THE WRECKTIFIERS

I first came up with the basic idea for THE WRECKTIFIERS around the time the Roslin Institute introduced the world to Dolly the Sheep... and I have been doodling around with it ever since. I know far less about basics genetics then Gregor Mendel did, but with this brave new world of cloning and genetic experimentation fast approaching, I wondered how geniuses would pervert it. I imagined a world where scientists could rid any family tree of all its genetic diseases and make every baby born free from any chromosomal damage. From there, mad scientists then take over and turn all of Earth and everything on it into one very large Petri dish.

If I had had the opportunity to take steroids in high school, I would have gobbled them down like M&Ms. No matter how much time I spent in the weight room, I still graduated looking like
Arnold Stang (shown here, on the left, with Fess Parker and Peter Lorre), which proved quite embarrassing during those mixed doubles arm and leg wrestling contests put on by our sadistic gym teachers. My win/loss record was no doubt due to the high concentration of testosterone in all the girls I faced.

From my fertile imagination sprang a world far beyond steroids: A world where expectant mothers injected a potion into their fetus; a potion which would, over time, give their newborn child the ability to survive on any substance, drink any fluid, fear no ozone depletion, and live as long as there were replaceable parts.

Granted, these powers were not of the comic book variety, but that wouldn't be the story. The real tale involved how Earth disintegrated when this magic formula kicked back results no one expected, turning all of humanity into a messy mass of devolving protoplasm.

Of course the only people who can rectify this situation are two teens with the secret to Earth's salvation. Hey! This is a cartoon show for kids ages 9-14. To make this story work, the two teens have disappeared from Earth for five centuries. During that time, a science fiction convention of mad scientists have taken cloning, cyborg enhancement, dinosaur making and hybrid creation to a point where we can imagine a massive boys' action toy line and an innumerable number of cartoon episodes.

As you read THE WRECKTIFIERS, remember it is a first draft. A number of structural and character questions are purposely left hanging to give the pitch fewer cul de sacs to stumble towards. The development game is a harsh and unremitting exercise in the multiplicity of ideas. Premises either catch fire with executives or sit there like a lump on a stump; move on to the next concept if no one other than yourself has that captivating twinkle in the eye. In that regard, the less written up front, the better.