Editing Freakazoid! (section)

===Creation===
{{quote box|quote=I mean, it probably would not have worked as a straight super-hero show. It was really neither fish nor fowl. It was such a weird idea that it probably needed to be a comedy more than an adventure show.|source= [[Bruce Timm]], ''Modern Masters Volume 3: Bruce Timm''<ref name="mmv3">{{Cite book |last=Nolen-Weathington |first=Eric |title=Modern Masters Volume 3: Bruce Timm |date=June 1, 2004 |publisher=[[TwoMorrows Publishing]] |isbn=978-1-893905-30-6 |page=52}}</ref>|width=30%}}
''Freakazoid!'' was created by animators [[Bruce Timm]], who had previously produced ''[[Batman: The Animated Series]]'', and his writing partner [[Paul Dini]], who was also a story editor for ''[[Tiny Toon Adventures]]''.<ref name="dvdint1">{{Cite AV media |title=Steven Spielberg Presents Freakazoid: Season 1. Special Features: The Original Freak |date=2008 |display-authors=etal |type=DVD |publisher=[[Warner Home Video]] |people=[[Tom Ruegger]], [[Bruce Timm]]}}</ref> Timm was called upon by [[Steven Spielberg]], who Timm said "liked" Timm's ''Batman'' series, to help create a new superhero show.<ref name="Timm">{{Cite news |last=Lamken |first=Saner |year=2000 |title=The Ever-Lovin' Blue-Eyed Timm! Bruce Timm Interviewed by Brian Saner Lamken |url=http://www.twomorrows.com/comicology/articles/01timm.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060604020156/http://www.twomorrows.com/comicology/articles/01timm.html |archive-date=June 4, 2006 |work=Comicology |publisher=TwoMorrows |issue=1}}</ref> After a meeting with Spielberg, Timm said that Spielberg had "really liked" the idea for the series,<ref name=Timm/> after which Timm and Dini created the character Freakazoid, an edgy superhero with a manic personality. Timm came up with the name for the character naturally, as he recalled, "The name 'Freakazoid' just kind of jumped out of me, I don't even know where from. I said 'Oh, yeah, 'Freakazoid', that might be an interesting name.'"<ref name="dvdint1" /> Dini and Timm have also discussed their desire to create a TV show about the [[Creeper (DC Comics)|Creeper]], another comic character.

Timm originally created ''Freakazoid!'' to be a serious "adventure show" with some comedic undertones.<ref name="dvdint1" /> However, his initial idea for the series did not come to be, as he stated:

{{blockquote|text=I don't mind that it's not on my résumé. [Laughs] I bailed on it really early. It started out as an adventure show, but it ended up turning into more and more of a comedy show; every time we'd have a meeting with Steven, the concept would kinda [sic] change, and it kept leaning more and more towards zany comedy. It really started out almost like [[Spider-Man]], on that level of, like, a teenage superhero. And it reached a point where it became a comedy with the ''Tiny Toon Adventures''/''[[Animaniacs]]'' kind of humor. (...) I don't have anything against that; I just don't have a flair for it, so I bailed—I just hung out here while my staff had to do the show. [Laughs]<ref name=Timm/>}}

After Timm left the series, [[Tom Ruegger]], who developed the other Spielberg series ''Tiny Toon Adventures'' and ''Animaniacs'', was brought in to re-develop the series Timm had created "from the ground up".<ref name="dvdint1" /> Ruegger's version of the series used some of Timm's designs and concepts, but Timm said that the series was "radically altered" to become the comedy series that was more to Spielberg's liking.<ref name="dvdint1" />

Ruegger then began writing stories for the series, and came up with a pile of very short segments. Spielberg liked what Ruegger had written, but wanted longer stories for the series as well. Ruegger then asked writers [[John P. McCann|John McCann]] and [[Paul Rugg]] to come onto the series to write longer, more elaborate stories for the series and, according to Rugg, "(...) figure out what this [''Freakazoid!''] was going to be, and the answer was like, 'We didn't know', and still don't".<ref name="dvdint1" />