Film Roman

Film Roman, LLC
Type	Independent
Industry	Animation, motion pictures, television Production
Predecessor	Mendelson-Melendez Productions
Founder(s)	Phil Roman
Headquarters	Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Products	Garfield television specials
Divisions	Film Roman Baja J.V. Phil Roman Entertainment

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Film Roman's former headquarters in Burbank.

Film Roman, LLC is an American independent animation studio currently based in Woodland Hills, California and formerly in Burbank. It was previously owned by Starz Inc., which is now a division of Lionsgate, and later by Waterman Entertainment, the production company of producer Steve Waterman. Founded by veteran animator and director Phil Roman on October 26, 1984, it is best known for providing animation for the Garfield primetime specials, based on Jim Davis' comic strip of the same name. The studio also produced the animated series The Simpsons, The Critic, King of the Hill, Family Guy, Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!, and The Goode Family.

History

Background

Phil Roman, veteran alumnus of MGM Animation/Visual Arts and Bill Melendez Productions, founded Film Roman on October 26, 1984 as a means to continue the production of the Garfield television specials, since Melendez's own studio was unable to work on both the Peanuts and Garfield specials. Peanuts executive producers Lee Mendelson and Bill Melendez and their aforementioned studio had produced the first two Garfield specials, but due to both Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz' and Garfield creator Jim Davis' concerns about conflicting interests in allocating production priority at Melendez's boutique studio, the production had to be moved. While he was leaving him and Melendez for his already-established studio, Roman was offered the opportunity to produce the next Garfield prime time special, Garfield in the Rough (1984), for CBS by Mendelson, which he accepted and went on to produce and direct all by himself, winning an Emmy in the process.

Formation

In 1985, CBS' head of children's programming Judy Price had commissioned an animated television series based on the Garfield prime time special series, later ultimately titled Garfield and Friends, which took three years for Roman to decide developing and producing the program before it eventually aired on the network's Saturday morning time slot, premiering on September 17, 1988. The aforementioned show was Film Roman's first regular series. In 1986, in an effort to expand and diversify the studio, Roman hired Marvel Productions VP of Business Affairs and his own personal attorney, Michael Wahl, as President and Bill Schultz, Marvel's Director of Development, to join in the company as the fledgling studio's VP of Production and Development. Garfield and Friends was expanded to an hour on CBS' number one rated Saturday Morning block and the studio grew to increase its capacity.

In 1988, the new management team developed, sold and produced a new series, Bobby's World, to the brand new Fox Kids Network, headed up by former Marvel Productions president Margaret Loesch. In 1992 to 2016, Film Roman took over the source production of 20th Century Fox's The Simpsons from Klasky-Csupo who had produced the one-minute teaser cartoon shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show as well as the animation for the first three seasons and the first two episodes of the fourth season (in total 61 episodes). The studio went on to grow and produce many popular animated series now seen all around the world.

Waterman Entertainment ownership

In 2015, Film Roman was acquired from its parent company Starz Distribution by Waterman Entertainment, the production company of executive producer Steve Waterman. As such, it now does business with Starz, which owns the company's catalogue. However, Waterman Entertainment closed on December 24, 2015, Film Roman eventually became independent again.Template:Cn

On November 22, 2016, the company formed a joint venture based in Tijuana, called Film Roman Baja J.V. (also known as Film Roman Baja Productions), with Boxel Studios, a Baja California-based animation facility.

Location

The original studio was located on Riverside Drive in Toluca Lake, California, where Roman was also joined by Melendez producer Lee Mendelson. Years later, the studio moved to a new location on Chandler Blvd. in Studio City, before settling into another location at Starz Plaza on Hollywood Way in Burbank, which it shared with the former Hub Network and Hasbro Studios, and finally settling into its present location in Woodland Hills.

Television series

Show	Creator(s)	Year(s)	Co-production(s)	Notes
Garfield and Friends	Jim Davis	1988–1994	United Media (Season 1) United Media/Mendelson (Seasons 2–3) United Media/Lee Mendelson Productions (Seasons 4–6) Lee Mendelson Productions (Season 7) Paws, Inc.	Now owned by 9 Story Media Group
Bobby's World	Howie Mandel	1990–1998	Alevy Productions Fox Children's Productions	Currently distributed by Splash Entertainment
Zazoo U	Shane DeRolf	1990–1991	Fox Children's Productions	Currently distributed by Disney–ABC Home Entertainment and Television Distribution
Mother Goose and Grimm	Mike Peters	1991–1993	Tribune Media Services Grimmy, Inc. Lee Mendelson Productions (owner) MGM Television
Animated Classic Showcase		1993–1994	Soyuzmultfilm
Cro	Mark Zaslove		Children's Television Workshop (owner)
Mighty Max	Mark Zaslove Rob Hudnut
The Baby Huey Show	Bob Jaques	1995	Harveytoons Claster Television	Season 2 only Currently distributed by NBCUniversal Television Distribution
The Mask: Animated Series	Duane Capizzi	1995–1997	Sunbow Entertainment New Line Television Dark Horse Entertainment	Currently distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution
The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat	Pat Sullivan Otto Messmer			Currently distributed by NBCUniversal Television Distribution
C Bear and Jamal	Earl Richey Jones Todd R. Jones	1996–1997
Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm	Sean Catherine Derek	1996	Threshold Entertainment New Line Television	Currently distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution
Richie Rich	Timothy Williams		Harveytoons Claster Television	Currently distributed by NBCUniversal Television Distribution
Bruno the Kid	Joel Madison	1996–1997
Free For All	Brett Merhar	2003	Showtime Networks (owner)
Eloise: The Animated Series	Kay Thompson Hilary Knight	2006	Anchor Bay Entertainment HandMade Films
Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!	Bob Boyle	2006-2010	Bolder Media
Slacker Cats	Andy Riley Kevin Cecil	2007–2009	Will Vinton Studios/Laika ABC Family Original Productions (owner)
Dan Vs.	Dan Mendel Chris Pearson	2011–2013	The Hatchery

• This Modern World by Tom Tomorrow (TBA)
• Heathcliff (TBA)
• The Untamed (TBA)

Subcontracted from others:

for 20th Television/Animation:

Show	Creator(s)	Year(s)	Notes
The Simpsons	Matt Groening	1992–2016	Seasons 4–27 only
King of the Hill	Mike Judge	1997–2010
Family Guy	Seth MacFarlane	1999–2000	Seasons 1–2 only

for Marvel Animation:

Show	Creator(s)	Year(s)	Notes
X-Men: Evolution	Marty Isenberg Robert N. Skir David Wise	2000–2003	Currently owned by Marvel Entertainment
The Super Hero Squad Show	Stan Lee	2009–2011
The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes	Ciro Nieli Joshua Fine Christopher Yost	2010–2012	Currently distributed by Disney–ABC Home Entertainment and Television Distribution
Ultimate Spider-Man	Marvel Animation	2012–2017
Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.	Paul Dini Henry Gilroy Marvel Animation	2014–2015

with other studios:

• Klutter (1995–1996) (as part of Eek! Stravaganza)
• The Critic (1994–1995)
• Mission Hill (1999–2002)
• The Man Show (1999–2002) (animation)
• The Oblongs (2001–2002)
• Law & Order (2006) (visual effects)
• The Goode Family (2009)
• Beavis and Butt-Head (2011)

Puppet/CGI shows:

• The Mr. Potato Head Show (1998)
• Tripping the Rift (2004–2007)

Television specials

Garfield specials

• Garfield in the Rough (1984, the studio's inaugural production)
• Garfield's Halloween Adventure (1985)
• Garfield in Paradise (1986)
• Garfield Goes Hollywood (1987)
• A Garfield Christmas (1987)
• Happy Birthday, Garfield (1988)
• Garfield: His 9 Lives (1988)
• Garfield's Babes and Bullets (1989)
• Garfield's Thanksgiving (1989)
• Garfield's Feline Fantasies (1990)
• Garfield Gets a Life (1991)

Other specials

• The Pink Panther (1989) (unreleased live-action/animated pilot)
• Nick & Noel (1993)
• A Cool Like That Christmas (1994)
• The Bears Who Saved Christmas (1994)
• Izzy's Quest for Olympic Gold (1995)
• The Story of Santa Claus (1996) (co-production with Arnold Sharpio and CBS Productions)
• The Magic Pearl (1997)
• Puss in Boots (1997)
• Super Bowl XXXIII (1999) (The Simpsons short)
• Johnny Tsunami (1999) (live-action)
• Hairballs (2000) (Unsold TV series pilot created by Mr. Lawrence)
• Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer (2000)
• Motocrossed (2001) (live-action)
• The Santa Claus Brothers (2001)

Films

Direct-to-video

• The Happy Elf (2005, co-production with IDT Entertainment)(TV)
• Weebles: Welcome to Weebleville! (2005)(CGI)
• Weebles: Sharing in the Fun! (2005)(CGI)
• Hellboy: Sword of Storms (2006)
• Hellboy: Blood and Iron (2007)
• Turok: Son of Stone (2008, co-production with Classic Media and Starz Media)
• Tripping The Rift: The Movie (2008, co-production with CinéGroupe)
• Wubbzy's Big Movie! (2008, co-production with Bolder Media and Starz Animation)
• Dead Space: Downfall (2008, co-production with Electronic Arts)
• Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!: Wubb Idol (2009, co-production with Bolder Media and Starz Animation)
• The Haunted World of El Superbeasto (2009) (Planned for theatrical release)
• Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic "Prologue", "The Arrival", "Entry to Hell" (2010, co-production with Electronic Arts)
• Dead Space: Aftermath (2011, co-production with Electronic Arts)

Theatrical features

• Tom and Jerry: The Movie (1992, co-production with Turner Entertainment Co., distributed by Miramax Films and LIVE Entertainment)
• My First Mister (2001) (co-produced with Total Film Group; distributed by Paramount Classics)
• The Simpsons Movie (2007, produced by 20th Century Fox, 20th Century Fox Animation and Gracie Films, animated with Rough Draft Studios/Rough Draft Korea/Rough Draft Feature Animation and AKOM)

Cancelled films

• Untitled Camp WWE film
• Garfield's Judgment Day

Special effects for other films

• Second Time Around (2002)
• Hellraiser: Hellseeker (2002)
• Daredevil (2003)
• The Fallen Ones (2003)
• I, Robot (2004)
• Demon Hunter (2005)
• All Souls Day (2005)
• What's the Meaning of Love (2005)
• Voodoo Moon (2006)
• Slayer (2006)
• Jackass Number Two (2006)
• The Thirst (2006)
• Haunted Prison (2006)
• Sands of Oblivion (2007)
• Rush Hour 3 (2007) (trailer)
• Illegal Tender (2007)
• Hairspray (2007) (trailer)
• The Great Buck Howard (2008)
• Sex and the City (2008) (trailer)
• Speed Racer (2008)
• Secrets of the Furious Five (2008)

Miscellaneous

• Get in Line (Barenaked Ladies music video)
• Frijolero (Molotov music video)
• The Simpsons Game (2007, produced by Electronic Arts) (cutscenes only)
• The Simpsons Ride (2008, amusement simulator ride film produced for the attraction of the same name at Universal Orlando Resort and Universal Studios Hollywood)
• The Simpsons: Tapped Out (2012, freemium mobile game produced for Fox Digital Entertainment and Electronic Arts) (cutscenes only)

Commercials

• Alpo
• Ask Jeeves (2000) (five-minute branding reel)
• Burger King (2001–2003)
• Butterfinger (1992–1994, 1998–2001, 2007)
• CC's (1998)
• C.C. Lemon (2000–2002)
• Embassy Suites Hotel
• Expedia (2003)
• Garfield Fruit Snacks
• General Foods
• Honey Nut Cheerios (1993) (Garfield ad only)
• Matchbox (2002) (CGI sales presentation animated by Forum Visual Effects)
• Microsoft (2003)
• Mirinda (2005–2006, 2008)
• Partnership for a Drug-Free America (2002)
• RC Cola (1999)
• SeaWorld (1998)
• SHO Too (2002)
• Toyota (1992–1993)
• Trix (1991)

Web series

• Charlie's Angels: Animated Adventures (2003)
• Camp WWE (2016–present)

External links

• Official website
• Template:Bcdb

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