Syndication unit of Columbia Pictures Television
Coca-Cola Telecommunications
(
CCT
) was a short-lived
first-run syndication
unit of
Columbia Pictures Television
(then a unit of
The Coca-Cola Company
) created on November 4, 1986, that was a merger between CPT's first-run syndication division and
The Television Program Source
.
[1]
The Television Program Source was a joint-venture between Alan Bennett, former
King World
president Robert King, and CPT that was founded on October 15, 1984.
[2]
History
[
edit
]
The company was brought on to revive the
Screen Gems
line, used for obscure and vintage never-before-seen
Columbia Pictures Television
programming, and assisted in colorization of black-and-white television shows, such as the 1950s programs
The Real McCoys
and
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp
, and bought a minority interest in Color Systems Technology.
[3]
In 1987, Coca-Cola acquired assets of The Television Program Source outright, which included its programs and personnel, and Bob King would be president of the Coca-Cola Telecommunications division. The company was responsible for the production and distribution of first-run syndicated, basic cable, pay TV, and home shopping programming, as well as home video distribution.
[4]
Also that year, Coca-Cola Telecommunications and colorizing company CST Entertainment had set up a joint venture, Screen Gems/CST Entertainment, in order to share profits from sales to TV, basic cable and home video, in order to distribute the libraries of vintage films and TV series.
[5]
Following the success of the program
The New Gidget
, Coca-Cola Telecommunications set out to produce pilots for weekly series, such as one based on the
Ben Casey
character, and partnered with different companies on several projects such as
Gunfighter
, in partnership with
Tribune Entertainment
, which was produced by
Sonny Grosso
and
Larry Jacobson
of Grosso-Jacobson Productions, which was pitched for the
Tribune Broadcasting
stations, and one with
DIC Entertainment
on a 90-minute block of three-animated half-hour programs, which went by two different names,
Funday Sunday
, if it ran on Sunday, or
Funtastic Saturday
, if they wanted to go head to head with the Kidvid blocks on Saturday mornings.
[6]
In March 1987, a new company partnered with
Paramount Domestic Television
to set up international advertising sales and hold the barter spots for all programs that were produced by Coca-Cola Telecommunications, which included future projects from
Merv Griffin Enterprises
and
Paramount Domestic Television
, and
Orbis Communications
would be the third part of the venture, in order to sell national ad time for the company, and sell not only Coke and Paramount's barter sales, but also its own.
[7]
In late March 1987, Screen Gems/CST Entertainment was renamed Screen Gems Classicolor, with the CST venture available in excess of $100 million, and featured Color Systems' library of 101 feature films and a catalog of TV series, which included
The Abbott & Costello Show
. Color Systems Technology was paid by Screen Gems to colorize the B&W titles from the joint venture library, and Screen Gems Classicolor's revenue was paid from distribution of the combined Screen Gems and CST libraries in the short-term, and color-converted versions of the titles would go into the pipeline by 1988. There were also plans to acquire additional features and TV shows for distribution and color conversion, and included many series from the
Columbia Pictures Television
library that were available for colorization, which included library series, as well as feature films that were originally released in the black-and-white format.
[8]
In May 1987, Coca-Cola Telecommunications partnered with Grosso-Jacobson Productions in order to develop productions in a non-exclusive pact, namely four made-for-television movies, which included
The Gunfighters
,
Hounds of Hell
,
Nightfighters
and
Partington
, which were offered to first-run syndication.
[9]
In June 1987, Coca-Cola Telecommunications and
HBO
signed an agreement to co-produce and distribute 15 made-for-cable films that would be licensed for a foreign release, and commit as much as $70 million to the venture. The agreement stipulated that HBO was to produce the projects in-house, or by third-party producers under the
HBO Pictures
banner, and five of them would be produced by Coca-Cola Telecommunications. Production costs would be shared on all films, and under the terms of the deal, HBO would premiere the films and retain the domestic home video rights to the ten films, while CCT received domestic home video rights to the five films, as well as foreign rights of all 15 films in the agreement.
[10]
On December 31, 1987, CCT was shut down and was folded into the reorganized
Columbia Pictures Television Distribution
(now
Sony Pictures Television
). This change came when
Columbia
/
Embassy Television
was merged with
Tri-Star Television
, resulting in the loss of two key executives who had run CCT, namely Herman Rush and Peter Seale, as well as Columbia/Embassy Television president Barbara Corday. As a result, CCT had merged with the distribution division of Columbia/Embassy Television to create Columbia Pictures Television Distribution. It included most of the original Columbia/Embassy distribution team who had survived the merger, including Barry Thurston, who had headed Columbia/Embassy's syndication business and took over all of the responsibilities for CCT.
[11]
[12]
Shortly after Coca-Cola Telecommunications shut down, two of the company's top executives, namely Herman Rush and Peter Seale, had to launch a brand new company in order to allow them and other executives of the CCT unit to form a new company that would be a successor of CCT, distributing some of the unit's properties that were formerly handled by Coca-Cola Telecommunications. However, such negotiations fell through.
[13]
Notable programs
[
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]
TV series
[
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]
Attempted series
[
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]
- A revival of
Now You See It
, to be hosted by new host
Jack Clark
was also planned, but never made it past the pilot stage.
- A revival of
Match Game
, to be hosted by original host
Gene Rayburn
was also planned, but never materialized.
TV specials
[
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]
Notes and references
[
edit
]
- ^
HARRIS, KATHRYN (1986-11-25).
"Nation"
.
Los Angeles Times
.
ISSN
0458-3035
. Retrieved
2017-10-22
.
- ^
"In Brief".
Broadcasting
. 1984-10-15. p. 96.
- ^
"Coca-Cola Plans To Colorize B&W TV Shows".
Variety
. 1987-01-14. p. 142.
- ^
"Coca-Cola Telecom Takes Under Wing TV Program Source".
Variety
. 1987-01-21. p. 42.
- ^
Galbraith, Jane (1987-01-21). "Colorizing Company Forms Distribbery With Coca-Cola Unit".
Variety
. pp. 43, 210.
- ^
"Tribune & DIC Link With Coca-Cola Unit".
Variety
. 1987-01-28. pp. 44, 54.
- ^
"Coke & Paramount Name Barter Unit".
Variety
. 1987-03-18. pp. 39, 64.
- ^
"Screen Gems Classicolor Born From Coca-Cola, Color System".
Variety
. 1987-03-25. p. 80.
- ^
"Coke Telecom Pacting With Grosso-Jacobson To Make 4 Telemovies".
Variety
. 1987-05-06. p. 586.
- ^
"HBO And Coke Commit $70-Mil For Cable Pics".
Variety
. 1987-06-03. pp. 61, 92.
- ^
"Coca -Cola Entertainment and Tri-Star to merge TV units"
(PDF)
.
Broadcasting
. 1987-10-19
. Retrieved
2021-09-08
.
- ^
"Coke's EBS & Tri-Star Merge TV Biz, Forming Col Pictures TV".
Variety
. 1987-10-21. pp. 512, 528.
- ^
"Coke Reorganizing TV Division After Merging It With Tri-Star; Two Execs Seek Syndie Rights".
Variety
. 1987-10-28. pp. 43, 72.