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Todd Jensen writes...
A little side-note. I happened to see the episode that you wrote for "Disney's Hercules" - I thought I'd mention it after noticing that somebody else on the list mentioned it. I quite enjoyed it - particularly the portrayal of Theseus as a sort of ancient Greek version of "Batman". I also noticed, as a side-note, that there was a certain thematic echo of "Hunter's Moon" in it (although I don't know if you'd intended it or not) where Hercules got so caught up in his efforts to wreak vengeance upon the Minotaur that he lost sight of what was really important, much the same way as Goliath in his pursuit of the Hunters.
Greg responds...
First off, Todd, thanks for the kind words.
There are certain themes that interest me, and so you'll see them revisited in my work (probably ad nauseum) over and over. The theme of, well, let's call it "What Profit Vengeance?" is one of my favorites. So I wasn't deliberately trying to echo "Hunter's Moon" so much as I was servicing a set of ideas that seemed apropos to both series.
As for the Theseus-as-Batman stuff. Well, that's a no-brainer. The Superman/Batman dynamic -- that is the teaming of a hero possessing superhuman abilities with a hero who merely makes the best possible use of his human abilities -- originated with Herakles and Theseus. (Or at any rate, it goes back that far.) So the notion of flipping that, and playing Herc/Theseus as Superman/Batman seemed wonderfully ironic and a fertile place to find comedy.
In high school, I acted in a play called THE WARRIOR'S HUSBAND. I played Theseus, and I've had a real affinity for the character ever since. In that play, Hercules was kind of a mope. (Very strong, but a mope.) The Greeks were waging war against the Amazons. Hercules was in charge, but Theseus was the real brains of the operation. Yet he's also the guy who really falls hard in love for Antiope, sister to Queen Hyppolyta. So instead of conquering -- as he had originally intended -- Theseus winds up manipulating everyone into a compromise. I like that in a hero.
Theseus is part of a sub-genre of archetypes, (an off-shoot of Trickster figures like Puck, Coyote or Odysseus/Ulysses). He's the primary example of the Archetype of "THE BASTARD", which includes such diverse characters as Shakespeare's Edmund from KING LEAR, Joan of Arc's ally Dunois and multiple characters from Arthurian legend (including Merlin, Arthur, Percival, Galahad and Mordred). There are so many parallels between Arthur and Theseus that reading Mary Stewart and Mary Renault seemed almost redundant. (Not really.)
In fact, Luach (or Lulach) is also a prime candidate for that archetype. When he was born, Gruoch was still married to Gillecomgain. But gossip around the castle hinted that the babe's true father was Macbeth. After Macbeth and Gruoch married, Macbeth adopted the boy as his own. At which point the gossip shifted to insist that Gillecomgain was the boy's father. (You can't win.) Pre-DNA testing, there would be no way for Luach to ever be certain of the truth. Maybe Macbeth didn't even know. Hell, Gruoch might not know.
Life's a bitch when you're a bastard.
Jonathan Frakes
Last night, my wife and I went to the WB's fifth anniversary party.
I talked with Alan Burnette and Rich Fogel. Two guys who I used to work with at Disney, but who are now on BATMAN BEYOND.
I also saw a number of celebs, including the actors who play the title roles in ANGEL and FELICITY. Plus Diedrich Bader, (Oswald on DREW CAREY and Jason Canmore of "Hunter's Moon"). I also literally bumped into Shiri Appleby who's "Liz" the female lead on ROSWELL. And she was very nice about me being a clutz.
And, best of all, I ran into Jonathan Frakes, who's an exec producer on ROSWELL. He was terrifically charming as always to both myself and Beth. (Beth and Jonathan's wife Genie Francis were once in MOMMY & ME classes together after we both had our respective first kids.)
Without any prompting from me, he bemoaned the fact that Disney stopped making GARGOYLES. He's still a big fan of the show. We started to talk some more but he was approached by Ray Wise, the actor who played Laura Palmer's father on TWIN PEAKS. I left them to talk, and we didn't get to hook up again before Beth and I had to leave. (Babysitters, school nights, plus as glamorous as it may sound, I feel very out of place at this kind of party. Very uncomfortable.)
Anyway, I realize it's not much of an anectdote, but I thought you'd like to know.
TITUS
I saw TITUS on Saturday with my wife Beth and three people who worked on GARGOYLES.
1. Fred Schaefer, who was a development associate who helped develop the show. (I think it's safe to say that Talon was sort of Fred's idea in a very early pre-Derek form. We called the character Catscan then.) Fred is currently a producer/executive/story editor at Porchlight Entertainment.
2. Monique Beatty was my assistant during the Gargoyles years. She did a lot of research for me. She's now a producer at Kinofilms.
3. Tuppence Macintyre is an old friend of mine. She also did a lot of Scotish research for Gargoyles, just as a personal favor and because it interested her. She's a Deputy District Attorney in Los Angeles.
Anyway, the five of us went to see TITUS in Santa Monica. The film is based on one of Shakespeare's early tragedies, TITUS ANDRONICUS. It was adapted and directed by Julie Taymor, who adapted and directed THE LION KING for the Broadway stage. So it's not surprise that the film is visually stunning. Monique didn't like the anachronistic style of the film (depicting chariots and motorcycles side-by-side for example), but it's not the first time I've seen that kind of interpretation, so it didn't bother me.
And the acting is fantastic. Anthony Hopkins (who I've loved forever -- does anyone remember the movie MAGIC?) plays Titus. He's brilliant. His lament to the stones is heartbreaking. Jessica Lange is good as "Tamara, Queen of the Goths" (now tell me that isn't a Gargoyles' character in the making). And Alan Cumming (who voiced John Castaway in "The Journey") is a nice, twisted villain as Saturninus, the Roman Emperor. But the revelation is Harry Lennix as Aaron the Moor. Amazing.
The story of Titus is not for the squeemish or for children. It's a real pot-boiler. Something just this side of a horror movie with a hard R rating for violence and nudity, though thankfully a minimum of on-screen gore.
The play was a big hit for Shakespeare in his day. But it's been dismissed as a critical flop. And I can see why. I've read it a couple times and thought it awful. Which coming from a bardolitor like myself is pretty harsh. It seemed like none of the characters were sympathetic or interesting.
But I'd never seen it performed, so I was looking forward to the movie. As usual, Shakespeare plays tens times better than he reads. In the movie, I had -- at moments -- plenty of sympathy for nearly all the characters. And the wonderful thing is that my sympathies are constantly shifting. No one is without sin. All share the blame except for Aaron's son. And Aaron himself is amazing.
Although, I can't help agreeing that Shakespeare wrote TITUS at least in part as parody of the tragic genre -- the way SCREAM was designed to be both parody and exemplar of the horror film -- I can also see flashes of KING LEAR, HAMLET and CORIOLANUS in Titus' character.
But Aaron prefigures Othello, Iago, Edmund and Shylock at least. He's a remarkably progressive character for the time. A villain, who is the only character to succeed in preserving a sliver of innocence within the world of the play.
Anyway, I really enjoyed it. And I recommend it to any Gargoyle Fan over the age of 17.
Zeliard writes...
Hello mr. Weisman!
1.You said that cetain scenes of "Avalon part 2" had been cutted because the episode was too long. Will tell us what was those missing scenes?
2.Why the Archmage chose Demona and MacBeth as allies?
Greg responds...
1. Stuff with the Archmage-Plus mentoring the original Archmage and guiding the Weird Sisters.
2. His "future" self told him too.
Matt Dymond writes...
Resubmitting this one as required...
Is there any particular backstory as to why Elisa drives her particular make & model of of car (either within the context of the series itself, or a reason one of the writing staff wanted that particular car used?).
Greg responds...
No. We just wanted her to have a cool car.
Of course, knowing me, I might someday come up with a "story behind the car" story. But I don't have one yet.
Aspiring Animator Jennifer writes...
Greg, thanks for taking the time to read this.
What were some of the artistic inspirations for the varied Gargoyle designs? Were there specific types of architecture or animals the artists looked at for inspiration? For their different designs, what species' anatomy did the artists look most at? Please share some of the working ideas leading up to the final character designs we all know. Also, please share the artistic reasons or design necessities for the Gargoyles' different colors.
Greg responds...
Jennifer,
I'm afraid I'm a bit out of my depth with your question, as I'm not an artist myself. (Plus, I'm somewhat color blind.) There are others who could better answer this for you.
In particular, Kline, Guler, Felix, Schwartz, Takeuchi, Paur. Roy Sato may know more than me too.
What I provided was character detail, physical type. I knew I wanted Zafiro to be inspired by Quetzacoatl. Leo, Una and Griff by English heraldic gargoyles.
I knew what physical type I wanted Goliath to be, Hudson to be, Broadway, Brooklyn, Demona, Angela, etc. But the inspiration, the anatomical reference, etc. Was left in the capable hands of talented folk who could draw.
Obviously, actual stone gargoyles were a huge influence and inspiration.
As for the WHY to there multiple colors, well, we were making an animated show. It seemed more visually interesting.
Hoped that helped.
Joxter the Mighty writes...
Hey Greg,
You've said in the past you intended to fit in every legend and such ever made, right?
1. How would you have fit the men in black in? They are a real legend, but now Warner Brothers has a big ol' licensed series about them... Did you have any plans on this?
Greg responds...
No immediate plans for MIB. And what I said was that given enough time and enough episodes I'd fit in every legend, but that didn't mean I had a working plan to do that yet.
Airwalker writes...
I've heard that when you pitched DARK AGES to CBS they suggested instead pitching a future based series instead. Was that the first time you started to think about GARGOYLES 2158 or did you previously have a developed idea of what the Gargoyles future would be like?
Greg responds...
I can't deny that CBS' suggestion was the first time I really DEDICATED thought to a specific future. (It was after that conversation, that I nailed down 2158 as the year of the setting for example.) But some of the material that I had planned for the show, had already been racing around in my head. The Nokkar stuff in particular. The Demona stuff. The children of Angela and Broadway.
But it was more amorphous, timeline-wise.
Aris Katsaris writes...
When "City of Stone" was first written and produced were you planning that the Hunter legacy would continue through the Canmore family or had you thought that Macbeth had taken up the mask and was now the last of the Hunters?
Greg responds...
Well, it's more complicated then that.
"City of Stone" was originally pitched as a Direct to Video movie. My boss, Gary Krisel, immediately rejected it as a video. (Though, obviously, he had no problem with it being done as episodes.) He felt that a Gargoyle video needed to focus on our heroes -- and I had to admit that "City" was really the story of two of our villains: Macbeth and Demona. Goliath and company have supporting roles at best.
But Gary liked the HUNTER angle. So immediately, Michael Reaves and I came up with the basic story idea for "Hunter's Moon". We made a sincere effort to make both multi-parters stand independent of each other. "City" came first, but the two ideas were born so close together, I can't really give you a definitive answer to your either/or question except to say (in my smart-ass fashion) "Both."
Derek writes...
A long time ago (according to the archives) you said that you wanted to do a Gargoyles story involving scarecrows because they had a lot in common with gargoyles, but that you had trouble making it different from the Batman villian. But, you said someday you would crack the story. Have you?
Greg responds...
No.
But I haven't tried. I've been busy working on other shows, other projects. Gargoyles is like a hobby for me now. Which means that I rarely write anything down. Rarely do any of the hard work of writing. I do the easy stuff. I let the ideas come to me. Since the Scarecrow idea was never easy, it hasn't come to me. To crack that, I'd have to really dedicate time to it. And I haven't.
But someday...
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