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72-516: It was formerly known by various names, including Revue Studios , Universal Pictures Television Department , Universal-International Television , Studios USA Television LLC , Universal Studios Network Programming , Universal Network Television , Universal Domestic Television , NBC Universal Television Studio , and Universal Media Studios . It is also known as Open 4 Business Productions in copyright in certain television series produced by them since 2009. Re-established in 2004, both NBC Studios and

144-634: A merger that April. Decca at the time owned Coral Records and Brunswick Records , and an 89% stake in Universal Pictures Company, Inc. On July 13, 1962, the United States Department of Justice filed suit against MCA, charging that its acquisition of Decca's controlling interest in Universal violated antitrust laws. To retain Universal, MCA would have to close its talent agency, which represented most of

216-509: A 50% stake of Brillstein-Grey Entertainment in 1996 for $ 75 to $ 100 million, and included distribution rights to then-new BGE programming such as Alright Already , and does not include older BGE programs that was grandfathered by the Columbia TriStar distribution agreement, such as The Larry Sanders Show for HBO , NewsRadio and Just Shoot Me! for NBC , and The Steve Harvey Show for The WB . They considered buying

288-541: A TV station in New York City, WWOR-TV (renamed from WOR-TV), in 1987, from RKO General subsidiary of GenCorp , which was in the midst of a licensing scandal. In 1982, MCA decided to start out its video game unit, MCA Video Games, led by technicians of the MCA DiscoVision unit. In 1983, MCA Videogames, the video game division of MCA itself and video game developer/publisher Atari Inc. entered into

360-739: A behind-the-scenes glimpse of film and television production at Universal Studios. This established a footprint of what is now known as Universal Studios Hollywood theme park . Over the next few decades, similar parks were built and expanded under MCA for Universal Orlando Resort in Orlando, Florida and Universal Studios Japan in Osaka . In 1966, MCA formed Uni Records in Hollywood , California, and in 1967, MCA bought New York–based Kapp Records . That same year MCA also acquired guitar maker Danelectro and mall retailer Spencer Gifts . In 1967,

432-491: A company owned by John Landis had reupped its contract at both MCA TV, MTE and Universal Television, three of the encompassing TV units of MCA via the MCA TV Group. In 1994, Universal Television made a financing partnership with ABC to help them fund the show Blue Skies . In 1996, MCA was reincorporated as Universal Studios. Around the same time, Universal was acquired by Joseph A. Seagram and Sons and later acquired

504-426: A deal with NBC Productions to develop long-form telemovies and miniseries, as well as television series. In the late 1980s, NBC Productions attempted to enter the film business, but it was proven unsuccessful, after the failure of the film Codename: Emerald . In 1987, NBC Productions provided funding for a feature film that starred Cassandra Peterson as her Elvira character, which raised $ 5–6 million by NBC to fund

576-604: A deal with the studio. Also that year, longtime Universal executives Sarah Timberman and Carl Beverly left the studio to start out 25C Productions, a production company affiliated with Warner Bros. Television . The origins of USA Cable Entertainment are traced back to the 1980s when it was founded as USA Network Productions to produce content for the USA Networks. In 1996, it was rebranded to USA Studios, and in 1999 to USA Networks Productions, and later on reincorporated as USA Cable Entertainment on December 24, 1999. Stephen Chao

648-431: A film released originally by Paramount Pictures , whose pre-1950 theatrical sound feature film library was sold to MCA in 1958. Wagon Train was the only Revue-produced TV show ever to finish an American television season in first place. In 1962, MCA Inc. acquired Decca Records , including the film studio Universal-International Pictures (later renamed as Universal Pictures ). The following year, in 1963, Revue Studios

720-523: A first-look agreement with Chelsea Handler in March 2018. Both production units signed that same year in August an overall agreement with Eddie Schmidt. In November 2018, Ahr became president of alternative and reality group, NBC Entertainment. Ahr was replaced as the studio's president in August 2019 by Toby Gorman, last the interim CEO of Magical Elves. From Endemol Shine North America, Georgie Hurford-Jones

792-553: A long-term domestic sales deal with Studios USA for the library. Universal got a 45% share in USA Networks Inc. Greg Meidel initially resigned and was rehired as chairman and CEO of Studios USA, only to leave in June 1998. In 1999, USA Networks formed its own film and home media divisions when they acquired October Films and several production and distribution assets of PolyGram Filmed Entertainment for $ 200 million. Most of

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864-507: A million dollars a year for a decade. Revue produced later seasons of The Jack Benny Program for CBS and NBC and in co-operation with Jack Benny 's J and M productions Checkmate , General Electric Theater and Alfred Hitchcock Presents for CBS, Studio 57 for DuMont Television Network , and westerns such as Tales of Wells Fargo , The Restless Gun and Laramie for NBC, as well as Wagon Train for NBC and ABC. The first two seasons of NBC's The Virginian , based on

936-589: A movie division. The company began to acquire talent agencies, representing established actors such as James Stewart , Henry Fonda , Bette Davis , Jane Wyman and Ronald Reagan , whom Wasserman became very close with personally. In later decades, Wasserman became a guiding force in Reagan's political ambition by helping Reagan to win the presidency of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), then election as Governor of California in 1966, and finally President of

1008-478: A network unit for long-form television movies and drama series, which was a rebranding from the former UK-based ITC Entertainment television division of PolyGram. It was headed up by Bob Sanitsky, who headed the combined syndication and network divisions. In 1998, it signed a deal with Meg Ryan and her Prufock Pictures to set up her projects at the studio. In early 1999, shortly after Seagram and Universal completed their deal to acquire PolyGram, PolyGram Television

1080-496: A non-exclusive production agreement. In 1995, NBC launched a partnership with television director James Burrows to create 3 Sisters Entertainment , who produced series for the network. Out of these five, the most successful out of the venture were Will & Grace and Caroline in the City (co-produced and owned by CBS Productions ). Later that year, NBC Productions was however folded into NBC's entertainment division. In 1996,

1152-538: A number of businesses including Univision from 1992 to 2007. Perenchio was well known for his version of the Rules (up to twenty rules), which varied from year to year and had some internal contradictions (In 2006, Perenchio pointed out that while there was a "no nepotism" rule, he was aware his son was on the company's board of directors at the time). In 1939, based on Wasserman's recommendation, MCA's headquarters moved from Chicago to Beverly Hills, California , creating

1224-655: A partnership to start out Studio Games, a joint venture that would develop video games based on MCA's film and television properties, most notably from then-sister Universal Pictures, and decided that they would give them access to all motion picture and television properties coming from the unit. In 1990, MCA hired Hanna-Barbera executive Jeff Segal to start out its MCA Family Entertainment arm (aka Universal Family Entertainment) and had Universal Cartoon Studios as its subsidiary. On November 26, 1990, Japanese multinational conglomerate Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. agreed to acquire MCA for US$ 6.59 billion. MCA

1296-565: A revival of the 1951 series Dragnet . In 1967, Grant Tinker , formerly employee of NBC was hired to join the studio. He held the position for two years, until he left in 1969 to join 20th Century-Fox Television , and later that year, had to start MTM Enterprises . He subsequently left Fox in 1971 due to conflicts with running MTM. During the 1970s and 1980s, Uni TV produced shows such as Baretta , The Rockford Files , Murder, She Wrote , Miami Vice , The Equalizer , The Incredible Hulk , Battlestar Galactica , Buck Rogers in

1368-488: Is gregarious, intelligent, and public-spirited. The half-hour black-and-white program aired 78 episodes (including the pilot episode in which the John Payne character's name is Britt Ponsett, the name of James Stewart 's character in the 1953-54 old-time radio series The Six Shooter , upon which The Restless Gun television series was originally based). The Restless Gun theme song (officially titled "I Ride With

1440-526: Is still in operation. MCA's classical music catalog is managed by Deutsche Grammophon . The Restless Gun The Restless Gun is an American Western television series that appeared on NBC between 1957 and 1959, with John Payne in the role of Vint Bonner, a wandering cowboy in the era after the American Civil War . A skilled gunfighter, Bonner is an idealistic person who prefers peaceful resolutions of conflict wherever possible. He

1512-702: Is the company's president since 2000. The company was best known for producing Monk and the 2003 miniseries Battlestar Galactica , which spawned a reboot in 2004. The same year, following the NBC Universal merger, the USA Cable Entertainment name was retired and was replaced with the NBC Universal Television Studio name. In 2008, the studio, then renamed Universal Media Studios , spun off its cable production division, including shows previously produced under

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1584-539: The Bill Williams Western series, The Adventures of Kit Carson (1951–1955). It produced Bachelor Father (1957–1962), for "Bachelor Productions", Edmond O'Brien 's syndicated crime film Johnny Midnight , based on a fictitious New York City actor-turned- private investigator . Another of its offerings was the 52-episode Crusader , the first Brian Keith series, on CBS from 1955–1956. Another western produced by Revue and starring Audie Murphy

1656-657: The MCA Records label was established outside the United States and Canada to issue releases by the MCA group of labels. Decca, Kapp, and Uni were merged into MCA Records at Universal City, California in 1971; the three labels maintained their identities for a short time but were soon retired in favor of the MCA label. The first MCA Records release in the US was former Uni artist Elton John 's " Crocodile Rock " in 1972. In 1973,

1728-477: The Multimedia Entertainment and USA Network . Also that year, Universal Television collaborated with Warner Bros. Television to develop the series Spy Game for ABC , with Universal alumnus Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert of Renaissance Pictures, and Warner alumnus John McNamara producing the series, but it didn't last long, as it only lasted one season on the air. Universal purchased

1800-508: The New York Stock Exchange and was incorporated as MCA Inc. on November 10, 1958. A couple of years later, Alfred Hitchcock gave MCA his rights to Psycho and his television anthology in exchange for 150,000 shares, making him the third largest investor in MCA, and his own boss at Universal. On June 18, 1962, Decca Records shareholders agreed to MCA's buyout offer after the record label had entered into talks about

1872-579: The Universal Pictures library, they are part of the company's television unit, Universal Television. During the 1970s and 1980s, MCA TV, the syndication company, had a production shop that produced shows like Probe , which aired on ABC. MCA Television Entertainment (or MTE for short) was founded in 1989 as the telemovie and cable division of Universal Television. It primarily dealt with made-for-TV movies, and television shows like Dream On that were made for cable networks like HBO . It

1944-490: The 25th Century , Knight Rider , The A-Team , Simon & Simon and Magnum, P.I. , many of which received critical acclaim and several TV movie spin-offs after their cancellations. In 1980, Bud Austin has received a production contract with Universal Television to produce television series. One of the more notable contracts was writer/producer Dick Wolf , whose Universal association began in 1986 with Miami Vice , then writing for several more shows before creating

2016-507: The Brillstein-Grey productions, such as the upcoming Work with Me , and the existing Brillstein-Grey shows Just Shoot Me! and The Steve Harvey Show . In 2001, NBC had an option agreement with Universal Network Television to keep Just Shoot Me! on the air to 2003. In June 2002, Universal Studios Network Television was also merged with Studios USA Network Television around the same time. In 2003, writer John Ridley signed

2088-738: The Prairie . NBC Films was later sold to Worldvision Enterprises due to the 1970 fin-syn rules initiated by the Nixon Administration; today, the shows of that company are now owned by Paramount Global , syndicated by its CBS Studios subsidiary CBS Media Ventures . In the 1980s, NBC produced Punky Brewster , which was popular among viewers. NBC's production output was primarily on television movies and miniseries. NBC's other television series output were Sara and Roomies ; both of them were unsuccessful. In 1985, Michael Filerman through his Michael Filerman Productions company signed

2160-751: The USA Cable Entertainment name, to Universal Cable Productions (now Universal Content Productions ). NBC Television Network's production division was founded in 1947 by RCA ( NBC 's former parent company). One of its first productions was the children's television program Howdy Doody . In 1955, NBC acquired production company Kagran Corporation, and by 1956, changed its company name to California National Productions (CNP) and became its syndication and merchandising division. The company also brought several NBC-aired programs, like The Adventures of Hiram Holliday and The Lawless Years , as well as non-NBC programs like The Silent Service and Philip Marlowe , but none of them were successful. The company's first hit

2232-621: The USA Network and Sci-Fi Network cable channels along with series such as Law & Order . Additionally, the company would own the HSN , the Ticketmaster Group and several television stations. Universal Television's production and distribution unit was renamed Studios USA . Universal held on to its 50% share of Brillstein-Grey Entertainment , PolyGram 's international channels and the rights to its television library while signing

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2304-443: The United States in 1980. By the end of the 1930s, MCA had become the largest talent agency in the world, with over 700 clients, including movie stars, recording artists, Broadway actors, radio stars, and directors. The company's aggressive acquisition of clientele in all entertainment sectors earned MCA the nickname of "The Octopus". The company's activities led U.S. Department of Justice agents to investigate not only whether MCA

2376-432: The age of 23 and rose through the ranks of MCA for more than four decades, with Sonny Werblin as his right-hand man. Wasserman helped create MCA's radio show, Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge , which debuted on NBC Radio that same year. Following that success, Stein installed Wasserman in New York City in 1937, but Wasserman convinced him that Hollywood was the best place for the company's growth. The company

2448-466: The company entered the book publishing business with the acquisition of G. P. Putnam's Sons . In 1979, it acquired ABC Records along with its subsidiaries Paramount Records , Impulse! Records , and Dot Records . ABC had acquired the Paramount and Dot labels when it purchased Gulf+Western 's record labels in 1974, then the parent company of Paramount Pictures . From 1983 to 1989, Irving Azoff

2520-583: The company he founded and Wasserman took over as chairman and chief executive officer, while Sidney Sheinberg was appointed president and chief operating officer of MCA. Other executives within MCA were Lawrence R. Barnett, who ran the agency's live acts division during its glory agency years in the 1950s and 1960s, and Ned Tanen , head of Universal Pictures . Tanen was behind Universal hits such as Animal House , and John Hughes 's Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club . MCA issued soundtrack albums for most films released by Universal Pictures. In 1975,

2592-480: The company was renamed NBC Studios. The company had returned to producing hit programs like The Pretender , Profiler , Providence , Ed , Las Vegas and Crossing Jordan . In 2004, NBC Studios was merged with Universal Network Television to form NBC Universal Television Studio. NBC Universal Television Studio was formed in 2004 from NBC Studios and Universal Network Television after NBC and Universal merged. On June 14, 2007, NBC Universal Television Studio

2664-457: The company's on-screen logo) is a television production company launched by Universal Television in 2016. The unit reports to Universal Studio Group chairman Pearlena Igbokwe . The studio was founded in June 2016 under president Meredith Ahr. In July 2016, the studio's first program, World of Dance was announced by NBC. The studio sold its first show to another channel In Search Of... to History . The studio, as did Universal TV, signed

2736-436: The deal, MCA leased the studios back to Universal for $ 2 million a year, plus unlimited access to MCA's clients such as Jimmy Stewart, Rock Hudson , Doris Day and Alfred Hitchcock to make films for Universal. Stein, who by this time was the sole owner of MCA, decided to take the company public by giving 51% of his ownership of MCA to his employees, which included a 20% stake for Wasserman . The company went public on

2808-498: The end of 1962, MCA assumed full ownership of Universal. In 1964, MCA entered the music publishing business when it acquired Lou Levy 's Leeds Music, and formed Universal City Studios the same year in effort to merge under one umbrella both Universal Pictures and its Revue Studios division, which was later reincorporated as Universal Television in 1966. On July 15, 1964, MCA established the Studio Tour , which provided guests

2880-437: The film. In 1988, NBC started a deal with Peter Engel that resulted in the creation of Good Morning, Miss Bliss and eventually producing a number of teen shows. In early 1990, NBC had struck a development deal with musician/producer Quincy Jones and his Quincy Jones Entertainment company. Also the same year, NBC signed a deal with Jay Tarses for his production company. By 1990, NBC returned to producing hit programs with

2952-627: The final Decca pop label release, " Drift Away ", a No. 5 pop hit by Dobie Gray , was issued. MCA had two failed mergers in 1969. Initially, it planned a merger with Westinghouse Electric Corporation but that collapsed in April, and in July, they announced a proposed merger with the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company , but this too was called off in September. In 1973, Stein stepped down from

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3024-471: The hit Law & Order franchise. In 1987, Universal Television, which by then, was the leading producers in prime time television programming, decided to have six pilots committed for network production value, plus three series for the 1987–88 season, which included development deals with people who already contracted with Universal. In 1990, MCA/Uni TV began the Law & Order franchise. In 1991, Tom Thayer

3096-614: The industry's biggest names (a select few handled by Wasserman personally). In reality, MCA's talent agency arm became defunct the day the DOJ filed the suit; dissolving it that October was a mere formality. MCA's now-former agents quickly formed new agencies, many of which are woven into the corporate fabric of today's talent management; Jerry Perenchio 's Chartwell Artists represented Elizabeth Taylor and Muhammad Ali . Former MCA agents Freddie Fields and David Begelman formed Creative Management Associates , another important new agency. By

3168-477: The music industry. It became a shareholder in USA Network in 1981, eventually owning 50% of the network (the other half was owned by Paramount). In 1982, its publishing division, G. P. Putnam's Sons, bought Grosset & Dunlap from Filmways . In 1984, MCA bought Walter Lantz Productions and its characters, including Woody Woodpecker . In 1985, MCA bought toy and video game company LJN . It also bought

3240-702: The network. NBC developed and produced several shows internally like Kentucky Jones , Captain Nice and T.H.E. Cat . By 1966, the company had output talent deals with Sheldon Leonard , Bob Finkel , Norman Felton and David Dortort . The next big project was The High Chaparral , which was a hit among viewers throughout its four-season run, only to be axed in 1971 due to the rural purge . Throughout its partnership with Sheldon Leonard, they produced three shows Accidental Family , My Friend Tony and My World and Welcome to It , but none of them were successful. In 1974, NBC produced its next big hit Little House on

3312-610: The new owners dropped the MCA name; the company became Universal Studios, Inc. MCA's music division, MCA Music Entertainment Group, was renamed Universal Music Group . MCA Records continued to live on as a label within the Universal Music Group. The following year, G. P. Putnam's Sons was sold to the Penguin Group subsidiary of Pearson PLC . In the spring of 2003, MCA Records was folded into Geffen Records . Its country music label, MCA Nashville Records ,

3384-488: The new shows produced under the Studios USA name bombed after only one or two seasons; only Law & Order: Special Victims Unit , Law & Order: Criminal Intent and The District were deemed to be big hits. Although the latter two were cancelled, in 2011 and 2004 respectively, the former is still an ongoing show. In 2000, Clyde Phillips has signed an overall deal with the studio to develop scripts made for

3456-502: The old Republic Pictures studio lot in Studio City, California . In February 1958, MCA acquired Paramount Pictures ' pre-1950 sound feature film library for $ 10 million, through a newly created MCA subsidiary, EMKA, Ltd. In December 1958, MCA bought the 423-acre (1.71 km ) Universal Studios lot from Universal Pictures for $ 11,250,000 and renamed it, as well as the actual television unit, Revue Studios . As part of

3528-490: The original Universal Television are predecessors of the current Universal Television, formerly known as NBC Universal Television Studio and Universal Media Studios. Revue Productions (later known as Revue Studios ) was founded in 1943 by MCA Inc. to produce live radio shows and also produced "Stage Door Canteen" live events for the United Service Organizations (USO) during World War II. Revue

3600-461: The other 50% after selling its own TV unit to Barry Diller in 1998. Universal sold its stake in BGE in 1999 and BGE was renamed as Brad Grey Television, though Universal continued to co-produce Just Shoot Me! and The Steve Harvey Show until their cancellations. EMKA, Ltd. is the holding company responsible for a majority of the pre-1950 Paramount Pictures sound library. As an official part of

3672-558: The sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air , which starred Will Smith , in one of the first TV roles. Also that same year, NBC Productions partnered with Group W Productions to develop a syndicated program House Party . In 1991, NBC produced another syndicated show, this time, out of the WMAQ-TV studios, Johnny B...On the Loose , in partnership with Viacom Enterprises . In 1993, Perry Simon left NBC to start his own production company with

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3744-722: The studio backlot name was changed back to Universal. In 1963, MCA formed Universal City Studios to merge the motion picture and television arms of Universal Pictures and Revue Studios, and Revue was officially renamed Universal Television in 1963. During the early years of television, Revue was responsible for producing and distributing many television programs. These included Leave It to Beaver , which ran for only one season on CBS before going to ABC from 1958 until 1963. In addition, Revue also made Alan Hale Jr. 's Biff Baker, U.S.A. (1952–1953) and all three of Rod Cameron 's syndicated series, City Detective (1953–1955), State Trooper (1956–1959), and Coronado 9 (1960–1961) and

3816-541: The studio. On December 17, 2001, Vivendi Universal agreed to acquire USA's entertainment assets for an estimated $ 10.3 billion; the transaction closed on May 8, 2002. Under the deal, Barry Diller became chairman of Vivendi Universal Entertainment. USA Networks is currently known as IAC . Shortly afterwards, Studios USA Television was merged with Universal Studios Network Television, producers of NBC's sitcom Just Shoot Me! to form Universal Network Television. In 1997, PolyGram created not only its syndication unit, but

3888-801: The three major television networks, especially NBC . MCA was the legal predecessor of Vivendi Universal and thereby NBCUniversal . Its other legal successor is Universal Music Group Holding Corp, a holding company owned by Universal Music Group (which has absorbed PolyGram ). MCA was formed in 1924 by Jules Stein and William R. Goodheart, Jr., as Music Corporation of America , a music booking agency based in Chicago, Illinois. MCA helped pioneer modern practices of touring bands and name acts. Early on, MCA booked such prominent artists as King Oliver and Jelly Roll Morton for clubs and speakeasies run by legendary notorious Chicago mobsters such as Al Capone and others. Lew Wasserman joined MCA in 1936 at

3960-462: Was Whispering Smith (NBC, 1959/61), based on the 1948 Alan Ladd movie of the same name . Leave It to Beaver was produced first by George Gobel's Gomalco Productions, then by Kayro Productions on a back lot at Revue Studios from 1958 to 1963. McHale's Navy was also produced by Revue from 1962 to 1966. In December 1958, MCA/Revue purchased Universal Studios' 367-acre backlot to produce television series, then leased it back to Universal for

4032-513: Was a monopoly breaking antitrust laws, but also its suspected connections to underworld criminal activities. This investigation continued for the next few decades. In 1948, Jules Stein moved up as MCA's first chairman, giving Lew Wasserman charge of day-to-day operations of the company as president. That year, Stein and Wasserman decided to get into a new medium that would soon change the entertainment industry: television. Although many motion picture studios would not touch this new medium, thinking it

4104-511: Was absorbed into Universal's TV and Networks division (which consisted of Universal's international television operations). Universal would sell the ITC film and television library to Carlton Communications , and the pre-1996 film library to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Shortly afterwards, PolyGram Television was then retained by Universal, opting Bob Sanitsky out of the unit. Universal however then launched Universal Studios Network Programming to inherit

4176-603: Was also a producer of first-run syndication programming for the Hollywood Premiere Network , which was distributed by MCA's own syndication arm MCA TV , as well as KCOP-TV in Los Angeles and WWOR-TV in New York, such as They Came from Outer Space , Shades of L.A. and She-Wolf of London , but it only lasted one season from 1990 to 1991, but it didn't last long. In 1990, Michael Landsbury

4248-402: Was an American media conglomerate founded in 1924. Originally a talent agency with artists in the music business as clients, the company became a major force in the film industry, and later expanded into television production. MCA published music, booked acts, ran the MCA Records music label, represented film, television and radio stars, and eventually produced and sold television programs to

4320-509: Was chairman of MCA Records and is credited for turning around the fortunes of the label. The Chess Records catalog was acquired from the remnants of Sugarhill in 1985. Motown Records was bought in 1988 (and sold to PolyGram in 1993). GRP Records (which became for some years MCA's jazz music label and thus began managing the company's jazz catalogue) and Geffen Records (which served as another mainstream music subsidiary) were acquired in 1990. MCA also acquired other assets outside of

4392-490: Was eventually renamed to Studios USA Pictures in 1998, and merged into USA Cable Entertainment in 1999. MCA Television Entertainment was also a collective branding for their units owned and operated by MCA, and it absorbed Universal Family Entertainment and Universal Cartoon Studios in 1996. USA Networks Inc. was founded by Barry Diller when he bought Universal's major television assets in February 1998. Among its assets were

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4464-555: Was forced to sell WWOR-TV in 1991 to Pinelands, Inc. because of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules that foreign companies could not own over 25% of a U.S. TV station. In 1995, Seagram acquired 80% of MCA from Matsushita. On November 26, 1996, MCA announced that it would acquire television syndication company Multimedia Entertainment from Gannett , who acquired its parent company in 1995, for $ 40 million. On December 9, 1996,

4536-647: Was granted, the company formed MCA Television Limited for syndication . In 1950, Revue Productions , once a live concert promotion division that produced "Stage Door Canteen" live events for the USO during World War II, was re-launched as MCA's television production subsidiary. By 1956, Revue became the top supplier of television for all broadcast networks, spanning three decades of television programs such as Armour Theater , General Electric Theater , The Jane Wyman Show , Leave It to Beaver , Wagon Train , and many others. Prior to 1958, all Revue's shows were filmed at

4608-512: Was guided by a codification of Stein's pet policies known as "The Rules of The Road". The Rules were passed down from the Prohibition era, Chicago–area MCA (referenced in books like Citizen Cohn and The King and Queen of Hollywood ) to the 1940s Los Angeles–area firm, which focused on representing movie actors. The Rules were next passed to the 1950s generation of MCA talent agents, including Jerry Perenchio , who later owned and headed

4680-523: Was hired in December 2019 as executive vice president of current programming. Mario Lopez moved from hosting Extra to NBCUniversal's Access Hollywood in July 2019 with production deal with Universal TV and Universal TV Alternative Studio. His first project, Menudo an hour-long competition show, under the deal was announced to be in development in April 2020. MCA Inc. MCA Inc. (originally an initialism for Music Corporation of America )

4752-402: Was just a fad and would fade away, MCA decided to embrace it. First, however, the company needed to get a waiver from the Screen Actors Guild , which ruled at the time that talent agencies such as MCA were prohibited from producing TV shows or films. Thanks to the newly elected SAG president, Ronald Reagan (an MCA client), MCA was granted a waiver to start producing TV shows. After the waiver

4824-541: Was named president of the Universal Television arm. In 1993, former Warner Bros. Television senior vice president of production employee Steven J. Papazian joined Universal Television as vice president of production. In 1992, Universal Television signed a deal with several newer talent, plus some returning and existing talent that were offered at the studio, including Ivan Reitman , David Burke , John Leekley and R.J. Stewart. In 1993, St. Clare Entertainment,

4896-464: Was named vice president of series programs, Angela Mancuso as vice president of production, and Michael Houbrick was named assistant director of publicity, at the studio. One of the most notable clients of MTE was Papazian-Hirsch Entertainment, who produced a bulk of these television movies and series for the studio. In 1996, it was renamed as Universal Television Entertainment (or UTE for short) to align with MCA's rebranding as Universal Studios. It

4968-468: Was re-launched as MCA's television production subsidiary in 1950. The partnership of NBC and Revue extends as far back as September 6, 1950, with the television broadcast of Armour Theatre , based on radio's Stars Over Hollywood . MCA bought the Universal Studios backlot in 1958 and renamed it Revue Studios. Following its merger with Decca Records , the then-parent of Universal Pictures ,

5040-640: Was reincorporated as the original iteration of Universal Television . Since then, they have made many contributions to television programming, including the production of the first television film ( See How They Run from 1964), the first wheel series ( The Name of the Game from 1968), the first rotating series with an umbrella title (1969's The Bold Ones ) and the first two-part television movie ( Vanished from 1971). Uni TV (also commonly known as MCA/Universal) also co-produced many shows with Jack Webb's Mark VII Limited , such as Emergency! , Adam-12 and

5112-534: Was renamed Universal Media Studios (UMS) as the unit would be also developing entertainment for the web. On July 21, 2009, Universal Cable Productions was split off from UMS and placed into NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment Group division. On September 12, 2011, Universal Media Studios was renamed to Universal Television. In October 2019, Universal Television was transferred from NBC Entertainment to NBCUniversal Content Studios. Universal Television Alternative Studio ( "Universal Television Alternative" according to

5184-575: Was the television show Bonanza , which aired from 1959 to 1973 on the NBC television network. Its follow-up project that was produced independently was Outlaws , a western from 1960 to 1962. The third independently produced NBC show, The Americans , which aired only in 1961, lasted a few episodes, and bombed after only one season. In 1961, California National changed its name to NBC Films, and in 1963, launched NBC Productions to continue producing its existing show Bonanza , and develop newer projects for

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