Spelling Television facts for kids
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Formerly
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| Public | |
| Traded as | NYSE: SP |
| Industry | Television |
| Fate | Folded by CBS, remains an in-name-only unit of CBS Studios. |
| Successor | CBS Studios |
| Founded | October 25, 1965 as Aaron Spelling Productions |
| Founder | Aaron Spelling |
| Defunct | May 13, 2007 |
| Headquarters |
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United States
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| Services | Television production |
| Owner | Paramount Global |
| Parent | CBS Studios |
| Subsidiaries |
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Spelling Television Inc. was an American company that made many popular TV shows. It had a few different names over the years. It started as Aaron Spelling Productions, then became Spelling Entertainment Inc., and later part of Spelling Entertainment Group.
This company created famous shows like The Love Boat, Dynasty, Beverly Hills, 90210, 7th Heaven, Melrose Place, and Charmed. The company was founded by a well-known TV producer named Aaron Spelling on October 25, 1965. Today, it is part of CBS Studios, but mostly in name only.
Another company, Spelling-Goldberg Productions, also made popular shows like Charlie's Angels and Starsky & Hutch. However, these shows are not part of the same collection of shows owned by Paramount Global today.
Contents
How It Started
On October 25, 1965, Aaron Spelling started his own company, Aaron Spelling Productions. This happened after he worked as a writer and producer for another company called Four Star Television.
Later, on April 15, 1966, Aaron Spelling teamed up with comedian Danny Thomas. They formed a company called Thomas-Spelling Productions. Their first show was a comedy western called Rango, starring Tim Conway. They also worked on a pilot for The Guns of Will Sonnett. Thomas-Spelling Productions stopped making new shows around 1972. After that, Spelling started a new partnership with Leonard Goldberg, creating Spelling-Goldberg Productions.
Company Growth and Success
Even while working with Thomas-Spelling Productions, Aaron Spelling made a special agreement with ABC. This deal was for new TV series and movies.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Aaron Spelling was known as a "king" in television. By 1984, his company had seven shows on the ABC network. This was a huge number, making up about one-third of ABC's prime-time schedule. Because of this, some people jokingly called ABC "Aaron's Broadcasting Company."
In 1986, Aaron Spelling Productions became a public company. This meant people could buy shares of the company. In 1988, Aaron Spelling Productions bought other companies like Laurel Entertainment and most of Taft Entertainment Company. These companies became part of Spelling Entertainment Inc.
In the early 1990s, shows like Beverly Hills, 90210 and Melrose Place became very popular. They helped the Fox network grow and attracted many young viewers. Spelling also made a daytime soap opera called Sunset Beach, which was popular in other countries.
The company also produced 7th Heaven for the WB network. This show became the longest-running and most successful show for the WB. 7th Heaven was also the last network show produced by Spelling Television. Spelling's shows for ABC, Fox, and WB were very successful. The company also sold lots of merchandise related to its shows. It was also one of the first production companies to have a website for a show, which was for Melrose Place.
In 1991, Spelling Entertainment Inc. was bought by Charter Company. In 1992, Charter Company changed its name to Spelling Entertainment Group Inc. Later, in 1993, Blockbuster, Inc. bought a large part of Spelling Entertainment Group. In 1994, Spelling Entertainment also bought Republic Pictures.
Becoming Part of Viacom
In 1994, Blockbuster merged with Viacom. Since Blockbuster owned a big part of Spelling Entertainment, Spelling became connected to Viacom. After this, some parts of Spelling, like Worldvision, were combined with Republic Pictures. Worldvision's job of distributing shows continued until 1999. Then, it became part of Paramount Domestic Television, which was also owned by Viacom.
In 1995, Viacom thought about selling its share of Spelling. They felt Spelling's operations were too similar to their own Paramount Television division. However, they couldn't find the right buyer. So, in 1999, Viacom fully bought the rest of Spelling Entertainment.
Before the merger with Viacom, most of Spelling's shows were distributed by Worldvision. Older Spelling shows were distributed by other companies like Warner Bros. Television.
The company's first office was in Hollywood. Later, it moved to larger offices in Los Angeles. Aaron Spelling loved his old office's carpet so much that he moved it to the new building! The company grew so big that it leased several floors in its new building.
Aaron Spelling remained active as CEO until he passed away in 2006. In late 2005, Spelling Television became smaller and moved its staff to Paramount Television.
The CBS and Paramount Global Era
Spelling Television continued to get smaller. It became a small part of CBS Paramount Television, which is now CBS Studios. After Aaron Spelling's death in June 2006, Spelling Television officially closed down in May 2007. It then became a "name-only" unit of CBS Studios.
Spelling's Shows Today
When CBS and Viacom split up, the shows from Spelling and Republic were divided. CBS kept the rights to the TV shows from Spelling and Republic. Viacom (Paramount) kept the rights to the movies.
Today, all the TV shows made or bought by Spelling Television are distributed by CBS Media Ventures.
The Spelling Television company logo was last seen on TV during a rerun of the 7th Heaven series finale on September 16, 2007. The logo still appears on DVD covers of Spelling's shows.
Since 2015, the Pop TV channel, owned by CBS, airs many of these shows. Also, streaming services like Paramount+ and Hulu offer these shows online.
In December 2019, CBS Corporation and Viacom merged again. This brought the Spelling and Republic show libraries back together under one company, now called Paramount Global.
Spelling Entertainment Group's Other Businesses
Before Viacom fully bought Spelling in 1999, Spelling Entertainment Group owned several other companies and their collections of shows and movies. These included:
- Spelling Television and most of its older shows.
- Big Ticket Entertainment, which started in 1994.
- Spelling Daytime Television, a division for daytime shows.
- Torand Productions.
- Laurel Entertainment, Inc.
- Spelling Films, which made movies.
- Republic Pictures, which had its own collection of films and TV shows.
- This also included shows from National Telefilm Associates (NTA), like It's a Wonderful Life and some early United Artists movies.
- It also had early NBC shows like Get Smart and Bonanza.
- Worldvision Enterprises, bought in 1989.
- This included shows from Sunn Classic Pictures and QM Productions.
- It also had early ABC shows and the TV rights to NBC's Little House on the Prairie.
- Virgin Interactive, a video game company (91% owned).
In 1998, Spelling sold off some of these businesses to focus only on TV. Spelling Films and its home video part were closed. In 1998, Spelling also sold its video game company, Virgin Interactive.
After the split between Viacom and CBS Corporation in 2005, the movies mostly went to Viacom's Paramount Pictures. The TV shows went to CBS Corporation's CBS Television Distribution. However, they were reunited when the companies merged again in 2019.
For DVDs, the rights were also split and later reunited. Paramount Home Entertainment owns the worldwide DVD rights to the TV shows. These are released under the CBS Home Entertainment name. For movies, Paramount owns the DVD rights to some, like It's a Wonderful Life. Other movies were distributed by different companies.
Past Names
- Aaron Spelling Productions (1965–1988)
- Spelling Entertainment Inc. (1988–1992)
- Spelling Entertainment Group (1992–1999)
See also
- Aaron Spelling
- Spelling-Goldberg Productions
- Worldvision Enterprises
- Republic Pictures
