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Warner Bros. Television Studios
Warner Bros. Television Studios | |
Founded | March 21, 1955 |
President | Channing Dungey |
Notable Works | The O.C. The West Wing ER Friends Veronica Mars Supernatural Smallville The Big Bang Theory Full House Young Sheldon Ted Lasso |
Official Site | Warner Bros. Television |
Warner Bros. Television Studios (formerly known, and still credited on-screen, as Warner Bros. Television) (WBTV)) is the television production and distribution unit of Warner Bros. Entertainment, a division of Warner Bros. Discovery. Alongside CBS Studios, it is the production arm of the CW television network (through 12.5% ownership). As of 2015, along with Sony Pictures Television, it is the world's largest television production company, measured up by its revenue and its library.
Contents |
History
WBTV was formed on March 21, 1955 by William T. Orr, the son-in-law of Warner Bros. studio head Jack Warner, who also served as WBTV's first and most successful head. The company debuted its first series that year when the anthology program Warner Bros. Presents premiered on ABC; of the three rotating series in that show (King's Row, Cheyenne and a TV adaptation of the Warner Bros. movie Casablanca), only Cheyenne lasted beyond Warner Bros. Presents' only season, continuing for a total of eight seasons until 1963. With the popularity of the western genre during the early years of television, WBTV contributed to the success of TV westerns with the production of such shows as Maverick, Colt .45, The Alaskans, Sugarfoot and Bronco (a Cheyenne spinoff).
In addition to its western lineup, WBTV also produced shows in other genres like 77 Sunset Strip, Bourbon Street Beat, Hawaiian Eye, The Gallant Men, F Troop, The F.B.I., The Bugs Bunny Show and its later incarnations, Kung Fu, Wonder Woman and Alice. During its early years of TV production, WBTV made extensive use of stock footage from the Warner Bros. film library for its shows. It produced shows exclusively for ABC until 1963, when NBC premiered the series Temple Houston. Jack Webb briefly headed WBTV for about ten months in 1963, but Temple Houston was the only series he successfully pitched to a broadcast network during that period.
In 1967, the film studio Seven Arts Productions purchased WB founder Jack Warner's controlling interest in that studio and merged the two studios as Warner Bros.-Seven Arts, with the TV unit accordingly being renamed Warner Bros.-Seven Arts Television and the classic WB shield company logo changed at that point to a stylized "W7" logo within a modified shield. In 1969, Kinney National Services, a parking and office cleaning company expanding into media, purchased the assets of Warner Bros.-Seven Arts, then in 1970, returned the TV company to its original name of WBTV, with a newly-adopted logo consisting of a stretched shield with simple "WB" lettering within and a banner beneath the lettering reading "A Kinney Services Company", reflecting its ownership at the time. Kinney sold its non-entertainment assets in 1972 and renamed itself as Warner Communications (later known as Time Warner, now WarnerMedia), and the classic WB shield briefly made its return on WBTV shows from February to September that year, when that logo was replaced by the new Warner Communications corporate logo of a stylized W (designed as a "\\'") within a TV tube shape. The classic shield logo made its return in 1984 and has been used on WBTV shows, with some slight modifications, ever since.
WBTV parent Warner Communications acquired Lorimar-Telepictures in 1989 and split that company's operations. Lorimar Television ran as a separate TV production unit before merging into WBTV in 1993. Telepictures, which initially produced syndicated programming for WBTV's distribution unit, was relaunched following Time Warner's 1996 purchase of Turner Broadcasting to replace Turner Program Services as the distributor of non-WBTV-produced programs whose syndication rights were acquired by WBTV or Turner. Telepictures has since returned to its original function of producing syndicated shows, such as The People's Court, The Tyra Banks Show and TMZ on TV, for distribution by WBTV. The company formed another distribution unit, Warner Bros. International Television, in 1996 for the international distribution of its shows outside North America. It served as a program supplier for co-owned entity The WB Television Network from that network's 1995 formation until 2006, and it presently continues in that role with The CW (created through a 2006 merger between The WB and CBS Corporation's UPN).
Warner Bros. Television Distribution
Warner Bros. Television Distribution (WBTD) was formed by WBTV around 1960 to serve as its distribution unit. WBTD holds the TV distribution rights to the films in the Warner Bros. Pictures library, as well as the rights to its own first-run syndicated series and off-network shows produced by WBTV. It is also the distributor for TV series acquired from the following companies:
- Turner Entertainment/Turner Program Services
- Most of the Hanna-Barbera catalog
- Most of the Ruby-Spears Enterprises catalog
- Lorimar Television (also including shows produced by Lorimar-Telepictures)
- Telepictures Productions/Telepictures Distribution
- Post-1973 Rankin/Bass Productions (most of the pre-1974 Rankin/Bass library, including shows and specials produced by its predecessor Videocraft International, is now owned by NBCUniversal via DreamWorks Classics, while CBS Media Ventures holds the distribution rights to the Rankin/Bass-produced The Jackson 5ive)
- Most of the pre-May 23, 1986 MGM Television and MGM/UA Television catalog (including Gilligan's Island, originally co-produced and distributed by United Artists Television, and the library of Associated Artists Productions, which was originally acquired by United Artists in 1958 and later became part of the MGM/UA catalog prior to its 1986 acquisition by Turner Entertainment)
- Wolper Productions
- New Line Television
- New World Television (certain shows only)
- HBO (certain shows only)
- NBC Productions/NBC Studios/NBC Universal Television (certain shows only)
Production codes
The format for picked-up weekly produced shows is SSSSEE, where S is the combined four character alphanumeric show and season identifier and E is a two digit episode number. Daily produced shows use YYYEEE or YEE, where Y is a three or single digit yearly count and E is a three or two digit episode count during that year. Pilots and episodes prior to 2003 use a 6 digit episode number. These are burned-in on the end copyright slate.
During 2016, the weekly produced and pilot formats were retired from the end slate for just the tape/reel location format of TSS.SSSEE, where S is numeric only.
List of shows produced by Warner Bros. Television Studios
Series
Animated Specials
List of shows owned by CBS Television Studios and Warner Bros. Television
Title | Format | Buyer | Year(s) | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Aliens in America | Sitcom | The CW | 2007–2008 | |||||
Life Is Wild | Drama | The CW | 2007–2008 | |||||
The Beautiful Life | Drama | The CW | 2009 | |||||
Life Unexpected | Drama | The CW | 2010–2011 | |||||
Ringer | Suspense drama | The CW | 2011–2012 | |||||
Co-production with Touchstone Television/ABC Studios | ||||||||
Emily Owens, M.D. | Medical drama | The CW | 2012–2013 | |||||
Reign | Historical drama | The CW | 2013–2017 | |||||
Jane the Virgin | Dramedy | The CW | 2014–2019 | |||||
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend | Dramedy | The CW | 2015–2019 | |||||
Significant Mother | Sitcom | The CW | 2015 | |||||
No Tomorrow | Comedy | The CW | 2016–2017 | |||||
Valor | Military drama | The CW | 2017–2018 | |||||
In the Dark | Drama | The CW | 2019–present |
Other shows distributed by Warner Bros. Television
Title | Format | Buyer | Year(s) | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
My Favorite Martian | Sitcom | CBS | 1963–1966 | |||||
Produced by Jack Chertok Television and CBS; originally distributed by Metromedia Producers Corporation, then Telepictures Distribution and then Lorimar-Telepictures. Currently distributed by the Peter Rodgers Organization. | ||||||||
Gilligan's Island | Sitcom | CBS | 1964–1967 | |||||
Produced by Gladasya Productions, United Artists Television and CBS; originally distributed by UATV, then MGM/UA Television and then Turner Program Services | ||||||||
Here's Lucy | Sitcom | CBS | 1968–1974 | |||||
Produced by Lucille Ball Productions, with co-production by Paramount Television in the first season only; originally distributed by Telepictures Distribution | ||||||||
Mayberry R.F.D. | Sitcom | CBS | 1968–1971 | |||||
Produced by RFD Productions; originally distributed by Metromedia Producers Corporation, then Telepictures Distribution and then Lorimar-Telepictures | ||||||||
The New Dick Van Dyke Show | Sitcom | CBS | 1971–1974 | |||||
Produced by Cave Creek Enterprises; originally distributed by Telepictures Distribution | ||||||||
Shazam! | Superhero drama | CBS | 1974–1977 | |||||
Produced by Filmation Associates; WBTD distributes the series via sister company DC Comics | ||||||||
It's a Living | Sitcom | ABC | 1980–1982 | |||||
Syndication | 1985–1989 | |||||||
Produced by Witt-Thomas-Harris Productions; originally distributed by Golden West Television, then Lorimar-Telepictures after its acquisition of Golden West. Currently distributed by Paul Brownstein Productions. | ||||||||
Mama's Family | Sitcom | NBC | 1983–1984 | |||||
Produced by Joe Hamilton Productions; distributed by Lorimar-Telepictures from 1986 to 1989 and by Telepictures Distribution from 1996 to 2003 | ||||||||
Syndication | 1986–1990 | |||||||
ALF | Sitcom | NBC | 1986–1990 | |||||
Produced by Alien Productions; originally distributed by Lorimar-Telepictures; while WBTD still holds the international TV distribution rights, the North American rights are now held by Debmar-Mercury, whose parent company Lionsgate owns the show's North American DVD distribution rights | ||||||||
Crime Story | Crime drama | NBC | 1986–1988 | |||||
Produced by Michael Mann Productions and New World Television | ||||||||
The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd | Dramedy | NBC | 1987–1988 | |||||
Produced by You and Me Kid Productions | ||||||||
Lifetime | 1989–1991 | |||||||
The Wonder Years | Dramedy | ABC | 1988–1993 | |||||
Produced by The Black/Marlens Company and New World Television; originally distributed by Turner Program Services | ||||||||
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air | Sitcom | NBC | 1990–1996 | |||||
Produced by NBC Productions, Quincy Jones Productions and The Stuffed Dog Company; NBCUniversal owns the ancillary rights to the series, but WBTD is the distributor for the show | ||||||||
MADtv | Sketch comedy | FOX | 1995–2009 | |||||
Produced by Bahr/Small Productions and Quincy Jones/David Salzman Entertainment | ||||||||
Will & Grace | Sitcom | NBC | 1998–2006 | |||||
Produced by NBC Studios until 2004, then by NBC Universal Television; NBCUniversal owns the ancillary rights to the series, but WBTD is the American distributor for the show, while MGM Worldwide Television distributes the show internationally |
Previous Logos
External links
- Warner Bros. Television Studios projects on IMDb
- Warner Bros. Television closing logos at Closing Logos Group Wiki