FILMATION ASSOCIATES
(1962-89)
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| 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)
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| 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 Series, which
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 Universe. Filmation 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 Show, based on the Archie Comics
characters, and Fat
Albert and the Cosby Kids, based
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 Command, Shazam!, The
Ghost Busters and The
Secrets of Isis. While 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.
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| 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
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