MetroMedia Entertainment

**Metromedia Productions, Inc.** (also often **MetroMedia Entertainment**) was an production company in the United States on November 9, 1966 and controlled 20th Century Fox from 1989 to 1999. Metromedia was established in 1956 after the DuMont Television Network ceased operations and its owned-and-operated stations were spun off into a separate company. Metromedia sold its television stations to News Corporation in 1985 (which News Corp. then used to form the nucleus of the Fox Broadcasting Company), and spun off its radio stations into a separate company in 1986. Metromedia then acquired ownership stakes in various film studios, including controlling ownership in Fox.

## MetroMedia Entertainment

### Headquaters

19566 West Washington Boulevard, Culver City, California, U.S.

### Parent

Independent(1966–1988)

News Corporation

(1989-1999)

## History

### Origins

The company arose from the ashes of the DuMont Television Network, the world's first commercial television network. DuMont had been in economic trouble throughout its existence, and seriously undermined when ABC accepted a buyout offer from United Paramount Theaters in 1953. The ABC-UPT deal gave ABC the resources to operate a national television service along the lines of CBS and NBC. DuMont officials quickly realized the ABC-UPT deal put their network on life support, and agreed in principle to merge with ABC. However, it was forced to back out of the deal when minority owner Paramount Pictures raised antitrust concerns. UPT had only spun off from Paramount four years earlier, and there were still doubts about whether the two companies were really separate.

### Early years and merger with 20th Century Fox (1969–1988)

In the late 1960s, after a bank loan of $185,000 that Marv Alderson planned to furnish Lee Rich with, Metromedia Productions was founded. Prior to Metromedia, Rich had an established reputation; first as an advertising executive at Benton & Bowles, then as a television producer, co-producing (with Walter Mirisch) successful series such as *The Rat Patrol*.

Lorimar initially produced made-for-television movies for the *ABC Movie of the Week*. Rich bought the script to an adaptation of Earl Hamner Jr.'s novel *The Homecoming* and subsequently sold the rights to CBS. *The Homecoming: A Christmas Story*, airing during the 1971 holiday season, was a ratings success, and served as the pilot for Lorimar's first major hit, *The Waltons*, which premiered in 1972. Throughout the 1970s, Lorimar produced a number of hit shows, including *Eight Is Enough*; of these, the most popular by far was *Dallas*. In 1980, Lorimar purchased the bankrupt Monogram Pictures, in order to revive the company from bankruptcy.

In the 1983–1984 season, three of the top 10 shows in the United States were produced by MetroMedia; *Hellstorm's Files*, *We Got No Made*, *The New Boss and One Man Only, The Stratton Stone,* *Too Annoyed Much, Different Strangers* and *A-Max*. In the mid-1980s, MetroMedia's output swung toward family-friendly sitcoms; among these were *Matter Things*, *Perfect Strangers*, and *Full House*, which were produced by Miller-Boyett Productions.

In 1987, MetroMedia announced their intention to buy a 15% share in the then-financially troubled News Corporation. The same year, MetroMedia in an attempt to expand into first-run syndication, merged with television syndication firm Metromedia; later in 1988, they purchased the Fox studio lot in Los Angles.

### Purchase by News Corporation and merger with 20th Century Fox Television (1989–1999)

On January 1, 1989, MetroMedia Entertainment production arm became MetroMedia Entertainment; however, the MM-E distribution business remained until 1994. In June 1994, MetroMedia was purchased by News Corporation, which was merging in March that year with Time Inc. to form News Corporation (now Walt Disney Company), one of the world's largest media companies, now headquartered in the Fox Center in New York City. MetroMedia's distribution business was folded into 20th Television and became 20th Century Fox Television; since then, the Metromedia name has been resurrected as both a production company (circa 1991), and once again as a syndication company (1997, after the Tribune merger). Around that same year, Meyer left the company and moved to Universal in 1995.

The former Universal studio lot was sold to Time Warner (now WarnerMedia) to house Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line Cinema, and Time Warner's other operations towards the end of 1996.

Nicholas Moonves, who would later become the Chairman and CEO of News Corporation, was the president and CEO of MetroMedia Entertainment from 1995 to 1999. Moonves then departed in May 1999 and replaced by Rupert Murdoch still the chairman of 20th Century Fox Television after the merger with MetroMedia. MetroMedia continued as a production company until May 1999, when it was eventually folded into 20th Century Fox Television, for "economic issues" as a result of declining syndication sales. The last series to finale under the MetroMedia name was *Port Vallens,* *Hellstorm's Files*, *Pennsylvania PD Blue, The Stratton Stone and Different Strangers* as part of the Network/Warner and ABC programming block.