MTM Enterprises
MTM Enterprises (also known as MTM Productions) was an American independent production company established in 1969 by Mary Tyler Moore and her then-husband Grant Tinker to produce The Mary Tyler Moore Show for CBS. The name for the production company was drawn from Mary Tyler Moore's initials.[1]
Company type
Television and film production
1969
May 19, 1998
Acquired by News Corporation; library assets were folded into 20th Century Fox Television
TVS Entertainment (Television South plc) (1988–1993)
International Family Entertainment (1993–1997)
News Corporation (1997–1998)
MTM Television Distribution
MTM International
MTM Home Video
MTM Records
With MTM, Mary Tyler Moore would become one of the first women to own a television production company. MTM became very successful, producing a number of successful television programs during the 1970s and 1980s. The Walt Disney Company through its subsidiary, 20th Television owns all of its programs.
History[edit]
In 1969, MTM Enterprises was organized by both Mary Tyler Moore and Grant Tinker,[2][3][4] and hired James L. Brooks and Allan Burns to create her sitcom.[5]
In 1971, co-founder Grant Tinker was forced to quit 20th Century-Fox Television due to conflicts with how to run MTM, in order to maintain a full-time job at the company.[6]
In 1976, MTM teamed up with Metromedia Producers Corporation to start a variety show, a first for first-run syndication.[7] Earlier that year, the company had hired Bud Rifkin to launch a syndicated division.[8]
In 1977, Ed. Weinberger, James L. Brooks, David Davis, Allan Burns, and Stan Daniels left MTM Enterprises for Paramount Pictures and started the John Charles Walters Company.
Tinker oversaw MTM's operation until leaving the company.
In 1981, Tinker become chairman of NBC. Lawyers backing NBC's then-owner RCA convinced Tinker to sell his remaining shares of MTM. Moore and Arthur Price, her business manager and company vice president, bought Tinker's shares;[9] Price subsequently was elevated to president. Tinker later regretted leaving MTM, believing that the company started to decline without him.[10]
Most of MTM's programs aired on CBS. For many years, MTM and CBS co-owned the CBS Studio Center in Studio City California, where a majority of their programs were filmed and videotaped.
In 1986, MTM launched its own syndicated arm MTM Television Distribution, to handle off-net syndication of the MTM shows, and subsequently courted to continue its relations with syndicator Jim Victory to sell off-network rights to MTM's shows like Hill Street Blues and WKRP in Cincinnati, all the way up until the late 1980s as part of a contract settlement.[11][12] In 1988, MTM was sold to UK broadcaster and independent station for the South and South East of England TVS Entertainment for $320 million.[10] A year afterwards, MTM Television Distribution began producing its own programming for the first-run syndication market.[13]
After TVS lost its franchise to broadcast on the ITV network to Meridian Broadcasting, a number of American companies (and to a lesser extent, Meridian) were interested in acquiring MTM, with Pat Robertson's International Family Entertainment making the first offer.[14] A small number of shareholders, including Julian Tregar, rejected the offer from IFE. In November, TCW Capital made a bid,[15] but withdrew it a few weeks later after reviewing the accounts of TVS.[16] IFE increased its offer to £45.3M, but continued to be opposed by Julian Tregar, who blocked the deal on technical grounds, alleging that the offer was too low.[16][17] IFE finally increased the offer to appease the remaining shareholders,[18][19] and on January 23, 1993, their offer of £56.5M was finally accepted.[20] The deal went into effect on February 1, 1993 (the month after Meridian began its first broadcast).
In 1995, Michael Ogiens, formerly running CBS, as well as his production company Ogiens/Kane Company, joined MTM to serve as president of the company in hopes that MTM would be restored to its independent production glory.[21] The following year, Josh Kane, fellow partner of the Ogiens/Kane Company joined MTM as vice president for the East Coast offices.[22] In 1997, MTM hit layoffs at the syndication unit after the cancellation of the show The Cape.[23]
In 1997, International Family Entertainment was sold to News Corporation, and folded into its subsidiary Fox Kids Worldwide, eventually renamed to Fox Family Worldwide (a joint venture between Fox and Saban Entertainment).[24][25] MTM's library assets however, were transferred over to 20th Television who retained them, even after Fox Family Worldwide was sold to The Walt Disney Company in 2001.[26] Until then, The Pretender and Good News were the last surviving shows to be produced by MTM, as 20th Century Fox Television inherited both shows in 1997 (when News Corporation purchased MTM) and 1998 (when MTM ceased operations) respectively. MTM's library became property of Disney following its acquisition of 20th Century Fox in 2019. Disney holds the rights of most of MTM’s shows.
MTM Enterprises also included a record label, MTM Records — distributed by Capitol Records — which was in existence from 1984 to 1988.[27]
CBS connection[edit]
MTM programs appeared almost exclusively on CBS until the early 1980s, when Grant Tinker assumed the additional role of president of NBC. Soon, NBC picked up a number of MTM shows. His intention was to leave NBC after 5 years (in 1986) and return to MTM, taking over the reins from interim MTM president Arthur Price. However, Price fired many of the key players in the company's ranks, and by 1986 they had few shows left on the schedules (Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere and Remington Steele were all nearing the ends of their runs, leaving Newhart as the sole entrant on the schedule).
Mimsie the Cat (1968 - c. June 1988) was a live-action tabby cat seen in the company's logo, in a spoof of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's long-running Leo the Lion mascot. Mimsie was borrowed from a local shelter and then owned by one of the MTM staff (not by Moore and Tinker, who named the cat).
In the standard version of the logo, as first used on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Mimsie appears in a crouched position, looks up at the camera, and meows once. Mimsie would not meow for the camera crew, so they eventually used footage of her yawning in reverse, with the "meow" added.
By the 1980s, there were many different variants of the logo, with Mimsie often appearing in different costumes, as well as being replaced by other cats, corresponding to the style and theme of the particular programs, including the following: