TBS (TV Channel) - History - Initial Change To WTBS - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Library

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Library

During the 1980s, WTBS focused heavily on movies – running two during the day, with a movie-exclusive schedule during the nighttime hours after 8 p.m., with the exception of sports events. Other times, WTBS continued to run mostly classic sitcoms, and vintage cartoons. In 1986, when Ted Turner purchased Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (which he would sell back to previous owner Kirk Kerkorian that October due to debt incurred by the Turner Broadcasting System from its purchase of the film studio), WTBS gained the rights to the entire MGM film library (including certain acquisitions by MGM). This gave WTBS many theatrical cartoon shorts such as Tom and Jerry, as well as shows like Gilligan's Island and The Addams Family.

WTBS began to run The Little Rascals, Tom & Jerry, Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoons released prior to August 1948, theatrical Popeye cartoon shorts, and Three Stooges shorts under the banner Tom & Jerry and Friends running for either one hour or 90 minutes during the morning hours and for an hour in the afternoon from 1986 until the mid-1990s. In the late 1980s, WTBS slightly decreased the amount of movies broadcast during the day and began to add 1970s sitcoms such as Happy Days, The Jeffersons, Good Times, One Day at a Time and others to the evening lineup; Little House on the Prairie ran in late mornings continuously from 1986 to 2003.