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Greg's answers:
I've been fascinated by Gargoyles since at least my college days. But someone else at Disney made the suggestion to do a show about Gargoyles. That's all they gave me. That one word. Gargoyles. I ran with it. Though I had a LOT of help. It was a real team effort.
[In a later answer, he adds that it was inspired by] Real gargoyles and the idea that something scary was used to protect a church or castle from evil.
2. What were some specific inspirations for Gargoyles?
Greg's answer:
Disney's Gummi Bears. Hill Street Blues. Yoknapatwpha County, i.e. the complete works of William Faulkner. The Complete works of William Shakespeare. The Simpsons. Various comic book universes. The novels of Tony Hillerman. Lots of myth, legends, etc, which I have always been interested in. Plus the input of all the other talented people who put the show together with me. I was not a one-man band here.
3. How old are the characters on Gargoyles?
Greg's answer:
My timeline isn't yet fully REWORKED, so all of the following is tentative. But as of 12-31-95, here are the ages of many of our cast:
King Arthur 1510 (57).
Hudson 1117 (59).
Demona 1057 (35).
Goliath 1057 (29).
Coldstone 1057 (28).
Trio 1037 (19).
Magus dead at 1029 (71)
Katharine 1019 (61).
Bronx 1017 (9).
Tom 1009 (54).
Macbeth 990 (52).
Ang, Gab, Oph, Boud 917 (19).
Fiona 107.
Mace Malone dead at 100.
Leo, Una, Kai 97 (49).
Dominic 93.
Zaf, Obsid 77 (39).
Dane 76.
Jade, Turq, Yama 57 (29).
Peter 53.
Diane 49.
Xanatos 40.
Sora 37 (19).
Jason, Matt 31.
Fox, Robyn 29.
Elisa 27.
Talon, Dracon 25.
Jon 23.
Beth 20.
Thailog 1 (29).
Note, the numbers in parentheses represent biological age when it differs from their actual chronological age.
Alex was not yet born at that time. My current thinking pegs his birthdate as 7-9-96, a Tuesday.
[Greg also states the ages of the "Bad Guys" cast, starting with the age of the Director...] Uh, don't hold me to this, but I'd say 50.
[...] Dingo was in his mid-thirties in 1994.
Matrix was born in 1995.
Fang was in his mid-twenties in 1994.
[Regarding Cagney's age at the time of "The Journey" (1996)...] About three.
[The ages of the Pack...] I think Jackal & Hyena are younger [than Fox]. Dingo and Wolf are older [than Fox].
[Anton Sevarius' age...] In his late forties.
[The birthyears of some of the characters from "City of Stone"...] Gillecomgain was born in 982.
[...] Canmore was born in 1031.
[...] Luach was born in 1033.
Lastly, the Manhattan clan's clones (Brentwood, Hollywood, Malibu, Burbank, and Delilah) were aged to their (biological) mid-twenties. Older than the Trio, younger than Hudson.
4. What are the nationalities of some of the human characters?
Elisa, Derek, and Beth Maza are half Native American and half African-American. Xanatos is Greek-American; his father Petros is Greek. Fox and her father are French-American. Matt Bluestone is Jewish-American. Maria Chavez is Hispanic-American.
5. Why is there so much Shakespeare in Gargoyles?
Greg's answer:
Most (though not all) of the Shakespeare was me. Beginning with Macbeth. We were looking for an immortal Scottish hunter. Macbeth had the name recognition. It felt like the kind of thing Stan Lee would have done in the early sixties at Marvel. Plus I love Shakespeare. The other things flowed from that rather smoothly. The Weird Sisters were obvious. Puck, Oberon and Titania likewise. Marty Isenberg & Bob Skir, the writers on "Legion" created an Othello/Desdemona/Iago/Cassio set up (with Goliath in the Cassio role). I'm still not 100% sure if Marty and Bob did that on purpose, because per our rules, none of the other characters were named in their original outline for the story. In order to relieve some of the stress on our all-too-human brains, I suggested the Shakespearean names for internal use in order to keep all the characters straight. With more episodes, we would have included more Shakespearean characters. But I think that covers it for now.
6. Would all legends, myths, and tales become part of the Gargoyles universe?
Yes, eventually. "All things are true."
7. Are answers given in Ask Greg etched in stone?
Most definitely not. Greg's answer:
There's canon and there's canon.
As far as I'm concerned the only true canon is the 66 episodes of the series running from "Awakening, Part One" through "The Journey". As many of you know, I don't like to consider the other twelve episodes of Goliath Chronicles to be canon, let alone whatever other stories got published by Marvel or Disney Adventures Digest or whatever.
But to be honest, even some of my ASK GREG answers cannot truly be considered canon. They're closer. But I won't be held to them in any absolute sense. Part of the wonder of producing the first two seasons of Gargoyles involved things discovered along the way. I won't etch things in stone (pun intended) just for the sake of making these ramblings and off-the-cuff answers sacrosanct. If I got the chance to produce the show (or one of its spin-offs) again, I'd ABSOLUTELY incorporate much of what's here. But I'd be a fool not to hold everything up to a microscope and decide with consideration what would and wouldn't be best for the new series.
Back to the Main Page.
GargWiki.net has answers for all your Gargoyles questions.
The story of Gargoyles continues in the comic book series Gargoyles and Gargoyles: Dark Ages published by Dynamite. Available online or at your local comic book shop.
NECA has produced a line of Gargoyles figures which continues to grow. Available through online and department store retailers.
Includes episode commentaries by co-creator Greg Weisman, interviews with the cast, and a documentary on the fan convention.