Paramount Television
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Paramount Television (re-incorporated from Desilu Productions) was an American television production/distribution company that was active from December 1967 to May 28, 2006 and was launched under Gulf+Western. The successor company is CBS Paramount Television. The first television series to be produced under PTV is Here's Lucy.
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[edit] Background
The company was known for producing and distributing programs such as The Andy Griffith Show, Happy Days, Cheers, the Star Trek franchise, Girlfriends and the daily Paramount staple Entertainment Tonight, among others. After Viacom's merger with Paramount Communications in 1994, Viacom Enterprises was renamed to Paramount Domestic Television (which was also called Paramount/Viacom) in 1995, and the name Paramount Network Television was also used for the first time ever, and Viacom Productions would become a division of Paramount Network Television. Also in 1995, Viacom launched the United Paramount Network (UPN) with Chris-Craft Industries. In 1999, the company acquired 80% of Spelling Entertainment Group and Rysher Entertainment's TV holdings. In 2000, after Viacom's merger with its creator CBS, Paramount TV acquired CBS Enterprises, which included King World Productions at that time. That same year, the company distributed the DreamWorks Television sitcom Spin City. In 2004, Viacom Productions was folded into Paramount Television by ceasing its television operations after 30 years of television production.
Among Paramount Television's holdings are libraries from its own studio including those acquired from Desilu (but not its pre-1950 films, which are owned by EMKA, Ltd., a name-only division of Universal Studios), Bing Crosby Productions, some of the Rysher Entertainment programs, Viacom (the CBS catalog, which includes The Twilight Zone and I Love Lucy [which CBS bought back from Desilu]; the Terrytoons library; the television rights to most of Cannon Films' and Carolco Pictures' libraries; and Viacom's in-house productions, including Sabrina The Teenage Witch, Matlock and Diagnosis: Murder), and Republic Pictures (including High Noon, It's a Wonderful Life, and the inherited holdings of National Telefilm Associates [which includes Paramount's own classic animated library and some early United Artists material], and Worldvision Enterprises [which itself includes the Aaron Spelling library]).
[edit] Note
- When CBS Corporation acquired the Paramount Television library on January 17, 2006, the company merged Paramount Television with CBS Productions. The company kept the Paramount Television logo intact on television until May 28, 2006.
