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Lorimar, later known as Lorimar Television, was an American television production company that was later a subsidiary of Warner Bros., active from 1968-1993. It was founded by Irwin Molasky, Merv Adelson and Lee Rich, who named the company after Adelson's ex-wife Lori, and their last initials (M for Molasky, A for Adelson, R for Rich).
[edit] History[edit] Early yearsLorimar's first major hit production was The Waltons, which premiered in 1972 following a one-hour TV movie in 1971. Throughout the 1970s, Lorimar produced several other shows as well; of these, the most popular by far was Dallas. In 1980, Lorimar purchased the bankrupt Allied Artists Pictures Corporation. In the 1980s, Lorimar's output swung toward family-friendly sitcoms; among these were Perfect Strangers and Full House, which were produced by Miller-Boyett Productions. In 1986, Lorimar merged with television syndication firm Telepictures, becoming Lorimar-Telepictures; later that year, they purchased the MGM lot from Ted Turner. [edit] Purchase by Warner CommunicationsIn 1988, Lorimar-Telepictures became Lorimar Television. In 1989, Lorimar was purchased by Warner Communications, which was merging with Time Inc. to form Time Warner. Lorimar's distribution business was folded into Warner Bros. Television; since then, the Telepictures name has been resurrected as both a production company (circa 1990), and once again as a syndication company (1996, after the Turner merger). The former MGM studio lot was sold to Sony to house Columbia Pictures, TriStar Pictures and Sony's other film operations. Lorimar continued as a production company until 1993, when it was absorbed into Warner Bros. Television. The last series to premiere under the Lorimar name was Time Trax. [edit] Key components Lorimar ownedAdditionally, Lorimar has owned key components of the film library of the defunct Allied Artists film studio (originally Monogram Pictures), which includes Cabaret and Papillon; these too are now owned by Warner. [edit] TV productions
[edit] Theatrical filmsLorimar not only specialized in producing television programs, they also produced (sporadically) a number of theatrical motion pictures starting in 1974, most of which were originally distributed by other studios as noted. In the late 1980s they had a film production and distribution unit known as Lorimar Motion Pictures. In 1988, the film unit was reorganized as Lorimar Film Entertainment. At the same time, Lorimar made a distribution deal with Warner Bros. (oddly a year before Warner's takeover of Lorimar). Under Warner, Lorimar continued to make theatrical films until 1990. There was also a home video division that lasted from the early 1980s, starting as Karl Video and ended in 1988. The rights to most of the films noted here have been retained by their original distributors (as noted with an * asterisk), while others are now in the hands of Warner Bros. The television rights to The Last Starfighter are owned by Warner, while Universal holds theatrical and home video rights. In the UK, films produced by Lorimar in the late 1970's/early 1980's were distributed by ITC Entertainment.
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