| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Interactive Entertainment, Advertising |
| Founded | 1989 |
| Headquarters | Chicago, Illinois |
| Key people | Harry Gottlieb Allard Laban |
| Employees | 50 |
| Website | Jellyvision.com |
Jellyvision is a multimedia production company, founded by Harry Gottlieb, and is best known for making the You Don't Know Jack games.[1] Originally named "Learn Television," it produced a number of edutainment titles, such as "That's A Fact, Jack!", before branching out into pure entertainment multimedia. At that point, the company name was changed to "Burnt Jellyvision" (a form of their original name, as would be used in a You Don't Know Jack 'Gibberish' Question), but the company quickly decided to just use "Jellyvision."
Jellyvision now has three distinct business groups[2] - Jellyvision Games[3] which continues to produce multimedia games such as You Don't Know Jack,[4] The Jellyvision Lab,[5] an interactive agency, which creates Interactive Conversations for Fortune 500[6] companies and the Jellyvision Benefits Counselor,[7] an interactive application that teaches employees about their health benefits.
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Jellyvision was founded in 1989 under the name Learn Television to create children's films. In 1991, Learn Television released the award-winning film "The Mind's Treasure Chest™," a comedic feature-length educational film that teaches students to think for themselves. The film was in distribution to schools in five countries and took the highest honor for grades seven through 12 at the National Educational Film and Video Festival.
Despite the film's success, Learn Television sought to move beyond the passive experience offered by the medium of film. New multimedia technologies presented an opportunity to create a more active learning experience. Using the lead character of "The Mind's Treasure Chest," Jack Patterson, as host, Learn Television partnered with the Follett Software Company and developed THAT'S A FACT, JACK®!, a reading motivation CD-ROM game show series covering young adult fiction. TFJ was, at its core, an educational interactive game show targeting 3rd through 10th graders.
With TFJ in development, Jellyvision decided to test the waters of mainstream interactive entertainment by beginning a partnership with Berkeley Systems and developing the game You Don’t Know Jack.
Released in the fall of 1995, You Don’t Know Jack became an instant best seller and redefined the trivia game market for adults with its direct-response interactivity and snarky fusion of high culture and pop culture. Today, with over 4.5 million units sold, more than $100 million in revenue, distribution in five countries and over 50 major industry awards, YDKJ is one of the most successful gaming franchises ever.
In 1996, the company's name was changed to Jellyvision in response to the expansion of product lines beyond education.
In 1999, Jellyvision brought a virtual Regis Philbin to life by designing and developing the original Who Wants To Be A Millionaire CD-ROM for Disney Interactive.
In 2001, Jellyvision partnered with Microsoft to develop Outsmart®, the flagship game show for www.zone.com. Outsmart pits players in head-to-head action against their favorite celebrities. They also partnered with Michael Davies, the executive producer who imported and developed the TV show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, to launch a television show based on Jellyvision's latest game invention, Smush. Smush launched in early 2002 on the USA Network and Jellyvision still owns the trademark for the property.[8]
The Jellyvision Lab was soon launched to create Interactive Conversations for corporate clients such as Comcast, Clorox, Aetna, Salesforce and others.[9] The Jellyvision Benefits Counselor, an interactive application, was also created to help employees better understand their benefits and help them make decisions around their insurance options.