Filmation Associates was an American production company that produced animation for television during the later half of the 20th century. Located in Reseda, California, the animation studio was founded in 1963. During a period lasting from the 1960s through the 1980s, the only real competitors to Hanna-Barbera Productions in the field of TV cartoons were Filmation and DePatie-Freleng Enterprises. Filmation's founders and principal producers were Lou Scheimer and Norm Prescott.

A trademark of the company's productions beginning in 1969 was a rotating "Produced by" (and on some shows, "Executive Producers") credit seen in the end credits (and in later productions, the opening sequences) of Filmation programs, a device that was supposedly created to allow them to share equal billing (previously, Scheimer's name was placed above Prescott's), although later Filmation productions credited only Scheimer, in the form of his signature ("Lou Scheimer, Executive Producer"), starting with 1982's Gilligan's Planet.

Many of its shows—particularly the productions of the late 1970s and 1980s—are notable for imparting a simple moral or life-lesson (explained by a key character, in a child-friendly manner) in the epilogue.

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Animation style
Layout artist Lindsay Dawson working on a key-frame of animation for He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. This was a typical working desk for animators, layout artists, and background designers at Filmation in 1983.

As with other producers of Saturday morning cartoons, Filmation was more concerned with quantity rather than quality; however, they did make a number of attempts to rise above the standard animated fare and produce reasonably well-written cartoons. The best-known example of this is their animated adaptation of the Star Trek series, which included scripts contributed by well-known science fiction writers and starred most of the original cast. Other favorably remembered Filmation series included a 16-part animated serial of Flash Gordon (originally intended as a movie for theatrical release but shown in its entirety only thrice on NBC); Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, an animated educational series created by and starring Bill Cosby; and He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, based on the popular line of Mattel toys. The animated adaptations of the Archie Comics characters were also noteworthy for the pop music produced for it, particularly the song, "Sugar, Sugar", which was a #1 hit single.

In addition, certain episodes of He-Man and Bravestarr, in substance, and often animation, were pioneers in children's animated series of their time and paved the way for broader storytelling.

Ownership

The Filmation studio was owned by The TelePrompTer Company in the early 1970s, then by Westinghouse (through its Group W Productions division) in 1982, though in 1988 it was purchased by the L'Oreal cosmetics company. L'Oreal promptly closed the studio on February 3, 1989 and ended Filmation's legacy. The studio may also have been closed for tax purposes[citation needed]. Filmation's last production was the feature film Happily Ever After (an unofficial sequel to the story of Snow White), released to theaters in 1993. Also, at the time of the closing, two new animated TV shows, Bugzburg and Bravo (a spinoff of Bravestarr), were beginning production.Since then, most of the Filmation back catalog had come under the ownership of Hallmark Cards, through their Hallmark Entertainment subsidiary; however, since a large amount of Filmation's output was based on characters licensed from other companies, many titles which are also under the ownership of Entertainment Rights (see next paragraph) are actually under the control of other studios (such as Paramount and Warner Bros.).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filmation

Filmation had so many animated series that I liked. Batman/Superman, He-man, Shazam, Isis and many more.

Remember that Ghostbusters cartoon?

Yeesh, what a stinker that was.

;)

My favorites from Filmation was He Man, Blackstar and Fat Albert.

Remember that Ghostbusters cartoon?

Yeesh, what a stinker that was.

;)

yeah, that stank didn't it? :lol: the bill murray and harold ramis's real ghostbusters is 10 times better in contrast

My favorites from Filmation was He Man, Blackstar and Fat Albert.

i haven't seen blackstar, whilst i only saw bits of fat albert and so i am not that familiar with it. i always preferred bravestarr over he-man though. that was such a great cartoon

he-man masters of the universe and bravestarr

I really wish I watched the Star Trek animated series a bit more. That had some good stories.

The only filmation show I watched was Fat Albert And The Cosby Kids. That was pretty good, and Bill Cosby's segments were entertaining.