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The first incarnation of Paramount Television, formerly Paramount Television Corporation, was operated as the television production division of the CBS Paramount Network Televisio…
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Investigate this subjectThe first incarnation of Paramount Television, formerly Paramount Television Corporation, was operated as the television production division of the CBS Paramount Network Television Entertainment Group, which was active from December 15, 1966 until April 24, 2006, when it was renamed as CBS Paramount Television.
The first incarnation of Paramount Television, formerly Paramount Television Corporation, was operated as the television production division of the CBS Paramount Network Television Entertainment Group, which was active from December 15, 1966 until April 24, 2006, when it was renamed as CBS Paramount Television.
Desilu Productions was an American production company founded and co-owned by husband and wife Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball, best known for shows such as I Love Lucy, Star Trek, and The Untouchables. Until 1962, Desilu was the second-largest independent television production company in the United States behind MCA Inc.'s Revue Productions until MCA bought Universal Pictures, and Desilu became and remained the number-one independent production company until it was sold in 1967. Ball and Arnaz jointly owned the majority stake in Desilu from its inception until 1962, when Ball bought out Arnaz and ran the company by herself for several years. Ball had succeeded in making Desilu profitable again by 1967, when she sold her shares of Desilu to Gulf+Western for $17 million ($164 million in 2025 dollars). Gulf+Western then transformed Desilu into the television production arm of Paramount Pictures, rebranding the company as Paramount Television.
The Paramount Television Network was a venture by American film corporation Paramount Pictures to organize a television network in the late 1940s. The company built television stations KTLA in Los Angeles and WBBM-TV in Chicago; it also invested US$400,000 in the DuMont Television Network, which operated stations WABD (now WNYW) in New York City, WTTG in Washington, D.C., and WDTV (now KDKA-TV) in Pittsburgh. Escalating disputes between Paramount and DuMont concerning breaches of contract, company control, and network competition erupted regularly between 1940 and 1956, and culminated in the dismantling of the DuMont Network. Television historian Timothy White called the clash between the two companies "one of the most unfortunate and dramatic episodes in the early history of the television industry."
The Paramount Television Network aired several programs, including the Emmy Award-winning children's series Time for Beany. Filmed in Hollywood, the programs were distributed to an ad-hoc network of stations across the United States. The network signed network affiliation agreements with more than 50 television stations in 1950; despite this, most of Paramount's series were not widely viewed outside the West Coast. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which filed suit against Paramount for anti-trust violations, prevented the studio from acquiring additional television stations. Paramount executives eventually gave up on the idea of a television network, and continued to produce series for other networks.
Paramount Pictures had made one attempt in the mid-1950s to produce a show themself under the Paramount Television banner: Sally starring Joan Caulfield, was a short-lived series on NBC during the 1957–58 season. The spun-off theater chain purchased control of the ABC, and due to legal requirements sold WBKB-TV (now WBBM-TV) to CBS.
Another attempt by Paramount was known as Paramount Pictures Television. One of the series was Destination Space, a pilot to a proposed series that never got off the ground, produced in association with the CBS Television Network in 1959.
Paramount made two more attempts, one Paramount purchased a majority stake in Talent Associates in 1961, which was divested in 1965, and the other when Paramount purchased Plautus Productions in 1963.
In 1966, Paramount was on the verge of bankruptcy, when the studio was bought out by Gulf+Western. By that point, Paramount had largely distanced itself from television, having stopped production of its early shows, closed down its networks, and sold off the stations it owned. It also sold most of the early half of its sound-era theatrical library (mostly pre-1950 works) to such companies as EMKA, Ltd.—a wholly owned subsidiary of MCA (pre-1950 theatrical live-action sound features; now owned by Universal Television), U.M. & M. TV Corporation (most short subjects released through October 1950; now owned by Paramount Pictures through Melange Pictures), Associated Artists Productions – also called a.a.p. [sic] for short (Popeye the Sailor cartoons; now owned by Warner Bros. through Turner Entertainment Co.), Harvey Films (most short subjects released between October 1950 and March 1962; now also owned by Universal Pictures through DreamWorks Animation and DreamWorks Classics), and National Comics Publications (Superman cartoons; later DC Comics, now also owned by Warner Bros. through DC Entertainment).
On December 15, 1966, CBS president John T. Reynolds left his role and became president of Paramount Pictures' new Paramount Television division. In 1967, Paramount Television Enterprises began distributing Portfolio I, a package of 60 Paramount films for syndication.
Charles Bluhdorn's Gulf+Western bought Desilu in 1967, which was merged into Paramount, who had been Desilu's next door neighbor since the closure of RKO Pictures. The sale resulted in Paramount Television assuming production of Desilu programs in December of that year. The three Desilu lots – the original RKO Studios and two Culver City locations – were included in the sale, but the Justice Department forced Bluhdorn to sell the Culver Studios to avoid a monopoly. The old RKO globe is still in place at the corner of Gower and Melrose in the Paramount lot.
The first PTV production to premiere after the re-incorporation was Here's Lucy. Paramount only produced the first season however, selling their stake in the show to Ball after the season finale. Throughout that, Paramount started good relations with ABC, allowing it to produce several shows in the 1960s and the 1970s, with The Brady Bunch and The Odd Couple becoming the biggest hits for the studio.
In 1971, Douglas S. Cramer, who served as vice president in charge of prod
Source: Paramount Television (CC BY-SA)
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