King World Productions: Difference between revisions

'''King World Productions, Inc.''' was a television company established in 1964 by Charles '''King''' when they gained the distribution rights to the classic ''Our Gang'' (later re-titled ''The Little Rascals'') shorts. Years later, the company was ran by his children; Roger, Michael, Robert, Diana, Richard, and Karen King after King's death. In 1982, King World joined forces with [[Merv Griffin Enterprises]] to handle all of Griffin's nightly syndicated programming, including when they've launched a syndicated version of ''Wheel of Fortune'' on September 19, 1983, acquired the syndication rights to ''The Merv Griffin Show'' from [[Metromedia Producers Corporation]], and two syndicated pilots of ''Jeopardy!'' until the series officially launched on September 10, 1984. King World later formed an ad-sales barter division "[[Camelot Entertainment Sales]]", which would become "King World Media Sales" (and later "CBS Television Distribution Media Sales") in 1997. In 2000, King World was acquired by CBS and was made part of "[[CBS Enterprises]]" under Viacom, Inc. (now "Paramount Global"). On September 26, 2006, King World merged with [[CBS Studios|CBS Paramount Domestic Television]], CBS Paramount International Television (later "CBS Studios International" and "ViacomCBS Global Distribution Group", now "[[Paramount Global Distribution Group]]"), and [[CBS Home Entertainment]] to form [[CBS Media Ventures|CBS Television Distribution]]. Today, King World remains as an in-name-only unit of CBS Television Distribution (now "CBS Media Ventures") known as "KWP Studios" on ''Rachael Ray'', a unit of CBS Corporation (later "ViacomCBS", now "Paramount Global"). The name "King World Productions, Inc." is still used as an intellectual property on such of its properties such as ''The Little Rascals'' with a co-ownership by CBS Media Ventures. ''Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa'' is however now owned by [[WildBrain (Canada)|WildBrain]], via [[Greengrass Productions]] and [[DIC Entertainment (France/US)|DiC]].  

'''Availability:''' Ultimately rare. It was seen on older TV prints of ''The Little Rascals''.

 

'''Editor's Note:''' None.

* A Version exists where the logo stays on screen longer.

* It was mostly seen on syndicated prints of ''The Little Rascals'' from the late '70s-early '80s, but this has been replaced by the 5th logo.

* It possibly appeared at the end of Merle Elli's ''The Butcher'', and maybe at some point also appeared on ''House Call'', a 90-second program, starring Dr. Lendon Smith.

'''Logo:''' It's just in-credit text that says:

'''FX/SFX:''' The star joining the King World, then the bars going into place, or none. Nice CG animation that was produced by Calico.

'''Music/Sounds:''' A generic orchestral fanfare that starts out with an ascending roll-up, then a 4-note tune ending in an orchestral warbling. Sometimes, the end title theme from any show plays over.

* This is plastered on broadcast reruns of ''Jeopardy!'', such as the Summer 2020 reruns of classic episodes, but is preserved on select releases, most notably on Pluto TV, and the copy of the 1984 premiere on the 2005 DVD ''Jeopardy!: An Inside Look at America's Favorite Quiz Show''.

* This was also seen on the 1st 2 seasons of ''Inside Edition'' with David Frost and Bill O'Reilly, as well.

* The "Presents" variant was recently seen on TCM's prints of ''Under Capricorn'' and ''Night in Paradise''. The "presents" variant made a strange appearance at the end of ''The Guns of Will Sonnett'' episode "The Natural Way" on a recent Decades airing.

* The B&W variant made a surprise appearance on a recent TCM UK airing of ''The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes'' (1939), as most Holmes films on TCM use the 1995 [[CBS Broadcast International]] logo instead. It also appeared on an August 12, 1989 KOIN 6 airing of the Sherlock Holmes movie "The Scarlet Claw."

* There is an extended variant of the logo, where we see a background with colorful stripes and a large {{Font color|peru|tan}} star shaped like the one in the logo, and the doorway background animates into place and the spotlights shoot up from the bottom of the screen as the words "{{Font color|silver|'''''{{Big|K}}ING'''''}}" and "{{Font color|silver|'''''{{Big|W}}ORLD'''''}}" in 2-D fly into the screen a la the [[MGM Home Entertainment|MGM/UA Home Video]] logo (with "{{Font color|silver|'''''{{Big|K}}ING'''''}}" going from right to left, and "{{Font color|silver|'''''{{Big|W}}ORLD'''''}}" going from left to right). A long version appears as the rest of the logo proceeds as normal as the words "{{Font color|silver|'''DISTRIBUTED BY'''}}" or "{{Font color|silver|'''PRODUCED & DISTRIBUTED BY'''}}" fade in at the top. This was seen on episodes of ''Jeopardy!'' (October 1990-October 1992), ''Inside Edition'', a short-lived news magazine called ''Instant Recall'' from 1990-1992, and the 1991-92 version of ''Candid Camera'' (also known as ''The All-New Candid Camera'').

* In black and white form, it was also seen on ''The Little Rascals'' when the old shorts used to be shown on AMC, as well as in syndication at one point in time.

*It's currently seen on the Season 24 primer episode of ''Jeopardy!'' on Pluto TV.