Seems to me that they got all of MTM when they bought Pat Robertson's International Family Entertainment (the rights to "MTM" and "Bob Newhart," which Viacom originally held thanks to that standard clause in independent producers' contracts with CBS that gave the network syndication rights--and Viacom was formed out of CBS' syndication, licensing and cable arms as part of the Prime Access Rule--reverted back to MTM in the late 80s).
To more-or-less explain, Grant Tinker had to sell his ownership in MTM when he became head of NBC, so a gentleman who was Bob Newhart's manager ran the company and then sold it to the British company TVS in the late 80s (TVS had the ITV license for southern England). TVS wanted to ride on MTM's coattails, but with "Newhart" and "St. Elsewhere" off the air and the company unable to sell any new shows, things didn't work and when they lost the ITV license, they sold the company to Robertson, who wanted MTM to be a supplier to the Family Channel but basically let it run farther into the ground (their big show during that time was the bomb kiddie show hosted by Brazil's Xuxa and her limited command of English). When Robertson brought in Tony Thomopoulos to try to save the company and FAM, he only had a year or two before Robertson sold the company to Fox and MTM became defunct for all intents and purposes. Finally, when Fox sold FAM to Disney (with the agreement that the channel would have to continue to air "The 700 Club" in perpetuity), they kept the MTM library. Unwittingly, Thomopoulos made the channel a little more favorable for sale by taking "The 700 Club" out of prime time, which one would think Robertson would never allow (he also started putting "Carson's Comedy Classics" out of the 11 pm. airing of "700," presumably believing that Robertson wasn't paying any attention and wouldn't as long as the Saturday and Sunday Western rerun blocks stayed on the schedule, which Robertson watched--ahem--religiously). And interestingly enough, one of Thomopoulos' other programming initiatives at FAM, the talk show "Home and Family" co-hosted by wife Cristina Ferrare, returned to TV last year on Hallmark, which has similar demos to the old FAM, and complete with Ferrare returning as host when perky Paige Davis quit a few weeks into the series. Mark Jeffries Saints Spotlight Editor [email protected] On Tue, Apr 9, 2013 at 10:16 PM, Bob in Jersey <[email protected]>wrote: > > Joe Hass, to moi: >> >> From the article: "The head of the board that represents Fox-affiliated >> stations said Tuesday that it backed Mr. Carey, and suggested that the >> stations could start broadcasting two flavors, a light version over the >> airwaves that would be without hit sports and entertainment programming, >> and a fuller version for subscribers to cable and satellite providers that >> pay the necessary fees." >> >> Which would leave...what, exactly? Reruns of "The Wilton North Report"? >> > > Fox's syndication > library<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20th_Television#Titles_produced_and.2For_distributed_by_20th_Television>, > or at least the part that's not held by other networks' affils. (Did they > buy the half of MTM's holdings they didn't own?) > > -- BOB > > > > -- > -- > TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "TV or Not TV" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected] > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > > -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
