“BS & P, as they're affectionately known to writers, can make some things literally impossible. And most people outside the industry don't know what power they have. For example, I get some fans who ask why we didn't do this or didn't do that. As much as I wish they would, it's EXTREMELY rare for a large entertainment conglomerate to give 15-20 million dollars to a writing team and say "here's a pile of money and some comic books do whatever you want." To them, it's an investment. And BS & P functions sometimes very autocratically to safeguard their investment. They want to prevent anyone from suing for anything. Their big bugaboo is imitatible acts. For example: why didn't we use Ghost Rider? Because we all, as writers, hated the character and are afraid of motorcycles? No, BS & P forbade us from using a character that was ON FIRE. They were afraid little Johnny five-year-old might douse himself with lighter fluid, strike a match and ride his big wheel down the driveway shouting "Lookie, I'm the Ghost Rider! I'm cool! I'm melting! Owie 'MOMMIE!'" No joke, they worry about that stuff. I say: Darwin, but that's why I'm not a lawyer. Same with, initially, Daredevil one of my favorite characters. "We can't have Satan on our cartoon show" they said. We had to explain that he's not THE devil, he's a DAREdevil. Well, he has little horns. Can you take off the little horns? Can you make them look more like ears? He's got those red, evil eyes." It's stuff like that that makes you want to pack-up your laptop, move to a cabin deep in the woods and write thousand-page manifestos against the "moronic imbeciles."”

Spider-Man (1994 TV series)

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