You work and plan for months and hope for the best. You are thankful that someone is paying you to make TV shows, so, since it is their money, you really have no room to complain. But still… One of the great regrets we had on X-MEN:TAS was that some of the episodes were aired out-of-order. Production problems delayed a few episodes, special events preempted a few more. During the first season this was not an issue — Margaret Loesch at Fox bravely delayed the premiere, at great cost, for four months (September to January) as we got the episodes right. But after that, I never understood the network’s inability to manage to keep things in order. The biggest problem had to do with Jean Grey’s poignant sacrifice at the end of the “Dark Phoenix Saga” (episode #33). This crushed Scott. We wrote “No Mutant is an Island” (episode #34) as a direct follow-up. Scott, believing his love to be dead, angrily quits the X-Men. Unfortunately, “No Mutant” was delayed (it was set as ep. #66 on the 2009 DVD — way out of position). Many episodes with a very alive Jean showed in between, and suddenly a new story starts with a memorial for her death?? At this point, grieving Scott quitting the X-Men made no sense. Oh, well… Maybe one day we will be able to help assemble a boxed set of the 76 episodes, in presented in the order we intended.
JEAN SACRIFICES HERSELF: Episode #33
GRIEVING SCOTT QUITS THE X-MEN: Episode #34 (shown much later)
