xanatos should make physical contact with Goliath. Touching his arm. Needing his help.) Goliath starts to waiver, but Elisa's convinced that this is just another scam. A plan D, if you like. Goliath nods agreement. In any case, it's Xanatos' mess. He can fix it himself. They leave. Xanatos seems momentarily desperate, but then controls himself. Asks how long it will take for armor repair. Owen says a couple of days and then takes a quick look at his tracker/scanner. Fox doesn't have that long.

12. Greenwich village. The party. Let's take some time to play this. The trio and their costumes. And particularly, play the beauty of Goliath and Princess Elisa. Maybe a band is playing something classical on Bleeker Street and they dance. Suddenly Goliath spots the werefox. He grabs the creature. Only to discover it's a guy in a costume. But it starts him thinking. He's going to help Xanatos. Elisa protests (not too strongly; she's not immune either). But Goliath has good reasons. The Werefox is dangerous to his "castle". But truly, if a man like Xanatos can love...well, there's hope for the whole world. From behind Xanatos agrees. How did he find them? Almost embarrassed, Xanatos pulls a Scarab transmitter off Goliath's arm. Old habits die hard. He pulls out the scanner. Come with me.

13. Elsewhere in the village, there's a lot of free food being given out at booths. (I know this would never happen in real life, but let's just assume that local restaurants are looking at it as an advertisement expense.) All the trio, not just Broadway, are partaking. But the Werefox is hungry too. Her attack is closely followed by Goliath, Elisa and Xanatos' arrival. Ultimately, Goliath gets her in a full-nelson that allows Xanatos to reach in with his gauntlet-covered hand and painfully remove the Eye. Fox transforms back, in Goliath's arms. Goliath demands the Eye; he won't trust Xanatos with it. (Xanatos will assume he's being asked to trade the eye for Fox. This is not Goliath's intent, but leave it ambiguous.) For once, Xanatos can't refuse. The exchange is made. Xanatos, cradling Fox in his arms: "Well, Goliath, now you know my one weakness." Goliath regards him with disdain: "Only you would regard love as a weakness." He, Elisa and the Trio depart with the Eye. As all this is happening, Owen has pulled up in the limo. He caught the tail end of the conversation. He agrees with Goliath: "Frankly, Mr. Xanatos, you've never looked quite so formidable." Xanatos smiles. Fox awakens. He says something tender, but it's clear he's back to his old self, just as dangerous as ever.

Rambled on Thu, November 16, 2000

Still reworking the pitch...

Another draft of the pitch. Note I forgot to change the heading at the top of the page, but in the actual pitch the show is no longer "The Gargoyle" but is once again "Gargoyles".

Note also that we were still thinking that Goliath was awake for a thousand years, something we'd eventually transfer to Demona.

Also, at the time, we were thinking that gargoyles had stone-like skin even when awake.

For once the information in [brackets] below is from the document itself, not my 21st century additions.

THE GARGOYLE
(Weisman / 2-2-92)

DISTRIBUTION: Cranston, Fair, Felix, Guler, Kline, Krisel, Ryan, Schaefer, Stones

PITCH BREAKDOWN
(Third Pass)

[Please note the "dialogue" is rough. The main purpose of this draft is to lay out the art cards. In addition, we are working on new names for all the characters.]

1. Trio of typical stone gargoyles. (B&W)

2. Medieval Flashback (B&W): GARGOYLE-MASTER in fg, RALPH and DEMONA in bg tossing human barbarians off the ramparts of the castle.

"But when the sun went down, the GARGOYLE-MASTER would lead his WARRIORS in defense of the king's castle.

"Then one night, the Master was lured away from his post. The castle was overrun. Sacked. The people dragged away in chains."

3. Medieval Flashback continues (B&W): WIZARD curses the Gargoyle-Master.

"The Gargoyle-Master took full responsibility. And the WIZARD of the castle layed a curse upon him: `Your task was simple. You failed. As punishment, you will guard the empty rooms and ramparts of this castle, 'til its spires rest among the clouds.'"

4. Last Medieval Flashback (B&W): The Gargoyle-Master alone on the castle ramparts, howls in loneliness at the moon. (Or nobly accepting his fate?)

"Now that's the kind of curse that's designed to last forever. The other gargoyles fell into a stone sleep and could not be roused. But the Master was not granted that peace. For a thousand years, he waited...alone.

5. Castle on the skyscraper. (Now, for the rest of the pitch, we're in color.)

6. Police Detective MARIA CHAVEZ. (Following a CROOK? If so, it's nighttime.)

"All of which means nothing to New York Police Detective, MARIA CHAVEZ. Castles and curses don't even enter her mind. She's hot on the trail of a major badguy."

7. She's ambushed on a rooftop by crook and multiple THUGS. She's holding her own in the fight. But someone's about to nail her from behind. (And from another rooftop, someTHING is watching in the shadows. Keep this subtle though.)

"Unfortunately, that trail leads right to an ambush. Now, Maria's tough. She can hold her own in a fight. But she's outnumbered here...and almost out of time."

8. Reveal GARGOYLE-MASTER, as he dives into fray from above.

"But not out of luck. Maria, meet the new kid in town."

9. Gargoyle lifts a badguy with either hand. While a third shoots at him, the bullets glancing off his stone-like hide. (Basic demonstration of his strength and invulnerability.)

"The strength that served the Gargoyle-Master so well in the past is doubly dangerous today. And that stone-like hide of his makes him practically invulnerable to his enemies."

10. Romantic shot in moonlight. Close in. She reaches up to touch his face gently. He looks as handsome and noble as we can manage.

"Though all too vulnerable to the kindness of his new-found friend. He tells her his story. Tells her of the thousand years he's spent in solitude. She offers him hope, real human friendship..."

11. From atop the skyscraper, she shows him Manhattan. The city as fortress. This is our showpiece card.

"...And a sense of purpose. Because if a gargoyle-master is supposed to protect his home from barbarians at the gate, then this one has found the right place to live. `Fortress Manhattan' has its fair share of barbarians."

12. XAVIER.

13. The PACK. WOLF, FOX, HYENA, JACKAL, DINGO and the CY.O.T.I. All of them attacking our Gargoyle.

14. ROBOT climbing building toward Gargoyle.

"Except maybe the ROBOTS from SCARAB-CORP. Modern-day nightmares worse than anything he saw in the dark ages."

15. CATSCAN grappling w/Gargoyle, blasting at him w/"Night Vision" from his eyes.

"But no worse than CATSCAN. A scientist mutated by his own experiments into a bitter criminal with deadly `Night Vision'."

16. DEMONA facing off with BIG GUN against our Gargoyle.

"Still, the toughest opponent of them all is an old friend. DEMONA was once the Master's most trusted Gargoyle Warrior. But she betrayed him. Now she's his sworn enemy, and unfortunately, Demona's taken to the twentieth Century like bullets take to guns."

17. RALPH. (Two poses, perhaps?)

"Fortunately, our hero doesn't have to face these villains alone. In addition to Maria, the Master has help from his old friend RALPH. When the curse was lifted, the few remaining Gargoyles who survived the attack on the old castle woke up for the first time in 1000 years. Ralph is an old Gargoyle Warrior long past his prime. His primary duty has always been to keep a close watch on the young Gargoyles-in-training..."

18. Trio of young Gargoyles, KRAMER, CUBBI and BELUSHI. (Same as card 1 but in color, perhaps?)

"...KRAMER, CUBBI and BELUSHI. (Uh, they picked their own names.)"

19. Cubbi. (Multiple poses?)

"Cubbi is the ring-leader. He's always looking for adventure. Always looking for trouble."

20. Belushi. (Multiple poses?)

"Belushi, on the other hand, is always looking for a good time. She's been asleep for a thousand years, and now she's ready to party."

21. Kramer. (Multiple poses?)

"Kramer's been asleep too, but he's just fascinated with the world he's woken up in. He thinks watching television is great. Of course, he also thinks watching a traffic light change colors is great He's ready for anything this brave, new world has to offer.

22. The DOG. (Multiple poses, definitely.)

"Unlike DOG. Dog is one angst-ridden pet. Doesn't like adventure. Doesn't like new technology. Just likes to eat a lot, sleep a lot, and make a general mess.

23. Exterior of municipal building.

"Together, they've all left the old castle behind and taken up residence in the old MUNICIPLE HALL."

24. Interior of municipal building.

"There, above the police station, above the library and the mayor's office, Maria has found them the perfect home."

25. Stone version of our Gargoyle. Looking vicious and scary. Daylight.

"They still sleep during the day, finding an outdoor ledge just before sunrise and striking a pose that could give you nightmares."

26. Night. Gargoyle-Master, handsome and noble again, on top of a skyscraper with the full moon and Maria (& other Gargoyles?) right behind him. Gothic mood, but clearly set in the present.

"But when the sun goes down, they're our only protection from the city's dark terrors."

27. Title Card: "THE GARGOYLES".

"They are...THE GARGOYLES."

Rambled on Tue, November 14, 2000

A random thought that went nowhere...

We were still struggling to come up with some kind of motif or at least consistency for the names of our gargoyle characters...

[3] From: Greg Weisman 2/2/92 4:39PM (375 bytes: 4 ln)

To: Gary Krisel, Kimberlee Mozingo, Greg Weisman, Bruce Cranston, Kathy Fair,
Fred Schaefer, Mike Ryan, Hali Helfgott
Subject: Addendum to Gargoyle names

------------------------------- Message Contents -------------------------------
What if all the gargoyles were named after types of stone or rock?

Just a thought.

[On the back of my copy of this memo, I hand wrote the following:

CRONOS (I crossed this out.)
KRONOS
ORESTES
Prometheus
Connery
AJAX (I crossed this out too.)
TYR]

[Two days later, my boss Gary Krisel returned his copy of my memo to me.]

RECEIVED BY
FEB 04 1992
GREG WEISMAN'S OFFICE

From: Greg Weisman
Date: 2/2/92 4:39PM
To: Gary Krisel Kimberlee Mozingo
Greg Weisman
Bruce Cranston
Kathy Fair
Fred Schaefer
Mike Ryan
Hali Helfgott

Subject: Addendum to Gargoyle names

What if all the qarqoyles were named after types of stone or rock?

Just a thought.

[At the bottom of the page, Gary handwrote the following:

Greg
Pls. use names. It gets too cumbersome when we appropriate nouns for names
GK]

Rambled on Mon, November 13, 2000

NAMES

It's February, 1992 and we're circling in on our concepts. Trying to find names for our characters. Here's a memo I wrote to organize an effort to get the names once and for all. The people addressed include my bosses Gary Krisel (President of TV Animation) and Bruce Cranston (Vice President of Development for TV Animation), Gary's assistant Kim Mozingo (who was copied to make sure that Gary actually got this e-mail). My assistant Hali Helfgott (who I asked to copy the e-mail to the artists who didn't have computers, including Art Director Bob Kline, character designer Greg Guler and development artist Paul Felix.) Also copied were Development Associates Kat Fair, Fred Schaefer and Mike Ryan. This, at the time, was the team involved in developing the series.

[3] From: Greg Weisman 2/l/92 8:13PM (4538 bytes: 86 ln)
To: Gary Krisel, Kimberlee Mozingo, Greg Weisman, Bruce Cranston, Kathy Fair,
Fred Schaefer, Mike Ryan, Hali Helfgott
Subject: GARGOYLE NAMES

------------------------------- Message Contents ------------------------------
Hali, please copy Bob, Paul and Greg.

We need to come up with new names for most of the characters in Gargoyles. The method we used for "Wind-Ryders" seemed fairly successful, so we'll try it again. [Wind-Ryders was another series we developed and failed to sell. Wind-Ryders was just one of its names. It was set in a VR world. The Cade & Togo characters mentioned in a previous memo came from Wind-Ryders.] Please take a few minutes to write up your suggestions and then turn them into me a.s.a.p.

I've included our theory on names. It's only a working theory, however, so if you've got a great name that doesn't fit, don't hesitate to include it. (Though you might also try to give me one that does fit the theory just in case.) I'll collate all the entries and we'll put em to a vote again.

Gary and I discussed the notion that naming things is a human peculiarity. [This actually became the key to solving our name problems. I think deep down I realized that. But I didn't yet have confidence in it.] Gargoyles don't normally do it, referring to each other by their job-descriptions, (e.g. Gargoyle-Master or Gargoyle-Warrior) or by "Hey, you!"

When they all wake up in the 20th century, their new friend detective Maria feels that they need names. My guess is the three kids each pick their own fun names and also choose a name for the dog. [See. We did that.] Demona might pick her own name as well, either before or after she leaves them to join Xavier. [Back then, we had Demona waking up WITH the other gargs. Then switching sides. (As you may recall, the Demona name was left over from the old comedy development. When Dakota became Demona.]

Ralph probably can't think of a name, so Maria picks one for him. [This more or less happened with Hudson, except that Hudson's naming, became the catalyst and key to our other New York City inspired names. This THEMING of all the names was eventually very important to give us all something to hold onto, instead of having a bunch of random names, as listed below.]

The Gargoyle-Master might choose his own name or Maria might choose it for him. Shouldn't matter much, we still want something heroic and classical, I think. [We eventually allowed the tenth century humans to name this guy, instead of Maria/Elisa.]

Here are the characters we need names for:

THE GARGOYLE-MASTER (I'd rather not have anything reminiscient of "Vincent" the name of the live-action T.V Beast. Whether he chose his own name or not, we might want to wind up with something Shakespearean or Mythological. Something that sounds heroic, certainly, but might have an edge of sadness to it. This is the tough one.) [I wrote a few notions of my own on my copy of this memo: "ATLAS, STONE, CALABAN, PROMTETHIUS, TITAN". You can see that I didn't have the name "Goliath" yet, but I had the feeling I wanted in mind.]

DEMONA - (We might still use this name, but Gary is concerned that it might be too on the nose for the pitch. Would she pick a name that labels her as a villain? Does any villain think of him or herself as a villain?) [I wrote: "Angelica, Carve, Dagger". When Demona's "origin" was altered (to in effect take over the tragic idea of a gargoyle being ALIVE AND AWAKE for a thousand years) this dilemma went away. The idea of Macbeth naming her and her liking the name came later. But you can see that the Angelica/Angel/Angela (opposite of Demona) name was already roaming about in my head.]

RALPH - This is our old past-his-prime former Warrior. Caretaker for the young gargoyles. [I wrote: "ROLF, RALPH, ROCK" For some reason, I really liked the name Ralph for this character, this proto-Hudson. I was stuck on it for awhile.]

CUBBI - This is the small, male, trouble-making, adventure seeking Gargoyle. [I wrote: "NASTI, AMP, STATIC, MOE". This was the garg that looked a bit like Lex, but had Brooklyn's personality. He had been called (at least briefly) "Amp" in our old comedy development. I was still stuck on that. Cubbi, of course, was the name of a Gummi Bear, another of our inspirations.]

BELUSHI - This is our larger, female, party-animal gargoyle. [I wrote: "BELUSHI". This was our female proto-Broadway character. The one who was called Coco in the comedy development. Of course, years later, we'd cast Jim Belushi as Fang. But the inspiration here was Jim's late brother John.]

KRAMER - This is our sorta out-there, easily distracted, easily fascinated gargoyle. Modeled after the Kramer character on Seinfeld. [I wrote: "LASSIE, WEDGE". This character looked vaguely like Brooklyn but had a bit of Lex's personality. Though more of an idiot savant, than Lex's technically brilliant guy.]

DOG - Our angst-ridden pet. [I wrote: "LASSIE, DOG". Our proto-Bronx.]

MARIA CHAVEZ - When we actually do the show, we might be able to go back to this name. (We'll try anyway.) For purposes of the pitch, however, we don't want a name that emphasizes that she is hispanic. [I wrote: "LISA REED, ELISA". This paragraph is really embarrassing. I had been told by my bosses that we couldn't SELL the show with an Hispanic human lead. And so I pandered to get it sold, with every intention of going back to "Maria Chavez" once I was definitely in business. In the interrum, I fell in love with the first name Elisa. So she became Elisa Chavez. (And we did end up using that name in the pitch. Later when we cast African-American/Native-American actress Salli Richardson, Elisa's last name changed to "Maza". But we used the Maria Chavez name for her boss and Captain. So I feel good about the end result. But I'm ashamed that I didn't demonstrate the courage of my convictions throughout the process.]

XAVIER - Marvel has a semi-prominent character named Xavier. So we just need a new name that gives us the same effect. [I wrote: "MR JONAH, CARRIOS, SKANE". Yuck.]

CATSCAN - Catscan is fine for his super-villain name. We need a name for the scientist, before he becomes Catscan. The first name should probably be fairly normal. The last name (though it doesn't have to be an existing word) should probably have an ominous or dangerous sound to it. [I wrote: "DR. SKANE". I'm surprised I didn't revive this Skane name for Sevarius. But it obviously didn't stick with me.]

CY.O.T.E. - CYber-operational works great for me, but I'd like to get some other options on the T. and E. [I wrote: "C.Y.O.T.I CYber-Operational Transferable Intelligence". Ultimately, C.Y.O.T.I. became just Coyote, because we didn't want to tip that he was a robot right away.]

ROBOT & ROBOT ORGANIZATION - Could be the same name. (I.e. if the organization is called TOBOR CORP. Than the Robot could be called the TOBOR-1 or something.) [I wrote: "SKARAB, R-CORP". We wound up keeping the Scarab Corp. name. But we barely used it in the show.]

Thanks, G.W.

Rambled on Fri, November 10, 2000

CONTEST UPDATE

Six left:

74
129
510
517
518
519

Rambled on Fri, November 10, 2000

More on villains...

Fred Schaefer was still working on villains. We had one great art card of Goliath confronting an insect-like robot scaling a building. Those of you who have seen the final pitch at a Gathering have seen it. I'm guessing -- cuz I don't remember for sure -- that the art came first and that Fred was writing up info based on that. But it's possible it's the other way around. Anyway, we were still working on Catscan (the proto-Talon/proto-Sevarius). We were looking for Catscan's real name. Fred's picks seemed too goofy to me, which is why my initial impression of the name Sevarius was negative. Too hokey. Now I'm used to it.

As for the robot, it never appeared in the actual series, but I liked the "Scarab" name and made it (at least unofficially) the name of Xanatos' robotics company.

RECEIVED BY
JAN 29 1992
GREG WEISMAN'S OFFICE
THE GARGOYLE -- VILLAINS
(Schaefer 1-29-92)

DISTRIBUTION: Cranston, Fair, Felix, Guler, Kline, Krisel, Ryan, Stones, Weisman

CAT SCAN -- Thumbnail Sketch

CAT Scan is a ruthless mutant [I altered "mutant" to read "mutate"] -- part man, part panther -- who was once a dedicated scientist working for our master villain, Xavier. The victim of a grisly lab accident, he was forced to abandon his life as a scientist and become one of Xavier's most deadly weapons.

Too bad for our nocturnal Gargoyle who can't hide from the doctor's panther-like night vision and power blasts.

Alternative (non-code) names for CAT SCAN

Dr. Rapier
Dr. Havelock
Dr. Skulk
Dr. Lurk
Dr. Jag
Dr. Panzer
Dr. Pincer
Dr. Sinew
Dr. Jag Sinew
Dr. Flint Kragmore
[I wrote "Too Silly" next to all these names.]

(Does it make sense to give this character a tough, evil sounding name, when he doesn't begin as a villain? He's a dedicated scientist who later gets screwed by Xavier. He's mortified over his metamorphosis and becomes very bitter and dangerous.) [Next to this paragraph I wrote: "Think SOUND like we did w/Cade & Togo, Not Words." Cade & Togo were two characters from another show we were developing set in a virtual reality world.]

THE ROBOT -- (A Possible) Thumbnail Sketch

Part insect. Part crustacean. All machine. It's an indestructible robot that's been developed by Tech-Pod Industries (whatever). It's controlled via remote from corporation headquarters. It can scale buildings using its powerful front claws and, although massive in weight, can leap from building to building with amazing ease. Deadly. Relentless. Inexhaustible.

A termite eats through wood -- this baby eats through stone, steel, and glass. Can draw blood from a gargoyle. [I wrote "GOOD" under this.]

Possible names for the robot:

SCARAB [I put "++++" next to this, indicating that I liked the name.]
THE KRAW
THE LOCUST
THE CUSP
DECAPOD ["+++" by this one.]
DECAPODA
DECAPITATOR (because of its massive front claws)
THORAXIAN
THE TECH-POD

The Robotics Organization---(A Possible) Thumbnail Sketch

This corporation is involved in the cutting edge of robotics. Some of its divisions are clandestine, particularly the one that's a member of the Business Alliance of Infra-world Technology (B.A.I.T.). The Alliance is a [sic] underground network of weapons facilities and research labs that sells technology to worldwide crime syndicates.

Possible names for the robotics organization:

SCARAB MACHINES
SCARABEOUS, INC.
KRAY-BOTICS
KRAW-BOTICS
LOCUST, INC.
BIOCHINE, INC.
HUMACHINES, INC.
HUMECHANICS, INC.
ANTHRO-TECH, INC.
TECH-POD INDUSTRIES

[Next to all this "Robotics organization" material, I wrote: "fine don't need it now" Indicating that we wouldn't use the organization for the pitch. Just the robot itself.]

Rambled on Thu, November 09, 2000

QUEUE'S EMPTY...

Here's a contest update.

The following blanks remain unfilled:

74
129
293
446
510
517
518
519

Only eight left, though it seems like people have really slowed down on guessing. The funny thing is that none of these are particularly series-specific. I never would have predicted that any of these would have been the last to go. Some of them, frankly, seem kind of obvious to me, but of course, I'm coming from a very different perspective. In hindsight, that last set of three may really be tough because there's less context.

But anyway, keep at it. I want this over with.

Rambled on Fri, November 03, 2000

Chapter XX: "Eye of the Beholder"

Written by Steve Perry. Story Edited by Michael Reaves.

It's really just a coincidence that we watched this so close to Halloween (11-2-00). I wasn't trying for that. This was just the next episode in the sequence. Still, when I mentioned before we started that this was the Halloween episode of Gargoyles, the kids got very excited. Erin pointed at the framed cell we have in our bedroom which depicts Goliath and La Belle Elisa dancing. She remembered that it came from the episode we were about to watch. Benny then commented that Elisa and Goliath are going to get married. Erin, who has a clearer memory of the last time we completed the 66 episode sequence corrected him. But I said something cryptic, like you never know. Erin said I needed to make more episodes so that we could find out. From her mouth to God's ears.

In general, the kids were very verbal during this episode, or at least Erin was. Benny started out verbal, but fell asleep with his mom rubbing his tummy somewhere during Act One.

In the opener, a classic scene I think, when he first saw Xanatos and Fox together he said: "That was you, Erin. I was him." in reference to the Fox and Xanatos costumes they wore to the Gathering 2000's masquerade.

Erin really bought into the tension of the episode. And it is very tense. Some terrific pacing to this. She remembered this one with much greater clarity than most. "Uh oh. That's not just any necklace." Etc. Personally, I just love Xanatos' pragmatic proposal. The truth is X should have already known that he was truly in love with Fox. I've just done some research into sentencing while working on and reworking my Gargoyle timeline. Fox & Wolf each received a 16 month sentence for briefly holding that model hostage in "Thrill of the Hunt". They had the opportunity to be parolled after eight months. They were rejected. Instead of waiting a mere eight more months for them to be released free and clear, an impatient Xanatos sets up the events in "Leader of the Pack". Is that a man in love or what? Nevertheless, we get his whole "We're genetically compatible and have the same goals" speech. She asks about love, and he feels himself largely incapable of the emotion. He thinks he's too amoral for that. "I think we love each other as much as two people like us can." (Or something like that. I'm approximating all these quotations.) It's fun.

Then comes the sequence in Mr. Jaffe's store. Erin is still very tense: "Uh oh, that's Fox. She's wearing the necklace." and "She wants to stop it [the necklace] with one arm. But she doesn't want to with the other." Here, Erin's hit right on Fox's internal conflict. Part of her is fighting the Eye, but part of her wants to surrender to its power. When X first confronts her in her bedroom, and when the Werefox emerges and attacks, it doesn't shred him. It throws him down on the bed. There's some powerful primal energy swirling 'round that room. Lucky thing Owen is there, or I'm not sure Xanatos escapes with his dignity intact.

Xanatos takes note and activates Plan A, which will be followed by B and C. And a makeshift D. It becomes almost a parody of all his contingencies and "Xanatos Tags" from previous episodes. For once, he's out of control. And he can't bear to admit it. He pretends (even to himself) that he just needs to recover the valuable Eye of Odin, when what he obviously really wants is to save Fox. "...I'd never have just given it away. Ah, well, spilled milk." (I always thought that was a great and yet feeble cover for his real feelings.)

Speaking of the Eye, how many knew back when it was intro'd in "The Edge" that it would be so important? As I think I've mentioned, the Eye was actually the creation of Disney Interactive which was working on a GARGOYLES VIDEO GAME at the time. They told us about the Eye, and I loved the idea and decided to incorporate it into the show. Unfortunately, we didn't use their design, which had this great crow/raven theme to it, appropriate to Odin. Instead, our design always looked vaguely Egyptian to me. I can't remember, but I think that maybe they're design wasn't ready when we needed to complete our model for "The Edge". Or it might have been poor communication. The Eye was designed at Walt Disney Animation - Japan. At any rate, we knew from the gamer folk that the Eye had metamorphic powers. But I wanted to be more specific. Yes, it would grant power, but it had to grant power that suited the legend of Odin's Eye. The Eye traditionally provided Mimir with the gift of sight. That easily translated to "insight" for me. Which is a kind of power in its own right. The Eye in the Gargoyles Universe would externalize and amplify a major trait of the wearer. And, yes, even then I had plans to eventually intro Odin himself and have him stick the thing back in his empty socket.

I think that shot from inside the elevator shaft when Fox smashes her way in is very cool.

Owen with an Elvis tribute: "Fox has left the building."

CONTINUITY
--The Eye of Odin, of course.

--Mr. Jaffe's poor grocery store.

--X's commando squad (including Bruno) is at the ready, yet still unprepared for the Werefox's fury.

--Since "The Mirror", Goliath is more open about his growing feelings for Elisa. She again defuses things by turning his concerns for her into a more objective statement about friendship.

--Goliath is back in the library. This time studying Werewolves. The information won't be useful, but isn't that just like him?

--Elisa immediately jumping to the conclusion that the were-thing is another of Xanatos' mutated victims like her brother.

HALLOWEEN - The trio are very excited to be able to stroll into the open. "No one'll know who we are." Better yet, "No one will know WHAT we are." The taste of conformity they got in "The Mirror" has opened a window on their need to be a part of something larger than the clan.

Another cool visual: Fox and Goliath circling each other, with Fox on all fours.

I love when Goliath tries to reason with Fox. "If Xanatos is your enemy, then believe me, WE are your friends." How little he knows. The Werefox immediately attacks him. Still conflicted. Throughout the story, Fox fights, but the Eye reasserts.

Time for Plan C. But Owen has noticed the flaw in Xanatos' usually stellar power of contingency. X claims that all he cares about is the Eye. But he's only setting things up so that the gargs will get the eye. Subconsciously, all he wants is Fox. But we have Goliath arrive and interrupt just at that moment so that neither X or the audience has time to focus on the contradicition.

X breaks down. Appeals to Goliath. He's out of control. Up to a point. ("Old habits die hard -- he still has the forsight to plant a bug on Goliath ala "Awakening, Part Three".

Gotta love Goliath's line: "Not a good night for you." It's great as a writer when you can legitimately turn the tables and give Goliath a Xanatos line.

HALLOWEEN 2
Broadway REALLY wanted to dress up as a Detective. So he's got a new trenchcoat and hat. Brooklyn, ever the swashbuckler, is a pirate. And Lex... hmm... what should we make Lex. We settled on a pilot, in keeping with his helicopter prowess, I guess. But it was never too clear what Lex would or should be, and I can't help thinking that Lex had trouble deciding on a costume too.

Of course, Goliath doesn't wear a costume.

Vinnie has a line here. Though officially, it's not Vinnie's first appearance, this one line of Jeff Bennett spoken dialogue "A costume over a costume." is the obvious inspiration for all that followed with the Vinster.

And I love Keith as that witch saying "That is a great, great costume." What a great, great line reading.

BEAUTY & THE BEAST. Finally, we get to hit the nail on the head. A moment so romantic (in a very romantic episode) that even the characters take note. Elisa lets her self go for a moment. Goliath just is. The kids are happy for them.

But "Things are not always as they seem". Goliath breaks the moment by attacking a guy in a werewolf costume.

Note: That Goliath now refers to Manhattan as "My castle, my city." A year earlier (more or less) he was calling it Xanatos' city. I love the notion that Goliath sees hope in Xanatos LOVING someone. And of course, he's right. Xanatos' love for Fox (and later Alex) will result in Goliath getting the castle back. Not war, but love.

Brooklyn and Lex finally get to eat pretzyls. Remember that in Awakening, Broadway ate them all. Meanwhile Broadway eat's a hot dog and BELCHES MIGHTILY. This was really more about all of us indulging ourselves in low humor. We put the burp into the script. Bill Fagerbakke burped loudly. But our sound effects guy Paca Thomas, put in the burp to end all burps.

CONTINUITY AGAIN
--Lex gets very intense (briefly) and wants to go after FOX. He still hates anything or anyone connected to his Pack experience.

--The return of Brendan & Margot.

Gotta love Elisa's costume. Holster for a garter belt. Very sexy. Solved our nudity problem with Fox too. I'm amazed we got away with that.

In a larger sense, I'm amazed we got away with the entire episode. I was very nervous that the notion of X and Fox getting engaged would be rejected. But the BIG BOSSES didn't focus on the fact that the engagement might lead to marriage. And fortunately, they weren't paying attention when that engagement led to marriage, pregnancy and a kid. I don't think they would have allowed it.

I could have done without Broadway eating his hat.

Fox's internal conflict is visualized when she sees Elisa as herself and attacks to silence that human voice inside her once and for all.

When, in slow motion, Goliath intercepts Fox and saves Elisa (who's usually fairly self-sufficient) it may be the purest moment of Hero saving damsel we have in the series. The dress helps of course.

A little HIGHLANDER inspiration here with Fox and the exploding sign.

I love that Owen's right there with the helicopter.

X is still trying to interpret things to suit his old (and dated) world view. He thinks Goliath is trading the Eye for Fox, which of course he wasn't. Goliath doesn't think that way.

"Now you know my weakness."
"Only you would consider love a weakness."
"You've never looked more heroic."
"A momentary lapse, I assure you."

All great lines.

Let's go home.

And Owen, who signed on BECAUSE Fox and Xanatos were so interesting to the Puck, SMILES.

And now a word about the episode from Erin Sydney Weisman (she typed this herself):

I am most interested in this episode. And the episode I watched was a spooky episode. And I liked the episode, because it was a very enchanting episode.

Rambled on Thu, November 02, 2000

MARINA SIRTIS

I'd just like to point out that I'm a man of my word. At the 2000 Gathering in Orlando, I vowed that the 2001 Gathering in L.A. would have a MINIMUM of 20 special guests. As of today, we officially have 21. And we're not done by a long shot.

Of course, the big news is MARINA SIRTIS, the voice of Demona, will be attending.

Here's the official announcement reprinted by permission of the G2001 staff:

The Fifth Annual Gathering of the Gargoyles
The Gathering 2001: City of Angels
June 22-25, 2001 -- Los Angeles, CA

UPDATES!

The staff of The Gathering 2001 is pleased and excited to announce the addition of SIX NEW GUESTS. We're most excited because the list of new
additions starts with the voice of Demona herself, MARINA SIRTIS! Also well known for her role as Counselor Deanna Troi in the "Star Trek: The Next
Generation" television series and films, Ms. Sirtis joins the voice of Lexington, Thom Adcox-Hernandez, on the sure to be growing list of "Gargoyles"
voice actors and actresses who will be in attendance at The Gathering 2001.

But wait, that's not all! We also have five new names joining our guest roster from the "Gargoyles" staff and production crew: Lisa Salamone, Jamie
Thomason, Karen Peterson, Dave Schwartz, and Julie Morgavi. Many said it couldn't be done when we promised at least 20 guests - more than every
previous Gathering combined - but our complete list is now up to 21! And even more are sure to be added in the future!

For the complete guest list and most recent info, visit:
http://gathering.gargoyles-fans.org/guests.htm

With such a terrific guest list and so many exciting events planned, it's a sure bet that The Gathering 2001 is going to be THE place to be for "Gargoyles"
fans next June. Our goal is to have 500 people or more in attendance at what will be the BIGGEST and BEST Gathering yet, and only YOU can make it
happen. If you have already registered and purchased your membership, we thank you! But if you haven't, please don't wait too much longer! The
early-bird membership rate of $30.00 for adults ($15.00 for children ages 10 to 14) will only last until December 31, 2000! Don't lose out on what could
be as much as a 50% discount! The rate goes up to $40.00 for adults ($20.00 for children) as of January 1, 2001, and the adult membership rate at the
door will $60.00.

And while you're signing up for your membership, don't forget to reserve a place at the Gala Awards Banquet! Many of our special guests - including
Marina Sirtis, Thom Adcox-Hernandez, and Greg Weisman - are scheduled to be in attendance at this special event, and we hope to see YOU there, as
well. Tickets are only $60.00 per person and they are going fast! Seating is limited, so don't delay!

For more information about the convention, visit us on the web at:
http://gathering.gargoyles-fans.org/

Or contact us by e-mail at gathering2001@art-chicks.com

We hope to see YOU in Los Angeles next June!

Rambled on Thu, November 02, 2000

CONTEST UPDATE

The following blanks remain to be filled:

42
44
74
129
293
446
510
517
518
519

Down to the last ten.

Rambled on Thu, November 02, 2000

Still trying to find focus...

Again, I went to work on putting a pitch together on the series. Now again called "GARGOYLES" instead of "The Gargoyle". I was still stuck on the poignancy of the proto-Goliath having been alive and alone for the thousand years, something that we'd eventually trade over to Demona, where it sat better.

GARGOYLES Mini-pitch
(Weisman / 1-29-92)

We all think we know what GARGOYLES are. Ugly, stone statues squatting on the rooves of old buildings...
(Card 1: trio.)

But a thousand years ago, gargoyles were real, living creatures.

At night, they were the kings defenders.
Led by the Gargoyle-Master...
(Card 2: The Gargoyle.)
All the gargoyle warriors and squires would guard the castle from attack.

Everyday, they slept. Frozen in stone on the ramparts.
(Card 3: Stone.)

The one day the castle was overrun. Sacked. The people dragged away in chains. Most of the gargoyle warriors were destroyed.

The Gargoyle-Master took full responsiblity.

As punishment, a wizard layed a curse on him. He said, "Your job was to safeguard the people of this castle.
You failed. Now you will guard this empty relic alone, until it rests in the clouds."

Now, that's the kind of curse that's designed to last forever.

And our tragic hero does in fact guard the castle alone for a thousand years.

The few young gargoyles who survived the attack stay frozen in stone both night and day.

The Gargoyle-Master despairs.

Then the castle is purchased by an American.
It is moved to the top of a sky-scraper in Manhattan.
(Card 4: Castle on skyscraper.)

...Where it rests in the clouds; the curse is lifted.

And the Gargoyle is no longer alone...

He meets a young police detective who can see past his ugly form.
(Card 5: Detective.)

She offers him hope, a sense of purpose.
(Card 6: Moonlight.)

Together they'll fight tough villains...
(Card 7 & 8: Catscan and the robot.)

...and try to keep the newly awakened young gargoyles out of trouble.

Rambled on Wed, November 01, 2000

NEW CONTEST UPDATE

NOTE:

The two contests are now for

1) Who gets the most points for filling in the most blanks.

2) Who fills in the very LAST blank. (Not #525 which has already been filled in, but the last empty unfilled blank, whatever number that is).

We're no longer going to award a prize for reprinting the whole essay filled in. I'll do that (for free) when we're done.

The following blanks still need to be filled:

42, 44, 74, 129, 233, 292, 293, 408, 446, 510, 517, 518, 519

That's only thirteen left.

Rambled on Wed, November 01, 2000

CONTEST UPDATE

The following blanks remain to be filled:

42, 44, 74, 125, 129, 133, 134, 233, 244, 292, 293, 314, 322, 327, 328, 408, 433, 444, 446, 490, 508, 510, 517, 518, 519.

That's only 25 left out of 525. Very good work, people.

Now the "bad" news. I'm cancelling the second part of the contest, the part where the first person to list the entire essay correctly gets a prize. I apologize, but the whole thing just became unwieldy, and I can't imagine having to go through twenty or thirty of the full-length essays just to find one or two words wrong in them.

Whether or not you think you have enough points to win the other part of the contest, I still urge everyone to keep guessing these last 25 blanks. First of all, I want this monster over. And second, I can't answer ANY questions about 2198 until the contest is completed. And third, well, it's just nice for everyone to be working together to solve the thing.

Thanks,

Greg

Rambled on Thu, October 26, 2000

CONTEST UPDATE

The following blanks remain to be filled:

42, 44, 74, 125, 129, 133, 134, 233, 244, 292, 293, 314, 322, 327, 328, 408, 433, 444, 446, 490, 508, 510, 517, 518, 519.

That's only 25 left out of 525. Very good work, people.

Rambled on Wed, October 25, 2000

"The Gargoyle" still taking form...

In late January of 1992 we were still searching for our series. Ultimately, we'd return to a more dramatic version of our old comedy development. But here was an earlier version where our proto-Goliath is still an immortal magical construct.

THE GARGOYLE
(Weisman / 1-24-92)

DISTRIBUTION: Cranston, Fair, Felix, Guler, Kline, Krisel, Ryan, Schaefer, Stones

PITCH BREAKDOWN
(Third Pass - Version 1/Backstory...?)

[Please note that the dialogue is just here to show the flow of the pitch. It's not intended to be even a first pass at the correct words.]

1. Typical stone gargoyles. (Perhaps stone versions of our squire characters.)

"We all think we know what GARGOYLES are. Ugly, stone statues squatting on the rooves of old buildings..."

2. OPTIONAL - "Medieval Woodcut" showing gargoyles repelling barbaric invaders from the castle walls.

"But there was a time when gargoyles were real, living creatures. The kings defenders...[or something]..."

3. Modern day, beauty shot of our Gargoyle on top of a skyscraper with the full moon behind him.

"That time has come again."

4. Castle being lowered onto skyscraper by giant airships. Laputaesque. It's sunset.

"Manhattan, 1994. And an ancient scottish castle is the newest addition to the New York skyline."

5. Our FEMALE POLICE DETECTIVE hot on the trail of a major badguy.

"But JANE DOE, New York Police Detective, doesn't have time to worry about that now. She's hot on the trail of a major badguy."

6. She follows him onto a rooftop. But it's an ambush by multiple baddies. (By now it's nighttime.)

7. She's doing o.k. in the fight. Holding her own. But someone's about to nail her from behind. And from another rooftop, someTHING is watching in the shadows.

8. Reveal THE GARGOYLE, as he dives into fray from above.

9. Gargoyle lifts a badguy with either hand. While a third shoots at him, the bullets glancing off his stone-like hide. (Basic demonstration of his strength and invulnerability.)

10. OPTIONAL - Then he's gone, as quickly as he came. Leaving her to wonder.

11. OPTIONAL - But she's a born detective, innately curious. Tracks him down. They meet. Quiet moment. He'll tell her his story.

12. 1000 years ago, EVIL WIZARD creates our very menacing GARGOYLE. (Does Gargoyle have a name?) Wizard is perverting a gargoyle's true protective function, wants Gargoyle to destroy the near-by castle of the good princess.

13. PRINCESS (does she look like our detective?) convinces Gargoyle to fight for good and not evil. Touches his heart.

14. Gargoyle prepared to fight for Princess...just as the sun begins to rise. (Castle folk open gates to let Gargoyle out?)

15. Gargoyle turns to stone at rise of sun. (As the wizard's army attacks thru open gates?)

16. Sunset. The castle has been sacked. The princess is gone. Our Gargoyle is heartbroken. (More TRAGIC than pathetic.) He's failed.

17. The years pass. He haunts the ruined castle. Howling in front of the full moon?? Years spent in solitude.

18. Occasional forays into humanity? (Stealing books from library?) (World War II? Ripping the wings off a German plane?)

19. Back in present, he tells Detective how all he has left is isolation and futility. Nothing for him in this world. Nothing for 1000 years.

20. But now there's her. She offers him hope, a sense of purpose. And real human friendship. If he sees humanity as an unchanging blight on the planet, she sees humanity as an unending source of potential. She is not naive. She's a cop. She's seen good men corrupted as often as she's seen Bad men redeemed. Working to make things better is the only way they'll get better.

21. From atop the skyscraper, she shows him Manhattan. (Beauty shot of the city in the moonlight.) If Gargoyles are supposed to protect from Barbarians at the gate, then he's found the right town. Manhattan is full of "Barbarians".

22. Gargoyle fighting crime. A mugging? A car full of bank robbers?

23. Escalate. Major villain card. XAVIER perhaps.

24. Escalate. Major villain. One of the Crazies.

25. Escalate. Even tougher villain card. One of the Big Guys. (Gargoyle and Big guy fighting?)

26. Escalate. The toughest villain card. The Wizard in his new incarnation. (Any relation between Xavier and the wizard?)

27. Discussion of mood and tone. Gargoyle in city atmosphere. Emphasize gothic melodrama in very modern setting.

28. Supporting characters. (Other gargoyles, perhaps, or our lead girl's kid? Other cops? The old librarian?)

29. Where does he live? Still in Xavier's tower? With Xavier? The library maybe?

30. Other types of stories?

31. End Card.

Some possible names for our Gargoyle:

Gargoyle
Gar
Griffin
Gryphon
Lear
Calaban
Othello

Rambled on Tue, October 24, 2000

Danger!

January of '92 was a busy month for Gargoyles Developers. Tad was working on other projects. Maybe Darkwing Duck (if "LP" below stands for "Launchpad"). But he was still helping us out with advice on our show. As I noted earlier, some of Fred Schaefer's villains were problematic. Too dark even for our series. I tended to agree with Tad about Catscan (the proto-Talon). But we did wind up incorporating a bit of the attitude that Tad was concerned about into Fang. (Which makes Catscan the proto-Talon, proto-Sevarius and proto-Fang all rolled into one.)

[2] From: Tad Stones 1/17/92 8:25AM (712 bytes: 11 ln)
To: Greg Weisman
Subject: Cat-scan

------------------------------- Message Contents -------------------------------

Read the villain stuff on Cat Scan. Considering I'm getting notes from Michael Webster about cutting scenes that show LP littering, and GK is worried about doing gags about coffee and showing a gorilla wearing a dress ... do you really want to portray a character who's pumped up by violence, who says he's never felt more alive than when he was fighting?

Even though he's a villain, he's attractive because he's smart and powerful. I think this guy is over the line, however fuzzy that line is.

Rambled on Mon, October 23, 2000

CHAPTER XIX: "The Silver Falcon"

It's been awhile, but I watched "The Silver Falcon" with my kids the other night, so here's my ramblings on the episode:

This was Cary Bate's first GARGOYLES script as writer and story editor. And it feels very Cary to me. The love of old movies. The twisty-turny detective story, etc. But the main thing I remember is that Cary consciously wanted to start out slow. Not to have to be immediately fluent in each and every member of our large cast. So we focused this on Elisa and Broadway.

CONTINUITY:

Broadway likes b&w genre flicks. First SHOWDOWN. Now this detective film.

Elisa keeps her gun in a lockbox now.

Broadway hates Dracon, but can't immediately place Glasses.

Broadway is extremely protective of Elisa.

Broadway has trouble reading, but he's clearly been studying.

Dracon now has a white streak in his hair. This was primarily done because I thought Tony's model looked too bland. But it made for some cool continuity, given how frightened he was in "Deadly Force". I actually had a brief weird notion to also give Glasses that white streak, but fortunately decided against that weird coincidence.

FUN LINES:

"Ears like these don't miss much."

"This is for my apartment, jerk!"

Picking up on Michael Reaves' suggestion that Matt is a conspiratorialist, we lay the groundwork for the Illuminati's eventual surfacing -- while simultaneously leave it open here to still think that Matt is way off base. Still Martin Hacker is intro'd here. He helps Matt out this time, because he knows the DD angle is a dead end Illuminati-wise. Mace is also mentioned and we see a photo of him. I already knew we'd be bringing back Hacker and meeting Mace soon enough. I knew they were both Illuminati.

Matt's FBI background is also revealed here for the first time. I always like filling in the blanks on characters we think we know.

We into Pal Joey here. Primarily, because Glasses made too BIG of an impression in Deadly Force. We needed someone that the audience (and Elisa and Broadway) wouldn't immediately recognize as a Dracon flunkee. Glasses (his name, his design and Rocky Carroll's performance in what was designed to be a throw-away role) made a strong impression on all of us. Maybe, it's the Owen syndrome. But I always wanted to do more with Glasses.

When Elisa heads for Matt's apartment, we weren't supposed to know it was Broadway hiding on Matt's balcony. The idea was to have multiple levels of suspence. A man in a ski-mask (Joey) ransacking Matt's place. Another man in a trenchcoat watching him from the balcony. Elisa about to enter. Who's on who's side? But instead, it's obvious from moment one that it's Broadway in the coat and on the balcony. Undercutting the suspense instead of expoiting it.

Where did Broadway get that trenchcoat on such short notice? Obviously, it was his Halloween costume. And obviously, since this coat wound up getting destroyed, he had to rush out and get a new one for Halloween.

The trenchcoat and hat is a tribute of sorts to Ben Grimm, alias Thing of the Fantastic Four. The oversized guy in the trenchcoat and hat was a Kirby trademark. Also that moment at the end, where Broadway knocks Tony out by simply flicking him with his finger a couple times. That was very Thing.

Elisa nearly shoots Broadway by accident, while he's pursuing Joey in the hallway at Matt's apartment building. It's a nice moment. And loaded with potential irony.

Originally, Benton and DD were two different people. Development Associate (now Story Editor/Writer) Eddie Guzelian suggested making them one and the same to add a last complication to the story. You can see that at the end. Matt deals with Pal Joey -- in a kismet kind of retaliation for the destruction of Matt's apartment. Broadway deals with Dracon, paralleling the old movie we saw at the beginning. And the story seems to be over. (Which originally it was.) Broadway even says: "Case closed." But then Elisa still has a villain to face. Dominic Dracon. Brought back to tie up loose ends, and add one more twist. Now my question is, how many people guessed that DD and Benton were one and the same? Cuz originally they weren't.

I'd have liked a little more visual clarity on the "Falcons" where the jewels were hidden. I'd have liked it better if they had been BLACK with grime and city soot. Then I'd have liked to have seen them shine like silver when Elisa does her quick polish act at the end. It basically works, but the clarity isn't quite their. Because the falcons are neither very black when dirty nor very silver when clean.

Finally, we made clear in this episode that the Gargoyles transformation to and from stone was really driven by an internal clock, not the sun itself, as Broadway turns to stone while underground. This was done, at least in part, to try and make it clearer that the gargs were not magical creatures but a mortal, biological species.

Rambled on Mon, October 23, 2000

Developments converge...

Having gotten very far afield, we began to re-incorporate our old comedy development into our new drama. Demona, Ralph (proto-Hudson) and "Lassie, Belushi, Goslyn" (proto-Trio) are back in the show. The Master-Gargoyle (proto-Goliath) is no longer a magical creation but the leader of a different species. We've still got him living through the thousand years -- something we'd eventually give over to Demona -- but we're getting closer to where we want to be.

The following document is notes written up after a development meeting. I'm guessing the write-up is by Fred Schaefer, but I'm not sure.

RECEIVED BY
JAN 20 1992
GREG WEISMAN'S OFFICE

GARGOYLE: Notes from meeting 1/16/92
GK, GW, KF

The Gargoyle pitch needs to show the Master gargoyle as sympathetic and exciting. Need to emphasize empathy, emotion, heart and humor in series. Open in the city and flashback to brief backstory? (No mention of princess or wizard. Optional Messerschmitt card.)

Long ago there were lots of gargoyles - not millions, but thousands, all over the world. They were killed in vast numbers by humans because they were ugly, powerful, and too hard to control, although they did protect the humans by night. By day, the gargoyles sleep. A protective crust covers them, and this is shed when they wake up as the last rays of the sun disappear. Gargoyles are instinctually protective and territorial. They are not impervious to bullets, it hurts when they get shot, but bullets bounce off their thick skins. Lasers and bombs do not.

Master Gar has lived 1000 years. He tried to save as many gargoyles as he could from extinction. Put them to sleep? Has been waiting until for a time that is safe to awaken them. Detective convinces him now is the time, they're needed?

Master Gargoyle lives in the locked attic rotunda of a large downtown municipal building. Lots of arches, arched windows and outside entrances. Gar had to leave his old haunt, now owned by evil Xavier. Female police detective has key to rotunda. (Some stories with janitor accidentally coming in. Lots of boxes, some of the boxes are a door?)

CAST:

Master Gargoyle (1) - Educated, sad, world-weary.

Girl detective (1) has seen a lot, but not totally cynical. Still believes there's some good in humans.

Gargoyle Warriors (1 - Demona) - adult, vicious brutes

Gargoyle Elders (1 - Ralph) old gargoyle warrior, caretaker of the apprentices.

Apprentice/squire gargoyles (3 - Lassie, Belushi, Goslyn) - young (teen), playful, uneducated, emulate the Master.

Villains - (3 - Xavier, Cat Scan, 1 other (a gargoyle warrior?)

Need to stay away from a fatherly relationship between our Master Gargoyle and the little gargoyles.

Rambled on Fri, October 20, 2000

CONTEST UPDATE

These forty-one blanks remain unanswered:

42, 44, 74, 76, 125, 129, 133, 134, 233, 235, 236, 238, 241, 244, 254, 290, 292, 293, 306, 307, 314, 322, 327, 328, 333, 335, 408, 409, 420, 433, 444, 446, 450, 455, 490, 507, 508, 510, 517, 518, 519.

That's more than I thought, but still not that many left, considering.

Rambled on Thu, October 19, 2000

Enter "The Sculptor"...

I don't know who came up with this guy. There's no name on it. The character as described here was too horrific for the tone of our show, but touches of him survived. In Coldstone particularly. But also in Jackal and Hyena. Particularly in that fantasy sequence where Jackal "redesigns" Goliath in THE GREEN.

[Read by GDW on 1/15/91]

GARGOYLES: Villains

THE SCULPTOR: Was a well-known eccentric artist until shark attack. Now he sculpts his victims as he was sculpted by shark. "You'd be surprised how many body parts you can do without." [Next to these first few sentences, I wrote: "Yikes".] Lives in a dim, open, downtown loft. Carefully chooses his victims, stalks them, kidnaps them and takes them to the loft for "redesigning." He's missing a right foot, a left hand, a left ear, a lower right arm, a chunk from his left thigh, and his nose. He's replaced his missing parts with cybernetics, giving him super-human (machine) strength and endurance in those parts (maybe he can run super fast or for long distances, super hearing, one strong hand for crushing, etc.). The nose just looks nasty.

Rambled on Wed, October 18, 2000

I'm back... and so is Catscan...

Hi. I'm back from my sojourn in Louisiana (hi Green Baron). And it's time to continue our reprinting of old development documents from the show...

This one features two villains, Catscan & Shard, that were created by Fred Schaefer, who coincidentally traveled with me in New Orleans this past week. Catscan would eventually split into Sevarius and Talon. Shard would fade away -- too violent and without enough imagination or flare to make the cut.

[Read: GDW 1/15]

THE GARGOYLE -- VILLAINS
(Schaefer 1-13-92)

DISTRIBUTION: Cranston, Fair, Felix, Guler, Kline, Krisel, Ryan, Stones, Weisman

CAT SCAN -- Part man; part panther. Has a muscular, taut, and sleek body. Walks upright most of the time, but can hit some whopping speeds on all fours. His powerful hind legs allow him to leap from one rooftop to another. He also has x-ray night vision, which is capable of duplicating objects (living or non-living) in 3-D. He uses these convincing (if short-lived) holograms as decoys to fool his enemies. He's highly dangerous (razor-sharp claws and teeth), and can kill very quickly. [Greg wrote: "Fitting the name/ May not fit origin" beside this paragraph.]

FIRST EPISODE INTRODUCING CAT SCAN

Dr. Grun is a shamelessly ambitious scientist doing top secret research on vision -- human vs. animal -- for Xavier's corporation. Xavier is involved in developing a highly-advanced "night vision" for jets and a new revolutionary decoy device using holograms. Unfortunately, Dr. Grun's experiments requires an enormous amount of animal research. Mostly on wild cats.

One day, an animal rights group infiltrated his lab. [I underlined this sentence and wrote "Makes them villians".] A violent clash ensues; Dr. Grun accidentally receives a massive dose of his own newly developed x-ray, a controversial device that melds CAT Scan technology with genetics. [I circled "CAT" and wrote "abbreviation has nothing to do w/Cats."] He's hospitalized in Xavier's in-house medical center.

Dr. Grun's body begins to undergo some drastic and extremely painful mutations. Slowly, he turns into a panther/human. He becomes angry, bitter, self-denigrating -- his career as a scientist is over! [I wrote: "Why"] Xavier becomes angry (and sickened by Grun's pathetic self-loathing; remember, powerlessness is Xavier's biggest fear); he reprimands Dr. Grun, telling him that he has acquired skills that no other human possesses. He is powerful and dangerous. Xavier wants to recruit him in his villain team.

At first, Dr. Grun is mortified. The life of a criminal is no substitute for the intellectual life of a scientist! Indignant, Dr. Grun storms out of Xavier's headquarters. That night, while wandering through dark back alleys, Dr. Grun is hounded by a beggar. In a fit of fierce anger (coupled with his feelings of frustration and self-revulsion) he lashes out and attacks the man. The Gargoyle comes to the man's rescue. He and Dr. Grun battle. Dr. Grun escapes.

Safe from the Gargoyle, Dr. Grun reflects on the violence. Surprisingly, he admits that he's never felt more vigorous in his entire life. Pumped up. visceral. ALIVE!!!! (He returns to Xavier as the self-proclaimed CAT Scan, and joins his team.)

THE SECOND EPISODE FEATURING CAT SCAN
[I crossed this out and added an arrow to the paragraph below to move it up with the previous.]

CAT Scan confronts the Gargoyle while trying to pull off one of Xavier's crimes. CAT Scan has been waiting for this moment ... a chance to face his very first opponent again. Only this time, he's more powerful and more skillful at using his CAT Scan vision. It's a tough, grueling fight.
CAT Scan loses, but not by much. He vows to get even. The score is not settled.

THE THIRD EPISODE FEATURING CAT SCAN

CAT Scan discovers that the raid on his lab a long time ago was a hoax perpetrated by Xavier himself. It was no accident that Dr. Grun was dosed by the replicating device. Xavier's rationale was: who better to understand and deal with the psychological stress of becoming a panther than a man who's studied wild cats all his life. A man who understands the physical effects of genetic mutations and the capabilities of the advanced CAT Scan x-rays. Dr. Grun was simply a tool ... and now he's a freak. An enslaved freak. He decides to kill Xavier.

The Gargoyle now finds himself in the odd position of protecting Xavier from CAT Scan. In the end, though, CAT Scan is defeated again.

HERE'S ANOTHER ONE ...

SHARD -- Randall Craig is a New York window cleaner. He's a large man, and yet has an amazing sense of balance; his bulk belies his agility. He's comfortable scaling skyscrapers and definitely not afraid of heights. Some of his coworkers think he's a little too casual on the job.

Although bulky, he's really a shy, somewhat innocent-looking man. A man who's hiding a deep secret: he has an uncontrollable violent streak in him that's triggered when he's being mocked, condescended to, or is ridiculed. Unfortunately, his co-workers make fun of him all the time, but he resists smashing their skulls in because he doesn't want to get fired. [By this section, I wrote: "We all feel this way".] He internalizes his rage and late at night releases it on innocent victims on the streets of New York. [By this I wrote: "can't be to [sic] uncontrollable".]

One day on the job, he cracks up. He crashes through the window of an office tower and beats the [expletive delted] out of an executive who he thought was mocking him as he worked. The broken glass severely scars his face. He's fired.

Plastic surgery can correct the damage, but he decides that he ' likes his new look -- the scars, covering most of his face, resemble a shattered mirror or window. [By these last two paragraphs, I wrote: "Won't be able to do this".]

After the incident he becomes a recluse. He always was an outsider, a loner, but now he disappears for a long period of time. When he resurfaces, it's as a maniacal, senseless murderer. Now he has an "occupation" that people will respect ... even fear. It's hard to be condescending the moment before you're murdered!

Shard spends his nights scaling skyscrapers. When-he sees his next victim, he swoops down on a rope and snatches them from the sidewalk. As he climbs up the building (to the rooftop where his crimes are committed), his victims quickly stop struggling. They are so high up, so quickly, that they don't want him to let them go. Unfortunately, they don't know what awaits them on the roof.

At the scene of Shard's crimes (always on the top of skyscrapers, leaving the police puzzled about how the killer and the victim got up there without anyone noticing them), he leaves a shard of glass -- perfectly clean, like a diamond; no fingerprints, no smudges. And as sharp as a knife. His repeated murders make the headlines of the New York Times.

Xavier relishes the mystery and the ferocity of the killer's crimes, so he sends his men out to track him down before the police do: Xavier wants him on his team! [I circled the word "team" and put a question mark beside it.]

One night, Shard swipes one of Xavier's men and begins scaling a skyscraper to the man's final resting place -- on the roof! The Gargoyle tries to save the man (unknowingly saving one of Xavier's henchmen); a high wire fight ensues; Xavier shows up in a helicopter, joins in the battle against the Gargoyle, but all of the villains are defeated... just barely.

Later, Shard is confronted by Xavier who is eager to recruit him. Shard, however, is furious and almost drops Xavier off the side of a building: he doesn't need him; the world doesn't need him; the world has Shard! Xavier, however, is amused with Shard's look on life. He can't help but laugh. Here is a man who understands ego and power! (Of course, Xavier concludes, he's not bright enough to properly use it; that's why he needs Xavier.) Shard thinks Xavier is laughing at him, so he drops him from the building top. Halfway to the ground, Xavier's saved by his helicopter. Undaunted, apparently not even angry that Shard almost killed him, Xavier laughs out loud and vows to recruit Shard one day... one day.

THE SECOND EPISODE FEATURING SHARD

Well, that day comes soon enough. Cut to the action: Shard is trapped; he's going to be captured by the Gargoyle. Only Xavier can save him, but he'll do so only if Shard vows to work for him. Reluctantly, he agrees, and is saved by Xavier, who laughs demonically at his catch. Shard is having second thoughts...

[I wrote: "Xavier doesn't have to be in everything".]

Rambled on Mon, October 09, 2000

New Orleans...

I'm heading down to Louisiana tomorrow to do some research and to attend the wedding of former Gargoyles Casting & Voice Director Jamie Thomason to former Gargoyles Talent Coordinator (and now a talented voice director in her own right) Julie Morgavi.

So I won't be on-line for about a week.

Take good care of each other.

Rambled on Thu, October 05, 2000

CONTEST UPDATE

Well, we're still answering more apace. Don't know if anyone's keeping track, but by my records here's what still remains unanswered:

17, 42, 44, 67, 68, 74, 75, 76, 108, 124, 125, 127, 129, 133, 134, 148, 214, 225, 226, 227, 233, 235, 236, 238, 241, 244, 253, 254, 256, 290, 292, 293, 306, 307, 313, 314, 321, 322, 326, 327, 328, 333, 335, 336, 356, 395, 404, 408, 409, 410, 420, 421, 433, 444, 446, 447, 450, 455, 472, 490, 502, 506, 507, 508, 510, 517, 518, 519.

Only sixty-eight blanks left out of five hundred twenty-five.

Wow.

Rambled on Tue, October 03, 2000

More e-mails: CATMAN

Another e-mail exchange here. This one is from Fred Schaefer who was creating our proto-Talon character. He wanted some background on DC's Catman character. So I gave it to him.

[2] From: Greg Weisman 1/13/92 10:47AM (5292 bytes: 87 ln)
To: Fred Schaefer
bcc: Greg Weisman
Subject: GARGOYLE VILLAIN
------------------------------- Message Contents ------------------------------
[FRED WROTE:]

Greg, I've created a villain (yes, he's big and powerful) called CAT SCAN. Later, I realized that you said avoid silly villains, using Cat Man as an example. What do you know about Cat Man, so I don't duplicate the character? I doubt that I have, though.

[GREG RESPONDED:]
Catman is a batman villain. At his worst, he was just a guy who liked to steal cat related items. The Egyptian Cat god statue or a gold cat with ruby eyes. He was a former big game hunter who took on the identity of Catman when he got bored, I think. He'd use cat-related items to commit crimes, like a cat-o-nine-tails or a Cat-amaran or a catalogue. (I'm not kidding. At this level, he was simply stealing all the sillier aspects of the Catwoman's schtick.)

At his best, he had a couple of other twists that made him a bit more interesting. He had this cape, that he claimed gave him 9 lives. It was left intentionally vague whether he was just lucky to escape all these dangerous situations, or whether because he believed in the cape he had the confidence to survive, or whether the cape actually worked. One time when Batman ripped off part of the cape while Catman was trying to escape, Catman survived jumping thru a "wall" of high temperature steam. The next time he resurfaced, part of his face was scarred (sound familiar) and burnt by the steam. He blamed Batman, and the fact that a piece of the cape was torn. Even after that, it was still intentionally unclear whether he was just lucky to have survived at all, or whether the cape was in some way responsible. Since then writers have often forgotten that story, and Catman has been fairly inconsistent. Plus since he's now been around for many years, he's used up his nine lives (assuming he ever had them), and writers try to beat around that bush as well.

Another interesting element to the character was the rivalry between Catman and Catwoman, with Batman in the middle. Catwoman & Batman have this love-hate thang going. Plus she occasionally tries to go straight for his sake. (In one old story, that is no longer part of the "cannon" of the DC Universe, Batman and Catwoman got married and had a daughter who grew up to become a heroine named "The Huntress".) Catman and Catwoman used to fight over who had the right to the name, etc.

The key thing however is motivation, look and goal. Catman is a good example of a silly villain, because he has no real motivation beyond liking catstuff. No good reason to even like catstuff. His goal of stealing is just the kind of thing cops should handle. He's not dangerous enough. In later stories, his goal became more murderous. He wanted revenge on Batman and/or Catwoman, but that was because they had defeated him while he was just a glorified catburglar. Finally, his look is silly. He wears a mask with little cat ears, and he wears traditional superhero tights and a cape with a "CM" on his chest. I can bring in a shot of him tomorrow if you want.

There you go, more than you ever needed to know about him.

Except this: when I set out to write my Black Canary mini-series, which never got published, I thought that cats would be natural enemies to a canary, so I teamed up Catman with a Wonder Woman villainess called the Cheetah. I gave them a romance, because Cheetah was mentally scarred (i.e. crazy) and Catman's face was scarred by the steam. They loved each other because no one else would. This was done to off-set the fact that Black Canary's love-life (with another superhero named Green Arrow) was stagnant and hollow. "Even the badguys can have a committed relationship." It was the first issue of the four parter which would act as a catalyst for the two heroes to marry. The series was killed, because DC was approached by a very popular artist/writer who wanted to do Green Arrow. But wanted to keep the character single.

There. Now that's really more than you ever needed to know.

Rambled on Mon, October 02, 2000

A species is born (again)...

More e-mail. Same day. Tad sends me back word that he can't go to the comic book store, and that I worry too much about Marvel.

But it's clear here that my own thinking is starting to crystalize a bit. I don't want our proto-Goliath to be a cursed/transformed human. In fact, I'm clearly leaning away from him being "created" at all. I'm leaning toward a species with multiple members. I'm bringing it back toward the comedy development but through the dramatic prism.

The Zot! reference below goes like this. I once (more than once actually) tried to get the various companies that I have worked for to option Zot! for animation. Someone once suggested to me that I just create my own Zot!. Obviously I balked at the notion of stealing the essence of someone else's idea. Here on Gargoyles, I felt we had developed something unique and our own. I didn't want, after the fact, to have been accused of stealing someone else's idea. As it turned out, I was accused of that anyway. But at least I could document that it wasn't true.

[20] From: Greg Weisman 1/10/92 11:55AM (1799 bytes: 28 ln)
To: Tad Stones, Mike Ryan, Kathy Fair, Fred Schaefer

cc: Hali Helfgott
bcc: Greg Weisman
Subject: Gargoyle

------------------------------- Message Contents -------------------------------
[TAD WROTE:]
Sorry, I have a lunch today.

I think human to gargoyle is open territory because it's traditional horror transformation and certainly fairy tale stuff. Beauty and the Beast is the direct reference. The fact that both Marvel and DC have those characters shows that it's open territory. Not that I think the human to beast idea is necessarily the way to go.

[GREG RESPONDED:]
Personally, I don't like Human to beast. I feel a) like it's been done to death and b) like no matter how many times he says he can't be cured, you're gonna look for the cure and get frustrated when it doesn't come in a series.

It seems more unique to me if we are creating this new breed. They existed. He may be the only one left, though I might argue both sides of that issue, but it was something that has it's own traditions and mythology. Just another guy transformed ugly, Thing, Hulk, Beast, Beast, Gargoyle, Demon. That doesn't strike me as special.

And I think you underestimate the trouble that Marvel's Gargoyle might give us. We've developed to this character in a natural progression from an original notion. I personally would like to avoid taking turns that would make it look after the fact like we were copying them. It's like the Zot! situation in reverse.

Rambled on Sat, September 30, 2000

Whew....

I thought this was gonna be a marathon, but it's turning into a sprint. We're WAY past the halfway point already.

Now I'd just like to facilitate people not posting answers to blanks already filled.

So here -- according to my records -- are the blanks that haven't yet been guessed correctly:

7, 16-17, 19, 22, 42-44, 53, 57-61, 66-68, 72-77, 104, 108, 112, 117, 119, 124-125, 127, 129-130, 133-134, 148, 151, 155, 158, 183, 186, 214, 225-227, 233, 235-236, 238, 241, 244, 253-254, 256, 290, 292-293, 296, 298, 306-314, 316-318, 320-322, 326-328, 332-336, 338, 356, 371, 374, 395, 404, 407-410, 420-421, 433-435, 444, 446-447, 450, 455-456, 464-465, 467, 472, 474, 478-479, 490, 498, 502, 506-510, 517-520.

Only 122 blanks left to fill out of 525.

Like I said, "Whew..."

Rambled on Fri, September 29, 2000

More Tad e-mails...

Here's more of the e-mail exchanges between Tad Stones and the development department. Tad reminds me to be more adventurous (in more ways than one).

At the end, I ask if he's "geekin'", which was our word for going to the local comic book shop during lunch hour. (Or was that obvious?)

[3] From: Greg Weisman 1/10/92 11:41AM (1483 bytes: 26 ln)
To: Tad Stones, Mike Ryan, Kathy Fair, Fred Schaefer
cc: Greg Weisman, Hali Helfgott
Subject: Gargoyle

------------------------------- Message Contents -------------------------------

[TAD WROTE:]
We should be careful with any "boy adventure" show we do. We've trained ourselves away from it to such an extent, that it's a kind of release to finally be able to handle different subject matter. You might rush in and put a good, solid show together ... without taking the time to make it special. I'm talking about more than good stories and characters ... we have to take the time to make it different, as different as DuckTales was from other funny animal shows. I think the romance might help give it a special tone.

[GREG'S RESPONSE:]
I don't disagree. And I'd love to have romance. (Sex and Death are the two things I miss from comic books.) I just don't know how much we're allowed to get away with romance-wise. Far from the "release" causing me to leave it out, is the conservative approach that the last two years have taught me.

And by the way, we can't do him as a human cursed to Gargoyle form. Both DC's Demon and Marvel's Gargoyle are humans cursed to monstrous form.

Are you geekin?

Rambled on Thu, September 28, 2000

Mike responds to the guru...

Yesterday, I posted Tad Stones' response to our new "THE GARGOYLE" development. Here's staff assistant Mike Ryan's response to Tad.

Coincidentally, I had lunch with Mike yesterday. And he and Tad and I chatted briefly walking over to the Disney commissary.

[2] From: Mike Ryan 1/10/92 8:29AM (907 bytes: 16 ln)
To: Tad Stones, Greg Weisman, Kathy Fair, Fred Schaefer
Subject: Gargoyle
------------------------------- Message Contents ------------------------------
Tad,

It's great to get a "fresh" perspective on this stuff. I was having the same nagging problem with the princess in the backstory, but couldn't quite pin down what the problem was. She really has no place in this show.

I think we sometimes we underestimate [executive] intelligence (you don't hear that statement too often!) and we are overexplaining everything in this pitch. Even if [an executive] doesn't know exactly what gargoyles were created for, he does have an idea of what they are. We can assume that much for all of our audience.

Finally, I agree that we're making a mistake to sidestep the romance.

Rambled on Wed, September 27, 2000

CONTEST CORRECTION

Vashkoda pointed out an error:

The clue to 155 should read:

8 letters + "'s"

hopefully that's the first and last mistake I've made.

Sorry. (But I warned you.)

Rambled on Tue, September 26, 2000

My guru speaks...

When I started at Disney in 1989, my boss Bruce Cranston was immediately sent to Europe for SIX MONTHS to help open two studios there. That left the entire development department in my hands. And I had been there all of four days. It was a tremendous time for me. I learned a ton. And one of the guys I learned the most from was Tad Stones. We developed DARKWING DUCK together. (Or rather he developed it and I tried to help.) Tad was instrumental in convincing us to switch our comedy development to dramatic action. The idea of a proto-Goliath was really his. I gave him a copy of our latest pitch breakdown (already posted here, check the Archive). Here's his feedback, sent by e-mail.

[2] From: Tad Stones 1/10/92 7:17AM (5251 bytes: 85 ln)
To: Greg Weisman, Kathy Fair, Mike Ryan, Fred Schaefer
Subject: Gargoyle

------------------------------- Message Contents -------------------------------

The latest presentation list looked pretty good. Just a few thoughts:

Don't shy away from romance. It's more than friendship between the girl and gargoyle.

I'd dump the Princess in the backstory. You don't need the parallel to- present day, and it weakens the present day relationship. He loves her for who she is ... not because of a guilt trip in the past or emotional transference.

Backstory: You don't need it except for the tragic betrayal, and that should be simple. Should the wizard literally create the gargoyle? Or is that too godlike? Two thoughts on gargoyle creation: 1) Start the pitch with a drawing of a stone gargoyle... or a photo from Notre Dame. "People think of gargoyles as grotesque decorations left from another age..." Then a medieval woodcut showing a gargoyle tossing knights over castle ramparts. "But there was a time when they were real." Then go to your Manhattan/Gargoyle beauty shot, "That time is today!" Actually, that last line is catchier than it is clear. The point is - don't waste time and art explaining gargoyles any more than you'd explain dinosaurs. They were demonic creatures. Period. I got it. Unless you tell me different, I'll assume there were all sorts, good and bad. You can go into all sorts of backstory in the two hour movie but it's not necessary for the pitch. There was the "king" of the gargoyles who protected the castle of Arthur (or whoever) but he was set up (framed) by the evil wizard. The walls of Camelot were breached and the Gargoyle is seen as a betrayer. Merlin has him sleep a petrified slumber as punishment. "You failed to guard it this night. Then you shall guard it for all eternity!!" As simple as possible, probably avoid using names because that complicates it.

2) He was human and framed. His punishment was a spell of petrification. But this spell has no cure, no princess's kiss or beauty's love will change him back.

The sunlight/sleep aspect of the gargoyle could be saved for a explanation of powers/weaknesses in the present day.

Art: Lose cards #2, 3 (redundant), 5 (seems like the gargoyle is taking action while the castle is still being lowered), 9 (one action card, not three. The guy has wings so I assume he can fly. Have him about to toss a truck while bullets bounce off him - show scared crooks and the cop amazed in the BG), 10 (for now - you can add it later if you need it), 12-18 (Simplify as discussed. WWII stuff fun but I'm not sure what it adds to the pitch. Isn't it more special that he hasn't helped until now - because of the love of the girl?) 19 and 20 (What kind of visual could Bob possibly draw. Pitch gets preachy and deadly) 21 (The "beauty shot" aspect fights what she's saying - Modify. Make it a poster, city as castle. It's the hook of the show, design this card as a showpiece.) 22 (We've already seen this when he saved her), 27 (redundant - if they don't have it by now, give up.) 28 through 30 (If you have great ideas on this stuff, add them. Is there a way to make them as fun as the crockery in Beauty and the Beast without making them gargoyles? Put your time in the villains. That's what Hasbro and the boy audience will be interested in. Supporting characters should be developed by the story editor anyway, not needed for the pitch.)

One last thought: He is the only gargoyle. No goofy gargoyles. No evil gargoyles (except MAYBE late in the series). Keep him special and unique one against the world - that's the gothic/heroic/tragic/romantic element. Don't diffuse it.

Put the pitch together without the art cards I've noted and write a pitch. Only then should you put the shackles on Bob to do the "Would be nice if you have the time" stuff. You might find you want completely different shadings. But run it by GK/JK [Gary Krisel and Jeffrey Katzenberg] before you go farther. Consider painting/airbrushing card 21 - the poster.

Neat stuff. Wish you had more time.

Rambled on Tue, September 26, 2000

G-2198 CONTEST CLUES

Here are the promised clues. Most of them are incredibly straight forward. Blank #1 for example is an 8-letter word. A few are fancier. But not very. The last two words (524 & 525) are clueless. Didn't want to make it too easy.

And, yes, I am a bit evil. But just a bit. Between the contextual help and these clues, I don't think it'll be too hard.

1. - 8 letters
2. - 3 letters
3. - 4 letters
4. - 3 letters
5. - 7 letters
6. - 5 letters
7. - 6 letters
8. - 6 letters
9. - 5 letters
10. - 5 letters
11. - 4 letters
12. - 6 letters
13. - 5 letters
14. - 5 letters
15. - 6 letters
16. - 8 letters
17. - 8 letters
18. - 2 letters
19. - 4 letters
20. - 4 letters
21. - 4 letters
22. - 7 letters
23. - 9 letters
24. - 5 letters
25. - 10 letters
26. - 4 letters
27. - 5 letters
28. - 4 letters
29. - 4 numbers
30. - 2 letters
31. - 9 letters
32. - 8 letters
33. - 9 letters
34. - 5 letters
35. - 6 letters
36. - 8 letters
37. - 6 letters
38. - 6 letters
39. - 5 letters
40. - 6 letters
41. - 13 letters
42. - 12 letters
43. - 8 letters
44. - 5 letters
45. - 9 letters
46. - 8 letters
47. - 8 letters
48. - 10 letters
49. - 3 letters
50. - 6 letters
51. - 7 letters
52. - 7 letters
53. - 8 letters
54. - 6 letters
55. - 5 letters
56. - 9 letters
57. - 7 letters
58. - 6 letters
59. - 10 letters
60. - 6 letters
61. - 7 letters
62. - 7 letters
63. - 5 letters
64. - 10 letters
65. - 8 letters
66. - 8 letters
67. - 10 letters
68. - 4 numbers
69. - 6 letters
70. - 5 letters
71. - 8 letters
72. - 6 letters
73. - 6 letters
74. - 9 letters
75. - 6 letters
76. - 9 letters
77. - 8 letters
78. - 4 letters
79. - 5 letters
80. - 8 letters
81. - 6 letters
82. - 4 letters
83. - 5 letters
84. - 6 letters
85. - 4 letters
86. - 5 letters
87. - 5 letters
88. - 10 letters
89. - 6 letters
90. - 3 letters
91. - 10 letters
92. - 8 letters
93. - 6 letters
94. - 5 letters
95. - 4 numbers
96. - 5 letters
97. - 8 letters
98. - 6 letters
99. - 6 letters
100. - 4 letters
101. - 7 letters
102. - 6 letters
103. - 8 letters
104. - 7 letters
105. - 7 letters and an apostrophe
106. - 7 letters
107. - 10 letters
108. - 8 letters
109. - 6 letters
110. - 6 letters
111. - 7 letters
112. - 10 letters
113. - 5 letters
114. - 4 letters
115. - 9 letters
116. - 7 letters
117. - 7 letters
118. - 6 letters
119. - same as 117
120. - 4 letters
121. - 10 letters
122. - 10 letters
123. - 7 keystrokes
124. - 6 letters
125. - 6 letters
126. - 8 letters
127. - 9 letters
128. - 5 letters
129. - 10 letters
130. - 5 letters
131. - 5 letters
132. - 5 letters
133. - 7 letters
134. - 8 letters
135. - 5 letters
136. - 5 letters
137. - 6 letters
138. - 7 letters
139. - 6 letters
140. - 6 letters
141. - 10 letters
142. - 6 letters
143. - 6 letters
144. - 9 letters
145. - 4 digits
146. - 8 letters
147. - 7 letters
148. - 10 letters
149. - 7 letters
150. - 7 letters
151. - 8 letters
152. - 5 letters
153. - 9 letters
154. - 6 letters
155. - 8 letters
156. - 8 letters
157. - 3 letters
158. - 8 letters
159. - 4 letters
160. - 7 letters
161. - 9 letters
162. - 4 keystrokes
163. - 6 letters
164. - 5 letters
165. - 6 letters
166. - same as 144
167. - 8 letters
168. - 6 letters
169. - 2 letters
170. - 7 letters
171. - 9 letters
172. - 6 letters
173. - 6 letters
174. - 10 letters
175. - 7 letters
176. - 7 letters
177. - 9 letters
178. - 4 letters
179. - 5 letters
180. - 4 letters
181. - 5 letters
182. - 9 letters
183. - 7 letters
184. - 5 letters
185. - 8 letters
186. - 6 letters
187. - 3 initials
188. - 5 letters
189. - 4 letters
190. -6 letters
191. - 11 letters
192. - 5 letters
193. - 7 letters
194. - 8 letters
195. - 7 letters
196. - 9 letters
197. - 8 letters
198. - 7 letters
199. - 6 letters
200. - 6 letters
201. - 6 letters
202. - 10 letters
203. - 6 letters
204. - 6 letters
205. - 5 letters
206. - 4 letters
207. - 7 letters
208. - 9 letters
209. - 9 letters
210. - 6 letters
211. - 5 letters
212. - 9 letters
213. - 9 letters
214. - 9 letters
215. - 5 letters
216. - 5 letters
217. - 5 letters
218. - 7 letters and a bonus keystroke
219. - 6 letters
220. - 7 letters
221. - 6 letters
222. - 7 letters
223. - 8 letters
224. - 6 letters
225. - 9 letters
226. - 7 letters
227. - 8 letters
228. - 6 letters
229. - 5 letters
230. - 8 letters
231. - 5 letters
232. - 3 letters
233. - 8 letters
234. - 9 letters
235. - 8 letters
236. - 9 letters
237. - 4 letters
238. - 9 letters
239. - 4 letters
240. - 8 letters +
241. - 4 letters
242. - 6 letters
243. - 8 letters
244. - 8 letters
245. - 3 letters
246. - 10 letters
247. - 7 letters
248. - 8 letters
249. - 5 letters
250. - 3 letters
251. - 5 letters
252. - 5 letters
253. - 7 keystrokes
254. - 8 letters
255. - 6 letters
256. - 4 letters
257. - 6 letters
258. - 6 letters
259. - 5 letters
260. - 9 letters
261. - 8 letters
262. - 5 letters
263. - 5 letters
264. - 5 letters
265. - 5 letters
266. - 5 letters
267. - 10 letters
268. - 8 symbols
269. - 10 letters
270. - 6 letters
271. - 5 letters
272. - 4 letters
273. - 7 letters
274. - 4 letters
275. - 7 letters
276. - 5 letters
277. - 6 letters
278. - 7 letters
279. - 9 letters
280. - 9 letters
281. - 3 letters
282. - 7 letters
283. - 4 letters
284. - 7 letters
285. - 9 letters
286. - 9 letters
287. - 5 letters
288. - 5 letters
289. - 9 letters
290. - 5 letters
291. - 6 keystrokes
292. - 5 letters
293. - 10 letters
294. - 4 letters
295. - 4 letters
296. - 9 letters
297. - 7 letters
298. - 11 letters
299. - 7 letters and help
300. - 4 letters
301. - 4 letters
302. - 7 letters
303. - 5 letters
304. - 4 letters
305. - 4 letters
306. - 3 initials
307. - 3 initials
308. - 7 letters
309. - 9 letters
310. - 7 letters
311. - 11 letters
312. - 9 letters
313. - 7 letters
314. - 6 letters
315. - 7 letters
316. - 4 keystrokes
317. - 4 letters
318. - 9 letters
319. - 6 letters
320. - 5 letters
321. - 6 letters
322. - 6 letters
323. - 10 letters
324. - 5 letters
325. - 5 letters
326. - 6 letters
327. - 6 letters
328. - 3 keystrokes
329. - 8 letters
330. - 10 letters
331. - 11 letters
332. - 6 letters
333. - 3 initials
334. - 3 numbers
335. - 3 keystrokes
336. - 4 keystrokes
337. - 6 letters
338. - 10 letters
339. - 11 letters
340. - 6 letters
341. - 8 letters
342. - 6 letters
343. - 8 letters
344. - 6 letters
345. - 4 letters
346. - 5 letters
347. - 5 letters
348. - 6 letters
349. - 6 letters + "'s"
350. - 10 letters
351. - 6 letters
352. - 5 letters
353. - 4 letters
354. - 6 letters
355. - 10 letters
356. - 10 letters
357. - 4 letters
358. - 6 letters
359. - 7 letters
360. - 12 keystrokes
361. - 9 letters
362. - 5 letters
363. - 10 letters
364. - 5 letters
365. - 3 letters
366. - 3 letters
367. - 3 letters
368. - 10 letters
369. - 8 letters
370. - 8 letters
371. - 3 letters
372. - 7 letters
373. - 9 letters
374. - 7 letters
375. - 4 numbers
376. - 6 letters
377. - 8 letters
378. - 5 letters
379. - 3 letters
380. - 5 letters
381. - 8 letters
382. - 6 letters
383. - 3 letters
384. - 4 letters
385. - 5 letters
386. - 6 letters
387. - 6 letters
388. - 5 letters
389. - 2 letters
390. - 3 letters
391. - 2 letters
392. - 3 letters
393. - 8 letters
394. - 5 letters
395. - 4 letters
396. - 6 letters
397. - 5 letters
398. - 4 digits
399. - 8 letters
400. - 2 letters
401. - 3 letters
402. - 5 letters
403. - 8 letters
404. - 8 letters
405. - 6 letters
406. - 6 letters
407. - 6 letters
408. - 8 letters
409. - 3 "letters"
410. - 4 numbers
411. - 5 letters
412. - 5 letters
413. - 5 letters
414. - 6 letters
415. - 7 letters
416. - 8 letters
417. - 2 letters
418. - 3 letters
419. - 4 letters
420. - 3 initials
421. - 3 numbers
422. - 5 letters
423. - 6 letters
424. - 5 letters
425. - 5 letters
426. - 6 letters
427. - 5 letters
428. - 5 letters
429. - 11 letters
430. - 5 letters
431. - 7 letters
432. - 5 letters
433. - 4 letters
434. - 9 letters
435. - 4 letters
436. - 6 letters
437. - 7 letters
438. - 10 letters
439. - 8 letters
440. - 5 letters
441. - 6 letters
442. - 5 letters
443. - 5 letters
444. - 8 letters
445. - 7 letters
446. - 9 letters
447. - 12 letters
448. - 7 letters
449. - 10 letters
450. - 5 letters
451. - same as 299
452. - 10 letters
453. - 5 letters
454. - 8 letters
455. - 5 letters
456. - 10 letters
457. - 9 letters
458. - 9 letters
459. - 4 digits
460. - 5 letters + "'s"
461. - 8 letters
462. - 8 letters
463. - 6 letters
464. - 9 letters
465. - 10 letters
466. - 9 letters
467. - 12 letters
468. - 6 letters
469. - 9 letters
470. - 5 letters
471. - 5 letters
472. - 9 letters
473. - 10 letters
474. - 13 letters
475. - 10 letters
476. - 7 letters
477. - 7 letters
478. - 7 letters
479. - 9 letters
480. - 7 letters
481. - 6 letters
482. - 5 letters
483. - 5 letters
484. - 5 letters
485. - 5 letters
486. - 8 letters
487. - 10 letters
488. - 7 letters
489. - 8 letters
490. - 10 letters
491. - 10 letters
492. - 6 letters
493. - 10 letters
494. - 5 letters
495. - 5 letters
496. - 7 letters
497. - 7 letters
498. - 7 keystrokes
499. - 10 letters
500. - 6 letters
501. - 6 letters
502. - 8 letters
503. - 5 letters
504. - 10 letters
505. - 12 letters
506. - 5 letters
507. - 6 letters
508. - 7 letters
509. - 6 letters
510. - 8 letters
511. - 6 letters
512. - 1 letter
513. - 4 letters
514. - 5 letters
515. - 5 letters
516. - 5 letters
517. - 8 letters
518. - 9 letters
519. - 10 letters
520. - 6 letters
521. - 8 letters
522. - 9 letters
523. - 4 keystrokes
524. - no clue
525. - no clue

Rambled on Tue, September 26, 2000

GARGOYLES 2198: THE CONTEST

GARGOYLES 2198
(Fill-in-the-Blank Contest / 9-26-00)

Written by

Greg Weisman

Well, here it is. This contest took me almost as long to put together as it did to develop the show it's based upon. Below is a good-sized document on GARGOYLES 2198 with tons and tons of info about the proposed spin-off series, its characters, settings and situations. The only problem is that there are five hundred and twenty-five blanks making it slightly difficult to read. Actually, those aren't quite blanks. They're place-holders. Numbers. Each number has a corresponding clue which I'll post right after I've posted this. Those clues should help you RE-place those holders.

As requested, there are two prizes to be handed out. One is for the person who contributes the most answers overall. The other is for the first person to TOTALLY COMPLETE the puzzle.

At this early stage, I think it's pretty useless for people to reprint the entire essay attempting to fill in ALL the blanks at one fell swoop. So early entries should read like this:

212: Mayberry
303: Andy
444: Opie
521: Fife

Notice, there's no need to guess all of them every time. (And please don't.) Just guess the ones you think you know or we'll be here forever. Capitalization does NOT count. But spelling does. [I do reserve the right to admit later that I made a mistake here and there. I don't think I have, but it's been quite an undertaking, so who knows…]

Let's say in the above answer that "Mayberry", "Opie" and "Fife" were right, but Andy wasn't. The person who posted it would get three points. UNLESS, someone's already posted the correct answer to, say, 444. In which case, this poster only gets points for Mayberry and Fife. Clear? Obviously, it's important that you use a consistent screen name to post your answers in order to get credit for all your points. Anonymous postings will be deleted by Todd in advance. (Waves at Todd.)

I know the contest looks imposing, but in many ways, I think this is easier than the Clan Contest. There are a lot more clues and you all have a lot more information. Once we've filled in a bunch of the blanks (say 500 out of the 525) then we can start seeing completed answers being posted with the blanks filled in.

I encourage teamwork. And everyone remember that this is just a game. Just a diversion. Just some fun. Don't take it too seriously. As usual, the prizes (again, one for points and one for the completed answer) will be of no real value. Hopefully, they'll be interesting though.

I'm hoping we'll have finished this by next June's Los Angeles Gathering. Go to it…

One thousand years ago…
Superstition and the sword ruled.
It was a time of darkness.
It was a world of fear.
It was the age... of gargoyles!
Stone by day, warriors by night,
We were betrayed by the humans we had sworn to protect,
Frozen in stone by a magic spell for a thousand years.
Finally... the spell was broken, and we lived again!

But our 1 was 2 from 3...
For the last 4 5 6 we have faced the 7,
Navigating an 8 9 with the 10 11.
But now the 12 13 itself is 14 15!
16 is 17!
And 18 may be 19 20 21 for 22…

We are 23 of the 24!
We are 25 of 26 27!
The 28 is 29.

And 30… are 31!

In 1996, humanity and the world at large discovered there were gargoyles living among them. Fortunately for the human race, Gargoyles are by nature a protective species. Unfortunately for the gargoyle race, humanity is by nature an intolerant species. Humans did not welcome having to share their world with other 32 33. Many were quick to 34 the gargoyles as 35, 36, 37 or worse. Gargoyles were 38 basic "39" 40. They were 41 against. 42 upon. 43. 44. And sometimes 45.

Despite this, GOLIATH, the leader of the gargoyles, maintained hope that one day humans and gargoyles would live in peace. Eventually, that day came. The "46 47 48 49" was adopted by the 50 51. Gargoyles were 52 full "53 54". Though Gargoyle 55 were 56 across the globe, they were collectively granted 57 58 as an 59 60. 61 Gargoyles became a crime.

True acceptance, however, is not so easily legislated. At best, Gargoyles were still barely tolerated by their human neighbors. Real peace would have to wait.

But the gargoyles would take what they could get. The 62, once on the 63 of 64, began to make a 65. Clans that were 66 helped to 67 those that were not. By 68, 69 70 comprised the 71 72. Each was strong in 73 and 74. Now it was time to 75 again. As a potent act of 76, every clan brought its 77 78 to 79 80 81, off the 82 83 of 84. The 85 would 86 together to demonstrate gargoyle 87. Some of the 88 would eventually return to the other 89 Clans. But many would stay to form the basis of a 90 clan. A 91 clan.

Someone should have told the gargoyles that 92 is NOT a lucky 93.

94, 95. 96 97 98. From around the globe, human Heads of State and all 99 Gargoyle 100 101 have come to this small 102 for the 103. They wait within the 104 of the 105 dormant 106 to witness the new 107 of gargoyles 108 out of their 109. Meanwhile, 110, a young gargoyle 111 is stuck on 112 113 114 at the base of the mountain. Out of nowhere, an immense 115 materializes above the 116. It emits a blinding beam of light that stabs down into the 117. 118 races up the slope, but it's too late. The 119 is empty. No 120. No gargoyles. No humans. No World Leaders!

Simultaneously, another giant 121 hovers over 122. Another beam stabs downward. And 123 124 125 126 -- the 127 system for nearly everything on the planet -- vanishes.

It all happens so fast, there's no time to react. 128 is paralyzed and 129 when the 130 131-132 133. In less than twenty-four hours, the planet is 134, absorbed into the 135-136 137. There is very little loss of life. Very little damage done. Unless 138 matters to you.

It matters to 139, the new 140 of the 141. One by one, he gathers his team…

142 - 143 of the 144 Clan hatched in 145. Though his 146 is different, it's obvious to anyone who'd care to look that he is descended from 147. Still no one knows how many 148 generations 149 from 150 he is. He might be the biological 151 of either 152 or 153, 154 and 155 first two biological 156, or he might be the biological 157 of 158, their third born. Frankly, it doesn't really matter. There were many 159 in that 160. All raised collectively by the 161 Clan.

By 162, 163 is 164 years old, but only 165 biologically. He has been trained as a Gargoyle Warrior both in 166 and in 167. He demonstrated enough promise to have recently been named 168-169-170 of the 171 Clan. Now, a reluctant 172 must become 173 not just of his clan, but of the entire 174.

175 - 176 of the 177 Clan is a 178-179. Mostly Gargoyle… but 180 181 as well. Her 182 include her namesake, the 183 that 184 185 186 by combining the 187 of 188 189 with that of 190. Being 191 part of both 192 has left 193 feeling like she's not truly a part of either. Upon learning of her "194", humans seem to react with fear and even disgust. And 195 has never been confident that the 196 she was raised with don't feel the same way. All this has made her tough on the outside, but desperately insecure on the inside. Nevertheless, she's a fierce young 197 198 (the same age as 199), and 200 makes her his 201 in the 202.

203 - 204 of the 205 Clan hails from the 206 207 of 208. He's a descendent of 209 and the 210 from "The 211". He has 212 wings, 213 features and skin the color of 214. From the 215 down, he looks like a 216 217. He's 218 contemporary and close friend. 219, 220 and 221 all trained together as Gargoyle Warriors, studying 222 in 223; they have a Three Musketeers kind of rapport. 224 isn't quite the fighter that the other two are, but he has other strengths. He's more 225, more intellectual, more book-smart. He has also been entrusted with his clan's 226 and sacred 227 228; this magical 229 230 prevents him from turning to 231 during the 232.

233 - 234 year old 235 236 237 is a scion of both the 238 and 239 families (which technically makes him a distant relative of 240). 241 was 242 among gargoyles and has taken the family tradition to heart. He too has traveled to 243 to join the ORDER OF THE 244. He has trained as a Gargoyle Warrior, embracing the Gargoyle 245 of 246 & 247. He's as much a 248 as a guy can be and not have 249. He's eager, perhaps a little too eager, for a chance to prove that he can hold his own with any other gargoyle. Only he's 250 a gargoyle. He's one hundred percent 251, with a 252 253 unique strengths and weaknesses.

254 - 255 (the original model for the mysterious 256 statues of 257 258) landed on 259 260 ago to stand 261 and protect our 262 from the 263-264. But by the time the 265-266 actually arrived, their 267 so far surpassed his, he was completely caught off guard. Now, there's nothing he can do but join 268 269 cell and try to pitch in. 270 is deeply shamed by his failure to protect his adoptive 271. He would gladly sacrifice his life to redeem himself.

272 273 - 274 275 was Chief of 276 of the 277 278. An indispensable aide to 279 General 280 281 282 IV. In fact 283 has been an indispensable aide to the 284 family since before 285 was born. But now the 286 General is gone. Taken by the 287-288 and put in stasis with the rest of the world's leaders. The new acting 289 has surrendered the 290 to the enemy. He has no use for 291 292 293 and intensity. And 294 has no use for a man who won't fight. So 295 has left public service to rejoin the private sector. Secretly, he has placed all the resources of the 296-297 298 at 299 disposal. Of course, we all know that 300 is really the 301. But since he already failed to 302 his charge, and certainly has no opportunity to 303 him anything at the moment, he's stuck as 304, stone 305 and all.

306 - 307 (a 308 of the 309-310 311) stands for 312-313-314, a line of 315 personal assistants that were all but ubiquitous in 316. Almost everyone who was anyone had one of the cute little, 317-foot tall, 318-shaped chrome 319. Each 320 was directly connected via satellite to the 321 322 in 323, giving each one the ability to instantaneously summon any or all of mankind's collective knowledge. But when the 324-325 attacked, one of their first acts was to steal the 326 327. Now each 328 is on its own. Each one still has a powerful 329 brain with crude 330 intelligence and long-term adaptive 331. But now, knowledge is finite, and experience is becoming the best teacher. Actually, two of these 332, 333-334 and 335-336 will play a role in our series. When we open, these 337 will be all but indistinguishable from each other. 338, merely. But as the series progresses, each will slowly develop its own 339.

340 - For over a 341 years, 342 has plotted against 343, blaming them for 344 against the gargoyle 345. Now that a greater threat, the 346-347, has reared it's many ugly heads, 348 has reluctantly joined 349 350 cell. But no one, including 351 herself, is fully confident that she'll continue to 352 on the 353 of the 354. This may be her last chance at 355... or her final opportunity to 356 the human 357. Still, 358 felt it necessary to actively 359 her. It's hard to pass up the help of a warrior who's survived a 360 worth of battles, a 361 who knows how to combine ancient 362 with modern 363. And then there's that bit about her turning into a 364 during the 365. The only question is how she will use her talents. 366 367, she's siding with the 368. But can that last?

369 - 370 is a young gargoyle warrior from our 371 372 day. In our second episode, he'll 373 374 to 375. The 376 is as new and strange to him as it is to our audience, and often 377 will be the point of view character to introduce us all to this 378 379 380. 381 does hope to 382 to his 383 384 someday, and so makes a special effort not to 385 too much about his own "386". But he has no intention of abandoning 387 or 388 in their time of need. Someday, however, he may have to make a choice.

389-390 - 391-392 is a 393 394 395 by the 396 Clan in 397, who arrives in 398 with 399. 400-401 is fiercely 402 (especially to 403). The ultimate 404.

[NOTE: Eventually, the large cast will be split in half. 405 will take 406, 407, 408 and 409-410 into 411 to hit the 412-413 where they live. 414, 415, 416, 417-418, 419 and 420-421 will remain on 422, thwarting the 423 at every turn and engaging in many non-424-425 stories.]

Anyway, those are our 426. (Other characters will be added over time.) Here's who they're up against…

THE 427-428 - Our main 429. This 430 race was literally "431 in 432", born amidst the 433 of an 434 435. For thousands of years, they have expanded their 436 in all directions, and 437 has been able to stand in their way. Their 438 is far 439 to anything we had on 440. They possess 441-than-442 443 travel, 444 devices, powerful force 445 and 446 447. They also have 448 capable of 449 the entire 450 in a matter of minutes. This creates a dilemma for 451 452. If 453 becomes more trouble than it's worth, the 454 will simply evacuate the 455 and 456 it.

THE 457 - Decades ago, the 458 organization fell out of favor. They were no longer "politically correct". But the events of March 21st, 459 changed all that. Because most of the 460 leaders were abducted while attending the 461 462, many 463 became convinced -- at least in part due to 464 465 -- that the 466 had conspired and 467 with the 468. Now the 469 are making a comeback. They don't much care for the 470-471, but their 472 of choice is still the Gargoyles.

THE 473 - Of course, the Gargoyles are not 474. But THE 475 476 is. The 477 is an 478 479 organization made up of almost all the true movers and 480 on 481 482. Many of the 483 leaders abducted by the 484-485 were 486 members of the 487 -- proof that the 488 definitely did NOT have advanced warning of the 489. But once the 490 was complete, the 491 wasted no time capitalizing on it. They negotiated a secret treaty with the 492, promising to infiltrate, sabotage and expose any sign of 493. In exchange, the 494-495 promised to release those world 496 that the 497 was prepared to vouch for. This 498 agreement was the beginning of a profitable arrangement for all concerned -- and the onset of a major headache for the 499.

500-X - 501-X is a super-502 503 with a highly evolved and Machiavellian 504 505. He has multiple 506 and 507 operatives, and any number of 508 509 that can accommodate his 510. Once upon a time, 511-512 had designs on taking 513 the 514. But that was before the 515-516 showed up and 517 his 518 519. Now anything less than total control of the entire 520 would strike him as under-achieving.

And that's the series in a 521.

522 523. The 524 is 525!

Rambled on Tue, September 26, 2000

WELCOME TO 2198...

As many of you know, one of the proposed Gargoyles spin-offs developed at Disney in 1996 (by myself and Gary Sperling) was set in the year 2158. The original title of the series was "GARGOYLES: FUTURE TENSE". But later, working here at Ask Greg, I came to two conclusions. (1) That it was too confusing having a spin-off series and an episode of the original series with the same title. (2) "Future Tense" wasn't that great a title for a spin-off series. So the series was renamed GARGOYLES 2158, which frankly sounded cooler and more immediate.

A couple months ago, however, I took a close look at the development for that series. And lots of stuff started bugging me. Some of it was literally MATH related. I had clearly made some mistakes in calculating WHEN certain things would happen. But creatively, I decided I wanted to make some changes as well. So I started from scratch. Everything was up for grabs. And I rebuilt the show.

The result is "GARGOYLES 2198". The immediate benefit is that I think this is an even better title. Being closer to the end of a century mark seems slightly more dramatic to me (an incidental benefit, since that wasn't why I did it). But beyond that, I think the idea is now much stronger, more cohesive and powerful.

But you won't have to take my word on that. You can read all about it...

Assuming you like contests, that is. Instead of just telling you guys everything, I've turned it all into our latest contest here at ASK GREG.

And I WON'T BE ANSWERING ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT 2198 until the contest is OVER!!

Enjoy...

Rambled on Tue, September 26, 2000

Farewell to 2158...

Say good-bye, finally, to GARGOYLES 2158.

The proposed GARGOYLES spin-off series originally known as "GARGOYLES: FUTURE TENSE" and later retitled "GARGOYELES 2158" has been redeveloped.

For more information, check out the "GARGOYLES 2198" ASK GREG archive.

Rambled on Mon, September 25, 2000

More on villains...

The same day as our last memo, Fred re-submitted the villain guidelines (his interpretations of stuff I told him) along with some notes on proto-Xanatos and proto-Magus/Arch-Mage.

RECEIVED BY
JAN 09 1992
GREG WEISMAN'S OFFICE

THE GARGOYLE -- WEISMAN GUIDELINES FOR VILLAINS
(Schaefer 1-9-92)

DISTRIBUTION: Cranston, Fair, Felix, Guler, Kline, Krisel, Ryan, Stones, Weisman

THE CRAZIES

-- Batman-esque villains. E.g. The Joker; Two Face (half of face scarred by acid; duality); Scarecrow (plays on people's fears, scares them to death). Avoid silly villains (e.g. the Penguin, the Riddler, Cat Man, Mr. Freeze).

-- The villains' craziness should be life-threatening. Attempted murder represents the majority of their crimes.

THE BIG GUYS

-- Considering what they'll be up against (The Gargoyle), physically they should be BIG, perhaps MUSCULAR, villains. Some may be hired by Xavier.

-- Fantasy-based. ogres, Trolls, etc.

-- Horror-based. A Mummy, A Werewolf, etc.

-- Empower the villains; make them formidable!

[Of course, there will be overlapping between the above two categories.]

AND THEN THERE'S XAVIER...

Very big, very rich, and very powerful. On a good day, he's vain, ruthless, lecherous, wicked, deceitful, unscrupulous, and vile. His corrupt hand is involved in a slew of nefarious endeavors. A self-taught Machiavellian; a manipulator, by nature.

He's a big, muscular man. His three-piece suit can scarcely contain his conspicuous bulk, much less maintain the air of civility desired by most businessman. But Xavier disdains most businessmen; they're weak, spineless cogs. Worker ants. Cowards. Powerless.

Powerlessness. Xavier abhors this more than anything in the world. It's his one big fear and the root cause of most of his frustrations.

A FINAL VILLAIN CATEGORY ... THE ANCIENT WIZARD

This is the Brit who created The Gargoyle 1000 years ago. Now he's back and he's mad as hell, but he doesn't know who to take it out on. The princess who turned the Gargoyle against him is long since dead. Of course, there's the Gargoyle. Well, what should the Ancient Wizard do? What's his big plan? Does he have a talisman that can place the Gargoyle (and the little gargoyles) under his power? How does it work? And how much power does it exert over them? Maybe Xavier discovers the Wizard's existence and views him as a threat. After all, the Wizard has powers that Xavier can never have and they both want the same thing -- The Gargoyle.

Rambled on Mon, September 25, 2000

Finally...

The queue is again empty.

But this time, I don't think Todd has fallen behind. I think finally, after, what, three years, I have caught up. Completely, totally, caught up.

I know it won't last. Won't even last a day, probably. But let me revel in the moment.

I'm caught up. I'm caught up. YES!

Rambled on Fri, September 22, 2000

Villain-work...

After Fred Schaefer's attempt at Villains like Mortify, I must have sat him down to give him some pointers on more dramatic villains for our new dramatic series. He wrote up the following:

THE GARGOYLE -- WEISMAN GUIDELINES FOR VILLAINS (1-9-92)

DISTRIBUTION: Cranston, Fair, Felix, Guler, Kline, Ryan, Stones

-- The villains' craziness should be life-threatening. Attempted murder represents the majority of their crimes.

-- Considering what they'll be up against (The Gargoyle), physically they should be BIG, perhaps MUSCULAR, villains. Some may be hired by Xavier.

-- Fantasy-based. Ogres, Trolls, etc.
-- Horror-based. A Mummy, A Werewolf, etc.
-- Empower the villains; make them formidable!
(Compiled by Schaefer 1-9-92)

Rambled on Thu, September 21, 2000

And now "THE GARGOYLE:

Now that we had left the comedy development behind, it was timE to start working on a pitch to sell our new dramatic development. I wrote what follows, breaking it down so that our artists could figure out what pictures they might need to draw.

NOTE: The show was (briefly) retitled "THE GARGOYLE". And the Gargoyle (proto-Goliath) was a magical creation who lived in despair through the thousand years. Some of which background was later better incorporated into Demona's story.

THE GARGOYLE
(Weisman / 1-7-92)

DISTRIBUTION: Cranston, Fair, Felix, Guler, Kline, Krisel, Ryan, Schaefer, Stones

PITCH BREAKDOWN
(First Pass)

1. Title Card

2. Typical stone gargoyles. (Perhaps stone versions of our mini characters.)

3. Pull back, we see them on the ramparts of a castle under seige by the evil army of the WIZARD. Stalemate.

4. Evil Wizard creates our GARGOYLE king.

5. GARGOYLE sets out very menacing to do the wizard's bidding.

6. PRINCESS turns our Gargoyle to the side of good. Touches his heart.

7. Gargoyle prepared to fight for Princess...(with small goofy army of little gargoyles?)...just as the sun begins to rise.

8. Gargoyle turns to stone at rise of sun. (As the wizard's army attacks?)

9. Sunset. The castle has been sacked. The princess is gone. Our Gargoyle is heartbroken. (More TRAGIC than pathetic.) He's failed.

10. The years pass. He haunts the ruined castle. Howling in front of the full moon??

11. Years in solitude. (Stealing books from library??)

12. Occasional forays into humanity? (World War II? Ripping the wings off a German plane?)

13. Always left with sense of isolation and futility. Nothing for him in this world. Nothing for 1000 years.

14. Than everything changes. Castle lifted by giant airships. Laputaesque.

15. Castle lowered onto XAVIER'S skyscraper.

16. Introduce NEW menacing XAVIER??? (Maybe save til later?)

17. Introduce our heroine. Female police detective? (Do we reuse the Princess model??) How does our Gargoyle meet her?

18. As before, this woman gives him hope, a sense of purpose. And real human friendship.

19. Gargoyles protect from Barbarians at the gate. Manhattan is full of "Barbarians". Gargoyle stops a mugging?

20. Escalate. He stops a car full of bank robbers in it's tracks.

21. Escalate. Major villain card.

22. Escalate. Even tougher villain card.

23. Escalate. The toughest villain card. (Show villain and Gargoyle fighting?)

24. Gargoyle in city atmosphere. Gothic melodrama in very modern setting.

25. Maybe introduce Xavier here? Or perhaps in some way, shape or form, reintroduce threat of the Wizard? Are these two related?

26. Supporting characters. (Other gargoyles, perhaps, or our lead girl's kid? Other cops? The old librarian?)

27. Where does he live? Still in Xavier's tower? With Xavier? The library maybe?

28. Other types of stories?

29. End Card.

Open to suggestions and input. (Particularly from you, Gary. Call me if you get a chance. I don't want to lose time while your out of town.) There are a lot of open issues here. Most important, is this the structure your looking for, or do we want to begin in the present, with a compact flashback for explanation? It's harder to get the capital-T Tragic element in that way, but we're less likely to get the question "So this takes place in the past?" from JK or ME at the end of the pitch.

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