This article needs additional citations for verification .(December 2017) |
Company type | Subsidiary |
---|---|
Industry | Television and film production |
Founded | 1969 |
Founders | Mary Tyler Moore Grant Tinker |
Defunct | May 19, 1998 |
Fate | Library assets were folded into 20th Century Fox Television |
Successor | 20th Television |
Parent | TVS Entertainment (Television South plc) (1988–1993) International Family Entertainment (1993–1997) News Corporation (1997–1998) |
Divisions | MTM Television Distribution MTM International MTM Home Video MTM Records |
MTM Enterprises (also known as MTM Productions) was an American independent production company established in 1969 by Mary Tyler Moore and her then-husband Grant Tinker to produce The Mary Tyler Moore Show for CBS. The name for the production company was drawn from Mary Tyler Moore's initials. [1]
With MTM, Mary Tyler Moore would become one of the first women to own a television production company. MTM became very successful, producing a number of successful television programs during the 1970s and 1980s. The Walt Disney Company through its subsidiary, 20th Television owns all of its programs.
In 1969, MTM Enterprises was organized by both Mary Tyler Moore and Grant Tinker, [2] [3] [4] and hired James L. Brooks and Allan Burns to create her sitcom. [5] Brooks' show Room 222 has even been credited by the Television Academy Foundation for breaking the "new narrative ground" which developed MTM Enterprises' "major sitcom factories of the 1970s." [6]
In 1971, co-founder Grant Tinker was forced to quit 20th Century Fox Television due to conflicts with how to run MTM, in order to maintain a full-time job at the company. [7]
In 1976, MTM teamed up with Metromedia Producers Corporation to start a variety show, a first for first-run syndication. [8] Earlier that year, the company had hired Bud Rifkin to launch a syndicated division. [9]
In 1977, Ed. Weinberger, James L. Brooks, David Davis, Allan Burns, and Stan Daniels left MTM Enterprises for Paramount Pictures and started the John Charles Walters Company.[ citation needed ]
Tinker oversaw MTM's operation until leaving the company.
In 1981, Tinker became the chairman of NBC. Lawyers backing NBC's then-owner RCA convinced Tinker to sell his remaining shares of MTM. Moore and Arthur Price, her business manager and company vice president, bought Tinker's shares; [10] Price subsequently was elevated to president. Tinker later regretted leaving MTM, believing that the company started to decline without him. [11]
Most of MTM's programs aired on CBS. For many years, MTM and CBS co-owned the CBS Studio Center in Studio City California, where a majority of their programs were filmed and videotaped.
In 1986, MTM launched its own syndicated arm MTM Television Distribution, to handle off-net syndication of the MTM shows, and subsequently courted to continue its relations with syndicator Jim Victory to sell off-network rights to MTM's shows like Hill Street Blues and WKRP in Cincinnati , all the way up until the late 1980s as part of a contract settlement. [12] [13] In 1988, MTM was sold to UK broadcaster and independent station for the South and South East of England TVS Entertainment for $320 million. [11] A year afterwards, MTM Television Distribution began producing its own programming for the first-run syndication market. [14]
After TVS lost its franchise to broadcast on the ITV network to Meridian Broadcasting, a number of American companies (and to a lesser extent, Meridian) were interested in acquiring MTM, with Pat Robertson's International Family Entertainment making the first offer. [15] A small number of shareholders, including Julian Tregar, rejected the offer from IFE. In November, TCW Capital made a bid, [16] but withdrew it a few weeks later after reviewing the accounts of TVS. [17] IFE increased its offer to £45.3M, but continued to be opposed by Julian Tregar, who blocked the deal on technical grounds, alleging that the offer was too low. [17] [18] IFE finally increased the offer to appease the remaining shareholders, [19] [20] and on January 23, 1993, their offer of £56.5M was finally accepted. [21] The deal went into effect on February 1, 1993 (the month after Meridian began its first broadcast).
In 1995, Michael Ogiens, formerly running CBS, as well as his production company Ogiens/Kane Company, joined MTM to serve as president of the company in hopes that MTM would be restored to its independent production glory. [22] The following year, Josh Kane, fellow partner of the Ogiens/Kane Company joined MTM as vice president for the East Coast offices. [23] In 1997, MTM hit layoffs at the syndication unit after the cancellation of the show The Cape . [24]
In 1997, International Family Entertainment was sold to News Corporation, and folded into its subsidiary Fox Kids Worldwide, eventually renamed to Fox Family Worldwide (a joint venture between Fox and Saban Entertainment). [25] [26] MTM's library assets however, were transferred over to 20th Television who retained them, even after Fox Family Worldwide was sold to The Walt Disney Company in 2001. [27] Until then, The Pretender and Good News were the last surviving shows to be produced by MTM, as 20th Century Fox Television inherited both shows in 1997 (when News Corporation purchased MTM) and 1998 (when MTM ceased operations) respectively. MTM's library became property of Disney following its acquisition of 20th Century Fox in 2019. Disney holds the rights of most of MTM's shows.
MTM Enterprises also included a record label, MTM Records — distributed by Capitol Records — which was in existence from 1984 to 1988. [28]
Title | Genre | First air date | Last air date | Number of Seasons | Network | Co-production company(s) | Note(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
The Mary Tyler Moore Show | Sitcom | September 19, 1970 | March 19, 1977 | 7 | CBS | ||
The Bob Newhart Show | September 16, 1972 | April 1, 1978 | 6 | ||||
Rhoda | September 9, 1974 | December 9, 1978 | 5 | First spin-off of The Mary Tyler Moore Show | |||
The Texas Wheelers | September 12, 1974 | July 7, 1975 | 1 | ABC | |||
Paul Sand in Friends and Lovers | September 14, 1974 | December 7, 1974 | CBS | ||||
The Bob Crane Show | March 6, 1975 | June 12, 1975 | NBC | ||||
Doc | August 16, 1975 | October 30, 1976 | 2 | CBS | |||
Phyllis | September 8, 1975 | March 13, 1977 | Second spin-off of The Mary Tyler Moore Show | ||||
Three for the Road | Adventure | September 14, 1975 | November 30, 1975 | 1 | |||
The Lorenzo & Henrietta Music Show | Musical-variety | September 13, 1976 | October 11, 1976 | Syndicated | |||
The Tony Randall Show | Sitcom | September 23, 1976 | March 25, 1978 | 2 | ABC (Season 1) CBS (Season 2) | ||
The Betty White Show | September 12, 1977 | January 2, 1978 | 1 | CBS | |||
Lou Grant | Journalism drama | September 20, 1977 | September 13, 1982 | 5 | Third spin-off of The Mary Tyler Moore Show | ||
We've Got Each Other | Sitcom | October 1, 1977 | January 14, 1978 | 1 | |||
WKRP in Cincinnati | September 18, 1978 | April 21, 1982 | 4 | ||||
Mary | Variety | September 24, 1978 | October 8, 1978 | 1 | |||
The White Shadow | Sports drama | November 27, 1978 | March 16, 1981 | 3 | |||
The Mary Tyler Moore Hour | Variety | March 4, 1979 | May 13, 1979 | 1 | |||
The Last Resort | Sitcom | September 19, 1979 | March 17, 1980 | ||||
Paris | Police drama | September 29, 1979 | January 15, 1980 | ||||
Hill Street Blues | January 15, 1981 | May 12, 1987 | 7 | NBC | |||
Remington Steele | Private eye drama | October 1, 1982 | February 17, 1987 | 5 | |||
Newhart | Sitcom | October 25, 1982 | May 21, 1990 | 8 | CBS | ||
St. Elsewhere | Medical drama | October 26, 1982 | May 25, 1988 | 6 | NBC | ||
Bay City Blues | Sports drama | October 25, 1983 | November 15, 1983 | 1 | |||
The Duck Factory | Sitcom | April 12, 1984 | July 11, 1984 | ||||
Mary | December 11, 1985 | April 8, 1986 | CBS | ||||
Fresno | Comedy | November 16, 1986 | November 20, 1986 | miniseries | |||
The Popcorn Kid | Sitcom | March 23, 1987 | April 24, 1987 | ||||
Beverly Hills Buntz | November 5, 1987 | April 22, 1988 | NBC | Spin-off of Hill Street Blues | |||
Eisenhower and Lutz | March 14, 1988 | June 20, 1988 | CBS | ||||
Annie McGuire | October 26, 1988 | December 28, 1988 | |||||
Tattingers | Dramedy | April 26, 1989 | NBC | ||||
FM | Sitcom | August 17, 1989 | June 28, 1990 | ||||
Rescue 911 | Reality | September 5, 1989 | August 27, 1996 | 8 | CBS | Arnold Shapiro Productions | U.S. distribution only, produced by CBS Entertainment Productions |
America's Funniest Home Videos | Clip | November 26, 1989 | Present | 32 | ABC | distribution for pre-2001 episodes only; currently distributed by sister company Disney Entertainment Distribution | |
City | Sitcom | January 29, 1990 | June 8, 1990 | 1 | CBS | CBS Entertainment Productions | [N 1] |
Capital News | Journalism drama | April 9, 1990 | April 30, 1990 | ABC | |||
The Trials of Rosie O'Neill | Legal drama | September 17, 1990 | May 30, 1992 | 2 | CBS | ||
Evening Shade | Sitcom | September 21, 1990 | May 23, 1994 | 4 | CBS Entertainment Productions, Bloodworth-Thomason Mozark Productions and Burt Reynolds Productions | distributed outside of U.S. television by Paramount Global Content Distribution | |
You Take the Kids | December 15, 1990 | January 12, 1991 | 1 | CBS Entertainment Productions and Paul Haggis Productions | [N 1] | ||
The New WKRP in Cincinnati | September 14, 1991 | May 22, 1993 | 2 | Syndicated | |||
Graham Kerr's Kitchen | Cooking | September 30, 1992 | March 19, 1995 | 3 | distribution only | ||
Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman | Western | January 1, 1993 | May 16, 1998 | 6 | CBS | The Sullivan Company | U.S. TV distribution only; produced by CBS Productions |
Xuxa | Educational | September 13, 1993 | December 31, 1993 | 1 | Syndicated | Lynch Entertainment | |
Christy | Drama | April 3, 1994 | August 2, 1995 | 2 | CBS | The Rosenzweig Company | |
Snowy River: The McGregor Saga | Adventure | September 23, 1994 | May 24, 1998 | 4 | The Family Channel | aired on Nine Network in Australia | |
Boogies Diner | Sitcom | September 17, 1994 | January 1, 1995 | 1 | Syndicated | Franklin/Waterman and King Street Entertainment | [N 1] |
Family Challenge | Game show | October 2, 1995 | September 7, 1997 | 2 | The Family Channel | Woody Fraser Enterprises and Maple Palm Productions | |
Sparks | Sitcom | August 26, 1996 | March 2, 1998 | 2 | UPN | The Weinberger Company | |
The Cape | Adventure | September 9, 1996 | May 19, 1997 | 1 | Syndicated | Zaloom-Mayfield Productions | |
The Pretender | Science fiction | September 19, 1996 | May 13, 2000 | 4 | NBC | NBC Studios | season 1 only; distributed outside the U.S. by NBCUniversal Syndication Studios |
Bailey Kipper's P.O.V. | Sitcom | September 14, 1996 | December 14, 1996 | 1 | CBS | Kipper Productions and Victoria Productions | |
Shopping Spree | Game show | September 30, 1996 | August 14, 1998 | 2 | The Family Channel | Jay Wolpert Enterprises | |
Wait 'Til You Have Kids | January 31, 1997 | 1 | |||||
It Takes Two | March 10, 1997 | May 30, 1997 | Mark Phillips Philms & Telephision | ||||
Good News | Sitcom | August 25, 1997 | May 19, 1998 | UPN | The Weinberger Company |
Title | Genre | Original air date | Network | Co-production company(s) | Note(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Carlton Your Doorman | Animated comedy | May 21, 1980 | CBS | Pilot for proposed spin-off of Rhoda |
MTM programs appeared almost exclusively on CBS until the early 1980s, when Grant Tinker assumed the additional role of president of NBC. Soon, NBC picked up a number of MTM shows. His intention was to leave NBC after 5 years (in 1986) and return to MTM, taking over the reins from interim MTM president Arthur Price. However, Price fired many of the key players in the company's ranks, and by 1986 they had few shows left on the schedules ( Hill Street Blues , St. Elsewhere and Remington Steele were all nearing the ends of their runs, leaving Newhart as the sole entrant on the schedule).
Mimsie the Cat (1968 - c. June 1988) was a live-action tabby cat seen in the company's logo, in a spoof of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's long-running Leo the Lion mascot. Mimsie was borrowed from a local shelter and then owned by one of the MTM staff (not by Moore and Tinker, who named the cat).
In the standard version of the logo, as first used on The Mary Tyler Moore Show , Mimsie appears in a crouched position, looks up at the camera, and meows once. Mimsie would not meow for the camera crew, so they eventually used footage of her yawning in reverse, with the "meow" added.
By the 1980s, there were many different variants of the logo, with Mimsie often appearing in different costumes, as well as being replaced by other cats, corresponding to the style and theme of the particular programs, including the following:
Mary Tyler Moore was an American actress, producer, and social advocate. She is best known for her roles on The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961–1966) and especially The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970–1977), which "helped define a new vision of American womanhood" and "appealed to an audience facing the new trials of modern-day existence". Moore won seven Primetime Emmy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Ordinary People. Moore had major supporting roles in the musical film Thoroughly Modern Millie and the dark comedy film Flirting with Disaster. Moore also received praise for her performance in the television film Heartsounds. Moore was an advocate for animal rights, vegetarianism and diabetes awareness and research.
Fox Broadcasting Company, LLC, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps, is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by the Fox Entertainment division of Fox Corporation, headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Midtown Manhattan. Fox hosts additional offices at the Fox Network Center in Los Angeles and at the Fox Media Center in Tempe, Arizona. Launched as a competitor to the Big Three television networks on October 9, 1986, Fox went on to become the most successful attempt at a fourth television network. It is also known to push the boundaries of what could be shown on a broadcasting network, as evident with shows like Married... with Children, The Simpsons, Family Guy, and That '70s Show. It is also the first network of its kind to popularize adult animation which lead to the creation of Adult Swim years later. It was also the highest-rated free-to-air network in the 18–49 demographic from 2004 to 2012 and 2020 to 2021, and was the most-watched American television network in total viewership during the 2007–08 season.
The Mary Tyler Moore Show is an American television sitcom created by James L. Brooks and Allan Burns and starring actress Mary Tyler Moore. The show originally aired on CBS from September 19, 1970, to March 19, 1977. Moore portrayed Mary Richards, an unmarried, independent woman focused on her career as associate producer of a news show at the fictional local station WJM in Minneapolis. Ed Asner co-starred as Mary's boss Lou Grant, alongside Gavin MacLeod, Ted Knight, Georgia Engel, Betty White, Valerie Harper as friend and neighbor Rhoda Morgenstern, and Cloris Leachman as friend and landlady Phyllis Lindstrom.
The Bob Newhart Show is an American sitcom television series produced by MTM Enterprises that aired on CBS from September 16, 1972, to April 1, 1978, with a total of 142 half-hour episodes over six seasons. Comedian Bob Newhart portrays a psychologist whose interactions with his wife, friends, patients, and colleagues lead to humorous situations and dialogue. The show was filmed before a live audience.
Television South (TVS) was the ITV franchise holder in the South and South East of England between 1 January 1982 at 9.25 am and 31 December 1992 at 11.59 pm. The company operated under various names, initially as 'Television South plc' and then following reorganisation in 1989 as 'TVS Entertainment plc', with UK broadcasting activities undertaken by subsidiary 'TVS Television Ltd'.
James Lawrence Brooks is an American director, producer, screenwriter and co-founder of Gracie Films. He co-created the sitcoms The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Taxi, and The Simpsons and directed the films Terms of Endearment (1983), Broadcast News (1987), and As Good as It Gets (1997). He received numerous accolades including three Academy Awards, 22 Emmy Awards, and a Golden Globe Award.
St. Elsewhere is an American medical drama television series created by Joshua Brand and John Falsey that originally ran on NBC from October 26, 1982, to May 25, 1988. The series stars Ed Flanders, Norman Lloyd, and William Daniels as teaching doctors at an aging, run-down Boston hospital who give interns a promising future in making critical medical and life decisions. The series was produced by MTM Enterprises, which had success with a similar NBC series, the police drama Hill Street Blues, during that same time. The series were often compared to each other for their use of ensemble casts and overlapping serialized storylines.
Columbia Pictures Television, Inc. was launched on May 6, 1974, by Columbia Pictures as an American television production and distribution studio. It is the second name of the Columbia Pictures television division Screen Gems (SG) and the third name of Pioneer Telefilms. The company was active from 1974 until New Year's Day 2001, when it was folded into Columbia TriStar Television, a merger between Columbia Pictures Television and TriStar Television. A separate entity of CPT continues to exist on paper as an intellectual property holder, and under the moniker "CPT Holdings" to hold the copyright for the TV show The Young and the Restless, as well as old incarnations from the company's television library such as What's Happening!!
Universal Television LLC is an American television production company that is a subsidiary of Universal Studio Group, a division of NBCUniversal, which, in turn, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Comcast. It serves as the network television production arm of NBC; a predecessor of the company, NBC Studios, previously assumed such functions, and a substantial portion of the company's shows air on the network.
Fred Silverman was an American television executive and producer. He worked as an executive at all of the Big Three television networks, and was responsible for bringing to television such programs as Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, All in the Family (1971–1979), The Waltons (1972–1981), and Charlie's Angels (1976–1981), as well as the miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man (1976), Roots (1977), and Shōgun (1980). For his success in programming such successful shows, Time magazine declared him "The Man with the Golden Gut" in 1977.
Grant Almerin Tinker was an American television executive who served as chairman and CEO of NBC from 1981 to 1986. Additionally, he was a co-founder of MTM Enterprises and a television producer.
James Edward Burrows, sometimes known as Jim "Jimmy" Burrows, is an American television director. Burrows has received numerous accolades including 11 Primetime Emmy Awards and five Directors Guild of America Awards. He was honored with the Directors Guild of America Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015 and NBC special Must See TV: An All-Star Tribute to James Burrows in 2016.
Radford Studio Center, alternatively CBS Studio Center, is a television and film studio located in the Studio City district in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, California, United States. The lot has 18 sound stages from 7,000 to 25,000 square feet, 220,000 square feet (20,000 m2) of office space, and 223 dressing rooms. The triangular site is bisected by the Los Angeles River. In 2021, ViacomCBS sold Studio Center to real estate investment companies Hackman Capital Partners and Square Mile Capital Management.
NBCUniversal Syndication Studios, formerly known as NBCUniversal Television Distribution, Universal Domestic Television, Studios USA Television Distribution and MCA TV, is the television syndication division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, in the United States. Its predecessors include NBC Enterprises, Universal Television Distribution, Multimedia Entertainment, PolyGram Television, and Sky Vision. At some point in its history, it was also known as "NBCUniversal Television & New Media Distribution" and "NBC Universal Television and New Media Distribution.” This unit is possibly the parent for the similarly named "NBCUniversal Domestic Television Distribution" unit.
ABC Family Worldwide is a subsidiary of the Disney Entertainment division of The Walt Disney Company that operates American basic cable channel Freeform and manages the programming libraries of Disney's currently-inactive subsidiaries BVS Entertainment and Fox Kids/Jetix.
20th Television is an American television production company which is a division of Disney Television Studios, part of the Disney Entertainment division of The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment distributes the television series produced by 20th Television in home media formats through the 20th Century Home Entertainment banner.
Michael Allan Zinberg is an American television director, producer and writer.
The Financial Interest and Syndication Rules, widely known as the fin-syn rules, were a set of United States rules imposed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1970 on the television industry.
We've Got Each Other is an American television sitcom that aired on CBS from October 1, 1977, to January 7, 1978.
Charlotte Sue Brown is an American television producer, writer, director, and showrunner who in 1977 was acclaimed to have become the first woman showrunner of a primetime network television series for her work on The Mary Tyler Moore Show spin-off Rhoda. However, Gertrude Berg, who created The Goldbergs, earned that title almost two decades earlier.