CBS Productions is one of the production arm of the CBS television network, now a part of ViacomCBS, formed in 1952 to produce shows in-house, instead of relying solely on outside productions. One of its first productions was Westinghouse Studio One, a dramaanthology series. Later productions of note included the original Perry Mason, The Twilight Zone, Gunsmoke, The Wild Wild West, Hawaii Five-O, Rescue 911, Touched by an Angel, Walker, Texas Ranger and 1998–2006 episodes of The King of Queens, the CSI franchise and season 1 of 90210. Prior to 1978, CBS Productions was credited in its entertainment programs in the ending scroll merely as "The CBS Television Network". From 1978-1995, the company was alternately known as CBS Entertainment Productions. 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 spin out CBS's domestic syndication and cable television operations due to fin-syn law being upheld in 1971. CBS retained ownership of these programs with at least one exception—the Terrytoons library, which was acquired by Viacom with the split, as CBS saw no value in the cartoons. Viacom and CBS rejoined in 1999 with Viacom's acquisition of CBS itself. In 2004, CBS Productions merged with Paramount Network Television to become CBS Paramount Network Television. In January 2006, as a result of the splitting of CBS and Viacom back into separate companies, the former company acquired Paramount Television and renamed it CBS Paramount Television, whose main production division, CBS ParamountNetwork Television, continued to produce the former CBS Productions shows that are still running. Later on September 26, 2006, CBS Paramount Domestic Television, CBS Paramount International Television, CBS Home Entertainment, and King World were combined to form CBS Television Distribution. On September 2, 2008, after becoming defunct in 2004, the CBS Productions name was re-activated to continue producing new episodes of the TV series90210 on The CW minor television network. 90210 was the first series produced by the resurrected CBS Productions name. Its name was also used on Hawaii Five-0, The Good Wife, 90210 and Blue Bloods for a brief period of time. On March 4, 2015, the CBS Productions name was activated for a third time to produce globally but was deactivated when the show was canceled in March 2016. In November 2017, CBS Productions was reactivated once again to produce post-2017 specials of The Thanksgiving Parade on CBS. Subsequently, CBS Productions became part of ViacomCBS when CBS Corporation remerged with Viacom on December 4, 2019.
