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MTM Enterprises, Inc.

Logo with Mimsie the Cat, the company's mascot
Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Television and film production
Founded	1969; 56 years ago (1969)
Founders	Mary Tyler Moore Grant Tinker
Defunct	May 19, 1998; 26 years ago (1998-05-19)
Fate	Library assets were folded into20th Century Fox Television
Successor	20th Television
Parent	TVS Entertainment (Television South plc) (1988–1993) International Family Entertainment (1993–1997) News Corporation (1997–1998)
Divisions	MTM Television Distribution MTM International MTM Home Video MTM Records

MTM Enterprises (also known asMTM Productions) was an American independent production company established in 1969 byMary Tyler Moore and her then-husbandGrant Tinker to produceThe Mary Tyler Moore Show forCBS. The name for the production company was drawn from Moore's initials.^[1]

With MTM, Moore would become one of the first women to own a television production company. MTM became very successful, producing a number of successfultelevision programs during the 1970s and 1980s. Since 2019,The Walt Disney Company has owned all of the company's programs through its subsidiary20th Television.

In 1969, MTM Enterprises was organized by bothMary Tyler Moore andGrant Tinker,^[2][3][4] and hiredJames L. Brooks andAllan Burns to create her sitcom,The Mary Tyler Moore Show.^[5] Brooks' showRoom 222 has even been credited by theTelevision Academy Foundation for breaking the "new narrative ground" which developed MTM Enterprises' "major sitcom factories of the 1970s."^[6]

In 1971, co-founder Grant Tinker was forced to quit20th Century Fox Television due to conflicts with how to run MTM, in order to maintain a full-time job at the company.^[7]

In 1976, MTM teamed up withMetromedia Producers Corporation to start a variety show, a first for first-run syndication.^[8] Earlier that year, the company had hired Bud Rifkin to launch a syndicated division.^[9]

In 1977,Ed. Weinberger, James L. Brooks,David Davis, Allan Burns, andStan Daniels left MTM Enterprises forParamount Pictures and started theJohn Charles Walters Company.^{[citation needed]}

Tinker oversaw MTM's operation until leaving the company.

In 1981, Tinker became the chairman ofNBC. Lawyers backing NBC's then-ownerRCA convinced Tinker to sell his remaining shares of MTM. Moore and Arthur Price, her business manager and company vice president, bought Tinker's shares;^[10] Price subsequently was elevated to president. Tinker later regretted leaving MTM, believing that the company started to decline without him.^[11]

Most of MTM's programs aired on CBS. For many years, MTM and CBS co-owned theCBS Studio Center inStudio City California, where a majority of their programs were filmed and videotaped.

In 1986, MTM launched its own syndicated arm MTM Television Distribution, to handle off-net syndication of the MTM shows, and subsequently courted to continue its relations with syndicator Jim Victory to sell off-network rights to MTM's shows likeHill Street Blues andWKRP in Cincinnati, all the way up until the late 1980s as part of a contract settlement.^[12][13] In 1988, MTM was sold to UK broadcaster and independent station for the South and South East of EnglandTVS Entertainment for $320 million.^[11] A year afterwards, MTM Television Distribution began producing its own programming for the first-run syndication market.^[14]

After TVSlost its franchise to broadcast on theITV network toMeridian Broadcasting, a number of American companies (and to a lesser extent, Meridian) were interested in acquiring MTM, withPat Robertson'sInternational Family Entertainment making the first offer.^[15] A small number of shareholders, including Julian Tregar, rejected the offer from IFE. In November, TCW Capital made a bid,^[16] but withdrew it a few weeks later after reviewing the accounts of TVS.^[17] IFE increased its offer to £45.3M, but continued to be opposed by Julian Tregar, who blocked the deal on technical grounds, alleging that the offer was too low.^[17][18] IFE finally increased the offer to appease the remaining shareholders,^[19][20] and on January 23, 1993, their offer of £56.5M was finally accepted.^[21] The deal went into effect on February 1, 1993 (the month after Meridian began its first broadcast).

In 1995, Michael Ogiens, formerly running CBS, as well as his production company Ogiens/Kane Company, joined MTM to serve as president of the company in hopes that MTM would be restored to its independent production glory.^[22] The following year, Josh Kane, fellow partner of the Ogiens/Kane Company joined MTM as vice president for the East Coast offices.^[23] In 1997, MTM hit layoffs at the syndication unit after the cancellation of the showThe Cape.^[24]

In 1997, International Family Entertainment was sold toNews Corporation, and folded into its subsidiaryFox Kids Worldwide, eventually renamed to Fox Family Worldwide (a joint venture between Fox andSaban Entertainment).^[25][26] MTM's library assets however, were transferred over to20th Television who retained them, even after Fox Family Worldwide was sold toThe Walt Disney Company in 2001.^[27] Until then,The Pretender andGood News were the last surviving shows to be produced by MTM, as 20th Century Fox Television inherited both shows in 1997 (when News Corporation purchased MTM) and 1998 (when MTM ceased operations) respectively. MTM's library became property of Disney following its acquisition of 20th Century Fox in 2019. Disney holds the rights of most of MTM's shows.

MTM Enterprises also included arecord label,MTM Records — distributed byCapitol Records — which was in existence from 1984 to 1988.^[28]

• MTM Enterprises records —at theWisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research.

• MTM Enterprises
• Television production companies of the United States
• Film production companies of the United States
• Entertainment companies based in California
• Entertainment companies established in 1969
• Mass media companies established in 1969
• Mass media companies disestablished in 1998
• 1969 establishments in California
• 1998 disestablishments in California
• Defunct companies based in Greater Los Angeles
• Defunct film and television production companies of the United States
• 1997 mergers and acquisitions
• Former News Corporation subsidiaries

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