New Adventures Of He-Man 1990 Annual & Possible Season 2

[galaxy warrior]

Heartfelt thanks to you. I don't know about my being "modest", however. I tend to roll out my writing credits -- a thousand episodes of television and five novels -- to anyone who will listen. Yogi Berra once said, "It ain't braggin' if it's true", so I hold to that when beating my chest, which one must do in my business.
Giving appropriate credit to fans, on the other hand, is just logical in my book. It's the fans who ultimately determine if a series is a success or a failure. So my allegiance is to the fans and that allegiance is forged from adamantine iron. I am so very, very grateful to the audience I've been blessed with over the years because they have allowed me to practice my craft. And that, of course, is the reason I'm so happy to be on this forum and to hear from fans about the good and not-so-good impressions they have about NA.

and were all glad to talk about it with you.

[Metal Misfit]

Jack,

Thanks for speaking in this thread, it's been truly enlightening. I'm a MOTU fan, and to be honest, I don't even remember ever watching a single episode of NA. But I do remember the toys, which, besides comparison to the MOTU toys, were fairly low quality, IMO. I was also turned off by the sci-fi element of this new He-Man.

Thanks to the wonders of DVDs, I have rediscovered my love for the original series since the initial DVD release and just yesterday, being the He-Man completist I have become, I purchased Vol 1 of NA. I haven't watched it yet (still working on MOTU S2 V2!), so I can't give an opinion yet, but at least I'll at least be able to say I've actually SEEN the show.

After buying it, I did some quick searches for feedback on the series, and it may or may not surprise you that a lot of what I'm reading says this was a good series that wasn't given a fair shake thanks to it's association with the original show.

BTW- Your ideas about future seasons sound amazing! That would've been great to see your ideas play out, one thing that bothered me about the original show was lack of continuity. I like it when there's a larger story in play thoughout the season(s) other than "Skeletor tries to rule Eternia".

I may have missed this at some point during this thread, or another thread (I don't visit the forums much), but why the drastic change in looks for He-Man, Skeletor, and Sorceress? I see the mini-comic explained Skeletor's new look, is that in line with series canon? Was there anything more to it than having a sci-fi slant and Mattel wanting to distance themselves from the original series?

Anyway, it's really cool of you to come to the board like this. I'm a slooooow watcher of DVD sets, but maybe sometime in the next 5 years I'll come back and let you know what I thought!

[Heeeere's Olesker!]

Jack,

Thanks for speaking in this thread, it's been truly enlightening. I'm a MOTU fan, and to be honest, I don't even remember ever watching a single episode of NA. But I do remember the toys, which, besides comparison to the MOTU toys, were fairly low quality, IMO. I was also turned off by the sci-fi element of this new He-Man.

Thanks to the wonders of DVDs, I have rediscovered my love for the original series since the initial DVD release and just yesterday, being the He-Man completist I have become, I purchased Vol 1 of NA. I haven't watched it yet (still working on MOTU S2 V2!), so I can't give an opinion yet, but at least I'll at least be able to say I've actually SEEN the show.

After buying it, I did some quick searches for feedback on the series, and it may or may not surprise you that a lot of what I'm reading says this was a good series that wasn't given a fair shake thanks to it's association with the original show.

BTW- Your ideas about future seasons sound amazing! That would've been great to see your ideas play out, one thing that bothered me about the original show was lack of continuity. I like it when there's a larger story in play thoughout the season(s) other than "Skeletor tries to rule Eternia".

I may have missed this at some point during this thread, or another thread (I don't visit the forums much), but why the drastic change in looks for He-Man, Skeletor, and Sorceress? I see the mini-comic explained Skeletor's new look, is that in line with series canon? Was there anything more to it than having a sci-fi slant and Mattel wanting to distance themselves from the original series?

Anyway, it's really cool of you to come to the board like this. I'm a slooooow watcher of DVD sets, but maybe sometime in the next 5 years I'll come back and let you know what I thought!

Thanks for your comments, MM, and for giving N/A a fair shake.

In defense of MOTU (which certainly needs no defending) and many series of old, it was difficult for there to be a series arc in those shows because the nature of syndication in the old days was that episodes were rarely played in order. Thus, each episode essentially had to be a stand-alone and all things at the end had to be as they were in the beginning.

That said, I will take some credit for creating a developing series arc -- something I worked very hard to gain the right to do. I banked on viwers liking the developing series arc and the success -- or lack thereof -- of N/A aside, the series was rather groundbreaking in that it was one of the first to contain a developing series arc. It was something shows that came after it emulated to a degree.

As for Skeletor's change, it was simply toy driven -- dictated by the developing toyline.

As for your thinking it's cool that I'm here, well, I appreciate that. But there are not words in me that can adequately express my joy in being a part of this forum. To be able to exchange viewpoints and debate with loyal fans from all the incarnations of He-man -- despite their liking or disliking N/a/ -- makes me happy in ways that defy description. So I'm the one who needs to say how cool I feel it is that I'm able to be here.

I do need to add a note here to say how delighted I am to see this particular thread appearing on the main page again. Lord knows it saves me a lot of keystrokes in that I don't have to refer fans to it. But it's also just plain nice to see it -- and what I'd planned to do in Season Two -- more accessible to fans.

I've a hunch I have Jon to thank for that, so thanks to The Shadow.

Best,

Jack

[Metal Misfit]

Hey Jack,

A few more questions to bug ya with...

What were the plans for Skeletor's evil minions from Eternia in the unrealized second season? Would they have made appearances? Would they have all gone their own way during the time since Skeletor left and Man-At-Arms took over? Would they have worked for Man-At-Arms? Did they go underground? Find a new leader? Would they have welcomed Skeletor's return? There's so many exciting ways that could've played out. Would any NA villains have made it back to Eternia? A clash between the old and new villains would've been interesting.

Also, after thinking about it (yes, it's sad that I think about things like this ), I think Man-At-Arms turn would've been right in line with the character. Truth be told, I never cared for him much during the classic MOTU run, I always felt he was a bit too serious & orderly, didn't have much of a sense of humor, and got frustrated with others easily. I can definitely see him taking the "I know what's best for all of you, so I'm taking over" route.

I still haven't watched any episodes yet of NA, but on the first volume I did watch the documentary, and they showed the clip of Teela arriving and making mention that everything is fine on Eternia (or something to that effect). So I'm assuming Man-At-Arms hadn't gotten all dictorial on Eternia yet, I'm sure you were just concentrating on the first season and weren't thinking too far ahead (and maybe you didn't even write that episode...). When you were drafting the bible and writing episodes, was it always in the back of your mind to let things play out as you have mentioned on this board? Or was it only after the season was wrapped up that you began to think of ideas for a second season?

Thanks for your time!

[Heeeere's Olesker!]

Hey Jack,

A few more questions to bug ya with...

What were the plans for Skeletor's evil minions from Eternia in the unrealized second season? Would they have made appearances? Would they have all gone their own way during the time since Skeletor left and Man-At-Arms took over? Would they have worked for Man-At-Arms? Did they go underground? Find a new leader? Would they have welcomed Skeletor's return? There's so many exciting ways that could've played out. Would any NA villains have made it back to Eternia? A clash between the old and new villains would've been interesting.

Also, after thinking about it (yes, it's sad that I think about things like this ), I think Man-At-Arms turn would've been right in line with the character. Truth be told, I never cared for him much during the classic MOTU run, I always felt he was a bit too serious & orderly, didn't have much of a sense of humor, and got frustrated with others easily. I can definitely see him taking the "I know what's best for all of you, so I'm taking over" route.

I still haven't watched any episodes yet of NA, but on the first volume I did watch the documentary, and they showed the clip of Teela arriving and making mention that everything is fine on Eternia (or something to that effect). So I'm assuming Man-At-Arms hadn't gotten all dictorial on Eternia yet, I'm sure you were just concentrating on the first season and weren't thinking too far ahead (and maybe you didn't even write that episode...). When you were drafting the bible and writing episodes, was it always in the back of your mind to let things play out as you have mentioned on this board? Or was it only after the season was wrapped up that you began to think of ideas for a second season?

Thanks for your time!

I envisioned Man-at-Arms utilizing Skeletor's minions as sort of regional governors. Ruling a large kingdom is no easy task and those who were in power before a take-over have a great deal of knowledge of its workings, infrastructure, etc.. So I think Man-at-Arms would use them, keeping an iron fist on any who would dare oppose him. As for welcoming Skelly upon his return, I think that's a given for his minions. They'd certainly tell him that they had cooperated with Man-at-Arms out of duress and a desire to preserve the kingdom until Skelly's eventual return...a return that they never doubted would happen.

I tend to agree with your appraisal of Man-at-Arms' personality in the classic. But it's because of his seriousness and orderliness that I sought to use him in this way. I wanted it to be a reveal that he'd been internalizing all of his ambitions all these years, pretending to serve loyally. This makes his apparent orderliness all the more shattering when his true nature is revealed and all that pent up fury would come out in a stunning tirade and rampage of destruction.

As for Teela's appearance, the episode was Once Upon a Time and was written by Misty Taggart. It's one of my favorites and I think Misty did a wonderful job. So I can't say where I was in my thinking at that time and how events were unfolding on Eternia. But since Teela didn't say anything about a coup, had we moved to Season Two I would have taken that into account.

Finally, my thoughts about where to go in Season Two developed over the series' arc. Almost from the beginning, I wanted to go back to Eternia, mostly because I fully understood the feelings of loyal MOTU fans who felt they'd been dissed. But the idea of Man-at-Arms taking over and the female characters opposing him (something I liked very much) didn't really start to form until about halfway through Season One.

Hope that answers your questions. Now go watch those N/A episodes!

[Predabot]

Jack, if you was to give some thought to explaining Skeletors cybernetic appearance in a flashback episode, how would you have done it? Just a quickie off the top of your head.

I think it's been mentioned before that some think the NA may have been inspired a little bit of the Movie and then merged the two continuities of cartoon and movie. In the movie, Evil Lyn threw Skelly down a lava pit in the end, wich would help to explain Skelly's cybernetics.

Now, I think you've dismissed any inspiration from the movie yourself, so that was just a bit of inspiration.

[Heeeere's Olesker!]

Jack, if you was to give some thought to explaining Skeletors cybernetic appearance in a flashback episode, how would you have done it? Just a quickie off the top of your head.

I think it's been mentioned before that some think the NA may have been inspired a little bit of the Movie and then merged the two continuities of cartoon and movie. In the movie, Evil Lyn threw Skelly down a lava pit in the end, wich would help to explain Skelly's cybernetics.

Now, I think you've dismissed any inspiration from the movie yourself, so that was just a bit of inspiration.

Gosh, Predabot, I always hate it when I give an answer that I think a fan is going to find unfulfilling. On the other hand, I have too much respect for my own work and the work of others to be anything but 100% honest. And the 100% honest answer is that I just had nothing to do with that.

As I've said in the past, I had very little influence in the areas of artwork and voicer-over talent. KKC&D -- the Tokyo animation studio for N/A -- was gracious enough to allow my input on numerous storyboard issues as I had the pleasure (one that not many writers get, btw) of reviewing all storyboards for the episodes. That, however, was simply for the structure of the scenes and not the artwork itself.

So the look of the characters was largely the responsibility to the animation studio. I can't say what influenced the animation studio's artwork -- although I might make a guess about influence they were under when they decided to give Skeletor eyes.

Sorry if this isn't the best answer, but it's the honest one.

[Metal Misfit]

Hope that answers your questions. Now go watch those N/A episodes!

Yes, you have answered my questions, thanks for the insight!

And I'm watching the show as I type this! (Darn, I've still got the D&D set to watch after this as well.)

BTW-- Would Orko have been the first to suffer Man-At-Arms' wrath?

[Heeeere's Olesker!]

Yes, you have answered my questions, thanks for the insight!

And I'm watching the show as I type this! (Darn, I've still got the D&D set to watch after this as well.)

BTW-- Would Orko have been the first to suffer Man-At-Arms' wrath?

You bet!!! And let me tell you, it would have been my pleasure to blow away that irritating little twit! Better yet, I would have liked to lock him up in a rubber room with N/A's The Scientists and let all of them drive each other to complete insanity.

[murph]

Im not sure if this was covered before but how exactly would he-man or more importantly skeletor made it back to eternia? I remember master sebrian saying the time machine could only be used once that got he-man there but i figure the sorceress wouldve used her powers to somehow bring him back after saving the future.

So would skeletor have somehow come across a time AND dimension rift in space that sent him back to eternia while traveling the cosmos? Did you already have a way planned for them to get back or was the show sadly cancelled before you thought of a way?

[Dagar]

In the movie, Evil Lyn threw Skelly down a lava pit in the end, wich would help to explain Skelly's cybernetics.

Erm... no. Evil-Lyn had taken her ball and gone home by the time Skeletor was in the closing moments of his battle, AFTER which Skeletor got knocked into the pools beneath Grayskull. No idea whether it was lava, but Skeletor wasn't burnt to a crisp so I think not.

Another thing to mention is that Skeletor the cartoon character doesn't have wires and circuitry grafted to his skin as in the action figure, so it's likely an ignored point for ease of animation - wise choice, think I.

[Heeeere's Olesker!]

Im not sure if this was covered before but how exactly would he-man or more importantly skeletor made it back to eternia? I remember master sebrian saying the time machine could only be used once that got he-man there but i figure the sorceress wouldve used her powers to somehow bring him back after saving the future.

So would skeletor have somehow come across a time AND dimension rift in space that sent him back to eternia while traveling the cosmos? Did you already have a way planned for them to get back or was the show sadly cancelled before you thought of a way?

Well, if you read my reveal of what I had intended Primus to be in my Primus Revealed thread, then you've got a pretty good idea of who I saw Sebrian as being. Realize that just because he said the time machine could only be used once, that doesn't preclude him from using his unlimited powers -- once he revealed them and came 'out from behind the curtain -- to hurl He-man and Skeletor back to Eternia so he could continue to enjoy watching their show.

--

I'd love to answer more questions that fans have had about where and I intended to take Season Two of NA if it happened.

Those points are made from Post 23 on and I tremendously enjoyed the interchange with NA fans. Now that there seems to be a renewed interest in NA I thought this thread might be interesting to a larger audience.

[evenflow]

Awesome read, i am totally more interested in NA now.

[Sallah]

Fantastic stuff in this thread! Thanks so much for taking the time to bring it back!

Sallah