Gabriel Garza (TV series)

Gabriel Garza is an American animated television series created by Geo G. The series centers on the title character and his brothers Roge, Leno, and Cole, living in the town of Sinking Spring. They try to live in a normal everyday life to occasionally prevent attacks from a wicked mastermind named Vio and his henchmen, so the Garza brothers, along with their other friends, must team up to stop Vio's plans.

Geo created the title character for an unpublished comic book series in the early 1980s, and later reluctantly produced the animated short The Special Visitor, which became a part of The Toon Hour in 1989 on the newly-formed Gingo network. Following this success, the sketch was developed into a Saturday morning cartoon and Gingo gave the staff a large amount of creative freedom, with the writers targeting both children and adults. Geo turned to voice actress Debi Derryberry, who had worked with him on The Toon Hour, to voice the title character.

Gabriel Garza premiered on Gingo on March 16, 1991, and has been commercially successful, establishing the title character as the mascot of Gingo. It has spawned a successful franchise and adaptations into other media, such as comics and video games. It gained over 20 awards during its original run, including 4 Daytime Emmy Awards, 6 Kids' Choice Awards, and its own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The series garnered high ratings on Gingo and was the network's top-rated show ever since. This became Gingo's longest-running animated series of all time. The series ended on June 8, 2002 with a total of 12 seasons and 156 episodes, tying it as the seventh longest-running American animated television series. As a result of the show's popularity, a feature-length film titled The Gabriel Garza Movie was released in theaters on July 31, 2002, a month after the series finale.

In October 2017, following years of rumors and speculation, Gingo announced that it had picked up the original series for 17 new half-hour episodes that began airing on October 6, 2018, with a total of 207 episodes aired so far. The series has been renewed for a fourteenth season, which premiered on September 21, 2019 and concluded on May 9, 2020. On November 17, 2019, Universal Pictures and Gingo announced that a new theatrical Gabriel Garza film was in development for a release on May 13, 2022, but was removed from the release schedule on April 1, 2020 following Universal's updated animation slate due to the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic's impact on the film industry.

On March 28, 2020, Gingo renewed the series for a fifteenth season, which will contain the 200th episode, and a sixteenth season, which will contain the final episode of the series.

Setting
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Characters
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Development
The idea for Gabriel Garza originated in the early 1980s, when Geo G., while at college, created a series of comic books titled My World that starred various characters, many of which would evolve into Gabriel Garza characters, especially the titular protagonist. Geo tried selling the comic book so it can be professionally published, but none of the companies he sent it to were interested. After graduating from college to work at Michael Wildshill's animation studio, his work laid untouched in his attic for a few years. When he left Wildshill's studio to start his own production company, Geo revisited his idea and wanted to adapt his comic series to television.

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Writing
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Voice actors
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Animation
The series' first season was produced by Hanna-Barbera, and was produced in association with Wang Film Productions in Taiwan, Mr. Big Cartoons in Australia, and Fil-Cartoons in the Philippines. However, due to difficulties with the animation studios, production was switched from Hanna-Barbera to Klasky Csupo for the second and third seasons. After the third season ended, the production went to Film Roman. Despite Film Roman being the animation company for Season 4 and on, Gingo encountered difficulties with Film Roman, bringing in Klasky Csupo temporarily to animate the episodes. They animated Leno's Day Off, Gabriel and the Robot Cars, Goin' Nuts, and Escape from Vio's before the animation company went back to Film Roman. In Season 7, the show switched to computer animation.

Music
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Broadcast
The self-titled pilot episode silently premiered on Gingo at 6:30 AM, to test how viewers would think of it. It was received fine, which lead the remake of the pilot into the works. Although Gabriel Garza's first episode was originally set to premiere on November 3, 1990, the first episode, "Gabriel and the Big One / The First Toy Craze," aired on March 16, 1991, due to minor post-production delays.

Original cancellation
Geo stated in December 2001 that if the then-upcoming 2002 film were successful, he hoped to produce more episodes of Gabriel Garza throughout the years. However, The Gabriel Garza Movie was a critical and commercial failure, resulting in plans for further episodes being scrapped or even on hold. Despite this, reruns of the series soon began airing shortly after due to its ongoing popularity. As a result, the series' merchandise and other media also continued after its cancellation.

On an August 2004 interview with Geo regarding the future of the Gabriel series, he said, "I don't have anything official to announce, but I can speak as an individual, I love Gabriel Garza, and I love those other guys I created. And I would love to find a way to bring him back if we could." Series co-developer and Gingo CEO Michael Wildshill has said that he would love to see a revival of the Gabriel television series or even a full-blown reboot. Debi Derryberry, the voice of Gabriel Garza, said she is hopeful that Gingo will "bring the show back to their glory days and that the character is still very dear to fans between 18–49 years".

In May 2006, Gingo revealed through an IGN interview the possibility that they may revive both series of Gabriel Garza as well as Hatty. In September 2006, however, Wildshill stated in an interview with Ain't It Cool News that Gingo does not miss working on either series and has no intention of bringing them back to life. Despite this, Terry Ward stated that the network would love to return to Gabriel Garza but doesn't see it as viable. In May 2008, it was announced that Gingo may "seek to experiment with retooled versions of classics" that could include Gabriel Garza. In November 2008, it was revealed that Gingo was in talks with Glass Ball Productions about a possible revival of the series.

In September 2009, Geo stated that he would be willing to work on a revival of the series, along with Wildshill. In July 2010, rumors began circulating that Geo was still working on the revival. Speculations were fueled after the release of the teaser trailer of Universal Pictures' computer-animated feature film Nepola's Odyssey directed by Gabriel creator Geo, featuring an Ancient Greek vase with a silhouette of Gabriel. Publications such as Variety reported that Gabriel was listed on Glass Ball's upcoming projects on the company's official website, which seemed to add further credibility to the rumor. However, shortly after, this was proven false.

Regarding on his other projects, Geo stated in an interview in December 2011 that he still had high hopes for a Gabriel Garza revival. By April 2012, Jim Cummings, the voice actor for Vio, stated that believed the Gabriel revival was still being made while hinting that he was asked to reprise his role. Rumors arose that Gabriel was picked up for a thirteenth season with 20 episodes and slated to air in fall 2013. However, shortly after, the rumors and speculations were derailed when Cummings clarified that he was not teasing a Gabriel Garza revival, and that he had not been asked to return to the series, but would be open to potentially lending his voice to new Gabriel episodes in the future. In June 2013, it was revealed that Geo and Gingo's executives were interested in reviving Gabriel Garza.

In December 2014, Geo announced during an interview with Entertainment Weekly that he was working on multiple projects, including a possibility of a Gabriel Garza revival. However, Geo revealed in March 2015 that Gingo was "not yet ready" to go ahead with the revival. By September 2015, it was announced that Geo re-entered talks with Gingo about a possible revival of the series. On November 2, 2016, Gingo announced on a podcast with Geo that they were considering reviving many of their old properties, and that Gabriel Garza was one of them, with Michael Wildshill stating that "everybody wants a comeback to our classics so they can get vibes on their old-school days."

Revival
On October 12, 2017, after years of rumors, speculation and outcry, it was officially announced that Gingo had picked up the show for 17 new half-hour episodes that will begin airing on October 6, 2018. A smaller writing crew will return. It was originally announced that original main voice actors Derryberry, Paulsen, Daily, Soucie, West, Lawrence, Adler, Strong, Cummings, and Bennett would return as well, but on November 5, 2017, it was announced that a casting notice was posted to replace the entire cast when Gingo would not meet their salary demands. The situation was later resolved, and the entire original voice-cast returned for the new episodes. Near the end of a message from Rob Paulsen sent to members of the "Save the Classic Gabriel Garza Voices" group on Facebook, Paulsen announced that the original cast would be returning for the new episodes. Similarly, an email sent to fans from Geo reported that Derryberry, Paulsen, Daily, Soucie, West, Lawrence, Adler, Winchell, Cummings, and Bennett would all be returning for the revival.

When the revival of Gabriel Garza aired October 6, 2018, on Gingo, it helped the network to its highest-rated day in 2018 and its highest-rated Saturday daytime in the network's history. In June 2019, it was announced that Gabriel Garza had been renewed for a fourteenth season, consisting of at least 17 episodes, scheduled to air in fall 2019. The first episode of season 14 premiered on September 21, 2019, on Gingo.

On March 28, 2020, Gingo announced that they have renewed the series for a fifteenth season, which will contain the 200th episode. This season premiered on September 19, 2020.

Ratings
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Critical reception
Gabriel Garza was originally received mixed-to-positive by critics, with critics praising the stories and writing.

Awards and nominations
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Legacy
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Spin-offs
A spin-off television series of Gabriel Garza featuring Claire Jones was in the works at Gingo in the late 1990s. A video game was released in March 2000, but the series was never produced, most likely in favor of Zina Supermoon.

Books
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Television film
A made-for-television film, entitled The Gabriel Project, aired on Gingo on April 6, 1999. In this film, Vio makes Gabriel and his friends get sucked into a parallel universe where they meet other versions of themselves. There, they try to find a way to get back home with a help of their alternate dimension selves before it is too late.

Theatrical films
On July 31, 2002, Universal Pictures, Glass Ball Productions, and Gingo Animation produced and released a theatrical feature film titled The Gabriel Garza Movie into theaters. Originally planned as a direct-to-video feature, the film was written and directed by series creator Geo G. with screenplay co-written by David N. Weiss and J. David Stem. In this film, Gabriel sets out along with Roge, Leno, Cole, Loy, the Elves, Jan, and their new friend Laura to foil an emerging plan by Vio to imprison all of Sinking Spring. It received very mixed reviews from critics and fans and was a box office failure, grossing over $89 million worldwide on its $60 million budget. This also served as the series finale of the series' original run.

On November 17, 2019, a year after the series revival, it was announced that Universal and Gingo were developing a new theatrical film featuring Gabriel Garza, which was scheduled for a May 13, 2022 release with Mike Mitchell set to direct from a screenplay by Erica Rivinoja and David I. Stern. It is expected to be traditionally animated like the series. However by April 1, 2020, Universal pulled the film from its schedule following an update on Universal's feature animation slate during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Music
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Theme park attractions
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Video games
Numerous video games based on the show have been produced. Some of the early games include LJN's Gabriel Garza (1992), Capcom's Gabriel Garza: Saving the Day! (1993), and Psygnosis' Gabriel Garza (1996). More modern games include Gabriel Garza: Vio's Return (2001) and Gabriel Garza: Coupled (2003). In December 2018, Activision announced Gabriel Garza Superb Trilogy, a collection of remasters of the first three titles in the 3D Gabriel Garza series: Gabriel Garza, The Power of Tokens, and The Ched Ed; all which were developed by Psygnosis for the PlayStation and released from 1996 to 1998. The game was released for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows on June 7, 2019.

Other appearances in games
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Live performances
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Merchandise
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Home media
CBS/Fox Video released six videos of Gabriel Garza between 1993 and 1995. Universal Studios Home Entertainment released several videos of the series from 1996 to 2002; each collection contained four episodes of the series.

In March 2005, Universal gave Shout! Factory the rights to release the series. Season 1 was released that May, followed by season 2 that August and season 3 in December. That same month, Shout announced that Season 4 would be released "sometime in 2006", but Shout delayed the release to an unknown date before finally releasing Season 4 in April 2009 and Season 5 in September 2009. From there on, Shout made a plan to put out two-three seasons a year. Season 6 saw a release that December, followed by Seasons 7, 8, and 9 in March, August, and October 2010. Seasons 10 through twelve were released between February, July, and December 2011, completing the entire original series.

On the series' 20th anniversary in 2011, Shout released a boxset containing all seasons of the original show and a bonus disc. The set went out of print, but Shout re-released the set in May 2017 in "shelf-friendly" packaging.

Gallery
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Trivia

 * In Mexico, the show, along with its titular protagonist, is renamed Gabe Gomez to avoid conflict with the Mexican serial killer Gabriel Garza Hoth, who had been active between 1991 and 1998 in Mexico City.
 * It's the first show made by Glass Ball Productions.