History Creator / Filmation

Filmation was an [[WesternAnimation American animation]] studio founded in 1963 by Creator/LouScheimer and Norm Prescott that, along with Creator/HannaBarbera, dominated the American Saturday morning cartoon market throughout the 1960s, '70s, and '80s, particularly in the genre of action-adventure cartoons.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Despite, or perhaps because of, the studio's reputation in the industry, much of their back catalog doesn't receive the amount of home media exposure that their competitors do. Even when a show of theirs is released it's not until long after it had already been bootlegged on the web. The fact that you can find bootleg episodes of ''WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse'' with a quick [=YouTube=] search when it's already available on Netflix really drives the point home. It doesn't help that Creator/{{Hallmark}} destroyed the original masters to many of their shows when they owned the company.
** This is especially the case for ''WesternAnimation/FatAlbert'', which may never see an official release again following Creator/BillCosby's 2018 conviction of sexual assault.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Plenty of examples.
** During their run on ''Superman'' the company experimented with a few more pilots. Among them included a show based on the Creator/MarxBrothers; a superhero series entitled ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cTZHnwosXM Dick Digit]]'' and a cartoon based on ComicBook/GreenLantern (who would ultimately get a recurring segment as part of the ''Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure'').
** In 1969, the company was in talks with Creator/{{Toho}} over making a {{Franchise/Godzilla}} film, but plans fell through. Also that year, talks of a ''Franchise/StarTrek'' cartoon were instigated[[note]]in this incarnation, the crew of the USS Enterprise were given child sidekicks[[/note]]. Though unlike most examples, it eventually ''did'' get [[WesternAnimation/StarTrekTheAnimatedSeries made]], but not as originally pitched.
** Before the lawsuit with Disney, the company was set out to produce twelve films in their "New Classics Collection", a series of films meant to be sequels to the original literature they were to be based upon. This included ''[[Literature/AlicesAdventuresInWonderland Alice Returns to Wonderland]]'', ''[[Literature/{{Frankenstein}} Frankenstein Lives Again!]]'' and ''[[Literature/TheTimeMachine The Time Machine II: The Man Who Saved the Future]]''. Of them, only two were ever released (''Emperor of the Night'' and ''Happily Ever After''). And ''Frankenstein Lives Again!'', the third in the series planned for release, was abandoned in pre-production after the lawsuit and subsequent failure of ''Emperor of the Night''.
** ''Hardchrome: The Last P.I.'', which would have been Filmation's first adult-oriented animation. The show was to have focused around a [[HollywoodCyborg half-man, half machine]] ex-police officer turned private investigator named Hardchrome, who makes his living in the slums of Frisco City. The show was never made beyond some pitch artwork due to the AnimationAgeGhetto being in full effect.
** Also around this time, a pitch for a cartoon based on ''Film/KingKongLives'' titled ''Kid Kong'' was also made. It too fell through after issues with Dino De Laurentiis.
** Just before the L'Oreal acquisition, two more cartoons -- ''Bugsburg'', a spin-off to ''Emperor of the Night'', and ''Bravo'', a spin-off to ''WesternAnimation/{{BraveStarr}}'' -- were in production. Both shows were ultimately scrapped by L'Oreal despite having two episodes of each series completed, with recording and scripts finished for both shows.
** Earlier in 2018, production artwork surfaced from a potential ''Ghost Busters'' animated series, which dated as early as ''1982.'' It would have been a continuation of the 1975 series, as the characters bore Forrest Tucker and Larry Storch's likenesses. One can only assume that 1) production on this was halted to make way for ''He-Man'' and 2) it's why Filmation took Columbia Pictures to court.
** They repeatedly attempted a game show called ''The Origins Game'' that combined live-action and animation; the premise was that the players would attempt to discern if the given origin of a word, saying, superstition, etc. is true or not. The first attempt was way back in 1971 with [[Series/Batman1966 Burt Ward]] as host; Dick Patterson hosted a 1976 pilot with kids as contestants. [[Series/TheNewlywedGame Bob]] [[Series/CardSharks Eubanks]] hosted a third pilot in 1978, and the final one in 1982 ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWJH29aQ_Oo of which a segment circulates]]).

* ''WesternAnimation/RobinAndTheDreamweavers'' (2000) [[note]] This movie is sometimes considered a Filmation title ([[SpiritualSuccessor even though the studio closed up shop over a decade before]]) due to Scheimer's involvement along with the [[EvilOverlord use of]] [[FunnyAnimal certain]] [[AnAesop tropes]] that were frequently included in his other productions. [[/note]]

* ''Aquaman'' (1968)

* FunnyAnimal: Largely [[AvertedTrope averted]] in Filmation series; though there were Waldo Kitty, Thun the Lion-Man, Thirty-Thirty (sometimes), and Adam the [[LiveActionTV live-action]] talking chimp, this trope was nowhere nearly as popular with Filmation as with most other animation studios.

* NowWhichOneWasThatVoice: Though not made all that hard given Lou Scheimer's penchant for providing the majority of the voices in most of their cartoons. [[note]] Although he was credited not as himself, but under the pseudonym of "Erik Gunden." [[/note]]