JamesDFarrow wrote:
The 5 episodes were produced with numbers 37 to 41. They were produced after episodes 1 - 36, not first. That's why they are in Volume 2.
I have no idea why Disney did this. No idea in the world. Makes no sense at all.
Ideas, stories and strong characters don't just magic themselves up overnight and appear on screen fully formed from the get go...
When a new crew starts on a TV show, especially when 65 episodes have to be churned out in 18 months or so, it's not exactly easy to get a handle on the characterisation of each character straight away. Some cast members may have sounded like they had great potential in the original series pitch to the network, but after a few episodes, maybe they just don't work on screen or mix well with the leading characters. Other bit players may evolve out of a story development meeting on, say, episode 10 once the show is in production and steal the screen. No-one can ever know exactly what the tone of the show is going to be like before it's made, and the first few epiosdes may be a little too slow, too goofy or too serious. These problems need to be stumbled over, then addressed and improved upon to make the show better.
Rather than make the introducturary episodes first, the program makers need to be sure that they best represent the tone and the facets of the lead characters across the whole 65 episode run, so that people are glued to the screen from the start. The Golden Suns five-parter only packs the punch it does because the writers waited until they were at the top of the game and understood which elements made the show fly. If the DuckTales pilot had been made first on the production slate, you'd have probably ended up with Doofus rather than Webby being key to the action, as I don't think the crew realised her potential straight away. Doofus, on the other hand proved a lame duck very early into production, but if he appeared in a major role in episode one, they may have been stuck with him. By quietly dropping him before he ruined the show, those few weaker episodes that he starred in can then be hidden later in the run where their events don't seem so significant.
Season Two is a great example of this character u-turning. The first batch of episodes that went into production all feature Bubba Duck. I guess Bubba wasn't the wildly suceessful character on-screen that the team had was hoping for as, rather than stay in the corner they had written themselves into, they retooled the show dumping Bubba and introducing new character Fenton Crackshell. Fenton fitted much more snuggly into contemporary Duckburg than a one-note caveman character from the past. His strongly written identity and superhero twist prompted many great story ideas, and once they hit gold, Fenton stayed for the duration of the series. When the show went to air, rather that make the u-turn blatantly obvious to the viewers, both batches of shows were introduced at virtually the same time and then randomly interspersed throughout the season. It kept both sets of new characters fresh and meant that they didn't risk audiences getting bored with the Bubba episodes and miss the joys of Gizmoduck completely.
When Talespin went into production, there was no Kit Cloudkicker, Molly or Rebecca Cunningham. The shows weren't turning out as child-friendly and as fun as they could be with the limited cast directly from the Jungle Book (which may have sounded far more appealing in the original pitches to the networks than they eventually were), so before going too much further, the show was retooled and the younger cast members and mother-figure/potential love interest were added and quickly proved to give the show the kick it needed. As the producers had wisely saved making the introduction episodes until late in the production run, they could include every element that was now making the show a sucess and give Kit and the Cunninghams a back-story that made the episodes already in the can even more fascinating to watch. Those limited cast Baloo-centric episodes were then snuck into the airing order every so often later in the run so you wouldn't notice the difference.
Bonkers producers had the same problem with Miranda. She was in the first episodes made, but was felt to have limited appeal as the show had no family element. She was dropped and Lucky Piquel was developed, along with a daughter and wife, so that his episodes could have more of a human element, and Lucky's actions were driven by the motivation of providing for his family. When it came to making the intro episodes late in production, Lucky was right in the foreground, and again, set up in a way that the audience would feel sympathy for him. They had already had several shows experience of what makes Lucky tick and could introduce those strengths in character and play down any weaknesses.
In a quite unprecidented move, an episode was also made that showed Lucky and family LEAVING the show, right near the end of the production that INTRODUCED Miranda as Bonker's new partner. They could then save those percieved weaker and very different episodes until the latter end of the run once the audience was hopefully immersed in the show. I personally rather liked Miranda's epiosodes, and never particularly warmed to Lucky, so the early episodes acted as a breath of fresh air. I find it facinating that evolved in a completely different way than the broadcast order would suggest!
Hope I haven't gone on for too long, but I hope I've proved just why this situation isn't always as cut and dry as you think! Nobody was trying to ruin your future enjoyment of the show; they were just trying to make it better, and you can't complain at them for that!
Jamie B : )
