WARNER BROS. TELEVISION

'Warner Bros. Television' is the television production and distribution arm of Time Warner's Warner Bros. Entertainment and The CW Television Network (in which Warner has a 50% ownership stake).

Contents

History and Production

Partial list of programs produced by WBTV

See also

References

History and Production

The division was started in 1955 with its first and most successful head being Jack Warner's son-in-law William T. Orr. ABC television had major success against its competition with Walt Disney's Disneyland TV series and approached Warner Brothers intially with the idea of purchasing the Warner Brothers film library (Warner Brothers sold the rights to the negatives of 750 films and over 1500 shorts to Associate Artists Productions in 1956^[1] with the premiere of its self-titled anthology series ''Warner Bros. Presents'' on ABC Television. The one hour weekly show featured rotating episodes of television series based on Warner Brothers films, ''Casablanca'', ''King's Row'', and ''Cheyenne''. The last with Clint Walker was the first one hour television western and became a bit hit for the network and the studio that led Warner Brothers to produce many series for ABC such as Westerns ''(Maverick'', ''Lawman'', ''Colt .45'', ''Bronco'', ''Sugarfoot'', and ''The Alaskans''), private detective shows (''77 Sunset Strip'', ''Hawaiian Eye'', ''Bourbon Street Beat'', and ''Surfside Six'', and other shows such as ''The Gallant Men'' and ''The Roaring 20's''. Warner Brothers also produced Jack Webb's ''Red Nightmare'' for the US Department of Defense that was later shown on American television on Jack Webb's ''General Electric True''. All shows were made in the manner of Warner Brothers B pictures in the 30's and 40's, fast paced, lots of stock footage from other films, stock music from the Warners music library and contracted stars working long hours for comparitively small salaries with restrictions on their career. Two of the most popular stars, James Garner and Clint Walker quit over their conditions, though Garner never returned to the Warner's fold.
The streak of identifiable series subsided in 1963 with a halt of using stock company (acting) contract players and Jack Webb taking over Warner Brothers television from and not being successful. However, many series were still filmed at Warner Brothers such as ''F-Troop'' and ''The F.B.I. (TV series)''.^[2]
In 1988, it acquired Lorimar-Telepictures. Telepictures was later absorbed into WBTV's distribution unit, and in the late 1990s, came back as a secondary syndication arm. In 1993, Lorimar Television was absorbed into WBTV.
In 2006, WBTV made its vast library of programs available for free viewing on the Internet (through sister company AOL's IN2TV service), with ''Welcome Back Kotter'' as its marquee offering. Some of these programs have not been seen publicly since their last syndicated release in the 1980s.

Partial list of programs produced by WBTV

'Live action'

★ ''Pushing Daisies'' (premieres on ABC this fall)

★ ''Maverick'' (1957-1962)

★ ''77 Sunset Strip'' (1958-1964)

★ ''F Troop'' (1965-1967)

★ ''The F.B.I.'' (1965-1974)

★ ''Kung Fu'' (1972-1975)

★ ''Alice'' (1976-1985)

★ ''The Dukes of Hazzard'' (1979-1985)

★ ''Love, Sidney'' (1981-1983)

★ ''Scarecrow and Mrs. King'' (1983-1987)

★ ''V'' (1984-1985)

★ ''Night Court'' (1984-1992)

★ ''Growing Pains'' (1985-1992)

★ ''Spenser For Hire'' (1985-1988)

★ ''Head of the Class'' (1986-1991)

★ ''Perfect Strangers'' (1986-1993)

★ ''The Hogan Family'' (1986-1991)

★ ''Full House'' (1987-1995)

★ ''Murphy Brown'' (1988-1998)

★ ''Just the Ten of Us'' (1988-1991)

★ ''Tales from the Crypt'' (1989-1996)

★ ''Family Matters'' (1989-1998)

★ ''Life Goes On'' (1989-1993)

★ ''The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air'' (1990-1996) (distr.)

★ ''The Flash'' (1990-1991)

★ ''Step By Step'' (1991-1997)

★ ''Hangin' with Mr. Cooper'' (1992-1997)

★ ''Living Single'' (1993-1998)

★ ''Tales from the Cryptkeeper'' (1993-1999)

★ ''ER'' (1994-present)

★ ''Friends'' (1994-2004)

★ ''Babylon 5'' (1993-1999)

★ ''Free Willy'' (1994-1995)

★ ''MADtv'' (1995-present)

★ ''The Drew Carey Show'' (1995-2004)

★ ''The Wayans Bros.'' (1995-1999)

★ ''The Parent 'Hood'' (1995-1999)

★ ''Road Rovers'' (1996-1997)

★ ''Waynehead'' (1996-1997)

★ ''Two of a Kind'' (1998-1999)

★ ''Sex and the City'' (1998-2004) (distr.)

★ ''Jesse (1998-2000)

★ ''The West Wing'' (1999-2006)

★ ''Gilmore Girls'' (2000-2007)

★ ''Without a Trace'' (2002-present)

★ ''What I Like About You'' (2002-2006)

★ ''Everwood'' (2002-2006)

★ ''Two and a Half Men'' (2003-present)

★ ''The O.C.'' (2003-2007)

★ ''One Tree Hill'' (2003-present)

★ ''Cold Case'' (2003-present)

★ ''Joey'' (2004-2006)

★ ''Twins'' (2005-2006)

★ ''The War at Home'' (2005-2007)

★ ''The Class'' (2006-2007)

★ ''Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip'' (2006-2007)

★ ''Gossip Girl (TV series)(Co-produced with CBS Paramount Television) (premieres on The CW this fall)

★ ''Aliens in America(Co-produced with CBS Paramount Television) (premieres on The CW this fall)

★ '' Life is Wild(Co-produced with CBS Paramount Television) (premieres on The CW this fall)

See also

★ Warner Bros. Television Distribution

References

Woolley, Lynn, Malsbar, Robert, Strange Jr, Robert G ''Warner Brothers Television: Every Show of the Fifties and Sixties Episode-By-Episode'' McFarland Company (1985)