WING COMMANDER ACADEMY

 

WING COMMANDER ACADEMY
(USA Network, September 21-December 21, 1996)
 
Universal Cartoon Studios
 

 

MAIN CAST:
Mark Hamill – 2^nd Lt. Christopher “Maverick” Blair, various
Tom Wilson – 2^nd Lt. Todd “Maniac” Marshall
Dana Delany – 2^nd Lt. Gwen “Archer” Bowman
Malcolm McDowell – Commodore Geoffrey Tolwyn

  

            Chris Roberts had always been fascinated by science fiction movies and shows. He liked the special effects, the variety of imaginative characters, the futuristic alien worlds, and the space battles. He decided he wanted to bring that experience to the home computer; creating a game that would be as much like an interactive movie as possible.

Chris Roberts standing next to a display full of Wing Commander II games.

            Already a freelance author for Origin Systems, Roberts proposed the idea to Vice President of Product Development Dallas Snell. Snell gave him the go ahead to develop a workable concept to present to the company, and Roberts spent the next few months working 16-hour days to learn how to use 3D programming and achieve his vision. What he ended up with was enough to convince Snell there was something feasible behind his idea and allowed Roberts to use one of their artists, Denis Loubet, to work on some designs for it. Loubet came up with the cockpit display, a few ships and explosions. Roberts also pulled in a long-time programming associate, Paul Isaac, to help write the code. Together, they whipped up an impressive-looking demo where you could fly around in space and blast a few enemy ships. Origin was convinced and the game, then titled Squadron, officially entered production in early 1990.

Battling in space.

            Roberts served as the game’s director. Writer Jeff George, who had worked with Roberts before on the game Bad Blood and the unproduced sequel to Times of Lore, as well as helped produce the pitch for Squadron, was brought onto the project to write the storyline and conversations between the characters. One of his contributions was to talk Roberts out of making the heroes out to be a vast human empire as, in science fiction, “empire” usually has a villainous association, as well as to nix an ethics-based decision system in favor of keeping things unquestionably black and white (good guys are good, bad guys are bad). Artist Glen Johnson joined the crew early on in the development. He came up with the characters from scratch, not having been given any kind of description beforehand. He assigned them call signs upon completion, and after Roberts approved them, Johnson would transfer them from paper to computer renders. Loubet, meanwhile, would use basic ideas for scenes from Roberts as a springboard to design a wide array of ships and sets. Programmers Stephen Beeman and Ken Demarest would join later on in the process and designed all the dogfighting sequences; with Demarest implementing a limited artificial intelligence system for enemy ships.

The Deluxe Edition game box.

            Roberts envisioned the game having a dynamic musical soundtrack that would change given the events going on in the game. The MS-DOS computer and 604K of RAM they were working with finally gave him an opportunity to explore that notion, and he devised up to 30 different tunes with producer Warren Spector. George “The Fatman” Sanger and Dave Govett were then tasked with composing songs that could seamlessly flow into each other as the game dictated.

The opening ceremonies of the 1990 Consumer Electronics Show.

            When it came time for that year’s Consumer Electronics Show, resources had to be pulled away from actual game development to whip up a workable demo and artwork to present at the show that may never be used in the actual game. It also yielded a problem: Origin couldn’t trademark the name Squadron. Rechristened Wingleader, the game was a hit at the show and generated huge levels of excitement and anticipation for its release; now set for that September. And as the replacement name was too similar to some earlier published game titles, the game received its third and final title: Wing Commander.

        Wing Commander released on September 26, 1990 for MS-DOS, and was later ported to the Amiga, CD32, Sega CD and Super Nintendo. A space flight simulation game, it was set in the 27^th century and told of humanity’s war against a race of cat-like humanoid beings called the Kilrathi (inspired by Larry Niven’s Man-Kzin Wars stories). Standing against them was the Terran Confederation: an alliance of systems and regional governments that provided unified protection and economic growth. Players took control of a nameless rookie pilot (later called Christopher “Maverick” Blair), known internally as “Bluehair” due to his, well, blue hair, aboard the TCS Tiger’s Claw; essentially a galactic aircraft carrier. The core feature of the game was an AI-controlled wingman that the player could give orders to for support. The game featured a branching open-ended story told through a number of cinematic cutscenes, and overall performance in missions affected the campaign. Completing mission objectives earned medals, promotions in rank and the opportunity to pilot better ships. Failing these objectives led to more difficult missions and inferior ships. It was designed so that losing players could return to the winning path and winning players could make enough mistakes to end up on the losing one.

In-game cutscene.

        Wing Commander became a best-seller, credited as redefining the genre and raising the bar for other developers to compete against. In the wake of the game’s success, Roberts wanted to release expansions that would contain content they were forced to cut due to the limited number of discs they could include for the game in order for it to be profitable. In November, Origin released the first expansion pack for the game, The Secret Missions, which added new ships, a new storyline and increased difficulty; however, it lacked the branching paths of the original. A second expansion, The Secret Missions 2: Crusade, was released in March of 1991. In 1994, the game would be re-released as Wing Commander I and would receive an enhanced remake called Super Wing Commander.

        A year after the original’s release, Origin released Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi. It maintained everything its predecessor did while putting a greater emphasis on storytelling through sprite-animated cutscenes and included some of the industry’s first examples of voice acting. The storyline was also less open-ended, promotions and medals no longer awarded, and wingmen couldn’t be killed outside of pre-scripted moments. Again, it was successful and received its own pair of expansion packs. A standalone spin-off, Wing Commander Academy, was released in 1993 as a budget game meant to keep the franchise on players’ minds during the development of Wing Commander III. Academy was a mission builder primarily using the assets developed for II where players, said to be students at the Terran Confederation Space Naval Academy, could design their own levels that could be saved and shared with other players (think of it as a predecessor to Super Mario Maker), as well as had 15 pre-designed missions to play and new ships and weapons. Two other spin-off games were released in 1993 and 1994: Privateer, where the player took on the role of a freelancer who could choose to be a pirate, merchant and/or mercenary, and Armada, which was the first to feature a new graphics engine and to offer a multiplayer mode.

           Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger was a major departure for the franchise. The technology of the last two games were abandoned in favor of software-driven texture-mapped polygonal 3D images. The Terran Confederation and Kilrathi Empire were given entirely new designs for their fleets; made a bit blockier to compensate for the then-primitive state of polygon graphics as true 3D video cards were a few years off. It used the then-new CD-ROM technology rather than floppy disks to compensate for the high memory demands of the branching “interactive” conversations the player had with other characters, choosing responses that would affect their attitudes towards the player and the morale of the entire crew. But the biggest change was the use of extensive live action full-motion video to deliver the story to add an interactive movie-style presentation to the gameplay.

Paladin having a personal moment with Maverick.

        A number of established actors were cast to star in the game. Mark Hamill assumed the role of the player character, now officially known as “Maverick”. He was joined by Malcolm McDowell as Admiral Geoffrey Tolwyn, John Rhys-Davies as James “Paladin” Taggart and the voice of Prince Thrakhath Nar Kiranka, Tom Wilson as Major Todd “Maniac” Marshall, Josh Lucas as Major Jace “Flash” Dillon, Courtney Gains as Lt. Ted “Radio” Rollins, François Chau as Lt. Winston “Vagabond” Chang, Ginger Lynn Allen as Rachel Coriolis, Barbara Niven as reporter Barbara Miles, John Schuck as the voice of Kilrathi defector Ralgha Nar “Hobbes” Hhallas, and Tim Curry as the voice of Melek Nar Kiranka, to name a few. The overall budget ended up being between $4-5 million, and considering the game was a massive hit for the franchise, selling over 700,000 copies after it was released on December 8, 1994, it was more than worth it. The next game, Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom, continued on with most of the same cast and innovations.

Maverick, Maniac, Archer and Tolwyn.

        Moves had already been made to expand and supplement the franchise with novelizations and collectible card games. The next step was to expand into other media. Origin, now owned by Electronic Arts, partnered with Universal Cartoon Studios to create an animated adaption. Although it shared the name of Wing Commander Academy, the game was an entirely new story set before the events of the game series. It was also a bit misleading, as the Academy itself only appeared in the first episode. Set in the year 2655, the endless Terran/Kilrathi war has resulted in heavy losses, necessitating the early activation of Academy recruits. The 201^st Pleeb class were enlisted to continue their training while engaging in routine patrols and flight training, but the unpredictability of war often meant they were drawn into the conflict. At the end of their training, the most outstanding of 12 2^nd Lieutenants would receive their golden wings, the designation of “Wing Commander”, and reach the first step of “flag rank”.

The Kilrathi.

            Carrying over from the games were Hamill, Wilson and McDowell, as well as their characters. Commodore Tolwyn was the captain of the Tiger’s Claw and overseer of the cadets. He was a brilliant tactician that was tortured by his own inner demons. “Maverick” Blair was a patriotic, enthusiastic pilot with a military pedigree and a strong sense of honesty and fair play. “Maniac” Marshall was an impetuous daredevil that often got on Maverick’s nerves. Newly created for the series was Gwen “Archer” Bowman (Dana Delany), who was serious-minded and strove for perfection in everything she did. The leader of the Kilrathi forces was Prince Thrakhath Nar Kirkanka (Kevin Schon), a ruthless commander who often demanded a high price for failure from his followers. His bullheaded leadership style served the Kilrathi well in their early campaigns, but proved an equal match for Tolwyn’s command.

The TCS Tiger's Claw.

            Originally, the plan was to do a prequel to the third game only. Somewhere along the way, it was decided to roll the clock back further as a prequel to the entire game series; creating some continuity issues with the overall franchise. The cadets, for instance, wore uniforms and encountered ships that didn’t appear until the third game. Prince Thrakhath, while in command as of said game, was actually under his father, Gilkarg nar Kiranka, in the original two. The date of 2655 was also problematic, as the events of the first game dictate that Academy should have taken place sometime before 2654. The ships the cadets flew, the Scimitar fighters, were noted in the first game as being reserved for more experienced pilots. The characters of Robin “Flint” Peters (Jennifer MacDonald), Laurel “Cobra” Buckley (B.J. Jefferson), and Hobbes were to be among the cadets included in the series, but were instead swapped out for Archer and other original cadets Lindsay “Payback” Price (Lauri Hendler), the rebellious martial artist, and Hector “Grunt” Paz (Schon), a stubborn and fearless pilot who was a wounded veteran of the stalemated Battle of Repletha. Additionally, earlier character appearances and traits were abandoned in favor of their established looks and personalities from III forward, such as Tolwyn lacking his mustache from the second game and Maniac wasn’t the reckless pilot the first game made him out to be.

Wingmen.

            Wing Commander Academy debuted on USA Network on September 21, 1996 as part of the USA Action Extreme Team programming block. The series was developed and story edited by Mark and Michael Edens, who also wrote it along with Shari Goodhartz, Richard Mueller, Matthew Edens, Brooks Wachtel, Ted Pedersen, Francis Moss, Ralph Sanchez and Steve Cuden. Sanchez served as an executive consultant, and Richard Hilleman and Adam Foshko as executive story consultants. Characters were designed by producer Larry Latham with Gerard Forton and Tim Eldred, while Derek Carter designed the backgrounds. Alexander Van Bubenheim composed the music. Madhouse Animation was the primary animation studio with Koko Entertainment Co. Ltd. doing a couple of episodes. 

Maverick with The Warrior King.

        As with the other entries in the Extreme Team--Savage Dragon, Street Fighter, and Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm—Wing Commander took part in “The Warrior King” crossover event on November 16. Developed by Will Meugniot, the titular barbarian (Michael Dorn) crossed between dimensions to find and acquire the Orb of Power, which could control the weather of any planet. While The Warrior King was seen in all four shows, their respective characters didn’t cross over. It was coordinated so that each episode would air on the same day, resulting in each series being shown outside of their regular timeslots. However, the event received little to no promotion, and outside of the rearranged schedule there was no indication that there was anything special about that day.

A primitive race worshipping the Kilrathi.

            The series only ran a single season of 13 episodes before it was cancelled. The last line-up of the Extreme Team remained on the network until September 11, 1998, when USA stopped airing cartoons on the network. The complete series was released to DVD in 2012 by Visual Entertainment, Inc. The episode line-up in the collection doesn’t follow the airdate or production order. In 2020, it was included as one of the launch programs of NBCUniversal’s streaming service, Peacock; however, the sound mixing made dialogue difficult to hear at times.

            In 1996, Roberts left Origin to found his own company, Digital Anvil, with his brother, Erin, and Tony Zurovec. One of the first projects of the company was to acquire the rights to Wing Commander and develop a feature film based on it, which would contain effects produced by Digital Anvil’s artists, that would offer a new interpretation of the franchise’s beginnings. The film was rushed into production to try and beat Star Wars: Episode I to the box office, resulting in a lot of compromises being made on top of its significantly small budget. It ended up flopping at the box office, only earning $11.6 million. As for the game series, only three more games were released to date: Privateer 2: The Darkening in 1996, Prophecy in 1997, and Arena in 2007. Arena was an attempt to revitalize the franchise and the first made without the direct involvement of Origin, which was shut down by Electronic Arts in 2004.

  

EPISODE GUIDE:

“Red and Blue” (9/21/96) – To test the recruits’ skills Tolwyn splits them up into two teams, but a traitor attempts to sabotage their war games.

 

“The Last One Left” (9/28/96) – Maverick and Maniac are captured by a legendary space fighter pilot who turned to piracy after becoming disillusioned with the war.

 

“The Most Delicate Instrument” (10/5/96) – Paranoia grips the recruits and causes them to put themselves and the ship in danger.

 

“Lords of the Sky” (10/19/96) – Maverick and Maniac crash onto a planet where a primitive race worships the Kilrathi as gods.

 

“Word of Honor” (10/12/96) – Maverick and Grunt end up stranded with their Kilrathi prey, and they’re all forced to work together to survive.

 

“Expendable” (11/9/96) – An exploratory mission goes wrong, causing Maverick and Payback to fight their way back to the ship.

 

“Chain of Command” (11/2/96) – Admiral Bergstrom pulls rank on Tolwyn to enact her battle plan against the Kilrathi’s superior forces.

 

“Invisible Enemy” (12/7/96) – Strange heavy losses lead Maverick and Maniac to suspect the Kilrathi have a new stealth fighter.

 

“Recreation” (11/16/96) – Maverick must prevent The Warrior King from taking an alien orb that maintains a pacifist planet.

 

“On Both Your Houses” (11/30/96) – Trouble lurks at a Confederation bio-research station: a Kilrathi pilot hiding there, and the suspicious administrator Dr. Sing.

 

“Walking Wounded” (11/23/96) – Tolwyn joins in on the dogfight to rescue a hospital ship from the Kilrathi where Maniac is currently trapped.

 

“Price of Victory” (12/14/96) – A downed Maverick makes a deal for survival with the subordinate of the Kilrathi princess that currently wants his head.

 

“Glory of Sivar” (12/21/96) – Maverick and Grunt are sent on a rescue mission that turns out to be a suicide mission to take out Thrakath’s ship.

AMERICAN BANDSTAND

AMERICAN BANDSTAND

(WFIL-TV, ABC, Syndication, USA Network, October 7, 1952-October 7, 1989)

WFIL-TV (1952-64), Dick Clark Productions (1964-89)

MAIN CAST:

Bob Horn - Host (1952-56)

Lee Stewart – Co-host (1952-55)

Tony Mammarella – Host (1956)

Dick Clark – Host (1956-1989)

David Hirsch – Host (1989)

American Bandstand was a musical television program that showcased Top 40 music as teenagers danced along to the songs. The show began in 1950 as Bandstand on Philadelphia’s WFIL-TV Channel 6 (now WPVI-TV), a local program replacing a weekday movie that would air in the timeslot. It was hosted by Bob Horn as a spin-off to his radio show of the same name. Bandstand was a precursor of sorts to MTV as it would show short musical films produced by Snader Telescriptions and Official Films with occasional guests. However, the ratings were abysmal and Horn quickly grew bored with the show. He decided to change it to a dance program that showed teens dancing on camera as records played; based on an idea from WPEN (now WKDN) radio show, The 950 Club.

Dancers choosing the next song Bob Horn would play.

The new Bandstand debuted on WFIL-TV on October 7, 1952. The studio could hold up to 200 dancing teenagers for which time was allotted for Horn to interview them to find out their names, schools, hobbies and whatever else. The music films from the previous version were maintained as filler while dancers were changed out between segments. Horn was given a new co-host in Lee Stewart. Stewart was a local businessman and a large advertising account for WFIL, and his being made co-host was part of the deal. He remained with the show until 1955 when WFIL became more financially stable and didn’t rely on his account as much. In 1956, Horn was fired from the show after becoming involved in a series of scandals; including his involvement in a prostitution ring and being arrested for a DUI while WFIL was doing a news series on drunken driving. Producer Tony Mammarella served as interim host until Dick Clark was hired for the position permanently.

America's teenager: Dick Clark.

That spring, ABC was looking for programming suggestions to fill their 3:30 PM timeslot. Clark pitched the program to ABC president Thomas W. Moore, who eventually agreed to carry the show and bring it to a national audience under the new name, American Bandstand. Baltimore affiliate WAAM (later WJZ) opted not to air Bandstand in favor of attempting to produce their own similar program. Local disc jockey Buddy Deane was named the host of The Buddy Deane Show which aired for two hours daily. A rivalry occurred between Clark and Deane that often resulted in acts first booked on Deane’s show being rejected by Bandstand, and acts first booked on Bandstand were asked never to mention their previous appearance. Deane’s show only ran for 7 years, ending in 1964.

In October of 1957, ABC gave Bandstand a new 30-minute evening show on Monday nights, but it failed in the ratings and was cancelled that December. Also, in November, ABC opted to air their newly acquired game show, Who Do You Trust?, right in the middle of Bandstand on most of their networks. WFIL chose to tape-delay the game show for a later broadcast and air Bandstand in its entirety.

Clark interviewing The Beatles.

By 1959, Bandstand had a national audience of 20 million viewers. It became daily essential viewing and greatly influenced American pop culture. As the show entered the 1960s, ABC opted to truncate the show’s runtime from 90-minutes to 60, and then down to a daily half-hour program. By 1963, the show abandoned its live format and an entire week’s worth of programs were videotaped on the preceding Saturday. This move actually allowed Clark the freedom to pursue other interests as both a producer and host while remaining as Bandstand’s host. That year, the show also moved to Saturday where it would remain in various timeslots after noon throughout the rest of its run.

Many of the local Philadelphia teens became famous following their appearances on the show. Clark would often interview the audience members in a segment called “Rate-a-Record”. He would ask them to rate two records on a scale that Clark would average out, then asked the audience to justify those scores. The segment gave rise to the phrase “It’s got a good beat and you can dance to it” when describing the songs. Once, the comedy team of Cheech and Chong appeared on the show as participants in a humorous segment of “Rate-a-Record”.

Clark interviewing musical guest Paul Petersen in front of their ABC-inspired logo.

In 1964, production of the show moved from Philadelphia to ABC Television Center in Los Angeles (currently The Prospect Studios) and they adopted a new logo that emulated the ABC logo, reading “AB” in a circle accompanied by the current two-digit date. After a disastrous first attempt to go color in 1958, which failed because of the size of the cameras required at the time in the small studio space plus ABC’s refusal to transmit in color, Bandstand finally went colorized beginning on September 9, 1967. In 1969, the show gained an entirely new set and another new logo. Notably, after the move, the dancers featured on the show became more integrated. Because of segregation, while WFIL happily exhibited the city’s interracial music scene in order to create a successful program, they kept black teenagers out of the studio so as not to alienate viewers and advertisers.

In 1973, Clark managed to cause a bit of racial controversy of his own when he attempted to expand the Bandstand brand. He created the similar Soul Unlimited, hosted by Buster Jones, with a focus on soul music. Bandstand and Unlimited would share a timeslot for several weeks. Two years prior, Don Cornelius had created his own dance program, Soul Train, which featured music from genres such as R&B, jazz, funk, soul, and hip hop (although Cornelius wasn’t a fan of that particular genre, feeling it did not positively reflect African-American culture). Cornelius and Jesse Jackson openly accused Clark of trying to destroy television’s only program created and run by African-Americans. Unlimited’s target audience also wasn’t pleased with the show due to its alleged use of racial overtones on top of its being created by a white man. Ultimately, Unlimited was cancelled after a few weeks and some of its set pieces were integrated into Bandstand’s.

As Bandstand entered the 1980s, ratings began to steadily decline. MTV and other programs began to fill the niche Bandstand had dominated over the decades, taking away more and more of their audience. Also, many ABC affiliates opted to pre-empt or delay the program for things like college football games, which were getting ever-increasing ratings, or for special presentations like an unsold pilot. In 1986, ABC once again reduced Bandstand from an hour down to 30 minutes. Clark decided to end the show’s association with ABC on September 5, 1987 and moved it to first-run syndication two weeks later, restoring the hour format. The show was now filmed at KCET’s Studio B with a new set similar to Soul Train and was distributed by LBS Communications.

Following the broadcast on June 4, 1988, Bandstand went on a 10-month hiatus. When it returned in April of 1989, it had moved over to cable’s USA Network with comedian David Hirsch assuming hosting duties. Clark remained on as executive producer. The new version of Bandstand ditched the studio setting for the first time and was filmed outdoors at Universal Studios Hollywood. However, Bandstand had ultimately run its course and was cancelled after 26 weeks. Of the over 3,000 episodes produced across the decades, only 883 are known to survive.

Donna Summer co-hosting in 1978.

Throughout the show’s run, a number of the musical acts whose songs were played appeared on the show, many of whom it would be the first time on American television, typically lip-synching to their songs and sitting down for an interview with the host. Some of the acts included Aerosmith, Frankie Avalon, The Bee Gees, E.G. Daily, Def Leppard, ELO, Marvin Gaye, The Guess Who, Corey Hart, Hall & Oates, Billy Idol, the Jackson 5, Janet Jackson, B.B. King, Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam, Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, The Mamas & the Papas, Mike + the Mechanics, The Monkees, Juice Newton, Oingo Boingo, The Osmonds, Ray Parker Jr., The Pointer Sisters, Prince, Quaterflash, Della Reese, REO Speedwagon, R.E.M., Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, Run-D.M.C., Sha Na Na, Shalamar, Simple Minds, Talking Heads, The Temptations, Conway Twitty, Wham! and “Weird Al” Yankovic. In 1978, Donna Summer became the only musical act to also serve as a co-host as part of a promotion for her upcoming film, Thank God It’s Friday.

Clark posing with New Edition over an anniversary cake.

Bandstand used several themes over the years. Its first was “High Society” by Artie Shaw. After the series was picked up by ABC, the theme became varying arrangements of “Bandstand Boogie” by Charles Albertine. Les Elgart’s big-band version of the theme was released as a single in March of 1954 by Columbia Records. Mike Curb wrote the synthesized rock instrumental piece “Bandstand Theme” which was used from 1969-74 and also received a single release by Forward Records. A new disco version of “Bandstand Boogie” arranged and performed by Joe Porter replaced it in 1974. Another version of “Bandstand Boogie”, this time by Barry Manilow, became the theme from 1977 through 1986. Although Manilow had previously recorded and released the song in 1975, the show’s version featured lyrics by him and Bruce Sussman referencing elements featured on the program. Porter’s theme was retained as bumper music for commercial breaks alongside Billy Preston’s “Space Race”, which had been used on the show since 1974. David Russo arranged a new closing theme that was used from 1986-87, and later performed a new version of “Bandstand Boogie” when the show went into syndication.

In 2002, Clark hosted a special 50^th anniversary edition of the show in Pasadena, California. Frequent guest Michael Jackson led a group of performers that included The Village People, Brandy, members of KISS, Dennis Quaid and The Sharks, Cher and Stevie Wonder. In 2004, Clark, along with frequent collaborator Ryan Seacrest, announced plans to revive the show for the 2005 season. However, these plans were indefinitely delayed when Clark suffered a stroke that year, and would never come to fruition before his death in 2012. A segment of the proposed revival, a national dance contest, was eventually turned into the series So You Think You Can Dance. 

EPISODE GUIDE:

N/A

SAVAGE DRAGON

SAVAGE DRAGON

(USA Network, September 21, 1995-December 21, 1996)

Universal Cartoon Studios, Lacewood Productions (season 1), Studio B Productions (season 2)

MAIN CAST:

Jim Cummings – Savage Dragon, Bludgeon

Kath Soucie – Alex Wilde, Rita Medermade

Tony Jay – Overlord

Jeff Bennett – Sgt. Howard Niseman, Barbaric, Mako the Shark

Jennifer Hale – She-Dragon

            The Savage Dragon is an ongoing comic book series published by Image Comics and one of the company’s original launch titles. The title character, Dragon, is a green-skinned, muscular alien with a large fin on his head and the ability to rapidly heal. He had no memory of his past before he was found in a burning field by Lt. Frank Darling. He eventually joined the Chicago PD to help them battle “superfreaks” (the term for superpowered beings) that were part of the criminal organization known as the Vicious Circle run by the Overlord. 

The Dragon and his universe.

Dragon was created by Erik Larsen as far back as elementary school; appearing in many of his homemade comics. The character underwent some revisions and maturation by the time it saw legitimate publication in the pages of Graphic Fantasy, a self-publishing effort by Larsen and two friends in 1982. By the time Larsen left Marvel Comics with his fellow creators to co-found Image, Dragon had evolved into his current form. Initially, The Savage Dragon was a three-issue mini-series, but its success turned it into a regular series the following year completely written and drawn by Larsen.

The Dragon and Alex.

The success of Batman: The Animated Series marked a renewed interest in networks for shows based on comic books. The additional success of Image’s debut drew networks towards their properties for potential adaptations. Universal Cartoon Studios acquired the rights to adapt Larsen’s comic into an animated series that would run on the USA Network’s USA Action Extreme Team programming block. 

Overlord.

The series largely boiled down and condensed the essence of Larsen’s book: Dragon (Jim Cummings) was recruited to the Chicago PD to deal with Overlord (Tony Jay) and his legion of superfreaks. Those superfreaks included Mako the Shark (Jeff Bennett), a criminal in the army who was mauled by a shark when an experimental bomb was detonated, turning him into a human shark; Octopus (Rob Paulsen), a seemingly-immortal being with octopus tentacles coming from his torso; Bludgeon (Cummings), a super-strong low-level member of the Circle; Arachnid (Frank Welker), a mutated man-spider with multiple arms and matching abilities; Basher (Peter Cullen), another Circle strongman with ambitions that often led him to act outside of Overlord’s orders; and Horde (Rene Auberjonois), a being comprised of mind-controlling worms. Aiding Dragon was his partner, Alex Wilde (Kath Soucie), and his female counterpart, She-Dragon (Jennifer Hale), as well as the occasional outlaw Barbaric (Bennet). 

The Fiend looking for his next host.

            Savage Dragon debuted on September 21, 1995 and ran for two seasons. Season 1 was co-produced by Lacewood Productions and season 2 by Studio B Productions. AKOM Productions handled the animation based off of character designs by Frank Suarez. Larsen has often described the comic as a practice in self-indulgence, tossing in anything he thought would be cool without much rhyme or reason. That meant it often featured content that wasn’t appropriate for Saturday audiences. As a result, the show was considerably more toned-down than the comic and featured a more typical stand-alone story structure that ignored any sort of ongoing character arcs. The series was written by producer Duane Capizzi, Steve Roberts, Henry Gilroy, Ernie Jon, Steve Cuden, Richard Stanley, Bob Forward, Wendy Reardon, Reed Shelly and Jess Winfield.

Dragon vs. Warrior King.

As with the other entries in the Extreme Team—Wing Commander Academy, Street Fighter, and Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm—Savage Dragon took part in “The Warrior King” crossover event on November 16 during its second season. Developed by Will Meugniot, the titular barbarian (Michael Dorn) crossed between dimensions to find and acquire the Orb of Power, which could control the weather of any planet. While The Warrior King was seen in all four shows, their respective characters didn’t cross over. It was coordinated so that each episode would air on the same day, resulting in each series being shown outside of their regular timeslots. However, the event received little to no promotion, and outside of the rearranged schedule there was no indication that there was anything special about that day.

She-Dragon: NOT a bootleg.

Larsen has described the show as a “meh” effort on the part of those involved, praising the decent animation but panning the watered-down tonality of its overall presentation. He continues to publish the comic through Image, having surpassed 200 issues with no signs of stopping. The show, however, has largely faded into obscurity beyond dedicated fans of the character and animation. While bootleg versions of it have been made available on YouTube and for sale at conventions, the show has yet to have any sort of legitimate release on either DVD or VHS. It has, however, been made available to stream on NBCUniversal’s streaming service, Peacock.          

EPISODE GUIDE:

Season 1:

“R.S.V.P.” (9/21/95) – Overlord and Arachnid kidnap Frank and Alex to lure Dragon into a trap.

“Possession” (9/28/95) – Horde uses his mind-control leeches to turn lab workers into criminals and send Barbaric on a rampage.

“Undercover” (10/5/95) – Alex goes undercover to infiltrate Overlord’s operation but she is quickly discovered.

“Dragonsmasher” (10/12/95) – OpenFace and Octopus create a cyborg to battle Dragon, distracting him from the plot between Overlord and a congressional candidate.

“Locomotion” (10/19/95) – Overlord’s men take over a train and plan to use it to destroy a state-of-the-art tunnel under Lake Michigan.

“She-Dragon” (10/26/95) – Dragon teams-up with She-Dragon to rescue Alex from Overlord, and Dragon learns about She-Dragon’s vendetta against him.

“Hurt” (11/2/96) – Bludgeon looks to spring his partner Lowblow, and Alex falls for a paramedic who’s prejudiced against freaks.

“Web” (11/9/96) – Dragon has to team-up with a local sheriff in order to figure out why people keep disappearing from the town.

“Hit-Man” (11/16/96) – Overlord creates a clone of Dragon in order to get close enough to the mayoral candidate and kill him.

“Red-Handed” (11/23/96) – Dragon finally captures Overlord, but Barbaric breaks him out.

“Loathing” (11/30/96) – Dragon tries to trick The Fiend into taking over his body in order to defeat him.

“Rampage” (12/7/96) – She-Dragon confronts a group of bikers  bent on mayhem, and they seek vengeance on her after one of their bikes is damaged.

“Armageddon” (12/14/96) – Horde is resurrected and sets his sights on destroying the ozone layer.

Season 2:

“Bull” (9/28/96) – Dragon investigates mysterious high rise robberies while Alex falls for an actor who stars on a show mimicking Dragon’s life.

“She-Friend” (10/5/96) – The Fiend takes over She-Dragon and feeds on her hate for Overlord.

“Homecoming” (10/12/96) – Doubleheader gets a picture of a young Dragon setting Dragon and Alex to investigate its origins.

“Loose Cannons” (10/19/96) – She-Dragon finally becomes a police officer after she protects the mayor from three freak bikers who tried to get in good with Overlord.

“Star” (10/26/96) – There’s a new vigilante in town and Dragon is determined to figure out who he is.

“Barbarism” (11/2/96) – After Barbaric’s place is destroyed in a fight, he bunks with Dragon for a while.

“Ceasefire” (11/9/96) – A group of former Vicious Circle members form their own group and meet with diplomats to tout the benefit of freaks in society.

“Endgame” (11/16/96) – An orb comes to Earth and gives The Fiend even more power.

“Negate” (11/23/96) – Negate can turn off a freak’s powers, making him a target for the Vicious Circle and freaks who want to be normal again.

“Ball of Fire” (11/30/96) – A rash of bombings around town lead to one major target: the annual policeman’s ball.

“Femme Fatale” (12/7/96) – A new woman enters Barbaric’s life, but she may have checkered associations.

“Bride” (12/14/96) – Octopus and Openface make a bride for Arachnid, but her defective brain makes her a nightmare.

“Dragonlord” (12/21/96) – Evidence is found that Dragon may have been Overlord before the current holder of that title.

Originally posted in 2017. Updated in 2023.