MTMization of Media (or Mimsie Goes Forth or Mary Tyler Megacorp)

Imagine an alternative universe where MTM Enterprises stayed independent and if there was no such thing as TVS Entertainment and International Family Entertainment, but MTM began to take over other properties. This is what should have happened in our real universe, instead of MTM being killed by Fox like New World and MetroMedia were. (After Disney buys Fox, they should kill the Fox name, rename TCF Pictures to a revived Hollywood Pictures, merge TCF Home Entertainment with Disney Home Entertainment, and rename TCFTV, 20thTV, and Fox21 TV Studios to revived versions of New World, Buena Vista TV, and MTM, respectively, to give Fox a taste of their own medicine.)

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Towards the end of December 1988, MTM needed an animation studio in its properties so it could compete with other companies; in that case, they made a deal that made MTM take over Hanna-Barbera from Great American Broadcasting, thus preventing it from closing down in 2001, though in 2006 however, HB ceased to exist due to the sudden death of Joe Barbera and was merged into MTM Animation Studios, with archive programmes retaining the HB name. The old logo was kept, but a byline was added.

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On the 18th July 1987, MTM agreed to buy Lorimar-Telepictures. On August 13th of that year, the 1986-1987 "fireworks" logo was confined to history. And in its place, the MTM kitten.

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Rankin-Bass struggled to survive, but eventually gave in to the bosses at MTM on 2nd March 1988. The following day, this horror, basically the MTM Kitten logo with a Rankin-Bass copyright stamp, was seen, which was, in reality, the end of RB. On 6th September 1989, MTM erased all references to Rankin-Bass off the screen, and that was that. After more than 25 years, Rankin-Bass was no more. Now, it was known merely as MTM Animation Studios. The name does live on though in RB's extensive TV special library, but production has been subsumed within the MTM behemoth.

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In 1988, Coca-Cola, which owned Columbia Pictures and a few other production companies, wanted to take over MTM, but MTM refused to be taken over and instead took over Columbia and Coca-Cola Television from Coke, thus adding more properties to the MTM line-up. As a result, Coke Telecommunications was renamed into MTM Distribution, and Televentures was forced to retire their "gold T/" logo and adopt the MTM Kitten logo, as well as being renamed "MTM Televentures". On 6th September 1989, the Televentures name was confined to history and the company was absorbed into MTM Distribution.

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Embassy Television was also a victim of 'MTMization' and was forced to retire its "spinning E" ident, rename itself to "MTM Embassy Television", and adopt its own version of the kitten ident. On 6th September 1989, Embassy was absorbed into MTM Enterprises.

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Merv Griffin was also struck down by MTMization and his company was forced to rename itself "MTM Griffin Productions" and replace its "griffon" logo with its version of the new parent company's kitten ident. On 6th September 1989, MTM Griffin was absorbed into MTM Enterprises.

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MTM was eager to "MTMize" its new acquisitions to the extent of killing the old brand. TriStar and its pegasus logo were sacrificed on the altar of the new parent company to create MTM Films. This wasn't just a cosmetic name change. The MTM presentation style was stamped on the company. It had worked with Televentures, Embassy, and Griffin, so why not with Tri-Star?

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The fourth Coke subsidiary to join the MTM family was Columbia. The original plan had been to do away with the Columbia name altogether and rebrand as 'MTM Films', but research indicated that goodwill towards Columbia would mean resistance to such a radical move. But while the name was saved, Columbia's "torch lady" logo, and unfortunately many of its staff, were rejected in favour of 'MTMization', as it was unofficially known. MTM forced Columbia to replace the "Coke Bottle Torch Lady" ident with the long film version of MTM's kitten ident, but with "COLUMBIA PICTURES" instead of "FILMS, INC.". MTM then removed the Columbia name from everything on 6th September 1989.

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In 1991, MTM Industries acquired Lexington Broadcasting Services and decided to re-name the expanded company "MTM Communications." From January 1st 1992, the old MTM logo and familiar stylized L-B-S were replaced with a new version of the kitten ident.

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Oh, no, the big monster that is MTMization has arrived at the house of Worldvision! MTM Entertainment launched a hostile takeover bid for Blockbuster Video in 1994 and it was successful. As a result, Worldvision (now MTM Worldvision Inc.) dropped its Whoosh Globe logo and adopted its version of the MTM Kitten logo, and the Blockbuster Video stores themselves were sold to Viacom. On 6th September 1995, after the World Vision charity sued MTM for not including the "Not affiliated with.." disclaimer in the MTMized Worldvision logo, Worldvision was merged into MTM Distribution, creating an unified on-screen brand.

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Even good ol' Republic Pictures didn't escape. The company was forced to drop its "eagle/mountain" logo, renamed itself to "MTM Republic Pictures", and adopted its own version of the MTM kitten graphic package. On 6th September 1995, Republic lost its identity and was merged into MTM Films.

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In February 1995, MTM needed another childrens company in its line-up so they made a deal with Capital Cities ABC, as a result, DiC became part of MTM Enterprises. At the same time, the DiC Vortex logo was brought back. However, a print version of the MTM Kitten crept in below the DiC legend. Did hard-core logospotters care about this? They did, and they complained that MTM was assimilating companies.

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On March 5th 1999, MTM took one step closer to renaming DiC; this time the MTM Kitten was moved to above the DiC legend and made bigger and full-colour. By 2000, DiC was absorbed into MTM Animation Studios.

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Cookie Jar had been a long time in coming. Cinar had been plagued by corruption. A new remit had failed to get off the starting blocks for quite some time and, when the relaunch as Cookie Jar finally got the go ahead, a new logo was devised, with a stylized cookie jar. The "cookie jar" logo never made it to the screen, of course, because as soon as Cookie Jar formally launched, the MTM umbrella brand was in the process of taking over. So, Cookie Jar's version of the MTM kitten logo was the one that launched the new company. Unfortunately, just seventeen months after the launch, MTM Cookie Jar was merged into MTM Animation Studios.

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In 1998, MTM acquired Argosy Media and the company (now MTM Argosy Media) was forced to remove its "big A" logo and its mascot Aaron the Cat in favour of an "MTMized" vanity plate with Mimsie the Kitten. After that, on 6th September 1999, Argosy was officially absorbed into MTM Enterprises.

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Oh My God, even the largest Swedish film company got MTMized. Svensk Filmindustri was acquired by MTM in 1998 and this was the result: the company, now MTM Svensk Filmindustri, ditched its "SF" logo and adopted its own version of the MTM Films kitten logo. On 6th September 1999, the Svensk Filmindustri name was consigned into history, and replaced by MTM Films Nordic.

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This was UPN's 1998 ident, shortly after Paramount sold the network to MTM. The blocks just faded in to the centre. This was at a time where MTM was slowly taking over UPN affiliates and was giving strict rules about identity for independent affiliates.

"You will not place your own identity over the UPN identity. UPN is a network and we do not want any inconsistencies between UPN affliated stations. It is time for networks to have a unified identity and not many inconsistent identities, especially for affiliates who think it is right to put their own identities over the name of the network who has ALLOWED their programming to be shown on their station."

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And the inevitable happened. In 1999, UPN was now known as United MTM Network (on-screen, just "MTM Network"). Here's a local ident from MTM Network New Jersey (WWOR).

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What if MTM Network decided to expand to Canada? They would take-over a cash-strapped CTV network in 2002... And what if MTM Canada (as the new network would be known) was to expand to the north (the real CTV doesn't have stations in north Canada)? Well, here goes:

In 2001, Bell Globemedia found itself in a bit of financial trouble, as CTV was losing money hand over fist, mostly due to competition from Global. Bell decided to cut their losses by putting CTV up on the market. Meanwhile, seeing how several US companies already had cable stations in Canada, MTM was pondering on how to get an MTM-branded station on the other side of the border, because although MTM programming had already established somewhat of a foothold in Canada, most of it was syndicated.

Upon hearing about the sale of CTV, MTM and TELUS (a Canadian telecom company) set up the Canadian MTM Television Co. (with TELUS owning 51%, thereby obliging by CRTC regulations), and after the CMTC bought out CTV, they decided to make a complete rehaul of the network: After the night of April 30, 2002, the network would be renamed MTM Canada.

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When the bigwigs at MTM took over ITV plc in 2018, the 2013 ITV wordmark faded away forever, to be replaced with ITV's own take on MTM Network's idents. On 6th September 2018, "ITV", three letters that were the best known letters for a UK TV network, were deleted. In their place, the MTM Network name of all names! Oh dear!

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MTM also, when they bought ITV plc, bought UTV. They got the idents at about the same time as ITV in England and Wales did, and also changed to MTM Network at the same time.

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