40 years later, the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon is still having an impact

I always wondered why Dungeons & Dragons, the Saturday morning cartoon inspired by the role-playing game of the same name that ran for three seasons from 1983 to 1985, was the way it was.

Namely, why isn't it more similar to the game?

"I had absolutely no time [and] I had never seen Dungeons & Dragons before in my life," says Mark Evanier, who wrote the initial premise and pilot for the animated series. He did so after being given just four days to save the show's chance at getting made.

Yet in a packed ballroom at the 2023 International Comic-Con in San Diego, hundreds of fans applauded when panelists talked about how the cartoon introduced them to the world of D&D.