Samuel Goldwyn Television was the

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

television production/distribution division of

The Samuel Goldwyn Company The Samuel Goldwyn Company was an American independent film company founded by Samuel Goldwyn Jr., the son of the famous Hollywood mogul, Samuel Goldwyn, in 1978. Background The company originally distributed and acquired art-house films from ...

. Formed in 1979 by Samuel Goldwyn Jr., the company's best-known series was the competition series '' American Gladiators'', which was produced and distributed by the company from 1989 to 1996. In 1987, Samuel Goldwyn Television bought Victor Alexander's movie ''Kill Zone'', which was turned into the 18-picture package ''The Explosives''. The library of Samuel Goldwyn Television also included some episodes of the series ''Flipper'', ''

Gentle Ben Gentle Ben is a bear character created by author Walt Morey and first introduced in a 1965 children's novel, ''Gentle Ben''. The original novel told the story of the friendship between a large male bear named Ben and a boy named Mark. The story p ...

'', ''

The Mothers-in-Law ''The Mothers-in-Law'' is an American situation comedy featuring Eve Arden and Kaye Ballard as two women who were friends and next-door neighbors until their children's elopement made them in-laws. The show aired on NBC television from September ...

'' and ''

The New Adventures of Flipper ''Flipper'' (also known as ''Flipper – The New Adventures'') is an American revival television series of the original 1964 ''Flipper'' television series. The first two seasons aired in first-run syndication; Seasons 3 and 4 aired on the PAX net ...

''. On 22 December 1996, hours after

PolyGram PolyGram N.V. was a multinational entertainment company and major music record label formerly based in the Netherlands. It was founded in 1962 as the Grammophon-Philips Group by Dutch corporation Philips and German corporation Siemens, to be a ...

had made an acquisition offer that was accepted,

Metromedia Metromedia (also often MetroMedia) was an American media company that owned radio and television stations in the United States from 1956 to 1986 and controlled Orion Pictures from 1988 to 1997. Metromedia was established in 1956 after the DuMo ...

made a counter-offer for Goldwyn's film and television library, and won the bid. Samuel Goldwyn Television was merged into

Orion Pictures Orion Pictures (legal name Orion Releasing, LLC) is an American film production and distribution company owned by Amazon through its Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) subsidiary. In its original operating period, the company produced and released films ...

. In 1997, it was sold to

MGM Television MGM Television Worldwide Group and Digital (alternatively Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Television Group and Digital, commonly known as MGM Television and then-known as MGM/UA Television; common metonym: Lion) is an American television production/dis ...

and folded later in the year.

Titles by Samuel Goldwyn Television

* '' Flipper'' (1964–1967) (Distributor) * ''

GamePro TV ''GamePro TV'' is a syndicated weekly video game television show that ran from 1991 through 1992. The show was a low-budget partner to ''GamePro'' magazine. History First-run syndication version Hosted by J. D. Roth (and, initially, co-host Bren ...

'' (1990-1991) (Distributor) * '' American Gladiators'' (1989–1996) (Distributor) * ''Why Didn't I Think of That?'' (1992) * ''

Gladiators 2000 ''Gladiators 2000'' is a children's game show and spin-off of '' American Gladiators''. It was hosted by Ryan Seacrest and Maria Sansone (replaced by Valarie Rae Miller in Season 2). Season 5 ''American Gladiators'' grand champion Peggy Odita ...

'' (1994–1996) * ''Wild West Showdown'' (1994) * '' Flipper'' (''Flipper – The New Adventures'') (1995–2000) (1995–1997 SGTV, 1998–2000 MGM TV)

Footnotes

# The rights to ''Flipper'' were later acquired by

, and in turn acquired by

(the company that originally produced the series).

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...

owns full rights to the series; the series copyright is held by MGM's subsidiary

(whose own holdings include the Goldwyn library).

References

Television production companies of the United States Defunct film and television production companies of the United States Entertainment companies based in California Companies based in Los Angeles Entertainment companies established in 1979 Mass media companies established in 1979 Mass media companies disestablished in 1997 1979 establishments in California 1997 disestablishments in California Defunct companies based in Greater Los Angeles Former Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer subsidiaries {{US-media-company-stub