Warner Bros. Discovery Television

Warner Bros. Television, Inc. (WBTV) is the global television production arm of Warner Bros. Entertainment, a subsidiary of AT&T. Alongside CBS Studios, it serves as a television production arm of The CW (in which AT&T has a 50% ownership stake), though it also produces shows for other networks, such as Shameless on Showtime and Westworld on HBO (though AT&T also owns HBO). As of 2015, it is one of the world's two largest television production companies measured by revenue and library (along with Sony Pictures Television).

Beginning and saturation
The division was started on March 21, 1955 with its first and most successful head being Jack L. Warner's son-in-law William T. Orr. ABC had major success against its competition with Walt Disney's Disneyland TV series and approached Warner Bros. initially with the idea of purchasing the studio's film library (WB eventually sold the rights to the negatives of pre-1950 films and pre-1948 cartoons and shorts to Associated Artists Productions, or a.a.p., in 1956). WB formally entered television production with the premiere of its self-titled anthology series Warner Bros. Presents on ABC. The one-hour weekly show featured rotating episodes of television series based on the WB films, Casablanca and Kings Row, as well as an original series titled Cheyenne with Clint Walker. The first one-hour television western, Cheyenne became a big hit for the network and the studio with the added advantage of featuring promotions for upcoming Warner Bros. cinema releases in the show's last ten minutes. One such segment for Rebel Without a Cause featured Gig Young notably talking about road safety with James Dean.

With only Cheyenne being a success, WB ended the ten-minute promotions of new films and replaced Warner Bros. Presents with an anthology series titled Conflict. It was felt that "Conflict" was what the previous series lacked. Conflict showed the pilots for Maverick and 77 Sunset Strip.

The success of Cheyenne led WBTV to produce many series for ABC such as Westerns (Maverick, Lawman, Colt .45, Bronco, a spin off of Cheyenne, Sugarfoot, and The Alaskans), crime dramas (77 Sunset Strip, Hawaiian Eye, Bourbon Street Beat, and Surfside 6), and other shows such as The Gallant Men and The Roaring Twenties using stock footage from WB war films and gangster films respectively. The company also produced Jack Webb's Red Nightmare for the U.S. Department of Defense that was later shown on American television on Jack Webb's General Electric True.

All shows were made in the manner of WB's B pictures in the 1930s and 1940s; fast-paced, lots of stock footage from other films, stock music from the Warners music library and contracted stars working long hours for comparatively small salaries with restrictions on their career.

During the 1960 Writers Guild of America strike, WB reused many plots from its films and other television shows under the nom de plume of "W. Hermanos". This was another example of imitating Warner Bros' B Pictures who would remake an "A" film and switch the setting.Two of the most popular stars, James Garner and Clint Walker, quit over their conditions. Garner never returned to the Warner's fold during this period. Successful Warner's television stars found themselves in leading roles of many of the studio's films with no increase in salary. Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. was simultaneously the lead of 77 Sunset Strip, in a recurring role on Maverick, and also headlined several films until exhaustion forced the studio to give him a rest. Many other actors under contract to Warner's at the time, who despite their work conditions, did see their stars rise over time, albeit for most only briefly, included Jack Kelly, Will Hutchins, Peter Brown, Ty Hardin, Wayde Preston, John Russell, Donald May, Rex Reason, Richard Long, Van Williams, Roger Smith, Mike Road, Anthony Eisley, Robert Conrad, Robert McQueeney, Dorothy Provine, Diane McBain, and Connie Stevens, who had recorded songs, "Kookie, Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb)" with Edd Byrnes in 1959; and "16 Reasons" in 1960; both would become Top-5 hits. Burns and Troy Donahue would become teen heartthrobs. Another contract player, Englishman Roger Moore (Maverick and The Alaskans), was growing displeased with Warner as his contract was expiring and would relocate to Europe from Hollywood, becoming an international star on TV, and eventually, in films. Warners also contracted established stars such as Ray Danton, Peter Breck, Jeanne Cooper and Grant Williams. These stars often appeared as guest stars, sometimes reprising their series role in another TV series.

The stars appeared in WB cinema releases with no additional salary, with some such as Zimbalist, Walker, Garner (replacing Charlton Heston in Darby's Rangers), and Danton (replacing Robert Evans in The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond) playing the lead roles; many of the stars appeared in ensemble casts in such films as The Chapman Report and Merill's Marauders. Some stars such as Connie Stevens, Edd Byrnes, Robert Conrad and Roger Smith made albums for Warner Bros. Records. One particular recording, a novelty tune titled Kookie, Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb) became a big hit for Edd Byrnes and Connie Stevens (1959). The following year, Connie Stevens had her own hit, with Sixteen Reasons.

It was during this period, that shows, particularly Westerns like Cheyenne and Maverick; and the crime dramas like 77 Sunset Strip, Hawaiian Eye and Surfside 6 featured catchy theme songs, that became just as much a part of the American pop culture landscape, as the shows themselves. Depending on the particular show (in this case, the Westerns), William Lava or David Buttolph would compose the music, with lyrics by Stan Jones or Paul Francis Webster, among others. For the crime shows, it was up to the songwriting team of Jerry Livingston and Mack David, who also scored the themes for the sitcom Room for One More, and The Bugs Bunny Show.

In 1960, WBTV turned its attentions to the younger viewer, for one program, anyway, as they brought Bugs Bunny and the other WB cartoon characters to prime time, with The Bugs Bunny Show, which featured cartoons released after July 31, 1948 (which had not been sold to Associated Artists Productions.), combined with newly animated introductory material. Also, that year saw the debut of The Roaring Twenties (which was thought to be a more benign alternative to Desilu's The Untouchables. Whether or not that was the actual case, it was, in fact, much less successful).

WBTV expanded on its existing genre of Westerns and crime dramas, and in January, 1962, produced its first sitcom, Room For One More. Based on the memoirs of Anna Rose, which in 1952 WB made into a movie starring Cary Grant and his then wife Betsy Drake (the only movie that they worked together in) about a married couple with two children of their own, who went on to adopt at least two more, the TV series starred Andrew Duggan and Peggy McCay as George and Anna Rose. Acting legend Mickey Rooney's son Tim, and Ahna Capri, who would continue to do episodic TV roles and feature films (arguably, her best-known movie was Enter the Dragon starring Bruce Lee) were cast as the Rose's natural children. The show only lasted for half a season. In the fall of that year, a WWII drama The Gallant Men debuted, but lasted for only one season.

WBTV exclusively produced shows for the ABC network until 1962, when GE True premiered on CBS.

In 1964, WBTV once again tried to turn a classic film comedy of its own into a sitcom, with No Time for Sergeants. Both the sitcom and the 1958 movie were based on the 1955 Broadway play, which starred Andy Griffith (TV's U.S. Steel Hour also adapted the stage play for TV in 1956). The sitcom starred Sammy Jackson as Will Stockdale, a naive Georgia farm boy drafted into the military. 1965 saw the debut of F-Troop, a Western spoof taking place at a U.S. Army post after the Civil War. Despite lasting two seasons, it is still considered a classic. Forrest Tucker, Larry Storch, and Ken Berry led an ensemble cast featuring military misfits, and an Indian tribe, who, among other things, forgot how to do a rain dance.

The streak of identifiable series subsided in 1963 with a halt of using stock company (acting) contract players and Jack Webb taking over WBTV and not being particularly successful. However, many series were still filmed at Warner Bros. such as F-Troop and The F.B.I.

Later years
In 1976, the company acquired The Wolper Organization, most notably for Chico and the Man and Welcome Back, Kotter. In 1989, it acquired Lorimar-Telepictures. Telepictures was later folded into WBTV's distribution unit, and in 1990, came back as a television production company. In 1993, Lorimar Television was folded into WBTV.

In 2006, WBTV made its vast library of programs available for free viewing on the Internet (through sister company AOL's IN2TV service), with Welcome Back, Kotter as its marquee offering. Some of these programs have not been seen publicly since their last syndicated release in the 1980s.

WBTV has had a number of affiliated production houses that have co-produced many of their shows with WBTV. These include but are not limited to: Ralph Edwards-Stu Billett Productions (The People's Court) Harvey Levin Productions (TMZ), CBS Productions/CBS Paramount Television (Cold Case), Sony Pictures Television (Coma), Big Ticket Television (The Jamie Kennedy Experiment), AND Syndicated Productions (Judge Mathis), Bruce Helford's Mohawk Productions (The Drew Carey Show, The Norm Show, The Oblongs, George Lopez), John Wells Productions (ER, The West Wing, Third Watch), Chuck Lorre Productions (Two and a Half Men, The Big Bang Theory, Mike & Molly, Mom), Jerry Bruckheimer Television (Without a Trace, Cold Case), Bad Robot Productions (Fringe, Person of Interest, Revolution), Rockne S. O'Bannon Television, Miller-Boyett Productions – which was inherited from Lorimar (Full House, Family Matters), Berlanti Productions (Arrowverse) and in 2010, Conan O'Brien's production company Conaco switched its affiliation to WBTV from Universal Media Studios, coinciding with O'Brien's move to his new talk show, Conan at Time Warner-owned TBS.

In August 2009 in Australia, The Nine Network and WBTV launched digital free-to-air channel GO! with WBTV holding a 33% stake in the new joint venture with Sony Pictures (titles were later picked up by rival Seven in 2011). During that, the network signed 4 more years with the output between 2011 and 2015.

On June 11, 2012, WBTV acquired Alloy Entertainment. On June 2, 2014, Warner Bros. Television Group purchased all of Eyeworks' companies outside of the United States, rebranding as Warner Bros. International Television Production. Eyeworks USA however, will remain independent.

On November 8, 2019, WBTV underwent a major reorganisation, by absorbing fellow WarnerMedia-owned television production arm Telewest Studios and bringing all of its worldwide television production operations under a single roof. The new structure would see the WBTV's operations being split up into three pillars - Domestic Production (for the production of WBTV's U.S.-produced scripted and unscripted programs), International Production and Formats (for WBTV's non-U.S. television production groups, and the sales of the company's unscripted formats; led by Telewest Studios formats director Ed Duncan) and Global Distribution (for domestic and worldwide distribution of programming produced by WBTV's production teams). Telewest Studios managing director John Laing also stood down as part of the reorganisation. The new structure would also allow WBTV to properly compete with other television and content production/distribution companies, like ITV Studios, All3Media, Fremantle (now WildBrain), Banijay Group, among others.

10Fold
10Fold is the latest venture from long-time business partners and Emmy award-winning producers Craig Armstrong and Rick Ringbakk. With five decades of combined experience in mainstream entertainment, Craig and Rick are experts in creating, developing, and producing entertainment content of all types – including unscripted competition, gameshows, transformation, lifestyle series, documentaries, sketch comedy, and feature films.

Ringbakk and Armstrong have produced thousands of hours of television for NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, CW, TNT, TBS, MTV, CMT, Discovery and many others. They have a combined eight Emmy nominations and three wins. Their original series and formats have been sold in dozens of territories worldwide.

44 Blue Productions
44 Blue Productions is an award-winning producer of non-fiction and unscripted content whose series have aired on more than 30 domestic television networks and in more than 120 countries worldwide.

Founded by Rasha and Stephanie Noonan Drachkovitch, 44 Blue’s impressive slate of groundbreaking series includes Fox’s First Responders Live, Netflix’s Jailbirds, A&E’s twice-Emmy® nominated series Wahlburgers, A&E’s Donnie Loves Jenny and Nightwatch, MSNBC’S critically acclaimed Lockup and its trio of spinoff series Lockup: Raw, Lockup: World Tour and Life After Lockup; Animal Planet’s Pit Bulls & Parolees, E!’s Hollywood Medium with Tyler Henry, Oxygen’s Strut, daytime talk show TD Jakes for first-run syndication, Style’s Emmy® nominated Split Ends, Spike’s Deadliest Warrior and OWN’s Gracie Award winning Married to the Army: Alaska.

Blue Ribbon Content
Formed in 2014, Blue Ribbon Content (BRC) is Warner Bros. Television’s digital series production unit, continuing the Television Group’s commitment to create new and compelling programming for the digital marketplace. BRC is charged with developing and producing live-action series for digital platforms, tapping the creative talent already working at the Studio while also identifying opportunities for collaboration with new writers and producers. In addition to live-action programming, BRC produces animated programming as well as content for emerging platforms such as virtual reality.

BRC’s slate includes original program concepts as well as new shows based on Warner Bros.’s wide-ranging collection of intellectual property.

Live-action BRC productions include series such as the horror/thriller Critters: A New Binge for Shudder and horror/comedy The Pledge for CW Seed, as well as the following original films: “The Banana Splits Movie” and Critters Attack! for Warner Bros. Home Entertainment and Syfy, plus Good Girls Get High for AT&T’s DirectTV Cinema. BRC also produces the upcoming mixed-media series BizarroTV for DC Universe, plus the animated series Deathstroke: Knights & Dragons for CW Seed.

Dorsey Pictures
Dorsey Pictures, formerly called Orion Entertainment, is one of America’s leading producers of non-scripted TV and branded entertainment.

Dorsey Pictures has produced more than 1,000 hours of TV programming for a variety of major US TV and cable networks including HGTV, Discovery, History, DIY, Travel Channel, ESPN, National Geographic and others. Recent productions include Dog’s Most Wanted for WGN America, Tiny House Big Living and Tiny Paradise for HGTV, and Maine Cabin Masters, Love Yurts and MegaDecks for DIY.

Fabrik Entertainment
Los Angeles-based scripted television development and production company Fabrik Entertainment creates compelling, original programming for both the US and international markets.

With CEO Henrik Bastin and President Melissa Aouate at the helm, supported by VPs Abbey Morris and Paul Hilborn, Fabrik has built a reputation for delivering outstanding, high-impact series, both original and IP-based.

Fabrik’s projects include Bosch, Amazon’s first ever original drama series, based on Michael Connelly’s best-selling Harry Bosch book series and written by Emmy®-nominated Eric Overmyer (The Wire, Treme); and Interrogation for CBS All Access starring Peter Sarsgaard.

Other credits include AMC’s The Killing, USA’s Burn Notice, Fox’s The Good Guys, FX’s The Comedians, starring Billy Crystal and Josh Gad, NBC’s American Odyssey and HBO Nordic’s 100 Code.

In 2011, Fabrik Entertainment became a Red Arrow Studios company, the first strategic investment by the group in the key US scripted sector. The ongoing partnership creates a strong international content pipeline and distribution network benefiting both parties.

Half Yard Productions
Led by CEO Sean Gallagher, Half Yard has established itself as a leading US creator and producer of reality series, factual entertainment formats and documentaries, with the company boasting strong channel relationships throughout the market.

Half Yard is the top producer of wedding programming in the US, having created the successful wedding franchises Say Yes to the Dress, I Found the Gown and Randy to the Rescue for TLC, as well as the critically acclaimed The Last Alaskans for Discovery. In addition, it has produced a wealth of hit series for networks such as: Nat Geo (Diggers), History (How the States Got Their Shapes), and Animal Planet (Hillbilly Handfishin’). New shows include a reboot of popular home makeover show While You Were Out for both TLC and HGTV, representing the first series co-production across Discovery’s expanded Lifestyle portfolio; and two new spin-offs of the Say Yes franchise – Say Yes to the Nest for HGTV, and Say Yes to the Dress America for TLC.

Half Yard was founded by Abby Greensfelder and Sean Gallagher in 2006. Prior to Half Yard, Greensfelder and Gallagher were Senior Vice Presidents for production, programming and development at Discovery Channel and TLC respectively. Both were responsible for commissioning hit franchises like Dirty Jobs, Deadliest Catch, and MythBusters.

Karga Seven Productions
Headquartered in Los Angeles and Istanbul, Karga Seven Pictures is an award-winning production company that produces content across a wide range of genres and formats, including factual, scripted and branded content.

Productions include Hunting Hitler for History; Legends of the Lost with Megan Fox, Booze Traveler and Mission Declassified seasons 1 and 2 for Travel Channel; Hard to Kill and Contact for Discovery Channel; Unexplained and Unexplored for Science Channel; Killing Time and Cry Wolfe for Discovery ID; Duff Takes the Cake for Food Network; Shot in the Dark and scripted/documentary series Rise of Empires: Ottoman for Netflix; Hekimoğlu, based on US scripted series House M.D., for Kanal D; scripted series Her Yerde Sen and City of Secrets for Fox Turkey; and feature film Takim: Mahalle Askina.

Karga Seven Pictures is led award-winning Executive Producers Emre Sahin, Sarah Wetherbee and Kelly McPherson.

Kinetic Content
Los Angeles-based Kinetic Content creates and produces non-scripted television for the global market. Kinetic is run by founding CEO Chris Coelen (Wife Swap, Don’t Forget the Lyrics, Secret Millionaire).

Kinetic’s slate includes successful shows in every non-scripted genre: ground-breaking social experiments Married at First Sight (Lifetime), Love is Blind (Netflix), Buying It Blind (Bravo), Seven Year Switch (Lifetime), and The Spouse House (TLC); highly-rated docuseries Little Women: LA and Little Women: Atlanta; competition series Man vs. Bear (Discovery), The Taste (ABC), My Diet Is Better Than Yours (ABC), Man vs. Child (fyi) and Man vs. Master (fyi); hidden-camera hit Betty White’s Off Their Rockers (NBC); and game shows Geeks Who Drink (SyFy) and You Deserve It (ABC).

These franchises have spawned multiple spinoffs such as Married at First Sight: Couples’ Cam, Married at First Sight: Honeymoon Island, Married at First Sight: Happily Ever After and Married at First Sight: Second Chances (Lifetime); and Terra’s Little Family (Lifetime) and Little Women: Couples Retreat (Lifetime).

Left/Right
Over the last dozen years, Left/Right has produced hundreds of hours of television in an extraordinarily eclectic mix of genres ranging from hard-hitting documentaries to side-splitting comedies, covering topics from sex to secret societies to stand-up comedy to science fiction to school segregation.

Past and present productions range from the Emmy Award-winning television adaptation of the popular public radio show This American Life (Showtime)… to landmark The New York Times series The Weekly, a narrative documentary news program for FX and Hulu… to the skewering scripted comedy Odd Mom Out (Bravo)… to The Circus (Showtime), a weekly documentary series that pulls back the curtain on American politics… to multiple episodes of the acclaimed PBS investigative series Frontline…to James Cameron’s Story Of Science Fiction (AMC), which examines and celebrates the most dominant genre in the world today… to high-rating, multi-season Animal Planet series The Zoo, The Zoo: San Diego, and The Aquarium.

Left/Right’s shows have been nominated for over 15 Emmy Awards and have won multiple awards, including the Emmy for Best Nonfiction Series.

Mad Rabbit
Mad Rabbit, a joint venture between award-winning director and showrunner Kari Skogland and Red Arrow Studios, is a scripted production company based in Toronto and Los Angeles.

Mad Rabbit produces high-end drama for the international market. CEO Kari Skogland is an acclaimed, award-winning director and producer who has directed some of TV’s most successful drama series including The Handmaid’s Tale, The Loudest Voice, House of Cards, The Walking Dead, The Americans, Vikings, Boardwalk Empire, The Borgias and the forthcoming Falcon and the Winter Soldier for Marvel Studios.

Warner Bros. Television UK
Warner Bros. Television Limited (d/b/a as Warner Bros. Television UK) is the British division of Warner Bros. Television, headquartered in London. The company serves as the production arm of the Telewest network, and is the combination of Warner Bros Television Productions UK (formerly Shed Media) and the UK production labels of Telewest Studios. Under multiple production labels, it produces long-running television brands in drama, factual, documentary, factual entertainment, and history. Notable productions include The Valley People, Loose Talk, Don't Tell the Bride, First Dates, A Place in the Sun, Food Unwrapped, Bully, Married at First Sight, The Repair Shop, How Clean is Your House?, A League of Their Own, Who Do You Think You Are? and the Back in Time for… franchise.

Subsidiaries

 * CPL Productions
 * Cove Pictures
 * Endor Productions
 * Footprint Pictures
 * Headstrong Pictures
 * Ice Box Television
 * Limitless - label specializing in continuing drama; established in December 2018
 * Miracle Eye
 * NERD
 * Pipebomb - label specializing in scripted comedy; established in December 2018
 * Pipebomb North
 * Renegade Pictures
 * Ricochet
 * Sure Shot - label specializing in entertainment and panel shows; established in December 2018
 * Tomato
 * Twenty Twenty
 * Twinkle Productions
 * Wall to Wall Media
 * Wall to Wall West
 * Yalli Productions
 * Zingatron

Warner Bros. Television Germany
Warner Bros. Television GmbH (d/b/a as Warner Bros. Television Germany) was formed in November 2019 with the merger of Warner Bros. International Television Production Germany and Telewest Studios Deutschland GmbH (previously Sahara Deutschland GmbH). Its productions include Geschwätz (the local version of Loose Talk) for RTL, Sternenkampf! for Sat.1 and the German comedy series Die Freuden des Lebens for ProSIeben. It is based in Berlin.

Redseven Entertainment
Founded in 2008, Redseven Entertainment developed and produced innovative content for the German and international TV markets, with a focus on entertainment, comedy, clip shows, docutainment, magazine shows and corporate media.

The company was one of Germany’s most successful and prolific production companies in the entertainment sector, with an impressive slate that included Germany’s Next Top Model, The Taste, Married at First Sight and The Biggest Loser.

In 2018 Redseven founded a Brand & Digital Studio, to expand its extensive portfolio and work in corporate marketing services.

The company’s ability to produce shows with international appeal is proven by the success of game show formats including My Man Can, sold to over 40 countries worldwide. Redseven was absorbed by WBTV Germany upon AT&T's purchase of ProSiebenSat.1 Media in 2021.

Warner Bros. Television Middle East
Warner Bros. Television Middle East (formerly July August Productions) is a leading Israeli content company, specializing in producing entertainment and drama series for all major broadcasters.

The company is led by Managing Directors Amit Stretiner and Yochanan Kredo, both highly respected and successful players in the Israeli TV industry.

WBTV Middle East leads the market in creating high-rating scripted series, developing primetime game shows, and producing hundreds of hours of drama, comedy, feature films, factual, entertainment and kid’s TV for all major broadcasters.

July August is also well-known for producing shows with international appeal, demonstrated by the global success of award-winning drama series The A Word, which has been sold to BBC1 in the UK; and by its flagship game show Still Standing, with 6,000 commissioned episodes globally.

Upon AT&T's acquisition of ProSiebenSat.1 Media in 2021, the company was renamed WBTV Middle East.