Was there ever a sound track released for The Animated Series?

[tim0122]

Hey, I'm trying to track down sound tracks for the various shows and movies, and while I've found some for the Original Series, I've never seen any for the Animated Series. With the Animated Series being the short and, I think, often forgotten show that it is, I wouldn't be surprised if there was never a soundtrack released for it. Also, I've yet to watch the Animated Series. So as far as I know, the music may be pretty much the same as the Original Series and therefore not in need of its own soundtrack album.

 

[Warped9]

TAS has its own distinct soundtrack. And sadly, no, there has never been a release of the TAS music.

However, there is a fan compilation of many of the TAS music cues with the vocals edited out:

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[Christopher]

As I understand it, all the original audio and film masters for Filmation's programs were destroyed when the company was purchased by Loreal many years ago. Which is a terrible shame, since I grew up watching those shows and listening to the music of "Yvette Blais and Jeff Michael" (i.e. Ray Ellis and Norm Prescott) and I would dearly love a complete set of Filmation soundtracks.

And just a technical clarification to what Warped9 said above -- no criticism intended, just adding detail if anyone's curious -- the compilation above didn't need to edit out the vocals, since the Filmation shows' audio was mixed with the voices on one track and the music and sound effects on the other (so that the voices could be dubbed in other languages for foreign distribution). So the voices can be removed simply by isolating the music/SFX track. The tricky part is that there's no way to isolate the music from the sound effects, and that's where the editing comes in -- the compilers had to find stretches of music that didn't have sound effects over them, and find enough of them to let them reconstruct entire music cues out of the various pieces.

 

[Warped9]

Ideally it would be nice if the music were recreated and rerecorded note-for-note similar to the Varese Saraband recordings of TOS music from several years ago.

I would buy it.

 

[Christopher]

Ideally it would be nice if the music were recreated and rerecorded note-for-note similar to the Varese Saraband recordings of TOS music from several years ago.

I would buy it.

Yes, but it still wouldn't be exactly the same, due to differences in performance and conducting styles, the unique timbre of individual instruments, the differences in the studio and recording equipment used, etc. The re-recordings that Varese Sarabande and Label X released in the '80s were good to have, but I was always aware of how they differed from the original music. So I wouldn't mind having something like that, but it would fall short of "ideally." The ideal would be if complete masters of all Filmation's music from every show would turn up in some private collection somewhere. I'd love to have not only TAS but other shows like Fat Albert, Shazam, Isis, Tarzan: Lord of the Jungle, Space Academy, Jason of Star Command, Flash Gordon, Blackstar, The Lone Ranger, Zorro, etc.

There actually is a He-Man soundtrack album available from La-La Land. I guess that music survived because Shuki Levy and Haim Saban had their own music-production company that Filmation subcontracted out to for that show and others (as did the majority of animation producers in the '80s and early '90s). But I was never as fond of their work as of the Ellis-Prescott music I grew up with. It's so unfair that those recordings don't seem to have survived.

 

[Warped9]

Recreated music would suffice in light of the masters no longer existing. For years I was happy with the Varese Saraband recordings until the official TOS music was finally released awhile back.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Recreated music would suffice in light of the masters no longer existing. For years I was happy with the Varese Saraband recordings until the official TOS music was finally released awhile back.

Agreed; one can wish for original recordings to be discovered, but there are only two ways to experience lost recordings: the usual--individuals isolating the score from the films on home media sources (ex. DVD, Blu Ray), or hope some composer/company re-scores the soundtrack as in Kenneth Alwyn's conducting of Franz Waxman's The Bride of Frankenstein. I think the the latter is the best option, since a conductor would be working from surviving music sheets, instead of a fan simply trying to take edited tracks from a film or TV episode.

If someone produced a TAS soundtrack, I think for many fans, there would be not a moment of hesitation in buying it.

 

[Warped9]

If someone produced a TAS soundtrack, I think for many fans, there would be not a moment of hesitation in buying it.

It would have been something nice to have released for this 50th anniversay.

 

[Indysolo]

Hey, I'm trying to track down sound tracks for the various shows and movies, and while I've found some for the Original Series...

Only some?

http://lalalandrecords.com/Site/STTOS.html

Neil

 

[ToddPence]

I remember hearing TAS music used in several other Saturday morning TV shows both animated and live action - JASON OF STAR COMMAND I think was one of them.

 

[Christopher]

I remember hearing TAS music used in several other Saturday morning TV shows both animated and live action - JASON OF STAR COMMAND I think was one of them.

Yes, some music cues were recycled from one Filmation show to another. TAS itself recycled at least a couple of cues from Lassie's Rescue Rangers from a year or two prior, as well as a couple of comedy cues borrowed from Filmation sitcoms. There's this one action cue (not included on the YouTube compilation) that has a high-pitched, two-note "ping-ping" ostinato, then a rising and falling string glissando that repeats, then other instruments including trumpets being added at a higher tempo until it reaches a crescendo and then reverses the buildup. That originated on Lassie, I believe, and it was also used frequently on Shazam, Isis, and Tarzan, IIRC. I think The New Adventures of Batman used some Lassie cues as well. Isis recycled a lot of Shazam cues as well. Later on, Blackstar reused a lot of Flash Gordon cues, and Zorro shared some cues with The Lone Ranger. Later on, in a different era of Filmation music, She-Ra borrowed a lot of cues from He-Man.

 

[Indysolo]

There actually is a He-Man soundtrack album available from La-La Land. I guess that music survived because Shuki Levy and Haim Saban had their own music-production company that Filmation subcontracted out to for that show and others (as did the majority of animation producers in the '80s and early '90s). But I was never as fond of their work as of the Ellis-Prescott music I grew up with. It's so unfair that those recordings don't seem to have survived.

Yes, I produced that album. Several reels of 1/4" mono were found of the original music. It was also nicely labelled and made organizing it a breeze. It turned out to be a popular album and I'm glad we were able to put it out.

And I'd love for the TAS masters to turn up someday in the same condition.

Neil

 

[tharpdevenport]

We did get something of an update from Lukas Kendal (Film Score Monthly head) on January 13, 2016:

Folks, we are researching the Animated Series and hope to be able to release it in some form, at some time. That's all I can say—there are licensing as well as technical hurdles.

Thanks,

Lukas

 

[Indysolo]

There is now.

https://www.facebook.com/lalalandrecords/posts/10154862896393755

Neil

 

[Christopher]

There is now.

https://www.facebook.com/lalalandrecords/posts/10154862896393755

Neil

Whoa. Amazing. How did you get that? The item mentions "musical assembly and restoration" -- does that mean it was done like that YouTube compilation, finding moments in the episode soundtracks when the music was in the clear and piecing it together? And are the track titles official or were they made up for the set?

 

[ZapBrannigan]

^ I second those questions.

Also, is "Sad and Lonely on the Captain's Theme" going to sound substantially better? What were the newly discovered elements?

 

[feek61]

There is now.

https://www.facebook.com/lalalandrecords/posts/10154862896393755

Neil

Hey Neil,

Will the TAS soundtrack be released separately at some point?

 

[Christopher]

Hey Neil,

Will the TAS soundtrack be released separately at some point?

It only comes out to 32:05 in total, so it's not enough for a full CD. But I'd dearly love a broader Filmation music set.

 

[Indysolo]

Whoa. Amazing. How did you get that? The item mentions "musical assembly and restoration" -- does that mean it was done like that YouTube compilation, finding moments in the episode soundtracks when the music was in the clear and piecing it together?

Yes, but in our case we had access to the separate music stem for the episodes, which means we didn't have to worry about effects or dialogue getting in the way. There were still plenty of challenges though.

And are the track titles official or were they made up for the set?

These titles are official now. Mike Matessino came up with them. The cue sheets for this show were of absolutely no use. They didn't match the show and they only had numerical codes to ID the cues, but as I said, timings never matched. I wound up doing this all by ear. It took awhile.

Also, is "Sad and Lonely on the Captain's Theme" going to sound substantially better? What were the newly discovered elements?

I don't know about "substantially" better, but after the box set was released, the first generation tapes of season 2 and 3 library cues turned up for auction! Previously all we had of those were dubs. They even had the bumpers on them which were not on any of the library rolls we used in 2012.

Will the TAS soundtrack be released separately at some point?

I don't see that happening. We talked about it being a separate release and felt it would be better for everyone if it was part of this collection.

I hope everyone enjoys it!

Neil

 

[PiperKev]

I am beyond excited for this! Thank you, Neil!!