Dungeons & Dragons (TV series)

• 1. Introduction

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  Dungeons & Dragons, the animated television series, put six ordinary American children on an amusement park roller coaster and never brought them home.

  The show ran on CBS from 1983 through 1985, completing three seasons and twenty-seven episodes. Marvel Productions and TSR co-produced it, with animation provided by Toei Animation in Japan.

  The children, ranging in age from eight to fifteen, arrive in a fantasy realm. A figure called the Dungeon Master gives each one a magical weapon suited to a specific Dungeons & Dragons character class. Their shared goal is to find their way back. Two enemies stand against them. Venger is a one-horned wizard who covets the power stored in their weapons. Above even Venger, Tiamat, a five-headed dragon, occupies a tier of threat the wizard himself will not challenge.

  What runs beneath all of it is a family secret. The show plants its clues across three seasons, and the answer arrives only in a script that never became an episode.

• 2. Six Children, Six Weapons

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  Hank led the group at fifteen years old, the eldest of the six. As the Ranger, his magical bow fired arrows of glowing energy. Those arrows could bind enemies, form temporary cages, produce light, or serve as a climbing tool.

  Eric, also fifteen, was the Cavalier. He came from a wealthy background and wore his cowardice openly, becoming the group's primary source of comic relief. His shield, decorated with a griffin, projected a force field strong enough to protect his companions on many occasions. Despite his habit of complaints, he could step in as substitute leader when Hank was absent.

  Diana carried a magical quarterstaff at age fourteen. As the Acrobat, she could resize it on demand and reconstruct it if it broke. She also served as the group's steadying voice in moments of crisis.

  Presto, fourteen, was the Wizard, equipped with a magic hat. His spells frequently misfired or produced unintended results. His loyalty to the group, however, was absolute.

  Sheila, at thirteen, wore a cloak that rendered her invisible when she raised the hood. She dreaded being left alone in the realm above almost anything else. That fear did not stop her from using the cloak repeatedly to protect others at risk to herself.

  Bobby was nine, the youngest member and Sheila's brother. His cudgel shook the ground when he struck it against the earth. He kept a baby unicorn named Uni, who could teleport once per day. Uni was also capable, on at least one occasion, of operating Presto's hat on her own.

• 3. Venger and the Dragon

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  Peter Cullen gave voice to Venger. The character's white skin, fangs, and bat-like wings set him apart from any other presence in the realm. He wanted the power in the children's weapons to strengthen his hold over everything around him.

  Shadow Demon, voiced by Bob Holt, worked as Venger's personal spy and assistant. He tracked the children's movements and referred to them as "Dungeon Master's young ones." Venger's mode of transport was a black horse named Night-Mare.

  Tiamat carried five heads, each with a different breath weapon. The white head breathed ice; the green, poison gas; the red center head, fire; the blue, lightning; and the black, acid. Frank Welker voiced her, giving each head a reverberating, multi-level quality. She was the one creature Venger would not confront.

  Kareena appeared in the episode "Citadel of Shadow," trapped inside a force field Venger himself had imposed on her. Diane Pershing voiced her. Sheila freed her, and that act of altruism, the show suggests, restored something human in Kareena. The planned final episode would have named her as Dungeon Master's daughter as well as Venger's sister.

• 4. The Unfinished Finale

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  "My son," the Dungeon Master says to Venger at the end of the episode "The Dragon's Graveyard." The line lands without elaboration. In a later episode, "The Treasure of Tardos," he adds: "We all make mistakes. Venger... was mine."

  The planned final episode, titled "Requiem," would have completed the picture. Written by Michael Reaves, a frequent screenwriter for the series, it would have confirmed that Venger was the Dungeon Master's corrupted son. Kareena would have been confirmed as both Venger's sister and the Dungeon Master's daughter. Venger would have been redeemed, freeing everyone trapped in the realm. The episode was designed to work as both a series conclusion and a starting point for a potential fourth season. CBS canceled the show before the script was produced.

  Reaves later published the original script on his personal website. The BCI Eclipse Region 1 DVD release recorded it as an audio drama and included it as a special feature.

  A fan-made animated version appeared online in 2020. It paired the original audio drama with animation recut from the series. Wally Wingert played both Dungeon Master and Hank. Neil Kaplan voiced Venger, while Ryan Nead took the separate role of Redeemed Venger. Katie Leigh reprised her original role as Sheila and also voiced Bobby, while Frank Welker returned as Uni.

• 5. Violence and Acclaim

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  In 1985, the National Coalition on Television Violence demanded the FTC require a warning during every broadcast of the show. Their claim was that Dungeons & Dragons had been linked to real-life violent deaths.

  That demand followed a narrower threat earlier in the run. The episode "The Dragon's Graveyard" had nearly been canceled because the characters seriously contemplated killing Venger. Violence in the series had been a recurring point of contention for American children's television throughout its run.

  The show held its audience despite all of it. It led its time slot for two years and generated more than a hundred different licenses.

  Tonia Gayle Smith, who voiced Diana, received a nomination at the 1984-1985 Youth in Film Awards. The category was Outstanding Young Actress in an Animation Voice-over. In January 2009, IGN placed the series at number 64 on its list of the best one hundred animated series.

• 6. An Expanding Legacy

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  LJN produced an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons toy line in 1983, the same year the show premiered. The line featured original characters including Warduke, Strongheart the Paladin, and the wizard Kelek. None of the six main television characters appeared in it, though all three of those originals each appeared in one episode of the series. TSR followed in 1984 with a board game called Quest for the Dungeonmaster. It was based on the episode "In Search of the Dungeon Master." In that story, Warduke captures Dungeon Master and freezes him in a magic crystal. Brazilian company Grow released a Portuguese-language version of the game in 1993.

  Contender Entertainment Group released the series on four stand-alone DVDs in 2004. Fan commentary tracks, character profiles, and DVD-ROM content were spread across the volumes. BCI Eclipse followed with a five-disc set on the 5th of December 2006. It was digitally remastered and arranged in story continuity order, and included documentaries and a radio play among its many special features. That release went out of print when BCI Eclipse ceased operations in December 2008. Mill Creek Entertainment released a three-disc version on the 25th of August 2009. That set carried no special features but restored most of the original music.

  In 2021, Wizards of the Coast released a Secret Lair set for Magic the Gathering based on the animated series. The complete series also streamed on Twitch on the 9th of July 2021 as part of the Saturday Morning D&D event. A limited edition card set tied to that event followed on the 29th of October the same year.

  The 2023 film Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves cast adult versions of all six main characters in live-action cameos. They appear competing in a tournament in Neverwinter.

  In March 2023, IDW Publishing released a comic miniseries called Saturday Morning Adventures. David M. Booher and Sam Maggs wrote it, with artwork by George Kambadais. In December 2024, the Brazilian blog Jovem Nerd and Hasbro announced a stop-motion short at CCXP. The short is titled "O Episodio Perdido." The title translates as "The Lost Episode," an echo of the unproduced "Requiem" script, still circulating nearly four decades after the show's cancellation.