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Ah, yes, I wrote "The Purple Cow"
I'm sorry, now, I wrote it
But I can tell you anyhow
I'll kill you if you quote it!
Gelett Burgess
Fandom is an interesting entity. Nobody can quite tell how people will react to anything, making it more of a crapshoot to create a popular work than anything. However, it's assumed that most creators hold an equal or greater amount of affection for their work than their fans. After all, they had to actually make it in the first place. So obviously, anything that's popular must be something the creator likes, right?
Not quite. See, the creators are just as human as everybody else and even if they're the origin of a particular work, that doesn't stop them from holding a negative opinion about it. This is what is referred to as Creator Backlash. It's the most high profile form of hatedom possible, since it's the very creator(s) of the work denouncing it. As they bring up their feelings of hatred for their work in interviews, public forums, and their other creations, it brings a certain amount of discord into being a fan when the very source has denied it.
It can take on many forms and for many reasons. Perhaps the creator didn't really intend for it to become so popular, only making it to pay the bills and fund their more serious work (perhaps even getting forced into continuing it). Perhaps people completely miss the point. Perhaps it has them typecast to a sickening level. Or perhaps they just really do hate the work they created after all this time. The reasons are as myriad as the reasons a fan might choose to like their work in the first place.
Not all Creator Backlash is permanent, though. They can just as easily choose to later embrace their work when they get over whatever was troubling them in the first place. This seems to be quite rare, however.
Compare Old Shame, where the work in question neither caught on nor has many redeeming qualities in the first place.
Anime
- Kyoko Mizuki and Yumiko Igarashi have come to despise Candy Candy.
- Yoshiyuki Tomino is known to have despised working on Victory Gundam. In either a dvd commentary or an interview, he literally says that people shouldn't watch this. This is understandable considering the creepiness of the show; however that hasn't stopped it from becoming second only to Zeta Gundam for UC TV series.
- He later warmed up to Gundam once more, though. He loved working on Turn A & even wrote a memoir about it & how it cured him of depression. Which is just as well for the cast, as characters tend to die when Tomino gets depressed.
- Akira Toryama has stated many times that he is done with Dragon Ball. Too bad it's his most popular series.
Comic Books
- Robert Crumb has come to hate Fritz the Cat.
- Pierre "Peyo" Culliford hated The Smurfs, but continued to work on it because it was a cash cow.
- James O'Barr came to hate The Crow because it glorified revenge. All royalties he recieved from themovie were donated to charity.
- Warren Ellis grew to despise Planetary and its fans after they constanty sent him e-mails asking when the new issue was coming out. However, the situation really came to a boil after the death of Ellis's father. When he asked his fans not to contact him while he was in mourning, guess who kept on e-mailing him? There's probably a good reason why the later issues were so slow to come out.
Film
- Sir Alec Guinness grew to hate the Star Wars series over time and regret having played Obi Wan Kenobi. He once famously told a fan that he could have an autograph if he never watched the film again.
- Note that he only said this because the kid who wouldn't stop bugging him turned out to be an obsessive crazy fan who had viewed the movie over 100 times. The kid later wrote him to thank him.
- Michael J. Fox regrets having been in Teen Wolf, which has maintained its cult popularity and even got a sequel. Fox refused to do the sequel, which was slightly problematic as he was, of course, the title character. Ultimately, Jason Bateman was cast as a Jonas Quinn.
- The movie Galaxy Quest shows the cast of the titular Star Trek knock-off despising the show for both derailing all their careers and being their only means of support. Ironically, the Shatner counterpart is the only one who doesn't mind it.
- The Scotty fill-in is too laid back and easy-going to despise anything.
- Molly Ringwald doesn't talk about anything she did before she turned 18. Included in that are pretty much all of the "Brat Pack" movies.
- David Fincher doesn't talk about Alien 3 and refused to put it on his resume to this day.
- Chiefly because his vision was hampered by Executive Meddling.
- Joss Whedon, scriptwriter for Aliens: Resurrection, is known to hate the actual film because of how badly his script was executed.
- Faye Dunaway regrets having played in Mommy Dearest and doesn't like to talk about it either.
- Bela Lugosi had a love-hate relationship with Dracula throughout the rest of his life. On the one hand, typecasting destroyed his career. On the other hand, anything he had was due to Dracula, so he kept some gratitude.
- Joel Schumacher has apologized for Batman & Robin in this interview
 .
- Also, George Clooney highly regrets being in this film, feeling that he helped kill the franchise. One persistent, unattributed rumor is that he will give the price of admission to the film back to anybody that approaches him and says they saw it in theaters.
- Tim Curry aka Dr. Frank-N-Furter hated The Rocky Horror Picture Show for a long time, only coming to accept its legacy in recent years.
- Kevin Smith famously made a mock apology for how awful Mallrats was on the official movie website, just as a way to screw with all the fans who hated it.
Literature
- The page quote came from Gelett Burgess's exasperation over the popularity of his fluff 1895 poem The Purple Cow, making this one of The Oldest Ones In The Book
- More a love-hate relationship than despise, but this is part of the reason Arthur Conan Doyle was led to kill off Sherlock Holmes, who overshadowed all of his other writings.
- A. A. Milne grew to loathe his Winnie the Pooh books, as it typecasted him forever as a "writer of children's books". Simlarly, his son Christopher Robin grew to hate the works as well, for he was bullied constantly for being immortalized in them.
- In story example: Misery by Stephen King is about an author that hates his popular character and wants to kill her off.
- In real life, Stephen King has come to regret writing the novel Rage, since its plot - a socially rejected teenager shooting up his school - has become all too familiar.
- Jack Kerouac found Visions of Cody to be a superior work to On the Road, and was disappointed at how much more people focused on the latter.
- Anthony Burgess found A Clockwork Orange to be "too didactic", and he also despised the film version
- Mark Twain came to think of Tom Sawyer as the exemplar of everything that's shallow and stunted in the American spirit. His disgust found its way into Huckleberry Finn, in which Tom comes off as more of a thoughtless Jerk Ass than a mischievous scamp.
- Harper Lee had became so annoyed at how well "To Kill a Mockingbird" was received that she was afraid that nothing else she wrote will be free of the comparison to that book. She stopped writing entirely, and refused to get involved in her hometown's celebration of the novel, living as a recluse.
- Western author Louis L'Amour early in his career was hired to write a series of stories about the character 'Hopalong' Cassidy for a western pulp magazine. Because the stories were not about a original character and were extensively edited to tie in with a 'Hopalong' Cassidy TV show L'Amour later in life denied ever writing them in the first place, even to his own family. They were only reprinted after his death.
- Due to her newfound Christianity, Anne Rice has disclaimed her popular Vampire Chronicles series, as well as the connected Mayfair Witches series.
- Another in-story example: Sharyn McCrumb's novel Bimbos of the Death Sun features an author who despises the series of cheesy Conan The Barbarian-style novels to which he's become metaphorically chained by success and merchandising, all the while wanting recognition for his use of Celtic mythology in the books.
Live Action TV
- Dave Chappelle came to loathe how people started showing up to his stand up comedy exclusively to demand that he replicate skits from his TV show. This even lead to a nervous breakdown, insuring that the third season (or any after it) of Chappelle's Show would never get finished.
- Eddie Murphy refuses to acknowledge his old Saturday Night Live characters.
- William Shatner has famously become like this with regard to Star Trek.
- The writers of the Star Trek: Voyager episode Threshold acknowledge it to be the worst Trek episode ever.
- Amy Jo Johnson, the original Pink Ranger has shown everything from visible discomfort to outright shame in regards to the role that made her famous (and probably typecast her forever). This has affected many of the other Mighty Morphin Power Ranger actors, but most of them were martial artists first and foremost, not having as great a desire to make it as serious actors as Johnson.
- In a recent interview, his widow noted that Ray Goulding (of Bob & Ray) didn't like to have the early episodes of the duo's 1951-53 TV show brought up because "it was infancy for television" and he was "appalled at how really naiive they were about what to wear and how to appear." Different times...
- Aparently it's a good idea to be careful when talking about Doctor Who around Christopher Eccleston. Rumor has it that he once knocked a guy's teeth out in a pub brawl for calling him "Doctor Who".
- Robin Williams does not like being called "Mork", or being greeted with "Nanu nanu". Even as far back as "Reality, What a Concept..." (1979) he had to let the crowd (chanting "Mork! Mork! Mork!") know that he preferred doing stand-up. On his "Live 2002" album, something similar happened, and he actually said he'd rather forget Mork(!). If this troper's meeting with him is any indication, though, he's starting to mellow about it.
Music
- Commonly happens to one hit wonder bands that never came near the success of that one hit with anything else. For example, the band A Flock of Seagulls came to dislike "I Ran" because for their entire three decade existence, nobody cared about any other song they released.
- This general concept is parodied amusingly in the Barenaked Ladies song "Box Set": "I never thought I'd be regretful/Of all my past success/But some stupid No.1 hit single/Has got me in this mess..."
- Radiohead grew to hate their first hit song "Creep" because people would show up to their concerts exclusively to hear it, acting indignant until they play it and leaving immediately afterwards. They continued to play it reluctantly, usually stating how they have no respect for the people that want to hear it right before. They eventually cut the song from their playlist altogether for a long period of time, and wrote "My Iron Lung" about it (sample lyrics: "This/This is our new song/Just like the last one/A total waste of time/My iron lung")
- One of the reasons that a Led Zeppelin reunion has never fully materialized is because Robert Plant came to utterly abhor "Stairway to Heaven", calling it "that bloody wedding song". Since there's no way they could get away with not playing what might be the single most popular song, this has not helped matters any.
- Bobby McFerrin has completely disowned "Don't Worry, Be Happy". When he signed up with a new record contract, he went through great trouble in negotiation to insure that he never, ever, ever, ever has to play that song ever again.
- Sting started to hate how "Every Breath You Take" was being interpreted as a romantic song. He refused to play it after a certain point except at one concert, where he changed half the lyrics.
- The Beastie Boys started refusing to play "Fight For Your Right" at concerts because the very crowd that they were criticizing with the song adopted it as their anthem.
- They have also apologized for that entire album (License to Ill) due its misogynistic, homophobic, and generally irresponsible lyrics. Their work has become a bit more classy since then.
- Billy Joel got sick of "Piano Man" for a time and refused to sing it in concert. And reportedly, he's not any too fond of "Just the Way You Are", either.
- Five Iron Frenzy came to hate "Combat Chuck" and completely stopped playing it at shows. Eventually, on their farewell tour they reinstated it as part of the "Medley of Power Ballads and Bad Taste".
- Stephen Sondheim has often expressed disdain for his West Side Story lyrics, especially "I Feel Pretty." This editor remembers reading an interview of him in Time Magazine where he commented to the effect that the song in question sounded more like Cole Porter than anything an urban Latina would be likely to sing.
- This editor has heard that Holst had this kind of feeling towards The Planets because it overshadowed his other compositions, and similarly, according to The Other Wiki, Grieg referred to his famous In the Hall of the Mountain King as an "infernal thing reek[ing] of cow-pies and provincialism."
- Brazilian band "Los Hermanos" made success with a catchy pop-rock song named "Anna Julia", and the band eventually grew a hatred for this song. Amazingly, the closest circle of fandom also hates it, probably because it's "too comercial". Apparently, music is Serious Business, too.
- Also from Brazil, Herbert Vianna of Os Paralamas do Sucesso doesn't very much their first album, Cinema Mudo, which he considers full of Executive Meddling.
- One of the reasons Tom Lehrer had such a short "active" musical career was that he quickly learned he was bored stiff by the idea of performing the same set of songs over and over and over. Some of his performances only happened because he wanted to visit the place were they were located. (Australia being a major example.)
- Noel Gallagher of Oasis describes their third album, Be Here Now, as "the sound of a bunch of guys on coke in the studio not giving a fuck." He also started to dislike "Roll With It", calling it "appalling".
- Several Beatles have tried to disown The Beatles or their work at some point in their solo careers.
- John Lennon says "I don't believe in the Beatles" at the climax of "God." This sentiment is also expressed in some of his writings: "they dissed Yoko, so..."
- Early on, Paul McCartney was so desperate to distance himself from The Beatles that his 1973 college tour included no Beatles material--at a time when he didn't have much solo material. Possible subversion later--in the '80s, Paul was presumed to be trying to distance himself from the Beatles when he was also heavily covering his part of their work.
- George Harrison said that his biggest break was getting into the Beatles, and his second biggest break was getting out of the Beatles.
- Elton John's 2002 hit "This Train Don't Stop Here Anymore" is basically one long Take That at his entire career, with special emphasis on the syrupy ballads. "Reality's just black and white/Those sentimental things I'd write/Never meant that much to me..."
- A much older example: Frederic Chopin never wanted Fantaisie-Impromptu to be published because of its similarities to Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, and asked his friend Julian Fontana to burn it (the Impromptu, not the Sonata). However, after Chopin's death Julian published it anyway and since then it's become one of Chopin's most well-known melodies. One can only wonder what Chopin would be thinking from beyond the grave...
- Chris Rice has expressed great distain for his frequently requested "Cartoon Song" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWFJ_rykyA4
- King Crimson refuse to play anything from their first few albums live for fear of "...becoming old dinosaurs".
- Frank Loesser was rather annoyed about "Thumbelina" being one of the most popular songs he'd written.
- Bloodrock turned away from hard rock on their last two albums (partially due to their original lead singer being replaced by a born-again Christian). During live performances, the band often refused to play their earlier songs with morbid or cynical themes such as "Whiskey Vengeance" and "D.O.A." (their only actual hit).
- Peter Furler of the Newsboys has said that when he first listened to the finished Boyz Will Be Boyz album, he actually cried because "it was crap". Although the band's fans usually don't prefer that album either, any mention of the band's songs before the Not Ashamed era will generally be met with embarrassment.
- Most members of dc Talk choose to ignore their first two albums, which were mostly rap-driven and quite a contrast to their later work.
- Also, ever since the group split up to do launch solo careers, they've pretty much constantly been asked about a possible reunion. Kevin Max is the most reluctant to do so, mostly for artistic reasons rather than personal reasons. They've still joined forces for the occasional song since then.
- "American Pie" made Don Mc Lean a success and then just as quickly killed his career. Mc Lean got so annoyed that the one song was all anyone ever wanted to hear from him that he began refusing to play it in concert; naturally, attendance dwindled to almost non-existent levels. Mc Lean was also rather irritated at constantly being asked to interpret the song's admittedly obscure lyrics.
Video Games
Webcomics
- Kittyhawk of Sparkling Generation Valkyrie Yuuki fame started out with a fairly popular webcomic called The Jar. Sometime around when she was having problems with her domain because of traffic, she took the whole website down. During the downtime between it and SGVY, she came to really, really hate The Jar and absolutely refused to put the archives back up. This seems to have faded recently due to her now selling it on CD format.
- In-story example: Justin in Punch An' Pie submitted an absurd story about a bat with a gun to a publisher. They published it. People ate it up. Now he's one of the most popular writers around, and he's sorry he ever wrote that story.
- Before Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw gained fame as a games reviewer, he wrote several webcomics. In his words, they "came out of a dark time in his life from which he has determinedly moved on without a backward glance."
- This is the rule, not the exception, for virtually any Matt Wilson production (namely, High Score and its animated spin-off Bonus Stage) to date.
Western Animation
- Ian Pearson and Gavin Blair of ReBoot fame were once famous for the computer animation in the Dire Straits Money For Nothing music video. They were proud of their work...at the time, but they despised that they had the suffix title of "Those guys who did Money for Nothing." They showed their feelings in an episode of ReBoot, where two look-alikes for the CGI movers from the video audition at Enzo's birthday party, only to be quickly booed off stage.
- Donald F. Glut was one of the few members of the Transformers cartoon staff who openly expressed his distaste for the series, slamming its quality as actual art (including the episodes he wrote) and claiming that he only worked on it for the money.
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