Gargoyles

**Gargoyles** is an American television series.

It focuses on a series of nocturnal creatures known as gargoyles that turn to stone during the day. After spending a thousand years in an enchanted petrified state, the gargoyles are re-awakened in modern-day New York City, and take on roles as the city's secret night-time protectors.

The series premiered on Syndication on October 24, 1994 and aired for thee seasons on ABC until February 15, 1997.

## Plot

The series features a species of nocturnal creatures known as gargoyles that turn to stone during the day, focusing on a clan led by Goliath. In 994, the clan lives in a castle in Scotland. Most are betrayed and killed by humans while petrified and the remainder are magically cursed to sleep, i.e., be frozen in stone form until the castle "rises above the clouds." A thousand years later in 1994, billionaire David Xanatos purchases the gargoyles' castle and has it reconstructed atop his New York skyscraper, the Eyrie Building, thus awakening Goliath and the remainder of his clan. While trying to adjust to their new world, they are aided by a sympathetic police officer named Elisa Maza and quickly come into conflict with the plotting Xanatos. In addition to dealing with the gargoyles' attempts to adjust to modern New York City, the series also incorporated various supernatural threats to their safety and to the world at large.

## Cast and Characters

### Manhattan Clan

* Keith David as Goliath
* Ed Asner as Hudson
* Jeff Bennett as Brooklyn
* Thom Adcox-Hernandez as Lexington
* Bill Fagerbakke as Broadway
* Frank Welker as Bronx
* Brigitte Bako as Angela
* Michael Dorn as Othello
* CCH Pounder as Desdemona
* Xander Berkeley as Iago/Coldsteel
* Marina Sirtis as Demona

### Avalon Clan

* Ruben Santiago-Hudson as Gabriel
* Kath Soucie as Ophelia
* Frank Welker as Boudicca

### London Clan

* Sarah Douglas as Una
* Gregg Berger as Leo
* Neil Dickson as Griff

### Clan Ishimura

* Clyde Kusatsu as Kai
* Haunani Minn as Sora
* Bruce Locke as Yama

### Mayan Clan

* Héctor Elizondo as Zafiro
* Jesse Corti as Jade
* Marabina James as Turquesa
* Elisa Gabrielli as Obsidiana

### Labyrinth Clan

* Rocky Carroll as Talon
* Jim Belushi as Fang
* Kath Soucie as Maggie Reed
* Keith David as Thailog

### The Clones

* Jeff Bennett as Malibu
* Thom Adcox-Hernandez as Brentwood
* Bill Fagerbakke as Hollywood
* Ed Asner as Burbank
* Salli Richardson as Delilah
* Dorian Harewood as Little Anton

## Episodes

See Also: List of Gargoyles Episodes

 2 | 52
 3 | 13

## Production

### Development

The series bears no creator credit, though there were several people who are responsible for the show's format. Michael Reaves, who wrote the first six episodes and was the primary writer/story editor of the show's first two seasons has described himself in respect to Gargoyles as "in on the ground floor [of] creating something iconic". Greg Weisman also describes himself as one of the creators of Gargoyles.

The series' first season was almost entirely written by the husband-and-wife team of Michael Reaves and Brynne Chandler Reaves, who wrote 12 of the 13 episodes; the remaining episode was written by Steve Perry. All three writers were just coming off having written extensively for Batman: The Animated Series (for which Reaves won an Emmy, and Chandler Reaves an Emmy nomination). Weisman officially joined the series as a co-producer with episode 6 (though he also oversaw earlier episodes in his capacity as a Disney executive), and did not have any writing credits on the show until the third season.

The first season was developed on a sliding schedule; each phase of developing the thirteen episodes, such as writing, storyboarding, and animating, was given a ten-month period, with significant overlap. After they had delivered the first thirteen episodes, the production team asked Buena Vista Television to pick up a second season with another thirteen; the show had not yet aired, but Buena Vista agreed for them to start work on six more episodes. Once the show started its weekly syndication run in 1994, it was quickly seen as successful both as a television program and for promoting toy sales, and Buena Vista pushed on the show's team to make the second season 52 episodes so that they could run it daily starting in the 1995 television season. Weisman stated they were not prepared for this given their production methods and the lack of timing to get those episodes ready for a fall 1995 premiere, despite telling Buena Vista this several times. When Disney refused to back down from the 52-episode order, the team decided to expand four-fold to handle the additional episodes. The writing staff grew to include Reaves, Chandler Reaves and Perry, as well as newcomers Lydia Marano, Cary Bates, Gary Sperling, Adam Gilad, Diane Duane and Peter Morwood, amongst others. For this season, story editing duties were handled on a rotating basis by Reaves, Chandler Reaves, Bates and Sperling. Storylines expanded beyond the Manhattan setting and more characters were added to help creating stories to fill the episode count. Weisman said that he had discussions with Michael Eisner of using Gargoyles as a starting point for an action-oriented universe within Disney, comparing this to how Warner Bros. owned DC Comics, and some second season episodes were used to set up potential hooks for these.

The third season was reduced to thirteen episodes and moved to a Saturday morning slot. This was a result of two factors according to Weisman. The first was changes within Disney itself. Fallout from the death of Disney president Frank Wells led to the divide between Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg, and Katzenberg left to form DreamWorks. Weisman's bosses, Gary Krisel and Bruce Cranston, that had been supportive of Gargolyes, also left with Katzenberg for Dreamworks. Further, internal pressure on Eisner from Roy E. Disney forced him to treat Gargoyles as part of the studio's older works, thus dropping the larger action universe plans, leaving the show without any support. Secondly, as the second season aired, the highly-publicized trial of O. J. Simpson drew audiences away from Gargoyles often due to pre-emption from the trial's coverage. By the time the trial was over, Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers had become more powerful as a brand. At this point, the show staff did not think they were likely to get a third season, but as Disney had just bought Capital Cities, the owners of the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) network, they needed programming for its Saturday morning block, and had the Gargoyles team develop thirteen more episodes for it, now calling the series The Goliath Chronicles. Because this was on broadcast stations rather than syndication, the show had to meet different Broadcast Standards and Practices which Weisman stated drastically limited his creativity. While he wrote the first episode and spoke of his concerns to Disney, they had removed him from the team and assigned the rest of the show's run to Nelvana.

Many Shakespearean characters and stories found their way into the show's storylines, particularly those from Macbeth and A Midsummer Night's Dream. The series was also influenced by medieval Scottish history, as well as television shows ranging from Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears, to Hill Street Blues as well as Bonkers (in which Weisman himself co-produced). The latter in particular inspired the ensemble format of the series and the 30-second "Previously, on Gargoyles..." recap found at the beginning of later episodes. The former was an influence on the original comedy development of the show, which was subsequently made darker and more serious by first season writers Reaves, Chandler Reaves and Perry.

New York artist Joe Tomasini brought a suit against Disney, claiming that his copyrighted screenplay and character designs had been copied during the development and production of Gargoyles. The case was ultimately thrown out, after it was proven that Disney did not have access to Tomasini's creations.

In May 2020, Weisman said in an interview, "Gargoyles is still my baby. I don't own it. I don't get a dime off of it being on Disney Plus. And yet I'm so thrilled that it is, I'm thrilled that it represents a chance — even if it's a slim chance — to bring it back. I've always wanted to do more. I've got a timeline for the show that's 315 pages long. I've got notebooks and comp books full of ideas for it. Spinoff notions and all sorts of things. Literally nothing would make me happier than to go back and do more Gargoyles."

## Release

The first two seasons of Gargoyles aired in the Republic of Ireland on RTE Two on weekday afternoons from January 6 to April 1997.

In the United States, the series moved to Toon Disney (and later on Jetix's line-up) and its successor Disney XD where it aired until 2012. ABC Family also aired the show for a brief time in 2004 as part of its weekday morning Jetix block.

## Reception

IGN ranked Gargoyles 45th place on its 2009 list of top 100 animated series, stating: "A decent success at the time, Gargoyles has maintained a strong cult following since it ended more than a decade ago". Hollywood.com featured it on their 2010 list of six cartoons that should be movies. UGO.com included it on their 2011 top list of legendary medieval and fantasy TV shows. Doug Walker, also known as the Nostalgia Critic, praised the show: "But in secret, I would be watching every one of them, because it was just that good. I don't know if it really changed anything in terms of kids' shows like Batman or Animaniacs, but it was certainly a welcome detour from what Disney usually did. It really stood on its own and created some really wonderful and really unique stories. Gargoyles is a blast from the past that is sure to live on in the future." Craig Tomashoff, of People Magazine, said "All the traditional, wholesome Disney elements are in place, from a Beauty and the Beast-like plot line to the gargoyles' old-fashioned sense of nobility and morality. The result is a show that isn't bad, with impressive animation." Elizabeth Rayne of SyFy praised the series, stating "Gargoyles isn't just a Gothic fairy tale. There is hidden magic where you'd least expect it to lurk in that crumbling castle and, later, the clock tower they stand sentinel at night after night, watching over the city that never sleeps… the rock-solid message about friendship and loyalty embedded into every episode is something… And you can't leave the warped humor of this series in the dark, either." The series hold a rare "100%" rating on the film critic site Rotten Tomatoes. Less favourable assessments of the series came from animation producer Bruce Timm, who dismissed Gargoyles as "kind of namby-pamby... with all that Celtic fantasy crap" in a 1999 interview and the animation blog Cartoon Brew, which cited the series as an example of the sort of "juvenile mediocrities" that are beloved by the nerd community.