April 29, 2020

SATURDAY MORNING MASTERS: FILMATION


FILMATION ASSOCIATES 
(1962-89) 


Top: The longest-serving Filmation studio. Bottom: Filmation's larger home for their final three years.

Key People: Lou Scheimer (founder, producer), Hal Sutherland (founder, producer, director), Norm Prescott (founder, producer, composer), Ira Epstein (lawyer), Ray Ellis (composer), Dean Andre (composer), Erv Kaplan (background designer) 

Filmation's founders: Lou Scheimer, Norm Prescott and Hal Sutherland (rear).

Lou Scheimer and Hal Sutherland met while working for Larry Harmon Pictures. When Harmon closed his studio in 1961, they went to work for True Line where they took on a job to produce a cartoon called Rod Rocket. It was the first place where they credited themselves as Filmation, since they were “working on FILM, but doing animation”. In time, the pair met and were joined by former disc jockey Norm Prescott. They retained Harmon’s former lawyer, Ira Epstein, who incorporated the trio as Filmation Associates in 1962. They began work on their first major project, an animated sequel to MGM’s The Wizard of Oz called Journey Back to Oz which would take a decade to complete due to financing issues, while also working on commercials and unsuccessfully developing an original series called The Adventures of Stanley Stoutheart. On the verge of shutting down, Filmation got its big break when they were able to bluff DC Comics into letting them do a new Superman cartoon by filling their otherwise empty offices with friends and colleagues from other studios to make it seem like Filmation was a booming studio. The New Adventures of Superman became a major hit, ingratiating them to CBS executive Fred Silverman and allowing the studio to follow up with additional DC cartoons and shows based on popular movies. Like other studios, Filmation utilized limited animation and had a major reliance on stock footage that they would reuse even across various shows. To compensate for that, they tried to ensure the writing was as high-quality as possible; such as with Star Trek: The Animated Serieswhich utilized writers from the original Star Trek and won an Emmy. They also utilized new techniques such as backlighting effects in The New Adventures of Flash Gordon and generating faux 3D vehicle animation using white-outlined black miniatures with a computerized motion control camera for shows like He-Man and the Masters of the UniverseFilmation also had the proud distinction of being the only studio to not send animation jobs overseas, with the exception of The New Adventures of Zorro due to their workload at the time. When concerns arose over violence in children’s television in the late 60s, Filmation shifted focus to gentler comedic fare most successfully with The Archie Showbased on the Archie Comics characters, and Fat Albert and the Cosby Kidsbased on the stand-up routines of Bill Cosby. Filmation had always strove to have a pro-social message in their productions, but drove the point home when they began including PSAs at the end of their episodes. 1969 saw them introduce the first African-American character on Saturday mornings with The Hardy Boys. In the 1970s, Filmation expanded into live-action, making 6 fully live-action shows: Space Academy, Ark II, Jason of Star CommandShazam!, The Ghost Busters and The Secrets of IsisWhile the studio had a generally good track record, 1976’s Uncle Croc’s Block proved such a spectacular failure that it ended their relationship with Silverman in favor of rival Hanna-Barbera. With increasing competition on network television from new studios that offered cheaper, outsourced animation, Filmation turned to the syndication market for its remaining years. In 1969, Filmation was purchased by TelePrompTer Corporation, which was then purchased by Westinghouse Electric Corporation’s Group W Productions in 1981. Prescott, who had poor dealings with Westinghouse in the past, took that opportunity to retire from the company. Sutherland had left in 1973 when his TelePrompTer contract ran out, wanting to focus on fine-art painting; although, he would come on as a temporary employee to help Filmation out of any jams. Finding himself embroiled in constant battles with Group W after management changes, Scheimer helped to encourage the sale of Filmation to L’Oreal. However, L’Oreal wasn’t interested in producing anything new and shut the studio down in 1989. Hallmark Cards would acquire all of Filmation’s non-licensed projects in 1995. When the library was sold again in 2004 to Entertainment Rights, it was discovered that Hallmark discarded all of the original material after converting the library to digital and PAL-region formats. This meant the soundtrack on future Filmation releases ran 4% too fast. In 2009, Boomerang Media acquired Entertainment Rights and absorbed it into Classic Media. In 2012, Classic Media was acquired by DreamWorks Animation, which in turn would be bought out by Universal Studios in 2016.

Lou Scheimer among his various characters on the cover of his memoir.


Saturday Credits: 
The New Adventures of Superman 
Journey to the Center of the Earth 
The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure 
Fantastic Voyage 
Aquaman 
The Archie Show 
The Batman/Superman Hour 
The Adventures of Batman 
The Archie Comedy Hour 
The Hardy Boys (1969) 
Archie’s Funhouse 
Will the Real Jerry Lewis Please Sit Down 
Sabrina and the Groovie Goolies 
Archie’s TV Funnies 
Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids 
The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie (episodes) 
The Brady Kids 
Lassie’s Rescue Rangers 
Everything’s Archie 
Star Trek: The Animated Series 
My Favorite Matians 
Mission: Magic! 
The U.S. of Archie 
The New Adventures of Gilligan 
Shazam! (1974) 
The Secret Lives of Waldo Kitty 
The Secrets of Isis 
The Ghost Busters 
Uncle Croc’s Block 
Tarzan, Lord of The Jungle 
Ark II 
The New Adventures of Batman 
Space Sentinels 
Jason of Star Command 
The Batman/Tarzan Adventure Hour 
The New Archie and Sabrina Hour 
The Groovie Goolies and Friends 
Tarzan and the Super 7 
Fabulous Funnies 
The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse and Heckle & Jeckle 
The New Adventures of Flash Gordon 
The New Fat Albert Show 
Batman and the Super 7 
The Tarzan/Lone Ranger Adventure Hour 
The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show 
Blackstar 
The Kid Super Power Hour with Shazam! 
The Tarzan/Lone Ranger/Zorro Adventure Hour 
Gilligan’s Planet 
The Adventures of Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids 

April 25, 2020

1960s SATURDAY MORNING ADS


            It wasn’t until the late 60s that Saturday mornings were beginning to get into full swing. Content with airing primetime reruns and a few new shows here and there, that all changed in 1966 when CBS revitalized its schedule with an action-heavy slant. When CBS showed massive success, the other networks followed and Saturday morning suddenly became good business. So, how would the networks advertise to their targeted audiences to tune in every week? Simple: advertise in comic books! For almost every Saturday schedule for decades, there was an artfully designed cartoon representing the networks’ schedules in every major publication. They even made sure to cover their bases with ads in TV Guide and newspapers so that parents would be aware shows for their kids would be on.

Below are some of the ads that ran for the 1960s:


CBS

1966

1967

1968

1969

ABC

Ad celebrating The Beatles' success on ABC, reprinting the original 1965 ad.

1967

1967 black & white ad.

1969

1969 black & white ad.

NBC
1969

DASTARDLY & MUTTLEY IN THEIR FLYING MACHINES


DASTARDLY & MUTTLEY IN THEIR FLYING MACHINES
(CBS, September 13, 1969-January 3, 1970)

Hanna-Barbera Productions





MAIN CAST:
Paul Winchell – Dick Dastardly, General
Don Messick – Muttley, Klunk, Zilly, various


            Inspired by the hit film Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines, Hanna-Barbera began work on a series utilizing airplanes. Originally the program was going to be populated by an all-new assortment of characters led by a German Baron and his dog and called Stop the Pigeon (which many believe remained the show’s name due to its repeated utterance in the show’s theme song). However, Wacky Races happened and changed those plans.


Original concepts for The Vulture Squadron (top) and Yankee Doodle Pigeon (bottom).


            With the villainous Dick Dastardly (Paul Winchell) and his dog sidekick, the ever-snickering and grumbling Muttley (Don Messick), being the most popular characters of the program, it was decided to spin them off into their own starring vehicle. Initially, they were planned as the villains of the other Wacky Races spin-off, The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, but were made the primary leads of Stop the Pigeon instead. Dastardly was taken off of the racetrack and put into the skies as the leader of the Vulture Squadron, whose primary mission was to stop Yankee Doodle Pigeon from carrying out his secret mission of delivering whatever was in his satchel. It was never explicitly stated for which side Dastardly was working for, but it was a safe assumption it was the wrong side.

Muttley, Zilly, Klunk, Dastardly and Yankee Doodle.

Along with Muttley, who was always seeking to be rewarded with a medal for his efforts, Dastardly was joined by the cowardly Zilly, who would frequently pull his head into his coat to “disappear”, and the inventive Klunk (both Messick), who invented most of the wild aircraft and gadgetry used to go after Yankee Doodle. Zilly and Klunk were equally dim-witted, and the things they did often backfired. Klunk also spoke constantly in a series of sound effects mixed in with actual words, which often resulted in Zilly having to translate what he was saying to Dastardly. The entire squadron was under the command of an unseen General (Winchell), who would often call and yell at Dastardly for their failures.


One of the wacky plane concepts seen during the show.

            Dastardly & Muttley in Their Flying Machines debuted on CBS on September 13, 1969. The characters and wild aircraft were designed by Jerry Eisenberg, who used World War I planes as his base inspiration because of how funky they looked to begin with. Each show was broken up into multiple segments. Two were the primary story segments of the Squadron’s misadventures in trying to apprehend Yankee Doodle. The last segment was “Magnificent Muttley”, where Muttley would daydream about himself in various occupations or adventures and usually being the hero to Dastardly’s villain. There were also short 30-second gag segments called “Wing Dings”, which usually played up a pun of some kind for a visual gag. The series was written by Larz Bourne, Dalton Sandifer and Mike Maltese with story direction by Alex Lovy and Bill Perez. Ted Nichols composed the music, and the show’s theme was performed by Winchell in character as Dastardly.

Anvil power!

            The series only ran for one season before entering syndicated reruns on local stations between 1976 and 1982, and hitting Cartoon Network in 1995 and sister channel Boomerang in 2000. That short run didn’t stop it from receiving a wide variety of merchandise, however. Milton Bradley produced a board game and puzzles; Whitman published a coloring book and a tray puzzle; Kellogg’s ran several promotions, including allowing kids to “join” the Squadron, erasers in the shape of the characters, and a plastic plane with Muttley piloting; and Hestair made two puzzles as part of their Puzzler 100 line. After the series ended, London Brown Watson Ltd. published Dastardly & Muttley and Friends in 1973, and in 1975 Rico released die-cast toy planes featuring the characters at least on the cards in Spain.

Spring power!

            Although never receiving its own comic, Dastardly & Muttley was a feature in Gold Key ComicsHanna-Barbera Fun-In for at least half of the series’ run. They were less prominent in Gold Key/Whitman’s Golden Comics Digest, appearing only in #7 and #11. In 2017, as part of DC Comics’ reimagining of Hanna-Barbera properties, a Dastardly & Muttley mini-series was released written by Garth Ennis and drawn by Mauricet, with colors by John Kalisz and letters by Rob Steen. The series was a twist on the Flying Machines concept by having U.S. Air Force pilot Colonel Richard “Dick” Atcherly and his navigator, Captain Dudley “Mutt” Muller, become gradually cartoonized when the leader of Unliklistan tried to use the unstable radioactive element Unstablium 239 to power a reactor. The (unofficial) Vulture Squadron comes together to try and stop an errant drone, War Pig One, from further spreading the Unstablium around the world. The phrase “Stop the Pig One” eventually makes its way into the book, as does the original cartoon. In 2019, the actual characters returned in Scooby-Doo Team-Up #44 by Sholly Fisch, Scott Jeralds, Silvana Brys and Saida Temofonte, tricking the Mystery, Inc. gang into thinking Yankee Doodle was a ghost to capture. It also, at long last, revealed why the Vulture Squadron was after him this whole time.

The international version of the complete series DVD.

            Dastardly & Muttley has seen numerous releases to home video; both in English and in other languages. In 1986, Worldvision Home Video released a VHS collection containing three episodes of the series. Another collection repeating a couple of the earlier selections was released by Turner Pictures Worldwide in 1996. In the United Kingdom, The Video Collection released their own compilation in 1986, and again in 1989 when they also released their own version of the Worldvision release, and included a “Magnificent Muttley” segment in their Bedtime Stories: The Cartoon Collection. First Independent Films took over distribution rights in 1994 with a series of collections of various segments, and a collection of those in Bumper Edition. In 2005, Warner Home Video released the complete series to DVD as part of their Hanna-Barbera Classics Collection. It was re-released in 2017 as part of the Hanna-Barbera Diamond Collection. In 2012, Warner also released an international collection called Hanna-Barbera 4 DVD Bumper Pack which contained the first volumes of Dastardly & Muttley, Wacky Races, Top Cat and Hong Kong Phooey. On September 13, 2024, the series returned to television on the retro animation network MeTV Toons.



EPISODES:
“Fur Out Furlough / Barn Dance / Hot Soup / Muttley on the Bounty / Slappy Birthday” (9/13/69) – The General promises an all-expenses paid month-long furlough for the one that captures the pigeon. / Klunk asks the others if they’re going to the barn dance. / The mop water gets mixed up with the soup. / Muttley dreams he’s Fletcher Christian and Dastardly is Captain Bligh. / Muttley can’t celebrate his birthday until the pigeon is caught.

“Follow That Feather / Barber / Empty Hangar / What’s New Old Bean? / Operation Anvil” (9/20/69) – The Squadron uses a feather-seeking homing missile. / Muttley raises Dastardly’s barber chair a bit too high. / Muttley brings Dastardly a literal hanger for his clothes. / While gardening, Muttley dreams he’s in Jack and the Beanstalk. / Klunk is confident that his flying anvil will finally succeed.

“Sky Hi-IQ / Prop Wash / Carpet / The Marvelous Muttdini / A Plain Shortage of Planes” (9/27/69) – The General sends in an efficiency expert. / Klunk uses a plane to dry his laundry. / Dastardly’s men roll out the red carpet when he returns from vacation. / While locked in the guard house, Muttley dreams he’s an escape artist. / The Squadron has run out of planes and there’s no money to buy any more.

“Barnstormers / Arnold / Pineapple Sundae / The New Mascot / The Bad Actor / Shape Up or Ship Out” (10/4/69) – Crashing in a barn causes a country woman to think Zilly is her Prince Charming. / Dastardly’s giant dog is a little too good at fetching. / Dastardly wants his sundae the way he wants it. / Dastardly shows Muttley their new giant dog mascot. / Muttley dreams he’s being upstaged by Dastardly. / The General transfers the Squadron to sea duty as Yankee Doodle’s route takes him over the water.

“Stop That Pigeon / Grease Job / Robot / The Big Topper / Zilly’s a Dilly” (10/11/69) – The Squadron douses the pigeon with pepper to target their new sneeze-detecting missiles. / Dastardly takes a nap while Zilly greases his car. / Dastardly tries Klunk’s new housekeeping robot. / Muttley dreams he’s a circus performer with Dastardly out to sabotage him. / Dastardly calls in a hypnotist to get Zilly to stop being such a coward.

“The Cuckoo Patrol / Automatic Door / Airmail / Runway Stripe / The Masked Muttley / Pest Pilots” (10/18/69) – The Squadron tries to disguise themselves as fellow pigeons. / Dastardly tries Klunk’s automatic hangar door opener. / Zilly sends a letter airmail. / Klunk uses a rocket to paint the landing strip’s line. / Muttley dreams he’s a western hero after outlaw Dastardly.  / A mad scientist allows the Squadron to try his flying machines.

“The Swiss Yelps / Eagle-Beagle / Deep Reading / Shell Game / Slightly Loaded / Movie Stuntman” (10/25/69) – The Squadron gives chase through the Swiss Alps. / Dastardly decides to use an eagle to capture the pigeon. / Dastardly wants a light to read his book by. / Klunk helps Zilly collect seashells. / Dastardly tries to get the lightest things to offload of a truck. / Muttley dreams he’s a Hollywood stuntman and director Dastardly is trying to get him off the picture—permanently.

“Fly By Knights / There’s No Fool like a Re-Fuel / Springtime / Dog’s Life / Strange Equipment / Coonskin Caper” (11/1/69) – After failing an eye test, the Squadron all get glasses that make their sight even worse. / Running out of fuel has Klunk try to devise a way they can refuel in the air. / The Squadron has to find a new underground spring. / Zilly takes in a dog fish. / Zilly gets his baseball equipment from Dastardly’s desk.  / Muttley dreams he’s Daniel Boone and has to rescue his girl from Dastardly.

“Movies Are Badder Than Ever / Home Sweet Homing Pigeon / The Elevator / Obedience School / Aquanuts” (11/8/69) – The General sends a movie director to film the Squadron and find out what they’re doing wrong. / The Squadron refuses to listen to Dastardly’s orders as their enlistments have come to an end. / Zilly takes the elevator too high. / Muttley returns from obedience school. / Muttley dreams Dastardly is out to steal the sunken treasure he’s after.

“Lens A Hand / Vacation Trip Trap / Parachute / Real Snapper / Leonardo De Muttley” (11/15/69) – Dastardly has to prove to the General that the Squadron is actually working and not just collecting flight pay. / The Squadron is left to carry on while Dastardly goes on vacation. / Zilly bails out when the Squadron’s boat springs a leak. / Dastardly learns he’s sharing his bath with a crab. / Muttley dreams he’s da Vinci inventing the first flying machine.

“Stop Which Pigeon? / Ceiling Zero Zero / Fast Freight / Home Run / Start Your Engines” (11/22/69) – The Squadron hires an actor pigeon for the General’s inspection visit. / The Squadron tries Klunk’s weather machine against the pigeon. / Dastardly and Zilly ride atop a train on Dastardly’s “private car”. / The Squadron plays some baseball. / Muttley dreams he’s a famous racer.

“Who’s Who? / Operation Birdbrain / Bowling Pin / Shrink Job / Ship Ahooey” (11/29/69) – Dastardly loses his memory when he falls on his head. / Dastardly has the Squadron learn to be pigeons. / While complaining about the quiet, a bowling pin falls on Dastardly’s head. / After Dastardly’s uniform is shrunk in the wash, they shrink him so he’ll fit. / Muttley dreams he’s trying to swim across the English Channel.

“Medal Muddle / Go South Young Pigeon! / The Window Washer / Beach Blast / Admiral Bird Dog” (12/6/69) – Muttley refuses to work until Dastardly helps him recover his stolen medals. / The Squadron loses the pigeon amongst migrating birds. / Dastardly tasks Zilly with washing the base’s windows. / Dastardly has Zilly blow up his beach ball. / Muttley dreams Dastardly beats him to the North Pole.

“Too Many Kooks / Ice See You / Echo / Rainmaker / Professor Muttley” (12/13/69) – Dastardly lets the others come up with plans for catching the pigeon. / The Squadron gives chase over the frozen northern front. / Zilly and Dastardly have fun with a cave echo. / Zilly seeds some clouds to bring some rain on a blistering day. / Muttley dreams he’s a brilliant inventor whose ideas are constantly stolen by Dastardly.

“Balmy Swami / Camouflage Ho-Aroo / Mop Up / Big Turnover / Wild Mutt Muttley” (12/20/69) – The Squadron crashes in on a swami that predicts a good future for them, and a bad one for the pigeon. / The General sends a camouflage expert to help the Squadron. / Dastardly doles out cleaning assignments. / Dastardly shows his men his circus high-wire act. / Muttley dreams he’s lord of the jungle.

“Have Plane Will Travel / Windy Windmill / Tough Break / The Ice Cream Tree / Astromutt” (12/27/69) – The Squadron is transferred to an area devoid of pigeons—except for one. / The Squadron uses a windmill plane to give chase to the pigeon over the Netherlands. / Zilly fixes Dastardly’s brakes. / Klunk plants a tree that grows ice cream cones. / Muttley dreams he’s an astronaut with Dastardly scheming against him on a planet.

“Plane Talk / Happy Bird Day / Boxing / Runaway Rug / Super Muttley” (1/3/70) – Klunk develops a plane that has a spare plane. / The General orders off all birthday celebrating until they catch the pigeon—but whose birthday is it? / Zilly takes Klunk’s boxing stats. / On a pleasure flight, Dastardly and Muttley encounter a flying carpet. / Muttley dreams he’s a super hero.


Originally posted in 2020. Updated in 2024.