Filmways, Inc. was a television and film production company founded by American film executive Martin Ransohoff, and Edwin Kasper in 1952. It is probably best remembered as the production company of CBS’ “rural comedies” of the 1960s, including Mister Ed, The Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction, and Green Acres, as well as the comedy-drama The Trials of O'Brien, the western Dundee and the Culhane, the adventure show Bearcats!, the police drama Cagney & Lacey, and The Addams Family. Notable films the company produced include The Sandpiper, The Cincinnati Kid, The Fearless Vampire Killers, Ice Station Zebra, Summer Lovers, The Burning, King, Brian De Palma's Dressed to Kill, and Blow Out and Death Wish II. Filmways acquired famous companies throughout the years, such as Heatter-Quigley Productions, Ruby-Spears Productions and American International Pictures. It was also the owner of the film distributor Sigma III Corporation, Wally Heider Recording, Studio 3 Inc.
History
Filmways was formed by Martin Ransohoff and Edwin Kasper in 1952, who would part with Filmways 5 years later. The company originally produced television commercials and documentary films. In 1959, Filmways entered the television sitcom arena in a big way, when many executives of McCadden Productions, decided to join Filmways after McCadden filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 1959. Filmways TV Productions was formed and named former McCadden exec, Al Simon as its new president and produced its first TV series, 21 Beacon Street. During that time, McCadden also produced the pilot which would later become the series Mister Ed. Burns sold the rights to Filmways, and Burns and director Arthur Lubin formed The Mister Ed Company as a joint venture. As a result, Mister Ed became a smash hit. In 1962, Filmways produced its biggest hit, The Beverly Hillbillies for CBS, created by Paul Henning, another McCadden exec. In 1966, the company acquired Heatter-Quigley Productions, the game show producer known for their biggest hit, Hollywood Squares. In 1969, it bought Sears Point Raceway in Sonoma County, California, outside of San Francisco, and Wally Heider Recording with studios in Hollywood and San Francisco, along with Studio 3 Inc in Hollywood. In 1972, Ransohoff left Filmways as president. Filmways housed studios in Manhattan at 246 East 127th Street, which were built for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the 1920s. In 1974, it acquired book publisher Grosset & Dunlap from American Financial Group. In May 1975, it bought the television syndication firm Rhodes Productions from Taft Broadcasting. In 1976, Richard L. Bloch became CEO. In 1978, it acquired Ruby-Spears Productions, which had launched a year earlier. In 1979, after Arkoff's retirement, Filmways purchased American International Pictures. Their TV subsidiary, AITV, became a Filmways' new syndication division in 1980, spinning off Rhodes into an independent corporation. Filmways had lost nearly $20 million during the nine months ending in November 1981. However, it partially exited bankruptcy by selling a few of its previously acquired assets. In 1981, Ruby-Spears Productions was sold to Taft Broadcasting and Sears Point Raceway was sold to Speedway Motorsports. In 1982, Grosset & Dunlap was sold to G. P. Putnam's Sons. In 1982, Filmways was acquired by Orion Pictures. Filmways was then reincorporated as Orion Pictures Corporation on August 31, 1982.
Announcements at the end of productions
Most productions ended with the announcement, “This has been a Filmways presentation”. For some shows, the voice-over was made by a cast member:
Green Acres: Lisa Douglas, who says, “This has been a Filmways presentation, darling.”
The Beverly Hillbillies: Elly May Clampett. Following a few episodes, the voice of Jethro, Max Baer Jr., can be heard saying, "Aww, shuddup, Elly May", following her announcement. Seasons 1–3, however, feature Bill Baldwin, the announcer for the show's sponsors.
Mister Ed: Roger Addison. Later seasons feature Mister Ed saying it after Keating's death in 1963.
The Addams Family: The logo was silent, but in some episodes the phrase was recited in a deep baritone voice by Ted Cassidy, although he did not use his usual “Lurch” voice. A few other times, Carolyn Jones recited the phrase and added "darling" at the end.
Ownership of film, television properties
Today, most of the Filmways library, including Green Acres, The Addams Family, Cagney & Lacey, Death Wish II, The Hollywood Squares, and Mister Ed is now owned by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer until MGM quietly relaunched Orion Pictures on September 11, 2014. CBS holds distribution rights to The Beverly Hillbillies and Petticoat Junction. Viacom syndicated these two programs since the 1970s. In the case of Hillbillies, Orion Television still owns the copyrights to the episodes, excluding episodes from the first season and the first half of the second season, which have fallen into the public domain. However, any new compilation of Hillbillies material will be copyrighted by either MPI Media Group or CBS, depending on the series content. Filmways co-produced Eye Guess, The Face Is Familiar, Personality, and You're Putting Me On with Bob Stewart Productions. Those four game shows are currently owned by Sony Pictures Television. Filmways syndicated Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman that was produced by T.A.T. Communications Company. That too is owned by SPT via ELP Communications. SPT co-distributed the MGM library for a short time. The rights to nearly all movies Filmways co-produced with major studios have been retained by the studios that originally released them; 10 Rillington Place is owned by Columbia Pictures, Save the Tiger is owned by Paramount Pictures, Two-Minute Warning, is owned by Universal Studios, and so forth. Most of the foreign-language films released by their Sigma III division have reverted to their original producers, but a small number of English-language films Sigma III handled such as Cul-de-sac and Hi, Mom! were retained by Filmways and are now owned by MGM. The rest that were originally released by MGM prior to 1986 are currently owned by Warner Bros. via its Turner Entertainment Co. subsidiary.
