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Filmation Associates was an American production company that produced animation and live-action programming for television from 1963 until 1989. Located in Reseda, California, the animation studio was founded in 1962. Filmation's founders and principal producers were Lou Scheimer, Hal Sutherland and Norm Prescott.
Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids is an American animated television series created, produced, and hosted by comedian Bill Cosby, who also lent his voice to a number of characters, including Fat Albert and himself. Filmation was the production company for the series. The show premiered in 1972 and ran until 1985. The show, based on Cosby's remembrances of his childhood gang, focused on Fat Albert, and his friends.
Journey Back To Oz is a 1972 American animated adventure musical fantasy film produced by Filmation. It is loosely based on L. Frank Baum's second Oz novel The Marvelous Land of Oz (1904), although Baum received no screen credit.
Groovie Goolies is an American animated television show that had its original run Saturday mornings on CBS between 1970 and 1972. It was rebroadcast the following season on Sunday mornings. Set at a decrepit castle, the show focused on its monstrous but good-natured and mostly friendly inhabitants. Created by Filmation, Groovie Goolies was an original creation of the studio; its characters would cross over with Filmation's Archie Comics adaptations including Sabrina the Teenage Witch and The Archie Show, as well as with the Looney Tunes cast.
BraveStarr is an American Space Western animated series that aired 65 episodes from September 1987 to February 1988 in syndication. The show was created a year after Mattel had released a line of action figures. BraveStarr was the last animated series produced by Filmation and Group W Productions before Filmation shut down in 1989. Reruns of the show aired on Qubo Night Owl from 2010 to 2013, and on the Retro Television Network from 2010 to 2015.
Louis Scheimer was an American producer and voice actor who was one of the original founders of Filmation. He was also credited as an executive producer of many of its cartoons.
The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show is an American animated television series produced by Filmation for MGM Television featuring the popular cartoon duo Tom and Jerry. The show first aired on September 6, 1980 on CBS and continued until December 13 the same year. Its episodes were eventually added to syndicated Tom and Jerry packages in 1983. Episodes of the show also occasionally appeared on Cartoon Network and Boomerang.
Dusty's Trail is an American Western/comedy series starring Bob Denver and Forrest Tucker that aired in syndication from September 1973 to March 1974. The series is a western-themed reworking of Denver's previous series Gilligan's Island.
Will the Real Jerry Lewis Please Sit Down is a 1970 animated showcase for various caricatured Jerry Lewis characters, all based on characters from the 1965 film The Family Jewels, and styled in a fashion similar to Archie's TV Funnies and the Groovie Goolies. The title is a variant of the deciding question on the game show To Tell the Truth: "Will the real __________ please stand up?" Like most 1970s-era Saturday morning cartoon series, Will the Real Jerry Lewis Please Sit Down contained an adult laugh track.
The Secret Lives of Waldo Kitty is an American animated and partially live-action television series, produced by Filmation, which originally aired for one season Saturday mornings on the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) from September 6 to November 29, 1975. Howard Morris, Jane Webb, and Allan Melvin provided voices for the three main characters on the series. The show follows a cat named Waldo who daydreams of being a superhero and defeating the villainous bulldog Tyrone. It was inspired by James Thurber's 1939 short story "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", and his widow Helen Thurber sued Filmation in 1975 for creating the series without the permission of her husband's estate. The outcome of the decision resulted in the series being retitled in future broadcasts as The New Adventures of Waldo Kitty.
The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse and Heckle & Jeckle is a 1979–1980 television series featuring newly produced Mighty Mouse and Heckle & Jeckle cartoons. The series was produced by Filmation, and aired from 1979 to 1980 on CBS with 96 episodes produced. It was the second Mighty Mouse cartoon series, following the original Mighty Mouse Playhouse from 1955 to 1967, and followed by Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures, which aired from 1987 to 1988.
The Secret of the Sword, also known as He-Man and She-Ra: The Secret of the Sword, is a 1985 American animated superhero film produced by Filmation. Although released before the series She-Ra: Princess of Power began, the film was a compilation of the first five episodes with minor edits made. The film was part of a trend of theatrically released animated films created by producers of TV shows and toys during the 1980s. It is part of the same continuity as the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe cartoon series, and was created by the same Filmation production team and cast. It was the first He-Man theatrical film, and the first theatrical release to feature She-Ra or any Masters of The Universe/Princess of Power characters.
The New Adventures of Gilligan is an American Saturday morning animated series produced by Filmation, which aired on ABC during the 1974–1975 seasons. The show was based on the 1964–1967 sitcom Gilligan's Island. A few years later, Filmation produced a sequel, Gilligan's Planet.
Hero High was a 1981–1982 cartoon and live action series created by Filmation that aired as part of NBC's The Kid Super Power Hour with Shazam! It was about a high school where young superheroes were taught how to use their powers and fight crime. Originally intended to be a new entry in Filmation's long-running line of Archie cartoon series, the 1981 series was altered at the last minute because the company's rights to the Archie characters had expired and new characters had to be created.
Uncle Croc's Block is an hour-long live-action/animated television series. It was produced by Filmation, and broadcast on ABC in 1975–76.
The New Adventures of Zorro is an American animated television series produced by Filmation in 1981. The series, which has 13 episodes, is based on the fictional character created by Johnston McCulley. It aired as part of The Tarzan/Lone Ranger/Zorro Adventure Hour.
Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies is a 1972 animated one-hour TV-movie that was aired on December 16 as an episode of the anthology series The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie. In this Filmation-produced movie, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, and other Looney Tunes characters interact with the characters from the Filmation series Groovie Goolies.
Rod Rocket is the first animated cartoon with production credited to Filmation, debuting in syndication in 1963. The show was produced in five-minute cliffhanger segments, with five segments making a full story. Television stations could broadcast the single-segment version daily on their local children's afternoon show, or package them together to make 26 weekly half-hour shows.
Ghostbusters is a 1986 American animated television series created by Filmation and distributed by Tribune Entertainment, serving as the sequel to Filmation's 1975 live-action television show The Ghost Busters.
Sabrina the Teenage Witch is an American animated television series produced by Filmation that aired on CBS during Saturday mornings from 1970 to 1974. The series has also aired in prime time as a syndicated series.
References
- ↑ Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. p. 786. ISBN 978-1476665993.
- ↑ "Sport Billy Lands in Cannes". Flickr. Retrieved February 20, 2024.
- ↑ Lenburg, Jeff, Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons, Second Edition, 1999.
- ↑ "1982 Original Photo SPORT BILLY CHILDREN'S NBC ANIMATED SERIES". eBay. Retrieved February 20, 2024.
- 1 2 3 Alles unterm Deckel, Der Spiegel, 21. April 1991 (german)
- 1 2 3 "Rolf Deyhle". Rolf Deyhle. Retrieved 17 March 2024.
- 1 2 3 "Fußball: Ein deutscher Millionär darf den WM-Pokal küssen". WELT. Retrieved 17 March 2024.
- ↑ "Walter Neugebauer". Lambiek Comiclopedia. Retrieved 17 March 2024.
- ↑ "Walter Neugebauer". Kaukapedia. Retrieved 17 March 2024.
- ↑ "Kurt Italiaander". Lambiek Comiclopedia. Retrieved 17 March 2024.
- 1 2 Scheimer, Lou; Mangels, Andy (December 15, 2012). Creating The Filmation Generation. TwoMorrows. ISBN 9781605490441 . Retrieved February 13, 2024.
In late June, Sports Billy Productions, a company in Stuttgart, West Germany, began their push in licensing the character of Sports Billy worldwide. The concept behind Sports Billy was to utilize young Billy and Susy, two sports-loving youths, as mascots in America; they were already popular in Europe, Asia, and Latin America, and were the mascots tor FIFA, the world soccer federation, and the 1978 World Cup tournament. The first stop on their plans to win over America was to make a deal with Filmation, to do an animated series and to help them license and merchandise their brand in the United States.
- 1 2 Scheimer, Lou; Mangels, Andy (December 15, 2012). Creating The Filmation Generation. TwoMorrows. ISBN 9781605490441 . Retrieved February 13, 2024.
A week later we announced that we had a firm deal with Sport Billy Productions to produce at least 16 half-hour cartoons, with an option to do ten more if things worked out. Our plan was to debut the first of the toons at the Marche International de Producteurs conference (MIPCOM) in April at Cannes, which meant we were working on them in the off-season when the fall 1979 shows were finishing up, but before the fall 1980 shows were starting.
- 1 2 3 4 Scheimer, Lou; Mangels, Andy (December 15, 2012). Creating The Filmation Generation. TwoMorrows. ISBN 9781605490441 . Retrieved February 13, 2024.
Although preliminary development had begun in 1979, we didn't animate Sport Billy until 1980, and the show was first broadcast in Germany that year. We made the deal with this German group, and we had no ownership in the show as I recall; we produced the show, and they sold it all over the world themselves. We did make a royalty profit from it past the initial production fees of $200,000 per episode, for a total of $5,200,000. The biggest reason we took it was so that I could keep my animators working during the off-season. The Germans didn't have the same kind of delivery time for the fall that the U.S. networks did, so it enabled me to give more work to the people working at Filmation. I guess it was the opposite of "runaway production", as we were bringing work to the United Slates instead of taking it away like other studios. The Sport Billy character was already really popular throughout Europe and South America in comic books and toys, mainly connected to soccer, but we knew that the character needed to be broadened out, so we brought in all sorts of other sports that he got involved in. And we could teach fair play, teamwork, sportsmanship, and healthy concepts to kids watching. I don't remember how much of the backstory came from the comics, if any of it did, but the initial early concepts were by Rolf Deyhle. We had a twin planet for Earth called Olympus that rotated on the opposite side of the sun from Earth, so we never saw it. That's where all the god-like beings from mythology were from. And Billy came to Earth, along with a little girl named Lilly and a talking dog named Willy, to promote sportsmanship and the other values I mentioned. They travelled around in a spaceship that looked like a giant wind-up clock, and it could also travel through time, so we could go to different time periods. We also went to many different countries on the show, including Spain, Japan, Mexico, China, Norway, the Middle East, Peru, Russia, and all over Europe. Billy carried a magical bag with him called the Omni-Sack, which looked like an ordinary gym bag, but from which he could pull all sorts of wondrous things if they needed them on their adventures. He would pull out a miniature car or helicopter or baseball bat and they would grow to full size for him to use. And because every hero needed an adversary, they had an evil witch chasing them around who hated fairness. She was Queen Vanda from Vandalusia, and she had a groveling little henchman named Sipe. The head guy from Olympus was named President Sportikus XI. The shows were generally dubbed, though sometimes they were subtitled. The English language voices were my son Lane Scheimer as Sport Billy; Joyce Bulifant as Lilly, Queen Vanda and Sportikus' wife, Pandusa; and the great Frank Welker as Willy, Sipe and Sportikus. This was Lane's last voice work for Filmation, I believe. He was in his early 20s, and I think that's about when he got married and took off to be with his family. I did the voice of the Olympian Computer. There were also songs that ended each episode about the theme of the show.
- ↑ Scheimer, Lou; Mangels, Andy (December 15, 2012). Creating The Filmation Generation. TwoMorrows. ISBN 9781605490441 . Retrieved February 13, 2024.
Sport Billy was a big hit in Germany, so they picked us up for the second season very quickly, ordering the remaining ten episodes. The series was aired eventually in England, Spain, Italy, Yugoslavia, Turkey, Greece, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Portugal, and a bunch of other places. It eventually aired in the U.S. in syndication and on NBC in the summer of 1982, though it took them forever to make that deal. The Sports Billy group had their own salespeople, although it was mainly dealt with by a Swiss guy named Pierre Rochat, who worked for the German gentleman, Wolfgang Stein, who put up the money for the series.
- ↑ "16mm Sport Billy (1980) opening". YouTube. Retrieved February 13, 2024.
The show did indeed end up a feature, with an extremely limited airing on Showtime or HBO. They redubbed all the voices with new actors to fit in a new script for linking the episodes together. The movie was released split in parts as "episodes" on VHS in the UK.
- ↑ Michael Sporn Animation filmography http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/filmography.html
