|
|
|
|
Columbia Pictures Television
|
| |
|
| |
Columbia Pictures Television (CPT) was the second name of the Columbia Pictures television division Screen Gems (SG). The studio changed its name on September 4, 1974.
was home to the popular daytime soap operas Days of our Lives and The Young and the Restless.
Discussion
Ask a question about 'Columbia Pictures Television' Start a new discussion about 'Columbia Pictures Television' Answer questions from other users |
Encyclopedia
Columbia Pictures Television (CPT) was the second name of the Columbia Pictures television division Screen Gems (SG). The studio changed its name on September 4, 1974.
History
Early years
CPT was home to the popular daytime soap operas Days of our Lives and The Young and the Restless. During the 1970s and '80s, CPT made many co-productions with Spelling-Goldberg Productions, including S.W.A.T., Starsky & Hutch, Charlie's Angels, Fantasy Island, Hart to Hart, and T.J. Hooker.
CPT assumed control of most Screen Gems properties, including I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched, The Partridge Family, The Monkees, The Flying Nun, and Gidget.
The Coca-Cola years and Columbia Pictures Entertainment
Columbia Pictures Television presented and distributed the 1977-1981 TV series The New Adventures of Batman.
The 1980s brought significant changes to CPT. In 1982, The Coca-Cola Company bought Columbia Pictures Industries and its new logo, now a modernized version of the studio's classic "Torch Lady" logo, although with white robe and gold text, added the byline "A Unit of The Coca-Cola Company." In 1984, Columbia Pictures Television joined forces with Lexington Broadcast Services Company by creating a joint venture between the two companies called Colex Enterprises.
In 1985, Norman Lear's hit TV shows joined the CPT family when the studio acquired Embassy Television (ET), the television division of Embassy Pictures and Tandem Productions, which included a large library of shows, such as All in the Family, Sanford and Son, The Jeffersons, Good Times, Maude, Diff'rent Strokes, The Facts of Life, One Day At A Time, Who's The Boss?, and Silver Spoons, among others. Meanwhile, CPT and LBS Communications produced What's Happening Now!! as the 1980s sequel of What's Happening!!. CPT considered the 1970s version as their own after acquiring the Tandem/Embassy TV library.
In 1986, Embassy Television, Embassy Telecommunications and Tandem Productions were merged to become Embassy Communications (off-screen known as, Columbia-Embassy Television). This was because Diff'rent Strokes was cancelled by ABC and Tandem Productions was abandoned since there were no more television programs produced by the company after Archie Bunker's Place ended in 1983. CET continued to use CPT and EC as their separate names on the air. Embassy added a Coca-Cola byline that year. Coke also acquired Merv Griffin Enterprises, known for producing the popular game shows, Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune. CPT, meanwhile, went on to produce the hit sitcom, Designing Women.
In 1987, Coca-Cola, meanwhile launched a television distribution arm of CPT called Coca-Cola Telecommunications. This company label produced the syndicated version of The Real Ghostbusters, Dinosaucers, and the last two seasons of Punky Brewster, distribution of the latter show having been acquired from NBC. A merger took place in 1987 when Columbia Pictures acquired TriStar Pictures (Tri-Star) from partners CBS and HBO, and on December 21, 1987, CET and TriStar Television (TSTV) merged to form a brand new Columbia Pictures Television, as part of the new Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc. (CPE) The CPE byline appeared in the company's logo, which introduced a new color variation on the CPT text and the Torch Lady, looking very similar to the then-current movie logo of that period.
After 1988, the shows that were produced by Embassy Communications were now produced by CPT, but in the closing credits, the copyright was going to the new ELP Communications.
By forming a new and single television distribution entity, Columbia Pictures merged the television distribution banners of Embassy Communications, Colex Enterprises, and Coca-Cola Telecommunications to form the new Columbia Pictures Television Distribution.
In 1989, Columbia Pictures Entertainment acquired Barris Industries, the former name of Chuck Barris Productions including the library of game shows like The Newlywed Game, The Dating Game, and The Gong Show, among others.
The Sony years to present
In 1989, Sony Corporation bought CPT's parent, CPE, from Coke, and in 1991, CPE changed its name to Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE). Also that year, TriStar Television was re-created as a TV production label. The logo for CPT(which was from 1987) became bylineless for that favor.
In July 1992, within the favor that CPT was now owned by Sony, a new logo, which included a digitally-remade version of the familiar "Torch Lady", and a brand new byline for SPE debuted. This is known as the "90's Torch Lady" logo. (This coincidentially was also done for TriStar Television that same year, as well as Merv Griffin Enterprises in 1993.) The digitally remade version eventually was created for the movie counterpart as well in 1993.
On January 3, 1994, CPT and TSTV launched Columbia TriStar Television (CTT) as a joint venture between the two television companies, and CTT also had the rights to produce the ELP Communications shows, as well as Merv Griffin's Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune (although Griffin still held the copyrights to both shows). That same year, Susan Stafford, the former letter turner of Wheel of Fortune along with Jack Barry's family sold Barry & Enright Productions to SPE, and the CTT family was further expanded when Bob Stewart Productions was sold to SPE as well. CTT reran and produced the classic game show The Joker's Wild, which is still being produced today.
CPT, meanwhile, went on to produce the animated series, The Critic.
In 1995, Columbia TriStar Television Distribution (CTTD), the TV distribution arm of CTT, was created to distribute shows from its library, as well as produce and distribute new syndicated shows, and distribute the Columbia TriStar movie library. Columbia TriStar International Television (CTIT), the international TV distribution arm of CTT, was also formed at this point to distribute its movie and TV libraries around the world.
1996 saw CTT and CTTD create a new logo with the boxes splitting to show Columbia and TriStar's movie logo intros in the boxes over a CGI cloud background based on Columbia TriStar Home Video's 1993 logo intro. At the same time, CTT launched Columbia TriStar Children's Television (CTCT), the studio's animation division. The CTCT's name was changed in 1997 to Adelaide Productions.
In 1998, ELP was consolidated to CTT after Beakman's World was cancelled, however the company remained as an in-name-only unit of Columbia TriStar Television by renewing and licensing its series from those by T.A.T. Communications all the way to ELP Communications. That same year, the group celebrated 50 years of television entertainment since the re-activation of Screen Gems as Columbia's TV division.
In 1999, CTTD introduced Screen Gems Network, the first programming block to air classic shows from the 1950s to the 1980s from the CTT vault. Featuring an ident based on the Screen Gems TV logo from the 1950s, the program was cancelled in 2001, due in part to the recent re-activation of Screen Gems (this time as a feature film company). That same year in 1999, TriStar TV was folded into CTT after The Nanny on CBS and Mad About You on NBC and went off the air, but TriStar still kept its name on the copyrights of CBS's Early Edition, which got cancelled and ended its name in 2000. Meanwhile, CTT took over the production of Malcolm & Eddie on UPN.
2000 saw CTT and CTTD experiment with two High Definition variations of their logos. It was later a success in 2001 by creating Columbia TriStar Domestic Television.
The end of Columbia Pictures Television
In early 2001, SPE decided to retire CPT and it was folded into CTT, however, SPE kept the name CPT Holdings on The Young and the Restless. That same year, CTT and CTTD merged to create Columbia TriStar Domestic Television (CTDT).
Between July and September 2002, Sony Pictures announced that it would change its TV subsidiary from CTDT to Sony Pictures Television.
CPT Holdings, Inc.
CPT Holdings, Inc. was introduced in 1974 as a copyrighting name and the holder for classic shows for Columbia Pictures Television from recent buyouts. It is currently a service mark of Sony Pictures Television
Other than its own series Designing Women and its daytime drama The Young and the Restless, the company holds What's Happening!!, The Joker's Wild, incarnations from Pyramid, The Dating Game, The Newlywed Game, and 3's a Crowd.
During the years of Columbia Pictures Television, the company identified itself in the credits as Columbia Pictures Television, CPT Holdings, Inc., Columbia Pictures Television, Inc. and Columbia Pictures Television Distribution.
Colex Enterprises
Colex Enterprises was created in 1984 as a partnership between CPT and Lexington Broadcast Services Co. The venture ended in 1988 and was succeeded by CPTD, which was succeeded in 1995 by CTTD, then in 2001 by CTDT which is now known as SPT since 2002.
Colex was most popularly known for distributing classic shows from the libraries of Screen Gems and CPT.
See also
External links
|
| |
|
|
