Gargoyles Creator Blames OJ Simpson for the Show’s Demise

Gargoyles‘ creator blames OJ Simpson for the show’s demise and the story behind it is wild. Polygon got a chance to talk with Greg Weisman about the landmark animated series and the downfall was a topic that came up eventually. It seems as though a lot of the drama from the high profile murder case directly contributed to Gargoyles losing favor with the network. In fact, that strange sentence isn’t even the full scope of this story. Weisman also mentioned that the Mighty Morphing Power Rangers had a lot to do with the demise of his show as well. So, if you’re a Gargoyles fan, there’s a ton here to unpack. (Also, some lessons about what happens to all of our favorite shows when they get confronted by forces beyond their control.)

“The main problem we had was, they wanted 52 episodes in the fall of 1995. We managed to do 31, so from my point of view, I was a hero. But from their point of view — they had forgotten that I told them it was impossible, and they were mad,” Weisman told Polygon. “Then we had a couple of other problems. The OJ Simpson trial meant we were constantly being preempted for trial coverage, because we were on syndicated stations, and syndicated stations still primarily lived off local news in the 1990s. Every day it ran, we were being preempted, and in any given city, people were missing episodes of Gargoyles, and falling out of the habit of watching it.”

He continued, “The second big problem was Mighty Morphin Power Rangers coming to the United States. That show was a blockbuster. So in season 1, we were the number 1 show in our afternoon slot, and in season 2, we were consistently number 2. We weren’t a failure, but we’d gone from being a home run to being a double. Power Rangers was the big news and the home run. Our toys fell off. So there wasn’t much thought of doing a season 3. The viewership was fractured. It sounds bizarre that OJ Simpson helped destroy Gargoyles, but it’s true.”

If Disney wanted to bring it back, Keith David is absolutely game. He talked to Comicbook.com’s Adam Barnhardt about Gargoyles and bringing it back.

“You know, those of us who were involved from the beginning… I’ve always wondered why they stopped it in the first place. [We’ve wondered] why we haven’t come back to a reboot,” the actor asked. “I mean, I would love nothing more than to revisit Goliath.

Would you want to see a Gargoyles revival? Let us know in the comments!