An Inside Look at the Making of Beast Wars

Friday I posted my "final" thoughts on rewatching Beast Wars.  While digging through my old reviews, I found some interviews I conducted with writers Bob Forward and Larry DiTillio back in the mid-90s.  Even if you don't like Beast Wars it kinda gives you an inside look at how a TV show is made and what it's like to be a television writer.

Screen capture from Tubi

Bob Forward Interview #1

Question 1. For those out there who don't know, could you briefly summarize some of the projects you have worked on previously?

Thank God for copy & paste. Here's the "TV Animation" section of my credits.

HE-MAN -- 2 episodes, SHERA -- 15 episodes, GHOSTBUSTERS -- 14 episodes, RAMBO -- 1 episode, BRAVESTARR -- 15 episodes, BRAVO! -- 11 episodes, C.O.P.S. -- story editor, SLIMER -- 3 episodes, CAPTAIN PLANET -- pilot, KABUKIMAN -- bible/pilot, SUPER DAVE -- 1 episode, HAMMERMAN -- 3 episodes, THE LEGEND OF ZELDA -- story editor, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG -- 4 episodes, BIKER MICE FROM MARS -- story editor, EXOSQUAD -- 2 episodes, WILDC.A.T.S -- story editor, DOUBLE DRAGON -- 1 episode, ACTION MAN -- story editor, THE SAVAGE DRAGON -- co-story editor (‘96 season), BEAST WARS -- co-story editor

Question 2. How were you chosen to work on the Beast Wars TV show?

I'd known Chris Brough for years, ever since we were both at DIC. We'd tried to work together before but had conflicting commitments. This finally worked out -- mainly because I loved the show from the get-go and told my agent to make it happen.

Question 3. Have you been surprised at all about the tremendously positive response to the show so far?

Yes and no. We liked it, but we were worried about the timeslot and lack of promotion. We were afraid no one would see it. We're very glad of the word-of-mouth though.

Question 4. "Fallen Comrades" was one of my favorite episodes. What was your inspiration for Tigatron?

Iron Eyes Cody.

Question 5. In "Call of the Wild", whose idea was it for Megatron to be carried in that chair?

That was Megs' own request. He enjoys getting a bit theatrical at times. And we figured what the hey, he's a star, let him have his fun.

Question 6. In "Before the Storm", Megatron was shown as quite cunning and smart, which is unconventional for a cartoon show villain. How did you evolve his personality?

Just as with Optimus, Megatron had ambitions but lacked experience in his field. The growth of characters is intentional. We felt a villain you saw develop would be more interesting than a cut-and-dried bad guy handed out on a platter.

Question 7. In "The Trigger" there was some great interaction between Tigatron and Airazor. Have you ever thought of maturing their relationship?

Yes, but... next question.

Now then, to what people want to know about it...Season Two.

Question 8. Everyone says that Terrorsaur and Scorponok are going to bump into each other, fall into lava, and die. To me that sounds a little...anticlimactic. Are they really going to die in this way?

You have to understand the realities of making a show like this. We live in this fantasy world where all the characters are real to us and they phone us up in the middle of the night complaining about their parts not being meaty enough. We deal with it. But then we get a hard dose of reality when the toy company that funds the show says: "Get rid of this character because it's off the shelves. Now. No dragging it out, we don't want to pay for another dime more of animation advertising something that is no longer making us money. But leave us a loophole in case we decide to reissue." So we do something quick and sort of permanent, like lava, but if we ever had to we could find them trapped in an underground cave or something.

Question 9. Has it been difficult to practically destroy everything you've built up and recreate the show?

Not as difficult as trying to convince Mainframe to scrap all their sets. :)

Question 10. As a writer I always feel a little sad when I kill off a character I've spent a lot of time maturing. How do you feel about killing off Optimus Primal?

At least he went out heroically. Frankly, I feel worse about Terrorsaur.

Those are all the questions. Thank-you for your participation.

Bob Forward Interview #2

1. You've worked on a lot of different shows, what show did you work the longest on?

BW is right up there. Many of the others were 65 episodes, but they were all done in a single year. Those were the grind-em-out days of syndicated animation. BW is looking to run almost three years at the moment, but without the pressure of five scripts a week, like in C.O.P.S.

2. Other than Beast Wars, has there been a show you've felt really good about, one that you've really loved to work on?

I generally enjoy every show I've ever worked on, for its own reasons. The only one that I detested from the get-go was "Captain Planet." For contractual reasons I was forced to write the pilot, but I hated the show so much (I considered it self-righteous propaganda) I changed my name on the script to "Billy Rubin." It almost aired that way but the producers figured it out at the last moment and changed that to "William Rubin." Other than that, I generally choose to work on shows because I think they will be fun.

3. Other than Beast Wars, what show would you just love to write a script for?

Gosh, there's so many smart-aleck answers to that I don't know which to pick. How about "One created by myself, with just scads of merchandising rights and a huge toy tie-in and movie potential?"

4. I heard that you directed the upcoming episode, "Code of a Hero". If so, how different is it to direct an episode compared to writing one?

Very. By the way, it's "Code Of Hero." I wanted to direct an episode for many reasons, not the least of which was I felt that I would learn a great deal about the CGI production process, which I hoped would help in writing future scripts. I've always felt that my background in cel animation production was useful in writing standard animation scripts -- I have a better idea of what to call for.

Anyway, this episode was one which I had initially conceived, but since I was hoping to direct it I could not officially write it -- it had to be written by a Canadian, to keep up the Canadian content. (Mainframe gets a certain amount of Canadian government funding.) I gave it to Ian Weir to write, who did an excellent job.

I then drew up an entire storyboard. The complete show, beginning to end, every single scene. This is, I believe, the first show that Mainframe has ever produced that had a complete storyboard. They'll occasionally board certain scenes, but not the entire show. But I came from cel animation and storyboards are how we keep shows under control.

Mainframe has a different technique. They use mostly live-action directors and they animate master shots -- in other words, they animate the entire scene, all the characters, doing everything, and then move the camera around to pick the angles -- closeups, medium shots, etc. For a live action director this must be heaven -- to be able to do infinite takes from any angle, and the actors always hit their marks and never flub their lines. Problem is, it isn't very efficient. Much of the animation that is done is never seen in the final cut, because it is taking place during one character's closeup, etc. The animators know this, and they are getting burned out, working overtime to do animation that no one ever sees. It also takes time and costs money. Storyboards force the director to make those decisions *before* animating, which can be tough. But at least there is a plan, and the animation can be done more efficiently. Mainframe is slowly moving in that direction, but the directors and producers are reluctant -- understandably -- to give up the freedom they had with the previous method. Still, the realities of time and budget will eventually make themselves felt.

Back to the board. Because I came from cel animation, I boarded it like a cel animated show. The show will probably have a different "feel" because of it -- it will be interesting to see if anyone notices. The original storyboard, all 169 hand-drawn pages of it, including several scenes that were cut for time, is being donated to the Botcon '98 charity auction if anyone is interested.

Ultimately, I learned a great deal, not the least of which was that in comparison with directors, we animation writers have an easy life. :) And I'm grateful for the education that was provided by everyone involved, especially my supervising animator (Walter Hsieh) who singlehandedly animated almost half the show, my editor (Patrick Carroll) and the entire crew of Suite G. I made up a crew tee-shirt and had them all autograph it, indicating the scenes they themselves had done -- this is also being donated to Botcon.

5. "Coming of the Fuzors" was intended to introduce the fuzors, but why weren't they given more air time in the episode itself?

The original title was "Recycled Steel," but it was considered too much of a giveaway about Primal's return.

6. How did you think up Silverbolt's ultra-noble attitude?

Mostly we try to chose character traits that will give us the most story potential. This generally means conflict. We didn't have a "white knight" yet and we could see a lot of ways in which this undeniable good guy could irritate the others. Silverbolt is Lancelot De Luc -- "My strength is as the strength of ten, for my heart is pure and my mind is clean" and like Lancelot, he *will* have a dangerous flaw that he cannot bring himself to admit.

7. What was your inspiration for the Wild West motif in "Coming of the Fuzors"?

Actually, that was suggested by Steve Sacks (one of the directors) during the first draft, and I have always had a soft spot for spaghetti westerns. I rewrote the scripts to fit, but I can't take the credit for the initial idea.

8. What kind of things would you like to do in a Season 3, assuming that it is a full season of 26 episodes?

In any case, as the Transmetals and Fuzors are no longer what anyone would consider "robots in disguise" on prehistoric Earth, I personally would like to get them off the planet. But we have no set plans.

9. When Terrorsaur and Scorponok fell in the lava, at least one of them was glowing. Does that mean that at least one of them will be back in Transmetal form either in this season or in the future?

No plans. It merely gives us that option.

10. Suppose that Beast Wars lasts beyond a hypothetical 3rd Season. What sort of access to prototype toys do you have to create characters with or do you just draw up story arcs and add the specific new characters later?

We're given some information about new characters but nowhere near as much as we'd like. And sometimes they change the characters on us at the last minute.

*Off the record: How annoying is it to be hounded by people like myself who want information on the show, especially those who want spoilers? Are there times when you think that maybe you have too much contact with BW fans?*

Oh, this can be on the record. It all depends on the attitude expressed by the questioner and the manner of the question. The thirst for spoilers puzzles me -- it's like wanting to know the final score of a football game before you watch it. After all, is it really the destination or the journey that you're supposed to enjoy?

As for too much contact -- well, it's been enlightening. I've never worked on a show with this kind of following, and the Internet has added accessibility. Ultimately though, I have to move on.

Larry DiTillio Interview #1

Question 1. For those out there who don't know, could you briefly summarize some of the projects you have worked on previously?

A1. I have been a scriptwriter since 1973 and have worked in film, television and animation. Starting with animation, I broke into that field in the early 80's working on He Man and the Masters of the Universe for Filmation. I then was given the task of developing a show featuring He Man's long-lost sister which eventually became She-Ra Princess of Power. From Filmation I went to DIC where I worked on Jayce and Wheeled Warriors and Hulk Hogan's Rock n' wrestling and from DIC to Ruby-Spears where I did some development work and wrote a few episodes of Centurions. After that I worked primarily freelance, staffing or story-editing on a bevy of cartoons including Galaxy High School, Conan the Adventurer, The Real Ghostbuster and others. I have written well over a hundred produced animation scripts. In Live Action I am best known as the Executive Story Editor on the first two seasons of Babylon 5. Other live action shows I wrote include Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future, The Hitchhiker, Swamp Thing and Murder She Wrote.

Question 2. How were you chosen to work on the Beast Wars TV show?

A2. Chris Brough, the head Honcho of Mainframe, came to my agent Candy Monteiro(One of the best know animation agents in Hollywood) and wanted writers to helm Beast Wars. Chris felt that Mainframe's first hit "Reboot" had great CGI animation but lacked good stories. He wanted to correct this on Beast Wars, hiring veterans of the animation industry to guide the show. Candy suggested me and Bob Forward. We met with Chris, liked what he had to say and especially the price he was willing to pay. The rest is as they say "history".

Question 3. Have you been surprised at all about the tremendously positive response to the show so far?

A3. Frankly no. The animation is spectacular and the writing is on a level far above most shows of this type and that will almost always get you a great response. I was more surprised by the initial hostility from TF fans BEFORE the show ever hit the air.

Question 4. "The Spark" was one of my favorite episodes of the first season. What was your inspiration for the sparks that give Transformers life?

The thing that interested me most about the Transformers was not their awesome weaponry or how cleverly they transformed but rather that they were SENTIENT metal beings. I spent a long time trying to figure out how this sentience was achieved and what it was that made our heores and villains so "human". This led to a whole theory of exactly how a Maximal or Predacon comes on-line which was refined over the course of the season until I came up with "The Spark". Later this also led to more theories about the TF universe as it exists in the Beast Wars period and what the source of the sparks was. The last thing I came up with was the actual name - Spark. I wanted something I could think of as the SOUL of a Transformer but didn't want to call it that. Suddenly out of the blue, came a '"spark" of inspiration (Groannn!).. Thus was The Spark born.

Question 5. Inferno is definitely one of the most interesting characters in the show. How did you come up with his unique personality?

A5. Coming up with Inferno's personality was actually fairly simple. He was after all birthed from an ant and right from the get-go I thought of him as that. Ants are fercious and ruthless warriors, so that component fit perfectly. They are also devoted to their colonies and Queens and so came the on-going "My Queen" and "The Royalty" lines. They also hate spiders (in addition to many other sorts of enemies) so it was quite natural for Inferno to freak out when he thought a spider was invading his nest. Much credit also goes to Jim who does an excellent job with the voice characterization, creating that lovable nutty berserker whom fans affectionately call "Ole Blender Butt".

Question 6. In "Spider's Game" there is a lot of sexual chemistry between Tarantulus and Black Arachnia. Was there any concern voiced from anyone that this might not be appropriate for a children's show?

A6. Nary a word was ever said against it. However I would argue that most of the sexual chemistry is coming from Blackarachnia. Tarantulas is really not interested in her as anything more than an ally. And frankly she drives him pretty crazy. There will be many interesting developments in their twisted relations in the new season.

Question 7. Someone told me that my favorite episode of the season, "Law of the Jungle" had a lot of revisions done to it. Is that true?

A7. Very few of the freelance scripts we assigned last year escaped revision and "Law of the Jungle" by Mark Leiren-Young was probably one of the easier scripts to revise. It is the job of the story editor to revise scripts, so that each script has the right "flavor" for the series. Freelancers often miss on characterizations and other things which we as story editors know better (largely because many times last year they were literally working in the dark, not being able to actually see completed episodes until after their jobs were done). Beast Wars is actually a very tough show for freelancers to write, nevertheless Bob and I still give half the work to freelancers.

Question 8. Have you found a 13 episode season constraining to your story arc at all?

A8. On the contrary. Having half the episodes actually allowed us to concentrate more on our story arc and insured that Bob and I would be handling key episodes.

It has also given us more time to work with the freelancers and see that their stories all fit into the continuity.

Question 9. Has it been difficult to practically destroy everything you've built up and recreate the show?

A9. No, because we haven't really done that. Yes there will be changes in season 2, but this hardly means we're giving up what we spent a lot of time and effort creating in season one. Yes some characters will change, others will depart but our story-line continues right where it left off.

Question 10. As a writer I always feel a little sad when I kill off a character I've spent a lot of time maturing. How do you feel about killing off Optimus Primal, Scorponok, and Terrorsaur?

A10. I'm writing a science fiction drama, and what is more dramatic than the death of a character? So as a writer, I feel great.

Larry DiTillio Interview #2

1. You've worked on a lot of different shows, what show did you work the longest on?

Actually my longest stint on any one show has been two years. Though who knows I may work three on Beast Wars. I worked two on Babylon 5, two on Captain Power, two on He-Man, etc.

2. Other than Beast Wars, has there been a show you've felt really good about, one that you've really loved to work on?

Babylon 5, Captain Power and He Man have to be my favorites.

3. Other than Beast Wars, what show would you just love to write a script for?

Xena, Warrior Princess is number one, Buffy the Vampire Slayer # 2. I may get a shot at Xena soon since I have a meeting with them on January 6th.

4. "Aftermath" was a good episode, but it seemed a lot like a commercial for the Transmetals. Of course, it's understandable that Hasbro wants the new toys advertised on the show. However, did you feel that you had to sacrifice some of the story in order to work in the new toy line?

Yes and No. Since we met with Hasbro before we ever began working on scripts, we knew that we'd have to do a story introducing the Transmetals up front. This is of course, endemic to toy-driven shows and there is basically nothing you can do about it. I had hoped we could take our time introducing Transmetals. Indeed my first notion was to have Megatron come up with Transmetal technology and change himself, then change selected members of his crew. Then the Maximals would have to '"acquire" the process and change themselves to match the Pred Transmetals. Alas that was not to be Hasbro wanted everything in the first show and we needed to comply. Thus I simply threw up my hands and said okay, we'll do it all at once and get it over with. Since I meant to use the aftermath of the explosion anyway, it became the means to Transmetal all the characters. Remember to Hasbro, the show is a commercial, they don't care a whit about story.

5. In "Call of the Wild" and "Dark Voyage" there was the message that the Transformers are more than just robots with beast forms, that their beast forms are a part of them. Do you feel that adding the non-organic Transmetal and the Fuzors has changed this?

Absolutely. While I mainly like the new look of the Transmetals, we lost some of their nice animal mode stuff in the translation. Rattrap and Cheetor certainly are not as "cute" as they were and we find we kind of miss that. Of course Rhinox and Waspinator and others still have the old beast modes, so it's not all gone.

6. In "Aftermath", Rhinox took Optimus Primal's death harder than the other Maximals. Why is this?

Rhinox was much close to Primal than any of the others. They are old friends. Plus Rhinox has that mystical quality to him which we've played on numerous occasions and played again in his "sensing" of Optimus's death.

7. What kind of things would you like to do in a Season 3, assuming that it is a full season of 26 episodes?

Personally, I'd like to reveal a lot more of the alien backstory and even journey to Cybertron on occasion and provide more background on the social system there.

But as no one has mentioned a third season yet, it's all pretty moot.

8. Have you and Bob ever brainstormed on a Beast Wars movie? I am aware that Hasbro has not asked for one yet, but have you ever considered what you would do hypothetically? If so, what would you like to do?

NOPE. It's certainly an interesting idea, you could theoretically do a lot more in a movie version of BW (assuming Hasbro didn't treat it as a very long commercial). However, given the nature of show biz, writers seldom sit around brainstorming on non-existent projects. When one is done, we move on and that is what I intend to do.

9. When Terrorsaur and Scorponok fell in the lava, at least one of them was glowing. Does that mean that at least one of them will be back in Transmetal form either in this season or in the future?

As of this moment, they are DEAD... But if BW goes on, you never know. It's a tradition to revive characters like this, and certainly it is possible, though for the rest of season 2, they are gone.

10. Suppose that Beast Wars lasts beyond a hypothetical 3rd Season. What sort of access to prototype toys do you have to create characters with or do you just draw up story arcs and add the specific new characters later?

Usually very little to none. We just start with existing characters, then fold in any new ones as appropriate.

Larry DiTillio Interview #3

1. For those who weren't there, could you briefly summarize what you talked about during your panel at Botcon this year?

This year's BotCon Panel was mainly a question and answer session with the audience. We never had the time or inclination to just flap our gums but rather to answer those burning questions on the minds of Beast Wars Fans. Of course many of these questions we did NOT answer because they had to do with the events of the upcoming 3rd Season. One bit of information was confirmed, DepthCharge will be one of the new characters in Season 3.

2. How have you coped with the runaway success of Beast Wars to keep from getting overconfident?

We are professional writers, we don't get overconfident. Every script is still done with the same care and work as we put into Season One. More actually, since we are dealing with multiple storylines.

3. Rhinox is a favorite character of mine, and yet he was restricted to guarding the base for most of Season 2. Will he get a chance to get out of base more in Season 3?

Unlikely. Rhinox is a defensive specialist and the Maximals chief techno. He is in effect the last line of defense should anyway breach the Maximal stronghold. Certainly he is as formidable as anyone in the field, but he is more important right where he is.

4. Season 2 was decidedly darker than Season 1 with more emphasis on the villains than the heroes. Will Season 3 continue this trend or will it get back to the lighter, more hero-driven stories of Season 1?

Season 3 has quite a few very dark shows, but many of these are hero-driven. We try as best we can to give both factions equal time. In addition the stakes of our little war have gotten much higher and this will tend to add some dark moments.

5. Tigatron and Airazor were already in essence written out of the show, why was it necessary to write them out more permanently?

SHADES OF HASBRO! When I said I was doing a story to write Air razor and Tigatron out, Hasbro said "Why? Just let them wander around the planet". Well I explained to them as I am doing to you that even if Tigatron and Air Razor were off exploring the planet, they were still there and they were still capable of recieving communications from the Maximals. And all of our audience knew it, so at times of great crisis it would have been perfectly legitimate to ask - why don't they call in Air Razor and Tigatron. Indeed events of Season 2 would have HAD to lead to that eventually. In order to stave off this necessity, they were clearly written out.

6. In my review of "Other Voices" I made this comment about Airazor and Tigatron's final scene: "It came as quite a surprise to me, and overall I thought the scene just didn't work. The music, the lines, the situation, none of it sold the mood or the scene to me." Would you agree or disagree with this assessment?

I imagine you mean "Other Visits" (since this is where the scene between the two take place). And naturally I disagree, I thought the scene played quite well.

7. If all Maximals are gone, wouldn't BlackArachnia, Inferno, Quickstrike, and even Rampage disappear as their sparks are Maximal?

Yes to the first 3, but Rampage's spark is unique, being neither Maximal nor Predacon but in essence a new and quite terrifying breed.

8. If the Autobots were defeated, wouldn't the Decepticons and Cybertron have been destroyed by Unicron in 2005 as there would be no Matrix to destroy him with?

What IF questions are always chancy. Yes Unicron might destroy Cybertron, or perhaps the Decepticons, freed of the constant need to contend with the AutoBots might have developed their own method of dealing with Unicron. When time and space bcfome flexible, so does history.

9. Megatron referred to the "secret war" between the Autobots and Decepticons about the time the Voyager satellite was launched in the late '70s. Yet BlackArachnia said in Part 3 of "The Agenda" that the Transformers were not activated until 1984. How do you account for this discrepancy?

Megatron has information that Blackarachnia doesn't. Which is why he referred to it as a secret war.

10. It has been reported at Botcon that you said that Optimus Prime would remain dead, if so, don't you think you've desecrated the hero to many fans of the original show?

No. Optimus Prime has died in the TF saga numerous times, are we to consider every one of those deaths to be a "desecration" (a rather ludicrous term when dealing with a television show anyway). Add to that, that whoever "reported'" what I said apparently didn't report the tone as well, which was purposely casual.

11. Let me run some numbers by you. At the end of Season 1 there were 14 characters on the show. By the end of Season 2 5 of them were dead: Terrorsaur, Scorponok, Airazor, Tigatron, and Dinobot. Don't you think that by killing nearly half your cast in one season you are alienating some fans of the show who thought that one of the dead was their favorite character?

No, we are telling a story about a war and if characters didn't die, it would be tantamount to saying wars can be fought without people dying. Well you can't and I refuse to give kids that impression. We tell violent stories but we try to show the consequences of violence as often as we can. This means losing people dear to us, as well as to the fans.

12. Finally, Season 3 will only be 13 episodes not starting until November. Until then reruns will have to be aired, reruns that have already been shown many times before. Since most of your target audience does not know when new episodes are aired, can Beast Wars stay competitive with the many new shows on the market?

Season 2 also didn't start until November and also had only 13 episodes. The show never lost any of it's steam because of it, in fact it is more popular then ever. As long as we strive to tell good stories, Beast Wars will remain a good show and it's visual style puts it head and shoulders above most of the new shows it is competing with.

As you can see, the first couple interviews for each writer I did a lot of the same questions to see if I'd get a different response.  Forward kind of blew off a lot of my questions but when I asked about directing the one episode I got a lengthy response; I think if I'd known that in advance I would have asked more questions like that, but, hey, I'm not a journalist.  The last interview with DiTillio I got a little more adversarial; I guess I was trying to get a scoop or something.  But it didn't really work.  Unfortunately in an email interview it's hard to get one of those "gotcha" moments.

Obviously at the time I was focused on the show in most of my questions.  That is what my readership--such as it was--would really want to know about.  At this point I wish I had maybe asked more about their careers and the business and some technical aspects of how the show got made.  I mean, unless I go to a WGA picket line it's probably not as easy to get time to talk to a TV show writer these days.  That would be more interesting to me now.

Looking them up on IMDB, DiTillio died in 2019.  It doesn't look like he did a lot after Beast Wars, just a few episodes here and there, including one for Transformers Animated.  Forward is still alive and had a project as recently as 2018.  He's the son of physicist and sci-fi writer Robert L Forward--the IMDB page says "J" Forward but it should be "L" from some independent research on Google.

BTW, I was thinking this is why you should be careful about what you say online.  I mean, I unearthed these interviews from over 25 years ago!  I don't think anything controversial or embarrassing was said, but still, it goes to show that anything said online can stick around a long, long time.