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A SPECIAL HERO OF THE DAY!
Name: Lou Scheimer
Age: was 84
Occupation: founder and president, Filmation
Associates
Last Seen: up in the heavens with Norm
Prescott, deciding whose name should stay on
top
Awarded For: giving us great childhood memories
---
For millions of kids growing up in the 60's,
70's and 80's, Saturday mornings were magical.
You woke up, grabbed a bowl of cereal and
flipped on the TV for cartoons. Many of those
animated memories, such as
The
Superman/Batman Hour,
The Archie Show,
Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids,
He-Man
and the Masters of the Universe and its
spinoff,
She-Ra: Princess of Power were
brought to us by Filmation, a Reseda, CA-based
company founded 50 years ago this year by three
gentlemen who wanted to bring good animation to
TV: Norm Prescott, Hal Sutherland and its
president, Lou Scheimer.
Despite its three founders, Lou was the
undisputed champion behind the company,
especially when Hal retired in 1974 and Norm
followed suit in 1982 when the company was
bought out. Although many animation purists
raised on Bugs Bunny and Tom and Jerry
criticized Filmation for its bland animation,
Lou realized that the real critics were the
children who watched his shows. Like its main
rival, Hanna-Barbera, Filmation had its hits,
but its misses, too.
Lou had humble beginnings; he was born 85 years
ago last Saturday to a Russian mother and a
German father. Neither spoke good English; as a
matter of fact, they communicated in Yiddish.
Not long after their son Louis was born, the
Scheimers purchased a small grocery store, which
made them barely enough money to live on,
especially through the Great Depression. Sadly,
Lou's dad died when he was just 14 years old, so
he and his mother were left to tend the grocery.
He wanted to go to Carnegie Tech to study fine
arts, but money was tight. After graduating high
school, Lou enlisted in the Army right after the
second World War. He got out with enough money
to go to Carnegie. He graduated in 1952, married
his girlfriend, Jay and moved to Los Angeles to
to pursue a career in animation. He did, working
for Walter Lantz (who hired him because he
looked like his brother), Larry Harmon and a few
others. It was at Harmon's where he helped
animate Popeye and Bozo the Clown cartoons.
While working for Larry Harmon, Lou met a man
named Hal Sutherland, who previously worked for
Walt Disney. The two became close pals and when
Harmon abandoned making animated cartoons, the
two had an idea: start their own animation
studio. Lou suggested "Filmation" because it was
animation on film and it would be fun. The name
stuck and the two pitched the idea to a friend
of theirs, a DJ from Boston named Norm Prescott.
In 1963, Filmation was born.
For the next three years, Filmation did odd
jobs, making everything from commercials to
animation sequences for movies. The company was
hardly making a dime. However, in 1966, the
company got a call from Superman. Mort
Weisinger, the editor-in-chief of DC Comics
wanted Filmation to make a 13-episode series of
Superman cartoons for Saturday mornings. Norm
Prescott flew to New York to negotiate the deal
and called Lou that they got the deal. However,
Norm also said "by the way, they want to look at
the studio" and Lou responded, "WHAT STUDIO?!?!"
At the time, Filmation was just Lou, Hal and
Norm and not much else. So, Lou and Hal called
up everybody they knew - family, friends and
laid-off Hanna Barbera animators - to come to
the studio to fill up some desks. The deal was a
success. DC execs were paraded throughout the
studio and
The Superman/Batman Hour was
a Saturday morning hit on CBS.
Soon, other properties begged Filmation to
animate their shows, including Archie Comics,
Paramount (
The Brady Kids and
Star
Trek) and many others. While H-B was
dominant with hits like
Scooby-Doo and
The Flintstones, Filmation did things
Bill and Joe couldn't do. In 1969, the song
"Sugar Sugar" was a #1 hit on the pop charts
(from
The Archie Show) and in 1972, they
helped to create the first-ever Saturday morning
cartoon with a mostly-black cast,
Fat Albert
and the Cosby Kids. That show was
Filmation's longest-running - albeit
non-consecutively due to Bill Cosby's hectic
schedule - running from 1972-1985.
Throughout the 1970's, Filmation grew and grew;
they even had their own shows, such as the
Laugh-In-esque
Groovie Goolies, which were the subject
of criticism when they were paired with most of
the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes in the 1972
made-for-TV film
Daffy Duck and Porky Pig
Meet the Groovie Goolies. Critics bashed
the movie because of its lackluster animation
and poor character design. It was Filmation's
most-major flaws: piss-poor animation. However,
Lou defended the company telling people that
kids can't count how many drawings go into his
shows. Plus, if the networks gave him more money
and time, the results would have been a lot more
different. One way Filmation went around its
budget was to re-use scenes by using
rotoscoping: using actors to create shots and
animators racing over those shots to create
scenes. Many animators, including its inventor,
Betty Boop animator Max Fleischer used
rotoscoping to create realistic shots.
Filmation also had a great deal of live-action
shows as well, including
Shazam!,
Ark
II,
Jason of Star Command and
The
Ghost Busters, a 1975 show starring
F-Troopers
Larry Storch and Forrest Tucker that was ripped
off by Columbia Pictures in 1984 for the hit
movie of their own. Filmation sued Columbia and
won.
By the 1980's, Filmation was the top animation
studio on television. In 1982, the company -
which Lou, Norm and Hal sold to TelePrompTer in
1969 - was sold to Westinghouse/Group W
Broadcasting. Lou used Group W's resources to
stay away from the networks and their censors.
In 1983, he made a first when he licensed the
Masters
of the Universe action figures
from Mattel to create the
He-Man series.
Because the FCC did not allow networks to
broadcast shows based on toys, Lou was thankful
for Group W's syndication services to ship the
show out to TV stations as a first-run show.
With 65 episodes produced for one season,
stations could air the show for two months
straight without a repeat.
Throughout the 80's, Filmation also pumped out
He-Man's
spinoff,
She-Ra and a new animated
series of
Ghostbusters cartoons to
counter Columbia's version of the franchise.
Filmation's last series,
Bravestarr,
aired from 1987-1988.
However, Lou constantly sparred with Group W
over the direction of the company. Group W
wanted Filmation to move all of its production
overseas in the age of Reaganomics while Lou was
for protecting American jobs. While he had to
please his bosses by moving some aspects to
South Korea, he made sure that in the age of his
rivals abandoning American ingenuity, he kept it
alive and well. Sadly, the fact that Lou also
made a few theatrical bombs such as
Pinocchio
and the Emperor of Night and
BraveStarr:
The Movie didn't help his relationship
with Group W. So, he shopped Filmation to French
cosmetic giant L'Oreal. However, on February 3,
1989, Group W shuttered Filmation just before
the sale was completed, leaving hundreds without
jobs. When Lou made the announcement to his
employees, a round of applause was made to him
when he left the podium. He fought hard for his
people, and his people loved him back.
Since Filmation's closure, Lou started another
company, Lou Scheimer Productions. He had a few
projects - mostly adult cartoons - but they were
never officially released. His health started to
deteriorate and had quadruple bypass surgery and
was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. However,
he remained a consultant with several companies
and even made appearances at several
conventions. However, his health continued to
worsen because of Parkinson's and heart disease.
He made his last public appearance last year at
the San Diego Comic Con alongside several former
Filmation staffers and friends to talk about his
years in the business. He was frail and didn't
speak in very long sentences, but he was still
loaded with a sense of humor. Sid Haig talked
about the hectic shooting schedule of
Jason
of Star Command, where he played the evil
villain, and Lou yelled, "DON'T LOOK AT ME!"
While some scoff at Lou's embarrassments, he was
a champion. He proved that a mostly-black
cartoon show could survive on Saturday mornings.
He stopped a battle between him and follow
producer Norm Prescott in regards to screen
credit by putting their names in a rotating
circle so nobody's names stayed on top. He was a
true family man, giving his wife Jay and
children Erika and Lane jobs at the company
doing voicework. He fought his bosses to protect
the small guy. His company was the starting
point for animation legends like Sam Simon, John
Kricfalusi and William "Bill" Wray. He even
brought back
Star Trek to television in
1973 in cartoon form five years after NBC
canceled it due to "poor ratings" and won an
Emmy for that. When his daughter Erika came out
of the closet in 2007, he was proud of her. The
list goes on and on.
Lou's long battle with Parkinson's and heart
disease came to an end last Thursday, just two
days before his 85th birthday. He's survived by
his wife MaryAnn (Jay died in 2009), and his
children. He's also professionally survived by
Hal Sutherland, who is now the sole surviving
founder of Filmation (Prescott died in 2007).
It's ironic that many of his fans got the sad
news... On a Saturday morning. Thankfully,
several cable and digital networks such as
Bounce TV and Retro TV show many of Filmation's
old shows. Part of it's due to the fact that
these days, DreamWorks now owns them, and many
ex-Filmation staffers now work there. Lou died
very proud that his legacy will go on forever.
And as for that battle between him and Norm
Prescott regarding credit, well, God loves
everybody equally.
---
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