The Wonderful World of Disney Television

The Wonderful World of Disney Television (subtitle: A Complete History) is a 628-page encyclopedia by Bill Cotter listing nearly everything the Walt Disney company has put on television from the early 1950's to the book's publication in 1997. This includes everything from the Wonderful World of Disney anthology series, to the Disney Channel itself, and all of the various series that aired (whether on a specific channel or syndication). The book also includes an appendix listing the production credits (cast and crew) for the various series.

Relevance to Gargoyles

In the section entitled "Saturday Mornings and Disney Afternoons," the book includes an entry on Gargoyles. Running from pages 279-281, the entry largely consists of an episode guide with brief descriptions (the multi-parters are each given one entry with the number of parts denoted in parentheses), prefaced with a brief overview remarking that the series differs from the traditional "warm and fuzzy" Disney fare before describing its airing history and noting that "most of the cast members" from Star Trek: The Next Generation provided voices. The introduction mentions The Goliath Chronicles, but does not include any of those episodes in its guide (presumably because the latter series was still airing when the book went into publication).

A list of production credits for Gargoyles begins on page 574. It is somewhat shorter (i.e., fewer names/positions listed) than almost all of the other Disney Afternoon shows listed, and the majority of the credits are taken up with the voice actors.

Errors

The book contains some factual errors in regards to episode descriptions and production credits.

Episode Descriptions

Some of the errors are merely simplified episode descriptions (leaving out whole pieces of plot, such as Hudson's very presence in "The Price"). Likewise, when describing the Avalon World Tour episodes, the author makes references to "the Gargoyles," but does not indicate that just Goliath, Elisa, Angela and Bronx are involved. Others are descriptions that are technically true, but not completely accurate. Saying that "Xanatos forms a group of mercenaries...and sends them into battle against the Gargoyles" when describing "The Thrill of the Hunt" is mostly true, but indicates that The Pack were formed specifically to fight the gargoyles, when they had been formed before then.

There are more blatant mistakes, however. Most notable are the following:

• In the description for "Long Way to Morning", the description says that Hudson must protect Goliath "until the sun rises the next morning and they can be healed by the spell that turns them to stone." Stone sleep is not caused by a spell.
• For "Metamorphosis": "Elisa's brother, Derek, and two other humans are somehow mutated into animal-like creatures and become the villains Talon, Fang, and Claw." No mention is made of Maggie the Cat.
• The description for "The Silver Falcon" mentioning Dominic Dracon is correct, but he is the only Dracon mentioned. Tony Dracon is not mentioned at all in any of the descriptions. Consequently, when "Dracon" is mentioned in the descriptions for "Protection" and "Turf", there is nothing to indicate that it is someone other than Dominic.
• The entry for "Vows" describes Demona's plan as "[trying] again to destroy the castle and Gargoyles."
• For "Heritage": "The Gargoyles meet a descendent (sic) of King Oberon who refuses to believe in his own heritage and thus refuses to fight an evil sorcerer."
• The description for "Mark of the Panther" says that Elisa is in Nigeria "to visit her mother."
• "Hunter's Moon" is incorrectly listed as "The Hunter's Moon."
• More understandably, due to the two episodes airing out of order, "The Price" is listed between "Outfoxed" and "Revelations", while "Kingdom" is listed between "Monsters" and "Golem".

Production Credits

Some mistakes were made in crediting who voiced whom:

• Diedrich Bader (first name is here misspelled as "Deidrich"), who voiced Jason Canmore (AKA, Jason Conover), is credited as voicing "James Conover" (all of the Canmore siblings are listed with their fake names).
• Victor Brandt (Janus) is listed as "Bictor" Brandt.
• Ian Buchanan, while correctly credited with voicing Constantine is incorrectly credited with voicing "Prince Chalvim." In fact, the two names are separated by a slash ("/") instead of a comma which would indicate that they are the same person instead of two different characters. Actually, using a slash instead of a comma, or vice-verse, is a recurring problem throughout the cast list. Meanwhile, Jeff Bennett is credited for most of his roles with the exception of Maol Chalvim.
• Rocky Carroll is listed as voicing Derek Maza, Glasses, Talon (again, their separate listings seem to indicate different characters) and "Dr. Sevarius." This last is especially strange since Tim Curry is also listed as playing "Dr. Anton Sevarius."
• Charity James (Ekidna) is listed as "James Charity."
• Cam Clark is credited as "Young Gillecomgain," but none of the other parts he played.
• Jim Cummings is credited with all the characters he played, but with the strange addition of Thailog as well. Meanwhile Keith David is only credited as Goliath and Officer Morgan.
• Both Elisa Pensler Gabrielli and Rachel Ticotin are credited with Maria Chavez (although, Rachel Ticotin is credited with "Captain Maria Chavez), but Gabrielli's Obsidiana is not listed at all.
• Carlos Maza and Peter Maza are here rendered "Carlos Meza" and "Sergeant Peter Meza."
• Marabina Jaimes (Turquesa) is listed as James Marabina.
• Brent Spiner's last name is misspelled "Spinner."
• Although this list was obviously compiled after "Hunter's Moon," none of the clones are listed.