Yash, on 07 March 2014 - 12:23 AM, said:
It looks like they just used the old concept art from the AOSTH/SATAM days for some of them.
Well, from what I recall, Ben Hurst talked about the first meeting where DiC brought in writers who would work on Underground, showed them a random episode from the first season of the Saturday morning cartoon, and said they wanted something like that but with the Underground premise. So it's not all that surprising they were reusing assets they had already created to build the world of Underground. Saves them money, after all. Which brings me to...
E-122-Psi, on 04 March 2014 - 07:23 PM, said:
Is that Knothole on some of those?
TRIVIA: Ben Hurst initially attempted to pitch a continuation of SatAM before they tweaked it into a new standalone concept that became Underground. He stated in an interview to loathe working on the final product.
That's not exactly how it happened. From the mouth of Ben Hurst on Underground, the pitch of a third season, and (surprise!) Ken Penders:
Ben Hurst said:
Here's how Sonic Underground happened. After SatAm was canned because of a change in leadership at ABC and low ratings caused by multiple pre-emptions caused by sporting events and finally - being placed up against the red-hot "Power Rangers," (now there's some genius programming strategy) - a new version of Sonic was created: Sonic Underground.
Did they ask me or Pat or Len Janson to develop the series? No. In fact, I never heard of the series before a DIC story editor called and asked me and Pat to come to a cattle call for Sonic Underground. I refused (we don't do cattle calls - which, for those of you unfamiliar with the term - is where they bring in about 20 writers to learn about a series and pitch written premises (for free) in hopes of snagging an episode or two). The story editor got us there by guaranteeing us at least a few episodes. So, off we went to a conference room at DIC.
We got there and yep, twenty writers. They showed an episode of SatAm (first season) to "illustrate the background" of the characters. It wasn't one of mine or Pat's - it was one of the other episodes. After they described the marvelous new direction (Siblings, Music, Missing Mother, Stupid New Characters) they ended the meeting. We were taken into another room with the story editor who told us he wanted us to write the pilot episode. We did. SEGA read the script, then the story editor was fired and we were hired. They also hired another team of story editors - who survived through about 8 episodes before they left. We also got a few fledgling writers shoved down our throat by the producer (results: I had to rewrite their damned unusable scripts from page one - they still got paid for the script - I got nada)
We tried our best to get some lore going, but DIC was racing through the series at 2 episodes a week - an insane pace and one calculated to maximize their profits. We managed to get a three-part origin story through, but with the limited time, we were unable to tie everything together. The only bright spot was that we assigned 6 scripts to Len Janson, who wrote some damn nice stuff.
So that's the saga of SU. As I rewatch some of the episodes, I'm surprised it's as good as it is. I'm fully aware it doesn't match up to SatAm and I would give my eye teeth to be hired to do the SatAm third season. But the only way for that to happen would be for some visionary exec at DIC to realize they're sitting on a gold mine.
I did consult with DIC to see if there was a way to generate some enthusiasm for a feature film to be the "Third Season" of SatAm. I was given the name of a SEGA executive and had a most pleasant conversation. She had to go to a meeting, but said she would like to talk to me more about the idea.
The next day, I got a call from Ken Penders, who had been alerted by his contact in their office that I was interested in getting a Sonic movie going. I generously offered to include him in the effort and told him my strategy. Get SEGA to become invested in the idea by hiring us to interview their creative game designers, execs, etc and see if we could develop a story line that would fulfill the third season - and simultaneously give them creative ideas to develop new games. A win-win, situation.
Then, I called SEGA back, but I was shocked when the exec "lit" into me, telling me, "People pay US to develop Sonic product, we don't pay them!" Then she hung up on me. Obviously, Penders had related my strategy to them in a less-than-flattering way. Thanks for the knife, Ken.
So, I gave up. Later, I was informed by friendly fans that Penders had written in his message board or some such place that "Ben Hurst doesn't know how movies are made in Hollywood." (Hey Ken, read "Adventures in Screenwriting" by William Goldman and get some humility) Then he dropped hints that HE would be the writer for a big Sonic Feature Film. That was three years ago.
So yeah, Ben's pitch for a third season came after he was brought back into the fold with Underground.
00
Manic's expressions are priceless.
