90s writers in 80s cartoons

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Some animation fans don't like TV cartoons because they mostly focus on scripts instead of storyboards. However, the writers of these scripts can give us great plots and engaging characters. These include Paul Dini and Greg Wiseman.

I like to look back and see what they were doing before the 90s. I was surprised to learn that Paul Dini was on shows like "He Man", Bob Forward, the co-runner of the critically acclaimed "Beast Wars", did the cheesy "Legend of Zelda" and Michael Reeves, famous for his work on BTAS and Gargoyles, had written episodes for the 80s TMNT and Smurfs. For those who watched those episodes: Did they show their talents or were they just cashing it in and not really trying?
 
It's interesting that Michael Reeves wrote an episode of the old TMNT since he was pretty much the main writer of the 2003 show for the first couple seasons, along with other Batman TAS and Gargoyles vets.

Yeah I knew of Dini working on He-man since I have the "Ten best episodes" DVd which includes some of his work. I have to say it was not that good, then again I don't think He-man was that good of a show anyway.
 
Wait, didn't Dini write for Transformers G1 at some point. Because I thought Dweller in The Depths was written by him.
 
Paul Dini also used to work on those Ewok cartoons.

EDIT:

I read an interview a few years ago where he said that he enjoyed working on that show because George Lucas taught him a lot.
 
I think they were cashing in. If you were forced to work on the Smurfs until you can finally make it big, then it was more a matter of keeping food on the table than doing what you loved.
 
I've heard Dini say that it wasn't the best, as Lucas really wanted the shows to be as good as possible, but was basically at the mercy of the network (ABC, I think?) and their limitations.
 
I'll say. I remember reading that he or some other writer pitched a story idea where an Imperial officer crashed on Endor and the Ewoks help heal him, but when the Empire comes, his loyalties are put to the test. ABC rejected it for being "Too Star Wars-y" :confused:.
 
Michael Reaves never wrote for 4Kids TMNT. He did write some episodes of the original TMNT series. Turtles on Trial was a personal fave, more for the animation than anything Reaves could have offered.

Reaves' best work, in my view, was for Disney's Gargoyles. His Dungeons & Dragons episodes were notable among that show's fans, but I wasn't indifferent to pretty much everything on that show.

David Wise, nuff said. Even his Jem episodes were sharp.

Paul Dini, well, his He-Man stuff was shockingly awesome, for He-Man ("Teela's Quest"! Hello?!).

More later.
 
J. Michael Straczynski (sp?) wrote some episodes of He-Man back in the 80's and then went on to become a successfull comic book scribe in the 90's and 2000's, and as many people have mentioned, Paul Dini did some work in the 80's as far as writing cartoons go, but nothing nearly as important as what he did in the 90's with Batman: The Animated Series.
 
I believe it was Michael Reaves who also wrote for My Little Pony and mentioned in an interview that he actually enjoyed working on the show, but not because he actually liked the show, but because nobody seemed to care the slightest bit about the quality of the scripts as long as he got it done on time.

Ireally wish i could travel back in time and be a writer for 80's cartoons. Because on one hand, the "quality" standard was so low back then that you could write basically whatever half-assed crap you wanted if you simply didn't feel like putting any effort in it. But on the other hand, you could of course put effort into a script if you felt like it (much like Dini occasionaly did with He-man), and since the standard was so low, i reccon that it must have been relatively easy to become one of the best writers of the show if you wanted. And i think i would have enjoyed doing that. In fact, i would have especially enjoyed writing good, intricate plots for a super-kiddy/girly cartoon like My Little Pony, due to the novelty of such a show actually having intelligent stories.

Naturally though, it would be impossible to get to violent or otherwise "dark" story elements past the radar. But i would however do my very best in hiding all kinds of highly profane innuendos in there. You know, just for the lulz. :P
 
I thought of another example: Tom Ruegger. During his HB days, he did shows like Yogi's Treasure Hunt, 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo, and A Pup Named Scooby Doo. These shows, especially the latter, showed hints of the kind of humor he would use later in WB shows like Tiny Toons and Animanaiacs. I haven't seen much of it, so did any of that humor show up when he wrote Pound Puppies?
 
Well, there was one episode that's a spoof of the spy movie genre where the villain's hideout is a Mount Rushmore parody featuring various Hanna-Barbera canines. So, that probably counts.
 
Two surprising names that toiled in 80s cartoons:

- Academy Award-winner Paul Haggis on "Heathcliff".

- "Big Bang Theory" co-creator Chuck Lorre on "Beany and Cecil" (I forget the name of the book, but Lorre tells an interesting story on how he locked horns with John K. on the content of the show).
 
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