This past week was the 20th anniversary of the premiere episode of one of the greatest cartoons to ever be made…GARGOYLES! The premise is wacky (a bunch of gargoyles are cursed to turn to stone and are awakened in modern day New York where they fight the good fight against evil) but the show was just pure perfection in its execution. So sit back, pour yourself a flagon of mead and join me in celebrating the awesomeness of this wonderful show with a list of my 5 favorite episodes from the series.

A Little More Info About The Show

Gargoyles centers on a clan of gargoyles who were cursed to sleep in stone form for 1000 years. They and their castle home were transplanted from England to New York by billionaire genius David Xanatos. The team is made up of Goliath (the leader) and the rest of the clan who all took names from their new home upon awakening: Brooklyn, Hudson, Lexington, Broadway and Bronx. They were joined by NYPD detective Elisa Maza as an unofficial member of the clan. They did battle primarily against Xanatos (who turned out to be a bad guy obsessed with gaining immortality), Demona (a gargoyle and Goliath’s former lover who hates humans), MacBeth and a host of other characters routinely found in Shakespearean works.

The voice cast was one of the best ever assembled for an animated TV show with great character actors like Keith David, Salli Richardson-Whitfield, Xander Berkeley, CCH Pounder, John Rhys-Davies and Ed Asner being joined by STAR TREK cast members Johnathan Frakes, Mirina Sirtis, Kate Mulgrew, Nichelle Nichols, LeVar Burton and Brent Spiner. The show was also notable for having a dense and complex mythology that was not dumbed down for its supposed target market. It was a very smartly written show with acting to match and pretty impressive animation for a syndicated daily show.