Before leaving for Japan, my friend Rita imparted me with her video collection. Amongst it are about seven or eight tapes containing nothing but episodes of the cartoon Gargoyles. I never watched it when it was on, but I’ve got to say, for a early morning weekday cartoon, this show was GREAT. I’m actually rather amazed that it managed to make it to eight tapes worthy status, because for a children’s cartoon, it was incredibly violent. People are constantly being thrown off of buildings or cliffs, and plummeting to their death; there have been electrocutions, explosions, one person bursting into flames, and several points where people are killed just off screen as you watch another’s reaction to the weapon being brought down. In one of my favorite scenes, Demona, the evil gargoyle, managed to turn everyone in the city to stone for the evening, and takes a lovely stroll down the street smashing people with a mace or blasting them to bits with a laser. People even get shot. I find that very ballsey in an American cartoon, and a lot of the plots are really well done. It’s a shame there aren’t more cartoons like that in America nowadays.
It’s a shame it ended…I never got to see the last season… 
I thought this would be a discussion on the classic 1972 TVM with Cornel Wilde, Jennifer Salt, and Bernie Casey (as the head honcho Gargoyle).
I remember that cartoon. I really liked it.
I liked how they incorporated Shakespeare(sp?) into it. You have Macbeth and Midsummer Night’s Dream for sure. Having King Arthur re-awaken on Avalon is always a plus in my book. Had pretty deep stoylines too.
Plus you had quite a few TNG actors doing voices. Riker and Troi were regulars, but you also had Worf and Janeway.
Brian
That show was great. I am also a huge Star Trek fan, and a few actors from The Next Generation did some of the characters on Gargoyles (Jonathan Frakes, Michael Dorn, and Marina Sirtis, IIRC).
Great art, great writing… I think its problem was that it was really too grown-up a show to be marketed to younger kids (I remember watching it during the after school cartoons, Ducktales, Darkwing Duck, Rescue Rangers, etc. Gargoyles was much more sophisticated than the shows it was sandwiched between).
We’ve had a number of Gargoyles threads here in the past, and the consensus has been that the show is unique in popular American animation. The violence is the most obvious part, but there are more important factors. Some of the things you find in Gargoyles that I’ve rarely/never seen in other toons:
- Violence has lasting consequences. People die when they get shot.
- Evil doesn’t always look or sound evil. Xanatos often seems like a guy you wouldn’t mind hanging out and drinking with. Frakes did better acting with this role than he ever did with Riker.
- People change. Everyone in the show changed over the course of the series, some of them dramatically. Xanatos–big, bad Xanatos, the chief villain through much of the series–became one of the good guys later, after the birth of his son. Broadway developed a near-pathological hatred of guns–more of those lasting consequences.
- The show demonstrates how wrong prejudice and intolerance are by example, rather than by having an artificially “balanced” cast. It also shows that prejudice isn’t limited to uneducated hicks–the Assistant DA of New York City maintains an irrational hatred of the gargoyles right up to the end of the series.
Karl, the last season is the weakest. It got a lot more cartoony, although there was enough of the old style left to make it worth watching.
Great cartoon. Right up there with Battletech and Starship Troopers
With all the cool intertwinding backstories, I thought it would have made for a great RPG world. Illuminati, time travel, Odin, King Arthur; wrapped up into a computer game. Fuggettaboutit
Balance, the last episode I remember is when the Gargoyles have to go back to Xanatos tower, and Goliath kisses his lady love for the first time.
OK, so you know the origins of the Quarrymen, then. The final season covers the rest of the Quarrymen story arc. It suffers from some Babylon 5-like abruptness, but at least it has a clear-cut ending. I don’t know if the show is currently running anywhere, but if you want a synopsis–or even transcripts–you can almost certainly find them on web. I won’t spoil it for you; you may yet get a chance to watch it.
I loved this show too. Add Goliath to the list of cartoon characters I have a crush on (ie, Wolverine and The Tick).
Wish it hadn’t gotten canceled!
Let’s see if I can remember some more:
Riker and Troi, of course, and Janeway. Worf did two voices: Coldstone and a New Olympian (is that what they were called?).
The guy who played Miles O’Brien played a character (the father) in the episode “The Hound of Ulster”.
Captain Benjamin Sisko, IIRC, played the alien on Easter Island.
Brent Spiner played someone as well, I think, but I don’t recall who. (Wasn’t Puck, was it?)
Geordi LaForge was a giant spider, I believe. (Ananzi sp?)
Am I wrong on any of these, and does anyone have any to add?
I love this show.
It is in fact, currently running in syndication. But only if you have Toon Disney (as distinct from the Disney Channel–this is a sister network which shows only cartoons). They air two episodes a night, at 11:00 pm Eastern, 10:00 Central. As a matter of fact, they just started over with the first episode last night (June 5). So if you have Toon Disney, here’s your chance to see it again from (almost) the beginning.
They do seem to edit some of the violence (which is kind of surprising, considering how late it’s on). And the episode in which Elisa was shot–“Deadly Force,” if I remember right–seems to have been skipped entirely. Which is too bad, since its absence creates some continuity issues, as well as explaining why Broadway developed that “pathological hatred of guns” that Balance mentions.
Brent Spiner did indeed voice Puck. In addition to all the Star Trek alumni, they also managed to get a pretty impressive list of actors to contribute. Ed Asner was a regular, and people like Matt Frewer (best known as Max Headroom), John Rhys-Davies, and Laura San Giacomo had recurring parts.
One other Trek alum: Nichelle Nichols voiced Elisa’s mother.
Everybody has already mentioned what’s so great about this show. My favorite aspects: the intricacy and epic feel of the plot–ranging from medieval Scotland to comtemporary Manhattan, and all over the globe in between. The depth of characterization, and the flawed heroes–Goliath let his temper get the better of him more than once. The clever use of mythology (mostly Celtic, but from other cultures as well) as a backdrop. And, of course, that they had the guts to sometimes kill their characters.
Not to mention that Elisa, for a cartoon character, was a major babe! 
Personally I thought it jumped the shark when it became the Goliath Chronicles on ABC Saturday morning line up. After so many episodes of Goliath, Elise, Golaith’s daughter, and that mutt that couldn’t talk I got kind of bored with the series.
Marc
My crush was Puck…it still is…
Dang, I was hoping someone started a fan thread about me
Great show.
Gargoyles had fantastic writing with epic story lines. It dealt with some very sophisticated issues for a cartoon, such as redemption of villains and heroes who fall from grace. I also love how this show tied in so many myths and legendary charactors. Having seen the show again recently I am surprised with how well it stood up. Terrific voice acting as well.
The show definitely went down hill during the final season, when creator/producer Greg Weisman left the show, and his vision got mangled.
One day while bored, I did a web search to find out what happened to this show and I found this link: http://www.s8.org/gargoyles/
It has a section where Greg Weisman answers questions about the show, and I bet you can find out more than you ever wanted to about Gargoyles.