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97-847: The Tarzan / Lone Ranger Adventure Hour is an animated television series produced by Filmation that aired on CBS during the early 1980s. The series consisted of reruns of Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle paired with new episodes of Filmation's versions of The Lone Ranger and, in the second season, The New Adventures of Zorro , at which point the series was retitled The Tarzan / Lone Ranger / Zorro Adventure Hour . The series ran from 1980 to 1982. Don Diamond who voiced Sergeant Gonzales in this animated series previously portrayed Corporal Reyes in Disney's 1950s live-action series of Zorro . BCI Eclipse Entertainment (under its Ink & Paint classic animation entertainment brand) released The Lone Ranger (which

194-601: A Superman cartoon that premiered on CBS on September 10, 1966. This was followed by several of the other DC superheroes, and then, in 1968, the first Archie Show . Both series greatly helped Filmation's popularity to increase into the 1970s, when it scored big with several of its series. 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, while Prescott left

291-455: A Who! (1970), but his main focus during this time was producing the feature film The Phantom Tollbooth , which did lukewarm business when MGM released it in 1970. Jones co-directed 1969's The Pogo Special Birthday Special , based on the Walt Kelly comic strip, and voiced the characters of Porky Pine and Bun Rab. It was at this point that he decided to start ST Incorporated. MGM closed

388-435: A device that was supposedly created to allow Prescott and Scheimer to share equal billing. Previously, Scheimer's name had been placed above Prescott's. However, the later Filmation productions credited only Scheimer, in the form of his signature ("Lou Scheimer, (Executive) Producer"), starting with Gilligan's Planet (1982). Many of its series—particularly the productions of the late 1970s and 1980s—are notable for imparting

485-506: A direct adaptation, was inspired by the film (and later TV series ) M*A*S*H . M*U*S*H is an acronym for Mangy Unwanted Shabby Heroes since all the character were dogs stationed in the Arctic . The studio's intellectual property assets have changed hands on a number of occasions. The in-house productions ( The Archie Show , Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids , etc.), which form a majority of

582-447: A director (or "supervisor", the original title for an animation director in the studio) himself in 1938 when Frank Tashlin left the studio. The following year Jones created his first major character, Sniffles , a cute Disney-style mouse, who went on to star in twelve Warner Bros. cartoons. Jones initially struggled in terms of his directorial style. Unlike the other directors in the studio, Jones wanted to make cartoons that would rival

679-422: A few minutes, then turned over the meeting to his attorney. His insulting manner had a unifying effect on the staff. Jones gave a pep talk at the union headquarters. As negotiations broke down, the staff decided to go on strike. Schlesinger locked them out of the studio for a few days, before agreeing to sign the contract. A Labor-Management Committee was formed and Jones served as a moderator. Because of his role as

776-560: A group of classic monsters. Directed by Sutherland and written by Len Janson and Chuck Menville , it aired on ABC as part of The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie on December 16, 1972 . While most of the Warner Bros. characters were drawn well (veteran Warners animator Virgil Ross was working there at the time, along with other animators that had worked for Warner Bros. Animation in the late 1960s, such as Laverne Harding and Ed Solomon ), and were voiced by veteran voice actor Mel Blanc ,

873-509: A janitor. After graduating from Chouinard Art Institute , Jones got a phone call from a friend named Fred Kopietz, who had been hired by the Ub Iwerks studio and offered him a job. He worked his way up in the animation industry, starting as a cel washer; "then I moved up to become a painter in black and white, some color. Then I went on to take animator's drawings and traced them onto the celluloid. Then I became what they call an in-betweener, which

970-412: A letter to Tex Avery , accusing Clampett of taking credit for ideas that were not his, and for characters created by other directors (notably Jones's Sniffles and Friz Freleng 's Yosemite Sam ). Their correspondence was never published in the media. It was forwarded to Michael Barrier , who conducted the interview with Clampett and was distributed by Jones to multiple people concerned with animation over

1067-524: A majority of Filmation's work in the 1980s), along with John Erwin (voice of Reggie Mantle, and later the voice of He-Man ), Alan Oppenheimer (character actor in TV and film), Ted Knight , George DiCenzo (John Blackstar , Hordak , Bow on She-Ra ), Bill Cosby (voice of Fat Albert and himself), Melendy Britt , Howard Morris , Pat Fraley , Charlie Adler , Ed Gilbert , Susan Blu , Peter Cullen , Frank Welker , and Lou Scheimer (either uncredited, or under

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1164-494: A more successful medium, network television . For the next few years they made television commercials and some other projects for other companies and made an unsuccessful pilot film for a Marx Brothers cartoon series. They also tried to develop an original series named The Adventures of Stanley Stoutheart (later renamed Yank and Doodle ) about a boy and a dog, but they were never able to sell it and almost closed down; until approached by DC Comics editor Mort Weisinger to do

1261-511: A movie for theatrical release, Flash Gordon: The Greatest Adventure of All . The original film edit was only aired three times on NBC , years after the series was cancelled. Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids was another hailed series 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, opened up

1358-423: A new Tom and Jerry series as well. Filmation also ventured into the feature film business. With their success in television firmly established by 1970, the company became profitable enough to return to the shelved Journey Back to Oz project, completing the animation and some minor voiceover work begun in 1962, and finished the film in 1971. It would take another year for Journey to be released theatrically in

1455-513: A new North American market for first-run television syndication for animation in the 1980s. The animated adaptations of the Archie Comics characters were also noteworthy for the original pop music produced for it, particularly the song " Sugar, Sugar ", which was a No. 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

1552-624: A new Schlesinger director, Tex Avery . There was no room for the new Avery unit in Schlesinger's small studio, so Avery, Jones, and fellow animators Bob Clampett , Virgil Ross , and Sid Sutherland were moved into a small adjacent building they dubbed "Termite Terrace". When Clampett was promoted to director in 1937, Jones was assigned to his unit; the Clampett unit was briefly assigned to work with Jones's old employer, Ub Iwerks , when Iwerks subcontracted four cartoons to Schlesinger in 1937. Jones became

1649-478: A new series of Tom and Jerry shorts (1963–1967) as well as the television adaptations of Dr. Seuss 's How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966) and Horton Hears a Who! (1970). He later started his own studio, Chuck Jones Enterprises, where he directed and produced the film adaptation of Norton Juster 's The Phantom Tollbooth (1970). Jones's work along with the other animators was showcased in

1746-441: A number of attempts to rise above the standard animated fare and produce reasonably well-written cartoons. The best-known example of this is its animated adaptation Star Trek: The Animated 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

1843-534: A rare denunciation from the National Association of Broadcasters , which accused Filmation of corrupting the Lassie franchise with "violence, crime and stupidity." A trademark of the company's productions, beginning in 1969, was a rotating, circular "Produced by" (and on some series, "Executive Producers") credit seen in the ending credits (and in later productions, the opening sequences) of Filmation programs, as

1940-400: A simple moral or life-lesson (explained by a key character, in a child-friendly manner) in the epilogue. The studio created very few original animated characters. Two examples were Fraidy Cat , a timid feline who has lost eight of his nine lives, which come back to haunt him; and Wacky and Packy, a caveman and his pet mammoth (Packy refers to the latter character being a "pachyderm") who enter

2037-570: A supervisor in the studio, he could not himself join the union. Jones created many of his lesser-known characters during this period, including Charlie Dog , Hubie and Bertie , and The Three Bears . During World War II , Jones worked closely with Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss , to create the Private Snafu series of Army educational cartoons (the character was created by director Frank Capra ). Jones later collaborated with Seuss on animated adaptations of Seuss' books, including How

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2134-586: A television adaptation of all Tom and Jerry theatricals produced to that date. This included major editing, including writing out the African-American maid, Mammy Two-Shoes , and replacing her with one of Irish descent voiced by June Foray . In 1964, Sib Tower 12 was absorbed by MGM and was renamed MGM Animation/Visual Arts . His animated short film, The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics , won

2231-465: Is beginning to serve as representative for three animated films at the MIFED, in order to cleaning up unsold territories on various Filmation productions, which accordingly hit by a lawsuit from The Walt Disney Company back in 1985 in order to prevent making films that the company claims to be based on Disney classics. Like other animation studios, Filmation had its stock company of voiceover actors. Some of

2328-607: Is needed for the series to be released. Filmation Notable productions that the company produced included the DC Comics and Archie Comics animated adaptations, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids , the animated version of Star Trek and He-Man and the Masters of the Universe . As of now, DreamWorks Animation , through DreamWorks Classics , owns all of the company's library (except third-party licensed properties). Lou Scheimer and Filmation's main director Hal Sutherland met in 1957 while working at Larry Harmon Pictures on

2425-411: Is the guy that does the drawing between the drawings the animator makes". While at Iwerks, he met a cel painter named Dorothy Webster, who later became his first wife. Jones joined Leon Schlesinger Productions , the independent studio that produced Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies for Warner Bros. , in 1933 as an assistant animator. In 1935 he was promoted to animator and assigned to work with

2522-683: The Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of shorts. He wrote, produced, and/or directed many classic animated cartoon shorts starring Bugs Bunny , Daffy Duck , Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner , Pepé Le Pew , Marvin the Martian , and Porky Pig , among others. Jones started his career in 1933 alongside Tex Avery , Friz Freleng , Bob Clampett , and Robert McKimson at the Leon Schlesinger Production's Termite Terrace studio,

2619-606: The Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 2 DVD set. Jones received an Honorary Academy Award in 1996 by the board of governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences , for "the creation of classic cartoons and cartoon characters whose animated lives have brought joy to our real ones for more than half a century." At that year's awards show, Robin Williams , a self-confessed "Jones-aholic", presented

2716-811: The Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Special Project. In 1997, Jones was awarded the Edward MacDowell Medal . In 1999, he founded the non-profit Chuck Jones Center for Creativity, in Costa Mesa, California, an art education "gymnasium for the brain" dedicated to teaching creative skills, primarily to children and seniors, which is still in operation. In his later years, he recovered from skin cancer and received hip and ankle replacements. Jones died of congestive heart failure on February 22, 2002, at his home in Corona del Mar, Newport Beach at

2813-502: The BraveStarr episode "The Price", which includes the death of a character due to drug addiction. The 1985 Fat Albert episode "Busted" was a direct homage to the primetime Scared Straight! specials. A first for American children's cartoons, the original airing of this episode included mild profanity that has, however, been edited out of re-airings and home video versions. Likewise, the scripts for Star Trek , which were often written by

2910-789: The DC Comics character Captain Marvel ), The Ghost Busters and The Secrets of Isis . Filmation produced a live-action series called The Ghost Busters (1975), starring former F Troop stars Larry Storch and Forrest Tucker , with noted science-fiction fan and collector Bob Burns as "Tracy the Gorilla". The characters worked as paranormal investigators, working for an unseen "Chief" named "Zero" who delivered their "Ghost Busting Assignments" in whimsical disguised recording devices as in Mission: Impossible . Nine years later, Columbia Pictures , who produced an unrelated 1984 movie of almost

3007-629: The Looney Tunes characters. Jones resumed working with Warner Bros. in 1976 with the animated TV adaptation of The Carnival of the Animals with Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. Jones also produced The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie (1979), which was a compilation of Jones's best theatrical shorts, new Road Runner shorts for The Electric Company series and Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales (1979). New shorts were made for Bugs Bunny's Bustin' Out All Over (1980). From 1977 to 1978, Jones wrote and drew

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3104-528: The portmanteau "Filmation". Both Rod Rocket and the Life of Christ series credited "Filmation Associates" with "Production Design" in addition to Scheimer and Sutherland as directors. (SIB Productions, whose logo bore a resemblance to the original Filmation logo designed by Ted Littlefield, would soon go on to become "Sib-Tower 12 Productions" and produce the first few of Chuck Jones ' Tom and Jerry films for MGM , until becoming MGM Animation/Visual Arts for

3201-503: The pseudonym of "Erik (sometimes "Eric") Gunden"). For the company's 1960s superhero efforts, composer John Gart (under the stage name John Marion) and music supervisor Gordon Zahler created strong themes and backing cues using a large orchestra, until the Batman entry in 1968, which used sparser production and jazzier themes. The company's 1960s adventure series Journey to the Center of

3298-464: The 1942 short The Draft Horse . The cartoon that was generally considered his turning point was The Dover Boys . Released the same year, it noticeably featured quickly-timed gags and extensive use of limited animation . Despite this, Schlesinger and the studios heads were still dissatisfied and begun the process to fire him, but they were unable to find a replacement due to a labor shortage stemming from World War II , so Jones kept his position. He

3395-483: The 1950s, except for a brief period in 1953 when Warner closed the animation studio. During this interim, Jones found employment at Walt Disney Productions , where he teamed with Ward Kimball for a four-month period of uncredited work on Sleeping Beauty (1959). Upon the reopening of the Warner animation department, Jones was rehired and reunited with most of his unit. In the early 1960s, Jones and his wife Dorothy wrote

3492-477: The 1965 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film . Jones directed the classic animated short The Bear That Wasn't . As the Tom and Jerry series wound down (it was discontinued in 1967), Jones produced more for television. In 1966, he produced and directed the TV special How the Grinch Stole Christmas ! , featuring narration by Boris Karloff . Jones continued to work on other TV specials such as Horton Hears

3589-662: The Bugs Bunny/Daffy Duck animated sequences that bookend its sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990). Jones directed animated sequences for various features such as a lengthy sequence in the film Stay Tuned (1992) and a shorter one seen at the start of the Robin Williams vehicle Mrs. Doubtfire (1993). Also during the 1980s and 1990s, Jones served on the advisory board of the National Student Film Institute . Jones's final Looney Tunes cartoon

3686-518: The Earth (1967) and Fantastic Voyage (1968) likewise used sparser music production. Journey made heavier emphasis on guitar than the company's previous series, while Voyage made use of deliberately haunting woodwinds to create a science fiction flavor. According to the booklets accompanying some of the DVDs of Filmation's shows, composer Ray Ellis (who was assisted by his son Marc Ellis) had produced

3783-465: The Filmation back catalog, were sold to Hallmark Cards in 1995, and were managed by its Hallmark Entertainment subsidiary. However, since the rest of Filmation's output was based on characters licensed from other companies, such titles are under the control of other studios (such as CBS Media Ventures and Warner Bros. via Turner Entertainment Co. and DC Entertainment ). In March 2004, ownership of

3880-462: The Filmation in-house library, which was under the ownership of Hallmark, was sold to UK-based Entertainment Rights . Entertainment Rights has since made the revelation that when Hallmark converted all of its Filmation series to digital format in the 1990s, only PAL-format copies were made, with the original film negatives and print rolls apparently discarded, as well as the original sound masters and other archival material belonging to Filmation. This

3977-557: The French cosmetics company L'Oréal . Before that sale was complete, Westinghouse shuttered the film studio on February 3, 1989, which left L'Oréal with only the Filmation library. This happened a day before the WARN Act went into effect requiring companies to give employees 60 days' notice before a mass layoff. Like other producers of Saturday-morning cartoons , Filmation was more concerned with quantity rather than quality; however, it did make

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4074-578: The Grinch Stole Christmas! in 1966. Jones directed such shorts as The Weakly Reporter , a 1944 short that related to shortages and rationing on the home front. During the same year, he directed Hell-Bent for Election , a campaign film for Franklin D. Roosevelt . Jones created characters through the late 1930s, late 1940s, and the 1950s, which include his collaborative help in co-creating Bugs Bunny and also included creating Claude Cat , Marc Antony and Pussyfoot , Charlie Dog , Michigan J. Frog , Gossamer , and his four most popular creations, Marvin

4171-479: The Hanna-Barbera sound effects were of a distinctively lower quality), though the company's DC Comics cartoons of 1966–67 used more realistic sound effects. Filmation received particular criticism for Lassie's Rescue Rangers , an animated continuation of the long-running live-action series Lassie . Lassie's co-creator and trainer, Rudd Weatherwax , said of the show: "That's not Lassie. That's trash." It drew

4268-656: The Lifetime Achievement Award at the World Festival of Animated Film – Animafest Zagreb in 1988. Jones was a historical authority as well as a major contributor to the development of animation throughout the 20th century. In 1990, Jones received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement . He received an honorary degree from Oglethorpe University in 1993. For his contribution to

4365-540: The Line , won the Best Animated Short . Robin Williams presented Jones with an Honorary Academy Award in 1996 for his work in the animation industry. Film historian Leonard Maltin has praised Jones's work at Warner Bros., MGM and Chuck Jones Enterprises. In Jerry Beck 's The 50 Greatest Cartoons , a group of animation professionals ranked What's Opera, Doc? (1957) as the greatest cartoon of all time, with ten of

4462-468: The Martian , Pepé Le Pew , Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner . Jones and writer Michael Maltese collaborated on the Road Runner cartoons, Duck Amuck , One Froggy Evening , and What's Opera, Doc? . Other staff at Unit A whom Jones collaborated with include layout artist, background designer, and co-director Maurice Noble ; animator and co-director Abe Levitow ; and animators Ken Harris and Ben Washam . Jones remained at Warner Bros. throughout

4559-570: The Sword ), as well as continuations to established stories, such as Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night (1987) and Happily Ever After (1989; unreleased until 1993). In 1986, Omega Entertainment inked a worldwide television pact with Filmation in order to distribute the company's non-animated products, such as theatrical feature films, for worldwide TV distribution. Also that year, on October 22, Filmation

4656-557: The Teenage Witch credits and both "Ray Ellis", and "Jeff Michaels" appear side by side on Groovie Goolies credits, where "Ellis" is credited for "Sabrina background music", and "Michaels" is credited for "Groovie Goolies background music". Much of Ellis's background music in the late 1960s had a distinct, richly orchestrated sound not found on many other made-for-TV cartoon series of that period; though as time went on, it became more contemporary and often synthesized . Ellis's work at

4753-419: The U.S.A." strategy was comparable to the outsourced animation. Filmation did, however, rely on outsourcing once, when the company created its animated Zorro series. It was animated by Tokyo Movie Shinsha of Japan; however, the storyboards and graphics were made by Filmation itself. Filmation is also noteworthy for its background paintings under the direction of long-time department head Erv Kaplan, such as

4850-656: The United Kingdom, two more years before its 1974 U.S. release, and yet another two (1976) before it finally found its audience in network television, the very medium in which Filmation became successful. There, the film was expanded with live-action segments featuring Bill Cosby , who was in the midst of his success with the studio's Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids . A deal with Warner Bros. yielded Treasure Island and Oliver Twist , but left several others unproduced. In its final years, Filmation produced feature films of its He-Man and She-Ra franchises ( The Secret of

4947-533: The abundance of high-quality paper and pencils. Later, in one art school class, the professor gravely informed the students that they each had 100,000 bad drawings in them that they must first get past before they could possibly draw anything worthwhile. Jones recounted years later that this pronouncement came as a great relief to him, as he was well past the 200,000 mark, having used up all that stationery. Jones and several of his siblings went on to artistic careers. During his artistic education, he worked part-time as

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5044-482: The age of 89. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered at sea. After his death, Cartoon Network aired a 20-second segment tracing Jones's portrait with the words "We'll miss you". Also, the Looney Tunes cartoon Daffy Duck for President , based on the book that Jones had written and using Jones's style for the characters, originally scheduled to be released in 2000, was released in 2004 as part of disc three of

5141-933: The animation division in 1970, and Jones once again started his own studio, Chuck Jones Enterprises. He produced a Saturday morning children's TV series for the American Broadcasting Company called The Curiosity Shop in 1971. In 1973, he produced an animated version of the George Selden book The Cricket in Times Square and subsequently produced two sequels. Three of his works during this period were animated TV adaptations of short stories from Rudyard Kipling 's The Jungle Book : Mowgli's Brothers , The White Seal and Rikki-Tikki-Tavi . During this period, Jones began to experiment with more realistically designed characters, most of which had larger eyes, leaner bodies, and altered proportions, such as those of

5238-505: The background music for most Filmation series under the pseudonyms "Yvette Blais and Jeff Michael". Yvette Blais was Ellis's wife, while "Jeff" and "Michael" were the names of producer Norm Prescott's two sons (exactly what role Prescott played in the music, other than hiring the composers and musicians, is unclear). The full-length features Treasure Island and Oliver Twist credit "George Blais". Ellis's name does appear in Archie and Sabrina

5335-512: The bands perform and Fat Albert had segments featuring series creator Bill Cosby . The Kid Super Power Hour with Shazam! , was more of a hybrid—a live-action variety show with animated segments. Actors appeared as characters from the Hero High portion of the series, singing songs and telling jokes. Filmation made six fully live-action series, including Space Academy , its spin-off Jason of Star Command , Ark II , Shazam! (based on

5432-402: The company, Westinghouse Electric Corporation , through its Group W Productions division, acquired Filmation along with its purchase of TelePrompTer's cable and entertainment properties. The last shows produced by Filmation were Ghostbusters and BraveStarr , and the company's last production was the feature film Happily Ever After (a sequel to the story of Snow White ); this film

5529-552: The deficiency, resulting in a "jerky" motion. Filmation also made heavy use of rotoscoping in later years (beginning with its Tarzan and Flash Gordon series). It also re-used the same animated sequences over and over, many times, to the point where the Filmation style was instantly recognizable. One example of this can be seen in She-Ra's and He-Man's transformation sequences. This frequent use of stock footage saved production money, but often resulted in sacrifice of continuity. This

5626-738: The documentary, Bugs Bunny: Superstar (1975). Jones directed the first feature-length animated Looney Tunes compilation film, The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie (1979). In 1990 he wrote his memoir, Chuck Amuck: The Life and Times of an Animated Cartoonist , which was made into a documentary film, Chuck Amuck (1991). He was also profiled in the American Masters documentary Chuck Jones: Extremes & Inbetweens – A Life in Animation (2000) which aired on PBS . Jones won three Academy Awards . The cartoons which he directed, For Scent-imental Reasons , So Much for So Little , and The Dot and

5723-573: The ending credits that they were "made entirely in the U.S.A." This occurred during a time when rival studio Hanna-Barbera shifted from saying in the final production credits (immediately before the production logo appearances) "A Hanna-Barbera Production" to "Produced in Association with: Wang Film Productions / Cuckoo's Nest Studios" which is located in Taiwan (along with H-B's own Philippines -based Fil-Cartoons). The quality of Filmation's "Made Entirely in

5820-685: The entries being directed by Jones including Duck Amuck (1953), Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century (1953), One Froggy Evening (1955), Rabbit of Seville (1950), and Rabbit Seasoning (1952). Charles Martin Jones was born on September 21, 1912, in Spokane, Washington , to Mabel McQuiddy (née Martin) (1882–1971) and Charles Adams Jones (1883–?). When he was six months old, he moved with his parents and three siblings to Los Angeles, California . In his autobiography, Chuck Amuck , Jones credits his artistic bent to circumstances surrounding his father, who

5917-483: The film was called The Real Ghostbusters . As a dig on the Filmation series, an episode was written about a group of fraudulent ghost fighters, trying to steal the "Real" Ghostbusters' business and thunder. Also of note is Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies , a special featuring several of Warner Bros. ' Looney Tunes stars (except Bugs Bunny ) paired with Filmation's own Groovie Goolies ,

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6014-451: The honorary award to Jones, calling him "The Orson Welles of cartoons", and the audience gave Jones a standing ovation as he walked onto the stage. For himself, a flattered Jones wryly remarked in his acceptance speech, "Well, what can I say in the face of such humiliating evidence? I stand guilty before the world of directing over three hundred cartoons in the last fifty or sixty years. Hopefully, this means you've forgiven me." He received

6111-460: The made-for-TV Bozo and Popeye cartoons. Eventually Larry Harmon closed the studio by 1961. Scheimer and Sutherland went to work at a small company called True Line, one of whose owners was Marcus Lipsky, who then owned Reddi-wip whipped cream. SIB Productions, a Japanese firm with U.S. offices in Chicago, approached them about producing a cartoon called Rod Rocket . The two agreed to take on

6208-487: The miscellaneous item the Ghostbuster needs in a moment of despair, Eddie doing a number of clumsy/stupid things, etc.); although as previously mentioned, Filmation made various attempts to rise above the norm. Many of the sound effects used in its cartoons are also very familiar, the majority of them being recycled from Hanna-Barbera (this was, and still is, a common trait among animation companies, though Filmation's copies of

6305-553: The modern age through a time warp. Both of these originally aired as segments of the Uncle Croc's Block series on ABC (hosted by Charles Nelson Reilly ). In a period where comedy in cartoons was heavily scrutinized for violence and many shows duplicated the popular Scooby-Doo format, Filmation's strong point was its adaptations of popular television series, movies and other works, although at least one series, M*U*S*H (the first animated segment on Uncle Croc's Block ), while not

6402-458: The modern use of 3-D computer animation for vehicles in 2-D animated productions. However, it had a distinctive "flicker" to it, because some of the painted lines went in and out of visibility as the miniatures moved. Unlike many American studios, Filmation never relied on animation studios outside the United States for the bulk of its production; Ghostbusters and BraveStarr both state in

6499-710: The most famous included Larry Storch , Dallas McKennon (best known as the voice of Archie in the Archie cartoon and as Cincinnatus, in the Daniel Boone TV series), Bud Collyer , the original radio voice of Superman , reprised the role for Filmation for their late 1960s version of the Man of Steel; Adam West and Burt Ward (who recreated their roles as " Batman and Robin " from their 1960s live-action series for Filmation's 1977 animated incarnation), Jane Webb , and good friends and colleagues Edward Asner and Linda Gary (Gary voiced

6596-798: The motion picture industry, Jones has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7011 Hollywood Blvd . He was awarded the Inkpot Award in 1974. In 1996, Jones received an Honorary Oscar at the 68th Academy Awards. Three short films directed by Jones have been inducted into the National Film Registry by the United States Film Preservation Board : What's Opera, Doc? , inducted in 1992; Duck Amuck, inducted in 1999; and One Froggy Evening , inducted in 2003. Jones's life and legacy were celebrated on January 12, 2012, with

6693-551: The newspaper comic strip Crawford (also known as Crawford & Morgan ) for the Chicago Tribune-NY News Syndicate . In 2011 IDW Publishing collected Jones's strip as part of their Library of American Comic Strips. In 1978, Jones's wife Dorothy died. He married Marian Dern, the writer of the comic strip Rick O'Shay in 1981. On December 11, 1975, shortly after the release of Bugs Bunny: Superstar , which prominently featured Bob Clampett , Jones wrote

6790-482: The position of musical director for The Kid Super Power Hour with Shazam! . Filmation routinely included a plug for its music publisher, Shermley Music ( ASCAP ), in the closing credits of most of its series. This has never been common practice on American television. Chuck Jones Charles Martin Jones (September 21, 1912 – February 22, 2002) was an American animator , painter, voice actor and filmmaker, best known for his work with Warner Bros. Cartoons on

6887-461: The purple-colored "night sky" backgrounds used in He-Man and She-Ra . Characters, as well as plots, were typically run-of-the-mill for the time. For example, most episodes of Ghostbusters had the same scheme (bad guys develop an evil plan, the heroes are needed but always absent, Ghost Buggy the talking car complains about their dangerous position, Tracy the Gorilla pulls out of his back pack exactly

6984-507: The quality and design to that of ones made by Walt Disney Production . As a result, his cartoons suffered from sluggish pacing and a lack of clever gags, with Jones himself later admitting that his early conception of timing and dialog was "formed by watching the action in the La Brea Tar Pits ". Schlesinger and the studio heads were unsatisfied with his work and demanded that he make cartoons that were more funny. He responded by creating

7081-490: The remainder of the films). Norm Prescott brought in Filmation's first major project, Journey Back to Oz , an animated sequel to the MGM film The Wizard of Oz (1939). Begun in 1962, storyboarding, voice recording, and most of the music scoring and animation had been completed when financial challenges caused the project to be put on hold for nearly eight years. In the meantime, the new Filmation studio turned their attention to

7178-479: The same name , had to obtain the rights to the title from the company. Filmation capitalized on the popularity of the film by producing a new cartoon based on their earlier series. Like its other shows, it used stock footage heavily; in one episode, character designs and animation sequences were recycled from the Groovie Goolies series of nearly 15 years earlier. To avoid confusion, the animated series based on

7275-502: The same people who had written for the live-action version of the series, tended to be quite sophisticated, and garnered the first Emmy Award for the franchise. Filmation had a reputation for exploiting the technique of limited animation to produce a number of animated series with a distinct look. This technique involved limiting of the number of frames per second (fps) to fewer than the standard 24 fps seen on film or 25/30 fps seen on video. Frames would be repeated to compensate for

7372-489: The screenplay for the animated feature Gay Purr-ee . The finished film featured the voices of Judy Garland , Robert Goulet and Red Buttons as cats in Paris, France. The feature was produced by UPA and directed by his former Warner Bros. collaborator, Abe Levitow. Jones moonlighted to work on the film since he had an exclusive contract with Warner Bros. UPA completed the film and made it available for distribution in 1962; it

7469-409: The shows which were licensed properties, such as Star Trek: The Animated Series , which was owned by Paramount Television (now CBS Studios , which is now part of Paramount Global since 2019), and Shazam! (owned by Warner Bros./DC Comics), because the master elements for those shows were turned over to the owners of those licensed properties years before the sale to Hallmark. On April 1, 2009, it

7566-790: The so-called 576i speedup effect in which the soundtrack plays 4% too fast, which results in the pitch being a half-step higher than it was originally (see PAL and Telecine for more information). PAL- NTSC conversion artifacts also include softness and ghosting. The exception appears to be at least three titles from ER's library: Groovie Goolies , Ark II and the animated Ghostbusters series. These series appear to have been sourced from original NTSC transfers for their U.S. release by BCI. The live-action series was, unlike most Filmation shows, shot on NTSC format tape (rather than film), so even if those did come from PAL masters, they would not have exhibited 576i speedup, as that only applies to material sourced from film masters. Other exceptions included

7663-481: The special is not liked by many fans of classic Warner Bros. animation because of its limited animation, as well as a weak storyline. This was not Filmation's last dalliance with classic cartoon characters; in the late 1970s the company produced new series based on the characters from the Terrytoons archive ( Mighty Mouse and Heckle and Jeckle , titled The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse and Heckle & Jeckle ) and

7760-517: The studio lasted from 1968 to 1982. Haim Saban and Shuki Levy composed and produced the studio's music for He-Man and She-Ra (during 1983–1986), along with the other studios for which they produced music scores. Frank W. Becker provided the music for Filmation's final animated series BraveStarr . In 1977, Dean Andre (Wallschlaeger), a 24-year-old composer/recording artist/producer, began writing theme and featured music for Filmation. His first series Archie's Bang-Shang Lalapalooza Show featured

7857-534: The studio that made Warner Brothers cartoons, where they created and developed the Looney Tunes characters. During the Second World War , Jones directed many of the Private Snafu (1943–1946) shorts which were shown to members of the United States military . After his career at Warner Bros. ended in 1962, Jones started Sib Tower 12 Productions and began producing cartoons for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , including

7954-432: The voice of Daws Butler. He went on to compose themes for The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse and Heckle & Jeckle and Fabulous Funnies (featuring the voices of June Foray and Alan Oppenheimer ). Dean also lent his vocal talents to Filmation for thematic and featured music that he composed and produced for A Snow White Christmas , Sport Billy and The Kid Super Power Hour with Shazam! In 1981, Dean also took on

8051-476: The way for broader storytelling. Examples include He-Man's "The Problem with Power" which dealt with He-Man believing he had killed an innocent bystander. Another is "Teela's Quest" which introduced a now-famous mythology on the Sorceress being Teela's mother, who is thus the heir to the mantle of safeguarding Grayskull, the versed continuity shared between He-Man and She-Ra, among others. Other notable examples include

8148-560: The work and also took on a project for Family Films, owned by the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod , for ten short animated films based on the life of Christ . Paramount Pictures soon purchased SIB Productions, and True Line's staff increased, including the arrival of former radio disc jockey Norm Prescott, who became a partner in the firm. He had already been working on the animated feature Pinocchio in Outer Space which

8245-501: The years. Through the 1980s and 1990s, Jones was painting cartoon and parody art, sold through animation galleries by his daughter's company, Linda Jones Enterprises. Jones was the creative consultant and character designer for two Raggedy Ann animated specials and the first Alvin and the Chipmunks Christmas special A Chipmunk Christmas . He made a cameo appearance in the film Gremlins (1984) and he wrote and directed

8342-506: Was From Hare to Eternity (1997), which starred Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam , with Greg Burson voicing Bugs. The cartoon was dedicated to Friz Freleng , who had died in 1995. Jones's final animation project was a series of 13 shorts starring a timber wolf character he had designed in the 1960s named Thomas Timber Wolf. The series was released online by Warner Bros. in 2000. From 2001 until 2004, Cartoon Network aired The Chuck Jones Show which features shorts directed by him. The show won

8439-433: Was actively involved in efforts to unionize the staff of Leon Schlesinger Studios . He was responsible for recruiting animators, layout men, and background people. Almost all animators joined, in reaction to salary cuts imposed by Leon Schlesinger . The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio had already signed a union contract, encouraging their counterparts under Schlesinger. In a meeting with his staff, Schlesinger talked for

8536-486: Was an unsuccessful businessman in California in the 1920s. He recounted that his father would start every new business venture by purchasing new stationery and new pencils with the company name on them. When the business failed, his father would quietly turn the huge stacks of useless stationery and pencils over to his children, requiring them to use up all the material as fast as possible. The children drew frequently, owing to

8633-841: Was announced that Entertainment Rights would be acquired by Boomerang Media and on May 11, 2009, it was announced that the subsidiaries and offices of Entertainment Rights would be absorbed under the name Classic Media . In 2012, it was announced that Classic Media, owner of the Filmation library, would be acquired by DreamWorks Animation . DreamWorks Animation and its programming library, including those of Filmation (not including shows whose rights are owned by other companies, such as The New Adventures of Gilligan and Star Trek: The Animated Series ), would later be acquired on August 22, 2016, by Universal Studios for $ 3.8 billion. Filmation incorporated live-action into some of its animated series. Series like The Hardy Boys and Archie's Funhouse featured live-action footage of an audience watching

8730-419: Was countered by cutting from one stock shot to another after only a second or two, long enough to set the scene but before the eye could notice all of the unexplained errors. This became part of the Filmation style during a period when most television and motion picture productions tended to run minimum shots of 4–5 seconds. In contrast to the rapid jump cuts during action sequences, another Filmation trademark

8827-470: Was due to Hallmark's previously unstated (but long-suspected) short-sighted policy of only distributing Filmation's in-house shows outside of the United States. As a result, many of Entertainment Rights' DVD releases (distributed by BCI Eclipse LLC in the United States prior to the latter company's folding) were based on the international versions (which have PAL prints). Because they were taken from PAL-based transfers, without correction, these releases exhibit

8924-462: Was formerly owned by Entertainment Rights and was later acquired by Classic Media, then it was bought by DreamWorks Animation in 2012 and renamed into DreamWorks Classics and ultimately become the property of Universal Studios as of 2016) and The New Adventures of Zorro on DVD. However, the rights to the Tarzan property rest with the estate of Edgar Rice Burroughs , and as such, their authorization

9021-556: Was later used in He-Man and in She-Ra ). It also pioneered a unique method of generating 3-D vehicle animation by filming white-outlined black miniatures against black backgrounds using a computerized motion-control camera and high-contrast film, then printing the negatives onto acetate frame-by-frame, to create animation cels which were then hand-painted. This produced a three-dimensional effect that had been used by Disney in films such as One Hundred and One Dalmatians previously. It predated

9118-677: Was picked up by Warner Bros. When Warner Bros. discovered that Jones had violated his exclusive contract with them, they terminated him. Jones's former animation unit was laid off after completing the final cartoon in their pipeline, The Iceman Ducketh , and the rest of the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio was closed in early 1963. With business partner Les Goldman, Jones started an independent animation studio, Sib Tower 12 Productions, and brought on most of his unit from Warner Bros., including Maurice Noble and Michael Maltese. In 1963, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contracted with Sib Tower 12 to have Jones and his staff produce new Tom and Jerry cartoons as well as

9215-504: Was primarily produced by Belvision Studios . They eventually left True Line, and Scheimer began working on commercials, including for Gillette and others, which began what became Filmation. He met lawyer Ira Epstein, who had worked for Harmon but had left the firm, and now put together the new corporation with Scheimer and Sutherland. It officially became Filmation Associates as of September 1962, so named because "We were working on film, but doing animation"; so putting them together yielded

9312-470: Was produced from 1986 to 1988, and was theatrically released in the United States five years later, in 1993. Also, at the time of the closing, two new animated series, Bugzburg (a spin-off of Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night , concerning insect characters who had shown up in that movie) and Bravo (a spin-off of BraveStarr ), were beginning production. In 1989, Westinghouse sold Filmation to Paravision International, an investment consortium led by

9409-629: Was the recurring use of long establishing shots in which the camera would pan slowly across a very wide background painting, thus filling up screen time with sequences requiring little or no animation. Filmation also pioneered other animation technologies, particularly in Flash Gordon , which included backlighting effects for the first time in American animation (they were already in use in Japan), including moire effects to represent energy fields (a technique that

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