Well, most of them were funny and comical and meant to make your kids laugh, most. There was an exception. A show that was dark with action, violence and occasionally some deaths. This show took some of the most famous myths from literature, scripture and ancient civilizations and threw them into one show. And while this could have gone overboard with it, it never did and it never got dull once. I'm of course talking about Gargoyles.

As you would imagine, the show is about Gargoyles who are human/reptile like creatures with wings (mostly). They are only awake at night because when the sun rises, they literally turn to stone and sleep (making them very vulnerable). Gargoyles in real life were famous for being placed on Cathedrals and Palaces, these monsters were meant to scare off evil spirits and protect the buildings.

They would become an iconic symbol for Gothic and horror stories and legends for centuries. This show, despite being for kids and having some comedy here there, would keep that Gothic and horror presence as well; you can see and feel it in the opening title even. Also, most of the episodes have a dark feel to them as they mostly take place at night, for obvious reasons.

The premise is as follows:

New York City in the present, its night time and all is well. Suddenly though, there are explosions from high up on a skyscraper and rubble is falling down. Detective Elisa Mosa arrives and finds something strange. On some of the fallen cement pieces, there's claw marks like from an animal. Something was strong enough to claw through stone.

Cut back over a 1,000 years to Scotland as a battle between an invading army and a defending castle is raging on. The invading army is gaining ground and has broken through the defenses. At first it looks like the castle has fallen, but thankfully the battle has made it till the sun has gone down. Before the invaders can claim victory, the statues of monsters that looked cool at first suddenly explode and the gargoyles come to life. Goliath, the leader and only one named leads his kind to victory as the army flees.

The Captain of the Guard wishes for the Gargoyles to be more respected by there rulers, but Princess Katharine and her advisor/wizard Magus show them no hospitality. We also learn that there are three younger Gargoyles still learning (who are locked in the egg chamber after an incident), a dog like gargoyle (also locked away), an elderly one whom Goliath looks to for guidance and one who is Goliath's lover.

Goliath and the elderly one go to end the invading army, but find they've been tricked and turn to stone again as the sun rises. Worse, the Captain of the Guard has betrayed his castle and let the army capture the Princess and destroy the Gargoyles. Goliath and his five remaining companions attack the army the next night.

Amongst it, Magus thinks the Gargoyles are to blame and even after they've freed him, cast a spell to turn them into stone permanently. Goliath meanwhile saves the Princess but fails to gain vengeance as the Captain and the Commander of the army fight amongst each other and both fall to there deaths. Upon finding his kin turned to stone and that Magus can't undo the spell unless there castle is raised above the clouds, Goliath has the spell cast on him. The Princess and her people then return the Gargoyles to the castle and leave with the eggs, promising to take care of them.

Fast forward back to present day where multimillion dollar business man David Xanatos of Xanotos Enterprises is having the castle taken apart with great care and the Gargoyles moved out as well. He literally has the castle rebuilt on top of his HQ Skyscraper in New York City. No shit, he really builds it there. Of course, his building is so high that it reaches the clouds and wouldn't you know it, that night the spell breaks.

The Gargoyles now find themselves in world they never imagined, where magic and superstition is gone and technology is advanced in ways they never imagined. There awakening party though is short lived as the castle is suddenly attacked by men from helicopters, hence the explosions.

Detective Mosa goes to investigate and doesn't by Xanatos' story. While searching the castle, she comes across Goliath and nearly falls to her death, but he saves her. There she meets up with the rest and convinces them to get names. They're named after famous land marks of NYC, and are known as followed:

Hudson: The Elderly one who gives advice to Goliath.
Brooklyn: The oldest of the three and Goliaths' favorite for Second in Command.
Broadway: Overweight and rather clumsy.
Lexington: The smallest of them all but adapts to technology the fastest.
Bronx: The dog Gargoyle.

We also learn that Goliath's lover has managed to survive the Millennia and is how Xanatos has learned of the Gargoyles. Along with her, the Gargoyles go on tasks to help Xanatos in return for awakening them and to reclaim items stolen from him, but Goliath notices that his lover has changed, that her once frustration with humans has grown into a passion far darker and angrier. Elisa also informs him that Xanatos lied, that the items stolen where not his own.

Suddenly, Xanatos along with Goliath's lover attacks with new laser gun technology and with some Robotic Gargoyle copies to test them on. The Gargoyles manage to overcome them, but Goliath is taken down by his partner. She then reveals that she's now called Demona, and she will not stop till the Humans are killed off. With help from Elisa, Demona falls presumably to her death (although not as revealed later) and Xanatos is locked away for now.

You got all that? Here's the thing: that literally is only the first three or four episodes. And from there the show would pretty much be the Gargoyles defending New York as unknown heroes from both human threats and supernatural ones as well. At first they remain at the castle, but since Xanatos only has to serve six months, they move out (with reluctance) to the clock tower over Elisa's police station.

From here, the show would hand us twist after twist after twist, and to be honest, it never got old.

I think the first major thing we learn is that Demona is now eternal due to a spell and can only die if her or her arch rival kills one or the other. And who's her arch rival? Macbeth. Yes, the very same from the Shakespeare play.

Then we have Elisa's brother working for Xanatos as his pilot, but after an incident with the rather crazy geneticist Anton Sevarius, he along with several others are turned into their attempts at making Gargoyles, or the closest thing to them. He creates human hybrids that are like cats, bats and have electric powers from eels. At first he and his fellow hybrids blame Goliath, but learn the truth about Xanatos and become allies, aiding Goliath and Elisa whenever they could in future episodes.

One of the darker ones was when Xanatos used some of Goliath's blood to make a clone of him. To his, Goliaths and Anton's surprise, the Clone Goliath actually played all three and used them to get money and means to fulfill his own goals. He would come back to haunt them in the future.

The real big twist involves what happen to the humans who cared for Goliath's eggs. Goliath, Elisa and Bronx manage to find their way to Avalon, where a mere day for them is a year for the world. There, Princess Katherine, Magus and other humans along with the eggs are alive and well.

Later though, we learn not only that there are Gargoyles in other parts of the world (England, Japan, South America), but that one from Avalon, Angela, is in fact the Daughter of Goliath and Demona, which would add a whole new factor in the rivalry between Demona's and Goliath's clan. This also adds other tension between Broadway, Lexington and Brooklyn as they finally find a female of their kind and they all long for her (she would ultimately choose Broadway).

And that's really the twists and surprises that hold closer to the overall story. There are several other episodes dealing subjects of fantasy, sci-fi and horror elements, including:

* Ghosts of past characters, The Captain and the Army Commander in particular.
* Sorcery and magic.
* Aliens (I am not kidding).
* Norse Mythology.
* Egyptian God Anubis.
* The Native American legend of Coyote.
* Cyborgs, Human advancement and futuristic technology.

Yeah, that's a lot. But another thing that makes this show stand out is easily the voice acting. The show mostly focused on Goliath and they couldn't of gotten a better actor to voice him then the ass kickingly awesome Keith David. His deep voice fits perfect into the 7 - 8 foot creature (I'm guessing his height), and despite being deep and powerful, he still is doesn't get too menacing either.

But there's something really bizarre, a majority of major and supporting cast have had a major role to play in a number of the Star Trek series. For example:

* Xanatos was voiced by Jonathan Frakes - William Riker
* Demona was voiced by Marina Sirtis - Counselor Troi
* Titania was voiced by Kate Mulgrew - Kathryn Janeway
* Coldstone and Tarus where voiced by Michael Dorn - Worf
* Puck was voiced by Brent Spiner - Data
* Anansi was voiced by LeVar Burton - La Forge
* Diane Maza was voiced by Nichelle Nicoles - Uhura

At first this happened only by chance, but as the show went along, the makers said "Fuck it, it works" and started doing it intentionally.

Other notable names would voice characters as well:

* Ed Asner as Hudson
* Salli Richardson as Elisa Maza
* James Belushi as Fang
* Clancy Brown as Hakon and Wolf
* Tim Curry as Anton Severius
* John Rhys-Davies as Macbeth
* Tony Jay as Anubis
* David Warner as the Archmage

At the end of Season Two and beginning of Season Three, a twist happened that changed the series, for better or worse. The twist is that Gargoyles while stopping Demona from fulfilling a plan to eliminate the humans of the world suddenly get seen by a street full of people and there existence is known world wide. More shocking, Xanatos arrives to save them and the rivalry ends with them moving back into the castle (this does make sense though as Goliath and his gang saved Xanatos' new born son).

With Season Three, the show changed with a more action filled intro, the show was even renamed "Gargoyles, the Goliath Chronicles". Also, a unique storyline with an Anti-Gargoyle cult began (similar to the KKK in a way). This was an interesting idea, but it wasn't the same (there's even an episode where Goliath is arrested and on trial). As to weather or not these changes caused the show to be canceled or not, I don't know. The creator though has stated he considered the comics that followed canon and not the 3rd season.

So that's Gargoyles, it was one of the darkest cartoons I remember as a kid, and one of the most fun to watch. The First season was released on DVD, but it didn't sell enough and only half of the second season was released with no plans for the rest of the series. As said above, there where comics and even a Genesis Video Game.

This show had guts though, it was clearly made for kids but had elements that would apply to older viewers and pushed what a kid show should have. The younger kids loved it because it was more adult than other cartoons, and the older kids loved it cause it was a cartoon that wasn't just childish humor. Put simply, this show kicked ass and if you haven't seen it, watch it.