|
Today marks
the 15th anniversary of the
premiere of X-Men the Animated Series
on the Fox Kids Network.
Originally supposed to premiere earlier
in the season, the show underwent
multiple production delays. The
first promos for the show even
advertised the premiere to air on
Saturday, October 24, 1992, but just a
few days beforehand, further production
delays caused it to be pulled at the
last second, with a special airing of
Stan Lee and David Oliphant's relatively
unknown pilot episode of Solarman
airing instead. Though problems
with the first two episodes, including
the opening theme, still existed, the
first episode 'Night of the Sentinels,
Part I' aired the following Saturday on
October 31, 1992. 'Night of the
Sentinels, Part II' premiered the
following week on November 7, 1992.
At the end of the episode, Stan Lee
performed a voice over thanking fans for
watching the two episode sneak peak of
the series and encouraged them to stay
tuned for the 'official' premiere of the
rest of the series in January of 1993.
X-Men the
Animated Series was extremely
instrumental in changing the fortunes of
the Fox Kids Network. People often
incorrectly credit the Mighty Morphin
Power Rangers as the show that
increased the network's ratings and
spearheaded its continued win in the
demographics, but that show was actually
the X-Men once it returned on
January 9, 1993. Despite such
success, X-Men was not always a
welcomed addition to Saturday mornings.
Margaret Loesch, the President of Fox
Kids from 1990-1997, had shopped around
the idea of a Saturday morning X-Men
program with the Pryde of the X-Men
pilot episode back in the late
1980's while she was at Marvel
Productions; however, none of the
networks would attach themselves to it.
Nevertheless, once Loesch founded the
Fox Kids Network, she gave the X-Men the
chance she wanted years earlier and her
intuition paid off greatly.
Even
after all these year, X-Men the
Animated Series is remembered for
its mature storylines, character
development, and unforgettable theme by
Ron Wasserman (who also composed the
MMPR theme). Though often
plagued with animation problems
throughout the entire series (even third
season episodes were delayed for
months), the series still stands up
against current shows and even aired on
American airwaves as recently as last
year.
To
commemorate such an anniversary, we've
interviewed Margaret Loesch (Fox Kids
President),
Sidney Iwanter (Fox Kids
Vice President and Executive in Charge
of X-Men), and
Eric Lewald (Story
Editor) for some inside
information on the series.
|
