Yesterday in me History

Yesterday was an interesting date in what we jokingly call my career writing animation for television. It was the thirtieth anniversary of the debut of Dungeons and Dragons, a cartoon series I developed for CBS. And it was the twenty-fifth anniversary of the debut of Garfield and Friends, a cartoon series I wrote for CBS.

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Dungeons and Dragons was a pretty good show, owing mainly to the talents of those who followed me on it. I had enough other work at the time that I could only write the pilot and the "bible" plus one other episode, then get out. I guess I get credit for convincing the network to pick up the series but if you liked that program week to week, you have others to thank for that. They did a good job for the three seasons it aired.

I should mention the two big myths about the show's termination. One is that it was driven off the air by outraged parents' groups who felt it was preaching Satanism and/or violence. Nope. There were very few complaints. It went off because the ratings were falling and the folks at CBS felt it didn't warrant renewal for another year. And the other myth is that there was a "last episode" in which the kids got home from their adventure. Also a nope, even though I've met people who swear they saw it. No such episode was ever produced.

One of the shows' writers wrote a "grand finale" script that exists online in script format and also in a dramatization. If you want to consider that the ending, fine. If they'd asked me to wrap up the storyline (and I'm kinda glad they didn't), I would have done something quite different and other writers who worked on the show have their endings, as well. You can accept or reject any of them or write your own. As far as I'm concerned, the kids are still trapped in that world along with Venger, Tiamat and my royalties.

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I'd be more scared of battling the guys in this picture than the ones in the image above it.

Five years later to the day, the first episode of Garfield and Friends joined the CBS schedule. It was originally to be a half-hour and the initial commitment was for 26 episodes to be aired over two years. After a few weeks, CBS called and said, "We want to make it an hour" — so we went into almost-perpetual production for what turned out to be 121 half-hours that were telecast over seven years. Contractually, it was eight seasons but when it went to an hour, they aired Seasons 2 and 3 the same year…so it looks like seven years to you but eight years to me. However long it was, it wasn't long enough. I had a wonderful time.

You hear a lot about kids' shows of that era being bastardized by network interference, pressure groups, censors, etc. We faced almost none of that. The network left us alone. The pressure groups didn't pressure. And the Standards and Practices Department made a few entirely reasonable requests — like no one could be electrocuted and each character had to wear a seat belt when riding in a car. So a lot of freedom and a lot of talented, fun people…and I think I got spoiled. The new Garfield Show which I work on — we're about to start production on Season Five — is also a joy. (And by the way, no, I have no idea when Season Four will begin airing in this country…)

I don't talk a lot here about the shows I work on but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy them. I hope some of you do, too. I only wrote this because I couldn't believe it: 30 years since Dungeons and Dragons went on, 25 since Garfield and Friends debuted…and I hadn't realized until today they both went on the air on September 17th. Maybe I'll write more of them before they're 35 and 30, respectively.