2001 TV News Archives

Justice League

December 22, 2001: Rich Fogel Talks "Justice League"

Toon Zone was able to catch up with Rich Fogel, one of the writers of the "Justice League" animated series. Here's a small excerpt from the interview:

Q: Do you approach JL scripts differently than S:TAS and B:TAS? What do you look towards as inspiration?

RF: Early on, we decided to make these all two and three part stories. There was just no way to tell a dramatic story in half an hour with this many characters. However, working on a bigger canvas has proved challenging. Each story is like doing a major motion picture. It has to be a big, important event to justify our audience's time and attention. And every story has to feel different. As we get on with the season, I think this will become more apparent. Some episodes are dramatic and suspenseful, others are more comedic and lighthearted. We focus on different characters in each story, so each hero gets a turn in the spotlight. Hopefully, there's something for everyone in the mix.

This has been an unusual experience because from Day One, all of the producers (Bruce Timm, James Tucker, Glen Murakami and I) were on the same page about what kind of show we were trying to make. We knew Justice League wouldn't be as dark and psychological as Batman. We wanted it to be epic, colorful and fun so the viewers would get that kind of "gee-whiz" buzz you get when you read a really good comic book. And the DC Universe is so rich. I find that I often go back to the earliest stories for inspiration. There's something pure and unadulterated in the ideas in those early comics. Sure, they're goofy! But there must be some reason why we loved them, and I go back and to look for those nuggets of cool ideas. Then I try to reinterpret them for our modern sensibilities. A good example is Felix Faust. In the original comics he was just another oddball sorcerer, but in the upcoming Paradise Lost story, he's really creepy (Of course, it helps that he is played by Robert Englund who played Freddy in the Nightmare on Elm Street movies!).

Read the entire interview at the Toon Zone website.



2001 Television News

Listed below are all the Television News items archived for 2001.


Back to the News Archive Contents page.

Back to the Latest News page.