History Creator / Filmation

* CreatorCameo[=/=]DescendedCreator: Not exactly a cameo, per say. But applied to co-founder Lou Scheimer, who showed up in nearly all of the company's shows as a lead voice actor starting with ''WesternAnimation/FatAlbertAndTheCosbyKids''. This is especially noticeable in ''[[WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse1983 He-Man]]'' and ''[[WesternAnimation/SheRaPrincessOfPower She-Ra]]'', where he voiced nearly ''half'' of the supporting and one-off cast of both series.

Throughout the 1970s, Filmation produced some well-regarded {{animated adaptation}}s of various series, such as ''[[WesternAnimation/FlashGordon1979 The New Adventures of Flash Gordon]]''; ''Franchise/{{Tarzan}}, Lord of the Jungle''; ''Franchise/{{Zorro}};'' ''WesternAnimation/TheNewAdventuresOfBatman'', and ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekTheAnimatedSeries'', as well as some less well-regarded ones, such as ''WesternAnimation/TheBradyKids'' (whose dancing pandas and helicopter-tailed wizard bird are [[ShoutOut deployed]] to hilarious effect in a MushroomSamba sequence in ''[[Series/TheBradyBunch A Very Brady Sequel]]''), ''[[Series/GilligansIsland The New Adventures of Gilligan]]'', ''My Favorite Martians'', and ''WesternAnimation/UncleCrocsBlock'', which featured an all-canine version of ''[[Series/{{Mash}} M*A*S*H]]'' called "M*U*S*H".

* ''The Franchise/{{Tarzan}}[=/=][[Radio/TheLoneRanger Lone Ranger]] Adventure Hour'' (1980)[[index]]

Filmation was owned first by [=TelePrompTer=] and later by Westinghouse (the logo above being rendered in the distinctive [[http://www.fontspace.com/john-sizemore/westinghouse "Group W" font]] shared among most Westinghouse broadcasting assets), but was bought by the L'Oreal Corporation in 1987 and promptly shut down; L'Oreal was only interested in Filmation's massive library of shows and was uninterested in producing any new series. Its last production to be released was the theatrical feature ''WesternAnimation/HappilyEverAfter'', an unofficial sequel to Creator/{{Disney}}'s ''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'' (featuring seven "dwarfelles" in place of dwarfs), six years after the studio was killed.[[note]]Their last production to be released while the studio was still in business was ''WesternAnimation/PinocchioAndTheEmperorOfTheNight'' in 1987, a similar attempt by Filmation to ape Disney.[[/note]] Attempts by founder Lou Scheimer to [[IncrediblyLamePun re-animate]] the studio proved unsuccessful; Scheimer died in 2013. The studio's library is currently owned by [[Creator/{{NBC}} NBC]][[Creator/{{Universal}} Universal]], on behalf of Creator/DreamWorksAnimation. A retrospective co-written by Scheimer in 2012 entitled "Creating the Filmation Generation" was released[[labelnote:*]]and is where some of the information on this and the related pages come from[[/labelnote]].

Filmation was owned first by [=TelePrompTer=] and later by Westinghouse (the logo above being rendered in the distinctive [[http://www.fontspace.com/john-sizemore/westinghouse "Group W" font]] shared among most Westinghouse broadcasting assets), but was bought by the L'Oreal Corporation in 1987 and promptly shut down; L'Oreal was only interested in Filmation's massive library of shows and was uninterested in producing any new series. Its last production to be released was the theatrical feature ''WesternAnimation/HappilyEverAfter'', an unofficial sequel to Creator/{{Disney}}'s ''Disney/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'' (featuring seven "dwarfelles" in place of dwarfs), six years after the studio was killed.[[note]]Their last production to be released while the studio was still in business was ''WesternAnimation/PinocchioAndTheEmperorOfTheNight'' in 1987, a similar attempt by Filmation to ape Disney.[[/note]] Attempts by founder Lou Scheimer to [[IncrediblyLamePun re-animate]] the studio proved unsuccessful; Scheimer died in 2013. The studio's library is currently owned by [[Creator/{{NBC}} NBC]][[Creator/{{Universal}} Universal]], on behalf of Creator/DreamWorksAnimation. A retrospective co-written by Scheimer in 2012 entitled "Creating the Filmation Generation" was released[[labelnote:*]]and is where some of the information on this and the related pages come from[[/labelnote]].

** 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.

* StockSoundEffects: Many of the sound effects in Filmation's cartoons were low-quality copies of the Creator/HannaBarbera sound effects (often with a more audible echo, or at a slightly lower pitch), along with a few custom-created sounds and some stock sounds from Disney's cartoons (by Creator/JimmyMacDonald). Some sound effects were borrowed from the original ''StarTrek'' series such as the phaser, photon torpedo, and transporter sound effects. The distinctive "heat ray" sound from the 1950's ''War of the Worlds'' film also gets used a lot.

** 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 ''Series/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.

* ''Franchise/{{Tarzan}}, Lord of the Jungle'' (1976)[[index]]

* ''The Franchise/{{Tarzan}}[=/=][[Radio/TheLoneRanger Lone Ranger]][=/=]Franchise/{{Zorro}} Adventure Hour'' (1981)

* ''The {{Tarzan}}[=/=][[Radio/TheLoneRanger Lone Ranger]] Adventure Hour'' (1980)[[index]]

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Despite, [[TheScrappy 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.

The studio's first real success came in 1966 with ''WesternAnimation/TheNewAdventuresOfSuperman''; this was soon eclipsed by the runaway popularity of ''WesternAnimation/TheArchieShow'' in 1968. ''Archie'' spun off Filmation's next hit, ''WesternAnimation/SabrinaAndTheGroovieGoolies'', in 1971. In 1972 a bizarre {{crossover}} film was made for ''The ABC Saturday Superstar Movies'' featuring the Groovie Goolies meeting various WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes characters. The studio's first foray into socially conscious cartooning came in 1972 with ''WesternAnimation/FatAlbertAndTheCosbyKids''; thereafter, didacticism would be common not only on cartoons like ''WesternAnimation/MissionMagic'' (a precursor to ''Literature/TheMagicSchoolBus'' in featuring a supernaturally endowed teacher, [[PunnyName Miss Tickle]], along with later 1980s pop idol Rick Springfield), but in Filmation's live-action productions as well, such as the environmentally educational ''Series/ArkII'', ''Series/{{Shazam}}'' and ''Series/{{Isis}}'' (which featured another magical, HotLibrarian-ish teacher, who transformed into the Egyptian goddess [[[ByThePowerOfGrayskull "O mighty Isis!"]]] in order to fly around in a skimpy skirt and demonstrate social lessons into the bargain).

Filmation owned the rights to a 1975 live-action series called ''The Ghost Busters'' starring ''Series/FTroop'' co-stars Forrest Tucker and Larry Storch (one of Filmation's favorite voice actors), and a [[EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys guy in a gorilla suit]]. Creator/ColumbiaPictures had to apply for the rights to call its 1984 movie ''Film/{{Ghostbusters|1984}},'' and after its success, Filmation revived the series in animated format, now called simply ''[[WesternAnimation/FilmationsGhostbusters Ghostbusters]]''. The SpinOff animated show from the movie thus became ''WesternAnimation/TheRealGhostbusters,'' while Filmation's version was for a while named ''The Original Ghostbusters''.

* KenBurnsPan: Panning across a painted background while characters deliver dialogue in voiceover. Used so frequently that animators sometimes call the technique a Filmation Pan. In fairness, these background paintings are often [[AwesomeArt gorgeous.]]

Moreover, Lou Scheimer's social conscience led him to submit the studio's productions to the oversight of various MoralGuardians, resulting in the avoidance of any controversial or challenging aspects in its series and in the various AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle lectures appended to episodes in the 1970s and '80s. On the plus side, Filmation did employ many of the best animation writers of the 1970s and '80s, and its artwork (as opposed to animation) featured graceful and gutsy character designs and impressive, intricate backgrounds—though the company characteristically exploited the latter by interrupting many episodes with long slow background pans featuring no animation at all.

* DigitalDestruction: Many 2000s DVD releases of these cartoons have the sound higher pitched. This was because, when they owned the rights to the library in the 90s, Hallmark (the card company) ''deliberately'' threw out the original masters (as well as sound masters and other important archival material) and made new ones- but only for international distribution, apparently because they hated Filmation's library (which begs the question of ''why'' [[FridgeLogic they even bought the rights to begin with]]); this was discovered when Entertainment Rights (which has, though various mergers, been absorbed into Creator/DreamworksAnimation) bought it off Hallmark. Hence, the majority of the library is now high-pitched, due to being in PAL format as compared to NTSC. Some of the lucky few to escape this included ''Ghostbusters'' (both the live action and animated versions), several of their little-known live action series like ''Ark II'', and ''Star Trek: TAS'' (the latter being held by Paramount, then CBS), and likely other series held by other companies, like their DC Comics cartoons (distributed by Warner Bros.).

** First when they outsourced ''Zorro'' to TMS in 1980. A move that Scheimer ultimately [[OldShame regrets]].

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Despite, [[TheScrappy 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.

* StockFootage: Unfortunately, perhaps the single best-remembered characteristic of Filmation series. Longer-running series would often have a library of stock footage that storyboarders would work in whenever possible, and a for a few series, such as ''He-Man'', they developed their stock animation sets first before doing animation for the individual shows.
* StockSoundEffects: Many of the sound effects in Filmation's cartoons were low-quality copies of the Creator/HannaBarbera sound effects (often with a more audible echo, or at a slightly lower pitch), along with a few custom-created sounds and some stock sounds from Disney's cartoons (by Creator/JimmyMacDonald). Some sound effects were borrowed from the original ''StarTrek'' series such as the phaser, photon torpedo, and transporter sound effects. The distinctive "heat ray" sound from the 1950s ''War of the Worlds'' film also gets used a lot.

* TalkingAnimal: Largely [[AvertedTrope averted]] in Filmation series; though there were Jughead's Hot Dog (who didn't really "speak"; we just hear his thoughts) or He-Man's Cringer, and Belfry the Bat, this trope was nowhere nearly as popular with Filmation as with most other animation studios.

** The three movies they did fared little better- ''WesternAnimation/JourneyBackToOz'' took nearly a half a decade to complete (and three more years to even be released). ''WesternAnimation/PinocchioAndTheEmperorOfTheNight'' caught the unwanted attention of Creator/{{Disney}}, who took them to court over the matter (thus driving the budget to its final $9 million as a result). ''WesternAnimation/HappilyEverAfter'' meanwhile, was made near the end of Filmation's lifespan. And wasn't given a release until [[DevelopmentHell 1993]].

* ''Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies'' (1972)

* ''[[WesternAnimation/SabrinaAndTheGroovieGoolies Sabrina The Teenage Witch]]'' (1971)

* BlackMagicianGirl: Evil-Lyn on ''He-Man;'' Apparitia and Mysteria on ''Ghostbusters''; Shadow Weaver on ''She-Ra'' (she actually looks a little bit like a Black Mage...)

* TransformationSequence: The title characters of ''He-Man'' and ''She-Ra''; Thirty-Thirty of ''Bravestarr''; the animated ''Ghostbusters''; ''Web Woman'' from Tarzan and the Super 7; Micro Woman of ''Super Stretch and Micro Woman''; and many many others. One of Filmation's favorite methods for avoiding new animation (not that it was limited to their animated shows, as the sequences in the live-action Shazam! and Isis series demonstrated).

* ''Lassie's Rescue Rangers'' (1973) (not to be confused with ''WesternAnimation/ChipnDalesRescueRangers'')

* ''Lassie's Rescue Rangers'' (1973) (not to be confused with ''WesternAnimation/Chip&DalesRescueRangers'')

* ''Lassie's Rescue Rangers'' (1973) (not to be confused with ''WesternAnimation/ChipAndDalesRescueRangers'')

* ''Lassie's Rescue Rangers'' (1973) (not to be confused with ''WesternAnimation/ChipNDalesRescueRangers'')

* ''Lassie's Rescue Rangers'' (1973)

* InkSuitActor: Rick Springfield on ''Mission: Magic!''; most of the casts of ''Star Trek: The Animated Series'' and ''The New Adventures of Gilligan''.

* DemBones: ''The Groovie Goolies'' featured a skeleton band called "The Bare Bones Band", A skeleton named "[[UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte Bone-Apart]]",who was dressed in a Napoleonic hat and was constantly falling apart ([[IncrediblyLamePun Groan!]]) and later, "Scared Stiff" on ''Ghostbusters'' was a [[SkeleBot9000 skeletal robot ghost]] (who was ALSO constantly falling apart) -- and, of course, Skeletor, at least from the neck up.

* DullSurprise

* SmallAnnoyingCreature: For some unholy reason a favorite character with Filmation, including Ping and Pong the Pandas in ''The Brady Kids'', Ptolemy and Tut-Tut on ''Mission: Magic!'', Batmite in the ''The New Adventures of Batman'', Mo in ''WesternAnimation/SpaceSentinels'', The "Trobbits" in ''Blackstar'', Orko in ''He-Man'', Cowl and Imp in ''She-Ra'', Belfry and Brat-A-Rat in ''Ghostbusters'', Deputy Fuzz and his crooked cousing Outlaw Scuzz in ''Bravestarr''.

* TransformationSequence: ''He-Man''; ''She-Ra''; ''Bravestarr''; ''Ghostbusters.'' One of Filmation's favorite methods for avoiding new animation.