Television and Video Distribution
United Artists Television originally produced the series (in association with Phil Silvers' Gladasya Productions and CBS) and subsequently distributed it in syndication. UATV became MGM/UA Television in 1981 after United Artists merged with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
In 1986, Turner Broadcasting System attempted to purchase MGM/UA, but after amassing huge debt, sold most of the acquisition back, but kept the company's considerable library. This library, which would be managed by Turner Entertainment, included the pre-1986 MGM film and television library, the pre-1950 Warner Bros. films and short subjects, and US rights to much of the RKO Pictures library – in addition to this series.
Some years later, after Turner merged with Time Warner, Warner Bros. Television became responsible for the show's distribution, and continues to be today. The Silvers estate (successor-in-interest to Gladasya) retained its share of ownership (both Turner and the Silvers family now share the show's copyright).
The entire series has been released on DVD through corporate sibling Warner Home Video, and online via Amazon's Prime service. The program is virtually unknown in the United Kingdom – only thirteen episodes were ever shown there.
Williams Electronics produced a pinball machine based on the TV show in 1991.
Read more about this topic: Gilligan's Island
Famous quotes containing the words television, video and/or distribution:
“All television ever did was shrink the demand for ordinary movies. The demand for extraordinary movies increased. If any one thing is wrong with the movie industry today, it is the unrelenting effort to astonish.”
—Clive James (b. 1939)
“These people figured video was the Lord’s preferred means of communicating, the screen itself a kind of perpetually burning bush. “He’s in the de-tails,” Sublett had said once. “You gotta watch for Him close.””
—William Gibson (b. 1948)
“In this distribution of functions, the scholar is the delegated intellect. In the right state, he is, Man Thinking. In the degenerate state, when the victim of society, he tends to become a mere thinker, or, still worse, the parrot of other men’s thinking.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)