Columbia Pictures Television (CPT) is the second name of the Columbia Pictures television division Screen Gems (SG). The studio changed its name in 1974.

Early years

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CPT was home to the popular daytime soap operas Days of our Lives and The Young and the Restless. During the 1970's and 80's, CPT made many co-productions with Spelling-Goldberg Productions, including S.W.A.T., Starsky & Hutch, Charlie's Angels, Fantasy Island, Hart to Hart, and T.J. Hooker.

The Coca-Cola Years

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In 1982, The Coca-Cola Company bought Columbia Pictures, and CPT with it. And in 1984, Columbia Pictures Television joined forces with Lexington Broadcast Services Company by creating a joint venture between the two companies called Colex Enterprises. Colex was most popularly known for distributing classic shows from the libraries of Screen Gems and CPT.

In 1985, Norman Lear's hit TV shows joined the CPT family when the studio acquired Embassy Television, the television division of Embassy Pictures, which included a large library of shows, including All in the Family, Sanford and Son, The Jeffersons, Good Times, Diff'rent Strokes, The Facts of Life, Who's The Boss?, and Married... with Children, among others. The new partnership between CPT and Embassy Television (which was then called Embassy Communications (EC)) in 1986 was called Columbia/Embassy Television (CET), but CET continued to use CPT and EC as their separate names, and CPT went on to produce the hit sitcom, Designing Women. During that same time, CPT produced What's Happening Now!! as the 80s version of What's Happening!!. CPT considered the 70s version as their own.

In 1986, CET acquired Merv Griffin Enterprises, known for producing the popular game shows, Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune. In 1987, Coca-Cola launched a television distribution arm of CPT called Coca-Cola Telecommunications. A merger took place in late 1987 when CET acquired TriStar Television (T-STV or TSTV) (then spelled Tri-Star) from partners CBS and HBO, and CET and T-STV merged to form a brand new Columbia Pictures Television, as part of the new Columbia Pictures Entertainment (CPE). In 1988, the shows that were produced by Embassy Communications were now produced by CPT, but in the closing credits, the copyright was going to the new ELP Communications.

The Sony Years to Present

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In 1989, Sony Corporation bought CPT's parent, CPE, from Coke, and in 1991, CPE changed its name to Sony Pictures Entertainment. Also that year, TriStar Television was re-created as a TV production label. In 1994, CPT and TSTV launched Columbia TriStar Television (CTT) as a joint venture between the two television companies, and CTT also had the rights to produce the ELP Communications shows, as well as Merv Griffin's Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune (although Griffin still holds the copyrights to both shows). That same year, Susan Stafford, the former letter turner of Wheel of Fortune along with Jack Barry's family sold Barry & Enright Productions to SPE. CTT reran and produced the classic game show The Joker's Wild and is still being produced today. CPT, meanwhile, went on to produce the animated series, The Critic.

In 1995, Columbia TriStar Television Distribution (CTTD) was created to distribute shows from its library, as well as produce and distribute new syndicated shows, and distribute the Columbia TriStar movie library. In 1996, CTT launched Columbia TriStar Children's Television, the studio's animation division. The company's name was later changed to Adelaide Productions in 1997. In 1997, CTT acquired Chuck Barris Productions from Chuck Barris, including a revival of The Newlywed Game.

In 1998, ELP was consolidated to CTT after Beakman's World was cancelled. That same year, the group celebrated 50 years of television entertainment since the re-activation of Screen Gems as Columbia's TV division. In 1999, CTTD introduced Screen Gems Network, the first broadcasted show to air classic shows from the 1950s to the 1980s from the CTT vault and got cancelled in 2001. That same year in 1999, TriStar TV was folded into CTT after Mad About You and The Nanny went off the air, but TriStar still kept its name on Early Edition and Malcolm & Eddie, which both got cancelled and ended its name in 2000. On July 2, 2001, CPT was folded into CTT, however, SPE kept the name CPT Holdings on The Young and the Restless. That same year, CTT and CTTD merged to create Columbia TriStar Domestic Television (CTDT). In 2002, Bob Stewart sold his company to CTDT and a revival of one of his game shows, Pyramid. That same year between July and September, Sony Pictures announced that it would change its TV subsidiary from CTDT to Sony Pictures Television.

• During the years of Columbia Pictures Television, the company identified itself in the credits as Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., Columbia Pictures Television, CPT Holdings, Inc., Columbia Pictures Television, Inc., and Global Entertainment Productions GmbH & Company Medien KG (a name used only in 1998 to identify itself as Columbia TriStar Pictures or Columbia TriStar Entertainment, Inc.)

See also

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Closing logos of Columbia Pictures Television

External links

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Sony subsidiaries