Mucha Lucha! Episodes 30, 31, 32...
WRONG! The storyboard artists have been labeled incorrectly on the document. Brat in the Hat was a joint effort I believe from Ricky Garduno and Greg Colton, whilst Election Daze was (I think) by Tina Kugler.
Again, Lili and myself were back in Sydney for a spell as these were being produced. We still made notes and suggestions, but we weren't present at WBA: we had our own animated mini-series in production (Cosmic Baby) and staff working in our Sydney studio, and so we divided our time between LA and Sydney.
Election Daze sticks out for me as I had an issue with our story editor over it. I really thought the premise was too much of a generic school story that had been done to death in countless other shows since the 1960s: Heck, Marcia even competed with Greg in The Brady Bunch in the same story back when I was a kid! But I was assured that it would be done with originality and would be different to what had come before. Was it? Let me know your thoughts :)
*edit: actually writer Ken Pontac must have been a Brady Bunch fan, as it combines ANOTHER BB story where Marcia competes with Greg's girlfriend to be head cheerleader and guess who has the deciding vote? That's right, Rikochet! Er, I mean...Greg!
Welcome back Gabe Swarr! Going through these I couldn't help being struck by the absence of Gabe. He started the season with Lone Stars, but it had been a LONG time since his last episode Chain Of Fools. Why? I remembered it was most likely due to the fact he was working on his own pilot at Disney based on his comic book 'Big Pants Mouse'. This made me realize that the board artists must not have been under any contract and worked strictly on an episode-to-episode basis - in house or remotely if they preferred. Gabe must have taken time away to work on his animated pilot.
But he came back with a bang, and completely made this episode - LATE NIGHT LUCHA - his own. This was one of the first times a board artist decided that they were going to design their own characters via their storyboard. It was a trend soon followed by Ricky and Greg. I heard some grumblings later from one of the season 2 character designers about this, but as far as Lili and I were concerned people like Gabe were all-round geniuses and we welcomed what he - and the others - came up with! In the end, the show itself was the winner!
For more images from this episode...go here
You've heard it right? A wrestler is suspended (usually by WWE) and the reason is because they are in the process of battling 'personal demons', which was usually a euphemism for alcohol or painkillers. Well I decided to use it and came up with the story Flea's Personal Demons (again no credit).
Ah, Virtual Luchadores! All hail to the king - Ricky Garduno. Michael J. Prescott may be credited as having wrote it, but we know how writer credits work in the WB universe, so it could have been nothing more than the idea. This was ALL Ricky. I've blogged and posted about this one in a lot of detail (search #virtual luchadores or # virtual luchador to see previous posts), and I am still in awe of how great he/it was/is. We really were blessed with his brilliance.
And that's it for now...Eddie out :)
