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GALAXY HIGH INTERVIEWS!


LARRY DITILLO shares his memories of working on Galaxy High!
Mr. DiTillo was the story editor for the series and also wrote "Pizza's Honor", "Founder's Day", 
"Martian Mumps" and co-wrote "Where's Milo?" with Eric Lewald.

-How did you get the job as writer and story editor for Galaxy High?
   A friend at CBS recommended me to the powers that be and since it was my 
   first crack at a network show I took it. I think the friend was Ralph Sanchez 
   who was both an exec at CBS and at several animation companies afterwards. 

-Did you have regular meetings with all the writers?
   Absolutely. It was more a face-to-face business in those days. Today you're 
   more likely to trade e-mails with a story editor than actually meet. Also 
   this was a network job and that meant lots of notes and lots of note-makers. 
   However this was all on a script-by-script basis, we never had group meetings 
   since everyone but me was a freelancer (though Eric Leewald was on staff at 
   TMS).   

-Are you still in contact with some of the writers?
   I'm still in touch with Karen Willson and Chris Webber and do see Marc Zicree 
   Eric Leewald and Jina Bacarr every now and then, the only ones I haven't seen 
   in a long while are Ken Koonce and David Wiemers.

-Did you ever meet any of the voice cast members?
   All of them. We went to voice sessions frequently. They were great. We had 
   some terrific voice actors and in fact one of them Susan Blu was our voice 
   director on "Beast Wars" when Bob Forward and I story-edited that show. Howie 
   Morris really kept the actors fired up and those sessions were wonderful fun.

-Did you ever meet Chris Columbus, Don Felder or any of the people from
 TMS Entertainment?
   I was working for TMS so yes I met all the people from TMS. No I never met 
   Chris Columbus and Don Felder. 

-Were there any ideas for episodes that were rejected? 
   Sure, that's standard for any show. You get good ideas, not-so-good-ideas and 
   real stinkeroos. You pick what you think is best and reject the others. If 
   you are asking were we censored, then the answer is yes. This also was 
   standard. Kid shows were under the gun back in 1986 and everybody was worried 
   about it. 

-Were there parts of the scripts that never made it in the finished episodes? And if 
 so, do you remember certain cut scenes that would have been good?
   There are always parts of scripts that are cut before a show is animated, 
   often for time (which is judged largely by the recording session), sometimes 
   for content. Do I remember them? Heck no.

-Were there any finished scripts in the works before the show got cancelled?
   Nope, you don't write scripts until a show is picked up.

-Who was your favorite character?
   It may sound awfully Italian of me but I really loved Luigi LaBounci, mainly 
   because Howie Morris always got you the laugh you wanted. I'll make a 
   confession; I am a sucker for supporting characters. 

-What is your favorite episode?
   My personal favorite was Pizza's Honor.  I got the chance to do an "omage" to 
   Roger Corman and make fun of my pal J. Michael Straczynski at the same time. 
   What could be better?

-Were you proud of the work you did educating the audience with the morals and 
 lessons of the series, such as "The Brain Blaster" episode?
   I think it was a good show, I'm proud of that. The moral lessons and 
   "educational" content were basically imposed by the network, again in 
   response to that climate of fear they work in. I am more proud of the fact 
   that we were somewhat subversive at the time.

-Were you impressed by the quality of the animation, the character designs and the 
 music and theme by Don Felder?
   Galaxy High was probably the best limited-animation series I ever worked on. 
   TMS really did a great job with it and Don's music was gweechy.

-Is Galaxy High your favorite animated show you worked on?
   No. Sorry. 

-Do you think your experience working on Galaxy High was a good one and did you have 
 fun with it?
   Absolutely. TMS were great people to work for, they treated you well and 
   let's face it Sachiko, our Japanese producer was the most gorgeous person I 
   ever worked for. They also threw the best Christmas party ever!!!

-Do you think Doyle and Aimee would have hooked up, given the show would
 have continued?
   I imagine so. But frankly Aimee could do better.

-Do you think a new Galaxy High series would work well on today's television market?
   For the answer to this question, see the next question.

-Why do you think the show got cancelled after one season?
   I think basically the show was before its time. The humor was edgy and weird 
   (hey we actually killed a student for a gag!) and quite different from the 
   cartoon comedies that were around at that time. I think TODAY, we might have 
   had a hit with it. Weird factoid - Galaxy's best ratings were in San 
   Francisco and Dallas, Texas. They loved it in those two places.

-Did you ever watch the show in its original run on CBS?
   Every week. I still have my own episodes on VHS.

-What are you up to these days?
   Not a whole lot. It's cold out there for older writers. But I had a good run.

-Have you had a chance to see any of the episodes recently?
   Nope.

-Are you going to buy the DVDs when they are released?
   One would hope I wouldn't have to.

-Have you been contacted by MediaBlasters to do interviews or work on
 the upcoming DVDs?
   Nope. Maybe they think they'd have to give me a set. And they're right.

-What do you think of my Galaxy High Website?
   Quite nice. I went there to catch up. That's it. 
 
Larry DiTillo
Los Angeles, Mar 29, 2006.





  

This site created on Feb 26, 2006