 Final logo as GoodTimes Entertainment; used from 1997 to 2005 | |
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| Company type | Subsidiary |
| Industry | Home video company |
| Founded | 1984; 42 years ago (1984) |
| Defunct | September 2005 |
| Fate | Folded intoGaiam, Inc. |
| Headquarters | 16 East 40th Street,New York City, N.Y. 10016 |
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GT Media, Inc. was an Americanhome video company that originated in 1984 under the name ofGoodTimes Home Video. Though it produced its own titles, the company was well known due to its distribution of media from third parties and classics. The founders for the company were the brothers Kenneth, Joseph and Stanley Cayre (often referred to and credited simply as the "Cayre Brothers") ofSalsoul Records. Its headquarters were inMidtown Manhattan,New York City. The company had a distribution facility inJersey City, New Jersey and a duplication facility inBayonne, New Jersey, known asGTK Duplicating Co..[1]
After the bankruptcy, GoodTimes' parent company was sold toYoga-focused content companyGaiam in September 2005.
GoodTimes began with the distribution of copies ofpublic domain titles. Though the company also produced and distributed many low-pricedfitness videos such as the29 Minute Workout video series, its most recognized line of products were the series of low-budgettraditionally animated films from companies such asJetlag Productions,Golden Films, and Blye Migicovsky Productions, as well as a selection of the works ofBurbank Films Australia. Many of its home-video titles—such asAladdin,Beauty and the Beast,Pinocchio,Sinbad,The Little Mermaid,The Three Musketeers andThumbelina—werenamed similarly or identically to big-budget animated films from Disney and other major studios[2] (though their plots were sometimes very different), and GoodTimes would often release these films close to the theatrical and/or home video releases of the major film studios.
This was largely legal, as the stories of the big-budget films were based on fairy tales and classic literature that had long been in thepublic domain, and the major studios had little room to claim exclusive rights to the stories or the main characters.The Walt Disney Company sued GoodTimes in 1993, because the videotape packaging closely resembled Disney's, allegedly creating the potential of confusing consumers into unintentionally purchasing a GoodTimes title, when they instead meant to purchase a film from Disney.[3]
As a result of this lawsuit, GoodTimes was required by law to print its name atop all of its futureVHS covers, in order to clearly demonstrate to the public at large that this was not the "blockbuster" title that they would be purchasing. Despite these changes, however, GoodTimes continued to produce animated films based on public domain works.[4]
At theSummer CES 1985, GoodTimes launched a home video label Kids Klassics Home Video, which was specifically designed for a children's audience.[5] The first Kids Klassics videos were 52 different cartoons, which were all meant to be in color and received a 50-50 joint venture with Remco to market theMel-O-Toons cartoons byStorer Broadcasting.[6] The company made its first licensed client in 1986, by signing a deal withWorldvision Home Video to reissue titles on VHS, through the Kids Klassics label, which were mostlyHanna-Barbera cartoons.[7]
This was followed in 1987 by signing a deal with major video distributorMCA Home Video to license these titles to VHS, mainly theUniversal Pictures catalog for a price of $15.[8] That year, Goodtimes and Kids Klassics merged their distribution arms to form Goodtimes/Kids Klassics Distribution Corp.[9] In the 1990s they expanded the company into GT Publishing, a division of the company that published children's books under the Inchworm Press imprint.[10]
Expanding fromhome video distribution, GoodTimes founded its spin-off,GT Interactive as a way to distribute computer andvideo games.[11] This company was sold to the French game publisherInfogrames in 1999. At different times, GoodTimes contracted withColumbia Pictures,NBC,HBO,Worldvision Enterprises,Hanna-Barbera,[7]Orion Home Video,[12]Universal Pictures[8] andParamount Pictures to release inexpensive tapes of many of their films and TV series. In addition, GoodTimes released several compilations assembled from public domain films, film trailers, earlier television programs and newsreels. Most of these were credited to Film Shows, Inc.
In February 2003,[13]Quadrangle Capital Partners purchased GoodTimes Entertainment for $90 million plus $160 million in debt,[14] and rebranded the company as GT Brands.[13]
In July 2005, GT Brands Holdings filed forChapter 11 Bankruptcy protection.[15]Gaiam subsequently acquired all of GoodTimes' assets for $40 million.[16] The deal was closed that September[17] and GT Brands Holdings LLC was renamed as GT Media, Inc.,[18] becoming Gaiam's general-interest label that released films and animation fromDIC Entertainment andmockbusters fromThe Asylum.
By the end of the 2000s, the GT Media brand was no longer used by Gaiam, with the company solely distributing fitness and yoga media under the latter label. In April 2012, the company acquired and merged withVivendi Entertainment, renaming the combined subsidiary Gaiam Vivendi Entertainment.[19] In October 2013,Cinedigm purchased Gaiam Vivendi Entertainment for $51.5 million; after this Gaiam had exited the home video industry, with the subsidiary merging with Cinedigm'sNew Video to form a standalone distributor under the Cinedigm name.[20][21]
Prior to the company's bankruptcy, GoodTimes Entertainment produced at that time a TV series calledWulin Warriors. The series was an edited version ofPili, produced byBroadway Video andAnimation Collective forCartoon Network'sToonami block in 2006.
The company also produced the children's musical live action video seriesTreehouse Trolls Birthday Day andTreehouse Trolls Fun and Wonder (1992), the latter being remembered asRachael Harris's first contribution to the film industry.[22]
