Filmation Associates was an American

production company A production company, production house or production studio is a studio that creates works in the fields of performing arts, new media art, film, television show, television, radio, comics, interactive arts, video games, websites, music, and video ...

founded by Lou Scheimer,

Hal Sutherland Harold H. "Hal" Sutherland (July 1, 1929 – January 16, 2014) was an American animator and painter who began his career as a Disney animator in 1954 working on ''Sleeping Beauty (1959 film), Sleeping Beauty'', ''Lady and the Tramp'', ''Peter Pan ...

and Norm Prescott in 1962, before closing by Group W Productions on February 3, 1989. Located in Reseda, California, Filmation produced

animated Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby image, still images are manipulated to create Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on cel, transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and e ...

and

live-action Live action is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live action with animation to create a live-action animated feature film. Live action is used to define film, video games or ...

productions. Notable productions that the company produced include the

DC Comics DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...

and

Archie Comics Archie Comic Publications, Inc. (often referred to simply as Archie Comics) is an American comic book publisher headquartered in the village of Pelham, New York. The company's many titles feature the fictional teenagers Archie Andrews, Jug ...

animated adaptations, '' Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids'', the animated version of ''Star Trek'' and the two adaptations of the

Mattel Mattel, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company headquartered in El Segundo, California. Founded in Los Angeles by Harold Matson and the husband-and-wife duo of Ruth Handler, ...

toyline ''

Masters of the Universe ''Masters of the Universe'' (sometimes referred to as the ''He-Man'' or ''She-Ra'' series) is a sword and planet-themed media franchise created by Mattel. The main premise revolves around the conflict between He-Man (the alter ego of Prince A ...

'' (''

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe ''He-Man and the Masters of the Universe'' (often referred to simply as ''He-Man'') is an American animated television series produced by Filmation based on Mattel's toy line ''Masters of the Universe''. The show was one of the most popular an ...

'' and '' She-Ra: Princess of Power'').

History

Background

Lou Scheimer and Filmation's main director Hal Sutherland met in 1957 while working at Larry Harmon Pictures on the made-for-TV '' Bozo'' and ''

Popeye Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by E. C. Segar, Elzie Crisler Segar.Reddi-wip whipped cream. SIB Productions, a Japanese firm with U.S. offices in Chicago, approached them about producing a cartoon called '' Rod Rocket''. The two agreed to take on the work and also took on a project for Family Films, owned by the

Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

, for ten short animated films based on the life of

Christ Jesus ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Christianity, central figure of Christianity, the M ...

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount ...

soon purchased SIB Productions, and True Line's staff increased, including the arrival of former radio

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at nightclubs or music fes ...

Norm Prescott, who became a partner in the firm. He had already been working on the animated feature '' Pinocchio in Outer Space'' which was primarily produced by Belvision Studios.

Peak era

They eventually left True Line, and Scheimer began working on commercials, including for Gillette and others, which began what became Filmation. He met lawyer Ira Epstein, who had worked for Harmon but had left the firm, and now put together the new

corporation A corporation or body corporate is an individual or a group of people, such as an association or company, that has been authorized by the State (polity), state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law as ...

with Scheimer and Sutherland. It officially became Filmation Associates as of September 1962, so named because "We were working on film, but doing animation"; so putting them together yielded the

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

"Filmation". Both ''Rod Rocket'' and the ''Life of Christ'' series credited "Filmation Associates" with "Production Design" in addition to Scheimer and Sutherland as directors. (SIB Productions, whose logo bore a resemblance to the original Filmation logo designed by Ted Littlefield, would soon go on to become "Sib-Tower 12 Productions" and produce the first few of

Chuck Jones Charles Martin Jones (September 21, 1912 – February 22, 2002) was an American animator, painter, voice actor and filmmaker, best known for his work with Warner Bros. Cartoons on the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of shorts. He ...

' ''

Tom and Jerry ''Tom and Jerry'' is an American Animated cartoon, animated media franchise and series of comedy short films created in 1940 by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Best known for its 161 theatrical short films by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the series ...

'' films for

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...

, until becoming MGM Animation/Visual Arts for the remainder of the films). Norm Prescott brought in Filmation's first major project, '' Journey Back to Oz'', an animated sequel to the MGM film '' The Wizard of Oz'' (1939). Begun in 1962, storyboarding, voice recording, and most of the music scoring and animation had been completed when financial challenges caused the project to be put on hold for nearly eight years. In the meantime, the new Filmation studio turned their attention to a more successful medium,

network television A television broadcaster or television network is a telecommunications network for the distribution of television content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations, pay television providers or, in the United ...

. For the next few years they made

television commercials A television advertisement (also called a commercial, spot, break, advert, or ad) is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization. It conveys a message promoting, and aiming to market, a product, service or idea. ...

and some other projects for other companies and made an unsuccessful pilot film for a

Marx Brothers The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act known for their anarchic humor, rapid-fire wordplay, and visual gags. They achieved success in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in 14 motion pictures. The core group consisted of brothers Chi ...

cartoon series. They also tried to develop an original series named ''The Adventures of Stanley Stoutheart'' (later renamed ''Yank and Doodle'') about a boy and a dog, but they were never able to sell it and almost closed down; until approached by

editor

Mort Weisinger Mortimer Weisinger (; April 25, 1915 – May 7, 1978) was an American magazine and comic book editor best known for editing DC Comics' ''Superman'' during the mid-1950s to 1960s, in the Silver Age of comic books. He also co-created such features ...

to do a ''Superman'' cartoon that premiered on CBS on September 10, 1966. This was followed by several of the other DC superheroes, and then, in 1968, the first '' Archie Show''. Both series greatly helped Filmation's popularity to increase into the 1970s, when it scored big with several of its series. The Filmation studio was purchased by the

TelePrompTer Corporation TelePrompTer Corporation was an American media company that existed from approximately 1950 until 1981. The company was named for its Teleprompter, eponymous primary product, a display device invented by Hubert Schlafly which scrolls Written lang ...

in 1969. Two years later, in 1971, Filmation and

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

signed an agreement to distribute cartoons for film and television. Filmation 1967

Final years

In 1981, while Prescott left the company,

Westinghouse Electric Corporation The Westinghouse Electric Corporation was an American manufacturing company founded in 1886 by George Westinghouse and headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was originally named "Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company" and was ...

, through its Group W Productions division, acquired Filmation along with its purchase of TelePrompTer's cable and entertainment properties."Group W sells Filmation." ''Broadcasting'', February 13, 1989, pg. 94
/ref> The last shows produced by Filmation were ''

Ghostbusters ''Ghostbusters'' is a 1984 American supernatural comedy film directed by Ivan Reitman and written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. It stars Bill Murray, Aykroyd, and Ramis as Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, and Egon Spengler, three eccentric ...

'' and '' BraveStarr'', and the company's last production was the feature film '' Happily Ever After'' (a sequel to the story of

Snow White "Snow White" is a German fairy tale, first written down in the early 19th century. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'', numbered as Tale 53. The original title was ''Sneewittch ...

); this film was produced from 1986 to 1988, and was theatrically released in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

five years later, in 1993. Also, at the time of the closing, two new animated series, ''Bugzburg'' (a spin-off of '' Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night'', concerning insect characters who had shown up in that movie) and ''Bravo'' (a spin-off of ''BraveStarr''), were beginning production. In 1989, Westinghouse sold Filmation to Paravision International, an investment consortium led by the French cosmetics company

L'Oréal L'Oréal S.A. () is a French multinational personal care corporation registered in Paris

. Before that sale was complete, Westinghouse shuttered the film studio on February 3, 1989, which left L'Oréal with only the Filmation library. This happened a day before the

WARN Act The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988 (the "WARN Act") is a United States labor law, U.S. labor law that protects employees, their families, and communities by requiring most employers with 100 or more employees to provi ...

went into effect requiring companies to give employees 60 days' notice before a mass layoff.

Production

Animation style

Like other producers of

Saturday-morning cartoon "Saturday-morning cartoon" is a colloquial term for the original animated series and live-action programming that was typically scheduled on Saturday and Sunday mornings in the United States on the "Big Three" television networks. The genre was a ...

s, Filmation was more concerned with quantity rather than quality; however, it did make a number of attempts to rise above the standard animated fare and produce reasonably well-written cartoons. The best-known example of this is its animated adaptation '' Star Trek: The Animated Series'', which included scripts contributed by well-known

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

writers and starred most of the original cast. Other favorably remembered Filmation series included a 16-part animated serial of ''

Flash Gordon Flash Gordon is the protagonist of a space adventure comic strip created and originally drawn by Alex Raymond. First published January 7, 1934, the strip was inspired by, and created to compete with, the already established ''Buck Rogers'' ...

'', originally intended as a movie for theatrical release, '' Flash Gordon: The Greatest Adventure of All''. The original film edit was only aired three times on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

, years after the series was cancelled. '' Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids'' was another hailed series created by and starring

Bill Cosby William Henry Cosby Jr. ( ; born July 12, 1937) is an American retired comedian, actor, and media personality. Often cited as a trailblazer for African Americans in the entertainment industry, Cosby was a film, television, and stand-up comedy ...

with an explicit educational focus. ''

'', based on the popular line of

toys, opened up a new North American market for first-run

television syndication Broadcast syndication is the practice of content owners leasing the right to broadcast their content to other television stations or radio stations, without having an official broadcast network to air it on. It is common in the United States whe ...

for animation in the 1980s. The animated adaptations of the

characters were also noteworthy for the original

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom.S. Frith, W. Straw, and J. Street, eds, ''iarchive:cambridgecompani00frit, The Cambridge Companion to Pop ...

produced for it, particularly the song "

Sugar, Sugar "Sugar, Sugar" is a song written by Jeff Barry and Andy Kim (singer), Andy Kim, produced by Barry and recorded by the Archies, a fictional bubblegum pop band from Archie Comics. It was released as the group's third single (music), single on th ...

", which was a No. 1 hit single. In addition, certain episodes of ''He-Man'' and '' BraveStarr'', in substance, and often animation, were pioneers in children's animated series of their time and paved the way for broader storytelling. Examples include He-Man's "The Problem with Power" which dealt with He-Man believing he had killed an innocent bystander. Another is "Teela's Quest" which introduced a now-famous mythology on the Sorceress being Teela's mother, who is thus the heir to the mantle of safeguarding Grayskull, the versed continuity shared between He-Man and She-Ra, among others. Other notable examples include the ''BraveStarr'' episode "The Price", which includes the death of a character due to drug addiction. The 1985 ''Fat Albert'' episode "Busted" was a direct homage to the primetime '' Scared Straight!'' specials. A first for American children's cartoons, the original airing of this episode included mild profanity that has, however, been edited out of re-airings and home video versions. Likewise, the scripts for ''Star Trek'', which were often written by the same people who had written for the live-action version of the series, tended to be quite sophisticated, and garnered the first

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

for the franchise.

Quality

Filmation had a reputation for exploiting the technique of

limited animation Limited animation is a process in the overall technique of traditional animation that reuses frames of character animation. Early history The use of budget-cutting and time-saving animation measures in animation dates back to the earliest commerc ...

to produce a number of

animated series An animated series, or a cartoon series, is a set of Animation, animated films with a common title, usually related to one another. These episodes typically share the same main heroes, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. Series ...

with a distinct look. This technique involved limiting of the number of

frames per second A frame is often a structural system that supports other components of a physical construction and/or steel frame that limits the construction's extent. Frame and FRAME may also refer to: Physical objects In building construction *Framing (co ...

(fps) to fewer than the standard 24 fps seen on film or 25/30 fps seen on video. Frames would be repeated to compensate for the deficiency, resulting in a "jerky" motion. Filmation also made heavy use of

rotoscoping Rotoscoping is an animation technique that animators use to trace over motion picture footage, frame by frame, to produce realistic action. Originally, live-action film images were projected onto a glass panel and traced onto paper. This pr ...

in later years (beginning with its ''

Tarzan Tarzan (John Clayton, Viscount Greystoke) is a fictional character, a feral child raised in the African jungle by the Mangani great apes; he later experiences civilization, only to reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer. Creat ...

'' and ''

'' series). It also re-used the same animated sequences over and over, many times, to the point where the Filmation style was instantly recognizable. One example of this can be seen in She-Ra's and He-Man's transformation sequences. This frequent use of stock footage saved production money, but often resulted in sacrifice of continuity. This was countered by cutting from one stock shot to another after only a second or two, long enough to set the scene but before the eye could notice all of the unexplained errors. This became part of the Filmation style during a period when most television and motion picture productions tended to run minimum shots of 4–5 seconds. In contrast to the rapid

jump cut A jump cut is a cut (transition), cut in film editing that breaks a single continuous sequential shot of a subject into two parts, with a piece of footage removed to create the effect of jumping forward in time. Camera positioning on the subjec ...

s during action sequences, another Filmation trademark was the recurring use of long establishing shots in which the camera would pan slowly across a very wide background painting, thus filling up

screen time Screen time is the amount of time electronic devices are used. Screen time, Screentime or Screen Time may also refer to: * Screen Time, an iOS and macOS feature that tracks how long devices are used * Screentime, an Australian-based television pr ...

with sequences requiring little or no animation. Filmation also pioneered other animation technologies, particularly in ''Flash Gordon'', which included backlighting effects for the first time in American animation (they were already in use in Japan), including moire effects to represent energy fields (a technique that was later used in ''He-Man'' and in ''She-Ra''). It also pioneered a unique method of generating 3-D vehicle animation by filming white-outlined black miniatures against black backgrounds using a computerized motion-control camera and high-contrast film, then printing the negatives onto acetate frame-by-frame, to create animation cels which were then hand-painted. This produced a three-dimensional effect that had been used by Disney in films such as ''

One Hundred and One Dalmatians ''One Hundred and One Dalmatians'' (also known as ''101 Dalmatians'') is a 1961 American Animated film, animated adventure film, adventure comedy film produced by Walt Disney Productions with distribution by Buena Vista Distribution. Adapted fr ...

'' previously. It predated the modern use of 3-D

computer animation Computer animation is the process used for digitally generating Film, moving images. The more general term computer-generated imagery (CGI) encompasses both still images and moving images, while computer animation refers to moving images. Virtu ...

for vehicles in 2-D animated productions. However, it had a distinctive "flicker" to it, because some of the painted lines went in and out of visibility as the miniatures moved. Unlike many American studios, Filmation never relied on animation studios outside the United States for the bulk of its production; ''

'' and ''BraveStarr'' both state in the ending credits that they were "made entirely in the U.S.A." This occurred during a time when rival studio Hanna-Barbera shifted from saying in the final production credits (immediately before the production logo appearances) "A Hanna-Barbera Production" to "Produced in Association with:

Wang Film Productions Wang Film Productions Co., Ltd. (also known as Hong Guang Animation (宏廣) and Cuckoos' Nest Studio) is a Taiwanese animation studio that was founded in 1978. The company, based in Xindian, Taipei with offices in Los Angeles, California, is one ...

/ Cuckoo's Nest Studios" which is located in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

(along with H-B's own

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

-based Fil-Cartoons). The quality of Filmation's "Made Entirely in the U.S.A." strategy was comparable to the outsourced animation. Filmation did, however, rely on outsourcing once, when the company created its animated ''

Zorro Zorro ( or , Spanish for "fox") is a fictional character created in 1919 by American Pulp magazine, pulp writer Johnston McCulley, appearing in works set in the Pueblo de Los Ángeles in Alta California. He is typically portrayed as a dashin ...

'' series. It was animated by Tokyo Movie Shinsha of Japan; however, the storyboards and graphics were made by Filmation itself. Filmation is also noteworthy for its background paintings under the direction of long-time department head Erv Kaplan, such as the purple-colored "night sky" backgrounds used in ''He-Man'' and ''She-Ra''. Characters, as well as plots, were typically run-of-the-mill for the time. For example, most episodes of ''Ghostbusters'' had the same scheme (bad guys develop an evil plan, the heroes are needed but always absent, Ghost Buggy the talking car complains about their dangerous position, Tracy the Gorilla pulls out of his back pack exactly the miscellaneous item the Ghostbuster needs in a moment of despair, Eddie doing a number of clumsy/stupid things, etc.); although as previously mentioned, Filmation made various attempts to rise above the norm. Many of the sound effects used in its cartoons are also very familiar, the majority of them being recycled from Hanna-Barbera (this was, and still is, a common trait among animation companies, though Filmation's copies of the Hanna-Barbera sound effects were of a distinctively lower quality), though the company's

cartoons of 1966–67 used more realistic sound effects. Filmation received particular criticism for '' Lassie's Rescue Rangers'', an animated continuation of the long-running live-action series '' Lassie''. Lassie's co-creator and trainer, Rudd Weatherwax, said of the show: "That's not Lassie. That's trash." It drew a rare denunciation from the

National Association of Broadcasters The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is a Industry trade group, trade association and lobbying, lobby group representing the interests of commercial and non-commercial over-the-air radio and television broadcasting, broadcasters in th ...

, which accused Filmation of corrupting the ''Lassie'' franchise with "violence, crime and stupidity."

Trademarks

A trademark of the company's productions, beginning in 1969, was a rotating, circular "Produced by" (and on some series, "Executive Producers") credit seen in the ending credits (and in later productions, the opening sequences) of Filmation programs, as a device that was supposedly created to allow Prescott and Scheimer to share equal billing. Previously, Scheimer's name had been placed above Prescott's. However, the later Filmation productions credited only Scheimer, in the form of his signature ("Lou Scheimer, (Executive) Producer"), starting with '' Gilligan's Planet'' (1982). Many of its series—particularly the productions of the late 1970s and 1980s—are notable for imparting a simple moral or life-lesson (explained by a key character, in a child-friendly manner) in the epilogue.

Original characters

The studio created very few original animated characters. Two examples were Fraidy Cat, a timid feline who has lost eight of his nine lives, which come back to haunt him; and Wacky and Packy, a caveman and his pet mammoth (Packy refers to the latter character being a "pachyderm") who enter the modern age through a time warp. Both of these originally aired as segments of the '' Uncle Croc's Block'' series on ABC (hosted by Charles Nelson Reilly). In a period where comedy in cartoons was heavily scrutinized for violence and many shows duplicated the popular ''

Scooby-Doo ''Scooby-Doo'' is an American media franchise owned by Warner Bros., Warner Bros. Entertainment and created in 1969 by writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears through their animated series, ''Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!'', for Hanna-Barbera (which wa ...

'' format, Filmation's strong point was its adaptations of popular television series, movies and other works, although at least one series, ''M*U*S*H'' (the first animated segment on ''Uncle Croc's Block''), while not a direct adaptation, was inspired by the film (and later

TV series A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming platf ...

) '' M*A*S*H''. ''M*U*S*H'' is an acronym for Mangy Unwanted Shabby Heroes since all the character were dogs stationed in the

Arctic The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...

Film library ownership

The studio's

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...

assets have changed hands on a number of occasions. The in-house productions ('' The Archie Show'', '' Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids'', etc.), which form a majority of the Filmation back catalog, were sold to

Hallmark Cards Hallmark Cards, Inc. is a Privately held company, privately held, family-owned American company based in Kansas City, Missouri. Founded in 1910 by Joyce Hall, Hallmark is one of the oldest and largest manufacturers of greeting cards in the United ...

in 1995, and were managed by its Hallmark Entertainment subsidiary. However, since the rest of Filmation's output was based on characters licensed from other companies, such titles are under the control of other studios (such as

CBS Media Ventures CBS Media Ventures, Inc. (formerly CBS Paramount Domestic Television and CBS Television Distribution) is the television broadcast syndication arm of CBS Studios, a division of the CBS Entertainment Group, in turn a division of Paramount Global, ...

and

via Turner Entertainment Co. and

DC Entertainment DC Entertainment is an American entertainment company that was founded in September 2009 and is based in Burbank, California. The company is a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery which manages DC Comics characters by working with other units ...

). In March 2004, ownership of the Filmation in-house library, which was under the ownership of Hallmark, was sold to UK-based

Entertainment Rights Entertainment Rights PLC (formerly known as Sleepy Kids PLC and SKD Media PLC) was a British multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate that specialised in television shows and cartoons, children's media, films, and distribution. ...

. Entertainment Rights has since made the revelation that when Hallmark converted all of its Filmation series to digital format in the 1990s, only PAL-format copies were made, with the original film negatives and print rolls apparently discarded, as well as the original sound masters and other archival material belonging to Filmation. This was due to Hallmark's previously unstated (but long-suspected) short-sighted policy of only distributing Filmation's in-house shows outside of the United States. As a result, many of Entertainment Rights' DVD releases (distributed by BCI Eclipse LLC in the United States prior to the latter company's folding) were based on the international versions (which have PAL prints). Because they were taken from PAL-based transfers, without correction, these releases exhibit the so-called 576i speedup effect in which the soundtrack plays 4% too fast, which results in the pitch being a half-step higher than it was originally (see

PAL Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a color encoding system for analog television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...

and

Telecine Telecine ( or ), or TK, is the process of transferring film into video and is performed in a color suite. The term is also used to refer to the equipment used in this post-production process. Telecine enables a motion picture, captured origi ...

for more information). PAL-

NTSC NTSC (from National Television System Committee) is the first American standard for analog television, published and adopted in 1941. In 1961, it was assigned the designation System M. It is also known as EIA standard 170. In 1953, a second ...

conversion artifacts also include softness and ghosting. The exception appears to be at least two titles from ER's library: ''Groovie Goolies'', and the

''Ghostbusters'' series. These series appear to have been sourced from original NTSC transfers for their U.S. release by BCI. The Ghost Busters live-action series was, unlike most Filmation shows, shot on NTSC format tape (rather than film), so even if those did come from PAL masters, they would not have exhibited 576i speedup, as that only applies to material sourced from film masters. Other exceptions included the shows which were licensed properties, such as '' Star Trek: The Animated Series'', which was owned by

Paramount Television The first incarnation of Paramount Television was operated as the television production division of the American film studio Paramount Pictures, until it changed its name to CBS Paramount Television on January 17, 2006. History Desilu Pro ...

(now

CBS Studios CBS Studios, Inc. is an American television production company which is a subsidiary of the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. It was formed on January 17, 2006, by CBS Corporation as CBS Paramount (Network) Television, as a re ...

, which is now part of Paramount Global since 2019), and ''Shazam!'' (owned by Warner Bros./DC Comics), because the master elements for those shows were turned over to the owners of those licensed properties years before the sale to Hallmark. On April 1, 2009, it was announced that Entertainment Rights would be acquired by Boomerang Media and on May 11, 2009, it was announced that the subsidiaries and offices of Entertainment Rights would be absorbed under the name Classic Media. In 2012, it was announced that Classic Media, owner of the Filmation library, would be acquired by

DreamWorks Animation DreamWorks Animation LLC (DWA, also known as DreamWorks Animation Studios or simply DreamWorks) is an American animation studio, owned by Comcast's NBCUniversal as part of Universal Pictures, a division of Universal Studios, Inc, Universal Stud ...

. DreamWorks Animation and its programming library, including those of Filmation (not including shows whose rights are owned by other companies, such as '' The New Adventures of Gilligan'' and ''Star Trek: The Animated Series''), would later be acquired on August 22, 2016, by

Universal Studios Universal Studios may refer to: * Universal Studios, Inc., an American media and entertainment conglomerate ** Universal Pictures, an American film studio ** Universal Studios Lot, a film and television studio complex * Various theme parks operat ...

for $3.8 billion.

Filmography

Live-action shows

Filmation incorporated live-action into some of its animated series. Series like ''The Hardy Boys'' and ''Archie's Funhouse'' featured live-action footage of an audience watching the bands perform and ''Fat Albert'' had segments featuring series creator

. '' The Kid Super Power Hour with Shazam!'', was more of a hybrid—a live-action variety show with animated segments. Actors appeared as characters from the '' Hero High'' portion of the series, singing songs and telling jokes. Filmation made six fully

series, including '' Space Academy'', its spin-off '' Jason of Star Command'', '' Ark II'', '' Shazam!'' (based on the

character Captain Marvel), '' The Ghost Busters'' and '' The Secrets of Isis''.

''The Ghost Busters''

Filmation produced a live-action series called '' The Ghost Busters'' (1975), starring former '' F Troop'' stars Larry Storch and Forrest Tucker, with noted science-fiction fan and collector Bob Burns as "Tracy the Gorilla". The characters worked as paranormal investigators, working for an unseen "Chief" named "Zero" who delivered their "Ghost Busting Assignments" in whimsical disguised recording devices as in '' Mission: Impossible''. Nine years later,

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Columbia Pictures, is an American film Production company, production and Film distributor, distribution company that is the flagship unit of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group ...

, who produced an unrelated 1984 movie of almost the same name, had to obtain the rights to the title from the company. Filmation capitalized on the popularity of the film by producing a new cartoon based on their earlier series. Like its other shows, it used stock footage heavily; in one episode, character designs and animation sequences were recycled from the '' Groovie Goolies'' series of nearly 15 years earlier. To avoid confusion, the animated series based on the film was called ''

The Real Ghostbusters ''The Real Ghostbusters'' is an American animated television series, a spin-off and sequel of the 1984 comedy film ''Ghostbusters''. The series ran on ABC between September 13, 1986 and October 5, 1991, and was a joint production of DIC Enter ...

''. As a dig on the Filmation series, an episode was written about a group of fraudulent ghost fighters, trying to steal the "Real" Ghostbusters' business and thunder.

Looney Tunes/Groovie Goolies crossover

Also of note is '' Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies'', a special featuring several of

' ''

Looney Tunes ''Looney Tunes'' is an American media franchise produced and distributed by Warner Bros. The franchise began as a series of animated short films that originally ran from 1930 to 1969, alongside its spin-off series ''Merrie Melodies'', during t ...

'' stars (except

Bugs Bunny Bugs Bunny is a cartoon character created in the late 1930s at Warner Bros. Cartoons (originally Leon Schlesinger, Leon Schlesinger Productions) and Voice acting, voiced originally by Mel Blanc. Bugs is best known for his featured roles in the ' ...

) paired with Filmation's own '' Groovie Goolies'', a group of classic monsters. Directed by Sutherland and written by Len Janson and Chuck Menville, it aired on ABC as part of '' The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie'' on December 16,

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. While most of the Warner Bros. characters were drawn well (veteran Warners animator Virgil Ross was working there at the time, along with other animators that had worked for Warner Bros. Animation in the late 1960s, such as Laverne Harding and

Ed Solomon Edward James Solomon (born September 15, 1960) is an American filmmaker. He wrote the screenplays to ''Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure'' (1989), ''Men in Black (1997 film), Men in Black'' (1997), and ''Now You See Me (film), Now You See Me'' ( ...

), and were voiced by veteran voice actor

Mel Blanc Melvin Jerome Blanc (born Blank ; May 30, 1908 – July 10, 1989) was an American voice actor and radio personality whose career spanned over 60 years. During the Golden Age of Radio, he provided character voices and vocal sound effects for come ...

, the special is not liked by many fans of classic Warner Bros. animation because of its limited animation, as well as a weak storyline. This was not Filmation's last dalliance with classic cartoon characters; in the late 1970s the company produced new series based on the characters from the

Terrytoons Terrytoons, Inc. was an American animation studio headquartered in New Rochelle, New York, which was active from 1929 until its closure in December 1972 (and briefly returned between 1987 and 1996 for television in-name only). Founded by Paul Te ...

archive ( Mighty Mouse and

Heckle and Jeckle Heckle and Jeckle are postwar animated cartoon characters created by Paul Terry, originally produced at his own Terrytoons animation studio and released through 20th Century Fox. The characters are a pair of identical anthropomorphic yellow ...

, titled '' The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse and Heckle & Jeckle'') and a new ''

'' series as well.

Feature films

Filmation also ventured into the feature film business. With their success in television firmly established by 1970, the company became profitable enough to return to the shelved ''Journey Back to Oz'' project, completing the animation and some minor voiceover work begun in 1962, and finished the film in 1971. It would take another year for ''Journey'' to be released theatrically in the United Kingdom, two more years before its 1974 U.S. release, and yet another two (1976) before it finally found its audience in network television, the very medium in which Filmation became successful. There, the film was expanded with live-action segments featuring

, who was in the midst of his success with the studio's '' Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids''. A deal with Warner Bros. yielded ''

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'' and ''

Oliver Twist ''Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress'', is the second novel by English author Charles Dickens. It was originally published as a serial from 1837 to 1839 and as a three-volume book in 1838. The story follows the titular orphan, who, ...

'', but left several others unproduced. In its final years, Filmation produced feature films of its ''He-Man'' and ''She-Ra'' franchises ('' The Secret of the Sword''), as well as continuations to established stories, such as '' Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night'' (1987) and '' Happily Ever After'' (1989; unreleased until 1993). In 1986, Omega Entertainment inked a worldwide television pact with Filmation in order to distribute the company's non-animated products, such as theatrical feature films, for worldwide TV distribution. Also that year, on October 22, Filmation is beginning to serve as representative for three animated films at the MIFED, in order to cleaning up unsold territories on various Filmation productions, which accordingly hit by a lawsuit from

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...

back in 1985 in order to prevent making films that the company claims to be based on Disney classics.

Voice talent

Like other animation studios, Filmation had its stock company of voiceover actors. Some of the most famous included Larry Storch,

Dallas McKennon Dallas Raymond McKennon (July 19, 1919 – July 14, 2009), sometimes credited as Dal McKennon, was an American actor. With a career lasting over 50 years, McKennon's best known roles include Gumby for Art Clokey, Archie Andrews in several diffe ...

(best known as the voice of Archie in the Archie cartoon and as Cincinnatus, in the Daniel Boone TV series), Bud Collyer, the original radio voice of

Superman Superman is a superhero created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, which first appeared in the comic book ''Action Comics'' Action Comics 1, #1, published in the United States on April 18, 1938.The copyright date of ''Action Comics ...

, reprised the role for Filmation for their late 1960s version of the Man of Steel;

Adam West William West Anderson (September 19, 1928 – June 9, 2017), known professionally as Adam West, was an American actor. He portrayed Batman in the 1960s ABC series of the same name and its 1966 theatrical feature film, reprising the role in ...

and Burt Ward (who recreated their roles as "

Batman Batman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. Batman was created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on M ...

and Robin" from their 1960s live-action series for Filmation's 1977 animated incarnation), Jane Webb, and good friends and colleagues Edward Asner and Linda Gary (Gary voiced a majority of Filmation's work in the 1980s), along with John Erwin (voice of Reggie Mantle, and later the voice of

He-Man He-Man is a superhero and the protagonist of the sword and planet ''Masters of the Universe'' franchise, which includes a toy line, several animated television series, comic books, and a feature film. He-Man is characterized by his superhuman s ...

Alan Oppenheimer Alan Oppenheimer (born April 23, 1930) is an American actor. He has performed numerous roles on live action television since the 1960s and has had an active career doing voice work since the 1970s. Early life Oppenheimer was born in New York ...

(character actor in TV and film),

Ted Knight Ted Knight (born Tadeusz Wladyslaw Konopka; December 7, 1923August 26, 1986) was an American actor known for playing the comedic roles of Ted Baxter in ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'', Henry Rush in '' Too Close for Comfort'' and Judge Elihu Sm ...

, George DiCenzo (John Blackstar, Hordak, Bow on ''

She-Ra Adora, known by her alter ego She-Ra, is a fictional superheroine in the ''Masters of the Universe'' franchise. She is introduced as the protagonist of the 1985 Filmation series '' She-Ra: Princess of Power'', which reveals her to be the long lo ...

''),

(voice of Fat Albert and himself), Melendy Britt, Howard Morris,

Pat Fraley Pat Fraley is an American voice actor and voice-over teacher, known as the voice of Krang, Casey Jones, Baxter Stockman and numerous other characters in the 1987 ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' animated television series and voiced Falcon in ...

, Charlie Adler,

Ed Gilbert Ed Gilbert (born Edmund Francis Giesbert, June 29, 1931 – May 8, 1999) was an American actor, with extensive credits in both live-action roles and voice work in animation, although he was better known for the latter. He is also credited, under ...

, Susan Blu,

Peter Cullen Peter Claver Cullen (born July 28, 1941) is a Canadian voice actor. He voiced Optimus Prime in the original 1980s ''The Transformers (TV series), Transformers'' animated series, later returning to the role in ''Transformers'' media in 2007, sta ...

Frank Welker Franklin Wendell Welker (born March 12, 1946) is an American actor who specializes in voice acting. He began his career in the 1960s, and held around 850 film, television, and video game credits as of 2020, making him one of the most prolific v ...

, and Lou Scheimer (either uncredited, or under the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...

of "Erik (sometimes "Eric") Gunden").

Background musical talent

For the company's 1960s superhero efforts, composer John Gart (under the stage name John Marion) and music supervisor Gordon Zahler created strong themes and backing cues using a large orchestra, until the ''

'' entry in 1968, which used sparser production and jazzier themes. The company's 1960s adventure series ''

Journey to the Center of the Earth ''Journey to the Center of the Earth'' (), also translated with the variant titles ''A Journey to the Centre of the Earth'' and ''A Journey into the Interior of the Earth'', is a classic science fiction novel written by French novelist Jules Ve ...

'' (1967) and ''

Fantastic Voyage ''Fantastic Voyage'' is a 1966 American science fiction adventure film directed by Richard Fleischer and written by Harry Kleiner, based on a story by Otto Klement and Jerome Bixby. The film is about a submarine crew who is shrunk to microsco ...

'' (1968) likewise used sparser music production. ''Journey'' made heavier emphasis on

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

than the company's previous series, while ''Voyage'' made use of deliberately haunting woodwinds to create a science fiction flavor. According to the

book A book is a structured presentation of recorded information, primarily verbal and graphical, through a medium. Originally physical, electronic books and audiobooks are now existent. Physical books are objects that contain printed material, ...

lets accompanying some of the DVDs of Filmation's shows, composer

Ray Ellis Ray Ellis (July 28, 1923 – October 27, 2008) was an American record producer, arranger, conductor, and saxophonist. He was responsible for the orchestration in Billie Holiday's '' Lady in Satin'' (1958). Biography Raymond Spencer Elli ...

(who was assisted by his son Marc Ellis) had produced the background music for most Filmation series under the pseudonyms "Yvette Blais and Jeff Michael". Yvette Blais was Ellis's wife, while "Jeff" and "Michael" were the names of producer Norm Prescott's two sons (exactly what role Prescott played in the music, other than hiring the composers and musicians, is unclear). The full-length features ''Treasure Island'' and ''Oliver Twist'' credit "George Blais". Ellis's name does appear in ''Archie''Ray Ellis – IMDb
/ref> and ''

Sabrina the Teenage Witch ''Sabrina the Teenage Witch'' is a comic book series published by Archie Comics about the adventures of a fictional American teenager named Sabrina Spellman. Sabrina was created by writer George Gladir and artist Dan DeCarlo, and first appeared ...

'' credits and both "Ray Ellis", and "Jeff Michaels" appear side by side on ''Groovie Goolies'' credits, where "Ellis" is credited for "Sabrina background music", and "Michaels" is credited for "Groovie Goolies background music". Much of Ellis's background music in the late 1960s had a distinct, richly orchestrated sound not found on many other made-for-TV cartoon series of that period; though as time went on, it became more contemporary and often synthesized. Ellis's work at the studio lasted from 1968 to 1982.

Haim Saban Haim Saban (; ; born October 15, 1944) is an Israeli and American media proprietor, investor, musical composer and producer of records, film, and television. A businessman with interests in financial services, entertainment, and media, and an ...

and Shuki Levy composed and produced the studio's music for ''He-Man'' and ''She-Ra'' (during 1983–1986), along with the other studios for which they produced music scores. Frank W. Becker provided the music for Filmation's final animated series ''BraveStarr''. In 1977, Dean Andre (Wallschlaeger), a 24-year-old composer/recording artist/producer, began writing theme and featured music for Filmation. His first series ''Archie's Bang-Shang Lalapalooza Show'' featured the voice of Daws Butler. He went on to compose themes for '' The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse and Heckle & Jeckle'' and '' Fabulous Funnies'' (featuring the voices of

June Foray June Foray (born June Lucille Forer; September 18, 1917 – July 26, 2017) was an American Voice acting, voice actress and radio personality, best known as the voice of such animation, animated characters as Rocky the Flying Squirrel, Natasha F ...

and

). Dean also lent his vocal talents to Filmation for thematic and featured music that he composed and produced for ''A Snow White Christmas'', ''Sport Billy'' and ''The Kid Super Power Hour with Shazam!'' In 1981, Dean also took on the position of musical director for ''The Kid Super Power Hour with Shazam!''. Filmation routinely included a plug for its music publisher, Shermley Music (

ASCAP The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadc ...

), in the closing credits of most of its series. This has never been common practice on American television.

References

External links

Filmation page at Toonopedia
{{Authority control American animation studios American companies established in 1962 American companies disestablished in 1989 Mass media companies established in 1962 Mass media companies disestablished in 1989 Defunct companies based in Greater Los Angeles Defunct mass media companies of the United States Westinghouse Broadcasting 1962 establishments in California 1989 disestablishments in California 1969 mergers and acquisitions 1981 mergers and acquisitions Reseda, Los Angeles Television production companies of the United States DreamWorks Animation