United Artists Television (UATV) was anAmerican televisionproduction/distribution studio ofUnited Artists Corporation that was formed on January 1, 1958. The company is remembered for producing series such asThis Man Dawson,World of Giants,Stoney Burke,The Outer Limits,Gilligan's Island,My Mother the Car,The Fugitive,The Rat Patrol,thirtysomething,The New Phil Silvers Show,The Patty Duke Show andThe Pink Panther Show. In September 2014, the studio briefly returned to full-time television production under the new management ofUnited Artists Media Group (UAMG), led in part by husband and wife producersMark Burnett andRoma Downey. With its folding back intoMGM Television, UATV was temporarily dormant until 2020 whenMGM Television was reincorporated.

United Artists Television

Company type	Division
Industry	Television
Predecessors	Ziv Television Programs United Artists Associated
Founded	January 1, 1958; 67 years ago (1958-01-01)
Defunct	1995; 30 years ago (1995)
Fate	Folded intoMGM/UA Entertainment Co. Television
Successors	Studio: MGM/UA Entertainment Co. Television Library: CBS Media Ventures (throughSpelling Television) (The Fugitive only) Warner Bros. Television Studios (throughTurner Entertainment Co.) (Gilligan's Island,The New Adventures of Gilligan andGilligan's Planet only)
Parent	United Artists
Subsidiaries	United Artists Associated (1958–1968) Ziv Television Programs (1960–1962)

UATV was formed on January 1, 1958, with Herb Golden, former vice-president of Banker's Trust, as its president, and Bruce Eells fromTelevision Programs of America as its top operating executive.^[1]

In that same year, UATV purchasedAssociated Artists Productions (a.a.p.), giving access to the pre-1950^[2][3][4]Warner Bros.' short subject library and the 231Popeye cartoon shorts made byFleischer Studios andFamous Studios forParamount Pictures between 1933 and 1957. With UATV's purchase, a.a.p. becameUnited Artists Associated (u.a.a.) and became its distribution division.

In 1960, UATV purchasedZiv Television Programs, including the 20% share still held by board chairmanFrederick Ziv and his son-in-law and business partner president John L. Sinn, for $20 million. The newly merged production company was renamedZiv-United Artists.

UATV had never been very successful in the small screen, having placed only two series inprime time,The Troubleshooters onNBC andThe Dennis O'Keefe Show onCBS, both of the 1959–1960 season. This negative pattern continued after the merger. Ziv-UA produced a dozen of TVpilots during the first year of operation, but failed to sell any of them, althoughAubrey Schenck'sMiami Undercover only lasted one season in 1961.

After an experiment that tried in 1961 with the signing of outside producers likeChrislaw Productions,David Wolper Productions andJack Douglas, in 1962, the studio stopped filming its own shows and went to independent producers under creative control,^[5] and later on, on September 1, 1962, phased out Ziv Television Programs and reverted its name to United Artists Television.^[6] In that same year,ABC premiered a successfulprime time television film show calledThe ABC Sunday Night Movie in competition to NBC's successful motion picture programSaturday Night at the Movies. The first season featured releases of many United Artists' films with some episodes containing featurettes promoting the upcoming UA's cinema releases.

UATV had several shows such asStoney Burke (1962),The Patty Duke Show (1963),The Outer Limits (1963),The Fugitive (1963),Hollywood and the Stars (1963),The Hollywood Palace (1964), andGilligan's Island (1964). In 1965, he attempted a deal withAaron Spelling Productions to produce movies and TV shows, but the deal never materialized.^[7] In 1967, UATV was purchased byTransamerica Corporation and, the following year, United Artists Associated was reincorporated as United Artists Television Distribution (UATD). AfterThe Mothers-in-Law was cancelled on NBC in 1969, the studio decided to focus in presenting their movie library on television and rerunning their classics after years of still being unsuccessful in TV production. The company tried to return to television production in late 1978 when United Artists licensed its film library to television producerLorimar Productions for adaptation to television series and miniseries, but it never materialized.^[8]

In 1981,MGM merged with UA to createMGM/UA Entertainment Co.; as a result, their respective television units combined as well becameMGM/UA Entertainment Co. Television or simplyMGM/UA Television the following year. The United Artists Television name was eventually phased out around 1983 in favor of the MGM/UA Television banner, although UATV continued itself producing television shows until 1995. In 1985, United Artists Television was returned after Turner bought out MGM, to be headed by John J. McMahon, only to be combined into MGM/UA Television Productions within a year, when Turner sold off MGM/UA.^[9]

In September 2014, MGM acquired a 55% controlling interest inOne Three Media andLightworkers Media, both operated by husband/wife Hollywood producersMark Burnett andRoma Downey (Touched by an Angel fame). The two companies were consolidated into a new film and television company, United Artists Media Group (UAMG). Burnett is UAMG's CEO and Downey is president of Lightworkers Media^[10]Hearst Entertainment, an investor in Burnett and Downey's entertainment assets, has also acquired a minority stake in United Artists through this deal.^[11] Through this acquisition, UAMG held the production rights to Burnett's reality show franchisesThe Voice,Survivor,The Apprentice,On the Menu,Shark Tank,Beyond the Tank andLucha Underground.^[12] When it was folded back into MGM Television, UATV's current incarnation ended. Although since then, MGM/UA Television was reformed (as of February 2020), most new UATV material is produced either by MGM's digital unit or MGM itself.

• The Incredible World of James Bond (television special, 1965)
• Welcome to Japan, Mr. Bond (1967, television special)
• The Pink Panther in: A Pink Christmas (1978, television special)
• James Bond: The First 25 Years (1983, television special)