Anthony Escartin sent this one in…
Good day, Mark! I become one of your many fans when Groo was at Epic. When I found your blog, I realized I'd been a fan of yours for even longer, starting from when I was reading Bugs Bunny comics as a child and watching The Wuzzles.
I have a question for you regarding some of the projects you've worked on, and some projects you didn't end up working on. How do you decide which projects you can (or can't) disclose on the blog?
I mean, aside from the legal stuff like non-disclosure agreements. I ask because in a recent post, you talked about meeting for a job on Barbie and the Oscars, but I'm dying to know about other projects that you don't mention by name. For example, what was that one show that you worked on for Lou Scheimer and Filmation? Thank you for your time!
In the 52-or-so years I've been writing for a living, I've had literally thousands of what some would call "offers" but a fairly small percentage of them had any real possibility of turning into real projects. Even if I'd said an enthusiastic "Yes, yes, yes" to that Barbie movie or the chance to write on The Oscars, I'm not sure either of them would ever have turned into anything more than talk.
So a lot of the things I don't mention here or anywhere are things I never allow myself to think were going to happen or had even a 20% chance. I have friends who get wildly optimistic about every opportunity that's so much as lightly dangled and that, of course, can only lead to cyclonic disappointment.
I did work on one show for Filmation — a bible and pilot script for a series. A network bought it, I received my series sale bonus…and then the crew at the studio began monkeying around with it, mostly to add elements that could be merchandised. I didn't like what it turned into so I removed my name from it and am not going to reattach it here. I've done that a few times and I think it was the right move. Just in case it was, I'd like to keep it that way.
