"Point of Extinction": The Lost TAS Episode

[TREK_GOD_1]

I'd wager that those shows likely had higher budgets than TAS did.

If I recall correctly, they were produced by Hanna-Barbera, which did have a higher development budget for each show. So any reusable animations were done first, including extra outfits for primary characters, using that budget. Filmation was one to cut such corners, so they could have larger budgets per episode for the things TREK_GOD_1 mentioned.

Emergency+4 was not a Hanna-Barbera production. It was produced by Fred Calvert Productions, which was a very short-lived company (started by a former supplier of animated segments for Sesame Street). Although FCP landed a then hot property in Emergency!, the company was a small unit and not as well budgeted as Filmation, yet this did not stop the then-common practice of cheap model sheets of several character uniforms as a natural part of their reusable animation.

Further, it is pure myth that Filmation was the only studio heavily reusing character animation, as Hanna-Barbera was notorious for this in all--and I do mean all of its 1970s series, easy to see in any random episodes of Josie and the Pussycats / Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids, Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm, Super-Friends (every version in that decade), The New Scooby-Doo Movies, Jeannie, Wait Till Your Father Gets Home, the Laff-a-lympics, Goober and the Ghost-Chasers, and yes, Sealab: 2020, along with the rest of the series produced in the period.

Again, budget did not stop the creation and use of environmental suits, unless--as mentioned yesterday--there's official documentation explaining that was the reason for creating the TAS belt.

 

[FormerLurker]

I think you're confusing model sheets for the reusable/reused animation loops. Model sheets were drawings on paper of the character designs, so that the animators would be drawing on-model as they animated. No model sheet was ever used to do the animation itself.

Further, no one in this thread has said Filmation was alone in using and reusing animation loops to save money. Filmation was notorious for it in ways that even Hanna-Barbera was not, due to Filmation reusing them so heavily in every animated show they ever did. Even Hanna-Barbera would have two or three loops of each character doing repititious actions, while Filmation would use and reuse exactly one per.

What eventually sunk Filmation was producing a full-length feature film sequel to Snow White, promising to animate on ones for the entire film, use never-before-seen character designs and backgrounds, and essentially produce a film that didn't look like anything Filmation had ever done, and then breaking that promise every chance they got. Most of the film was on twos, several characters had repeated film loops, and many of the character designs and background paintings were either copied from previous productions, or even reused. The animation aficionados were so disappointed they hounded the film until it was ran out of theaters without making back its production costs. Filmation had sunk their entire savings into it, and it broke them.

 

[Maurice]

^^^Most Disney films were shot on twos. You only shoot on ones for fast action. Who Framed Roger Rabbit was a rarity being shot on ones because it had to marry animated characters to humans who don't move on twos.

There may not be "documentation" for it, but anyone who knows the animation business can see that Filmation cuts cost wherever it could. Endlessly recycling the recurring characters' animations left you enough money for guest characters and aliens and what have you. Having to redraw many of those stock animations just to put a spacesuit on them was clearly not an expense they wanted to incur.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

"Documentation":

QUESTION 5:

Why in the cartoon series did they have life support belts when in no other series did that technology exist?

ANSWER:

This is an easy one. In order to be able to produce an animated half-hour series in the 1970's with a very limited budget, the production company had to take as many short cuts as possible. These include limiting action to a minimum and recycling sequences of drawings. So, rather than draw a new sequence of Kirk and Spock walking with spacesuits on, they would reuse a sequence of the two walking and would just draw on the belts and add a glowing outline around their bodies.

http://www.danhausertrek.com/AnimatedSeries/Q_and_A.html

If you really can't realize how that was easier/cheaper than designing and animating sequences with spacesuits, I have nothing else to say.

 

[Warped9]

The life support belts weren't even a TAS idea. The idea originated during TOS, but at the time it would have been too involved and costly f/x to do it live-action.

 

[Christopher]

The life support belts weren't even a TAS idea. The idea originated during TOS, but at the time it would have been too involved and costly f/x to do it live-action.

I don't see why. Most TOS force fields were invisible unless touched, which was itself a way to save on FX animation. So they could've just animated on a brief flash of the field activating and then made it invisible again, and they only would've needed the belt prop. This is how Filmation's live-action Jason of Star Command did it, except they didn't even animate a force field -- Jason just pushed a "life support" button on his belt, and voila, he could breathe in space. (See also the Legion of Super Heroes's invisible "transuits" generated by their flight rings.)

 

[Warped9]

I don't see why. Most TOS force fields were invisible unless touched, which was itself a way to save on FX animation. So they could've just animated on a brief flash of the field activating and then made it invisible again, and they only would've needed the belt prop. This is how Filmation's live-action Jason of Star Command did it, except they didn't even animate a force field -- Jason just pushed a "life support" button on his belt, and voila, he could breathe in space. (See also the Legion of Super Heroes's invisible "transuits" generated by their flight rings.)

I'm just repeating what I read. If I recall correctly the idea originated during TOS' third season and they felt it would be too involved f/x wise. So they went with the space suits.

 

[Christopher]

I wasn't saying it was your idea. I'm just saying I don't understand their reasoning. Or maybe what you read was inaccurate.

After all, in "Spock's Brain," rather than spending money on building cold-weather gear for the cast, they just put in a bit where Kirk ordered the crew to set "Suit temperatures to 72" and they fiddled with some unseen controls on their waistbands. It seems to me that if the third-season producers could think of doing that, they could think of handling spacesuits the same way. So I'm not convinced that what you read was accurate, though that's hardly your fault.

 

[Galileo7]

I don't see why. Most TOS force fields were invisible unless touched, which was itself a way to save on FX animation. So they could've just animated on a brief flash of the field activating and then made it invisible again, and they only would've needed the belt prop. This is how Filmation's live-action Jason of Star Command did it, except they didn't even animate a force field -- Jason just pushed a "life support" button on his belt, and voila, he could breathe in space. (See also the Legion of Super Heroes's invisible "transuits" generated by their flight rings.)

Filmation's live-action Space Academy 1977-1978 tv series also did this with both "life support" bracelets and badges.
Since Filmation used this on Star Trek:TAS, they must have felt it works for their live-action series as well both Space Academy and Jason Of Star Command.

 

[Christopher]

Filmation's live-action Space Academy 1977-1978 tv series also did this with both "life support" bracelets and badges.

I thought they might, but I could only remember Jason. (Jason was technically a spinoff of Space Academy -- or rather, they treated Star Command as "a secret section of the Academy" so they could justify reusing the same FX miniatures, sets, costumes, and props, plus they brought back a character or two from SA. Although it seems it would make more sense for the Academy to be a subset of Star Command. And they never really treated SC as secret anyway.)

 

[Galileo7]

I thought they might, but I could only remember Jason. (Jason was technically a spinoff of Space Academy -- or rather, they treated Star Command as "a secret section of the Academy" so they could justify reusing the same FX miniatures, sets, costumes, and props, plus they brought back a character or two from SA. Although it seems it would make more sense for the Academy to be a subset of Star Command. And they never really treated SC as secret anyway.)

In the season season['79-'80] of Jason Of Star Command 1978-1980, Star Command had taken over the Academy starship and in fact, as you stated, the Academy became a subset of Star Command now. Although for obvious reasons on Filmation's part, I think the that the Academy starship should have been called Star Command, no longer Space Academy, on the Jason Of Star Command 1978-1980 series.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Why in the cartoon series did they have life support belts when in no other series did that technology exist?

ANSWER:

This is an easy one. In order to be able to produce an animated half-hour series in the 1970's with a very limited budget, the production company had to take as many short cuts as possible. These include limiting action to a minimum and recycling sequences of drawings. So, rather than draw a new sequence of Kirk and Spock walking with spacesuits on, they would reuse a sequence of the two walking and would just draw on the belts and add a glowing outline around their bodies.

That link is an assumption not even trying to take into consideration the wealth of new creations generated for the series, or the fact that in consideration of other listed productions using multiple suits for regular characters--including the lower-budgeted Emergency +4, its absence on TAS cannot be hand-waved away with the fact-free "it was too expensive."

We expect historical references about every other part of TAS' production, so we should expect it here.

If you really can't realize how that was easier/cheaper than designing and animating sequences with spacesuits, I have nothing else to say.

.Again, you're making no sense in focusing on one element when the series aimed for the moon with numerous characters, wepaons, ships, planets, etc., instead of cutting corners in ways common to Filmation (and other studio) productions of the time.

 

[Christopher]

Again, you're making no sense in focusing on one element when the series aimed for the moon with numerous characters, wepaons, ships, planets, etc., instead of cutting corners in ways common to Filmation (and other studio) productions of the time.

It does make sense, as we've explained. The thinking of Filmation's heads was that the savings that came from reusing character animation gave them more time and resources to spend on creating those other new things. Their "stock system," their ability to drop their existing character shots and movements into any scene they needed, was the foundation of their streamlined process, both for storyboarding and animation. Note that they didn't give the crew wetsuits for "The Ambergris Element" either -- not even swim fins. The giant Spock clone in "The Infinite Vulcan" had a giant Starfleet uniform, and the crew's uniforms shrank perfectly along with them in "The Terratin Incident." The only instance I can think of where a regular character in TAS wore anything other than their standard uniform was Spock changing into Vulcan civvies in "Yesteryear."

So it's not that they couldn't theoretically have done alternate character models with spacesuits; it's that they didn't want to, because their established system gave them a strong preference for keeping every character in a consistent wardrobe and hairstyle so that they could drop in existing stock animation whenever they needed. There are various wardrobe changes they could've designed but chose not to. They kept the main characters uniform in appearance so that they could instead devote their creativity to everything around the main characters.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

We expect historical references about every other part of TAS' production, so we should expect it here.

"At this point, the length of this conversation is way out of proportion to my interest in it." - Dan Rydell, Sports Night.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

^ AKA: Bailing out of a conversation thanks to a lack of evidence.

 

[T'Bonz]

Be nice, guys.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Its fine, T'Bonz. What is needed
..not just for TAS fans, but TV historians in general is a well researched book on TAS, obtaining all saved production documents.

Michael Swanigan, former Filmation employee and author of the great, rare Amimation by Filmation, along with Lou Scheimer's daughter would be the perfect team to write such a book. Threads like this call for the need of a final word on this often neglected chapter of the franchise.

 

[Doctor Clu]

Talk of the personal force field, I loved it when Worf made a personal force field to deflect holodeck bullets against a fast shooting Data clone. When I saw that I thought of the Animated Series.

Found the above here:
http://www.st-v-sw.net/STSWground-defense.html

 

[Timo]

The thing is, the TAS contraption never had any defensive value. Phasers on stun went right through it. Fists went right through it. You got no advantage from it in a wrestling match. I very much doubt it could have stopped a bullet...

Which was rather desirable, because if your heroes did become impermeable to attacks, where would the excitement come from?

Dramatically, the "cheat" of life support belts matches the "cheat" of transporters, and shows a consistent level of technology. It's too bad those two bits are only consistent with each other, while the rest of the tech is so mundane!

Timo Saloniemi

 

[GeekFilter]

I'd wager that those shows likely had higher budgets than TAS did.

And you would lose! TAS was the most expensive cartoon on network TV at that time - $75,000 per episode. One of the reasons it only got two seasons (and an abbreviate second season at that)