Lorimar-Telepictures
Lorimar-Telepictures Corporation was an entertainment company established in 1985 with the merger of Lorimar Productions, Inc. and Telepictures Corporation. Headquartered at the former Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (now Sony Pictures Studios) in Culver City, California, its assets included television production and syndication (which operated under the Lorimar-Telepictures name), feature films, home video, and broadcasting. History. The merger of Lorimar-Telepictures was announced on October 7, 1985, by Merv Adelson. On February 19, 1986, the merger was complete. Lee Rich, one of the other founders of Lorimar, sold his shares in 1986 and left the company. In  1987, Lorimar-Telepictures decided to launch separate divisions with brand logos, which are Lorimar Television for network television production, Lorimar Syndication for broadcast and off-net syndication, and Lorimar International for television distribution, with Lorimar-Telepictures being the parent company of the groups. Both had used Lorimar as operating names starting on January 19, 1987. It is reported that Robert Rosenbaum was named vice president of production at the Lorimar Television unit. Also that year, it faced a $21.7 million loss from the studio. On January 11, 1989, Warner Communications acquired Lorimar-Telepictures after shaking off the hostile takeover  of the company. List of films/programs produced/distributed by Lorimar-Telepictures. Note: All series listed here are now owned and distributed by Warner Bros. Television Studios with a few exceptions. Lorimar-Telepictures also distributed most of the pre-1990 DIC Entertainment and Saban Entertainment series in international markets; most of the DIC series are currently distributed by WildBrain, and most of the Saban series are currently distributed by Disney–ABC Domestic Television. Broadcasting. Beginning in 1985, Telepictures had owned and operated multiple television stations – mostly in smaller markets, and when Lorimar and Telepictures merged in 1986, those stations carried over  with the merger. Also, the merged company attempted to buy two more stations – then-third-party CBS network affiliate WTVJ in Miami-Fort Lauderdale, Florida (then-owned by Wometco Enterprises) and then-independent station WTTV in Indianapolis, Indiana and its satellite WTTK in Kokomo, Indiana, then-locally owned by Tel-Am Corporation. However, both attempts failed miserably, with CBS threatening to pull its affiliation from WTVJ – which would have forcibly turned the station into an independent, and as for WTTV and WTTK, those station were eventually sold to Capitol Broadcasting Company, based out of Raleigh, North Carolina. Today, WTVJ operates  as an NBC network owned-and-operated station and WTTV and WTTK operate as CBS network affiliates owned and operated by Nexstar Media Group, ironically uniting them with former LTP station KMID. Also in 1985, the company attempted to buy Multimedia, which at the time, owned and operated eight television stations and fifteen radio stations. In 1986, private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts attempted to sell to Lorimar-Telepictures six of the seven television stations it acquired from Storer Broadcasting, but like its attempts in acquiring WTVJ, WTTV and WTTK, both deals fell through with the Storer stations ultimately being  sold to George N. Gillett Jr. in 1987. As for Multimedia, it was bought out by and absorbed into the Gannett in 1995, and its entire television division was eventually spun off into another company, Tegna Inc. in 2015.