Exclusive Interview with Chris Millar: The Man Who Single-Handedly Brought Spiral Zone to DVD

Back in the late 1980s, a short-lived syndicated animated series called Spiral Zone debuted with a corresponding toy line. Due to poor distribution and a saturated animation market, the show was cancelled shortly thereafter and was very nearly lost to the halls of memory for all of time.

Like many others who enjoyed the show in its original broadcast, Chris Millar wondered why nobody ever bothered to bring the classic series to DVD. Only unlike the rest of us, Chris intended to do something about it. His first course of action was to hire a copyright attorney in effort to contact the owners of the property (Tonka/ Hasbro) with his suggestion of bringing the show to DVD.

When that route failed, Chris didn't hang his head in defeat but rather used his media background to assemble a web site devoted entirely to Spiral Zone. While his site did a great job assembling and uniting fans from around the globe, it was an email from one of the show's original producers that would change both Chris' life and the lives of fans of the series forever.

Without giving too much of this amazing tale away, I'll allow Chris to tell it in his own words through the following interview:

The 1980s has become known as a decade of domestic animation hit after hit. Following such massive titles as Masters of the Universe, Transformers, GI Joe, and Thundercats, Spiral Zone never enjoyed such widespread success. What, in your opinion, was the show's greatest strength? What separated it from some of the series mentioned above?

CM: I think the show had a lot of unique strengths that made it stand out from the crowd. Right out of the gate, the good guys were already fighting an uphill battle with half of the world Zoned. Also, the concept of the Spiral Zone itself, in that Overlord while doing a very sinister thing was actually driven by the goal of world peace. It's a mature concept to show that what we consider evil is often driven by an admirable goal. One thing that also separated it from other series of the time is that gunfire actually hit people! Of course they downplayed it by just stunning them but it's cool that as evil as Overlord was, he wasn't trying to kill anyone. That was a very clever way to have people get shot and still get the violence factor by the conservative censors.

I shudder to think of how many shows (like Spiral Zone) would have been forever lost to the recesses of memory if not for the Internet. We would love to hear your tale of the development/ publication of Spiralzone.com.

CM: Back in 2004, I was getting back into collecting G1 Transformers and I always wanted to own the Spiral Zone toys but they were never released in my home of Canada. Shortly thereafter, I found a guy on eBay who had a complete set of the US toys for sale along with all of the Tech Files. Upon purchase, I thought about how cool it would be to start a Spiral Zone web site and document all of the info from the tech specs. At the same time, I thought it would be a great forum for trying to get all of the episodes released on DVD; something that I would have paid anything for!

As a web editor myself, I know all too well the pressures and thanklessness that comes with running a site. Aside from Pierre De Celles (which we'll discuss in a moment), what was the coolest fan contact you received since starting the site?

CM: I've received numerous emails from fans all over the world who enjoyed Spiral Zone as much as I did when I was a kid. One in particular that sticks in my mind at the moment was a chick that emailed me stating that Overlord was her first crush!

I've heard that you went as far as to hire a copyright attorney in effort to put a little flame under Tonka/ Hasbro's collective butt as far as releasing the show on DVD is concerned. Did going that route yield any positive results?

CM: All it yielded was a lot of frustration and an empty wallet. Hasbro had no interest in speaking with my lawyer or me and I couldn't really blame them. Spiral Zone wasn't a financial success back in '89 so I doubt they had any interest in putting money towards releasing a DVD set today.

After unsuccessfully pitching the idea, you received an email from one Pierre De Celles, supervising director of Spiral Zone through your site- What did Pierre have to say?

CM: Pierre was thrilled that there was still Spiral Zone fans out there. He scanned some original cels from his archive so I could put them up on the site. Then he revealed that he had all 65 episodes archived from the original film reels. I was elated (to say the least) but he was reluctant to send them to me because he thought they might get lost in the mail. Eventually I convinced him that EMS shipping is nearly flawless and he sent them to me!

Once you received the original tapes, where did you begin in effort to convert the whopping 65-episode series into dvds?

CM: I did it in my "home studio" using a total of three PCs, multiple DVD burners and a Canopus capture box. I used Adobe Premiere for the video editing and Photoshop for the DVD sleeves and labels.

What was the hardest part about the process?

CM: It really wasn't hard, just very tedious. Capturing, editing and converting 65 episodes in about 5 weeks was a daunting task. Printing and applying all the labels, standing in line to ship off the packages... that sorta thing. But the fans love it, I've received many thanks!

Give us the breakdown of what's included in your Spiral Zone DVD box sets?

CM: Well, there are two editions: Regular and Deluxe. All editions have all 65 episodes in 640x480 resolution along with the original bumpers "Zone Riders! Looks like we're coming to a commercial!" On the final disc is an interview with Pierre De Celles, recordings of all the Action Cassettes and early animation sketches from Pierre. The Deluxe edition, in addition to some fancier packaging, contains a DVD with the "Spiral Force" Promo. See http://spiral-zone.com/tonka/spiral_force.htm for more info on that.

Did Pierre De Celles get a copy of your finished work? If so what did he think of the job you had done in preserving the original stock?

CM: I sent Pierre a few copies, he thought they were great. He is very happy that Spiral Zone still has a fanbase and that his efforts have been preserved on DVD.

You went as far as to include exclusive extras in your DVD set including interviews with Pierre himself. Now the all-important question, has anyone from Tonka/ Hasbro ever seen your masterpiece/contacted you/ provided any feedback whatsoever?

CM: I haven't heard a peep out of Hasbro. And I think a lot has to do with that they just don't care plus the fact that I'm up front saying that these DVDs, no matter how cool they may be, don't have their blessing.

Would it be possible at this stage in the game for you to be recognized as a licensed distributor of the property (assuming royalties were paid to the proper parties)? In other words, is there any way to get your beautiful boxed sets on store shelves all across the globe?

CM: I'd love for that to happen but I'd have to be approached by the subject parties, I won't be seeking them out. In a lot of ways, I feel that I've accomplished my mission of preserving Spiral Zone and satisfied the hardcore fanbase that's out there. So if this is as far as it goes, I'm OK with that.

It has been suggested that you were going to set your sites on giving another 1980s franchise, Dinosaucers, the same treatment. Any progress on that ambition? (Between you and I, I too was always a fan of the show and regret its lack of success).

CM: No, I haven't been actively seeking a way to bring Dinosaucers on DVD. Mainly because I already have a complete unofficial DVD set, albeit some of the episodes are not of the best video quality. I've spoken with a guy named Mark Vasquez a few times; he's working on a high quality Dinosaucers DVD set last time I talked to him. Now that you mention it, I should see how that's progressing.

Any thoughts on another typically well-regarded domestic series, ExoSquad? It has recently been announced by Universal that this lost gem will finally be coming to official DVD on April 14th. A lot of fans would love to hear your top five animated show picks of all time that failed to get the ExoSquad treatment (that faded into obscurity over the years).

CM: While I've never seen Exosquad, I have heard it was good. The shows that come to my mind that deserve the official DVD treatment are Spiral Zone (of course!), Dinosaucers, Bionic Six, Challenge of the Gobots, The Comic Strip, and Barnyard Commandos.

Finally, where can we send fans looking to get a hold of the official unofficial DVD release of Spiral Zone, The Complete Animated Series?

CM: Your timing is perfect; I am in the midst of doing one last production run of DVDs due to high demand. Check out www.spiral-zone.com, the first and only Spiral Zone site on the Internet.