United Artists Television, formed in 1956, was an American television production/distribution company of United Artists Corporation. The company is remembered for producing series such as This Man Dawson, The Outer Limits, Gilligan's Island, My Mother the Car, The Fugitive, The New Phil Silvers Show, thirtysomething, and The Patty Duke Show.
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UA purchased Associated Artists Productions ('a.a.p.') in 1958, giving UA access to the pre-1950[1][2] Warner Bros. library and the Popeye cartoons made by Fleischer Studios and Famous Studios between 1933 and 1957.
In 1960, United Artists purchased Ziv Television Programs, including the 20% share still held by chair of the board, Frederick Ziv, and president, John L. Sinn, for $20 million. The newly merged production company was renamed Ziv-United Artists.
United Artists had never been very successful in television, having placed only two series in prime time, The Troubleshooters (1959—1960) and The Dennis O'Keefe Show (1959—1960). This pattern continued after the merger. Ziv-UA produced 12 pilots during the first year and failed to sell any of them. though Aubrey Schenck's Miami Undercover lasted one season in 1961.
In 1962, the company phased out Ziv Television operations and changed its name back to United Artists Television. In the same year, the American Broadcasting Company premiered a successful prime time television show called The ABC Sunday Night Movie in competition to NBC's successful Saturday Night at the Movies. The first season featured the release of many United Artists films with some episodes containing featurettes promoting upcoming UA cinema releases.
United Artists Television had several shows such as Stoney Burke (1962), The Patty Duke Show (1963), The Outer Limits (1963), Hollywood and the Stars (1963), The Fugitive (1963), The Hollywood Palace (1964), Gilligan's Island (1964).
After The Hollywood Palace ended in 1970, the company decided to focus presenting their movie library on television and reruning their classics after years of still being unsuccessful in television.
In 1981, MGM merged with UA to create MGM/UA Entertainment Co. As a result, their respective television units combined as well, becoming MGM/UA Entertainment Co. Television (or just simply MGM/UA Television) in 1982. The "United Artists Television" name was eventually phased out around 1983 in favor of the "MGM/UA Television" banner, although UA itself continued to produce television shows until 1995.
Today, MGM Television continues to own the rights to most of the programs originally produced and/or distributed by UATV. However there are exceptions:
Turner Entertainment acquired Gilligan's Island and it's animated spin-offs The New Adventures of Gilligan and Gilligan's Planet, and also the a.a.p. library (except Rope, which was acquired by Alfred Hitchcock's estate in the 1970s) in 1986, as part of a failed takeover of all of MGM/UA (also included were MGM's own pre-May 1986 library, the 1975 documentary Bugs Bunny: Superstar which was also originally a United Artists release, and certain rights to most of the RKO Pictures library). Turner merged with Time Warner in 1996, and today, Warner Bros. handles distribution rights to the Turner library.
The Fugitive is now owned by CBS Television Studios/CBS Studios in tandem with Spelling Television. TV distribution rights are handled by CTS subdivision CBS Television Distribution, and CBS Home Entertainment/Paramount Home Entertainment handles DVD rights.
The Fugitive was co-produced with QM Productions, and after the initial run of the series, ancillary rights were reverted to QM. Syndication rights were sold to ABC Films, which in 1973 became Worldvision Enterprises. Both of these companies would be bought by Taft Broadcasting in 1979 (later as Great American Broadcasting in 1987) and then Spelling Entertainment in 1988. The latter company was sold to Viacom in 1999, thus Paramount Domestic Television assumed distribution rights to The Fugitive (Viacom had bought Paramount Pictures in 1994). After Viacom split into two companies (one called CBS Corporation, the other retaining the Viacom name), the former company took over PTV.
Rights to The Mothers-In-Law (a UATV production) have, until recently, been complicated in terms of distribution outside home video (which are held by MPI Home Video). A number of entities involved have claimed rights, among them Desilu, Too (the successor-in-interest to Desi Arnaz Productions), the Eve Arden Estate, CBS Television Distribution (successor to the original Desilu Productions), and MGM (which UA is a partial division of). In any case, the major rights are now owned by Desilu, Too.