Turner Entertainment

On March 25, 1986, Ted Turner and his Turner Broadcasting System purchased Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) from Kirk Kerkorian for $1.5 billion, and renamed it MGM Entertainment Company, Inc. However, due to concerns in the financial community over the debt-load of his companies, on August 26, 1986, he was forced to sell the MGM name, all of United Artists, and the MGM Culver City studio lot back to Kerkorian for approximately $300 million after just five months of ownership. But in order to still pursue his plans to broadcast the MGM/UA assets as "originals" on his TBS and upcoming TNT channels, Turner struck a deal with Kerkorian: Turner kept the studio's film, television and cartoon library, as well as a small portion of the United Artists library, forming Turner Entertainment Company during the process of this exchange. The new company was headed up by Roger Mayer, who was a former executive of MGM, and formed a development division aimed at making movies and television shows. The library also included most of the pre-1950 Warner Bros. library (including all color Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons released before August 1948), the Fleischer Studios/Famous Studios Popeye cartoons originally released by Paramount Pictures, the US/Canadian/Latin American/Australian distribution rights to the RKO Radio Pictures library (not including any films produced by Walt Disney and Samuel Goldwyn), and most of the Gilligan's Island television franchise (excluding the television movie sequels owned by other companies), all of which were owned by United Artists.

In order to save funds, Turner instituted a policy that they would pass up on making sequels to properties now owned by Turner, in favor of colorization of old black-and-white movies. On December 2, 1987, Turner Entertainment had entered into an agreement with American Film Technologies (AFT) to computer-colorize three films from the MGM library that were originally in black-and-white: Boom Town, They Were Expendable and Catered Affair, with Turner having the option for AFT to colorize an additional 22 films, and a second option to do another 24 films by 1992. On December 10, 1987, Turner acquired the worldwide licensing rights to 800 of RKO's films from its then-parent company Wesray Capital Corporation.

On October 3, 1988, Turner Broadcasting System launched the TNT network. This was followed by the April 14, 1994 launch of Turner Classic Movies, which was to air films from the Turner Entertainment libraries (among others), uncut and without commercial interruptions or colorization. In doing so, Turner played a major part in film preservation and restoration. By broadcasting such classic films as King Kong, The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, Citizen Kane, Casablanca, Meet Me in St. Louis, Singin' in the Rain and the original The Jazz Singer on numerous Turner-affiliated cable channels, as well as in showing them in revival movie houses and on home video worldwide, Turner introduced a new generation to these films.

On November 29, 1989, Turner made another attempt to buy MGM/UA, but the deal failed, and they formed Turner Pictures and Turner Pictures Worldwide instead.

On October 29, 1991, Turner acquired Hanna-Barbera Productions and most of the pre-1991 Ruby-Spears Productions library from Great American Broadcasting for $320 million. Shortly after the acquisition, on October 1, 1992, Turner Broadcasting System launched Cartoon Network, and later Boomerang, to serve as the primary broadcaster of its vast animation library.

On August 17, 1993, Turner purchased Castle Rock Entertainment and New Line Cinema for over $650 million.

Turner Entertainment self-distributed much of its library for the first decade of its existence, but on October 10, 1996, Turner Broadcasting System merged with Time Warner, with the latter doing a large integration of its distribution functions into Warner Bros. As a result, Turner Entertainment is now an in-name-only subsidiary of Warner Bros., serving merely as a copyright holder for a portion of their library. Hanna-Barbera's current purpose as the in-name only unit of Warner Bros. Animation is to serve as the copyright holder for its creations such as The Flintstones, Scooby-Doo and Yogi Bear while Warner Bros. handles sales and merchandising.

Turner Pictures

Turner Pictures was a film production company and distribution company founded by Ted Turner on November 29, 1989. As a production company, Turner Entertainment also created original in-house programming, such as documentaries about the films it owns, new animated material based on Tom & Jerry and other related cartoon properties, and once produced made-for-television films, miniseries, and theatrical films such as Gettysburg, Tom and Jerry: The Movie, Fallen, and The Pagemaster under the Turner Pictures banner. In 1995, the Turner Pictures production company developed a film slate. Turner also had an international distribution sales unit, accordingly named Turner Pictures Worldwide Distribution, Inc. Turner Pictures was folded into Warner Bros. Pictures on November 14, 1996, after the Turner-Time Warner merger, and currently holds the distribution rights to the films made by the production division. Time Warner transferred some of Turner's leftover projects like City of Angels and You've Got Mail into Warner Bros.

Turner Feature Animation

Turner Feature Animation was Turner's animation unit headed by David Kirschner and Paul Gertz founded in early 1991. The two animated movies The Pagemaster and Cats Don't Dance were produced under Turner's animation unit. Spun off from the feature film division of Hanna-Barbera Productions, Turner Feature Animation was folded into Warner Bros. Animation in 1997.