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For the company that now owns United Artists Television, see United Artists. For the company that was acquired by United Artists Television in 1956, see Associated Artists Productions.

United Artists Television was an American television production/distribution company of United Artists Corporation that was formed in 1956. The company is famous for producing shows such as The Outer Limits, Gilligan's Island, The Fugitive, thirtysomething, and The Patty Duke Show.

UA purchased Associated Artists Productions ("a.a.p.") in 1958, giving UA access to the pre-1948 Warner Bros. library and the Popeye cartoons made by Fleischer Studios and Famous Studios between 1933 and 1957.

In 1960, United Artists purchased Ziv Television Programs, including the 20% share still held by chair of the board, Frederick Ziv, and president, John L. Sinn, for $20 million. The newly merged production company was renamed Ziv-United Artists.

United Artists had never been very successful in television, having placed only two series in prime time, The Troubleshooters (1959—1960) and The Dennis O’Keefe Show (1959—1960'). This pattern continued after the merger. Ziv-UA produced 12 pilots during the first year and failed to sell any of them.

In 1962, the company phased out Ziv Television operations and changed its name back to United Artists Television. After The Mothers-in-Law was cancelled in 1969, the company decided to focus presenting their movie library on television and reruning their classics after years of still not being successful on television.

In 1981, MGM merged with UA to create MGM/UA Entertainment Co. As a result, their respective television units combined as well, becoming MGM/UA Entertainment Co. Television (or just simply MGM/UA Television) in 1982. The "United Artists Television" logo was eventually phased out around 1983 in favor of the "MGM/UA Television" banner, although UA itself continued to produce television shows until 1995.

Ownership of properties

Today, MGM Television continues to own the rights to most of the programs originally produced and/or distributed by UATV. However there are exceptions:

• Turner Entertainment acquired Gilligan's Island and the a.a.p. library in 1986, as part of a failed takeover of all of MGM/UA (also included were MGM's own pre-1986 library and certain rights to most of the RKO Pictures library). Turner merged with Time Warner in 1996, and today, Warner Bros. handles distribution rights to the Turner library.

• The Fugitive and East Side/West Side are now owned by CBS Paramount Television/CBS Studios, the former in tandem with Republic Pictures. TV distribution rights are handled by CBSPT subdivision CBS Television Distribution, and CBS Home Entertainment/Paramount Home Entertainment handles DVD rights.
  • The Fugitive was co-produced with QM Productions, and after the initial run of the series, ancillary rights were reverted to QM. Syndication rights were sold to ABC Films, which in 1973 became Worldvision Enterprises. Both of these companies would be bought by Taft Broadcasting in 1979. Worldvision would be subsequently acquired by Great American Broadcasting and then Spelling Entertainment. The latter company was sold to Viacom in 1999, thus Paramount Television assumed distribution rights to The Fugitive (Viacom had bought Paramount Pictures in 1994). After Viacom split into two companies (one called CBS Corporation, the other retaining the Viacom name), the former company took over PTV.
  • East Side/West Side was co-produced with (and after the initial run, owned by) the CBS network, and thus syndication rights were initially handled by CBS Films. That company became Viacom Enterprises in 1971, and spun off two years later when the FCC passed the fin-syn laws. VE continued distribution until 1994, when, as aforementioned, Viacom bought Paramount Pictures, thus merging VE into Paramount Domestic Television (later CBS Paramount Domestic Television and CBSTVD).

Notable United Artists shows

• The Troubleshooters (1959-1960)
• The Dennis O’Keefe Show (1959-1960)
• Men Into Space (1959-1960)
• Aquanauts (1960)
• Miami Undercover (1961)
• Hollywood and the Stars (1963)
• The Human Jungle (1963-1964)
• The New Phil Silvers Show (1963-1964)
• East Side/West Side (1963-1964)
• The Patty Duke Show (1963-1966)
• The Fugitive (1963-1967)
• The Outer Limits (1963-1965)
• The Unknown (1964, show was included in syndication package of The Outer Limits)
• Gilligan's Island (1964-1967)
• The Hollywood Palace (1964-1970)
• Kibbee Hates Fitch (1965)
• The Incredible World of James Bond (television special, 1965)
• My Mother The Car (1965-1966)
• O.K. Crackerby! (1965-1966}
• Mona McCluskey (1965-1966)
• The Milton Berle Show (1966-1967)
• Hey, Landlord (1966-1967)
• The Pink Panther Show (1969-1979)
• Rat Patrol (1966-1968)
• Welcome To Japan, Mr. Bond (1967, television special)
• The Mothers-In-Law (1967-1969)
• The Pink Panther in: A Pink Christmas (1978, television special)
• James Bond: The First 25 Years (1983, television special)
• thirtysomething (1987-1991)
• James Bond Jr. (1991-1992) (owns the copyright with Danjaq)

References

• United Artists Television (us) at imdb.com

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• This page was last modified on 5 October 2008, at 12:13.

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