Universal Television


Universal Television LLC, formerly NBC Universal Television Studio and Universal Media Studios, is an American television production company and the television studio arm of Universal Pictures, established in 2004, as the successor to Revue Studios, [|NBC Studios], Studios USA Television, [|PolyGram Television], USA Cable Entertainment and MCA Television Entertainment, under the name NBC Universal Television Studio, as a renaming of the original Universal Television. The flagship television division of the Universal Studio Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast], it serves as the network television production arm of NBC; a predecessor of the company, NBC Studios, previously assumed such functions, and a substantial portion of the company's shows air on the network.
It is also known as Open 4 Business Productions in copyright in certain television series produced by them since 2009. Re-established in 2004, it was renamed Universal Media Studios in 2007 and to its current name on September 12, 2011.

History

Revue Studios

Revue Studios was founded in 1943 by MCA to produce live radio shows; it also produced "Stage Door Canteen" live events for the United Service Organizations during World War II until it ended in 1945. Revue 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 the anthology series Stars Over Hollywood, based on radio's Stars over Hollywood.
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. and all three of Rod Cameron's syndicated series, City Detective, State Trooper, and Coronado 9 and the Bill Williams Western series, The Adventures of Kit Carson. It produced Bachelor Father, for "Bachelor Productions", Edmond O'Brien's syndicated crime film Johnny Midnight, based on a fictitious New York City actor-turned-private investigator.
Revue also produced the 52-episode Crusader, the first Brian Keith series, which aired on CBS from 1955 to 1956. Another western produced by Revue and starring Audie Murphy was Whispering Smith, which aired on NBC in 1961 and was 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. The ABC sitcom 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 a million dollars a year for a decade. The backlot was renamed Revue Studios, which became the name of the company in 1959. In 1960, a jingle composed by Juan García Esquivel and Stanley Wilson was introduced at the end of its productions, which was used in some form until the 1980s.
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 Tall Man, 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 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 to finish an American television season in first place.
In 1962, following its merger with Decca Records, the then-parent of Universal Pictures, 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.

Universal Television (original)

In 1962, MCA acquired Decca Records, including the film studio Universal-International Pictures. The following year, in 1963, Revue Studios 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, the first wheel series, the first rotating series with an umbrella title and the first two-part television movie. Universal Television also co-produced many shows with Jack Webb's Mark VII Limited, such as Emergency!, Adam-12 and 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, Universal Television produced shows such as Baretta, The Rockford Files, Murder, She Wrote, Miami Vice, The Equalizer, The Incredible Hulk, Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers in 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 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/Universal Television began the Law & Order franchise. In 1991, Tom Thayer 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, 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 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 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 did 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 the other 50% after selling its own television 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 the Universal Pictures library, they are part of the company's television unit, Universal Television.

MCA Television Entertainment

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 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 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 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 to align with MCA's rebranding as Universal Studios. It 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.