Ralph Cohn

Origin of name: Screen Gems animation studio (1933–1946)

The brand name "Screen Gems" was first used by Columbia Pictures as the name of their animation division, formerly known as the Charles Mintz Studio before 1933. Columbia acquired a partial interest in Mintz' operation that year and gave it its new name, assuming full ownership by 1939.

After Mintz's death in late 1939, he was succeeded as head of Screen Gems by a long line of producers and executives, among them Mintz's brother-in-law George Winkler, veteran animation directors such as Frank Tashlin and Dave Fleischer, and the team of Raymond Katz and Henry Binder, former assistants to Looney Tunes producer Leon Schlesinger. Never as successful as its competitors in the theatrical cartoon field, Screen Gems was dissolved in 1946, and Columbia instead contracted to release the output of the revolutionary United Productions of America (UPA) animation studio starting in 1948.

Television subsidiary (1948–1974)

Pioneer Telefilms and early years (1947–1954)

In 1947, Ralph Cohn, the son of Columbia co-founder Jack Cohn and nephew of Columbia head Harry Cohn, founded Pioneer Telefilms, a television commercial production company. Ralph later wrote a 50-page memorandum arguing that Columbia should be the first major film studio to move into television.

Although Harry Cohn was not convinced by the suggestion, Columbia invested $50,000 in acquiring Pioneer and reorganized it as Screen Gems. The studio started its new business in New York City on April 15, 1949.

By 1951, Screen Gems became a full-fledged television studio by producing and syndicating several popular shows (see below). Within a few months, Ralph Cohn had sold a half-hour dramatic anthology concept to the Ford Motor Company, which became Ford Theatre, one of the first times a major Hollywood movie studio had produced content for television. They also produced seven episodes of the first season of Cavalcade of America.

In 1952, John H. Mitchell joined Screen Gems productions as one of its original employees.

The name "Screen Gems", at the time, was used to hide the fact that the film studio was entering television production and distribution. Many film studios viewed television as a threat to their business, thus they were expected to shun the medium. However, Columbia was one of a few studios that branched out to television under a pseudonym to conceal the true ownership of the television arm, until 1955, when Columbia decided to use the woman from its logo under the Screen Gems banner, officially billing itself as a part of "the Hollywood studios of Columbia Pictures", as spoken in announcements at the end of some Screen Gems series.

By 1952, the studio had produced a series of about 100 film-record coordinated releases for television under the brand "TV Disk Jockey Toons" in which the films "synchronize perfectly with the records".

Rising success (1954–1968)

In 1954, the studio started producing Father Knows Best on CBS and The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin on ABC, which became their biggest successes at the time.

On July 1, 1956, studio veteran Irving Briskin stepped down as stage manager of Columbia Pictures and formed his own production company, Briskin Productions, Inc., to release series through Screen Gems and supervise all of its productions. On December 10, 1956, Screen Gems expanded into television syndication by acquiring Hygo Television Films (Serials Inc.) and its affiliated company United Television Films, Inc. Hygo Television Films was founded in 1951 by Jerome Hyams, who also acquired United Television Films in 1955 that was founded by Archie Mayers.

During that year, the studio began syndicating Columbia Pictures' theatrical film library to television, including the series of two-reel short subjects starring the Three Stooges in 1957. Earlier on August 2, 1957, they also acquired syndication rights to "Shock Theater", a package of Universal Pictures horror films (later shifted to MCA TV), which was enormously successful in reviving that genre. The company also distributed Universal Pictures' other films (pre-1948 sound films) around that time.

From 1958 to 1974, under President John H. Mitchell and Vice President of Production Harry Ackerman, Screen Gems delivered TV shows and sitcoms: Dennis the Menace, The Donna Reed Show, Hazel, Here Come the Brides, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Gidget, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, The Flying Nun, The Monkees, The Girl with Something Extra, and The Partridge Family.

It was also the first distributor for Hanna-Barbera Productions, an animation studio founded by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera after leaving Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which was signed up in 1957, and it was also the distributor of the Soupy Sales show. The company also entered a co-production deal with Canada's CTV Television Network and produced several shows, many of which were filmed or taped in Toronto for distribution to Canadian stations (Showdown, The Pierre Berton Show). The company even expanded as far as Australia, opening Screen Gems Australia to produce shows for that country's networks, including The Graham Kennedy Show for the Nine Network.

Merger with Columbia Pictures and reincorporation as Columbia Pictures Television (1968–1974)

On December 23, 1968, Screen Gems merged with its parent company Columbia Pictures Corporation and became part of the newly formed Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. for $24.5 million.

In the following year, former ABC vice president of programming Leonard Goldberg joined Screen Gems, displacing Jackie Cooper as vice president of program development. Goldberg failed to receive the same level of success as Cooper. His shows all tanked after one season, with the exception of The Partridge Family, and he abruptly left after three years, with the most notable other production of Goldberg's tenure at Screen Gems being the 1971 television movie Brian's Song. He then formed a production company with producer Aaron Spelling.

In 1971, Douglas S. Cramer, former executive VP in charge of production at Paramount Television, set up a SG-affiliated production firm, The Douglas S. Cramer Company, to produce projects for feature films and TV projects via Columbia Pictures. In 1972, David Gerber, who had left 20th Century Fox Television, set up a SG-affiliated production company to produce his own projects with that company. The most notable of these productions was Police Story, an NBC police crime drama. In 1973, Allan Blye and Chris Bearde via Blye-Bearde Productions signed an independent production agreement with Screen Gems to develop their own projects. Also that year, Harry Ackerman, who was vice president of production left the studio to start his own production company to be affiliated with Paramount Television.

On May 6, 1974, Screen Gems was renamed to Columbia Pictures Television as suggested by then-studio president David Gerber, who succeeded Art Frankel as his studio president. The final notable production from this incarnation of Screen Gems before the name change was the 1974 miniseries QB VII. Columbia was, technically, the last major studio to enter television by name.

Later years and aftermath

Changes in corporate ownership of Columbia Pictures came in 1982, when Coca-Cola bought the company. In the mid-1980s, Coca-Cola reorganized its television holdings to create Coca-Cola Television, merging CPT with the television unit of Embassy Communications as Columbia/Embassy Television, although both companies continued to use separate identities for a few years. Following the formation of Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc., it and Tri-Star Television were merged to create a new Columbia Pictures Television. Merv Griffin Enterprises was also integrated into Coca-Cola Television. CPT also ran Colex Enterprises, a joint venture with LBS Communications that distributed most of the Screen Gems library and operated from 1984 to 1987.

In 1985, the Screen Gems name was brought back by Columbia Pictures Television to distribute classic television series from its vaults to first-run syndication.

On December 18, 1987, Coca-Cola spun off its entertainment holdings, selling them to Tri-Star Pictures, Inc. for $3.1 billion. Tri-Star was renamed as Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc. In 1989, Sony Corporation of Japan purchased Columbia Pictures Entertainment. On August 11, 1991, Columbia Pictures Entertainment was renamed as Sony Pictures Entertainment as a film production-distribution subsidiary and subsequently combined CPT with a revived TriStar Television on February 21, 1994 to form Columbia TriStar Television. The name "Screen Gems" was also utilized for a syndicated hour-long program for classic television called Screen Gems Network that first aired in 1999 and ran until 2002.

The television division is known as Sony Pictures Television.

Television series

Television programs produced and/or syndicated by Screen Gems:

The Ford Television Theatre (1948–1957)

Cavalcade of America

The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (syndicated reruns of filmed episodes from 1952 to 1958)

Art Linkletter's House Party (produced by John Guedel, 1952–1969)

Captain Midnight [later rebranded on television as Jet Jackson, Flying Commando] (1954–1956)

The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin (produced by Herbert B. Leonard, 1954–1959)

Father Knows Best (1954–1960; Sony surrendered the rights to the estate of Robert Young) (CBS (1954–1955, 1958–1960)/NBC (1955–1958))

Tales of the Texas Rangers (1955–1957)

Treasure Hunt (1956–1959)

Playhouse 90 (selected filmed episodes, 1956–1960)

Celebrity Playhouse (1955–1956)

Jungle Jim (1955–1956)

Ranch Party (1957–1958)

Jefferson Drum (produced by Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions) (1958)

The Donna Reed Show (1958–1966; Sony surrendered the rights to the estate of Donna Reed) (ABC)

Rescue 8 (1958–1960)

Films

Head (1968; based on The Monkees)

Hanna-Barbera Productions

Note: (*) = Owned by Warner Bros. Entertainment via subsidiary Turner Entertainment Co.

The Ruff and Reddy Show (1957–1960)*

The Huckleberry Hound Show (1958–1961)*

The Quick Draw McGraw Show (1959–1961)*

The Flintstones (1960–1966)*

The Yogi Bear Show (1961–1962)*

Top Cat (1961–1962)*

The Hanna-Barbera New Cartoon Series (1962–1963)*

The Jetsons (1962–1963)*

The Magilla Gorilla Show (1964–1967)*

Jonny Quest (1964–1965)*

The Peter Potamus Show (1964–1966)*

The Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel Show (1965–1967)*

Alice in Wonderland or What's a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This? (1966)*

Frankenstein Jr. and The Impossibles (1966-1967)*

Space Ghost and Dino Boy (1966–1967)*

The Space Kidettes (1966-1967)*

The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show (1971-1972)*

The Flintstone Comedy Hour/The Flintstone Comedy Show (1972-1974)*

Briskin Productions

Goodyear Theatre (1957–1960)

Alcoa Theatre (1957–1960)

Casey Jones (1958)

The Donna Reed Show (1958–1966; full rights belong to the estate of Donna Reed since 2008)

Manhunt (1959–1961)

Specialty feature film studio (1998–present)

On December 8, 1998, Screen Gems was resurrected as a fourth speciality film-producing arm of Sony's Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group. It was created after Triumph Films, and before that, SVS Films closed. Screen Gems produces and releases "films that fall between the wide-release films traditionally developed and distributed by Columbia Pictures and those released by Sony Pictures Classics". Many of its releases are of the horror, thriller, action, drama, comedy and urban genres.

As of 2023, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016) is Screen Gems' highest-grossing film with over $300 million worldwide in box office earnings.

History

In 1997, Sony's former low budget film label Triumph Films closed, due to many of its films underperforming at the box office. After Triumph's demise, Sony acquired a spree of low-budget genre films for release under the Columbia Pictures and TriStar Pictures labels, like Love Walked In, Homegrown, Dancer, Texas Pop. 81, Knock Off, Vampires, Jawbreaker and Cruel Intentions.

In 1998, Screen Gems was resurrected as a film label for genre films, after a similar label for genre films, Triumph Films, and before that SVS Films shuttered. The new unit was founded by Clint Culpepper and Peter Schlessel, two top executives of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, with help from executives of Sony Pictures Classics.

The first two acquisitions to be released under the Screen Gems label were Limbo and Arlington Road, which was released in 1999. The company's next acquisition was Black and White, which was produced by Palm Pictures, which was released in 2000. In 2000, the two were promoted to executive vice presidents of the studio.

The company's first box office hit was Snatch, which Sony acquired, after a string of box office disappointments. In 2001, Cultpepper was promoted to studio president. After the shuttering of Destination Films, the company bought out the U.S. distribution rights to Slackers.

In 2002, after a series of failures, the company scored big with its first major hit, Resident Evil, which made money at the box office, and launched its first franchise. This was followed by another major hit, Underworld, which spawned sequels for another franchise. In 2004, the company released a sequel to the Columbia Pictures film Anaconda, called Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid.

In 2005, the company first acquired the rights to the film Hostel, then later partnered with Lionsgate for North American theatrical and television rights to Hostel. The company became prominent in 2008 for its success with African American films, including its output with Rainforest Films. Later that year, Screen Gems, in partnership with Relativity Media, signed a deal to distribute Dear John, after New Line Cinema put the movie into turnaround, following its acquisition by Warner Bros. Pictures.