Notable productions that the company produced include the DC Comics and Archie Comics animated adaptations, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, the animated version of Star Trek and the two adaptations of the Mattel toyline Masters of the Universe (He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and She-Ra: Princess of Power).

Lou Scheimer and Filmation's main director Hal Sutherland met in 1957 while working at Larry Harmon Pictures on the made-for-TV Bozo and Popeye cartoons.

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.

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.

[5] Both Rod Rocket and the Life of Christ series credited "Filmation Associates" with "Production Design" in addition to Scheimer and Sutherland as directors.

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.

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;[5] until approached by DC Comics editor Mort Weisinger to do a Superman cartoon that premiered on CBS on September 10, 1966.

[8] In 1981, while Prescott left the company, Westinghouse Electric Corporation, through its Group W Productions division, acquired Filmation along with its purchase of TelePrompTer's cable and entertainment properties.

[7] He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, based on the popular line of Mattel toys, opened up a new North American market for first-run television syndication for animation in the 1980s.

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.

This 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.

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 the miscellaneous item the Ghostbuster needs in a moment of despair, Eddie doing a number of clumsy/stupid things, etc.

It drew a rare denunciation from the National Association of Broadcasters, which accused Filmation of corrupting the Lassie franchise with "violence, crime and stupidity.

Many of its series—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.

[20] This 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 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).

(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.

Filmation made six fully live-action series, including Space Academy, its spin-off Jason of Star Command, Ark II, Shazam!

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.

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.

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.

[27] In its final years, Filmation produced feature films of its He-Man and She-Ra franchises (The Secret of 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).

[29] Also that year, on October 22, Filmation 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.

The company's 1960s adventure series Journey to the Center of the Earth (1967) and Fantastic Voyage (1968) likewise used sparser music production.

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.

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!