Universal Pictures

Universal Pictures, later often known as simply Universal, is a major film studio and the oldest surviving in the United States, founded in 1912. As with so many other studios, it underwent mergers in later decades with MCA and NBC but still remains a major media conglomerate and film and television production company.
Universal made its mark in the silent era with its prestige "Jewel" movies. Its most famous silent movie came just a few years before sound entered the picture, 1925's The Phantom of the Opera. While the studio continued to produce big budget, high gloss dramas such as All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), Phantom foreshadowed what would become the studio's niche in the 1930s and 1940s, horror movies. Beginning with Tod Browning's Dracula (1931, with Bela Lugosi), monster movies became to Universal what musicals were to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The classic Universal Horror roster included Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, The Wolf Man, Creature from the Black Lagoon, and various sequels and cross-overs.
In the 1940s, Universal also utilized the comedy team of Abbott and Costello (who eventually crossed over with the monsters themselves) and the cartoon shorts of Woody Woodpecker. Alfred Hitchcock made two movies for the studio in this time, Saboteur and Shadow of a Doubt, After partnering for his television series with Universal's later TV division (which produced Leave It to Beaver and The Munsters), Hitchcock's later films, from Psycho onward, were all through Universal.
Continuing into the seventies and onward, Steven Spielberg was closely associated with Universal (from Jaws to Jurassic Park and others), while TV output included famed detective shows like Columbo and Murder She Wrote. A popular backlot tour was established in 1964 and eventually gave birth to the Universal Studios theme parks franchise.
Due to the 1981 sale of ITC's American distribution arm to Universal Pictures (including its library and then in-production titles), Universal was the US distributor of the Jim Henson movie The Dark Crystal and for theatrical reissues of The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper."Universal Pictures to Market Films from AFD." The New York Times. February 24, 1981. The studio occasionally released films using Creature Shop Effects as well, such as The Flintstones. 
Portions of 2011's The Muppets were shot on the Universal backlot (and Universal's sound facilities receive credit). The most notable Universal stage used was the famous original The Phantom of the Opera stage, which The Muppet Theater was built into.The Muppets Production notes. In promotional interview footage, Uncle Deadly claimed to be haunting the stage, Stage 28, alternating with the original Phantom of the Opera during the weekdays. 
==References== 
* An opening logo gag from The Last Remake of Beau Geste (where Marty Feldman destroys the globe) was used in the seventh season Muppet Babies episode "...At the Movies." This time, Baby Fozzie stumbles in and does the damage by accident.
* In the pre-show to Sesame Street 4-D Movie Magic, Prairie Dawn's film ("Prairie and the Pretty Space Ponies") opens with a makeshift spoof of the opening logo, with Prairie hovering a handheld "Prairie Dawn Pictures" sign over a spinning globe.
* The "Cookie's Crumby Pictures" intro spoofs the Universal globe with a giant rotating cookie (which Cookie Monster consumes).
==Sources==
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