6. The Kids Really Hated Gerald
They created Gerald as the antagonist to Ladmo, who had become the show’s good guy. They wanted a bad guy, but one with whom the kids could relate. “You don’t want it to be an authority figure, you want it something that the kids can really strike out at,” said McMahon, quoting Thomson in a 1992 interview. “We didn’t know that they were going to strike out quite as viciously as they did against Gerald, though.” Kids used to send Gerald all sorts of hate mail, including mailed spiders and other creepy stuff.