Buzz Lightyear-of-Star Command

> Calling Buzz Lightyear, the galaxy's greatest hero! Skilled, courageous, and ever-vigilant, leaping into action, Buzz Lightyear hurtles to the rescue! His on-going mission: to protect the universe from the dark forces of evil! These are the adventures of... Buzz Lightyear of Star Command!
>
> Opening narration

***Buzz Lightyear of Star Command***, also known as ***BLoSC*** by fans, was an American animated television series, produced by Walt Disney Television. Based on the best-selling *Toy Story* film series, the series followed the adventures of Buzz Lightyear, one of the two main characters of *Toy Story*, and exists as a metafictional TV series within the film series. The pilot, which was later on split into three episodes, first aired on August 8, 2000 on ABC as part of Disney's One Saturday Morning programming block. The series soon followed, the first episode airing two months afterwards from October 2000 to January 2001, spanning 2 seasons with 62 episodes in total before it was concluded without a proper finale.

## Story

Taking place in a far-off galaxy in a far-off future, *Buzz Lightyear of Star Command* can be considered a blend of space opera and soft science fiction. Many compare it to series and films like *Star Trek* and *Star Wars* due to puns and jokes that pay homage to both franchises.

The show follows the exploits of Buzz Lightyear, a famous and experienced Space Ranger who takes three aspiring rookies by the names of Mira Nova, Booster and XR under his wing. Together, they are known as Team Lightyear, and they fight against crime as they work to make the galaxy a safer place. Their base is Star Command, a military-like police force that serves as the galaxy's primary line of defense, which orbits Capital Planet, the headquarters of the Galactic Alliance.
The Galactic Alliance's main arch-nemesis is the Evil Emperor Zurg, an intergalactic menace who rules an empire of heavily-armed robots and alien races and is the galaxy's most wanted criminal. Although Team Lightyear comes across several other one-time and recurring villains during the course of the series, Zurg is the most prominent, and Buzz wants nothing more than to take him in and put a stop to his plans once and for all to ensure peace throughout the galaxy.

*Buzz Lightyear of Star Command* takes place in the far future, a pastiche of *Star Trek*, *Battlestar Galactica*, *Babylon 5*, *Lost in Space*, *Flash Gordon*, *Buck Rogers*, and *Star Wars*-style science fiction. Capital Planet is the forefront of the Galactic Alliance, a peaceful union of various planets, home to various alien species that coexist in harmony with one another. Star Command is a peacekeeping organization consisting of Space Rangers, who investigate threats to galactic peace. The primary enemy of Star Command, as well as Buzz’s arch enemy is the Evil Emperor Zurg, an intergalactic crime boss that rules an empire of heavily-armed robots and slave races forced to work in opposition to the Galactic Alliance.
The series features Buzz Lightyear, a famous, experienced Space Ranger that takes a crew of rookies under his wing as he investigates criminal activity across the galaxy, and attempts to bring down Zurg’s for universe domination.
*Buzz Lightyear of Star Command* is a metafictional series that exists within the reality of the *Toy Story* films, where Buzz Lightyear is a highly popular toyline. One of the two lead characters in the *Toy Story* film series is a Buzz action figure, voiced by Tim Allen.

## Characters

### Star Command

#### Team Lightyear

* **Captain Buzz Lightyear** (voiced by Tim Allen in *The Adventure Begins*, Patrick Warburton in the actual series): Famed Space Ranger known for heroism and bravery. Buzz often suggests that his arch-villain Emperor Zurg is behind every evil plot and is often proven correct. Like his *Toy Story* incarnation, Buzz is a stickler for procedure, but will tell a cover story if he needs to. However, he has little people skills, and at times displays a lack of common sense. He attended PS- 193 (that's 6859) as a primary school. He wrote at least half of the regulations in the Star Command Manual. He also owns a house on Capital Planet, though as they all look alike and his duties often keep him away, he is confused over just which one is his. To compare this animation and the *Toy Story* films, the button between the red and blue ones is green in the *Toy Story* films and yellow in this animation with the releasing of strings when pressed. He seems to have a little crush on Dr. Ozma Furbanna and vice versa.
* **Princess Mira Nova** (voiced by ***Nicole Sullivan***): A rookie ranger and heir to the Tangean throne. She utilizes her people's ability to phase through walls (called "ghosting") and read minds. Buzz has a tendency to refer to her as "Princess" when he's angry with her. She acts as Buzz's co-pilot and second-in-command. She has the most common sense of the team. Mira also has an estranged relationship with her father King Nova, who disapproves of her choice of being a Space Ranger, though deep down she still cares about him. Her abilities and personality are similar to those of Miss Martian. She has red hair and turquoise skin.
* **Booster Sinclair Munchapper** (voiced by ***Stephen Furst***): A huge dinosaur-like former janitor from the agricultural planet of Jo-ad (a play on the name of the Joad family, from John Steinbeck's *The Grapes of Wrath*). He has a big appetite and incredible strength, but is sweet and occasionally naive. He is in awe of Buzz Lightyear and has encyclopedic knowledge of his prior adventures.
* **XR** (voiced alternately by Larry Miller and Neil Flynn): A short robot who was originally emotionless and programmed to learn from Buzz, but was blown apart by Agent Z during his first mission. The LGMs rebuilt him, but the temporary loss of the Uni-Mind to Emperor Zurg left them off their game. They rebuilt XR with his slicker, more emotional personality and a variety of attachments. XR stands for E**x**perimental **R**anger. (The LGMs have stated that this is the official meaning of the name, though other characters on the show hold the erroneous belief that the **X** stands for E**x**pendable). He gets blown apart on nearly every mission he goes on, but is easily rebuilt. He considers Commander Nebula his father (due to his signing the paperwork authorizing his creation) and is always seeking his approval.

#### Other personnel

* **Commander Nebula** (voiced by ***Adam Carolla***): The Space Rangers' commander, whose left leg was replaced by a pegleg-like plasma cannon. Rather short-tempered and constantly speaks with a loud voice. He has a robotic desk that forces him to do his paperwork. He hates to do so, though, and therefore signs forms without looking at them. By doing so, he inadvertently gave permission for the creation of XR, who therefore considers him a father. (He thought the form was the LGMs' vacation request.) Nebula is frequently irritated by this, though he gives XR his due for his successes.
* **LGMs**, or **L**ittle **G**reen **M**en (voiced by Jeff Pidgeon in Andy's Room sequence, Patrick Warburton in the actual series): The LGMs are small, three-eyed aliens from the planet Œzª£∎◊ßGæ! (originally appeared as squeeze toy aliens in the *Toy Story* movies). They are the intensely loyal backbone of Star Command, keeping the station running while inventing/maintaining all of the equipment. When one of their own is kidnapped, the other LGMs will instinctively try to rescue him by any means necessary. LGMs are typically in awe of Buzz. While they generally like the other Rangers, they may not be able to tell one from another. Several of their race are also shown to work for Santa Claus, acting as his toy builders.
* **Ty Parsec** (voiced by Steve Hytner): Ty is the infamous old comrade of Buzz Lightyear, who is fed up with Buzz always coming to his rescue. The Space Ranger was accidentally transformed into the robotic **Wirewolf** on the planet of Canis Lunis, after being bitten by the villain NOS-4-A2 while exposed to radioactive moon rock. Appeared in two episodes, with a cameo appearance in the episode "War and Peace and War". He is ultimately cured and reinstated as a Space Ranger.
* **Rocket Crockett** (voiced by Phil LaMarr): Member of Star Command and leader of Team Rocket. He has been Buzz's rival since their academy days.
* **Petra Hammerhold** (voiced by Nikki Cox): Senator Hammerhold's daughter. She joined Star Command when her father forced her to do so (largely to keep her from her boyfriend Plasma Boy). She was initially resentful of this, but was moved by Buzz's heroism during a crisis.
* **Plasma Boy** (voiced by Michael Showalter): Petra's boyfriend, who has a Plasma Monster form. Booster competed against him for Petra's affection. When Mira and XR fired a laser at his Plasma Monster form, he destabilized enough to the brink of explosion. He was prevented from explosion when Booster used his suit and Ion Stabilization Matrix on him. He's now a member of Star Command.
* **42** (voiced by Joy Behar): Originally the name of Buzz Lightyear's ship, it gained A.I. from one of the encounters with the Valkyran Raiders and a new energy projector device inserted on the ship by the LGMs. 42 doesn't like what Buzz says about her and usually controls the ship herself. XR developed a crush on her. When the Valkyran Raiders were thwarted, 42's consciousness was placed into a robot body and she now helps the LGMs.

### Villains

* **Evil Emperor Zurg** (voiced by ***Wayne Knight***): Main antagonist of the series and Buzz’s archenemy. Rules an empire on Planet Z, and wants to rule the entire universe while destroying Star Command. Zurg often takes any opportunity to eliminate Buzz. Most of his subjects are robots. His feet double as rockets and he can transform his arms into a variety of weapons. Despite often breaking the seriousness of otherwise purely evil statements, Zurg is widely considered the most evil person in the galaxy, especially by the other villains. He seems to have some neuroses about being touched. In some episodes he is shown being comical. The episode *War and Peace and War* was notably the only episode where Zurg teamed up with Buzz Lightyear to defeat the Heed, a common enemy that was trying to take over their galaxy. In *Stranger Invasion*, he revealed himself to be Buzz's father (a parody upon *The Empire Strikes Back* and a nearly identical scene in *Toy Story 2*), but quickly took it back, using the statement as a 'Made You Look' in order to stun Buzz and gain the upper hand.
	+ ***Grubs*** (voiced by ***Frank Welker***): Zurg's equivalents to the LGMs of Star Command (though far less competent). They perform mechanical and technical duties. The Grubs work for Zurg against their will and also desire freedom, but many of them are simply too afraid to try to defect.
	+ ***Brain Pods*** (Various Voices for each one): Cybernetic brains in mobile jars, who serve Zurg as scientists and researchers. Although they take pride in their creations, they secretly harbor a desire to escape from Zurg's control. (Two of them are shown succeeding in doing so on-screen.)
	+ ***Hornets***: The Hornets are Zurg's robotic foot soldiers, extremely expendable, lousy shots, and always get vaporized in mass numbers by Team Lightyear. Hornets come in different models, but the most frequently seen are yellow and of average height.
		- **Warp Darkmatter** (voiced by ***Diedrich Bader***) was once Buzz's partner and friend, but he had been secretly working for Zurg since his academy days as a double agent. He eventually began working for him full-time as "Agent Z." His right arm is robotic (with various weapon attachments) and was grafted to his body after becoming Agent Z. Warp often takes on assignments for Zurg and is paid quite handsomely. (He owns a moon and a summer home.) Though Buzz has vowed to bring him in for treason, he retains some hope that there is still some good in him.
* **Gravitina** (voiced by Kerri Kenney): A large-headed female villain with mental control over gravity. One of Zurg's allies and once hired to destroy Star Command. She's in love with Buzz, and later, his evil counterpart.
* **Evil Buzz Lightyear** (voiced by Patrick Warburton): A ruthless, pure evil version of Buzz Lightyear from an alternate reality which he conquered. He was his reality's ruler, head of a vast evil empire, (Emperor Zurg was the Burger Guy in his universe) and was very cruel and cunning, manipulating Zurg and Gravitina (who adored him) to his own wicked ends. He is the exact opposite of Buzz in personality and demeanor, wears a modified uniform in colors similar to Zurg's, and has a goatee (a reference to *Star Trek*, where evil doubles tend to sport that hairstyle). Even though it was Zurg who was considered to be the most evil in the galaxy, the Evil Buzz seemed to be even more evil, as he manipulated Zurg. His first appearance is in the episode *The Lightyear Factor*, in which one of Zurg's brain pods opened a portal to the alternate universe, and Evil Buzz came back through with Zurg and they attempted to destroy Star Command; however, they were foiled by the good Buzz Lightyear. In a subsequent episode, *Sunquake*, Evil Buzz has teamed up with Gravitina. In the end of this episode Gravitina is saved, while Evil Buzz falls into the sun. However, the last seconds of the episode show him escaping. Booster said that Buzz is the only person who can survive falling into the sun, implying that Evil Buzz survived his fall.
* **NOS-4-A2** (voiced by Craig Ferguson): NOS-4-A2 is a robotic vampire created by Zurg. He is capable of draining any system or entity driven by electrical power, as well as controlling any machine he bites. His bite (in combination with radioactive moon rock) also transformed Ty Parsec into Wirewolf. Using Wirewolf and XL, he briefly usurped control of Planet Z from Zurg and attempted to transform everyone in the galaxy into robots for him to feed on, but was defeated and destroyed. His name is a pun on the term "Nosferatu".
* **Torque** (voiced by Brad Garrett): Minor alien villain who committed crimes of terrorism, smuggling, arson, and unpaid parking tickets. After being freed from a prison transport by Zurg's Hornets, the Grubs implanted a cell-separation device upon his chest. Torque then possesses the ability to create duplicate versions of himself. They are unstable, however, as a single laser blast is enough to destroy them. In "The Taking of PC-7", he tried to turn Booster evil (and later Buzz) with a memory-altering device built by the Warden of PC-7. The same device also made Torque (temporarily at least) a heroic good guy. Torque riding a motorcycle-shaped spacecraft and his duplication abilities seem to be a reference to the character Lobo (who was also voiced by Brad Garrett in his DCAU appearances).
* **XL** (voiced by Bobcat Goldthwait): XR's predecessor (and technically older brother), who was shut down due to his villainous attitude. When he was reactivated by Zurg, XL rebuilt himself into a larger, more powerful robot with cutting edge (and stolen) robot parts. His head is red, whereas XR's is yellow. He infiltrates Star Command numerous times because its command codes are in his head. Like XR, he considers Commander Nebula his father, though he resents him for shutting him down. He later redeems himself and is converted into an office managing robot capable of photocopying, collating, and other office related functions. His name is a pun referring to his size (e**x**tra **l**arge).

### Galactic Alliance

* **Madam President** (voiced by Roz Ryan): Head of the Galactic Alliance. Her real name is unknown.
* **Senator Aarrfvox** (voiced by Jim Cummings): A Shragarakian senator.
* **Senator Banda** (voiced by Dan Castellaneta): A Bathyosian senator.
* **Senator Hammerhold** (voiced by Corey Burton): Petra Hammerhold's father.
* **Senator Phlegmex** (voiced by Frank Welker): A slime-emitting senator.

### Other characters

* **Becky** (voiced by Russi Taylor): A little alien girl from the planet Roswell. She befriended Booster (whom she calls Pickles) when Team Lightyear's ship crashed on her planet.
* **Brent Starkisser** (voiced by Corey Burton): The Galaxy's reporter.
* **Cosmo** (voiced by Paul Rugg): An alien that owns and runs the diner where Team Lightyear eats. He has a mechanical arm as well as a foreign accent.
* **Dr. Animus** (voiced by Tony Jay): The Galaxy's therapist.
* **Guzelian** (voiced by Eric Idle): A giant floating spectral head who used a ship to get his point across to the whole galaxy. Unfortunately for Guzelian, Buzz catches on and ultimately prevents Guzelian's plan to take over the galaxy.
* **Flash Flemming** (voiced by Jason Marsden): First seen in Inside Job, he is seen talking to Buzz, which causes Booster to look at him with an angry look of suspicion. Later, when Flash comes running in, saying that he saw some Gargantians, the Gargantians suddenly burst out and subdue XR, Mira Nova, and Buzz. Their plans, thankfully, are foiled when Buzz arrives, telling them he's taking them in.
* **Dr. Ozma Furbanna** (voiced by Linda Hamilton): Lead (and only) naturalist on planet Karn. She favors all animals (even the lethal carnivores) and hates to have them hurt; no matter what. Has a crush on Buzz (won't admit it, though), and vice-versa. Zurg once used her help to hatch the Millennial (entirely ticklish) Bugs in an attempt to use them on Capital Planet.
* **Ed** (voiced by Paul Rugg): A courier who somehow always knows how to track down Buzz Lightyear.
* **Officer Panchax** (voiced by Brian Doyle-Murray): A fish policeman who helped Buzz Lightyear fight Minister Gularis.
* **Professor Triffid** (voiced by Joel Murray): A scientist from Rhizome. He cares a lot for the plants there.
* **Savy SL2** (voiced by Cree Summer): Her adopted robot parents were attacked by NOS-4-A2 in *The Slayer*, which lead her to hunting him down for revenge.
* **Sheriff of Roswell** (voiced by Stephen Root): Becky's father and ally of Team Lightyear.
* **King Nova** (voiced by John O'Hurley): Mira's father and the ruler of Tangea. Being more tradition bound he clearly disapproves of his daughter being a space ranger and therefore has a complicated relationship with her as well as Buzz. But regardless of his pompous nature he still cares about his daughter and also came to her aid when she had developed a power addiction and helped her get over it, though he almost got his wish of getting his daughter back in this instance had Buzz not saved her career through a cover story.
* **Santa Claus** (voiced by Earl Boen): The holiday figure, who delivers presents to all the good people in the galaxy during the Holiday. He previously used a sleigh powered by belief and later time manipulation to accomplish this massive task. Zurg stole his time manipulation device to destroy the Holiday for everyone, prompting Santa to seek Team Lightyear's help.
* **The Fixer** (voiced by Ed Asner): A character from Tradeworld. He sells robotic parts to people around Trade World, and once tricked XR into delivering a package to XL.

## Planets and moons

There are many planets in this series. Among these planets are:

* **Bathyos**: An ocean planet.
* **Beta Bayou**: A bottom-feeder hunter that Rentwhistle Swack rendezvous with is from this planet.
* **Binipinardia**: A planet that contained a devolution gas.
* **Canis Lunis**: A planet where Ty Parsec was turned into Wirewolf by NOS-4-A2. The name derives from the Latin words for "canine" and "moon."
* **Capital Planet**: The Galactic Alliance members meet here and the "Earth" of the galaxy.
* **Gargantia**: A planet inhabited by tiny aliens.
* **Jo-Ad**: An agricultural planet which is Booster's home planet.
* **Karn**: A planet that serves as a creature reserve. Dr. Ozma Furbanna works here.
* **LGM Homeworld**: The home planet of the LGMs. The Unimind is located here.
* **Mahamba 6**: A resort planet.
* **North Polaris**: ***Santa Claus***'s planet, populated by "Elf-G-M"s. The galaxy's version of the North Pole.
* **Olur 5**: Zurg used this planet to hatch the Millennial Bugs in one of his plans to attack Capital Planet.
* **PC-7**: A prison planet.
* **Planet of Widows and Orphans**: Not a real planet. Zurg uses this "planet" to trick Buzz into revealing himself during The Adventure Begins.
* **Planet X**: A somewhat desert-like planet with no name or life. Home of an ancient city and the temple containing Natron.
* **Planet Z**: Zurg's planet where his home base is located.
* **Porcelon**: A planet where its inhabitants look like large toilets.
* **Raenok**: The Raenoks' self-titled planet.
* **Rexon 5**
* **Rhizome**: A vegetation planet which is Professor Triffid's home world.
* **Roswell**: A planet similar to Earth in 1947. The inhabitants of Roswell are grey aliens. An incident happens there, somewhat like the real Roswell incident, but with the roles of the alien and human inverted; the humans being the visitors and the aliens being the skeptical government; for example, a grey police station commander said "*... and I suppose they had big flappy mouths and little bitty eyes ...*" when querying one of his men's statement about seeing landing humans.
* **San de Soleil**: A resort moon. Destroyed by an out-of-control freight ship.
* **Sentilla 6**: A stormy planet with lava rivers.
* **Shragarak**: Senator Aarrfvox's home planet.
* **Sitka 7**: A ski resort planet.
* **Tangea**: Mira's home planet inhabited by two races: the Tangean Royals and Grounders. The name is based on the Royals' ability to become in**tang**ible.
* **Tradeworld**: A commercial-oriented world where lesser bad guys hang out.
* **Verdentia**: A peaceful planet.

## Episodes

The following is a list of episodes of ***Buzz Lightyear of Star Command***, listed in the order they originally aired.

A total of 62 episodes aired across the ***2000***-***2001*** season, with 49 episodes airing on UPN as part of ***Disney's 1 Too***, and the remaining 13 airing on ***ABC*** as part of ***Disney's One Saturday Morning***.

In 2000, the series' direct-to-video pilot movie, *Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins*, was aired as a 3-part episode (bringing the series up to the standard 65-episode count), with the opening sequence with Andy's toys removed and ***Tim Allen***'s lines as Buzz dubbed over by ***Patrick Warburton***.

## Cultural references

* Buzz's house and everyone else's houses on Capital Planet are based on ***Disneyland***'s ***Monsanto House of the Future***, whilst Star Command is visually based on ***Space Mountain***.
* In the episode "Stranger Invasion", Buzz Lightyear and the Evil Emperor Zurg engage in a confrontation similar to a lightsaber battle, in which Zurg distracts Buzz by claiming he's his father. Zurg did the same in the ***1999*** film, *Toy Story 2*, in which the scene parodied *Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back*.
* The episode *Strange Invasion* is a spoof of the Roswell Incident right down to the alien autopsy film and the "weather balloon coverup". Also keeping in line with the Roswell Incident, the planet they crash on is called "Roswell" and it bears a strong resemblance to the American Southwest; its inhabitants, meanwhile, resemble the grey aliens.
* The "Roswellian" characters, the sheriff and the barber, are spoofs of Sheriff Andy Taylor and Floyd the Barber on *The Andy Griffith Show*.
* Both the name of the last episode and the number of Buzz's ship, 42, are almost certainly references to the answer to life, the universe, and everything from ***The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy*** series.
* In the episode "Star Crossed", one of the characters is seen ordering food from Pizza Planet, which appeared as an actual space-themed restaurant in *Toy Story*. Pizza Planet has since become a real Toy Story themed pizza restaurant in ***Disney's Hollywood Studios***.

## Gallery

### Promotional

Buzz Lightyear Star Command print ad NickMag Nov 2000.jpg2000 print ad
### Concept art

BLSC art 1.jpgBLSC art 2.jpgBLSC art 3.jpgBLSC art 4.jpgBLSC art 5.jpg
### Abandoned shorts concepts

BLSC art 6.jpgBLSC art 7.jpgBLSC art 8.jpg
## Trivia

* *Buzz Lightyear of Star Command* was the first Pixar TV show, followed by ***Monsters at Work***.
* This is the first and only Pixar-related TV show to use traditional animation.
* Originally, the show was going to feature parody shorts that would have focused on other *Toy Story* characters, such as ***Combat Carl***, the Little Green Men, and ***Woody's Roundup***.
* Though the show was produced with Pixar's involvement, ***John Lasseter***'s personal dislike for the series has prevented the show's characters from appearing in other *Toy Story* media. One rare exception was Booster appearing in a story arc in ***Boom! Studios***'s *Toy Story* comic series, with the character being quickly dropped in later issues as a result of pressure from Pixar.
* Though Pixar has long had a policy of disowning the series, ***Angus MacLane***, director of the film ***Lightyear***, has connected the two projects more directly in interviews, describing his movie's existence within the *Toy Story* universe as a 1980s-era live action film franchise that *Buzz Lightyear of Star Command* served as an animated spinoff to in the 1990s. Within his mindset, the series was sponsored by Pizza Planet, resulting in the Little Green Men being brought into the Buzz Lightyear universe and much like other animated spinoffs of 80s and 90s films, an entirely new cast was created to accompany Buzz and Zurg.

## Awards and nominations

* **Daytime Emmy Awards**

2001 - *Outstanding Sound Editing - Special Class* - Jennifer Mertens, Paca Thomas, Otis Van Osten, Rick Hammel, Eric Hertsguaard, Robbi Smith, Brian F. Mars, Marc S. Perlman, and Dominick Certo (won)
## Syndication

The series was aired during UPN's Disney's 1 Too programming block from October 2000 to August 2003. It also aired on the Disney Channel from 2006 until 2008 (although it was five years before in South East Asia). From 2003-2007, It was aired on Toon Disney.

## Films

* *Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins* - the pilot movie; it was integrated into the episode line-up in three parts.

## Production

### History

***Tad Stones***, ***Mark McCorkle***, and ***Bob Schooley*** had barely finished producing *Hercules: The Animated Series* together when Tad Stones was approached by Disney to create *Buzz Lightyear of Star Command* on an eight million dollar budget. As Stones reflected in one of his interviews, it was not common for producers to get involved in new projects so soon, so the threesome initially found it hard to juggle the responsibilities of two shows at the same time, especially McCorkle and Schooley, who were still rather involved with *Hercules: The Animated Series*. Therefore, Stones created a preliminary picture of the show, steering it towards comedy-adventure elements. but when McCorkle and Schooley were finally able to devote time on the project, it changed drastically from the original picture Stones had painted. Although Stones enjoys being able to guide the story and visual as a producer-director of any show, he found it frustrating that he didn't have much control over the storytelling aspect of *Buzz Lightyear of Star Command*.

In a podcast interview with *The Animation Guild*, Stones doubted whether John Lasseter, the creator of *Toy Story*, would have liked his original idea for the show, remarking how he had recently heard that Lasseter hated the show, despite Stones having initially pitched the idea of the show to Lasseter, Joe Ranft and other key figures involved in production of the films at the time of its creation.

Lee Unkrich, one of the film editors for *Toy Story* and later on film editor and co-director of the sequels, originally had concerns about the show because he believed that "traditional, flatter animation wouldn't do justice to Buzz", even though Pixar had always intended for the first *Toy Story* film to open with a Buzz Lightyear TV show done in traditional 2D cel animation that Andy would be watching. But Unkrich ultimately decided that it didn't matter and was quoted saying that *Buzz Lightyear of Star Command* "could actually be the cartoon that Buzz originally came from."

Despite the series not being a joint effort between Disney and Pixar as many seem to think, Pixar acted as Disney's consultants and contributed to the show's opening sequences that featured all of Andy's toys gathering together to watch the show. Pixar was also undergoing production for *Toy Story 2* during the time *Buzz Lightyear of Star Command* was nearing completion, and it was ultimately deemed unwise to release the show before the *Toy Story 2* sequel. Despite that leading to the series not being able to be released upon its completion, it gave Stones and the others the opportunity to begin work on "The Adventure Begins", which detailed the events that led to the formation of Team Lightyear. They had everything already at their disposal, from character designs to layouts and backgrounds, which meant there was an "incredible increase in production value", despite the pilot chronologically being made *after* they had completed their work on the series.

### Crew

Unfortunately, we don't know much on what the crew's tasks were besides editing and mixing audio tracks, dialogue direction, supervising production, and making sure everything ran smoothly. However, most episodes featured different writers, possibly freelancers who were hired to write each episode. Sometimes a Story Editor would also be necessary. There were also several directors who worked on the show, fluctuating every so often depending on the episode.

Below follow photographs of crew members who worked on *Buzz Lightyear of Star Command*, as taken by Bob Foster, one of the storyboard artists, and shown on *The Animation Guild* blog.

 File:BuzzCrew2.jpg | **Back row, left to right:** J.K. Kim, Cris Collins, Mitch Rochon, Sharon Forward, Bob Foster, Bill Turner, Garret Ho, Bob Zamboni, *unknown*, Kenny McGill, John Miller, Debra Pugh, Ron Erhear.
 File:BuzzCrew3.jpg | **Back row, left to right:** Justin Thompson, Plamen Christov, Jim Finch, Rich Chidlaw, Marsh Lamore, *unknown*, John Miller, Greg Guler, *unknown*, Nick Filippi
**Middle row, left to right:** Steve Loter, *unknown*, Jessica Portillo, John Ahern, John Kimball, J.K. Kim
**Front row, left to right:** Cris Collins, Rick Evans, Mike Karafilis, Linda DeLizza, *unknown*, Sharon Forward, Niki Kopp

A crew member recalls how John Kimball would traditionally make espresso for them a lot of afternoons on the set, a habit of his that he held true to on every set he worked on.

## Voice Cast

In order to select voice actors, they had to pass by an audition, which Jamie Thomason was presumably in charge of. According to Mark McCorkle, they chose their voice actors because they had some sort of science fiction heritage to them and to bring a little fun into the series.

Interesting to note is the amount of A-list voice actors that worked on the series such as ***Rob Paulsen***, ***Jim Cummings***, ***Jess Harnell*** and ***Gary Owens***, who provided the opening narration for the theme music.

## Animation

Working on a tight budget meant that several animation studios worked on the show, and that the animation quality varied from episode to episode. "The Adventure Begins" was understandably the episode with the highest quality, being made after the show's completion and with the majority of the character designs and layouts already taken care of. Other episodes of high quality are "NOS-4-A2" and "***Lost in Time***", the only episodes animated by Walt Disney Animation (Japan), Inc. and the first two episodes in production order.

## Music

Main article: Music (BLoSC Franchise)The musical score was composed by ***Adam Berry***, who started working with Disney in 1998. After *Buzz Lightyear of Star Command*, he cooperated once more with Bob Schooley and Mark McCorkle on series like *Kim Possible* and *The Penguins of Madagascar*.

The work Adam Berry did on the show's musical cues was extensive. He wrote and recorded twenty-one minutes of music every two weeks for over a year. A soundtrack was never released, but he has some of his favorite tracks up on his personal website.

## Continuity Issues

### With *Toy Story*

John Lasseter, the creator of *Toy Story*, always imagined Buzz as the "ultimate cop in space" and that depiction is faithfully represented in *Buzz Lightyear of Star Command* with his famous exploits at Star Command. Although *Toy Story* came first chronologically, being released in 1995, it was always implied that *Buzz Lightyear of Star Command* existed within the film series as a Saturday Morning show and is the origin of Buzz Lightyear and his toy franchise. With the release of "The Adventure Begins" on VHS and DVD and the toys eager to watch "the new Buzz Lightyear movie", that belief is further strengthened, despite the in-universe continuity issue of "The Adventure Begins" coming *after* the show in *Toy Story*.

### Broadcast Order versus Production Order

When shows are released for syndication, the episodes are usually aired in any order that comes to mind. Thus, one of the biggest issues in *Buzz Lightyear* is episodes airing out of chronological order. "***Wirewolf***" and "***Revenge of the Monsters***" are the most important examples of such a continuity issue. "Wirewolf" is set in Season 2 but clearly precedes "Revenge of the Monsters" which is set in Season 1. To add to the confusion, when the series first aired, Season 1 and Season 2 were aired almost at the same time, but on different channels and time slots. Hence, chronologically speaking, "Wirewolf" *did* precede "Revenge of the Monsters" when they first aired on October 28 and November 14 of 2000 respectively, but since then "Wirewolf" has always been aired several episodes afterwards on reruns, in accordance to their Season 1 and Season 2 slots.

Another example of continuity error comes with the episodes "***XL***" and "***The Planet Destroyer***". In the latter episode, Mira's ***father*** teaches her how to "sift" through someone's brain for information, but "XL" aired before it with Mira already having known the ability. Production-wise "XL" follows right after "The Planet Destroyer", but broadcast-wise they are separated by a few episodes with the former airing first.

## References

1. ↑ What Kinds of Sci-Fi Are There?
2. ↑ Buzz Lightyear of Star Command (Wikipedia)
3. ↑ https://gizmodo.com/lightyear-disney-pixar-interview-trailer-chris-evans-1848799721
4. ↑ https://twitter.com/AngusMacLane/status/1535763232178089986
5. ↑ Tad Stones Interview
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 TAG Blog: A Talk with Tad Stones, Part III
7. ↑ The Making of Toy Story: Abandoned Alternate Opening
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Lee Unkrich: Out of the Toy Box
9. ↑ Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: Opening
10. ↑ Disney TVA's Buzz Crew in the Wayback Machine
11. ↑ Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: Behind the Scenes
12. ↑ Paraphrased quote from an e-mail conversation: "I do have lists of all the cues but not in one place. It's a lot of music. I wrote and recorded 21 minutes of music every 2 weeks for over a year."
13. ↑ Elise Harris: Tooning In