Part deux of my interview with Trekmovie.com is online, so you don’t have to avoid spoilers any more:
TrekMovie.com: The first season can be be brutal.
Wil Wheaton: Yeah. That is why the first season is kind of fun. Some of the episodes are really really bad and a few of the episodes are extremely good, even if you are not grading on a curve. For the most part — we are awkward — we are trying to figure out what our show is about. And you can see how we had so many different writers and creative power struggles while we figured out what we were going to be. We were really lucky we got a chance to do more than one season. If it wasn’t for the incredible cast and writers like Sandy Fries and Tracy Torme, we probably would not have gone past the second season.
TrekMovie.com: I am in the camp that thinks that Michael Piller, and writers like Ron Moore, really saved the show in the third season.
Wil Wheaton: They absolutely did.
TrekMovie.com: I know some don’t like to hear that Gene [Roddenberry] didn’t save the show. I love Gene Roddenberry, but for TNG I think the Michael was the best thing for the show.
Wil Wheaton: Gene had the presence of mind to know he was getting old and he knew that someone who loved Star Trek as much as he did could step in to take the reins. He hand picked Michael. He begged Michael at the end of season three to come back. Michael didn’t want to at first, but Gene said to him “I need you to make this show great, I can’t do it without you” and Michael agreed. And Michael had the open submissions policy, which is how Ron [Moore] came on, with “The Bonding.” I don’t think it is inaccurate or unfair to give Michael a great deal of credit for making Next Generation great, but at the same time I think it is also fair and accurate to acknowledge that it was Gene Roddenberry who had the vision and presence of mind and the foresight to keep Michael Piller on and put him in a position to do what he did.
I also talked to buzz focus about playing Ted Kord, and that’s online, too:
So…. Brave and Bold Batman vs Frank Miller Batman – who would win?
W. Wheaton: (laugh) I don’t know that’s like asking which fruit will taste better an apple or an orange.
Are you also a fan of 70s/80s cartoons?
W. Wheaton: I remember getting up really early on Saturday mornings to watch the old Super Friends cartoons. It was really Challenge of the Super Friends and those old battles of the Legion of Doom that I loved. And I’m exactly the right age for GI Joe, Transformers, Thundercats and He-Man.
Thundarr the Barbarian is my favorite cartoon in history. That was before they were allowed to do marketing and merchandising in cartoons. So these guys were like, “let’s tell some cool stories.” And, they did.
You’re involved in so many things, what’s your passion these days?
W. Wheaton: Honestly, it’s spending as much time as I can with my family. My boys are getting older. My oldest son is in college, his brother is a senior in high school and is going to college next year. I am keenly aware how 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week isn’t that much time. More important than anything else is providing for them financially and emotionally.
Finally, I talked to Media Blvd., and got to deliver what ended up being my favorite one-liner of the whole series of interviews (unplanned). See if you can spot it:
Shaun> That’s cool, I grew up on Challenge of the Superfriends. Don’t start me going down that memory lane.
Wil> Are you a Wendy and Marvin kind of guy, or are you a Zan and Jana kind of guy. Wendy and Marvin were lame.
Shaun> I was glad though when Zan and Jana took off, and that damn monkey Gleek, that was always screwing things up.
Wil> I was the right age for Zan and Jana, so I thought that was really funny. They always turned into something. They could have defeated their adversaries, like they were way overpowered for what they actually did with their superpowers. I was exactly the right age, I was born in ’72, so I was like 8 when I was watching that. I thought it was awesome, then I grew up a little bit and there was Wendy and Marvin and Wonderdog. I thought, “They’re dumbing this down!” I was like 11, “They’re dumbing this down for the audience, and they’re insulting my 11 year old intelligence. This is awful, worst episode ever!”
Shaun> I hated the way the Superfriends treated Batman. The only thing they’d show of Batman is the car stopping and picking up Wendy and Marvin, but the dog doesn’t make it into the Batmobile.
Wil> I know, like you’re going to make Batman the chauffeur? Are you serious? I can promise you that that does not happen in Batman: The Brave & The Bold. In Batman: The Brave & The Bold, Batman is awesome, and he is not a ridiculous chauffeur. Batman is nobody’s bitch in Batman: The Brave & The Bold.
Maybe I could have said “Batman: The Brave & The Bold” a few more times in that last answer. I think I really dropped the ball there.
So … I thought there were more, but I’ve either closed the tabs, or I was hopped up on old Foreigner albums and had double vision. I know that three isn’t really a fistful, but I have small fists. So there.
And with that, my friends, I am off to Phoenix for the Phoenix Comicon. I don’t know what kind of internets I’ll have while I’m there, my friends, but if history is any indicator, I’ll be Twittering the hell out of everything, my friends.
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You know, I would’ve sworn Zan and Jana came AFTER Wendy and Marvin.
I caught a bunch of Superfriends episodes on Boomerang recently and they aren’t bad. Not great but better than I thought they were.
Chauffeur Batman. Nice.
Thundarr holds up shockingly well. They might even actually be funnier now then when I was a kid, because now I see what an OLD guy Thundarr was. If I were a snot-nosed punk wizard, I wouldn’t gotten amywhere near his lawn, that’s for sure. (If Hollywood is reading, please make a Thundarr movie fast with Catherine Zeta-Jones as Princess Ariel, before she gets too old.)
I don’t understand the comment about Wil being exactly the right age for GI Joe, Transformers, Thundercats and He-Man. I grew up with all those cartoons, but I’m nine years younger than Wil. Wil would have already been a teenager by the time they were released, and they were all pre-teen shows (at least here in the UK).
quote Wil:I remember getting up really early on Saturday mornings to watch the old Super Friends cartoons.
I remember getting up really early on Saturday mornings to watch TNG…
You know, when I first saw The Little Mermaid, anytime anyone yelled ‘Ariel!’ I had the overwhelming urge to screech ‘OOKLA! RIIIDE!!!’ at the screen.
Thankfully I resisted the temptation, though I’m sure the results would have been entertaining.
Most of those shows came out around ’83/’84. Guess it must have taken a bit longer to get them over the pond…
Ahh… Superfriends.Wondertwin powers activate. And yet, the best was Ted Knight’s narration. I miss him.(2 yrs older than Wil, watched the same things except GIJoe. Mom was the real cartoon junkie in the house.)
Loved Thundarr as well.
Ooh! Tarzan and Blackstar, short lived though it was.
And did anyone around these parts ever watch the Secrets of Isis? In many ways better than Wonder Woman, definately first on the list of people I wanted to be like. Can ya tell?
I see what you did there in the last paragraph, my friend.
Uhm, Wendy and Marvin (and Wonderdog) totally came first. They were replaced by Zan and Jayna (and Gleek). Maybe they started rerunning the pre-“Challenge” SF when you turned 11 or something?
I agree about age not mattering. I was barely even aware of life itself when the GOOD Saturday morning cartoons were showing, but I ended up being raised on alot of them. I have reruns and old VHS tapes to thank for that, =D
~~Gooniegirl
1) New look is pretty nifty. George Lowe says “Acceptable!”
2) Dude! Thundarr totally rocked! I remember watching them when I was little. And I even found the entire series recently, so I’m all kinds of Saturday Morning geeking out!
3) The Cartoon Network bump with the Legion of Doom, Aquaman, Wonder Woman and The Powerpuff Girls = Best Bump Joke EVAR! Challenge of the Superfriends was my favorite, too…
4) Numbered lists in comments are weird, aren’t they?
I loved Thundarr too. I remember being really bummed about having to go to soccer practice instead of watching the whole episode.
Although it seriously messed up my expecations of gravity. The moon should have fallen back together after being split apart.
The opening sequence to Thundarr on youtube:
speaking of Batman, this made me laugh:
http://thelukaskaiser.tumblr.com/post/72869400/you-might-think-the-batman-pins-everywhere-are
The interview was awesome! Unfortunately, I made the mistake of reading the argument in the comments…