Film Roman

Film Roman, LLC

Type	Public, Subsidiary of Starz Media, LLC
Industry	Animation, motion pictures, television
Founded	1984
Headquarters	Burbank, California, USA
Key people	Phil Roman, founder
Parent	Independent (1984-1991) MCA (1991-1996) Universal Studios (1996-1998) Bunny Bee Corp. (1998-2003) IDT Media (2003-2007) Liberty Media (2007-present)
Divisions	Studio Corp. Caesar Pictures Number 20 Animation Phil Roman Entertainment
Website	www.filmroman.com

Film Roman is an American animation studio, owned by Liberty Media as a subsidiary of Starz Media, LLC. Founded by veteran animator and director Phil Roman in early 1984, it is best known for producing the source animation for The Simpsons, King of the Hill for 20th Century Fox Animation, as well as the Garfield and Peanuts animated TV specials.

History

Beginning

Phil Roman, veteran alumus of Chuck Jones Enterprises and Bill Melendez Productions, originally founded by Film Roman in 1984 as a means to continue the production of the Garfield series of animated prime time television specials, since Melendez's own studio was unable to work on both the Garfield and Peanuts series of specials. Peanuts executive producers Lee Mendelson and Bill Melendez and their aforementioned studio had produced the first two Garfield specials (Here Comes Garfield (1982) and Garfield on the Town (1983) respectively, both specials directed by Roman), but due to the wishes of 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 oppotunity 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 it all by himself, winning an Emmy in the process.

Formation

In 1985, CBS' head of children's programming Judy Price had commissioned a 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 two new series, Bobby's World and Mother Goose and Grimm, to the brand new Fox Kids Network, headed up by former Marvel Productions executive producer Margaret Loesch. In 1992, Film Roman took over the source production of 20th Century Fox's The Simpsons from Klasky-Csupo, creators of Nickelodeon's Rugrats, who produced the one-minute teaser cartoon shorts on The Tracy Ullman Show as well as the animation for the first three seasons and the first half of the fourth season (in total 61 episodes only), as the animation producers of the said show. The studio went on to grow and produce many popular animated series now seen all around the world.

Management

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 its present location on Hollywood Way in Burbank.

Television series

As Film Roman

• Garfield and Friends (1988–1994)
• Bobby's World (1990–1998)
• Mother Goose and Grimm (1991–1993)
• The Simpsons (1992–present; since season 4)
• Mighty Max (1993–1994)
• The Critic (1994–1995)
• The Mask: The Animated Series (1995–1997)
• The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat (1995–1997)
• The Baby Huey Show (1995-1996)
• The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper (1996-1998) (animation sequences)
• C Bear and Jamal (1996–1999)
• Richie Rich (1996)
• Bruno the Kid (1996–1997)
• Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm (1996)
• King of the Hill (1997–2010)
• The Mr. Potato Head Show (1998)
• Family Guy (1999–2000; seasons 1-2 only)
• Mission Hill (1999–2002)
• X-Men: Evolution (2000–2003)
• The Oblongs (2001–2002)
• Free For All (2003)
• Tripping the Rift (2004–2007)
• Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! (2006–2010)
• Eloise: The Animated Series (2006)
• Slacker Cats (2007)
• The Goode Family (2009)
• The Super Hero Squad Show (2009–present)
• The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (2010–present)
• Dan Vs. (2011–present)
• Beavis and Butt-Head (2011-present)
• Ultimate Spider-Man (2012-present)

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

• Nick and Noel (1993)
• A Cool Like That 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)
• Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer (2000)
• American Dad (2004) (Pilot episode only)

Films

Direct-to-video

• The Happy Elf (2005, co-production with IDT Entertainment)
• Hellboy Animated (2006–2007)
• Dead Space: Downfall (2008, co-production with Electronic Arts)
• 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 Pictures, WMG and Turner Entertainment)
• The Simpsons Movie (2007, co-production with 20th Century Fox, co-animation with Rough Draft Studios)

Miscellaneous

• The Simpsons Ride (2008, amusement simulator ride film produced for the attraction of the same name at Universal Orlando Resort and Universal Studios Hollywood)

External links

• Official website
• Film Roman at the Internet Movie Database