In the mid-1950s, Scheimer worked at commercial art studios and animation studios like Kling Studios,
Walter Lantz Productions (where he painted backgrounds on the
Tex Avery short
Crazy Mixed Up Pup), Ray Patin Productions,
Warner Bros. Cartoons (where he worked as a layout artist and background painter on
Gateways to the Mind and
The Mouse That Jack Built), and
Hanna-Barbera (where he worked on
The Ruff and Reddy Show). He was appointed to the position of art director while working at
Larry Harmon Pictures on the made-for-TV
Bozo and
Popeye cartoons. He formed a close working relationship with former
Disney animator
Hal Sutherland, with the two later becoming business partners.
Larry Harmon eventually closed the studio in 1961. Scheimer and Sutherland went to work at a small company called True Line. While working there, they were contracted by SIB Productions, a Japanese firm with U.S. offices in Chicago, who approached them about producing a cartoon called
Rod Rocket. The two agreed to take on the work and also took on a project for Family Films,
Life of Christ, a series of ten short animated films based on the life of
Christ.
Paramount Pictures soon purchased SIB Productions, and the contract allowed True Line to hire additional staff, such as former radio
disc jockey Norm Prescott. Scheimer and Sutherland formed a close relationship with their new co-worker. In 1962, Scheimer, Sutherland and Prescott eventually left True Line, and Scheimer began independently working on commercials. He figured that he could form his own company to produce animation. In September 1962, he, Sutherland and Ira Epstein, who had worked for Harmon but had left the firm, formed Filmation Associates. The company's name was invented because according to Scheimer, "We were working on film, but doing animation." Prescott joined them soon after the company's formation, and the trio were the company's main producers. In the meantime, Filmation turned their attention to a more successful medium,
network television. For the next few years they made
television commercials and some other projects for other companies and made an unsuccessful pilot film for a
Marx Brothers cartoon series. They also tried to develop an original series named
The Adventures of Stanley Stoutheart (later renamed
Yank and Doodle), but they were never able to sell it and almost closed down. For
Star Trek: The Animated Series, Scheimer won the
Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Entertainment - Children's Series. Early in Filmation's history, Scheimer also contributed a number of guest or secondary voices for the various productions. Most notably, he provided the voice of Dumb Donald on
Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids. He was also the voice of Legal Eagle and the
Brown Hornet's sidekick Stinger, and did voice-over narration during the
opening credits of the majority of Filmation shows and cartoons. In
Jason of Star Command and
Space Academy, he was consistently heard as generic voices over intercoms. In the live-action series
The Ghost Busters, which starred
Forrest Tucker and
Larry Storch with Bob Burns, he was the voice of Zero, the unseen boss of the main characters. Scheimer also provided the voices of Stubby on
The New Adventures of Gilligan,
N'kima on
Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle,
Bat-Mite,
the Bat-Computer and
Clayface on
The New Adventures of Batman, M.O. on
Space Sentinels, Trouble, Spinner and Scarab on
Tarzan and the Super 7s
Superstretch and Microwoman and
Web Woman,
Dinny on
Fabulous Funnies,
Tom Cat,
Jerry Mouse,
Spike,
Tuffy,
Slick Wolf and
Barney Bear on
The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show, the Olympian Computer on
Sport Billy, Gremlin on
The New Adventures of Flash Gordon, Bumper on ''
Gilligan's Planet, and Tracy the Gorilla on Ghostbusters''. The Filmation studio had emerged as a leading company in television animation, but it was no longer an independent company. The studio was purchased by the
TelePrompTer Corporation in 1969.
Westinghouse Electric Corporation, through its
Group W Productions division, acquired Filmation along with its purchase of TelePrompTer's cable and entertainment properties in 1981. Despite this, Scheimer continued leading the company. He played a significant role in the creation of the cartoons
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and
BraveStarr. As well as the executive producer, he was also co-credited for the series' musical score under the pseudonym "Erika Lane" (which combined the names of his daughter
Erika and son Lane). It had also been used as a character name on the 1967 Filmation series
Fantastic Voyage. Scheimer became a
voice actor for the show (as he had done for many of his company's previous productions), going under the pseudonym "Erik Gunden". The last name was taken from his father's original surname: "Gundenscheimer" (which was later shortened to Scheimer). The first name was Lou's middle name, which he was not given by his parents, but instead by his wife Jay, who felt that he should have one. Scheimer's contribution to the cast was, in fact, most notable as he voiced several supporting characters, including
Orko (and other characters with a similar
Smurfs-voice),
Stratos,
King Randor and others. The reason that Scheimer performed the voices for so many supporting characters was that the "official" voice actors were contracted to perform no more than three different voices per episode. Since there were usually only three regular cast members working on each show, Scheimer would fill in the rest of the male cast. This is also why his wife and daughter did various small parts in the first season of
He-Man, with Erika Scheimer performing supporting female voices and occasional voice-acting for young boy characters. During the second season of
He-Man, and all of
She-Ra: Princess of Power, Erika received an onscreen credit as an actor and also directed the voice actors, and she and her father recorded the remaining voices on their own later, because he did not see himself as a "proper" actor and was ashamed of recording with the other voice actors due to severe budget restrictions. The pitch of his voice was often changed by using a "harmonizer", which could control the pitch without altering the speed of the sound. In the late 1990s, he returned to the field of animation. A Dutch investment company, Dreamweavers, NV., approached him with a concept based on an off-kilter Dutchman's renderings of characters aimed at young adults. Scheimer went into production on
Robin and the Dreamweavers, an adult animated
feature film. Robin, the first human to be born in cyberspace, battles Triple XXX: an evil siren who desires an earthly body, and who gains power through mankind's baser carnal desires. The movie, which has been compared to the majority of
Ralph Bakshi's work, was never distributed. Scheimer also provided consultation work for Gang of Seven (G7) Animation. The Lou Scheimer Gallery at the ToonSeum, a museum of comic and cartoon art in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is named in his honor. ==Personal life==