Raven Productions is a television production company based in

Palm Springs, California Palm Springs (Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Riverside County by lan ...

. Organized in California in 1987, the company initially became known for its outdoor adventure programming for networks as

Fox Sports Net Fox Sports Networks (FSN), formerly known as Fox Sports Net, was the collective name for a group of regional sports channels in the United States. Formed in 1996 by News Corporation, the networks were acquired by The Walt Disney Company on Mar ...

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

, PrimeSportschannel,

Travel Channel Travel Channel (stylized as Trvl Channel since 2018) is an American pay television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, which had previously owned the channel from 1997 to 2007. The channel is headquartered in New York, New York, United S ...

and

Outdoor Life ''Outdoor Life'' is an outdoors magazine about camping, fishing, hunting, and survival. It is a sister magazine of '' Field & Stream''. Together with ''Sports Afield'', they are considered the Big Three of American outdoor publishing by Mon ...

. Its signature outdoor adventure series, ''Great Sports Vacations'', aired on the Travel Channel and Fox Sports Net. In the late 1990s through a joint venture with the

Judy Garland Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm; June 10, 1922June 22, 1969) was an American actress and singer. While critically acclaimed for many different roles throughout her career, she is widely known for playing the part of Dorothy Gale in '' The ...

estate, the company embarked on production of a series of PBS pledge specials featuring vintage performances of the late Judy Garland, including "Judy, Frank & Dean" featuring Judy with

Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the " Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular entertainers of the 1940s, 1950s, and ...

and

Dean Martin Dean Martin (born Dino Paul Crocetti; June 7, 1917 – December 25, 1995) was an American singer, actor and comedian. One of the most popular and enduring American entertainers of the mid-20th century, Martin was nicknamed "The King of Cool". M ...

.Palm Springs Life, September, 2006 Under agreement with the late

Sid Luft Michael Sidney Luft (November 2, 1915 – September 15, 2005) was an American show business figure, the second husband of actress Lynn Bari, and later the third husband of actress and singer Judy Garland. Early life Luft was born in New Yor ...

, former husband of Judy Garland, the company also produced and released to PBS affiliates "Judy Garland Duets" featuring vintage performances of Judy with

Barbra Streisand Barbara Joan "Barbra" Streisand (; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress and director. With a career spanning over six decades, she has achieved success in multiple fields of entertainment, and is among the few performers awar ...

Liza Minnelli Liza May Minnelli ( ; born March 12, 1946) is an American actress, singer, dancer, and choreographer. Known for her commanding stage presence and powerful alto singing voice, Minnelli is among a rare group of performers awarded an Emmy, Grammy ...

Count Basie William James "Count" Basie (; August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. In 1935, he formed the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and the ...

Tony Bennett Anthony Dominick Benedetto (born August 3, 1926), known professionally as Tony Bennett, is an American retired singer of traditional pop standards, big band, show tunes, and jazz. Bennett is also a painter, having created works under his birt ...

Mickey Rooney Mickey Rooney (born Joseph Yule Jr.; other pseudonym Mickey Maguire; September 23, 1920 – April 6, 2014) was an American actor. In a career spanning nine decades, he appeared in more than 300 films and was among the last surviving stars of the ...

and others. In September 2001, Raven's ''

Earth Trek Earth Trek was a travel and adventure program produced by Palm Springs production company Raven Productions. The show was hosted and written by award-winning author, playwright, screenwriter and journalist, Joni Ravenna, who had previously hosted G ...

'', an environmentally conscious travel series, began airing on PBS stations nationally. In 2004, Raven's weekly series ''Hello Paradise'' premiered on

KVCR-TV KVCR-DT (channel 24) is a PBS member television station in San Bernardino, California, United States. It is owned by the San Bernardino Community College District alongside NPR member KVCR (91.9 FM). The two stations share studios at the San Be ...

, a Southern California PBS station. The series features celebrities, attractions, events, hotels and restaurants in Palm Springs and the desert communities. In 2007, the company produced ''Donovan Live in LA'' which was shot at the

Kodak Theatre The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...

in Hollywood and featured the singer / songwriter,

Donovan Donovan Phillips Leitch (born 10 May 1946), known mononymously as Donovan, is a Scottish musician, songwriter, and record producer. He developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelic rock and world mus ...

. The program was released to PBS stations with proceeds benefiting director

David Lynch David Keith Lynch (born January 20, 1946) is an American filmmaker, visual artist and actor. A recipient of an Academy Honorary Award in 2019, Lynch has received three Academy Award nominations for Best Director, and the César Award for Be ...

's Foundation for Consciousness Based Education and World Peace. In 2008, the company produced its sixth PBS pledge special, ''Trini Lopez presents Latin Music Legends'', recorded

live Live may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Live!'' (2007 film), 2007 American film * ''Live'' (2014 film), a 2014 Japanese film *'' ''Live'' (Apocalyptica DVD) Music * Live (band), American alternative rock band * List of album ...

-to- tape at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles, starring

Trini Lopez Trinidad López III (May 15, 1937 – August 11, 2020) was an American singer, guitarist, and actor. His first album included a cover version of Pete Seeger's " If I Had a Hammer", which earned a Golden Disc for him. His other hits include ...

and featuring

Julio Iglesias Julio José Iglesias de la Cueva (; born 23 September 1943) is a Spanish singer, songwriter and former professional footballer. Iglesias is recognized as the most commercially successful Spanish singer in the world and one of the top record ...

, Thee Midnighters, Tierra,

El Chicano El Chicano was an American brown-eyed soul group from Los Angeles, California, whose style incorporated various modern music genres including rock, funk, soul, blues, jazz, and salsa. The group's name was from Chicano, a term for United States ...

and the Greg Rolie Band. Its sister company, PSTV Partners, is the holder of FCC broadcast license for K09XW channel 9 in

Palm Desert Palm Desert is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, in the Coachella Valley, approximately east of Palm Springs, northeast of San Diego and east of Los Angeles. The population was 48,445 at the 2010 census. The city has been ...

and, through a partnership with the

San Bernardino Community College District The San Bernardino Community College District (SBCCD) is a public community college system in Crafton Hills College and San Bernardino Valley College in southern California. It part of the California Community Colleges System. Since 1926, SBC ...

, is rebroadcasting KVCR-DT. doclib.sbccd.net/.../Community_Information/Community_News/2003/Community_News_for_Fall_2003_09-01-03.pdf -

References

External links

Raven Productions
– Official Website {{Authority control Television production companies of the United States Companies based in Riverside County, California