Filmation – Nostalgia Central

Founded in the early 1960s by animators Lou Scheimer and Hal Sutherland, with ex-disc jockey Norm Prescott, Filmation Associates rode high on Saturday morning animation right from their 1966 debut of their series, The New Adventures of Superman.

The majority of their shows were animated spin-offs based on live-action licensed properties – including Fantastic Voyage (1968 – 1970), Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1967 – 1969), The Brady Kids (1972 – 1973), Star Trek (1973 – 1975), Lassie’s Rescue Rangers (1973 – 1975), and The New Adventures of Gilligan (1974 – 1977), to name a few.

Like other producers of Saturday-morning cartoons, Filmation was more concerned with quantity rather than quality. It did, however, make a number of attempts to rise above the standard animated fare and produce reasonably well-written cartoons, and eventually branched out to live-action original series.

Their first such show was Shazam! in 1974, and in 1975, the studio produced the first live-action superheroine series with The Secrets of Isis, plus the bizarre anthology Uncle Croc’s Block, and the original The Ghost Busters.

Other Filmation live-action shows were Ark II (1976 – 1979), Space Academy (1977 – 1979), and its spin-off Jason of Star Command (1978 – 1981).

Part of the reason for the boom in live-action series on the traditionally cartoon-dominated Saturday mornings was that animation costs had risen so high that a live-action budget on a show with a small cast and limited sets could be produced for almost the same amount – and with a much faster turnaround time.

The networks also dangled the hope that a live-action show might transition to primetime if it was popular enough.

Other stand-out Filmation productions included Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids (created by and starring Bill Cosby with an explicit educational focus), He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, based on the popular line of Mattel toys (which opened up a new North American market for first-run television syndication for animation in the 1980s) and the animated adaptations of the Archie Comics characters – noteworthy for the original pop music produced for the series, particularly the song Sugar, Sugar, which was a #1 hit single.

The Filmation studio was purchased by the TelePrompTer Corporation in 1969. Two years later, in 1971, Filmation and Warner Bros. signed an agreement to distribute cartoons for film and television.

In 1981, after Prescott left the company, Westinghouse Electric Corporation (through its Group W Productions division) acquired Filmation along with its purchase of TelePrompTer. The new parent company closed down Filmation on 3 February 1989.

Norm Prescott died of natural causes in Los Angeles on 2 July 2005, at the age of 78.

Lou Scheimer underwent quadruple bypass surgery in the late 1990s and was subsequently diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. He died from the disease at his home in Tarzana, California, on 17 October 2013, two days before his 85th birthday.

Hal Sutherland died on 16 January 2014, of complications related to a gall bladder issue. He was 84.