Many of today's most popular television series are put out by Time Warner and its subsidiaries.
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Media giant Time Warner Inc. was created when Time Inc. and Warner Communication merged in 1989. In the mid-1990s, Time Warner purchased the Turner Broadcasting Company, effectively creating one of the largest media conglomerates in the world. Time Warner Inc. owns a large number of high-profile subsidiaries including film companies such as Newline Cinema and Castle Rock Entertainment, and television networks such as HBO, TBS, The CW, Cartoon Network, CNN and Warner Bros. Entertainment. The television programming produced under Time Warner Inc. reaches audiences worldwide and carries a huge amount of pop cultural influence.
Warner Bros. Entertainment
Subsidiary Warner Bros. Entertainment produces a variety of television programming for major television networks including sitcoms, hour-long dramas, and reality shows. Favorites such as The Big Bang Theory, Two And A Half Men, and The Mentalist are produced for CBS. For NBC, Warner Bros. makes Chuck, Chase, and Harry's Law. Groundbreaking series such Fringe and Human Target air on the FOX network. The youth-oriented series Pretty Little Liars, based on a popular series of young adult books, is made for ABC. Warner Bros. even produces America's Best Dance Crew, a reality elimination game show featuring urban dance groups, for MTV.
Turner Broadcasting System
Time Warner owns a huge number of series through channels owned by its subsidiary, Turner Broadcasting System. Urban comedies such as Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns and Tyler Perry's House of Payne air on the TBS station, along with Conan O'Brien's new talk show, CONAN. Original dramas such as Southland, The Closer, and Rizzoli & Isles have a home on TNT. Twenty-four-hour news network CNN, which not only provides constant news coverage but also original current event programs such as Anderson Cooper 360 and Piers Morgan Tonight, is operated by Turner Broadcasting. Turner also operates Cartoon Network, which offers youth and family programming such as Adventure Time, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, The Looney Toons Show, Dude, What Would Happen? as well as more adult oriented offerings such as Eagleheart, Family Guy, and Children's Hospital through its associate, Adult Swim.
The CW
The CW network came about as a joint venture between CBS and Time Warner subsidiary, Warner Bros. Entertainment, in 2006. The CW explicitly appeals to younger audiences and offers primarily hour-long dramas and reality programming. Popular dramas such as The Vampire Diaries, Gossip Girl, Supernatural, Nikita, Smallville, and 90219 -- a reboot of the 90's teen soap opera Beverly Hills 90210 -- make up the core of The CW's dramatic offerings in 2011, and will be joined this season by new shows such as The Secret Circle, Ringer, and Hart of Dixie. In addition to scripted dramas, The CW offers a number of reality shows such as the long-running America's Next Top Model, weight loss show Shedding for the Wedding, and Dr. Drew's Lifechangers.
Home Box Office (HBO)
Since the late 1990s, HBO has become as well known for its quality original programming as for the feature films it regularly releases. Miniseries such as WWII epics Band of Brothers and The Pacific, and period drama Mildred Pierce, have garnered awards and critical acclaim. Notable for their mature content as much as for their quality writing, HBO series such as Game of Thrones, True Blood, Bored to Death, Eastbound & Down, Big Love, Entourage, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Treme appeal to large adult audiences. HBO also offers sports reporting programming such as Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel and has recently delved into documentary making with films such as When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts and Thin.
References
- History of Time Warner, Inc.
- Time Warner, Inc.
- The CW
Photo Credits
- Digital Vision./Digital Vision/Getty Images