FoxKids X-Men's REAL episode guide and production order...

[Christopher N. Denner]

I did a LOT of digging this morning, on the net and newsgroups and found this interesting tidbit of info...


According to Stephen Melching, one of the writers for seasons 3 and up, this is the order that the X-men episodes were assigned to be written in...


X-MEN: THE ANIMATED SERIES

For those of you keeping score, below is a list
of X-Men episodes by *script number*. This order
reflects the sequence in which the stories were
assigned to writers, and is a good guide for how
the series was *initially* planned to develop....

Also included is the number FCN assigned to
each episode, which reflects the order in which
production materials were received from Saban,
not necessarily the order in which they aired.

(For example, a "one-light" video of "Longshot"
was received by FCN and thus assigned a number,
but it was sent back for lots of retakes and has
yet to air...)

NOTE: I re-arranged some titles so they would fall
in sequence by FCN #.



SCRIPT # FCN# TITLE

FIRST SEASON

01 XM-101 Night of the Sentinels I
02 XM-102 Night of the Sentinels II
03 XM-103 Enter Magneto
04 XM-104 Deadly Reunions
05 XM-105 Captive Hearts
06 XM-106 Cold Vengeance
07 XM-107 Slave Island
08 XM-108 The Unstoppable Juggernaut
09 XM-109 The Cure
10 XM-110 Come the Apocalypse
11 XM-111 Days of Future Past I
12 XM-112 Days of Future Past II
13 XM-113 The Final Decision

SECOND SEASON

14 XM-201 'Til Death Do Us Part I
15 XM-202 'Til Death Do Us Part II
16 XM-203 Whatever It Takes
17 XM-204 Red Dawn
18 XM-205 Repo Man
19 XM-206 X-Ternally Yours
20 XM-207 Time Fugitives I
21 XM-208 Time Fugitives II
22 XM-209 A Rogue's Tale
23 XM-210 Beauty and the Beast
24 XM-211 MojoVision
25 XM-212 Reunion I
26 XM-213 Reunion II

THIRD SEASON

27 XM-301 Out of the Past I
28 XM-302 Out of the Past II
29 XM-303 Phoenix Saga I
30 XM-304 Phoenix Saga II
31 XM-305 Phoenix Saga III
32 XM-306 Phoenix Saga IV
33 XM-307 Phoenix Saga V
34 XM-308 No Mutant Is An Island
35 XM-309 Obsession
36 XM-310 Longshot
37 XM-311 Cold Comfort
38 XM-312 Savage Land, Savage Heart I
39 XM-313 Savage Land, Savage Heart II
40 XM-314 Dark Phoenix Saga I
41 XM-315 Dark Phoenix Saga II
42 XM-316 Dark Phoenix Saga III
43 XM-317 Dark Phoenix Saga IV
44 XM-318 Orphan s End
46 XM-319 The Juggernaut Returns
53 XM-320 Nightcrawler
61 XM-321 weapon x, lies, and videotape

FOURTH SEASON

45 XM-401 Love In Vain
47 XM-402 A Deal with the Devil
48 XM-403 Sanctuary I
49 XM-404 Sanctuary II
50 XM-405 Xavier Remembers
51 XM-406 Courage
52 XM-407 Secrets Not Long Buried
54 XM-408 One Man s Worth I
55 XM-409 One Man s Worth II
56 XM-410 Proteus I
57 XM-411 Proteus II
58 XM-412 Family Ties
60 XM-413 The Lotus and the Steel
62 XM-414 Have Yourself A Morlock Little Christmas
63 XM-415 Beyond Good and Evil I
64 XM-416 Beyond Good and Evil II
65 XM-417 Beyond Good and Evil III
66 XM-418 Beyond Good and Evil IV
67 XM-419 The Phalanx Covenant I
68 XM-420 The Phalanx Covenant II
69 XM-421 Storm Front I
70 XM-422 Storm Front II
59 XM-423 Bloodlines
71 TBD The Fifth Horseman
72 TBD Jubilee s Fairy Tale Theatre
73 TBD Old Soldiers
74 TBD Hidden Agendas
75 TBD Descent
76 TBD Graduation Day

Steve
("Better to keep your mouth shut and risk looking like
an idiot than open your mouth and confirm it")




Now get THIS... The following is apparently the MARVEL RECORD of what order X-men goes in, based on 2 issues of the 'Adventures of the X-men' comics (which I sadly do NOT own). Not only is the second 1/2 of the series vastly different than how they aired, over the course of the last 3 seasons... there is not a single continuity error among them.

01: - "Night Of The Sentinels" (part 1)
02: - "Night Of The Sentinels" (part 2)
03: - "Enter: Magneto"
04: - "Deadly Reunions"
05: - "Captive Hearts"
06: - "Cold Vengeance"
07: - "Slave Island"
08: - "The Unstoppable Juggernaut"
09: - "The Cure"
10: - "Come The Apocalypse"
11: - "Days Of Future Past" (part 1)
12: - "Days Of Future Past" (part 2)
13: - "The Final Decision"
14: - "Till Death Do Us Part" (part 1)
15: - "Till Death Do Us Part" (part 2)
16: - "Whatever It Takes"
17: - "Red Dawn"
18: - "Repo Man"
19: - "X-ternally Yours"
20: - "Time Fugitives" (part 1)
21: - "Time Fugitives" (part 2)
22: - "A Rouge's Tale"
23: - "Beauty And The Beast"
24: - "Mojovision"
25: - "Reunion" (part 1)
26: - "Reunion" (part 2)
27: - "Out Of The Past" (part 1)
28: - "Out Of The Past" (part 2)
29: - "The Phoenix Saga pt.1: Sacrifice"
30: - "The Phoenix Saga pt.2: The Dark Shroud"
31: - "The Phoenix Saga pt.3: Cry Of The Banshee"
32: - "The Phoenix Saga pt.4: The Starjammers"
33: - "The Phoenix Saga pt.5: Child Of Light"
34: - "No Mutant Is An Island"
35: - "Obsession"
36: - "Longshot"
37: - "Cold Comfort"
38: - "Savage Land, Strange Heart" (part 1)
39: - "Savage Land, Strange Heart" (part 2)
40: - "Dark Phoenix pt.1: Dazzled"
41: - "Dark Phoenix pt.2: Inner Circle"
42: - "Dark Phoenix pt.3: The Dark Phoenix"
43: - "Dark Phoenix pt.4: Fate Of The Phoenix"
44: - "Orphan's End"
45: - "Love In Vain"
46: - "The Juggernaut Returns"
47: - "A Deal With The Devil"
48: - "Sanctuary" (part 1)
49: - "Sanctuary" (part 2)
50: - "Family Ties"
51: - "Nightcrawler"
52: - "Secrets, Not Long Buried"
53: - "Weapon X, Lies, And Videotape"
54: - "One Man's Worth" (part 1)
55: - "One Man's Worth" (part 2)
56: - "Proteus" (part 1)
57: - "Proteus" (part 2)
58: - "Phalanx Covenant" (part 1)
59: - "Phalanx Covenant" (part 2)
60: - "The Lotus And The Steel"
61: - "Courage"
62: - "Have Yourself A Morlock Little X-Mas"
63: - "Beyond Good And Evil" (part 1)
64: - "Beyond Good And Evil" (part 2)
65: - "Beyond Good And Evil" (part 3)
66: - "Beyond Good And Evil" (part 4)
67: - "Xavier Remembers"
68: - "Bloodlines"
69: - "Storm Front" (part 1)
70: - "Storm Front" (part 2)
71: - "The Fifth Horseman"
72: - "Jubilee's Fairytale Theatre"
73: - "Old Soldiers"
74: - "Hidden Agendas"
75: - "Descent"
76: - "Graduation Day"

And you'll also notice that many episodes were aired up to 3 years out of sequence.

Stephen Melching also went on to say...

It proved next to impossible to get the
overseas animation houses to deliver airable episodes in any
kind of order. It got so bad on X-MEN that the first episode
we wrote for the series was actually the sixth to air!
(*Three years* after the script was finished! And the
animation was still terrible!)

--He's refering to Longshot, for those curious. Anyway... thought someone might enjoy this.

[James Harvey]

Wow - very informative! I never realized how out of order and plain messed up the production on the series was. To me, the first season of the series contains some of the worst animation I have ever seen...just flat out terrible stuff. The show did improve as it went on, though. I may have to go back and rewatch some of these episodes, mainly to try and find some continuity episodes. Some episodes, and arcs, were really self contained and therefore could easily get away with being aired out of order. The first season of X-Men was pretty much one long continuting arc, with each episode practically running into the next. The latter seasons got more and more self contained, with the final six episodes being completely different in many aspects.

[Cogliostro]

No wonder I never got what was going on completely

[czyznyck99]

Thanks for these outstanding lists, when the series finished in 97, I started reorganizing the episode order too. But this is really good, and better.

Does ABC Family have a copy of this? Maybe they will show X-men in its intended order.

Here's hoping.

Later.

[Christopher N. Denner]

I believe that the last 6 episodes were written after the other 70 episodes were already in production. The Marvel studio that animated most of the prior episodes closed down thanks to the bankruptcy, but Saban wanted to close out the series by tying up loose ends. So they tried to get FoxKids to extend the series to 80 episodes, but FoxKids eventually dropped out. Saban was able to kick the order up to 73, and then 76. They had their own studios do the animation (which is why they look so drastically different), and that's why we were able to get the origins of Sinister, Logan and Cap, and closure about Apocalypse, the Xmen, Xavier and so on.



BTW... I can post a link to some Xmen episode scripts by Melching and David McDermott, along with the BSnP reactions to them, if anyone wants to see 'em.

[czyznyck99]

Yeah, please share the scripts if you can, I know many would like to see them.

What exactly did BSnP do to the episodes...?

Thanks, later.

[Christopher N. Denner]

Originally posted by czyznyck99
Yeah, please share the scripts if you can, I know many would like to see them. What exactly did BSnP do to the episodes...?

Thanks, later.

http://members.aol.com/melchwerx/xtas.table.html

You'll get the early scripts for...

"Longshot"
"Sanctuary - Part 1"
"weapon x, lies, and videotape"
"The Phalanx Covenant - Part 1"
"The Phalanx Covenant - Part 2"
"The Fifth Horseman"
"Hidden Agendas"
"Descent"

As well as the outline for
"Sanctuary - Part 2"

The BSnP stuff I mentioned are comments like this...

X-MEN -- "Sanctuary - Part One"
Outline dated 3/29/94
_
Page 1: Please do not have the Astronaut say "My God."
_
Page 6: Please do not display unnecessary violence by having both a prolonged battle between Magneto and the X-Men against Genoshans, and then bringing in Sentinels for them to fight and more mutant allies, who will each have to show off his or her power. Stick to the Sentinels only, and keep the battle as brief as possible.
_
Page 7: Please avoid having Cortez call Magneto his "savior."
_
Page 8: Please avoid calling Magneto's followers "acolytes."
_
Page 9: Please do not refer to the objects as "killer satellites."
_
Page 11: Please do not have Cortez accuse the X-Men of "assassinating" Magneto. Also on this page, Magneto's compartment should not look as though it is burning, nor should Magneto be surrounded by flames -- no "fireball" with him inside it. Perhaps the compartment could break up or eject Magneto before it explodes.
_
Also, please change the villain's name from "Cortez" to something non-Hispanic. There are no prominent Hispanic X-Men to provide balance for this kind of negative character.

and one of my favorites from Sanctuary 2...


Page 2: Another funeral for another person who isn't really dead? Please could you just show the X-Man talking informally about Magneto over coffee or something, not have another death ceremony in the garden.



Scary... ain't it?

[Joe Wagner]

I think it's fairly safe to say that the BSnP has never actually picked up an issue of X-Men and have no clue about their rich history. I'm surprised it didn't come with a comment like

"please do not have characters with extendable claws or be capable to fire extremely lethal laser blasts from his eyes."

Geez.....and people wonder why the censors at Fox are given such a hard time. I really hope the next time a character dies in the comics they talk about it over coffee - maybe Spider-Man the movie should have used this concept - instead of showing the funeral Harry, Peter and MJ could have talked about it over coffee! Talk about excitement!

-Joe!