The Carsey-Werner Company
The Carsey-Werner Company (previously known as Carsey-Werner Productions and Carsey-Werner-Mandabach Productions, before that, Carsey Productions and also known as Carsey-Werner Television) is an independent production company founded in 1981 by former ABC writer/producer duo Marcy Carsey and Tom Werner (now co-owner of the Boston Red Sox baseball franchise and Liverpool F.C.).[3] Caryn Mandabach was made a partner in the firm in 2001 (she joined in 1984), but left in 2004 to embark on her own production deal.[4]
Formerly
The company first started when Marcy Carsey left ABC in 1980 to form out Carsey Productions to develop TV shows.[5] Tom Werner succeeded Carsey, but she persuaded him to join her to form an independent production company.[6]
Carsey-Werner has had its own production and, since the early 1990s, distribution arms. Prior to controlling their own distribution, Viacom, and later Paramount Domestic Television, syndicated their programming for them. Carsey-Werner announced that they would buy back the rights to the three shows previously held by Viacom in 1994.[7][8] In 2002 they announced a deal with Paramount Pictures to develop feature films through the studio. The group was also an original partner in Oxygen before Oxygen Media's sale in 2007 to NBCUniversal.
In 2004, Carsey and Werner mulled over the prospect of selling the studio, including its profitable catalog of shows, with UBS as their underwriter. Companies, most notably Viacom and Time Warner, expressed interest in buying the firm to exhibit their content on their cable networks. But the deal did not materialize and Carsey-Werner remained independent.[9] In 2005, Carsey and Werner broke their ties, and Carsey sold off its interest in the production division to Mosaic Media Group, which became an affiliated production company of Warner Bros. Television under the moniker Werner/Gold/Miller.[10] Werner took full control in 2007 by rebranding it to Werner Entertainment,[11] which then merged in 2019 with Sara Gilbert's Gilbert TV to form Sara+Tom, following the success of The Conners.[12] The distribution arm continued to use the Carsey-Werner name.[13]
Since then, they have mostly focused on distributing their existing shows, with the 2018 revival of Roseanne and its spin-off The Conners being among the first shows they have produced in more than 10 years. Werner also launched a revival of You Bet Your Life (of which Carsey-Werner had produced a short-lived revival of in the early 1990s) in conjunction with Fox Corporation in 2021.
Stuart Glickman: CEO[edit]
A key addition to the Carsey-Werner management team was Stuart Glickman, who became chief executive officer in 1987. Originally a trial lawyer, Glickman became involved in the entertainment industry in 1968 when he became Assistant Counsel for American International Pictures. In 1970 he became director of business affairs for CBS Television. Glickman then worked as an entertainment lawyer for 15 years, providing legal and business advice to top companies and talents, including Carsey-Werner. After becoming the CEO, Glickman expanded on the company's production success with a mandate to create a diversified, global entertainment company with multiple revenue streams. He oversaw the creation of a distribution operation, reacquiring Carsey-Werner's library of shows from Paramount/Viacom, then brokered a number of innovative syndication deals. He helped to create Carsey-Werner Moving Pictures, to position the company to produce feature films. According to Variety, Glickman helped turn Carsey-Werner into a "tiny powerhouse."
The fortune of Carsey-Werner's core business, in the meantime, was mixed in 2000. The company's attempt to break into animation, God, the Devil and Bob, was pulled from NBC after only four episodes, unable to compete opposite ABC's hit quiz show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. The company did add a major new star, however, when it announced in May that Steve Martin had signed a production deal. Perhaps most important of all to Carsey-Werner's future may have been the announcement in June that its CEO of 13 years, Stuart Glickman, would be leaving the company to "explore new business and investment opportunities." The company's fall production plans had just been concluded, with the return to network television of That '70s Show and 3rd Rock from the Sun, plus the addition of a new comedy, Don't Ask. "I wanted to wait for an orderly time when all things were done," Glickman explained to Variety, adding: "I feel like I'm leaving the company in good shape." Glickman also agreed to help in the search for his replacement.
In November 2006, the company released its first film for Universal Studios, a comedy film called Let's Go to Prison. A second film, The Brothers Solomon was released with Revolution Studios on September 7, 2007. In 2008, a third film, Smother was released.