Interview by Thomas Foss - 1999

To start, I should probably inform (warn?) you that as a He-Man and She-Ra fan predominantly, most of my questions will be narrowed to that field. So, for the fans that will end up reading this in the future, could you give a little background information, what your job is, exactly, and what you did on He-Man and She-Ra?

I was a staff writer at Filmation, that is I was paid a weekly salary to work on whatever projects Filmation was doing. Naturally the bulk of my time was spent on He-Man and then She-Ra. I wrote 15 episodes of each show and also rewrote episodes by other writers as was needed. I worked for Filmation for two or three years and then moved over to DIC to work on Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors. In addition to He-Man and She-Ra I also did about nine episodes of Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, as well as a lot of development on shows Filmation was trying to sell. I did the bulk of the development work on She-Ra when Mattel decided to finance it.

Are there any shows in your past that stand out as your favorite(s)?

He-Man and She-Ra certainly. Then I would say Babylon 5 and Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future.

Now, your episodes of He-Man and She-Ra often introduced new characters. Was there a motive for this? Many of the characters you created, for instance, Light Hope, Sea Hawk, Huntara, Lord Masque, and Granamyr, had appearances that differed greatly from the stock character styles. Who designed them, and did you have any input into their appearances or voices?

There were several motives. The greatest was what I call "the Skeletor syndrome". As fans know most of the He-Man episodes had Skeletor and his henchman trying to pull off some scheme to rule Eternia and He-Man and company foiling it. This was okay at first, but after 65 episodes became rather tedious. Indeed we had fans writing in to say they were sick of seeing Skeletor getting beaten all the time and could he maybe win one now and then? Of course no way was Filmation going for that. In addition, Filmation had sold the rights to He-Man overseas and in France they refused to show episodes with Skeletor (claiming that he was simply too frightening a figure for small children - this was a cultural thing). So Filmation realized they needed new adversaries. Hence I began creating some new characters with different motives and ways of working to keep the stories interesting. These new characters were all designed by the animators and directors and I didn't have a great deal of input on the designs (outside of the descriptions I wrote of the characters). Filmation liked to keep its units separate from each other, so writers didn't have much "official" input on character design. However unofficially I would often speak with designers and artists as to what the character might look like.

Here's a question that's been debated to death on the He-Man list, but I'd be interested in your take on it: Who, in your opinion, was a better love interest for Adora, Bow or Sea Hawk?

No question, it was Sea Hawk. Bow was too self-absorbed and immature for Adora.

Did you keep in touch with the voice actors and/or animators?

We had virtually no contact with the voice actors and limited contact with the animators.

Were there any stories you wanted to do and couldn't, or things that you wish you could have changed on the show?

The first thing I would have changed is the terrible animation. But this was a Filmation standard, it was limited, it was cheap and it relied heavily on stock footage rather than new footage. Filmation was just about the last company to do all its animation in the United States and it wasn't easy for them to remain competitive when even Disney was sending the work overseas. In fact it is a tribute to Lou that he even tried. As for stories, I can't recall any that I desperately wanted to write and wasn't able to.

Who were your favorite characters, or anyone you found really interesting/fun to write?

I had a perverse fondness for Ram-Man who was simply the dumbest character ever but somehow was lots of fun to work with. And I quite liked both He-Man and She-Ra, though since I had more of a hand in creating She-Ra she was probably my favorite. And of course Granamyr was my absolute fave since he was all my creation and I have a large affection for dragonkind. Sea Hawk I liked simply because I loved pirates. I liked Skeletor too, he was a great villain, if something of a boob at times.

Conversely, were there any characters you really didn't like?

Okay, I'll admit it, Orko was not my favorite guy, though I learned to kind of like the little guy after awhile. Loo-Kee I absolutely detested and despised forever.

Who came up with the idea of Loo-Kee, and were the end morals required by some law? I know many of them were only loosely connected to the episodes, if at all.

The law was the "Nadel/Scheimer" Law. Arthur Nadel was the chief producer at Filmation, basically Lou's right arm. Both Art and Lou felt all cartoons should teach some moral lesson. Now He-Man had been castigated by a lot of "watchdog" groups (you know, a bunch of adults who band together to foist their brand of morality on the public) for it's violence (which as you know was really tame compared to things like G.I. Joe and Transformers) so when She-Ra came around Art and Lou decided to add a "moral lesson" at the end of each episode. I think I can safely say that every writer who ever worked on the show HATED that stupid moral lesson. Me most of all. While I had no problem with teaching kids something, I felt if the episode did indeed make a point than that was enough. And in fact when I wanted to use Loo-Kee to really say something important, it was always rewritten without my knowledge or consent. The example that comes to mind is a show I did about prejudice in which one of Twiggets has to team up with a Troll, trolls being abhorrent to Twiggets. It was simply about racism and this was apparent in Loo-Kee's comments about not judging people on how they looked or what race they were. When the episode finally aired Loo-Kee said something about "getting enough sleep at night" or "eating your vegetables" or something. That was one of my worst moments. If you wanted to teach lessons, teach important lessons, not fluff about eating your damned vegetables. I really felt betrayed on that one.

Many of the episodes dealt with things that no other cartoon at the time would come close to, and "House of Shokoti" is generally regarded as the most frightening story of either series. Was there ever any censorship on such episodes and topics?

I really don't recall any obvious examples of censorship on the shows. And I will admit I way pushed the envelope with "House of Shokoti." I was a big Lovecraft fan and wanted to do a straight horror episode of He-Man. It started out as a single episode and then because the animators liked it so much, it was bumped to two so we could amortize the cost. And to give them lots of credit, they did a grand job on it.

Fans have often noted the similarities between She-Ra and Star Wars (Horde Troopers/Stormtroopers, Adora & Adam/Luke & Leia, Sea Hawk/Han Solo, etc.) Was this intentional, or are we seeing connections where none were meant?

On this I would have to say, it's a little bit of both. I too was a Star Wars fan and was influenced enough to create a storyline involving a Rebellion against a vast technological Empire. And yes Horde Troopers were just like Stormtroopers but let's face it, they were cannon fodder in both instances, so who cared? On the other hand, it was Mattel who demanded Adora be Adam's sister, so that was out of my hands. And Sea Hawk was never meant to be Han Solo, though there are some similarities.

What were the influences on the storylines for the series? On that same line, how was it decided that Hordak and the Horde would become She-Ra's main villains, when their toys were a part of the Masters of the Universe line?

The main difference between He-Man and She-Ra was that Eternia was obviously ruled by the good guys, while Etheria was firmly in the hands of the bad guys. This is what made the storylines so different. She-Ra was always up against a greater power with lots more resources, He-Man and his crew were pretty much more in control of the planet. We also wanted to do more stories on She-Ra that had a good amount of "girl appeal," so we had more romantic relationships going on, more group activity, more magic and less battle (though not too much less). I sometimes fancy that She-Ra kind of paved the way for Xena many years later. As for why Hordak and company became the She-Ra villains, well it was simply because they were there. Mattel was more concerned with the heroine/hero figures in She-Ra, rightly thinking that they would sell better than the villains. So as Hordak was available at the same time She-Ra needed a crew of villains, Mattel just said well make them the villains. It actually worked out pretty nicely.

Where were the shows headed at the time of cancellation? Were there plans to introduce the Snake Men or He-Ro, had the stories continued?

Fact of show biz life, when a show gets cancelled it is almost literally erased from your mind. Same thing happened with Beast Wars, once we heard Beast Wars was no more, we just let it go. Also you know pretty quickly when a show is coming to an end and it generally happens before you even start thinking about a new season. Filmation was already on to Bravestarr and I was headed for DIC when the He-Man/She-Ra era ended.

If He-Man was to be "resurrected" today, how would you like to see it handled (artists, art-style, writers, etc.)? Any network preference (Fox, KidsWB, syndication)?

Well we saw what happened when He-Man was resurrected many moons ago - It stunk! And it quickly got the oblivion it well deserved. If by chance I was asked to work on a revival (and I never was asked to work on either the revived cartoon or the abysmal live action feature film) I guess I would probably shoot for a show much like Hercules or Xena, fast-paced, innovative, with real characters and stories that stemmed from the characters. As for the venue, frankly, not one of these pseudo-networks are any different. Nor are the networks. What makes a working situation click is executives with imagination enough to leave good writers alone to do the job they do. This you seldom get but on occasion it does happen and then you just love doing your job.

Let's say you could do to He-Man and/or She-Ra what you did to Transformers with Beast Wars: Make a new show set in the future, using new and/or old characters. What would you change? What characters would you re-use?

I kind of answered this above but let me babble on a little more. I definitely would bring back the big duo He-Man and She-Ra, perhaps working together, along with the characters I liked, such as Granamyr, Sea Hawk, Huntara etc. Some of the real "toy" characters like Beast Man I would probably leave out in favor or more sophisticated characters. I might decide that Hordak had conquered Etheria and He-Man and She-Ra needed to get it back. Or I might go a completely different way. I certainly would demand better animation.

Do you ever write "fan-fiction," stories based on shows you watch/worked on? Do you ever read other peoples' fanfics?

No, and no. AT the risk of incurring people's wrath I think fanfic is a huge waste of time. If someone wants to take the time to actually write a story why not create a story out of your own imagination and experience rather than using someone else's model? Once or twice I did happen to see a Beast Wars fanfic and they were always terrible. All they really had was the names of the characters, not the feel of the characters, or an innovative story with the characters. They read like poor Mad magazine parodies of movies and TV shows. If you have the time to write, look into your own heart and brain and find what's there. But please don't subject the world to yet another fanfic.

You often worked pre-existing RPG characters or references in your episodes, Granamyr and Masque from "House of Shokoti" being the best-known of these, were there any others that were lesser-known or more obscure?

It is true that I was both an RPG gamer and author. Granamyr came out of my Tunnels & Trolls scenario "The Isle of Darksmoke" and Masque was from my Cerilon campaign which began as a Dungeons & Dragons world and which I later converted to my own system. I often used names I liked in my RPG worlds in my TV work. Though outside of those two I can't think of any at the moment.

Rumors abound that the She-Ra character was originally called "He-Ra". Is there a story behind that, and the change?

No rumor. She-Ra was originally called Hera, like the Greek Goddess. But a copyright search showed that someone had the rights to the name and they asked me to come up with a new one. I thought about it and decided I wanted something that was goddess-like and wanted the SHE to coincide with the HE in He-Man. As I had just finished a big Egyptian RPG scenario, the name Ra was in my head and when I put them together, voila!

Did Granamyr know He-Man and She-Ra's true identities? I seem to remember him saying something like that once, but I can't recall for sure.

Absolutely. Granamyr knew most of the secrets of Eternia..

Hordak was Skeletor's mentor, but aside from the shape-changing abilities, we rarely see Hordak use magic. Is he unskilled in such arts, and taught Skeletor something else, or does he just prefer technology?

I will have to speculate since this relationship was never really expanded upon overmuch. So I would say - Hordak was basically a techno guy who used a bit of magic, whereas Skeletor had more of an affinity for the eldritch arts. In addition, Skeletor would need something other than technology to best Hordak (since the master never teaches the pupil everything) and chose magic.

Which was a more fun series to write overall, He-Man or She-Ra?

This is almost like the question above. I had a great time on both series and wouldn't say one was more fun than the other. They both were terrific. She-Ra was maybe closer to my heart because I had a lot more input on it, but the fun factor was the same.

Is there anything else you'd like to say, or would you like to add to or amend a previous statement?

Two things: - a nod to Lou Scheimer. I got to know Lou pretty well at Filmation and early this year was fortunate to see him again. He always treated me great and in fact of all the "bosses" I ever worked for, Lou was the best. Oh he didn't pay great (mainly because he really couldn't and still stay in business) and we didn't always see eye to eye but Lou always loved the people who worked for him and did his best to keep everyone feeling like they were part of a big family at Filmation. This is a VERY rare thing in a business where most bosses would sooner cut your throat than do something nice for you. He was and is a great gentleman.

In a similar vein, I would like to acknowledge Arthur Nadel who unfortunately is no longer with us. I almost never agreed with Arthur, nor he with me, and yet in retrospect he taught me a helluva lot about my craft and he gave me and about one-hundred other writers our starts in the crazy world of show biz. We might not have always agreed with him, but damn if we didn't love him anyway!

Without these two, there would have been no He-Man, no She-Ra, and no fun.

What advice would you give to an aspiring writer (such as myself)?

Simple. You need 4 things to be a writer - TALENT, DESIRE, PERSISTENCE and LUCK. With those 4 things you can go wherever you want.

BUT, there is something else. Don't look to trends or fads or "what is selling now" to tell you what to write about. Your heart and your head are what informs your work.

You must write the movie/TV show/book/cartoon/play etc., that YOU want to see and your characters must come out of your own experience and sensibility. That is all any aspiring writer brings to the table - human experience and reflection on same. Stories are always about human hearts in conflict, so look for what makes you and those around you human.

And good luck. Larry DiTillio.