Lorimar-Telepictures


Lorimar-Telepictures Corporation was an entertainment company established on April 21, 1986 with the merger of Lorimar Productions and Telepictures Corporation. Its assets included television production and syndication, feature films, home video, and broadcasting.

History

The merger of Lorimar-Telepictures was announced on October 7, 1985, by Merv Adelson. On April 21, 1986, the merger was complete. Lee Rich, one of the other founders of Lorimar, sold his shares in 1986 and left the company. On January 11, 1989, Warner Communications acquired Lorimar-Telepictures after shaking off the hostile takeover of the company.

List of programs produced/distributed by Lorimar-Telepictures

Note: All series listed here are now owned and distributed by Warner Bros. Television with a few exceptions.
Lorimar-Telepictures also distributed most of the pre-1990 DIC Entertainment and Saban Productions series in international markets; most of the DIC series are currently distributed by DHX Media, and most of the Saban series are currently distributed by Disney–ABC Home Entertainment and Television Distribution.

Broadcasting

Beginning in 1985, Telepictures had owned and operated multiple television stations – mostly in smaller markets, and when Lorimar and Telepictures merged in 1986, those stations carried over with the merger. Also, the merged company attempted to buy two more stations – then-third-party CBS network affiliate WTVJ in Miami-Fort Lauderdale, Florida and then-independent station WTTV in Indianapolis, Indiana and its satellite WTTK in Kokomo, then-locally-owned by Tel-Am Corporation. However, both attempts failed miserably, with CBS threatening to pull its affiliation from WTVJ – which would have forcibly turned the station into an independent, and as for WTTV and WTTK, those station were eventually sold to Capitol Broadcasting Company, based out of Raleigh, North Carolina. Today, WTVJ operates as an NBC network owned-and-operated station and WTTV and WTTK operate as CBS network affiliates owned and operated by Nexstar Media Group, ironically uniting them with former LTP station KMID.
Also in 1985, the company attempted to buy Multimedia, Inc., which at the time, owned and operated eight television stations and fifteen radio stations. In 1986, private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts attempted to sell to Lorimar-Telepictures six of the seven television stations it acquired from Storer Broadcasting, but like its attempts in acquiring WTVJ, WTTV and WTTK, both deals fell through with the Storer stations ultimately being sold to Gillett Communications in 1987. As for Multimedia, it was bought out by and absorbed into the Gannett Company in 1995, and its entire television division was eventually spun off into another company, Tegna Inc. in 2015.