Sandy Frank
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Sandy Frank is an American Television producer and film distributor.
He began his career with Paramount Pictures and NBC in network sales, working his way up the ladder in the television industry. He subsequently struck out on his own, starting Sandy Frank Program Sales, a television program syndication company. In 1975 he expanded his company's operations and renamed it Sandy Frank Entertainment when the company went into TV production.[citation needed]
Frank is perhaps best known for importing and re-dubbing 1960s and 1970s Japanese films and television series, such as Gamera and Battle of the Planets, for distribution in the American and international market. Five of the Gamera films, as well as Frank's Fugitive Alien, Star Force: Fugitive Alien II, Time of the Apes, Mighty Jack and Humanoid Woman, were lampooned on Mystery Science Theater 3000. Frank was "intensely displeased" by the mockery directed at him. (The crew once sang the "Sandy Frank Song", which said that Frank was "the source of all our pain" and implied that he was too lazy to make his own films.) Because of this, Frank reportedly refused to allow the shows to be rebroadcast once MST3K's rights ran out. However, some other stories hold that Frank was not offended but instead raised the prices for distribution of the movies because of MST3K's success.[citation needed]
In addition to Japanese imports, Frank is known in game show circles for producing and distributing two music game shows in the 1980s: Name That Tune and Face the Music. Frank also owns the rights to You Asked For It, last seen in the United States in 2000.