{"id":7805,"date":"2012-11-25T20:13:00","date_gmt":"2012-11-25T20:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/plaidstallions.com\/reboot\/index.php\/2012\/11\/25\/review-lou-scheimer-creating-filmation\/"},"modified":"2019-09-08T18:14:18","modified_gmt":"2019-09-08T18:14:18","slug":"review-lou-scheimer-creating-filmation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/plaidstallions.com\/reboot\/review-lou-scheimer-creating-filmation\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Lou Scheimer: Creating the Filmation Generation"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nReview: Lou Scheimer: Creating the Filmation Generati<\/a>on<\/span><\/div>\n
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\nBy Lou Scheimer and Andy Mangels<\/span><\/div>\n
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\nMy earliest memory in this life, other than eating delicious
\nPlay Doh on Christmas morning 1971, was watching a Batman cartoon with my
\nsister in the TV room one random morning in  1972.<\/span><\/div>\n
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\nThe Penguin was stealing a tank and gassed a soldier, the whole thing just intrigued
\nme and I think started me on my love affair with Batgirl but that’s another story. <\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nI guess what I\u2019m trying to say is, Filmation hooked me at an
\nearly age. So much so that I even identified the name \u201cScheimer\u201d (I dopily mispronounced
\nit as \u201cSchemer\u201d until adulthood) with joy in the mid 1970s. <\/span><\/div>\n
\n
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\nI cherish this Ark 2 Halloween costume.<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
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\nSure, I have love in my heart for the
\nKroffts and Hanna Barbera\u2019s of this world but Filmation always remained my
\nfavourite. I never missed a Shazam!, Ark 2 or Tarzan as a kid, hell, I even
\nregularly watched (but clearly did not grasp) Uncle Croc\u2019s Block when it aired.<\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nSo it was pretty much a given that I\u2019d invest in this new
\ntome. Actually, I bought it twice by accident. What I worried about though, was
\nhow much of this was going to be new to me.<\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n As the images in this piece suggest, I\u2019m an ardent
\nfilmation collector and fan.  I\u2019ve bought every DVD set near and dear to me and watched
\nthe resulting documentaries many times (coincidentally, those great extras also
\nincluded Scheimer and Mangels) and I even asked Mr Scheimer questions in person
\n(he\u2019s a nice man btw).  I worried it would
\njust be a rehash of stuff I\u2019ve heard ad nauseum, I like to call that the \u201cStan
\nLee Situation\u201d.<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
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\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\nLou signed this for me in 2006, I can’t find it now. Grrr.<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
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\nFortunately, my worries were put to rest the minute the book
\narrived. I lost nearly an hour pouring through the information, I\u2019m not even
\ndone reading it but I\u2019ve seen enough to say this book is exhaustive and absolutely
\ncaptivating.<\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nScheimer has an incredible memory of the events that shaped
\nFilmation starting from the beginning in landing the Superman contract to the  hey days of the 70s and 80s. Everything is
\nthere, from the successes, to the flops laid out in riveting detail. <\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nIncluded are fun anecdotes like Charles Nelson Reily
\nwandering the set of \u201cUncle Croc\u2019s Block\u201d in leopard print short shorts,
\nreplacement Shazam John Davie showing up for work with a moustache  and a story that will never make you look at
\nSchneider from \u201cOne Day at a Time\u201d in the same light again.<\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nIf describing things like the creation of the animated Star
\nTrek series weren\u2019t enough Scheimer goes into detail on what didn\u2019t get made,
\nstuff like a 60s Godzilla cartoon, Metamorpho, a Marx Brothers caroon, Dracula
\nin Space, the list goes on and on and makes you wish you grow up with those
\nshows as well.<\/span><\/div>\n
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\nAlso unapologetically is all the lawsuits, the acrimonious
\nsplit with original Captain Marvel Jackson Bostwick, the long running suit
\nbetween DC comics and Filmation that occurred over (my personal favourite) the
\nSuper 7 cartoon characters.<\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nHonestly if you were a child between the years 1966 and
\n1987, you\u2019ll find something of an interest in this book.<\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThe later chapters delve of course into the 1980s and the
\nhuge success of programs like Fat Albert, He-Man and the Masters of the
\nUniverse and Bravestarr. My one quibble of the book is that it’s sole
\ncolour chapter is spent on He-Man, however that\u2019s just me and I admit it is a pretty bright marketing move
\nas He-Man will help sell a lot of these.<\/span>
\n
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