Sport Billy
GenreAnimation
Developed byArthur Nadel
Voices ofLane Scheimer
Frank Welker
Joyce Bulifant
Lou Scheimer
Corinne Orr
Lionel Wilson
Peter Fernandez
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes26
Production
Executive producersNorm Prescott
Lou Scheimer
Running time30 min.
Production companiesFilmation
Sport Billy Limited
Original release
NetworkNBC
ReleaseSeptember 16, 1980 (1980-09-16) –
November 16, 1981 (1981-11-16)

Sport Billy is an American animated television series produced by Filmation Associates, initially for broadcast in Germany and Cannes, France. The series was a single 26 episode saga that premiered in Germany and other parts of Europe from 1980 to 1981.[1][2] In 1982, Filmation carried the show over to the United States for syndication, and as a summer replacement in NBC's Saturday morning children's programming.[3][4] It was the last first-run series produced by Filmation Associates to air on NBC.

Overview

Sport Billy was originally a European comic character created by Rolf Deyhle in 1977, and already had a presence in Europe and parts of Latin America.[5][6][7] The comics were written and drawn by Walter Neugebauer, Gisela Künstner and Kurt Italiaander, and followed the sporting adventures of Billy, his friends Susy and Dickie (who was later dropped from the comics), and his dog Hannibal.[8][9][10] Sport Billy Productions, owners of the Sport Billy franchise, licensed the property to the American studio Filmation so it could create a cartoon based on the character. As a European character, Sport Billy's main sport was football, and this was reflected in the introductory sequence of the Filmation program. Susy and Hannibal were renamed "Lilly" and "Willy".[11][12][13]

Sport Billy was adopted by FIFA as the Fair Play Mascot for FIFA World Cups, and a trophy of the character was presented to the most sporting team at each World Cup including the 1978 Tournament. The character was internationally used as a mascot in many sporting youth programs, for the purpose of promoting sportsmanship and fair play.[5][6][7][11][13]

The series consisted of 26 episodes. It was also shown in the UK, France, Gibraltar, Italy, Yugoslavia, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Greece, Cyprus, Spain, Turkey, Peru, Mexico, Portugal, Romania, Czechoslovakia and some other countries.[5][6][7][12][14] Sport Billy was voiced by Lane Scheimer, the son of producer Lou Scheimer, who voiced the Olympian Computer. Sport Lilly, Queen Vanda and Pandusa were voiced by Joyce Bulifant, and Willy, Sportikus XI, Sipe and Poco were voiced by Frank Welker.[13] In addition to its broadcast in Germany, the series was also shown as a feature film on Showtime and HBO in 1980, written by Reubin Guberman, produced by William L. Cooper Jr. and Wolfgang Stein, and directed by Peter Fernandez. All the voices in the film were redubbed by Fernandez, Corinne Orr and Lionel Wilson to fit in the new script for linking the episodes together. The film was released split in parts as "episodes" on VHS in the UK.[15]

Synopsis

The story revolves around a young boy named Sport Billy, who is from the planet Olympus (a twin of Earth on the opposite side of the Sun), which is populated by athletic god-like beings, ruled by the benevolent President Sportikus XI and his wife, Pandusa. Billy himself has a magic size-changing gym bag, the Omni-Sack, which produces various tools as he needs them. He travels to Earth on a mission to promote teamwork and sportsmanship. Described by the show's theme song as a "hero from another planet", Billy battles the evil Queen Vanda and her gnome-like henchman, Sipe. Vanda's mission is to destroy all sports in the galaxy since fairness disgusts her.

Billy is assisted by two faithful companions, his girlfriend named Lilly and her talking dog named Willy. The trio travels around in a time traveling spaceship named the Timeship, which is mounted on two rocket engines and resembles a giant wind-up clock, complete with a ringing bell. In each episode the trio travels through time in order to save a different Earth sport from Vanda's grasp.[13]

Voice Cast

Crew

Episode list

Nº Title Original air date English air date
1"Joust in Time"16 September 1980 (1980-09-16)31 July 1982
2"Trouble in Tokyo"23 September 1980 (1980-09-23)7 August 1982
3"Mexican Holiday"30 September 1980 (1980-09-30)14 August 1982
4"Return to Olympus"7 October 1980 (1980-10-07)21 August 1982
5"Chinese Puzzle"14 October 1980 (1980-10-14)28 August 1982
6"Teamwork"21 October 1980 (1980-10-21)4 September 1982
7"Bad Weather Blues"28 October 1980 (1980-10-28)11 September 1982
8"A Voice in the Wilderness"4 November 1980 (1980-11-04)18 September 1982
9"Wheel of Fortune"11 November 1980 (1980-11-11)25 September 1982
10"Hyde and Seek"18 November 1980 (1980-11-18)2 October 1982
11"Power of the Omnisac"25 November 1980 (1980-11-25)9 October 1982
12"A Race in Space"2 December 1980 (1980-12-02)16 October 1982
13"Trial by Fire"9 December 1980 (1980-12-09)23 October 1982
14"The Great Texas Hole in One"16 December 1980 (1980-12-16)30 October 1982
15"Arabian Knights and Days"23 December 1980 (1980-12-23)6 November 1982
16"Mixed Doubles"30 December 1980 (1980-12-30)13 November 1982
17"Viking for a Day"14 September 1981 (1981-09-14)20 November 1982
18"Monster from the Loch"21 September 1981 (1981-09-21)27 November 1982
19"Mystery of the Russian Cave"28 September 1981 (1981-09-28)4 December 1982
20"Rah! Rah! Billy!"5 October 1981 (1981-10-05)11 December 1982
21"Peril in Peru"12 October 1981 (1981-10-12)18 December 1982
22"Athenian Adventure"19 October 1981 (1981-10-19)25 December 1982
23"Pure Luck"26 October 1981 (1981-10-26)1 January 1983
24"Taj Mahal Mystery"2 November 1981 (1981-11-02)8 January 1983
25"Australian Adventure"9 November 1981 (1981-11-09)15 January 1983
26"A Tale of Two Billys"16 November 1981 (1981-11-16)22 January 1983

Public service announcements

In addition to this series, there were also ten 30-second public service announcements produced by Michael Sporn Animation for syndicated TV during the general period when the series aired. These spots also taught the value of fair play and sportsmanship, but without the plot of the series. [16]

References

  1. ^ Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. p. 786. ISBN 978-1476665993.
  2. ^ "Sport Billy Lands in Cannes". Flickr. Retrieved February 20, 2024.
  3. ^ Lenburg, Jeff, Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons, Second Edition, 1999.
  4. ^ "1982 Original Photo SPORT BILLY CHILDREN'S NBC ANIMATED SERIES". eBay. Retrieved February 20, 2024.
  5. ^ a b c Alles unterm Deckel, Der Spiegel, 21. April 1991 (german)
  6. ^ a b c "Rolf Deyhle". Rolf Deyhle. Retrieved 17 March 2024.
  7. ^ a b c "Fußball: Ein deutscher Millionär darf den WM-Pokal küssen". WELT. Retrieved 17 March 2024.
  8. ^ "Walter Neugebauer". Lambiek Comiclopedia. Retrieved 17 March 2024.
  9. ^ "Walter Neugebauer". Kaukapedia. Retrieved 17 March 2024.
  10. ^ "Kurt Italiaander". Lambiek Comiclopedia. Retrieved 17 March 2024.
  11. ^ a b Scheimer, Lou; Mangels, Andy (December 15, 2012). Creating The Filmation Generation. TwoMorrows. ISBN 9781605490441. Retrieved February 13, 2024. In late June, Sports Billy Productions, a company in Stuttgart, West Germany, began their push in licensing the character of Sports Billy worldwide. The concept behind Sports Billy was to utilize young Billy and Susy, two sports-loving youths, as mascots in America; they were already popular in Europe, Asia, and Latin America, and were the mascots tor FIFA, the world soccer federation, and the 1978 World Cup tournament. The first stop on their plans to win over America was to make a deal with Filmation, to do an animated series and to help them license and merchandise their brand in the United States.
  12. ^ a b Scheimer, Lou; Mangels, Andy (December 15, 2012). Creating The Filmation Generation. TwoMorrows. ISBN 9781605490441. Retrieved February 13, 2024. A week later we announced that we had a firm deal with Sport Billy Productions to produce at least 16 half-hour cartoons, with an option to do ten more if things worked out. Our plan was to debut the first of the toons at the Marche International de Producteurs conference (MIPCOM) in April at Cannes, which meant we were working on them in the off-season when the fall 1979 shows were finishing up, but before the fall 1980 shows were starting.
  13. ^ a b c d Scheimer, Lou; Mangels, Andy (December 15, 2012). Creating The Filmation Generation. TwoMorrows. ISBN 9781605490441. Retrieved February 13, 2024. Although preliminary development had begun in 1979, we didn't animate Sport Billy until 1980, and the show was first broadcast in Germany that year. We made the deal with this German group, and we had no ownership in the show as I recall; we produced the show, and they sold it all over the world themselves. We did make a royalty profit from it past the initial production fees of $200,000 per episode, for a total of $5,200,000. The biggest reason we took it was so that I could keep my animators working during the off-season. The Germans didn't have the same kind of delivery time for the fall that the U.S. networks did, so it enabled me to give more work to the people working at Filmation. I guess it was the opposite of "runaway production", as we were bringing work to the United Slates instead of taking it away like other studios. The Sport Billy character was already really popular throughout Europe and South America in comic books and toys, mainly connected to soccer, but we knew that the character needed to be broadened out, so we brought in all sorts of other sports that he got involved in. And we could teach fair play, teamwork, sportsmanship, and healthy concepts to kids watching. I don't remember how much of the backstory came from the comics, if any of it did, but the initial early concepts were by Rolf Deyhle. We had a twin planet for Earth called Olympus that rotated on the opposite side of the sun from Earth, so we never saw it. That's where all the god-like beings from mythology were from. And Billy came to Earth, along with a little girl named Lilly and a talking dog named Willy, to promote sportsmanship and the other values I mentioned. They travelled around in a spaceship that looked like a giant wind-up clock, and it could also travel through time, so we could go to different time periods. We also went to many different countries on the show, including Spain, Japan, Mexico, China, Norway, the Middle East, Peru, Russia, and all over Europe. Billy carried a magical bag with him called the Omni-Sack, which looked like an ordinary gym bag, but from which he could pull all sorts of wondrous things if they needed them on their adventures. He would pull out a miniature car or helicopter or baseball bat and they would grow to full size for him to use. And because every hero needed an adversary, they had an evil witch chasing them around who hated fairness. She was Queen Vanda from Vandalusia, and she had a groveling little henchman named Sipe. The head guy from Olympus was named President Sportikus XI. The shows were generally dubbed, though sometimes they were subtitled. The English language voices were my son Lane Scheimer as Sport Billy; Joyce Bulifant as Lilly, Queen Vanda and Sportikus' wife, Pandusa; and the great Frank Welker as Willy, Sipe and Sportikus. This was Lane's last voice work for Filmation, I believe. He was in his early 20s, and I think that's about when he got married and took off to be with his family. I did the voice of the Olympian Computer. There were also songs that ended each episode about the theme of the show.
  14. ^ Scheimer, Lou; Mangels, Andy (December 15, 2012). Creating The Filmation Generation. TwoMorrows. ISBN 9781605490441. Retrieved February 13, 2024. Sport Billy was a big hit in Germany, so they picked us up for the second season very quickly, ordering the remaining ten episodes. The series was aired eventually in England, Spain, Italy, Yugoslavia, Turkey, Greece, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Portugal, and a bunch of other places. It eventually aired in the U.S. in syndication and on NBC in the summer of 1982, though it took them forever to make that deal. The Sports Billy group had their own salespeople, although it was mainly dealt with by a Swiss guy named Pierre Rochat, who worked for the German gentleman, Wolfgang Stein, who put up the money for the series.
  15. ^ "16mm Sport Billy (1980) opening". YouTube. Retrieved February 13, 2024. The show did indeed end up a feature, with an extremely limited airing on Showtime or HBO. They redubbed all the voices with new actors to fit in a new script for linking the episodes together. The movie was released split in parts as "episodes" on VHS in the UK.
  16. ^ Michael Sporn Animation filmography http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/filmography.html

External links

Children's programming on NBC in the 1980s
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