David Wise (writer)

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For other people named David Wise, see David Wise (disambiguation).

David Wise is an Emmy-award winning television and animation writer, tutored by writers such as Ursula K. Le Guin, Frank Herbert, Harlan Ellison and Theodore Sturgeon whilst attending the Clarion Science Fiction Writers Workshop. After publishing several SF short stories, Wise received his first writing job for Filmations' animated Star Trek series, writing the episode "How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth" in collaboration with Russell L Bates. The episode won Wise the Emmy for best children’s' series at the time. After a successful stint of live action work, writing for Glen Larsons' Buck Rogers and the Linda Carter Wonder Woman series, Wise returned to animation in the 1980s', collaborating on many of the immortal animated endeavours of that period such as He-Man and Mighty Orbots.

Wise was also responsible for writing some of the most controversial and entertaining Transformers episodes of all time during the second and fourth seasons, including the Optimus Prime origin story "War Dawn", the comedy chase format of "Kremzeek", and the final three episodes of the original G1 series "The Rebirth", which Wise was forced to edit from five parts to three due to the near collapse of the franchise by that point, the result of Primes' theatrical death in Transformers: The Movie. Wise also collaborated in between on Jem and My Little Pony.

In 1987, Wise was given the call to story edit and write for what would become better known as the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon, Wise was one of the principal forces behind the reinvention of the darker toned and mature black and white MIRAGE title into a fun, bright, cheerful animated phenomenon, creating the classic phrases "Cowabunga" and spearheading the directions for the original characters like Krang, and Rocksteady and Bebop.

Despite the originals' later lapse into complacency after three seasons, Wise remained on board for much than its' then unbeaten lifespan of ten years (finally beaten by The Simpsons), writing and story editing 100 episodes. The original series to this day is considered the best of the three television variations, even in light of the new, far more accurate to the comics and darker, version of the show, mostly due to the originality and fun provided with this interpretation.

Wise would leave the series after the ninth and penultimate season, his first that would not involve most of the characters he had crafted and helped mold for much of his run. Wise next worked on Disneys' Chip'N'Dale Rescue Rangers, and Mighty Ducks cartoons, and also wrote two episodes for Batman: The Animated Series, "The Clock King," and the origin story of The Riddler, "If You're so Smart Why Aren't you Rich?" He wrote and story-edited such comic-based series as "Cadillacs and Dinosaurs" and "Jim Lee's WildC.A.T.S." During this period he also wrote and produced the live-action film "Beastmaster III: The Eye of Braxus," and collaborated on a short lived animated interpretation of Zorro. He is presently CEO of Go! Comi, a publisher of Japanese Manga.