In 1983, I had an amazing ten-day period during which I wrote the pilot scripts and bibles for three Saturday morning cartoon shows…one for ABC, one for NBC and one for CBS. (A bible, by the way, is an overview of a prospective series that tells who the characters are, how they function, where they live, etc.) Amazingly, all three shows "sold" to some extent. I wound up taking my name off the ABC one, and the NBC one was announced as on the schedule, then bumped by a last-minute deal with Mr. T. NBC had wanted to do a cartoon show with him but he wanted too much money, so they tentatively bought this other show which I developed. A day or two later, someone decided to meet Mr. T's price and my show went away, which was probably just as well.
The CBS show was called Dungeons and Dragons, based loosely on the role-playing game. Others, especially a clever gent named Dennis Marks, had worked out characters and an overview of how to turn the game into a cartoon show, but the network folks were not happy with either the bible or pilot script, which is how come I got the call. I literally finished the ABC pilot one morning and started on the CBS one the same day. For more on this, you might want to consult this article. I had relatively little to do with the program after the pilot and one other episode I wrote, but some fine writers and artists made it into a three season hit that still has an amazing following.
The show spawned at least two urban legends that have ricocheted around the Internet. One is that it was cancelled due to pressure groups that were upset about the content and/or about the game on which it was based. This is not true. It was cancelled because the ratings were dropping steadily throughout its third season. The other legend is that a "last episode" was produced which wrapped up the ongoing storyline of the series. This also is not true, though I have encountered many folks who swear they saw one. My pal Michael Reaves, who was one of the writers on the show, did write a script for a "last episode" but it was never produced. You can read it over on Michael's website. It's not how I would have ended the series but everyone can decide for themselves whether or not they want to consider it part of the canon.
Last year, one of the other writers who worked on the show sold his Xerox of my bible on eBay for a helluva lot of money. This prompted a couple of the unsuccessful bidders to write to me to ask if I could sell them copies or even my originals. I was uncomfortable with the whole notion so I gave my originals (of both the bible and the pilot script) to a charity-type project and now, months later, they've found their merry way to the Marketplace of America, eBay. Here's the listing and at the moment, it's up to $12.75. This is several hundred bucks short of what an unsigned Xerox copy of just the bible sold for so maybe there's a terrific bargain to be had. The money doesn't go to me but I'd still like to see it go for a little higher price than this.