Filmation's Lou Sheimer dead

[robcat2075]

If you watched Saturday Morning cartoons as i did you certainly saw Filmation's work, including Fat Albert, Archie and Star Trek.

 

Filmation was one of about three significant producers of animation for Saturday morning TV in the US in the 60's, 70's and 80's but the only one that was able keep the production in-house and not outsource it.

 

Lou Scheimer somehow made that work.

 

http://www.newsfromme.com/2013/10/20/lou-scheimer-r-p/

[detbear]

There's another Filmation Classic that still stands out to me as

a major influence on me both as a kid and as an artist.

 

That is their mostly forgotten FLASH GORDON film that was

converted into a saturday morning mini serial.

 

It was incredible and a real shame that it is mostly forgotten now.

 

I think you can still find it on you tube.

[detbear]

Here's the intro to the Flash Gordon Saturday morning series.

 

[largento]

Loved a lot of the ol' Filmation stuff. The Flash Gordon telemovie they did was really cool. It was written by Samule Peeples (who wrote the 2nd pilot for Star Trek, Where No Man Has Gone Before.) It stayed pretty true to the original comic strip, but added the element that Ming the Merciless was providing Hitler with weaponry so that he could conquer the Earth from two fronts. This stuff (along with other non-Saturday Morning elements) were stripped out of the story when it was broken apart into the first few episodes of the TV series.

 

As I understand the story, Filmation created the telemovie in 1979, prior to the 1980 DeLaurentis Flash Gordon. Then it gets fuzzy. I've heard that it was so well-received that they decided to shelve it and make the live action movie. It wasn't aired until 1982. I've read in some places where Peeples' script was intended to be used, but DeLaurentis rejected it, choosing instead to hire Batman TV show writer Lorenzo Simple to camp it up. I could also believe it was held back just so that the live action film wouldn't be compared to the telemovie, which was much, much better.

 

Whatever the case, the telemovie has never been released on DVD in the US.

 

I loved their old Tarzan show, too.

 

Sentimentally, though, my favorite was their live action Shazam! show. :-)