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Phoenix writes...

I've been hearing about this Gargoyles 2158 thing, what is it?

Greg responds...

Arrgghh...

Now, I'm nervous....

I answered this last time I visited ASK GREG. Man, I hope we don't have another technical problem. Hopefully, human error was involved...

Anyway, Phoenix, after we finished the writing on the second season of Gargoyles, Gary Sperling and I began working on some potential spin-off shows for the series.

One of these was set in the future, the year 2158 to be specific. Originally, we called it "GARGOYLES: FUTURE TENSE". But I later changed the name to "GARGOYLES 2158".

The series featured Goliath's grandson SAMSON, a largely-reformed DEMONA and a Time-Dancing BROOKLYN, among others.

CBS was interested in airing it, but before we could put a pitch together, the whole CBS Saturday Morning dept. was fired. And shortly thereafter Disney bought ABC, rendering any deal with CBS all but impossible. At about the same time there was a major regime change at Disney TV Animation as well. The new regime wasn't too interested in Gargoyles at all, at least not in making it a priority. ABC asked for a new version of the show. But no one wanted 2158.

Oh, well.

Response recorded on September 05, 1999

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Sevarius Jr. writes...

Who was responsible for creating the concept of Fox? I've always thought it was very clever to name her "Fox Renard". A conscious effort to point back at the folk tales of old, huh (Renard the Fox is a fave of mine!)? ;-)

Greg responds...

Uh, it depends what you mean.

I came up with the original concept for the Pack. At least I think I did. At any rate, I led the development team that did. I definitely had Fox pegged as female. Her birth name came later. "Renard" was used in "Outfoxed" as both a clue to the clever viewer that Halcyon and Fox were related and a clue to the clever viewer as to where Fox got her name. I know it sounds like I'm always taking credit, but I think that was my idea as well. (But it might have been Cary Bates. I just vaguely remember that Cary named the character Something Halcyon. And I made Halcyon the first name and made the last name Renard. Frank Paur came up with the character of Halcyon Renard in the first place, though I think Cary and I figured out that he was Fox's dad.)

Response recorded on August 24, 1999

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Vanessa writes...

Ok, My question is not related to the content of the show, but the production.

1. How closely did you work with each of the departments (ie. writers, artists, actors, etc.) while you were making the show?
2. Who had the final say about what actually aired and what got cut?

Greg responds...

1. The writers and story editors worked for me directly.

The actors worked for our Voice Director Jamie Thomason, but I sat right next to Jamie at every recording, so I knew them very well.

The pre-production artists worked under Frank Paur, Dennis Woodyard and Bob Kline, and I largely dealt with those three Director/Producers as opposed to having direct contact with the artists. BUT -- there were tons of exceptions and I got to know many of the storyboard artists fairly well. Plus I had brought our (2nd season) lead character designer Greg Guler onto the show in its development phase. So I worked fairly closely with him.

I also had one on one meetings with our timing directors.

As for the actual overseas production artists. People like Roy, I had no real contact with them. Mostly I left that to Frank, though I occasionally communicated with the head of Walt Disney Japan via FAX.

In post, I worked directly with everyone. Editors, Sound folk, music, etc.

2. There isn't one answer to this. I had a tremendous amount of authority on the first two seasons, but I did have people I answered to. Largely, they gave me pretty free reign. Frank had equal authority. We generally agreed or at least could reach a solution together. Occasionally, whether we agreed on something or not, a decision would go up the ladder.

Response recorded on August 23, 1999

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Derek writes...

Hi again Greg, sorry about my last Mega-post, I posted all those questions as a lump before you asked us not to, so sorry.
ANYWAY- Here's my question...

Where did Dracon's white streak come from? It wasn't there in DEADLY FORCE and then in THE SILVER FALCON, it was. Was there both a behind the scenes and a "real" reason for this like the change in the mutate's appearance? That's it, thanks.

Greg responds...

Yeah. Two reasons.

I felt that Dracon didn't look distinctive enough in his first appearance, so Frank and I discussed it and decided that Goliath scared him so badly it turned part of his hair white. We even considered doing the same thing to Glasses. The idea appealed to me on some level, but it just seemed to artificial. And in some ways Glasses already looked more distinctive. (I always loved Glasses.)

Response recorded on August 23, 1999

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Ay Lynn writes...

1.) This has been killing me. Lexington and Broadway are bald as Gargoyles. When Puck transformed them into humans -- they had hair! Any reasons for this? (Personally, I'm rather partial to a Lex with hair, but... curious...)

2.) Lexington is noticably different from the rest of the Gargoyles (his wings being the most differing feature) and he is dwarfed by his clan members. Is he a different breed of Gargoyle? Is there such thing?

3.) Not a question, really, but I just wanted to add my voiced appreciation to all the others for bringing the universe of Gargoyles into creation. Much thanks.

Finally, I'd like to express my suprise at no matter how much we (the fans) nitpick and analyze this series, it somehow always still makes sense in the end... Kudos!

Greg responds...

1. Behind the scenes, we wanted Lex and Broadway to resemble Thom Adcox & Bill Faggerbakke as much as possible.
Within the universe, though some gargs are bald, few human teens are. So it made sense to add hair.

Plus, I've never said that Lex and/or BW ARE bald. Maybe they shave...

2. Lex isn't a different species. He's also not fully grown yet, so he will get bigger. Though he'll never be as big as Brook or BW. Some guys are just short. Like me.

3 &tc. Thanks.

Response recorded on August 21, 1999

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--D writes...

I don't suppose you might be able to tell me where I can purchase copies of the original episodes?

Greg responds...

Nope. Sorry.

Response recorded on August 21, 1999

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Airwalker writes...

Would you have given some personal history to Jackal and Hyena as time went on?

(I'm curious as to what kind of people would be so willing to mutilate themselves. What kind of a past could have moved them to doing that to themselves?

Wolf mutating himslef didn't bother me because if anything he was increasing his senses, his physical being, while Jackal and Hyena were diminishing theirs. They threw away perfectly good body parts for what - dull feelingless metal?)

Greg responds...

Probably. But it wasn't a high priority for me. Sometimes it's fun just to have a couple characters who are nuts. Characters who don't have complex reasons for their actions. I'm very proud of the complexity that abounds in both Demona and Xanatos. But sometimes it's fun just to cut loose.

Response recorded on August 20, 1999

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Zeliard writes...

My compliments to Gorebash for hosting the "Ask Greg".

Hello Mr. Weisman. You said that you worked on other Disney projects years ago like Darkwing Duck and Tale Spin. I was wondering...:

I.In a Darkwing Duck episode, Launchpad disappeared in a time machine and returned minutes later, but he says that he spent the last 5 years in Rome trying to fix the time machine. Did that gave you the inspiration for the Timedancer?

II.In Tale Spin, the Air Pirates used an Air Fortress. Did that gave you the idea for Fortress 1 and 2 for Cyberbiotics?

Now for the Gargoyles:

1.In "The Mirror", why did Demona refused the suggestion from Puck. i.e. "Make Goliath fall in love with Demona again"? Or take over the mind of Goliath or the clan like in "Temptation"?

2.Why Xanatos hasn't place Coyote's (the robot) artificial intelligence in the Steel Clan robots? They would have given the Gargoyles a real challenge.

3.What are exactly the Space-Spawns? Humanoids? Insectoids?

4.I learned that the space war involved 3 races: Space-Spawns, Nokkar's people and another race. What is the name of the other race and Nokkar's spicies?

Thank you for your time, bye!

Zeliard

Greg responds...

I. Sorry, I did work on Darkwing, but it wasn't my show, and I'm not that intimate with the details. And no, it didn't influence TimeDancer.

II. It didn't directly give me the idea, but it may have been one of many airship influences floating around in my head.

As per our new rules, I invite you to resubmit your remaining questions as multiple separate posts.

Response recorded on August 17, 1999

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*The Bride of Ringo* writes...

Hi again... :-)

My question this time is are gargoyles right handed or left handed the way humans are? I know it's kind of silly, but I've always wondered that since I've never seen any of them take a pen or pencil and write anything.

Greg responds...

I suppose many are ambidextrous. Since in animation, that's not a detail we have the luxury of paying much attention to.

Response recorded on August 17, 1999

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Airwalker writes...

If included inside GARGOYLES itself instead of getting it's own spin-off, how many episodes would you have given to Timedancer? (Would it have been 5 parts like AWAKENINGS, 3 parts like AVALON, 2 parts like THE GATHERING, or just a single episode?)

Greg responds...

I don't know. It was originally going to be one episode. Just one inside what became THE GOLIATH CHRONICLES. (How it morphed into "Runaways" is beyond me.) Then it would hang out there as a potential spin-off or back-door pilot. If that never got picked up, I'd eventually have told some of Brooklyn's adventures in various scattered flashback episodes within the main series. Some might have wound up as multi-parters. But I don't pretend, I worked that much out. I was hoping it would spin off -- at which point I'd have forty years worth of material to cover.

Response recorded on August 17, 1999


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