Turner Entertainment
Turner Entertainment Company, Inc. (commonly known as Turner Entertainment Co.) is an American media company founded by Ted Turner. Now owned by Time Warner, along with Turner Broadcasting System, the company is largely responsible for overseeing its library for worldwide distribution (in recent years, this role has largely been limited to being the copyright holder, while sister company Warner Bros. handles all sales and distribution).
Background
Turner Entertainment Co. was established on August 4, 1986 as a subsidiary of Turner Broadcasting System to oversee its film library after Ted Turner's short-lived acquisition of MGM/UA.
After re-selling the studio, Turner kept its library, which included the following:
- Nearly all of MGM's film and television library prior to May 23, 1986 ending with the film Killer Party (released on May 9, 1986)
- Included in this portion are a few individual films that MGM acquired from other studios in connection with filming remakes, such as
- Some material from United Artists Television
- The U.S. rights to a majority of the RKO Radio Pictures library
- Some of these rights had not been held by MGM at the time of the Turner acquisition, these rights would be bought by Turner later on.
- Turner later got rights to this library in Latin America and Australia as well.
- Films by Brut Productions, the production division of Fabergé (A Touch of Class).
Turner later re-sold United Artists and the MGM logo back to Kirk Kerkorian, and sold the old MGM studio lot to Lorimar, keeping the aforementioned library. In 1991, Turner Entertainment's parent Turner Broadcasting purchased Hanna-Barbera and its extensive animated library including The Jetsons, Yogi Bear, Scooby-Doo, The Flintstones, Huckleberry Hound, Top Cat, and Space Ghost (along with most of the Ruby-Spears library up to 1991). Turner's vast animation library served as the basis for Cartoon Network, and later Boomerang.
Turner Entertainment also played a huge part in film preservation and restoration, thus such classic films as Casablanca, Citizen Kane, King Kong, Easter Parade, and the original The Jazz Singer, can continue to be seen today via its various cable channels, as well as in revival movie houses and home video. The films are also internationally distributed and shown by many channels around the world.
Turner Entertainment also distributes films from the RKO Radio Pictures, pre-May 1986 MGM and pre-1950 Warner Bros. libraries, certain films from New Line Cinema (1994–1997), and shows from TBS, TNT, Hanna-Barbera (1991–1997), Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, truTV and PBS (1994–2004) on home video via Turner Home Entertainment, and after 1996, Warner Home Video (which currently operates Turner's home video subsidiary as an in-name-only division). (see below.)
The library itself
Today, as part of Time Warner, Turner Entertainment continues to oversee its inherited library, which also includes The Wizard of Oz, A Christmas Story, Gone with the Wind, Gilligan's Island, Tom and Jerry, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Yogi Bear, Scooby-Doo, Top Cat, Huckleberry Hound, Jonny Quest, Space Ghost and Captain Planet.
There are very few exceptions to this library, however.
- The Flipper TV series produced by MGM Television and later sold to The Samuel Goldwyn Company is now owned by MGM again.
- Charlotte's Web, produced by Hanna-Barbera, is still distributed by Paramount Pictures. Hanna-Barbera continues to hold the copyright to the film alongside co-producer Sagittarius Productions.
- While Warner Bros. and Turner hold the film elements of Hanna-Barbera's Once Upon a Forest, all theatrical, television and home entertainment rights are completely and exclusively controlled by 20th Century Fox.
- 20th Century Fox owns Hanna-Barbera's Capitol Critters, co-produced with 20th Century Fox Television.
- Jetsons: The Movie, The Flintstones, its sequel The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas and the ride film footage of The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera are owned and controlled by NBCUniversal whereas the characters, original TV series and merchandising rights rest with Warner Bros. via Turner Broadcasting's ownership of Hanna-Barbera.
- Although WB/Turner holds US rights to The Wind and the Lion, international rights remain with Columbia Pictures (via Sony Pictures Entertainment).
- In 1976, MGM and United Artists co-produced Network, with both companies sharing the copyright. In 1981, MGM purchased UA, and for five years, owned complete control of the film. MGM now owns part of the copyright (as they retained the rights to UA's releases), sharing it with Turner (as a result of the aforementioned purchase of MGM's library).[1]
- Although Turner co-produced The Wizard of Oz cartoon series produced by DiC Entertainment, the rights to the show are owned by Cookie Jar Entertainment.
- Out of the many Warner films Turner owns, the exceptions are They Made Me a Criminal, Santa Fe Trail, This Is the Army, Life with Father, Rope, and The Inspector General. Rope was acquired by director Alfred Hitchcock and his estate from United Artists Television, and the remaining films are in the public domain.
- The MGM films Vengeance Valley, Cause for Alarm!, The Painted Hills, Father's Little Dividend, Till the Clouds Roll By, Royal Wedding, The Last Time I Saw Paris and Parlor, Bedroom and Bath are in the public domain.
- The Abbott and Costello version of Jack and the Beanstalk is also in the public domain as RKO General, successor to RKO Radio Pictures, did not renew its copyright on time.
- Another Hitchcock film, Notorious, started out as a David O. Selznick production until the producer sold the rights to RKO before production began. RKO originally owned the copyright, but the film was sold years later to American Broadcasting Company, which owns the rights to some of Selznick's other films.[2]
- Hanna-Barbera and Ruby-Spears cartoons that are based on Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, and Mork and Mindy are owned by CBS Television Distribution, along with The Little Rascals cartoons co-produced with King World and Harlem Globetrotters (although WB/Turner owns The Super Globetrotters, though both Globetrotters series have been less frequently seen in recent years due to intellectual property issues).
- CBS Storybreak, produced at Hanna-Barbera's Australian division, is also owned by CBS Television Distribution, as the series was co-produced by CBS.
- Hanna-Barbera's Midnight Patrol: Adventures in the Dream Zone is owned by Classic Media.
- Hanna-Barbera's Jeannie and Partridge Family 2200 A.D. are owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment.
- Hanna-Barbera's Popeye cartoons from the 1970s and 1980s, as well as Popeye and Son and the TV special Hägar the Horrible: Hägar Knows Best, are owned by King Features Syndicate. However, KFS has licensed DVD rights for the Popeye cartoons to WB as part of the deal allowing them to release the Paramount Popeye cartoons on DVD.
- Hanna-Barbera's Gravedale High, co-produced with NBC, is owned by NBCUniversal.
- Hanna-Barbera's Pink Panther and Sons, as well as the Hanna-Barbera produced episodes of Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures are owned by MGM - the very studio where the Hanna-Barbera team got its start (MGM acquired the Bill and Ted series after it bought Orion Pictures; MGM also owns the DiC produced episodes of said show). MGM also owns the Hanna-Barbera produced episodes of Sinbad Jr. and his Magic Belt and the movie C.H.O.M.P.S (as both were co-produced with American International Pictures, AIP became Filmways Pictures and was acquired by Orion, and Orion was bought by MGM).
- The Godzilla segments from The Godzilla Power Hour, produced by Hanna-Barbera, are now owned by Toho Company Ltd. with Classic Media handling U.S. distribution rights (the Godzilla segments were originally included when Turner bought Hanna-Barbera and when Time-Warner bought Turner until 2003 when WB/Turner sold the Godzilla segments to Toho, while WB/Turner still owns the Jana of the Jungle segments). Coincidentally, WB is producing a reboot of the Godzilla film series set for release in 2012.
- Although WB owns the Super Friends cartoons and spin-offs produced by Hanna-Barbera as well as The Dukes, Turner never owned them - instead, these were always under WB control (unlike the other H-B series now part of the WB library).
Turner Entertainment self-distributed much of its library for the first decade of its existence. After the Time Warner merger, its distribution functions were largely absorbed into WB. As a result, Turner now largely serves merely as a copyright holder for a portion of the WB library (similar to how EMKA's sole purpose is to be the copyright holder for the pre-1950 Paramount sound features, with other NBCUniversal divisions handling distribution). Hanna-Barbera's current purpose as the in-name only unit of Warner Bros. Animation is to serve as the copyright holder for its creations such as The Flintstones, Scooby-Doo, Top Cat and Yogi Bear while Time-Warner's divisions handle sales and merchandising.
As a production and distribution company
Turner Entertainment, as a production company, also creates original in-house programming, such as documentaries about the films it owns, new animated material based on Tom & Jerry and other related cartoon properties, and once produced made-for-TV movies, miniseries, and theatrical films such as Gettysburg, Fallen, The Pagemaster and Cats Don't Dance under the Turner Pictures banner. Turner also had an international distribution sales unit, Turner Pictures Worldwide Distribution. Turner Pictures folded into Warner Bros. after the Turner-Time Warner merger, and currently holds the distribution rights to the films made by the production division.
The Pagemaster and Cats Don't Dance were produced under Turner Feature Animation, Turner's animation unit headed by David Kirschner and Paul Gertz, which was folded into Warner Bros. Feature Animation.
Turner also had a television unit called Turner Program Services which had run until 1996 when it was rebranded as Telepictures Distribution which distributed Mama's Family and all TPS shows after 1996. In 2003 Telepictures Distribution was folded into Warner Bros. Television Distribution which meant Telepictures took over all series that were first run and distributed by TD.
The a.a.p. library was technically under the TPS unit of Turner (aside from the copyrights themselves), as a.a.p. was originally a television syndication company. Upon being sold to UA, a.a.p.'s library was made part of the UA television unit. The a.a.p. library continues to be part of Turner/Warner's television unit today.
Home video
- As previously mentioned, Turner Home Entertainment (THE) released most of the Turner catalog on video;
- THE also released World Championship Wrestling pay-per-view events, wrestler profiles, and "Best Of" packages on video until the demise of WCW in 2001;
- THE distributed home video releases from New Line Home Entertainment, as well as PBS programs in the mid-1990s. NLHE distributed New Line films on video by itself from 1996 until the Warner Bros./New Line merger in 2008. PBS shows are now distributed on video by Paramount;
- THE also distributed films produced by Turner Pictures on video;
- THE distributed the initial video release of an animated film The Swan Princess, which is merely distributed by New Line Cinema;
- Some films released on VHS by Turner Home Entertainment are distributed in the UK by First Independent Films
- Contractually, the MGM and Warner film libraries which Turner owned had been distributed by MGM/UA Home Video until their rights expired in 1999 at which point they were reassigned to Warner Home Video. This transaction also completed WB's re-acquiring of distribution rights to their pre-1950 library;
- In 1994, THE entered a distribution deal with Columbia TriStar Home Video in the UK. The deal expired in 1997;
- It was absorbed into Warner Home Video as an in-name-only unit after Time Warner bought Turner;
- Turner Classic Movies releases special edition DVD boxsets of films from both the Turner and Warner catalogs under the TCM label. They are also an affiliate of Movies Unlimited, a Philadelphia based mail order DVD and video company.
- THE also released some Hanna-Barbera tapes in the mid-1990's.
References
External links
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