Barris Productions: Difference between revisions

Chuck Barris Productions, Inc. was a television production company that was started on June 14, 1965 by Chuck Barris as "Chuck Barris Enterprises, Inc.". The very first series was an unsold pilot called ''People Pickers'' and the first hit series was ''The Dating Game''. On October 28, 1968, Barris took his production company public. After the cancellation of ''Treasure Hunt'' in 1982, Barris left to move to France. He returned to the United States in 1984 and formed a distribution arm called "[[Bel-Air Program Sales]]" in October and syndicated his classic series: ''The Dating Game'', ''The Newlywed Game'' (for ABC reruns), ''The Gong Show'', ''3's A Crowd'', The ''$1.98 Beauty Show'', and ''Treasure Hunt'', among others. Chuck Barris Productions, Inc. was renamed to "Barris Industries, Inc." in 1981. He created ''The New Newlywed Game'' in 1984 and airing on ABC during Valentine's Week. However, it would become a first-run syndicated program during the 1985 season. In 1985, Chuck Barris formed an ad-sales barter called "Clarion Communications" with Steve Mathis, which was later renamed to "Barris Advertising Sales" on April 8, 1987, Bel-Air Program Sales became "Barris Program Sales" the same year, and the production arm Chuck Barris Productions to "Barris Productions". In 1987, Barris was burnt out and left to move back to France and sold his shares of Barris Industries. In December 1987, Barris Industries under the ownership of movie producer Burt Sugarman and Giant Group, Ltd. announced a merger with The Guber-Peters Company. The merger was complete in 1988 to form "Barris/Guber-Peters". On March 31, 1989, Burt Sugarman sold his 24.4% stake in Barris Industries to Frank Lowy, who owned Westerfield Capital Corporation and Northern Star Holdings, who also owned Network 10 of Australia for $34.5 million after Sugarman failed to take over Media General, Inc. On September 6, 1989, Barris Industries changed its name to "The Guber-Peters Entertainment Company", Barris Program Sales was renamed to "Guber-Peters Program Sales" and Barris Advertising Sales was renamed to "Guber-Peters Advertising Sales" and was headed by Peter Guber and Jon Peters. On September 29, 1989, the Guber-Peters Entertainment Company was sold to Sony Corporation for $200 million, a day after Sony acquired Columbia Pictures Entertainment. The GPEC sale was completed on November 9, 1989. On November 15, 1990, Guber-Peters Television was folded into Columbia Pictures Television Distribution. Currently, the Barris game shows are owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment and distributed by Sony Pictures Television. However, Barris had an independent company known as the Chuck Barris Company since 1987. Unfortunately, Barris died on March 22, 2017, at the age of 87.