Turner Entertainment

**Turner Entertainment Company, Inc.** (commonly known as **Turner Entertainment Co.**) is a media company founded by Ted Turner. Purchased by Time Warner, along with Turner Broadcasting System, the company was largely responsible for overseeing its library for worldwide distribution. In recent years, this role has largely been limited to being the copyright holder, as the library has since been incorporated into that of Turner Broadcasting's sibling company Warner Bros.

## Background

On March 25, 1986, Ted Turner and his Turner Broadcasting System purchased MGM from Kirk Kerkorian for $600 million, and renamed it **MGM Entertainment Company, Inc.** However, due to concerns in the financial community over the debt-load of his companies, on August 26, 1986, he was forced to sell MGM back to Kerkorian for approximately $300 million. However, Turner kept MGM's film, television and cartoon library as well as a proportion of United Artists library, forming **Turner Entertainment Company, Inc.** The library also included the pre-1950 Warner Bros. titles, the Fleischer Studios/Famous Studios *Popeye* cartoons originally released by Paramount Pictures, the US/Canadian/Latin American/Australian distribution rights to the RKO Radio Pictures library, and *Gilligan's Island* and its animated spin-offs. In December 1987, Turner acquired the worldwide rights through license, to 800 RKO films from its then-parent company Wesray Capital Corporation.

On October 3, 1988, Turner Broadcasting launched the TNT network, and later Turner Classic Movies to use their former MGM/UA library. In doing so, Turner has played a major part in film preservation and restoration. By broadcasting such classic films as *The Wizard of Oz*, *Casablanca*, *Singin' in the Rain*, *Gone with the Wind*, *Citizen Kane*, *King Kong*, *Easter Parade* and the original *The Jazz Singer*, on numerous Turner affiliated cable channels, as well as in showing them in revival movie houses and home video around the world, Turner introduces a new generation to these films and makes sure these films are not forgotten.

On November 29, 1989, Turner made another attempt to buy MGM/UA, but the deal failed, and Turner formed Turner Pictures and Turner Pictures Worldwide instead.

In 1991, Turner purchased Hanna-Barbera Productions, most of the pre-1991 Ruby-Spears Productions library, and *Man from Atlantis* from Great American Broadcasting.  Shortly after Turner Broadcasting launched Cartoon Network, and later Boomerang, to use its vast animation library.

In 1993, Turner purchased Castle Rock Entertainment and New Line Cinema.

Turner Entertainment self-distributed much of its library for the first decade of its existence, but on 10 October 1996, Turner Broadcasting was purchased by Time Warner and its distribution functions were largely absorbed into Warner Bros. and as a result, Turner now largely serves merely as a copyright holder for a portion of the Warner Bros. library. Hanna-Barbera's current purpose as the in-name only unit of Warner Bros. Animation is to serve as the copyright holder for its creations such as *The Flintstones*, *Scooby-Doo* and *Yogi Bear* while Time Warner's divisions handle sales and merchandising.

## Production company

Turner Entertainment, as a production company, also creates original in-house programming, such as documentaries about the films it owns, new animated material based on *Tom & Jerry* and other related cartoon properties, and once produced made-for-TV movies, miniseries, and theatrical films such as *Tom and Jerry: The Movie*, *The Pagemaster* and *Cats Don't Dance* under the **Turner Pictures** banner. Turner also had an international distribution sales unit, **Turner Pictures Worldwide Distribution**. Turner Pictures folded into Warner Bros. after the Turner-Time Warner merger, and currently holds the distribution rights to the films made by the production division.

*The Pagemaster* and *Cats Don't Dance* were produced under **Turner Feature Animation**, Turner's animation unit headed by David Kirschner and Paul Gertz. Spun off from the feature division of Hanna-Barbera Productions, Turner Feature Animation was folded into Warner Bros. Feature Animation, which was then merged into Warner Bros. Animation.

Turner also had a television unit called Turner Program Services which had run until 1996 when it was rebranded as Telepictures Distribution which distributed *Mama's Family* and all TPS shows after 1996. In 2003 Telepictures Distribution was folded into Warner Bros. Television Distribution which meant Telepictures took over all series that were first run and distributed by TD.

## Home video

In the first decade of its existence, Turner released most of its own catalogue on home video through **Turner Home Entertainment** (THE). However, the MGM and Warner film libraries which Turner owned were still distributed by MGM/UA Home Video along with THE until their rights expired in 1999, while THE handled the home video distribution of titles from the RKO library. THE released films produced by Turner Pictures on home video with their distributors and independently released the Hanna-Barbera cartoon library on home video. THE also released World Champion Wrestling pay-per-view events, wrestler profiles, and "Best Of" packages on video until the demise of WCW in 2001; the WCW video library, along with WCW itself, were sold to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now known as WWE) in March 2001. From 1994 to early 1997, THE also distributed home video releases from New Line Home Video, taking over from Columbia TriStar Home Video as well as PBS programs (taking over from the defunct Pacific Arts). NLHE distributed New Line films on video by itself from 1997 until the Warner Bros./New Line Cinema merger in 2008. PBS shows are now distributed on video and DVD by PBS's own distribution company, PBS Distribution. In 1994, THE entered a distribution deal with Columbia Tristar Home Video in the UK until the deal expired in 1997 (although some films released on VHS by THE are distributed in the UK by First Independent Films). Upon the Turner-Time Warner in 1996, THE was absorbed into Warner Home Video as an in-name-only unit in December 1996. However, Turner Classic Movies does release special edition DVD boxsets of films from both the Turner and Warner catalogs under the TCM label. (Some magazines like *Starlog* when listing upcoming releases from Warner related to Cartoon Network programming listed it as being released by THE, likely to differentiate it from other, adult-oriented titles.)

## Library

Turner Entertainment's current library includes:

* Nearly all of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's film, television and cartoon library released prior to May 23, 1986 ending with the film *Killer Party* released on May 9, 1986. This includes *The Wizard of Oz*, *Gone with the Wind*, *Singin' in The Rain*, *Ben-Hur*, *Doctor Zhivago*, *A Christmas Story* and *Tom and Jerry*, amongst others.
* Material from MGM's predecessors that did not enter the public domain, such as *Wild Oranges*.
* Some material inherited from United Artists.
	+ The US and Canadian distribution rights to the RKO Radio Pictures library; including *King Kong*, *Bringing Up Baby* and *Citizen Kane*.
	+ The former Associated Artists Productions catalogue.
		- Warner Bros. library released prior to January 1, 1950.
			* Pre-1950 Warner Bros. feature films such as *The Jazz Singer*, *Mystery of The Wax Museum*, *The Adventures of Robin Hood*, *The Maltese Falcon*, *Casablanca*, *Yankee Doodle Dandy*, *Now, Voyager* and *The Treasure of the Sierra Madre*.
			* Pre-September 1948 Warner Bros. live-action short films.
			* Pre-August 1948 color *Looney Tunes*/*Merrie Melodies*.
			* Harman and Ising *Merrie Melodies* (except *Lady, Play Your Mandolin!*)
		- The Fleischer Studios/Famous Studios *Popeye* cartoons, originally released by Paramount Pictures.
	+ *Gilligan's Island* and its animated spin-offs (*The New Adventures of Gilligan* and *Gilligan's Planet*).
* Almost all the Hanna-Barbera Productions library, including *Huckleberry Hound*, *Yogi Bear*, *The Flintstones*, *The Jetsons*, *Scooby-Doo*, and *The Smurfs*.
	+ Almost all the Pre-1991 Ruby-Spears Productions library, such as *Mr. T*.
* The distribution rights to Castle Rock Entertainment's post-1993 library.