Talking specifically about back when I was doing THE SILVER SURFER. At the same time, Michael Steven Gregory and I came up with another concept called TWO DUDES.
THE SILVER SURFER was cancelled after only one season on FoxKids because of a financial dispute between Fox and Marvel. TWO DUDES got a lot of action as a screenplay and even had a short life on the web as an animated gif series. (Told you this was “back when.”) The other day, though, I saw the cartoon above. Now I’m a subscriber.
Back in the late ’90s I did a little work in animation, creating projects like Fox’s THE SILVER SURFER, which I also ran – as much as a writer can run what is probably the only TV genre where writer-producers don’t get to call all the shots because the animator-directors are the official Big Cheeses – and supervising the writing on SURFER, SPIDER-MAN UNLIMITED, DIABOLIK (a French series for all practical purposes although everyone wanted it to be more), and HBO’s SPAWN (a terrific series bujt the less said about it as an experience in my life the better).
As a result of that work (which you can get a quick overview of here), I’m often asked a lot of questions about the television animation process. One of the days, time permitting, I’ll write a nice long article on the subject. But until then I’m happy to use this space to answer the following question from Delia, who wants to writes:
I’ve been a secret fan of Saturday Morning animation for years and have always been amazed at the variation in quality. I’ve seen shows that obviously were intended for 8 year olds, like POKEMON, and shows that scaled upward in age past pre-teens and teens to the viewing group I’d call Young Adults, which clearly was the demo you aimed THE SILVER SURFER at.
Redundant but necessary verbiage:
TVWriter™ is more than just daily posts about TV, writing, and the collected obsessions of those of us who work here? It’s also the longest running, most complete site about the ins and outs, both creative and economic, of television writing on the web. We’re talking contests, workshops, and page after page of info based on Larry Brody’s 30+ year long career.
Believe it or not, Galactus is NIGH is a Facebook page. Avowed mission: “our mission is to take as many pictures as we can with Cosplayers.” And they’re doing pretty well. The page opened July 12th, and as of this writing it’s gotten almost 300 pics.
We’re curious about the origins of this particular apocalypse. And whether LB’s SILVER SURFER animated series had anything to do with it. We probably should interview those involved. But that would take some, you know, effort. And, just between us, we’re, well, urm, we’re not journalists. (Fooled you, right?)
So if anyone knows anything about this, comment and let us in on it, okay?
…or maybe they’re what you think but not what I thought.
See the picture above? No surprise there. That’s Stan Lee & Jack Kirby’s – and Larry Brody’s too – Silver Surfer.
But…