User:Scooge/Lobo

John P. McCann on Lobo, Installment One:

http://writeenough.blogspot.com/2008/08/main-man-mania.html

That last post brought back memories of a busy time at Warner Brothers. I think I'd written the Lobo pilot months earlier and forgotten about it. But suddenly the Main Man had heat. Along with Boyd Kirkland, then Scotty Jeralds, we got the show rolling.

In the fall of 1998:

Lobo was test-marketed. Boys loved it. (Lobo broke things and didn't take any lip. What's not to love?)

We pitched the show to marketing. They went wild. ("We can sell toys based on this. We really can!")

We pitched the show to Jamie Kellner and our new bosses at Kids' WB. Nothing. A sea of Toltec masks.

We pitched the show to Warner Studios head, Bob Daley. While not a demonstrative man, he thought it just fine.

Models changed, props were drawn, Scotty's crew got the board started. Composer Richard Stone was fired up to do music, while Brad Garrett would voice Lobo. In addition, voice director Andrea Romano had cast William H. Macy and Linda Hamilton in supporting roles.

I had ideas for twelve half-hour episodes. Two writers (Ken Segall and Mitch Watson) were working on outlines.

This was shaping up to be fun.

On a Friday in late January 1999, boss Jean MacCurdy called me into her office. Monday was the production start date. Artists were already reporting to work. Scotty's crew had the first act boarded.

We were cancelled.

Jamie Kellner just didn't like the show.

Jean spent the day on the phone, calling different people, angling for ways we might proceed. But no go.

Scotty and the production manager (Haven Alexander?) let the artists know we'd been sunk. I told Stonini, Andrea, and the writers. It was a depressing day.

In 2000, Fox expressed interest in the project. We had a few meetings but never agreed on numbers. Also that year, Lobo webisodes appeared on the Warner Brothers site.

Meanwhile, the show hurriedly purchased to replace Lobo on the schedule was having phenomenal success.

It was called Pokemon.



Scott Jeralds on iMDB:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0421874/



Existing TV/Warner Brothers segment from Wikipedia entry:

Television

Lobo as he appears in Superman: The Animated Series. Lobo first appeared on the small screen in the DC Animated Universe series Superman: The Animated Series. In the episode "The Main Man", Lobo (voiced by Brad Garrett) has been hired by an alien named the "Preserver" to capture Superman and add him to the Preserver's collection of rare and endangered species. Lobo heads straight for Earth and starts firing his weapons in the middle of a police station until Superman arrives to confront him. The two battle all over downtown Metropolis. Unable to gain an advantage, Lobo leaves Earth to "take five." Superman follows Lobo into space, where Lobo lures Superman into a trap set by the Preserver. Superman is captured and placed in a specialized cage, so that the Preserver might preserve Superman as the last remnant of the Kryptonian race. However, the Preserver then decides to add Lobo to his collection as well, since Lobo was also technically the last of his own race, though due to his own actions of "fragging" his home planet as his science project rather than misfortune. Superman and Lobo eventually join forces to escape the Preserver and another group of bounty hunters, who had been pursuing Lobo to reclaim a prisoner. In return, Lobo promises to leave Earth alone.

Lobo briefly appears in another Superman: The Animated Series episode in which Maxima falls in love with Superman. He also makes a cameo appearance in the Legion of Super Heroes episode "Legacy". Lobo eventually returns to Earth in the Justice League episode "Hereafter". Believing that Superman has died, Lobo wants to join the Justice League, insisting that only he could take Superman's place. Lobo seems motivated more out of ego and a chance "to bust heads" than any actual desire to do good or help others. In spite of his obvious violent tendencies and his lack of any redeeming moral virtues, the League allow Lobo to help them for a short time while they deal with a large number of supervillains running amok in Metropolis in response to Superman's apparent death. Lobo battles and easily defeats the supervillain Kalibak, primarily by piling more & more cars on top of him until he says "Uncle." In the end, Superman returns to the ranks of the League, and Lobo, his membership rejected, is forced to leave. Lobo has not reappeared since the League rejected him. Brad Garrett reprises his voice role. As in the comics, Lobo possesses exceptional strength and durability, as well as his usual over-the-top arsenal of weapons. However, he never displays any of the healing powers or advanced senses that he possesses in the comics, although he also never sustains injuries as severe as he does in the comics, likely due to differences in television standards and practices. Lobo's gutting hook is never shown during any of the character's appearances. However, he does briefly utilize a steel chain in the Superman: The Animated Series episode "The Main Man." He mostly uses a crowbar for bludgeoning his opposition.

In 1999, Batman: The Animated Series writer Boyd Kirkland developed a new Lobo series for Kids' WB with artist Steven Gordon. The series never went into production, as the network passed on it in a last-minute schedule announcement that year, to the surprise of the production team. The series was instead adapted into an online cartoon.

[edit]Webseries

After the cancellation of the Lobo TV series, www.loboonline.com (now discontinued) was launched. It featured 14 interactive webisodes as well as several other features. The official website is now gone, but the episodes can be found elsewhere online. See the DC Animated Universe Wiki for more details.