The Scheimers: The First Family Of Animation

ryan.james17

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Lou, Jay, Lane and Erika Scheimer are the first family of animation. I mean, they done it all, produce and do voice-overs for many of their cartoons and live-action shows. Who here agrees with me?
 
Well, for that I will have to say I'm not a huge Filmation fan, but I just absolutely love Fat Albert. While they did a terrible job adapting things like Tex Avery's Droopy and Tom and Jerry (though I remember liking their Mighty Mouse), Fat Albert was the best thing the studio ever did, IMO.

Lou and his family did many voices for that one. Bill Cosby and 2 kids (whose names escape me at the moment) did most of the voices, but the family also had a few roles. Lou's biggest role would be Dumb Donald (my favorite character), which he took on after the 1969 special "hey Hey Hey! It's Fat Albert" in which he did Donald's voice. it was one line, so it would have been rediculous to pay an actor to do one line. After that, he was made Dumb Donald. He also played Stinger, the brown Hornet's sidekick, Legal Eagle, and various adults. Apparently, he was really modest about this.

his wife did the voices of both teachers, Mrs Bryfogle, and the blonde one who I can't remember the name to. His Daughter voiced several girls in the show, and Tweeterbelle.
 
I wouldn't say they were the "first" family of animation. If anything Disney was the first, though speaking in terms of TV animation, I would have to say that Hanna and Barbera were collectively the first "family" of animation, but that's just me. The Scheimers made their own unique contribution to the animation medium, but I wouldn't say they were the first family of animation.
 
Here's some irony-Lou Scheimer once worked at Hanna-Barbera before he and the late Norman Prescott went on to start Filmation. Let's not leave out Hal Sutherland, former Disney animator. His son, Keith, voiced Superman in an episode of The Brady Kids in 1972. As far as Lou Sheimer is concerned, Filmation was clearly a family business, especially with his wife, Jay, son Lane and daughter Erika, getting in every aspect of the industry as well as Hal Sutherland and his son, Keith. Lou Scheimer came from Hanna-Barbera, Hal Sutherland came from Disney and Norman Prescott was a radio announcer when they started Filmation in the early 1960's. The Scheimer family are certainly one of the first families of animation.
 
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