CBS Productions was a production arm of the
CBS television network (an initialism of Columbia Broadcasting System, along with its parent company CBS Television Studios; the radio network was founded in 1927), now a part of
Paramount Global
Paramount Global (Trade name, d/b/a Paramount) is an American multinational mass media and entertainment Conglomerate (company), conglomerate controlled by National Amusements and Headquarters, headquartered at One Astor Plaza in Times Square, ...
, formed in 1952 to produce shows in-house, instead of relying solely on outside productions. One of its first productions was ''
Studio One'', a
drama
Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...
anthology series
An anthology series is a written series, radio, television, film, or video game series that presents a different story and a different set of characters in each different episode, season, segment, or short. These usually have a different ca ...
.
Later productions of note included the original ''
Perry Mason'', ''
The Twilight Zone
''The Twilight Zone'' is an American media franchise based on the anthology series, anthology television series created by Rod Serling in which characters find themselves dealing with often disturbing or unusual events, an experience described ...
'', ''
Gunsmoke
''Gunsmoke'' is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman Macdonnell and writer John Meston. It centered on Dodge City, Kansas, in the 1870s, during the settlement of the American West. The central charact ...
'', ''
The Wild Wild West
''The Wild Wild West'' is an American Western (genre), Western, spy film, spy, and science fiction on television, science fiction television series that ran on the CBS television network for four seasons from September 17, 1965, to April 11, 19 ...
'', ''
Hawaii Five-O'', ''
Rescue 911
''Rescue 911'' is an informational docudrama television series that premiered on CBS on April 18, 1989, and ended on August 27, 1996. The series was hosted by William Shatner and featured reenactments (and occasionally real footage) of emergenc ...
'', ''
Touched by an Angel
''Touched by an Angel'' is an American drama television series that premiered on CBS on September 21, 1994, and ran for 211 episodes over nine seasons until its conclusion on April 27, 2003. Created by John Masius and executive produced by Ma ...
'', ''
Walker, Texas Ranger
''Walker, Texas Ranger'' is an American action fiction, action Crime drama, crime television series created by Leslie Greif and Paul Haggis. It was inspired by the film ''Lone Wolf McQuade'', with both the film and the series starring Chuck Norr ...
'' and 1998–2007 episodes of ''
The King of Queens
''The King of Queens'' is an American television sitcom that ran on CBS from September 21, 1998, to May 14, 2007, with a total of 207 half-hour episodes spanning nine seasons. The series was created by Michael J. Weithorn and David Litt, who al ...
'', the
''CSI'' franchise and season 1 of ''
90210''.
History
Prior to 1984, CBS Productions was credited in its entertainment programs in the ending scroll merely as CBS Television Network. In 1979, CBS struck a deal with Trident Television Associates to bring the telemovies for off-net syndication.
Distribution rights to most CBS-produced entertainment programming, especially those that debuted prior to 1971, was acquired that year by
Viacom Enterprises, the syndication unit of
Viacom, which was created to
corporate spin-off
A corporate spin-off, also known as a spin-out, starburst or hive-off, is a type of corporate action where a company "splits off" a section as a separate business or creates a second incarnation, even if the first is still active. It is distinct ...
CBS's domestic
syndication and cable television operations due to
Financial Interest and Syndication Rules being upheld in 1971 (later repealed in 1993). CBS retained ownership of these programs (including the rights to release them for other media forms, such as
VHS
VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s.
Ma ...
videotapes and later in
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...
discs) with at least one exception—the
Terrytoons
Terrytoons, Inc. was an American animation studio headquartered in New Rochelle, New York, which was active from 1929 until its closure in December 1972 (and briefly returned between 1987 and 1996 for television in-name only). Founded by Paul Te ...
library, which was acquired by Viacom with the split, as CBS saw no value in the cartoons.
By 1987, CBS launched a sister production unit to CBS Productions, CBS Entertainment Productions, to produce shows, for several projects, including networks, syndication, theatrical feature and global film distribution, while continuing CBS Productions's production slate, which was producing television movies into the studio. In 1986,
Ridley Scott
Sir Ridley Scott (born 30 November 1937) is an English film director and producer. He directs films in the Science fiction film, science fiction, Crime film, crime, and historical drama, historical epic genres, with an atmospheric and highly co ...
, who was a successful feature film director, signed a deal with CBS Entertainment to deliver a made-for-TV movie that did not make it to air. In 1988, Maddy Horne, who was senior director was promoted to vice president of current programs at the CBS Entertainment studio.
In 1987, CBS announced that they would produce 22 in-house productions by November 15, 1990, although the production factory is unlikely and the time is when the curtain comes down on the consent decree that the
Big Three networks through the Justice Department, an agreement that limits the number of television productions in-house.
From 1991 though 1996,
Andy Hill was the president of CBS Productions, leading the development and production of programming owned by the network. He oversaw some of the most successful
prime time
Prime time, or peak time, is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for television shows. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...
shows of the decade, including ''
Touched by an Angel
''Touched by an Angel'' is an American drama television series that premiered on CBS on September 21, 1994, and ran for 211 episodes over nine seasons until its conclusion on April 27, 2003. Created by John Masius and executive produced by Ma ...
''; ''
Caroline in the City
''Caroline in the City'' is an American television sitcom that ran on NBC from 1995 until 1999. It stars Lea Thompson as cartoonist Caroline Duffy, who lives in Manhattan. The rest of the cast includes Eric Lutes, Malcolm Gets, Amy Pietz, an ...
''; ''
Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman''; ''
Walker, Texas Ranger
''Walker, Texas Ranger'' is an American action fiction, action Crime drama, crime television series created by Leslie Greif and Paul Haggis. It was inspired by the film ''Lone Wolf McQuade'', with both the film and the series starring Chuck Norr ...
''; ''
Dave's World''; and ''
Rescue 911
''Rescue 911'' is an informational docudrama television series that premiered on CBS on April 18, 1989, and ended on August 27, 1996. The series was hosted by William Shatner and featured reenactments (and occasionally real footage) of emergenc ...
''.
With other romantic comedy options in the works,
CBS' programming department passed on ''Caroline in the City''.
[ However, Hill was convinced it was a hit program, and found a buyer for the show in ]NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
.[ It was the first series that NBC had bought from a rival network, as well as the first one that CBS had sold to a competitor. Hill called NBC's decision "the most important statement CBS Productions has ever made about our legitimacy in this business."] In 1996, Hill asked to be released from his CBS contract to join MCA Inc., but his boss—CBS Entertainment President Les Moonves—refused. However, Hill left CBS the following year.
In 1995, veteran producer Steven Bochco signed a deal with CBS in order to maintain the programming for five years, until 2000. In 1999, Maria Crenna joined the company as executive vice president of the studio. In 1998, although CBS retained production on the Ann-Margret
Ann-Margret Olsson (born 28 April 1941), credited as Ann-Margret, is a Swedish-American actress and singer with a career spanning seven decades. Her many screen roles include '' Pocketful of Miracles'' (1961), ''State Fair'' (1962), '' Bye Bye B ...
drama ''Four Corners
Four Corners is a region of the Southwestern United States consisting of the southwestern corner of Colorado, southeastern corner of Utah, northeastern corner of Arizona, and northwestern corner of New Mexico. Most of the Four Corners regio ...
'', Columbia TriStar Television
Columbia TriStar Television, Inc. (abbreviated as CTT) was an American television production and distribution company, which was active from 1994 until its reincorporation as Sony Pictures Television in 2002. It was the third iteration of what ...
sold off its interest to Rysher Entertainment.
Viacom and CBS rejoined in 2000 with Viacom's acquisition of CBS itself. In 2004, CBS Entertainment Productions merged with Paramount Network Television
The first incarnation of Paramount Television was operated as the television production division of the American film studio Paramount Pictures, until it changed its name to CBS Paramount Television on January 17, 2006.
History
Desilu Pro ...
to become a new incarnation of Paramount Network Television. CBS Productions ceased to exist on April 24, 2006 by merging it completely into Paramount Network Television, though converting CBS Productions into an in-name only unit of the studio, while the CBS Productions logo was used on existing CBS-produced shows, newer CBS shows would use the Paramount logo.
In January 2006, as a result of the splitting of CBS and Viacom back into separate companies, Paramount Television
The first incarnation of Paramount Television was operated as the television production division of the American film studio Paramount Pictures, until it changed its name to CBS Paramount Television on January 17, 2006.
History
Desilu Pro ...
would later be renamed to CBS Paramount Television to reflect the split, whose main production division, CBS Paramount Network Television
CBS Studios, Inc. is an American television production company which is a subsidiary of the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. It was formed on January 17, 2006, by CBS Corporation as CBS Paramount (Network) Television, as a re ...
, continued to produce the former CBS Productions shows that were still running. Later on September 26, 2006, CBS Paramount Domestic Television, CBS Paramount International Television, CBS Home Entertainment
CBS Home Entertainment (formerly CBS Video Enterprises, Inc., MGM/CBS Home Video, CBS/Fox Video and CBS Video, currently branded as CBS DVD for DVD releases and CBS Blu-ray for Blu-ray releases) is an American home video company that distribut ...
, and King World (established 1964, acquired by CBS in 1999) were combined to form CBS Television Distribution
CBS Media Ventures, Inc. (formerly CBS Paramount Domestic Television and CBS Television Distribution) is the television broadcast syndication arm of CBS Studios, a division of the CBS Entertainment Group, in turn a division of Paramount Global, ...
. Even though most new shows carried the CBS Paramount Television or CBS Television Studios logos, the CBS Productions logo was continued to be used on specials of '' The Thanksgiving Parade on CBS'' until November 28, 2019, when newer ''Thanksgiving Parade'' specials from 2020 onwards carried the CBS Studios logo.
On July 15, 2008, after becoming defunct in 2004, the CBS Productions logo was used on newer shows as a legacy credit, starting with episodes of the television series '' The Cleaner'' on A&E and ''90210'' on The CW
The CW Network, LLC (commonly referred to as The CW or simply CW) is an American commercial broadcast television network which is controlled by Nexstar Media Group through a 75% ownership interest. The network's name is derived from the firs ...
television network, though it was technically produced by CBS Paramount Network Television. ''90210'' was the first series produced by the resurrected CBS Productions name. Its logo was also used on '' Hawaii Five-0'', ''The Good Wife
''The Good Wife'' is an American legal political drama television series that aired on CBS from September 22, 2009, to May 8, 2016. It focuses on Alicia Florrick, the wife of the Cook County State's Attorney, who returns to her career in law ...
'', ''90210'' and '' Blue Bloods'' for a brief period of time, as well as newer shows airing on CBS and The CW
The CW Network, LLC (commonly referred to as The CW or simply CW) is an American commercial broadcast television network which is controlled by Nexstar Media Group through a 75% ownership interest. The network's name is derived from the firs ...
, although it was technically produced by CBS Television Studios. The legacy CBS Productions logo was dropped in 2012, and it was replaced by the CBS Television Studios logo.
On March 4, 2015, the CBS Productions logo was used to appear on '' CSI: Cyber'' globally as a legacy credit to honor the entire franchise, but the logo was dropped when the show was cancelled, and all future CBS shows would carry the CBS Television Studios logo. Subsequently, CBS Productions became part of ViacomCBS (now Paramount Global
Paramount Global (Trade name, d/b/a Paramount) is an American multinational mass media and entertainment Conglomerate (company), conglomerate controlled by National Amusements and Headquarters, headquartered at One Astor Plaza in Times Square, ...
) when CBS Corporation
CBS Corporation was an American multinational media company with interests primarily in commercial broadcasting, publishing and television production. It was split from Viacom on December 31, 2005, alongside an entirely new Viacom; both ...
re-merged with Viacom on December 4, 2019.
Filmography
References
{{Authority control
Paramount Global subsidiaries
Predecessors of CBS Studios
Television production companies of the United States
Companies based in New York City
Mass media companies established in 1948
Mass media companies disestablished in 2006
Re-established companies
Mass media companies established in 2008
Mass media companies disestablished in 2012
Mass media companies established in 2015
Mass media companies disestablished in 2019