"To Introduce our Guest Star, that's What I'm Here to Do..." The Hensonverse Fan Contribution Thread

[Plateosaurus]

Top Five Most Underrated Sitcoms of 1989 (cont.)
From Five Alive! Netsite
(And we return to our regular scheduled programming)

4. Meet the Mastersons[1] (1989)​

Image source IMDb.

If you remember Paramount-Fox Network’s Meet the Mastertons, you probably think “That was Bewitched but with Black people”, but the truth is its a lot more then that. Revolving about a family of black sorcerers and the non-magical fiance who marries into them, the show was created by Jack Shea and Stephen Curwick, and followed them as they used magic to help solve their problems as responsibly without revealing it to outside world or Marilyn McClane-Masterson (Vanessa Bell Calloway), the fiance of series protagonist and eldest son Ben (Michael Warren). The characters, while admittedly a bit basic (stern but well meaning father played by Keith David[2], the rebellious child played by, and the kooky uncle played by Finis Henderson III) are still fun to watch, the cast is well-assembled, and the worldbuilding of the magic setting was pretty good, many an audience’s introduction to .

Sadly, the timeslot the show was placed it was a very poor one, and so got ratings so lousy that PFN decided to throw it aside and forget that it existed. But thankfully, Meet the Mastertons is a funny, touching show worth going out to seek out and it has developed a strong fanbase among African-Americans and fantasy fans that have discovered this series.

3. Multiplied![3] (1989-1990)​

We honestly feel a bit guilty putting a show like HBO’s Multiplied! on the list. Starring Jason Alexander, its about a dude with seven split personalities trying to juggle their own lives together. If it sounds like its going to age like milk… well you’d be right, as all of the split personalties of Daniel Zayinsky are played for laughs and wacky misunderstandings. Even Jerry Seinfeld openly told Alexander several times “How is that show still going?”. However, compared to its contemporaries, which usually had people with mental disorders be complete butt of the jokes or violent and dangerous menaces, Multiplied at least tries to treat its lead with dignity, let alone a thinking human being, with episodes dedicated to humanizing Daniel and showing his struggles of having a normal life, and the discrimination he faces from neurotypical people, at best uniformed and at worst downright bigoted.

As you would expect from a show with this premise, it got cancelled but lasted much longer than the other sitcoms on the list by virtue of having some star power in Alexander (though eventually he quit to work on Jerry fulltime) and surprisingly funny humour. HBO prefers that people don’t remember this show although some do though it’s debated whether or not it’s brand of humour fits with the subject matter discussed in the show, especially among the mentally disabled.

2. Puppets[4] (1989)​

This as a short-lived cult classic and airing on the Disney Channel

Next up is yet another workcom in the entertainment industry with this strange yet quirky little look into the world of puppet shows from the master of Muppets himself, Jim Henson, and his partner Bernie Brillstein. Unlike the other Henson Muppet properties, Puppets focused on the mundane lives of the titular puppets and puppeteers working on a fictional children’s show known as Dragon Time with a colorful cast of characters from the dragon mailman Clyde and the loudmouthed Bertha to Del and Linda (Fred Newman and Julie Payne), the people running the show from behind the scenes. Each episode of Puppets had a real world segment and a Dragon Time segment, the former focused on the show’s efforts to fight for ratings and the latter had songs performed by the puppets during or after it was finished.

Puppets’ sense of humour was very self-referential with potshots at low-effort Muppets ripoffs and the inner workings of Henson Associates and the Walt Disney Company. If this sounds like the aforementioned Draco-Force, then you’re not completely wrong since both shows are semi-affectionate or derogatory parodies of their own genres (Saturday morning cartoons/children’s puppet shows). Unlike Draco-Force, it was actually backed by Disney with Henson and Brillstein making cameos in a few episodes. However, Puppets was a bit too ahead of it’s time and faced competition from more successful shows so it was cancelled after one season. Nevertheless, Henson and Muppet fans actually enjoy this show for the humour and clever writing with even The Muppets movie having some visible influences of Puppets namely the fact that the Muppets are working on a big show with the puppeteers of Henson Associates.

1. Hound Town[5] (1989)

Before you ask, yes this was an actual show made by Ralph Bakshi of all people

And finally, we get to our final entry and this one is animated. From the mind of the granddaddy of Western adult animation himself, Ralph Bakshi. Hound Town stands out from Bakshi’s filmography as devoid of his raunchy, envelope-pushing trademarks and being completely intended for children.

Originally airing as a TV movie in ‘89, NBC executives thought it was a good idea to have a 13-episode saturday morning cartoon sitcom made by Bakshi so they forced him and his crew to work on it. The series was pretty formulaic and generic with some typical antics from the mostly non-anthromorphic dogs doing silly stuff though it did try to flip the formula on it’s head for an episode or two and even add in some hidden adult jokes perhaps in an effort to not be seen as a simple kids’ cartoon. However, it would eventually be cancelled and well forgotten. Nowadays, the only people who remember Hound Town are Bakshi fans who see this as a weird and strange aberration in the man’s career and generally think it’s so bad it’s good although a couple episodes are considered at least passable or good. Other than that, you can’t get much more obscure than a single season cartoon created by a animator who really doesn’t like talking about it.

[1] Was an unsuccessful pilot for NBC IOTL titled A Little Bit Strange. Here it gets off the ground. Information is very limited online since the pilot is lost media, so forgive me if details aren’t accurate to the pilot, an just assume they are both differences in the final series and butterflies.
[2] I don’t know if there was a father in the pilot, and according to IMDb there doesn’t seem to be any.
[3] If you don’t remember this one, it’s a show original to this TL.
[4] In OTL, this show aired as Puppetman on the CBS Summer Playhouse in 1987 and was never picked up. Because of Henson’s stronger ties to Disney, he gets it picked up.
[5] Hound Town aired as a TV movie on NBC in 1989 and nothing came of it, also Bakshi really doesn’t like it because it’s not as adult or innovative as some of his other works. But NBC execs in TTL pick up Hound Town and force Bakshi to work on making a typical saturday morning cartoon.

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Sorry if this seems a bit more lower quality then my usual stuff. I whipped it up in just a few hours, and sorry for not being in the same post as the first part. Didn't plan it out too well, so will try planning next time.

 

[Geekhis Khan]

2. Puppets[4] (1989)

There's a TTL version of this already. It's hidden in a Bernie post from the time. I'll try to dig it up so you can modify to stay in Canon.

EDIT: here it is:

A Hippie in the House of Mouse (Jim Henson at Disney, 1980)

Thinking about it, you could possibly get away with an outdoor all-year park in Northern Europe, if you put it really far North, design it on the assumption it's always going to be cold and sell it as a "winter wonderland". So you get people who want to switch it up from sunny locations in the...

www.alternatehistory.com

Pertinent parts:

While cinematic productions were reaching a crescendo, Television produced several new opportunities
as well. Bernie Brillstein finally convinced Jim to go after an idea Bernie had been pushing for years.
Tentatively titled “The Puppet Man”, it would follow the host of a struggling kid’s puppet show called “A
Time for Dragons” as he dealt with the stresses and rewards of life outside the show. Bernie had always
suggested that Jim could perform the lead role, though Jim’s increasingly full schedule made this a nonstarter.
He barely had time to redub the audio for his Sesame Street and Muppet characters, all now
being performed by others!

1. Hound Town[5] (1989)

Good stuff. Recall that at this point it would be released under Fun Unlimited with John Kricfalusi as part of the team.

 

[Plateosaurus]

There's a TTL version of this already. It's hidden in a Bernie post from the time. I'll try to dig it up so you can modify to stay in Canon.

Oh, wasn't aware of that.

 

[shearsforest]

I brought this up in the main thread, but thought it would also be better to ask here. With the timeline diverging around the time of Henson's entry into Disney, what happens to the James Bond films?

 

[Shiny_Agumon]

We honestly feel a bit guilty putting a show like HBO’s Multiplied! on the list. Starring Jason Alexander, its about a dude with seven split personalities trying to juggle their own lives together

That reminds me: Is the Seinfeld Curse (or as it would probably be called ITTL Jerry Curse) still a thing? I know that this ran concurrently with Jerry, but is this an indicator that the Seinfeld cast can gain success outside of their type casts?

There's a TTL version of this already. It's hidden in a Bernie post from the time. I'll try to dig it up so you can modify to stay in Canon.

That's why this sounded so familiar!

 

[WhovianHolmesianChap]

Dr. Who is one of those things that's had...interesting reactions in this TL. I was pretty much going to remove it from the TL since it was frankly becoming very Not Fun for me. But you know what? Go for it. Depending on how folks react to it I'll determine whether to delete that 10th Doctor post that's been unfinished in my Master Doc for the past several months or not.

As someone who's fascinated by your creatively atypical take on the show (and adores the idea of a teen NPH as the Doctor), I for one, humbly request you keep it.

Never Just One More Thing: Analysing Columbo’s Second Act
From the Desk of a 21st Century Columbophile

It Is a commonly accepted view of television production that should a series go on for long enough, one can separate the show in question into three ‘acts’. The first act is usually (but not always) a stumble out of the gate followed by a mad dash towards adequateness if one is very lucky. The second is often (but not exclusively) the apex of the show’s run, a golden era where any bad episode can get lost in a sea of good to great ones and if one is very lucky history is made forevermore. And finally, the third can frequently (but not inevitably) be a decline ranging from the number of good episodes outnumbering the amount of great episodes and allowing the bad to shine through, to a nosedive into outlandishness or pointlessness. See The Next Generation for a very debated example of this. [1]

But Columbo is, as per usual, not like any other show of it’s kind. In this case, a fan’s response will usually point to the first run of TV movies from 1969 to 1978 as the greatest. From there we get varying responses as to the second era of the show, stretching from 1987 to 1993. “It’s good but it’s not a patch on the original run!”, “It stinks! Peter Falk had his day in the sun a long time ago!”, “Wait, aren’t they all the same thing?” and so on and so forth. [2]

But how did we get to this point?

Peter Falk had spent most of the eighties in much the same role as he had been in the sixties. That being a familiar, reassuring face that would always bring a decent performance to whatever role was given to him. He had spoofed his most popular character, or at the very least the public perception of him, in A Muppet Mystery and would later co-operate on Henson with Where the Wild Things Are. He’d preformed as a likeable thief in a remake of the French film La bonne année and had received decent reviews of his performance despite the limited success of the film proper. He’d played himself in Wings of Desire, albeit a version of himself who had descended from on-high and shed his angelic nature to become a normal person. And he’d become a touchstone to a whole new generation though at the time he would not know it as the grandfather in The Princess Bride. But it was his role in Big Trouble, a John Cassavetes film that had never really worked out as the director had wanted, that was on his mind when he got on the plane taking him back to the States. [3]

As he had finished up acting alongside Fred Savage in Shepperton Studios, he had thought about his friend John. The director had been angry and fed-up by the end of that last film, and the drinking had grown worse. A few years down the line, Cassavetes’s drinking would catch up with him and his liver would give way. [4] Falk did not know that it really would be their last film together, but a feeling of frustration had been passed from director to actor. A feeling that, as much as he was enjoying the film work, there was nothing quite like the sensation he had experienced with Columbo. For all his annoyance, he had been able to pour more of himself into that character than he had really thought possible. He had created something truly remarkable. Why, they’d even let him direct an episode and he had done well too.

Perhaps it was this nostalgia or indeed the proverbial dump truck that NBC drove up to his house, but when he read the offer for four new TV movies starring the rumpled detective, Falk was ready and willing. Even moreso once he had read the scripts! It was not long before the cast and crew were ready to work, and 1987 would be a return to the character that Falk had loved, hated and then come to love again.

But why this offer? Well, Richard Levinson and William Link’s other most famous creation was experiencing something of a problem. The schedule of appearing in twenty two episodes of Murder She Wrote had exhausted Angela Lansbury, and though her contract had her down for five seasons total with an option to extend it further, many suspected that by the time the fifth season ended, J.B Fletcher would have written her last book. Levinson and Link had stepped back after the pilot and the set-up had been worked out, but they were still trusted by the company and were asked to create scripts to tempt the bedraggled detective out of retirement. [5]

Tragically, Levinson suffered a heart attack during the production of the ninth season of Columbo. As he was on set, he was able to be stabilized for a limited time and would occasionally make return trips to the set as part of his recovery but he would pass away not long after the fourth and final of these specials had aired. [6] Levinson, grief-stricken by the loss of his writing partner and close friend, would remain in a executive producer role alongside Falk but would write no more episodes for the show. Several reoccurring writers were drafted in, some old and some new. Most noticeable in the new column was one Chris Boucher, of Blake’s 7 and Tom Baker’s Doctor Who fame. Having written for police dramas and the incredibly odd British hero before, one caught up to speed on the nuances of American police law he was the perfect person to work on the show. And whenever people struggled to find someone to write, a quick trip to the convention circuit would yield someone in search of a job. [7] This continued until the end of the fourteenth season whereupon Falk would take a three year break from the role with the offer that if he ever wished it, as long as he was hale and hearty, he could come back and do some more for NBC. He left behind him an additional twenty eight episodes to add to the forty five made in the seventies. Listed here, for your approval:

Season 8 (1987)
"The Vanishing Man" (Guest Stars: Patrick Troughton, Willie Rushton and Barbara Bach)
"Sound and Fury" (Guest Stars: Phil Harris and Peter Allen) [8]
"The Fright of His Death" (Guest Stars: Vincent Price and Norman Wendt)
"Columbo Cries Wolf" (Guest Stars: Brian Cox and Meg Foster)
Season 9 (1988) [9]
"Paying the Piper" (Guest Stars: Diana Rigg, Martin Jarvis and Barrie Ingram)
"The Smell of Sweet Success" (Guest Stars: Jon Pertwee and Gates McFadden)
"Rocking the Cradle" (Guest Stars: Mark Hamill and Joanne Whalley)
"The Sky’s the Limit" (Guest Stars: Michael Lonsdale, Carole Bouquet and Daniel Stern)
Season 10 (1989) [10]
"Columbo Goes to the Guillotine" (Guest Stars: Anthony Andrews and Anthony Zerbe)
"Murder, Smoke and Shadows" (Guest Stars: Fisher Stevens and Jeff Perry)
"Grand Deceptions" (Guest Star: Robert Foxworth)
"Sex and the Married Detective" (Guest Star: Lindsay Crouse)
Season 11 (1990) [10]
"Murder: A Self Portrait" (Guest Star: Patrick Bauchau and Fionnula Flanagan)
"Agenda for Murder" (Guest Stars: Patrick MacGoohan, Arthur Hill and Jonathan Frakes)
"Murder in Malibu" (Guest Stars: Andrew Steven and Brenda Vacarro)
"RIP Mrs Columbo" (Guest Stars: Helen Shaver, Ian McShane and Roscoe Lee Brown)
Season 12 (1991) [10]
"Columbo Goes to College" (Guest Stars: Robert Culp, Billy Warlock and Gary Hershberger)
"Caution: Murder Can Be Hazardous to Your Health" (Guest Star: George Hamilton)
"Columbo and Murder of a Rock Star" (Guest Stars: Dabney Coleman and Lora Mumford)
"Death Hits the Jackpot" (Guest Stars: Rip Torn, Jaime Rose and Gary Kroeger)
Season 13 (1992)
"A Bird in the Hand" (Guest Stars: Greg Evigan, Tyne Daly and Steve Forrest) [10]
"The Ascending Lark" (Guest Stars: Jeremy Brett and Alice Krige)
"Slow Boat from China" (Guest Stars: Beau Billingslea and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa) [11]
"Governing Detective Columbo" (Guest Stars: Pat Buttram and Michael Rooker)
Season 14 (1993)
"It's All in the Game" (Guest Stars: Faye Dunaway and Claudia Christian) [10]
"Once Upon a Murder" (Guest Stars: Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and Michael Ansara)
"Butterfly in Shades of Grey" (Guest Star: William Shatner) [12]
"A Night to Remember" (Guest Stars: Tony Jay, Amy Jo Johnson and Elizabeth Hoffman)

This era of the show is surprisingly progressive, not just for the eighties and nineties either. Several times gay relationships are alluded to and shown to be harmless at worst or just as equal as heterosexual ones. There are rarely any ethnic stereotypes, save for two or three that have aged about as well as a cow’s carcass. Boucher’s anarchic writing of Columbo, despite him being a figure of authority, continues the theme and no doubt is responsible for a great many members of the gay community adopting him as one of their own. But is that enough for the show to be actually good? [13] For my money, I would like to put forward my reasons why the second act of Columbo is my favourite. Having written a book on the subject, I would be remiss if I did not include a link to my website or information on where you can get an official copy. But if you just want a simple breakdown of my opinions, perhaps they can be best expressed through my top twelve Columbo episodes from the revival:

12: "Governing Detective Columbo" (1992).
The infamous episode where Columbo accidentally brought down the real life government of George H.W Bush. Or so many people claim in hindsight despite it really being luck that this episode aired a month or two after the allegations against the President leaked. This episode makes the list due to it’s notoriety but the only really standout thing is Pat Buttram, an oozing pervert masquerading as a kindly governor who kills his lieutenant (Michael Rooker) and his wife when the latter refuses his advances. It’s a fantastic performance, though it is mildly hysterical that such a clear parody of former Democrat front-runner Bill Clinton ended up missing completely and taking out the Republicans that Buttram was so proud to support. It’s a damn solid episode apart from that, which is why I’m placing it here at number twelve to satisfy everyone. Or more likely, no one.

11: "The Sky’s the Limit" (1988)
Ah, how bitter is irony. Michael Lonsdale owns and operates an expensive mansion in France. It is atop a cliff, near an airfield where Americans stationed fly back and forwards. His daughter (Carole Bouquet) falls for a handsome stunt pilot (Daniel Stern) who is something of a novice to polite manners. As his attempts to buy and threaten him away from his daughter fail, Lonsdale resorts to creating an undignified death for the pilot at the controls. However, he happens to have picked the one day Columbo and his wife have come to see an air-show. Lonsdale is suitably menacing but balances it with a strange pathetic neediness that creates an interesting dissonance. His horror at what he has done gradually unfolding makes for dramatic stuff, even if Bouquet’s role is not as good as it could be and the solution is either too complicated or not complicated enough.

10: "RIP Mrs Columbo" (1990)
A wonderfully done idea, striking right at the heart of our dear detective. There’s no problems here that might prevent it from being higher on the list, save for the inevitable that there was never going to be any danger of Mrs Columbo being revealed nor killed off. You had to be there though, that night when everyone thought it might be the last Columbo ever.

9: "Columbo Goes to College" (1991)
When a pair of students (Billy Warlock and Gary Hershberger) are caught plagiarizing, their lecturer (Robert Culp) announces his intention to expel them. They take revenge on him as Columbo does a course explaining the methodology of the detective. You can imagine how well that goes. [14] In an expert piece of misdirection, Culp is portrayed as possibly the murderer as he had been in his previous appearances only to be killed. A great example of showcasing that it’s not only the older privileged men who are in need of a good taking down.

8: "The Ascending Lark" (1992)
It’s another depressing one, and this time it adds a good dose of moral ambiguity to the mix. Jeremy Brett plays a long suffering violinist dying of an intensely painful cancer, and is aided throughout by his daughter (Alice Krige) who bickers with him good naturedly. Despite his best efforts, he desires to die and end the pain he is in after one last concert, and despite his wishes, his daughter assists him. She does not co-operate with Columbo for the simple reason that she does not see what she did as murder, and as the episode goes along we see an intense battle to even get her to admit that she was with him when he died. Fair play to the writers for not copping out and giving a trite explanation either. Falk’s expression as she is taken away leaves me chilled as he ponders whether he has done the right thing.

7: "The Vanishing Man" (1987)
Often referred to as the cursed Columbo episode, it’s an excellent episode to begin with. Patrick Troughton's character was originally a famous actor, but he now plays a tramp who spends his time amusing the children as his brother and his ditzy wife (Willie Rushton and Barbara Bach) amuse themselves with his money. He is driven to murder when they make plans to introduce a pollution creating nightmare that will hurt the children. The Vanishing Man refers to the disguise he comes up with (The shaving of his real beard and the purchase of a realistic false one made by an old friend) and to the way that he is not looked at due to his homeless status. Falk and Troughton play excellently off each other both comedically and dramatically. Troughton would suffer a heart attack upon being taken from the set to a Doctor Who convention, witnessing one of his favourite serials before dying in his hotel room. The heart attack scared Willie Rushton into getting his checked up, which he credits to keeping him alive. Perhaps not so cursed after all. [15]

6: "A Bird in the Hand" (1992)
An excellent example of turning the formula on it’s head. When the lover (Greg Evigan) of a sports-magnate’s wife (Tyne Daly), decides that the husband has to die, he prepares a careful trap involving a car bomb and a very careful arrangement of alibis. He arrives the next day to discover the man run over in a seemingly random accident. All is well that ends well, naturally. Except it doesn’t end. And when it does, it is not well. Both Daly and Evigan play their roles excellently and Falk matches them beat for beat.

5: "The Fright of His Death" (1987)
Okay this one is just a blast. One of the strange decisions made in the original run of Columbo was the casting of Vincent Price not as victim nor villain but as a side character who appears in two scenes. They are very fun scenes, but even so, this episode corrects that injustice. Price plays, ironically enough, a moral crusader tilting at the slasher windmill and railing against perversity and violence and filth in all forms. This is the result of his own hang-ups which he communicates via Vincent Price level ham as he resorts to killing off the director of a film shooting next-door (George Wendt). It’s a grand old ham to ham combat between detective and killer, worth watching because it’s a delightfully camp piece of art.

4: "Once Upon a Murder" (1993)
One of two tearjerkers from the last series of the first revival, this one loses out only due to the unique nature of Number 3. A pair of old theatrical actors meet up to go over the last play in a cycle that they have been trying to complete all their lives. One (Peter Cushing) is left shaken up by the arrival of a third actor (Michael Ansara) who has bragged openly about his debauched lifestyle. Said lifestyle killed Cushing’s wife in a car accident. Killing him without any remorse, Cushing awaits the police’s arrival only for his friend (Christopher Lee) to invoke a favour owed to him to try and save him from going to prison. The two real life best friends play excellently against type as Lee fights hard to save Cushing’s life even as Columbo mournfully pieces together the whole mess. Cushing’s heartbreak at the loss of his real-life wife comes through here clearly, and the final scene where the two men embrace is all the more heart-breaking when you realize this was Cushing’s last acting role. [16]

3: "It’s All in the Game" (1993)
An episode full of twists and turns with a more romantic than usual Columbo giving way to the half-mockery, half-sincerity meme of the detective and his wife being in a polyamorous relation. Two women (Faye Dunaway and Claudia Christian) contrive the murder of a man that both were sleeping with. Why they’ve done it gets revealed as the detective and Dunaway play a dangerous game with each other. Both flirt and act warmly towards each other, and it becomes clear that neither of this is an act. Peter Falk wrote this episode and often punctures his own ego as he goes along, making for a romantic, dark story that shows the lieutenant in a new light.

2: "Columbo Cries Wolf" (1987) [17]
The last full script that was contributed to by both of Columbo’s creators and it’s a doozy. Arranged for the final of the eighth series, it tells of a married couple (Brian Cox and Meg Foster) who own a men’s magazine. Amidst the chaos of their marriage, she plans to sell her shares to a more powerful company. When she is due to get on the next flight, she vanishes and leaves Columbo with quite a mystery to solve. It’s full of twists and turns and the Hugh Hefner inspired character that Cox plays is wickedly enjoyable. One of the few times that the Lieutenant is flummoxed too, which makes his eventual triumph all the better. Possibly it should be first on the list and yet….

1: "A Night to Remember" (1993)
In truth, this episode should probably not be in the top spot. But it is my favourite, and I am the writer, so get off my back already! The last members of a family bloodline that is dying out feud over who gets to have the inheritance of one of their ancestors. Tony Jay plays a conceited head surgeon and landowner who happens to get one of his relations under the knife. He contrives to make it appear that his relation suffered a heart attack at the wheel of his sportscar. With her aunt (Elizabeth Hoffman) suffering from dementia, it’s up to the one good woman in his family (Amy Jo Johnson) to ask friend of the family Detective Columbo to investigate. Everyone is on point here, and there’s plenty of fun slob vs snob matchups. But what really makes it better is Columbo moving in temporarily to assist with the transition of the old lady to a care home and through fun intergenerational conflict is clearly considered one of the family by the niece. Once the chaos is all done, one of the nicest wrap-ups tops a good old fashioned Columbo episode. She asks if he will come back and see her. And with a gravelly chuckle and a shaking of the head, he agrees warmly before shambling off with Dog in tow to the triumphant notes of ‘This Old Man’. Sometimes it’s the old tricks that show how good the dog really is. [18]

[1] Debatable, obviously, but given that there are arguments with regards to the twist in TNG IITL I figured it would be a good shorthand to use.

[2] All echoing the OTL feeling to what we refer to as the ABC seasons.

[3] All, bar Where the Wild Things Are, according to OTL. I am willing to edit these if necessary.

[4] I can’t imagine that there would be an effective way to save Cassavetes given the amount of damage he had already done to his liver. At best, maybe he gets a year or two more than in OTL but I’m willing to state that he dies on the same date IITL.

[5] Both of these facts are true! Levinson and Link had stepped away from full time maintenance of Murder She Wrote after the first season, though they would remain credited forever after. I’ve had a hard time working out why in particular, TV Tropes suggests that it’s a result of Levinson dying but that didn’t happen until halfway through season 3. I’ve gone with them wanting a challenge here, but if there is a reason, I’ll update it. As for Lansbury herself, it’s generally accepted that the fifth season of the show was set up to be the last given the somewhat definitive ending that the two-part finale has. She was already feeling burned out on the series at that point, and for three or four seasons afterwards she has a dramatically reduced workload. Often you’ll see poorly disguised pilots, sometimes written by Jessica or sometimes about people Jessica knows and so on and so forth. Whether you want Murder She Wrote to end here is entirely up to you, I’ve left it ambiguous either way.

[6] I’ve fudged a little here, I don’t think it’s without possibility that Levinson might survive for a little longer if given prompt medical treatment but it would obviously be ridiculous for him to last the full year.

[7] Boucher will alternate between the US and the UK, mostly his job will be seeing that a good quality of scripts is maintained throughout. Among some of the others he’ll bring in are Lance Percival and Jeremy Lloyd, writers of the murder mystery-gameshow hybrid Whodunnit in the UK.

[8] I figure I’ll add quick recaps here for ones not covered in the countdown. Phil Harris acts as an old fashioned comedian/singer being upstaged by Peter Allen’s younger up and comer, so kills him. Not a bad one, but it’s definitely middling.

[9] "Paying the Piper"=Martin Jarvis and Diana Rigg conspire to kill a fellow politician to prevent him veoting their ascension to proper cabinet status. Columbo happens to be the UK at the time. The performances are great, the plot not so.

"The Smell of Sweet Success"=Pertwee plays a collector of rare orchids who is secretly selling them on the black market, he kills his shop assistant when she finds out. Pertwee plays well but his backstage friction with Falk over the changes in script produces an uncomfortable tension that mars a decent script.

"Rocking the Cradle"= Mark Hamill plays a spoiled rich kid grown up, infuriated that Joanne Whalley is not falling for his ‘charms’ he conspires to cause an accident with the intention of saving her. When she dies, he covers up and blames it on his rival. Again, it’s a decently average episode elevated by Hamill’s performance against type.

[10] Generally these episodes remain similar to their OTL counterparts save for the substitution of certain actors (i.e. Jonathan Frakes appears in Agenda for Murder to make it a more prominent role.)

[11] On his way back from vacation, Columbo meets up with an interpol agent played by Beau Billingslea on the trace of a notorious criminal from the Triad. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa seems to be the obvious target, but he is alibied when someone else is murder by the detective himself. A decent script and good performances from the three leads is marred by bad music, the occasional racist gag and a poor climatic reveal.

[12] With the renewed coverage of Columbo thanks to accidentally becoming very topical, the right wing starts to froth at the new leftist Columbo. The episode is thus very similar to it’s OTL counterpart but now Shatner isn’t just a Rush Limbaugh type but a right wing television host as well.

[13] Think the internet’s current obsession with Columbo amplified a good bit by a mixture of accidental and deliberate progressive attitudes and a general lack of traditional police tropes.

[14[ In OTL, Culp plays a practically one scene role as the father of the lead boy. He takes over the lecturer’s role to throw long time fans off the scent, and I substituted Billy Warlock in given his heartthrob image at the time.

[15] Okay this one is just pure indulgence on my part. I like Willie Rushton, it’s possible that he’s in better condition for the operation that kills him in OTL. Troughton’s fate is also as OTL, no way to butterfly that away given his work schedule.

[16] Technically, as per OTL, they finish work on a Hammer Horror documentary. But it’s here that they act together for the last time, and Lee serves as real life support for the ailing Cushing. Their relationship, and Cushing’s grief over his wife, is all OTL.

[17] According to research, it is the last script written by Link for the series and is credited with his partner as with all his scripts. It’s easy to imagine them coming up with the idea during that first season’s heavier involvement, otherwise it proceeds as OTL despite being made a few years earlier.

[18] Once the timeline moves towards the early 2000’s, I’d be happy to add another update covering the third and final act of Columbo. We’re at seventy-three episodes, four more than OTL ever covered. It would be interesting to see where we end up at the end of it.

 

[Nerdman3000]

Okay, here is a guest post I worked on with @Geekhis Khan on how the X-Men and Spider-Man animated TV shows turned out in ITTL. It was originally supposed to be a post in the main Hensonverse thread When you Wish Upon a Frog, but due to it being mostly minor and @Geekhis Khan having to be a bit more picky now about what he posts, lest he bog down the main thread, it's therefore getting posted here instead.

So enjoy!

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Excelsior! - A Retrospective of the late 80’s/early 90’s X-Men and Spider-Man Series
Post from Nostalgia Zone Net-log, by Terry Vera. May 19th, 2015.

When I was a kid growing up back in the late 1980’s, my favorite shows to watch every Saturday morning were Dino-Star, The Spirit, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I honestly can’t tell you just how many times I’d wake up in the morning just to get a chance to see a glimpse of whatever new adventure the Turtles or the Spirit had gotten themselves into. Yet two other shows during this same period which I practically worshiped at the altar of was X-Men: The Animated Series and The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man. Both shows would serve as the first Marvel animated shows to premiere following Marvel Comics sale to Disney in May 1986, as the first new animated Marvel series to be released since the end of The Incredible Hulk and Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends, both of which ended in three years previously in 1983.

X-Men[1], premiering mere months following Marvel’s sale to Disney, would be the first of three Marvel themed shows Disney would produce in the late 80’s (a Fantastic Four show, Tales of the Fantastic Four, would fail to launch past a pilot which premiered in 1989). The show, told from the perspective of a young protagonist Kitty Pryde[2], followed the adventures of the X-Men as they battled their adversaries, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, to determine the fate of Mutantkind. While now celebrated for some of its complex writing, it’s easy to forget that the show didn’t have the easiest start, with the first season even today often being considered to be the weakest compared to later seasons due to its more simplistic storytelling. It was only half-way through the second season, during said season’s adaptation of the “Days of Future Past” comic arc, that the show’s writing truly began to take off and become more complex and sophisticated[3].

Kitty Pryde aka Shadowcat, the main protagonist of this timeline's version of X-Men: The Animated Series, who acted as the audience’s viewpoint character in the world of Mutants. (Source: DenofGeek)


Some of this transition is partially due to the writing chops of Josh Whedon (his first episode on the series would during the show's second season), but that's not the sole reason why the show started getting complex and better as time went on. While some might argue the show began to be influenced by The Spirit, as well as later on Batman: The Animated Series and Spider-Man (and this is most certainly true), much of this change of direction can perhaps primarily be traced to the departure of the show's first director, Ray Lee, during the show's second season, and him being replaced by Mark Edens, who would go on to direct the show for the remainder of its run. It's very apparent when rewatching the first season that Lee, who served as a director for a lot of merchandise-driven animated shows the dominated the early-mid 80's like Transformers, GI Joe, and Jem, was used to directing a lot of that type of more simplistic cartoon animation, and was thus struggling in a now post-merchandise-driven cartoon series world[4]. Ultimately, it was only after Lee left midway through the second season, and Edens came in to replace him, that the series was able to have a bit of a fresh start and started becoming as good as it did.

Yet regardless of why it happened, the show’s later seasons are much of why the show is celebrated today as a landmark in comic book animated adaptations. It was during said seasons that the show really started taking off in my opinion and became as popular as it would become, as well as when it began adapting issues from the comics. It was also around than that I started watching the show, so I ironically missed a lot of the weaker episodes of the show's first season, which in hindsight is probably a really good thing. I'll admit though, as a kid, watching Wolverine tear through Sentinals, and seeing the X-Men fight Magneto and his Brotherhood, Mister Sinister, the Hellfire Club, and even dinosaurs in the Savage Land, was honestly the coolest thing ever, and it did get me interested in comics, which I will always appreciate this show for doing.

Compared to the more timeless animation style of 1988's Spider-Man, the animation style/look for X-Men in its early seasons would be somewhat traditional to the style of most 80's cartoons, even as the art quality was much improved compared to most animated shows of the day. Later seasons would however improve in terms of animation style/quality, adopting a look closer to that of the style featured in Spider-Man. (Source: IMDB)


The series, which featured the voice talents of Alyson Court as Kitty Pryde, Christopher Daniel Barnes as Cyclops, Kath Soucie as Jean Grey, Iona Morris as Storm, Peter Cullen as Wolverine, John Stephenson as Beast, Mary Kay Bergman as Dazzler, Neil Ross as Nightcrawler, Michael Bell as Iceman, Dan Gilvezan as Colossus, Ed Asner as Professor X, Earl Boen as Magneto, Catherine Disher as Emma Frost, Lenore Zann as Rogue[5], Jennifer Dale as the Scarlet Witch, Alan Oppenheimer as Quicksilver, Ronald Gans as Juggernaut, Patrick Pinney as Sabertooth, and Randall Carpenter as Mystique, among various other characters, would win numerous awards during its run for many of its episodes from its later seasons, with its adaptation of the X-Men comic’s Dark Phoenix Saga in particular winning writer Josh Whedon and the series an Emmy.

The show's later seasons would touch and delve into tough subjects like racism, prejudice, sexism, and even topics like antisemitism (in the form of the famous Emmy nominated episode Shadowcat's Beau, which dealt with the subject of Kitty having to face antisemitism alongside the racism she already receives for being a mutant). As a kid, it taught me a lot about acceptance, empathy, and tolerance, which as I've grown older I've come to very much appreciate. And while the show didn't always deal with these topics well (it really depended on who was writing which episode. If you want a great example of them trying to deal with a more touchy subject and falling flat, just watch the fourth season’s wince inducing episode Proudstar’s Quarrel, which tried and rather spectacularly failed in its attempt to touch on historical mistreatment of Native American’s), it was one of the few shows of its day which dared to do so in the first place, which I can really appreciate.

Yet more than just dealing with those complex topics, the series would, as mentioned before, also adapt a number of storylines from the comics. And while it's adaptations of some of the comics storylines in later seasons would be much more loose compared to the Marvel show it would ultimately run alongside with, the show did successfully adapt a lot of famous X-Men stories, like the aforementioned “Dark Phoenix Saga”, “Days of Future Past”, “Second Genesis”, and various other stories from Chris Claremont's famous run on X-Men.

Ultimately running for a successful seven seasons run until it’s end in 1993, the show was great fun and served as an importance piece of my own childhood. While I'll probably admit that in hindsight the series is probably not my favorite X-Men animated series (looking at you X-Men: Mutant High) due in large part due to its weaker first and second season, it's later seasons and the episodes in it are still pretty great and are very much worthy of praise. Like I said though, it's not without its flaws, but despite that it's hard not to recommend this show to any X-Men fan.

Ultimately though, it wouldn't be until after the end of the second season of X-Men that Marvel would really knock it out of the park in terms of adapting one of their comic book properties when they premiered 1988’s The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man (Later renamed following the third season as simply Spider-Man: The Animated Series), which featured Robert Hays providing the voice of the web-headed titular character. That also very much acclaimed series, which ran for eight seasons until 1996, would also feature the writing talents of Josh Whedon, the first of many such Spidey related works which Whedon would have a hand in, an involvement that would continue into the next decade with his involvement in the 1990’s Spider-Man film trilogy and culminate in Whedon’s acclaimed award-winning 100 issue run of Amazing Spider-Man which started in 2004 [6]. Featuring a memorable and catchy theme song by Ron Wasserman, the series would also heavily influence the 90’s films, with Spider-Man 3’s Rachel Blanchard, who plays Gwen Stacy in the film, even admitting she based her portrayal of the character Gwen somewhat on the version from the animated show.

The show, which was produced/directed by Eric Lewald, James Semper, and Victor Cook, took heavy inspiration from Stan Lee and George Conway’s runs of Amazing Spider-Man, and would follow a young Peter Parker through high school and his college years as he grappled with his duties as Spider-Man while still trying to live a double life as Peter Parker and make time for friends Mary Jane Watson, Harry Osborn, Gwen Stacy, and Flash Thompson (played by Joely Fisher, Gary Imhoff, Tracey Moore, and Patrick Labyorteaux respectively). Along the way, Spider-Man would face off against the likes of Norman Osborn/the Green Goblin (voiced by Mark Hamill[7]), Otto Octavius/Doctor Octopus (voiced by George Buza), Curt Conners/The Lizard (voiced by Joseph Campanella) and even part enemy/part love interest, Felicia Hardy/The Black Cat (Jennifer Hale in one of her earliest voice acting roles). Finishing off the cast would be none other than Stan 'the Man' Lee himself, who would turn in numerous voice cameo appearances for the series [8].

Character designs for the series would be heavily inspired by Steve Ditko and John Romita Sr.’s work on the series, and the series would feature a heavily 60’s inspired aesthetic. Ironically enough artist Bruce Timm, of the Spirit and Batman fame, and who was working on the Spirit for Disney at the time, would create some of the character designs used in the series, particularly the ones for Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Green Goblin, Doc Ock, Felicia Hardy/Black Cat, Mary Jane Watson, and Gwen Stacy. Said character design would become the basis used for the series as a whole. (Source: Art by Bruce Timm)


Featuring witty dialogue, strong writing, and fantastic adaptations of classic comic storylines, all written under the pens of various writers like Josh Whedon, Grieg Weissman (who went onto to become a director on the show during its later seasons), and Paul Dini, the series was a massive success for the Disney Channel, receiving high ratings all throughout its run. Tapping into almost 30 years of Spider-Man history throughout its run, the series featured a collage of Spidey’s greatest hits at the time, adapting such classic stories as the Rise of the Sinister Six, Spider-Man: No More, and If This Be My Destiny, to then more recent stories like the Symbiote Saga and the rise of Venom, the "Mystery of the Hobgoblin", and even in its final season an adaptation of the recent Clone Saga. Yet the series also wasn’t afraid to tell new stories either, as it did with great episodes like “One Day to Live” (this one was a personal favorite of mine) and “Spider-Wars”[9].

The show would faithfully recreate moments from the Spider-Man comic's history, such as the scene from Spider-Man: No More where he abandons his suit in the trash, him crawling out of a gravestone in the show's adaptation of “Kraven's Last Hunt”[10], and even Peter's marriage to Mary Jane Watson. To me though the coolest part was that they even went as far as to accurately recreate small but classic moments, like Mary Jane's famous first scene from the comics during her first debut in the first season's 14th episode and Aunt May's death from Amazing Spider-Man issue #400 in the finale season. Seeing these scenes recreated and then later going back and finding/reading the actual scene they recreated to me was always a blast as I was growing up. In a lot of ways, the show was the best way of catching up on everything that occurred in Spider-Man's history from 1963 to 1996, and I still to this day recommend any new comic reader who's nervous about dipping their toe into Spidey's decades long comic history to start with this show before hitting stuff from more recent decades. It's honestly the best recap of Spidey's decades long history you'll ever find, and it's a great viewing experience in its own right as well.

Yet to me, what ultimately makes the show most impressive and stands out most in my mind today, is its decision in 1992 to end its fourth season by boldly adapting the famous 1973 comic book issue “The Night Gwen Stacy Died”[11]. The landmark episode, written by none other than the original comics issue’s own writer Gerry Conway himself[12], almost didn’t happen due to it basically pushing a lot of limits of the time. As you might expect, killing off a main character’s girlfriend in a children’s animated show in 1992 was just something kids shows just didn't do back then, and it therefore was quite a controversial and bold choice for the creators to try to recreate. Naturally though, the show's writers and showrunners ran into fierce opposition by the head execs of Disney Channel when trying to make the episode. In fact, that the episode ever got made at all was ultimately due to Joss Whedon, as one of the show’s writers, using his connections to straight up going over Disney Channel execs to bring the issue over to Disney head Jim Henson, who gave the showrunners and writers permission to faithfully do the episode and actually kill Gwen off. Supposedly that pissed off Disney Channels execs, and if rumors are to be believed, it's only due to the episode being lauded by critics and getting nominated and winning an Emmy[13] that the show didn't straight up get axed by bitter execs.

Famous moments like this saw themselves be recreated on the small screen, to the delight of fans and comics readers. (Source: Art by Bruce Timm)


Ultimately the show's adaptation of “The Night Gwen Stacy Died” would be as important a landmark moment in the history of cartoon animation as the issue it was based on was to the comics industry. It would represent a transition moment in the history of television cartoon animation, showing that shows could start pushing boundaries and start being more smart and mature even as they still catered to children. While the episode itself would shock and surprise many fans and viewers who hadn’t been aware of Stacy’s comics death, and led to Disney and Marvel Productions receiving tons letters and complaints from parents about their children being left in tears by Gwen’s death, the show's bold decision was celebrated by comic fans, animators, and critics alike, and is partially why the series is so well respected and celebrated today [14].

I also personally think it was kind of cool and ballsy for the writers to try and recreate, and I most certainly tip my hat to them for actually going ahead and recreating the moment. It was shocking as a kid and even today I’m still always amazed they went through with it AND got away with it.

Regardless, by the time the finale episode debuted in 1996, ending with a flash forward scene of an older Peter Parker teaching his and Mary Jane’s children Ben and May how to webswing and swinging off into the sunset with them (fun fact: this is actually the first ever appearance of Peter’s daughter Mayday Parker, as she wouldn’t make her own comics debut [15] until 2001 during Tom Delfaco’s third run on Amazing Spider-Man [16]), the series would had already cemented it’s legacy in the history of Spider-Man as one of the best adaptations of the character put to screen. Even today it is considered the most quintessential telling of the character put to screen and is often considered to be the best adaptation of the character, with Robert Hays voice frequently what most fans (myself included) picture whenever we read Spidey comics today and try to imagine the characters voice.

Now, with the success of both Marvel shows, and later on the big screen adaptations of various Marvel properties, it also should not be a surprise that Marvel and Disney would decide to tap into the success of the films and tie-into them with further shows. Now as I mentioned, there was a failed attempt to adapt the Fantastic Four in 1989, and it would not be until 1994 that the cosmic four would receive an animated adaptation, one that would last for three seasons, followed in 1995 by an animated show based on The Avengers, which lasted for five seasons. Failed pilots for an Incredible Hulk animated series and an Iron Man series would also debut in 1992 and 1994 respectively, though neither show would ultimately make it past the first episode. Lastly, The Mighty Thor: The Animated Series would debut in 1997 produced in partnership with Sam and Ted Raimi, but would only last for two seasons before being cancelled in 1999.

I'll be covering these shows soon in their own post, so stay tuned for that true-believers!

Like 1988’s Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four series would feature a 60’s inspired aesthetic. But while the 1988 Spider-Man series only sort of had said aesthetic, the 1994 Fantastic Four animated series would fully immerse itself in it, and would be heavily inspired by Jack Kirby’s art (Source: Art by Bruce Timm. Coloring by DrDoom1081 on DeviantArt).


As for Spider-Man and the X-Men, neither would return until the small screen until 1999 and 2000 respectively, with Spider-Man premiering in the adeptly named Spider-Man, premiering in 1999 (and featured Ian Ziering as the voice of Peter Parker/Spider-Man), and the X-Men returning in 2000’s X-Men: Mutant High [1]. I won’t go too much into either since frankly both deserve their own posts, especially the later which is a personal favorite of mine, but it’s fair to say that both shows, especially Spider-Man, had to live under the shadow of their predecessor show, a shadow which only X-Men: Mutant High arguably managed to successfully escape from.

But like I said, that’s a story for another day.

---

[1] In many ways this is equivalent of our timeline’s 1989 show Pryde of the X-Men, which like Tales of the Fantastic Four here, never makes it past the pilot.

[2] Due to the show premiering in 1986 rather than 1992, Kitty Pryde serves as the main viewpoint character of the series, rather than Jubilee. Jubilee in turn never ends up quite as popular as in our timeline.

[3] Unlike X-Men: The Animated Series in our timeline, this show starts off in terms of tone and storytelling much closer to Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends and 1982’s The Incredible Hulk, before getting more complex and smarter in terms of it’s writing as time goes on, eventually resembling something closer to our timeline’s 90’s X-Men cartoon in its later seasons.

[4] I imagine this might be a bit of a common difficulty experienced by a lot of animation directors in this timeline who worked on toy-driven animated shows, as they now find themselves somewhat struggling after the "Golden Age" of toy-driven animation ends.

[5] Like in the 1989 Pryde of the X-Men show, Emma Frost is portrayed as a member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, despite not being a member in the comics (at least, not until then in this timeline, where she will eventually join and become a member for a number of years in the 1990's before she eventually leaves. She never joined in ours). Also, Rogue starts out as a villain in the series, since she had only very recently joined the X-Men in the comics and stopped being a villain. She wouldn't join the X-Men in the show itself until the show's third season.

[6] Similar to how Whedon in our timeline wrote a comic run of Astonishing X-Men.

[7] Hamill allo-ironically ends up playing Green Goblin before he ends up playing Joker in this timeline.

[8] Naturally. While he does a few in X-Men, his voice cameo appearances in Spider-Man will be quite frequent and noticeable.

[9] While “Spider Wars” is obviously this timeline's equivalent of the “Spider Wars” episode from our timeline’s Spider-Man 90's animated series (though other than featuring Spider-Men from different dimensions, including one who's rich, the episode does not really resemble our timeline’s episode much), “One Day to Live” is an episode where Peter is poisoned and seemingly looks as though he is going to die in 24 hours. With his villains all having escaped Rikers and terrorizing the city, a dying Peter has to step up through sheer force of will and save the city all while trying to say goodbye to everyone he cares for and loves and struggling as the poison slowly weakens him.

[10] Compared to most episodes of the series, this is probably the loosest adaptation the series has of a comic. For one, the two-part episode ends with Kraven simply retiring, rather than committing suicide like in the comic.

[11] Unlike our timeline’s 90’s Animated Series, which tries to reference the issue (with Mary Jane rather than Gwen since Gwen hadn’t been introduced in the series), but then sort of cops out on actually straight up adapting it. Here they actually kill her off.

[12] Conway actually has a number of TV writing credits, so this isn’t even out of left field.

[13] This would be the show's second Emmy, as it would previously win an Emmy for its Season 2 Adaptation of “Spider-Man: No More”. It would later win a third Emmy for its Season Five adaptation of “The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man”.

[14] Ultimately the reputations of X-Men: The Animated Series and Spider-Man: The Animated Series are basically sort of flipped in this timeline compared to ours, with both being popular, but Spider-Man ITTL ending up being the one that becomes the more celebrated and beloved of the two. Part of that is admittedly the fact X-Men in this timeline suffers a shifting tone through its earlier seasons, but the other part of it is that Spider-Man: The Animated Series just ends up being that good. You can also consider this timeline’s Spider-Man: The Animated Series to be for Spider-Man what our timeline’s Batman: The Animated Series ended up being for Batman, and the closest Spider-Man show in OTL in terms of quality that can just barely come close being OTL Spectacular Spider-Man animated series.

[15] Basically similar to Harley Quinn and X-23 in our timeline, the first ever appearance in this timeline of Mayday Parker (who is Peter and Mary Jane’s second child in this timeline, as was revealed in the first main Henson thread would reveal, Peter and Mary Jane's first child in the comics ITTL would be a son named Ben Parker) would be in television, not the comics. The show also ends with Peter teaching his kids to webswing in order to reference Peter now being a dad in the comics, with the addition that Peter also teaches his son Ben that he too has a responsibility to look after his little sister May and watch over her. Ultimately though, May was originally only meant for the small scene at the end and was introduced mainly as a way to showcase Peter teaching his son about responsibility. However, due to the final scene in the show being so memorable, it eventually leads her to also have a comic book debut a mere seven years after the introduction of her brother older Ben, and five years after her own debut in the show.

[16] The run would also feature Peter Parker making his return as Spider-Man in the comics. Scarlet Spider/Ben Reilly would live and still continue to feature in his own book, The Sensational Scarlet Spider, in a similar situation to how both Peter and Miles Morales have their own separate books in OTL today. Peter’s comics would offer a glimpse at a older Spider-Man who was now a father of two and husband/family man as well as a Science Professor, while Scarlet Spider would offer readers (and writers) a usually single (minus a couple of frequent romantic flings with Felicia Hardy/Black Cat) Spider-Man who faced the troubles Peter was traditionally given before his marriage.

This means that in a way, Peter and Ben’s situation has become a ironic twist to what most comic fan complain about IOTL in regards to Spider-Man comics today, since ITTL it is Peter who is allowed to age by Marvel’s editors (versus OTL where he’s basically not anymore and has even regressed). Instead it is Ben who is basically now not allowed to age and truly grow by Marvel execs ITTL.

[17] X-Men: Mutant High is essentially this timeline’s equivalent to X-Men: Evolution. Not 1:1 however, but it does have a similar theme/premise.

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Well, that's that. Do tell me what you guys think, and don't worry, they'll eventually be more guest posts which offer looks into some of the animated adaptations of Marvel Comics, such as what happened with Avengers, Fantastic Four, and Thor, as well as the 1999 Spider-Man and 2000 X-Men shows.

I’d also at some point like to write about how the comics are turning out ITTL after 1995. If anyone has some ideas they'd like to see for that, or suggestions (mainly looking at you @Pyro, since I know your a big Comics fan and would certainly provide some great help and ideas here), be sure to hit me up and share them!

 

[TheFaultsofAlts]

This...this...

This is just beautiful.

 

[Tmckay]

I've a few ideas

 

[TGW]

Just a quick question, has anything been done on some of Miyazaki's television anime? I've got an idea for stuff like Sherlock Hound and Lupin III but I'd not like to step on anyone's toes.

 

[Deleted member 165942]

Just a quick question, has anything been done on some of Miyazaki's television anime? I've got an idea for stuff like Sherlock Hound and Lupin III but I'd not like to step on anyone's toes.

Go ahead, I don't think anyone is working in anything for those.

 

[TheFaultsofAlts]

Just a quick question, has anything been done on some of Miyazaki's television anime? I've got an idea for stuff like Sherlock Hound and Lupin III but I'd not like to step on anyone's toes.

Maybe those can air on Nickelodeon? Just a thought.

 

[Tmckay]

I've a few ideas

How do I go about it?

 

[Denliner]

How do I go about it?

Well, we do have an Ideas PM thread to dump all of our initial ideas in but we can't invite new people into the thread because the PM creator was a sockpuppet (and therefore banned).

 

[Plateosaurus]

Well, we do have an Ideas PM thread to dump all of our initial ideas in but we can't invite new people into the thread because the PM creator was a sockpuppet (and therefore banned).

We could always make a new one, then.

 

[Denliner]

We could always make a new one, then.

I could make one, but I'll wait for Geekhis's approval on that.

 

[Nerdman3000]

How do I go about it?

I usually just PM @Geekhis Khan with by guest posts, so you could do the same here if you have ideas, but like @Denliner and @Plateosaurus said, it might be easier to do a whole Group Ideas PM thread.

 

[Tmckay]

I usually just PM @Geekhis Khan with by guest posts, so you could do the same here if you have ideas, but like @Denliner and @Plateosaurus said, it might be easier to do a whole Group Ideas PM thread.

Thank you

 

[Geekhis Khan]

We could always make a new one, then.

I could make one, but I'll wait for Geekhis's approval on that.

Go for it.

 

[Marco Incognito]

So in 1997. The creator(well main one) of Space Battleship Yamato was arrested for possession of lord of drugs and firearms. My question is can we have a shoot out with police resulting in a showdown on his Yacht(the Yamato. Not joking), ending with the Yacht going down and possibly his death. Admittedly I kinda did this in another timeline but it’s just a suggestion.