ITC Entertainment
Encyclopedia
The Incorporated Television Company (or ITC Entertainment as it was more commonly referred to on-screen) was a British
television company largely involved in production and distribution. It was founded by Lew Grade
.
in 1954 as the Incorporated Television Programme Company. Originally designed to be a contractor for the UK's new ITV
, the company failed to win a contract when the Independent Television Authority
felt that doing so would give too much control in the entertainment business to the Grade family's companies (which included large talent agencies and theatre interests) although the ITA said that ITPC were free to make their own programmes which they could sell to the new network companies.
However, the winner of one of the contracts, the Associated Broadcasting Development Company, had insufficient funds to start broadcasting, so ITC was brought into the consortium and Lew Grade came to dominate it.
From 1955 - 1966, ITC (known from 1954-1957 as ITP) was a subsidiary of the Associated Broadcasting Company (ABC) which soon changed its name to Associated TeleVision
(ATV) after threats of legal action from fellow ITV company Associated British Corporation
- and produced its own programmes for ATV and syndication in the United States. It also distributed ATV material outside of the UK. From 1966 to 1982, it was a subsidiary of Associated Communications Corporation after the acquisition of ATV.
The initials 'ITC' stood for two different things: Independent Television Corporation for sales to North and Latin America, and Incorporated Television Company for sales to the rest of the world. The American Independent Television Corporation was formed as a joint venture with Jack Wrather
in 1958. In September 1958, it purchased Television Programs of America
(TPA) for $11,350,000. Wrather sold his shares to Lew Grade at the end of the decade.
The large foreign sales achieved by ITC during the British government's exports drives of the 1960s and 1970s led to ACC receiving the Queen's Award for Export on numerous occasions until ITC's association with the broadcaster and success actually led to the demise of both ATV as a broadcaster and ITC as a production company in 1982.
In 1991, ITC Home Video was formed in the UK, to make use of the hours of programmes in the archive, then unseen for years and unleash them to the public. In the following period, ITC continued to distribute its past library. Grade once again returned to ITC to head the company one last time, from 1994 to 1998, in the last of which years he died. In 1995, PolyGram
purchased the company for $156 million. In 1998, it ceased its operations after Grade's death. Its library was sold to ITV plc
, and continues to release ITCs original output through television repeats, books and DVD releases.
In 2005, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the company, Network DVD
released a DVD
box set entitled ITC 50 featuring episodes from eighteen different ITC productions.
ITC is best known for being the company behind many successful British
cult TV programmes during the 1960s and 1970s, such as The Saint
, Danger Man
, The Baron
, The Champions
, The Prisoner
, Thunderbirds
, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons
, Man in a Suitcase
, Strange Report
, Department S
, The Persuaders!
, Jason King
, The Adventurer
, The Protectors
, and Return of the Saint
. It was also the production company for The Muppet Show
and Julie on Sesame Street
which were both made at ATV's Elstree Studios
and distributed in the UK by ATV and in the US by ITC.
ITC got its start as a production company when former American producer Hannah Weinstein
approached Lew Grade. Weinstein wanted to make a programme called The Adventures of Robin Hood
. Weinstein proposed making the series for ITV and simultaneously marketing it in the United States through an American TV distribution company, Official Films
. The series was a big success in both countries, running from 1955 until 1959 on CBS
and ATV London.
Grade realised the potential in overseas sales and colour television (the last 14 episodes of The Adventures of Sir Lancelot
were filmed in colour a decade before colour television existed in the UK), and ITC combined high production values with exotic locations and uses of variations on the same successful formula for the majority of its television output.
Although most of the ITC series were produced in Britain, ITC often worked with Television Programs of America
(TPA) and several series were filmed in America. Possibly the earliest ITC series produced in the US was Fury
, a Saturday morning live-action series starring Peter Graves
about a beloved ranch horse which ran on NBC
in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
In 1964 Gerry Anderson
's AP Films
became part of ACC and produced Fireball XL-5, the hugely successful children's series Thunderbirds
and, under its successor company Century 21 Productions, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons
. ITC also funded Anderson-created programs aimed at the adult market, including UFO
and Space: 1999
. It was at ITC's request that Fanderson
, "the Gerry Anderson Appreciation Society," was founded. Another ITC children's series was The Adventures of Rupert Bear
, the first television outing for the Daily Express
cartoon character. ITC was also behind Franco Zeffirelli
's Biblical mini-series Jesus of Nazareth and the Gregory Peck television film The Scarlet and the Black
.
In addition to television programming, ITC also produced several films - including Capricorn One
, The Eagle Has Landed
, The Boys from Brazil
, The Return of the Pink Panther
, The Last Unicorn
, and a number of Jim Henson Company
productions: The Dark Crystal
and the first two Muppet films, The Muppet Movie
and The Great Muppet Caper
. Initially, ITC productions were licensed out to other U.S. studios for release until 1979, when ITC partnered with another UK-based production company, Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment, to create Associated Film Distribution, which would release films produced by each company, as well as pickups from other production companies. In 1979, the subsidiary Black Lion Films was founded in the manner of Thames Euston Films
, but its best remembered production, The Long Good Friday
, was sold on to HandMade Films
.
Then, in the summer of 1980, two films were released by AFD within six weeks of each other, that would cause AFD to cease being an actual distribution company altogether.
The first of these two films was Can't Stop The Music
released on June 20, 1980. Originally designed to be a showcase for the Village People
at the height of disco music, the popularity of Disco had somewhat diminished between the shooting of the film and it's release date, and was experiencing a backlash from music listeners. The backlash towards Disco, and the scathing reviews from reviewers kept audiences away. The film ultimately made 2 million dollars of it's 20 million dollar budget back, making it a box office failure.
But on August 1, 1980, the company's most notorious production was released: Raise the Titanic! which along with the aforementioned "Can't Stop the Music" sunk the production company. Lew Grade's experience with the making of Raise the Titanic was not a happy one. Costs escalated, principally around the extensive Titanic scale model. The film drew harsh criticism (not least from Clive Cussler
, author of the source novel, and Richard Jordan
, who starred as its main character, Dirk Pitt) and recouped only a fraction of its costs, and ITC's profile never recovered. Grade himself retired from active film production, commenting with the Jewish chutzpah
he was renowned for, that it would have been cheaper to "lower the Atlantic."
After the film's failure, ITC and EMI agreed to sell AFD and the distribution rights to its library to Universal Studios
(AFD films in post production at the time were still released by AFD), to handle the release of the remaining pictures still in production at the time of the sale, beginning with The Legend of the Lone Ranger
, and including On Golden Pond
, Sophie's Choice
, The Dark Crystal
, and The Great Muppet Caper
. Today, while the copyrights have reverted to the respective owners, Universal still maintains theatrical rights to most ITC and EMI films initially released by AFD.
As a distribution company, ITC was also the world-wide distributor for ATV
's The Benny Hill Show
.
when ACC was forced to divest itself of 49% of the company), the rights to the ITC archive were acquired by Polygram
, and subsequently by Carlton Television
and Granada International.
Today, the underlying rights are owned by ITV Global Entertainment Ltd., although Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
now owns theatrical distribution rights. MGM also owns U.S. distribution rights to Without a Clue
via their acquisition of that film's original distributor Orion Pictures
. Home video distribution in North America to a majority of the ITC library is handled by Lionsgate
under license from ITV.
However, there are few exceptions to the theatrical library. One ITC production, The Dark Crystal
, is now owned by The Jim Henson Company
, with theatrical distribution rights handled by Universal Pictures
(the film's original distributor). Two other films, The Muppet Movie
and The Great Muppet Caper
, have full rights owned by The Muppets Studio LLC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company
, with Walt Disney Pictures
as distributor. Some rights to The Return of the Pink Panther
are now held by Universal's Focus Features
division in partnership with ITV, although original distributor United Artists
still owns the copyright, and as of 2008, domestic theatrical, television, and internet distribution through MGM—most of these rights are the result of the latter studio's distribution rights to the ITC film output. The Evil That Men Do
is now fully owned by Tri-Star Pictures via Sony Pictures Entertainment
.
As for ITC's television output, Carlton (and later Granada and now ITV) released some of these shows on DVD both in Europe and North America. There were however a few exceptions: The Adventures of Robin Hood
and the other swashbuckling adventure series of the late 1950s and early 1960s were released on DVD by Network Video, as was Strange Report.
Many of the cult drama shows from the 1960s and 1970s have since been released by Network as limited edition box sets, the most recent being Interpol Calling
(as of November 2010). The rights to The Muppet Show, however, are held by The Muppets Studio/Disney, with North American and UK home video rights controlled by Disney.
and action, and later into both children's and adult science-fiction - as well as films covering many different subjects.
The ITC Distributions page offers a complete list of ITC produced and distributed programs.
own studio in Elstree
. However, the MGM-British Studios
complex at Borehamwood
, the Rank Organisation's Pinewood
and Shepperton Studios
were also used.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
television company largely involved in production and distribution. It was founded by Lew Grade
Lew Grade
Lew Grade, Baron Grade , born Lev Winogradsky, was an influential Russian-born English impresario and media mogul.-Early years:...
.
History
ITC was founded by television mogul Lew GradeLew Grade
Lew Grade, Baron Grade , born Lev Winogradsky, was an influential Russian-born English impresario and media mogul.-Early years:...
in 1954 as the Incorporated Television Programme Company. Originally designed to be a contractor for the UK's new ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
, the company failed to win a contract when the Independent Television Authority
Independent Television Authority
The Independent Television Authority was an agency created by the Television Act 1954 to supervise the creation of "Independent Television" , the first commercial television network in the United Kingdom...
felt that doing so would give too much control in the entertainment business to the Grade family's companies (which included large talent agencies and theatre interests) although the ITA said that ITPC were free to make their own programmes which they could sell to the new network companies.
However, the winner of one of the contracts, the Associated Broadcasting Development Company, had insufficient funds to start broadcasting, so ITC was brought into the consortium and Lew Grade came to dominate it.
From 1955 - 1966, ITC (known from 1954-1957 as ITP) was a subsidiary of the Associated Broadcasting Company (ABC) which soon changed its name to Associated TeleVision
Associated TeleVision
Associated Television, often referred to as ATV, was a British television company, holder of various licences to broadcast on the ITV network from 24 September 1955 until 00:34 on 1 January 1982...
(ATV) after threats of legal action from fellow ITV company Associated British Corporation
Associated British Corporation
Associated British Corporation was one of a number of commercial television companies established in the United Kingdom during the 1950s by cinema chain companies in an attempt to safeguard their business by becoming involved with television which was taking away their cinema audiences.In this...
- and produced its own programmes for ATV and syndication in the United States. It also distributed ATV material outside of the UK. From 1966 to 1982, it was a subsidiary of Associated Communications Corporation after the acquisition of ATV.
The initials 'ITC' stood for two different things: Independent Television Corporation for sales to North and Latin America, and Incorporated Television Company for sales to the rest of the world. The American Independent Television Corporation was formed as a joint venture with Jack Wrather
Jack Wrather
John Devereaux "Jack" Wrather, Jr. , was a petroleum millionaire who became a television producer and later diversified by investing in broadcast stations and resort properties...
in 1958. In September 1958, it purchased Television Programs of America
Television Programs of America
Television Programs of America, Inc was a New York-based US television production company in the 1950s. TPA had a Canadian subsidiary, Normandie Productions....
(TPA) for $11,350,000. Wrather sold his shares to Lew Grade at the end of the decade.
The large foreign sales achieved by ITC during the British government's exports drives of the 1960s and 1970s led to ACC receiving the Queen's Award for Export on numerous occasions until ITC's association with the broadcaster and success actually led to the demise of both ATV as a broadcaster and ITC as a production company in 1982.
In 1991, ITC Home Video was formed in the UK, to make use of the hours of programmes in the archive, then unseen for years and unleash them to the public. In the following period, ITC continued to distribute its past library. Grade once again returned to ITC to head the company one last time, from 1994 to 1998, in the last of which years he died. In 1995, PolyGram
PolyGram
PolyGram was the name of the major label recording company started by Philips from as a holding company for its music interests in 1945. In 1999 it was sold to Seagram and merged into Universal Music Group.-Hollandsche Decca Distributie , 1929-1950:...
purchased the company for $156 million. In 1998, it ceased its operations after Grade's death. Its library was sold to ITV plc
ITV plc
ITV plc is a British media company that operates 12 of the 15 regional television broadcasters that make up the ITV Network, the oldest and largest commercial terrestrial television network in the United Kingdom...
, and continues to release ITCs original output through television repeats, books and DVD releases.
In 2005, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the company, Network DVD
Network DVD
Network DVD is a DVD publishing company that specialises in classic British television. In particular, it has the rights to a number of well-known ITV programmes...
released a DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
box set entitled ITC 50 featuring episodes from eighteen different ITC productions.
Productions
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
cult TV programmes during the 1960s and 1970s, such as The Saint
The Saint (TV series)
The Saint was an ITC mystery spy thriller television series that aired in the UK on ITV between 1962 and 1969. It centred on the Leslie Charteris literary character, Simon Templar, a Robin Hood-like adventurer with a penchant for disguise. The character may be nicknamed The Saint because the...
, Danger Man
Danger Man
Danger Man is a British television series that was broadcast between 1960 and 1962, and again between 1964 and 1968. The series featured Patrick McGoohan as secret agent John Drake. Ralph Smart created the program and wrote many of the scripts...
, The Baron
The Baron
The Baron is a British television series, made in 1965/66 based on the book series by John Creasey, written under the pseudonym Anthony Morton, and produced by ITC Entertainment. It was the first ITC show without marionettes to be produced entirely in colour...
, The Champions
The Champions
The Champions is a British espionage/science fiction/occult detective fiction adventure series consisting of 30 episodes broadcast on the UK network ITV during 1968–1969, produced by Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment production company...
, The Prisoner
The Prisoner
The Prisoner is a 17-episode British television series first broadcast in the UK from 29 September 1967 to 1 February 1968. Starring and co-created by Patrick McGoohan, it combined spy fiction with elements of science fiction, allegory and psychological drama.The series follows a British former...
, Thunderbirds
Thunderbirds (TV series)
Thunderbirds is a British mid-1960s science fiction television show devised by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and made by AP Films using a form of marionette puppetry dubbed "Supermarionation"...
, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, often referred to as Captain Scarlet, is a 1960s British science-fiction television series produced by the Century 21 Productions company of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, John Read and Reg Hill...
, Man in a Suitcase
Man in a Suitcase
Man in a Suitcase is a 1967 television series produced by Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment.-Origins and overview:Man in a Suitcase was effectively a replacement for Danger Man, whose production had been curtailed when its star Patrick McGoohan had decided to create his own series, The Prisoner...
, Strange Report
Strange Report
Strange Report is a British television drama starring Anthony Quayle as Adam Strange. It was produced by ITC Entertainment and first broadcast in 1969....
, Department S
Department S
Department S is a United Kingdom spy-fi adventure series produced by ITC Entertainment. The series consists of 28 episodes which originally aired in 1969–1970. It starred Peter Wyngarde as author Jason King , Joel Fabiani as Stewart Sullivan, and Rosemary Nicols as computer expert Annabelle Hurst...
, The Persuaders!
The Persuaders!
The Persuaders! is a 1971 action/adventure series, produced by ITC Entertainment for initial broadcast on ITV and ABC. It has been called "the last major entry in the cycle of adventure series that had begun eleven years earlier with Danger Man in 1960", as well as "the most ambitious and most...
, Jason King
Jason King (TV series)
Jason King was a British television series produced from 1971 to 1972. Each episode was one hour in duration , and the series had a run of one season of 26 episodes. As well as its native UK, the series was also screened in countries as far afield as Australia, Norway, Argentina and Peru...
, The Adventurer
The Adventurer (TV series)
The Adventurer is an ITC Entertainment TV adventure series created by Dennis Spooner that ran for one season from 1972 to 1973. It premiered in the UK on 29 September 1972. The show starred Gene Barry as Gene Bradley, a government agent of independent means who poses as a glamorous American movie...
, The Protectors
The Protectors
The Protectors is a British television series, an action thriller created by Gerry Anderson. It is Anderson's second TV series using live actors as opposed to electronic marionettes, and also his second to be firmly set in the present day...
, and Return of the Saint
Return of the Saint
Return of the Saint was a British action-adventure television series that aired for one season in 1978 and 1979 in Britain on ITV, and was also broadcast on CBS in the United States...
. It was also the production company for The Muppet Show
The Muppet Show
The Muppet Show is a British television programme produced by American puppeteer Jim Henson and featuring Muppets. After two pilot episodes were produced in 1974 and 1975, the show premiered on 5 September 1976 and five series were produced until 15 March 1981, lasting 120 episodes...
and Julie on Sesame Street
Julie on Sesame Street
Julie Andrews and Perry Como teamed up to do a 1973 television special called Julie on Sesame Street. The only Sesame Street The Special was filmed in UK at the Elstree Studios by Associated Television-Broadcast dates:...
which were both made at ATV's Elstree Studios
Elstree Studios
"Elstree Studios" refers to any of several film studios that were based in the towns of Borehamwood and Elstree in Hertfordshire, England, since film production begun in 1927.-Name:...
and distributed in the UK by ATV and in the US by ITC.
ITC got its start as a production company when former American producer Hannah Weinstein
Hannah Weinstein
Hannah Weinstein was an American journalist, publicist and left-wing political activist who moved to Britain and became a television producer. She is best known for having produced The Adventures of Robin Hood television series in the 1950s...
approached Lew Grade. Weinstein wanted to make a programme called The Adventures of Robin Hood
The Adventures of Robin Hood (TV series)
The Adventures of Robin Hood is a popular British television series comprising 143 half-hour, black and white episodes. It starred Richard Greene as the outlaw Robin Hood and Alan Wheatley as his nemesis, the Sheriff of Nottingham. The show aired weekly between 1955 and 1959 on ITV in London in the...
. Weinstein proposed making the series for ITV and simultaneously marketing it in the United States through an American TV distribution company, Official Films
Official Films
Official Films was a home movie distributor founded by Leslie Winik in 1939 to produce educational shorts. Soon, after buying the Keystone Chaplin library, they found themselves in the home movie business. They obtained several Van Beuren cartoons, mostly Felix the Cat cartoons. Official retitled...
. The series was a big success in both countries, running from 1955 until 1959 on CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
and ATV London.
Grade realised the potential in overseas sales and colour television (the last 14 episodes of The Adventures of Sir Lancelot
The Adventures of Sir Lancelot
The Adventures of Sir Lancelot is a British television series first broadcast in 1956, produced by Sapphire Films for ITC Entertainment and screened on the ITV network...
were filmed in colour a decade before colour television existed in the UK), and ITC combined high production values with exotic locations and uses of variations on the same successful formula for the majority of its television output.
Although most of the ITC series were produced in Britain, ITC often worked with Television Programs of America
Television Programs of America
Television Programs of America, Inc was a New York-based US television production company in the 1950s. TPA had a Canadian subsidiary, Normandie Productions....
(TPA) and several series were filmed in America. Possibly the earliest ITC series produced in the US was Fury
Fury (TV series)
Fury is an American Western television series that aired on NBC from 1955–1960, starring Peter Graves as Jim Newton , Bobby Diamond as Jim's adopted son, Joey Clark Newton, and William Fawcett as ranch hand Pete Wilkey...
, a Saturday morning live-action series starring Peter Graves
Peter Graves (actor)
Peter Aurness , known professionally as Peter Graves, was an American film and television actor. He was best known for his starring role in the CBS television series Mission: Impossible from 1967 to 1973...
about a beloved ranch horse which ran on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
In 1964 Gerry Anderson
Gerry Anderson
Gerry Anderson MBE is a British publisher, producer, director and writer, famous for his futuristic television programmes, particularly those involving specially modified marionettes, a process called "Supermarionation"....
's AP Films
AP Films
AP Films or APF, later becoming Century 21 Productions, was a British independent film production company of the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s...
became part of ACC and produced Fireball XL-5, the hugely successful children's series Thunderbirds
Thunderbirds (TV series)
Thunderbirds is a British mid-1960s science fiction television show devised by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and made by AP Films using a form of marionette puppetry dubbed "Supermarionation"...
and, under its successor company Century 21 Productions, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, often referred to as Captain Scarlet, is a 1960s British science-fiction television series produced by the Century 21 Productions company of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, John Read and Reg Hill...
. ITC also funded Anderson-created programs aimed at the adult market, including UFO
UFO (TV series)
UFO is a 1970-1971 British television science fiction series about an alien invasion of Earth, created by Gerry Anderson and Sylvia Anderson with Reg Hill, and produced by the Andersons and Lew Grade's Century 21 Productions for Grade's ITC Entertainment company.UFO first aired in the UK and Canada...
and Space: 1999
Space: 1999
Space: 1999 is a British science-fiction television series that ran for two seasons and originally aired from 1975 to 1977. In the opening episode, nuclear waste from Earth stored on the Moon's far side explodes in a catastrophic accident on 13 September 1999, knocking the Moon out of orbit and...
. It was at ITC's request that Fanderson
Fanderson
Fanderson is the official appreciation society for the works of Gerry Anderson. It is a not-for-profit organisation endorsed by Anderson Entertainment Ltd, Gerry Anderson Productions plc and ITC Entertainment Group Ltd...
, "the Gerry Anderson Appreciation Society," was founded. Another ITC children's series was The Adventures of Rupert Bear
The Adventures of Rupert Bear
The Adventures of Rupert Bear was a live-action/puppet television series, based on the Mary Tourtel character Rupert Bear, produced by ATV Network, and aired from 28 October 1970 to 24 August 1977 on the ITV network, with 156 11-minute episodes produced over four series...
, the first television outing for the Daily Express
Daily Express
The Daily Express switched from broadsheet to tabloid in 1977 and was bought by the construction company Trafalgar House in the same year. Its publishing company, Beaverbrook Newspapers, was renamed Express Newspapers...
cartoon character. ITC was also behind Franco Zeffirelli
Franco Zeffirelli
Franco Zeffirelli KBE is an Italian director and producer of films and television. He is also a director and designer of operas and a former senator for the Italian center-right Forza Italia party....
's Biblical mini-series Jesus of Nazareth and the Gregory Peck television film The Scarlet and the Black
The Scarlet and the Black
The Scarlet and the Black is a 1983 made for TV movie starring Gregory Peck and Christopher Plummer. This production should not be confused with the 1993 British television mini series Scarlet and Black, which starred Ewan McGregor and Rachel Weisz....
.
In addition to television programming, ITC also produced several films - including Capricorn One
Capricorn One
Capricorn One is a 1977 science fiction thriller movie about a Mars landing hoax. It was written and directed by Peter Hyams and produced by Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment. It stars James Brolin, Sam Waterston and O. J...
, The Eagle Has Landed
The Eagle Has Landed (film)
The Eagle Has Landed is a 1976 film version of the novel The Eagle Has Landed by Jack Higgins. It was directed by John Sturges and starred Michael Caine, Donald Sutherland and Robert Duvall...
, The Boys from Brazil
The Boys from Brazil (film)
The Boys from Brazil is a 1978 British/American science fiction/thriller film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner. It stars Gregory Peck and Laurence Olivier, with James Mason, Lilli Palmer, Uta Hagen and Steve Guttenberg in supporting roles...
, The Return of the Pink Panther
The Return of the Pink Panther
The Return of the Pink Panther is the fourth film in the Pink Panther series, released in 1975. The film stars Peter Sellers in the role of Inspector Clouseau in his third Panther appearance, after the original The Pink Panther and A Shot in the Dark.Herbert Lom also reprises his role as Chief...
, The Last Unicorn
The Last Unicorn (film)
The Last Unicorn is a 1982 fantasy film produced by Rankin/Bass for ITC Entertainment and animated by Topcraft. The film is based on the novel of the same name written by Peter S. Beagle, who also wrote the film's screenplay...
, and a number of Jim Henson Company
The Jim Henson Company
The Jim Henson Company, an American entertainment organization, traces its origins to the founding of Muppets, Inc. in 1958 by puppeteer Jim Henson, creator of The Muppets. The Muppets helped the company gain worldwide acclaim in family entertainment for more than four decades...
productions: The Dark Crystal
The Dark Crystal
The Dark Crystal is a 1982 British-American fantasy film directed by Jim Henson and Frank Oz. Although marketed as a family film, it was notably darker than previous material created by them. The animatronics used in the film were considered groundbreaking. The primary concept artist was the...
and the first two Muppet films, The Muppet Movie
The Muppet Movie
The Muppet Movie is the first of a series of live-action musical feature films starring Jim Henson's Muppets. Released in 1979, the film was produced by Henson Associates, Children's Television Workshop and ITC Entertainment....
and The Great Muppet Caper
The Great Muppet Caper
The Great Muppet Caper is a 1981 mystery comedy film directed by Jim Henson. It is the second of a series of live-action musical feature films, starring Jim Henson's Muppets. This film was produced by Henson Associates, ITC Entertainment and Universal Pictures, and premiered on 26 July 1981. The...
. Initially, ITC productions were licensed out to other U.S. studios for release until 1979, when ITC partnered with another UK-based production company, Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment, to create Associated Film Distribution, which would release films produced by each company, as well as pickups from other production companies. In 1979, the subsidiary Black Lion Films was founded in the manner of Thames Euston Films
Euston Films
Euston Films was a British film and television production company. It was a subsidiary company of Thames Television, and operated from the 1970s to the 1990s, producing various series for Thames, which were screened nationally on the ITV network...
, but its best remembered production, The Long Good Friday
The Long Good Friday
The Long Good Friday is a British gangster film starring Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren. It was completed in 1979 but, because of release delays, it is generally credited as a 1980 film...
, was sold on to HandMade Films
Handmade Films
HandMade Films is a British film production and distribution company. Through a series of sales, and acquisitions, the company now known as Handmade Plc owns all the rights and assets of the original HandMade Films Ltd...
.
Then, in the summer of 1980, two films were released by AFD within six weeks of each other, that would cause AFD to cease being an actual distribution company altogether.
The first of these two films was Can't Stop The Music
Can't Stop the Music
Can't Stop the Music is a 1980 musical comedy film directed by Nancy Walker. It is a pseudo-biography of disco's Village People which bears only a vague resemblance to the actual story of the group's formation...
released on June 20, 1980. Originally designed to be a showcase for the Village People
Village People
Village People is a concept disco group that formed in the United States in 1977, well known for their on-stage costumes depicting American cultural stereotypes, as well as their catchy tunes and suggestive lyrics....
at the height of disco music, the popularity of Disco had somewhat diminished between the shooting of the film and it's release date, and was experiencing a backlash from music listeners. The backlash towards Disco, and the scathing reviews from reviewers kept audiences away. The film ultimately made 2 million dollars of it's 20 million dollar budget back, making it a box office failure.
But on August 1, 1980, the company's most notorious production was released: Raise the Titanic! which along with the aforementioned "Can't Stop the Music" sunk the production company. Lew Grade's experience with the making of Raise the Titanic was not a happy one. Costs escalated, principally around the extensive Titanic scale model. The film drew harsh criticism (not least from Clive Cussler
Clive Cussler
Clive Eric Cussler is an American adventure novelist and marine archaeologist. His thriller novels, many featuring the character Dirk Pitt, have reached The New York Times fiction best-seller list more than seventeen times...
, author of the source novel, and Richard Jordan
Richard Jordan
Richard Jordan was an American stage, screen and film actor. A long-time member of the New York Shakespeare Festival, he performed in many Off Broadway and Broadway plays...
, who starred as its main character, Dirk Pitt) and recouped only a fraction of its costs, and ITC's profile never recovered. Grade himself retired from active film production, commenting with the Jewish chutzpah
Chutzpah
Chutzpah is the quality of audacity, for good or for bad, but it is generally used negatively. The Yiddish word derives from the Hebrew word , meaning "insolence", "audacity". The modern English usage of the word has taken on a broader meaning, having been popularized through vernacular use in...
he was renowned for, that it would have been cheaper to "lower the Atlantic."
After the film's failure, ITC and EMI agreed to sell AFD and the distribution rights to its library to Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
(AFD films in post production at the time were still released by AFD), to handle the release of the remaining pictures still in production at the time of the sale, beginning with The Legend of the Lone Ranger
The Legend of the Lone Ranger
The Legend of the Lone Ranger is a 1981 British-American western film directed by William A. Fraker and starring Klinton Spilsbury, Michael Horse and Christopher Lloyd....
, and including On Golden Pond
On Golden Pond (1981 film)
On Golden Pond is a 1981 American drama film directed by Mark Rydell. The screenplay by Ernest Thompson was adapted from his 1979 play of the same title. Henry Fonda won the Academy Award in what was his final film role. Co-star Katharine Hepburn also received an Oscar, as did Thompson for his...
, Sophie's Choice
Sophie's Choice (film)
Sophie's Choice is a 1982 American romantic drama film that tells the story of a Polish immigrant, Sophie, and her tempestuous lover who share a boarding house with a young writer in Brooklyn. The film stars Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, and Peter MacNicol. Alan J...
, The Dark Crystal
The Dark Crystal
The Dark Crystal is a 1982 British-American fantasy film directed by Jim Henson and Frank Oz. Although marketed as a family film, it was notably darker than previous material created by them. The animatronics used in the film were considered groundbreaking. The primary concept artist was the...
, and The Great Muppet Caper
The Great Muppet Caper
The Great Muppet Caper is a 1981 mystery comedy film directed by Jim Henson. It is the second of a series of live-action musical feature films, starring Jim Henson's Muppets. This film was produced by Henson Associates, ITC Entertainment and Universal Pictures, and premiered on 26 July 1981. The...
. Today, while the copyrights have reverted to the respective owners, Universal still maintains theatrical rights to most ITC and EMI films initially released by AFD.
As a distribution company, ITC was also the world-wide distributor for ATV
ATV
-In broadcasting:*Amateur television*Analog television*ATV , the NBC affiliate in Aruba.*ATV , Austrian TV station*ATV Home, major Cantonese-language TV station *ATV Jordan*ATV *ATV Madiun*ATV...
's The Benny Hill Show
The Benny Hill Show
The Benny Hill Show is a British comedy television show starring Benny Hill.There were various incarnations of the show between 1951 and 1991, and it aired in over 140 countries. The show is generally sketch-based with heavy use of slapstick, mime, parody and double-entendre...
.
Ownership
When the Associated Communications Corporation was broken up after losing control of the ATV franchise (it became Central Independent TelevisionCentral Independent Television
Central Independent Television, more commonly known as Central is the Independent Television contractor for the Midlands, created following the restructuring of ATV and commencing broadcast on 1 January 1982. The station is owned and operated by ITV plc, under the licensee of ITV Broadcasting...
when ACC was forced to divest itself of 49% of the company), the rights to the ITC archive were acquired by Polygram
PolyGram
PolyGram was the name of the major label recording company started by Philips from as a holding company for its music interests in 1945. In 1999 it was sold to Seagram and merged into Universal Music Group.-Hollandsche Decca Distributie , 1929-1950:...
, and subsequently by Carlton Television
Carlton Television
Carlton Television was the ITV franchise holder for London and the surrounding counties including the cities of Solihull and Coventry of the West Midlands, south Suffolk, middle and east Hampshire, Oxfordshire, south Bedfordshire, south Northamptonshire, parts of Herefordshire & Worcestershire,...
and Granada International.
Today, the underlying rights are owned by ITV Global Entertainment Ltd., although Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
now owns theatrical distribution rights. MGM also owns U.S. distribution rights to Without a Clue
Without a Clue
Without a Clue is a 1988 British comedy film directed by Thom Eberhardt and starring Michael Caine, Ben Kingsley and Lysette Anthony.-Plot:...
via their acquisition of that film's original distributor Orion Pictures
Orion Pictures
Orion Pictures Corporation was an American independent production company that produced movies from 1978 until 1998. It was formed in 1978 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and three former top-level executives of United Artists. Although it was never a large motion picture producer, Orion...
. Home video distribution in North America to a majority of the ITC library is handled by Lionsgate
Lions Gate Entertainment
Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation is a North American entertainment company. The company was formed in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1997, and is headquartered in Santa Monica, California...
under license from ITV.
However, there are few exceptions to the theatrical library. One ITC production, The Dark Crystal
The Dark Crystal
The Dark Crystal is a 1982 British-American fantasy film directed by Jim Henson and Frank Oz. Although marketed as a family film, it was notably darker than previous material created by them. The animatronics used in the film were considered groundbreaking. The primary concept artist was the...
, is now owned by The Jim Henson Company
The Jim Henson Company
The Jim Henson Company, an American entertainment organization, traces its origins to the founding of Muppets, Inc. in 1958 by puppeteer Jim Henson, creator of The Muppets. The Muppets helped the company gain worldwide acclaim in family entertainment for more than four decades...
, with theatrical distribution rights handled by Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures
-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...
(the film's original distributor). Two other films, The Muppet Movie
The Muppet Movie
The Muppet Movie is the first of a series of live-action musical feature films starring Jim Henson's Muppets. Released in 1979, the film was produced by Henson Associates, Children's Television Workshop and ITC Entertainment....
and The Great Muppet Caper
The Great Muppet Caper
The Great Muppet Caper is a 1981 mystery comedy film directed by Jim Henson. It is the second of a series of live-action musical feature films, starring Jim Henson's Muppets. This film was produced by Henson Associates, ITC Entertainment and Universal Pictures, and premiered on 26 July 1981. The...
, have full rights owned by The Muppets Studio LLC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
, with Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney...
as distributor. Some rights to The Return of the Pink Panther
The Return of the Pink Panther
The Return of the Pink Panther is the fourth film in the Pink Panther series, released in 1975. The film stars Peter Sellers in the role of Inspector Clouseau in his third Panther appearance, after the original The Pink Panther and A Shot in the Dark.Herbert Lom also reprises his role as Chief...
are now held by Universal's Focus Features
Focus Features
Focus Features is the art house films division of NBC Universal's Universal Pictures, and acts as both a producer and distributor for its own films and a distributor for foreign films....
division in partnership with ITV, although original distributor United Artists
United Artists
United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....
still owns the copyright, and as of 2008, domestic theatrical, television, and internet distribution through MGM—most of these rights are the result of the latter studio's distribution rights to the ITC film output. The Evil That Men Do
The Evil That Men Do (film)
The Evil That Men Do is an action thriller film directed by J. Lee Thompson that stars Charles Bronson.The film was adapted by David Lee Henry and John Crowther from a novel by R. Lance Hill...
is now fully owned by Tri-Star Pictures via Sony Pictures Entertainment
Sony Pictures Entertainment
Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc. is the television and film production/distribution unit of Japanese multinational technology and media conglomerate Sony...
.
As for ITC's television output, Carlton (and later Granada and now ITV) released some of these shows on DVD both in Europe and North America. There were however a few exceptions: The Adventures of Robin Hood
The Adventures of Robin Hood (TV series)
The Adventures of Robin Hood is a popular British television series comprising 143 half-hour, black and white episodes. It starred Richard Greene as the outlaw Robin Hood and Alan Wheatley as his nemesis, the Sheriff of Nottingham. The show aired weekly between 1955 and 1959 on ITV in London in the...
and the other swashbuckling adventure series of the late 1950s and early 1960s were released on DVD by Network Video, as was Strange Report.
Many of the cult drama shows from the 1960s and 1970s have since been released by Network as limited edition box sets, the most recent being Interpol Calling
Interpol Calling
Interpol Calling was a 1959 Rank Organisation and Jack Wrather Productions television crime drama series for ITC Entertainment. The series, which ran for one season of 39 half-hour monchrome episodes, followed the adventures of Interpol policemen Duval and Mornay as they fought against...
(as of November 2010). The rights to The Muppet Show, however, are held by The Muppets Studio/Disney, with North American and UK home video rights controlled by Disney.
List of ITC Entertainment productions and distributions
ITC produced a distributed a wide range of content across both film and television, over several decades. ITC productions and distributions crossed many different genres - from historical adventure, to spy-fiSpy-fi
-Definition and characteristics:It often uses a secret agent or superspy whose mission is a showcase of science fiction elements such as technology and ideas used for extortion, plots for world domination or world destruction, futuristic weapons, gadgets and fast vehicles that can travel on land,...
and action, and later into both children's and adult science-fiction - as well as films covering many different subjects.
The ITC Distributions page offers a complete list of ITC produced and distributed programs.
Studios
ITC had no studios of its own. Programmes were made in several facilities but most notably at ATV'sAssociated TeleVision
Associated Television, often referred to as ATV, was a British television company, holder of various licences to broadcast on the ITV network from 24 September 1955 until 00:34 on 1 January 1982...
own studio in Elstree
British National Studios
The former British National Studio is located on Clarendon Road, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England. It is currently used by the BBC and has been in continuous use since its opening in 1927....
. However, the MGM-British Studios
MGM-British Studios
MGM-British was a subsidiary of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer initially established at Denham Film Studios in 1936. The films produced there were A Yank at Oxford , The Citadel , Goodbye, Mr...
complex at Borehamwood
Borehamwood
-Film industry:Since the 1920s, the town has been home to several film studios and many shots of its streets are included in final cuts of 20th century British films. This earned it the nickname of the "British Hollywood"...
, the Rank Organisation's Pinewood
Pinewood Studios
Pinewood Studios is a major British film studio situated in Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, approximately west of central London. The studios have played host to many productions over the years from huge blockbuster films to television shows to commercials to pop promos.The purchase of Shepperton...
and Shepperton Studios
Shepperton Studios
Shepperton Studios is a film studio in Shepperton, Surrey, England with a history dating back to 1931 since when many notable films have been made there...
were also used.
Associated Communications Corporation companies
- APFAP FilmsAP Films or APF, later becoming Century 21 Productions, was a British independent film production company of the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s...
- ATV NetworkAssociated TeleVisionAssociated Television, often referred to as ATV, was a British television company, holder of various licences to broadcast on the ITV network from 24 September 1955 until 00:34 on 1 January 1982...
- Central Independent TelevisionCentral Independent TelevisionCentral Independent Television, more commonly known as Central is the Independent Television contractor for the Midlands, created following the restructuring of ATV and commencing broadcast on 1 January 1982. The station is owned and operated by ITV plc, under the licensee of ITV Broadcasting...
- ITC Films
- Independent Television Corporation
- Incorporated Television Company
See also
- AP FilmsAP FilmsAP Films or APF, later becoming Century 21 Productions, was a British independent film production company of the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s...
- Associated TeleVisionAssociated TeleVisionAssociated Television, often referred to as ATV, was a British television company, holder of various licences to broadcast on the ITV network from 24 September 1955 until 00:34 on 1 January 1982...
- Century 21 Productions
- Cult television
- Gerry AndersonGerry AndersonGerry Anderson MBE is a British publisher, producer, director and writer, famous for his futuristic television programmes, particularly those involving specially modified marionettes, a process called "Supermarionation"....
- ITVITVITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
- Lew GradeLew GradeLew Grade, Baron Grade , born Lev Winogradsky, was an influential Russian-born English impresario and media mogul.-Early years:...
- Sapphire FilmsSapphire FilmsSapphire Films was a British television production company, active in the 1950s. Amongst their best-known series are The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Adventures of Sir Lancelot, The Buccaners, and The Four Just Men produced for ITC Entertainment and screened on ITV in the UK, as well as being...