Beginning and saturation Western series leads
Will Hutchins (
Sugarfoot),
Peter Brown (
Lawman),
Jack Kelly (
Maverick),
Ty Hardin (
Bronco),
James Garner (
Maverick),
Wayde Preston (Colt .45), and
John Russell (
Lawman) The end of World War II led to the rise of television in the late 1940s and early 1950s which saw the eclipse of the Hollywood film studio system, upon the rise of television programming in the wake of the war, many of the film studio executives were in doubt, as they saw the rise of television destroying their film studio business, one of the first major American film studios to move into television was Columbia Pictures in 1947, soon other Hollywood studios such as Paramount Pictures, and Walt Disney Studios started following suit capitalising on the rise of television. Warner Bros. originally planned to move into television back in 1949 as requested by the other Warners, but Jack L. Warner declined and turned down many proposals as he refused to give into the capitalization of TV thus the path to TV was slow, eventually the executives finally gave in and started establishing their television division. The division was started on March 21, 1955,). Warner Bros. formally entered television production with the premiere of its self-titled anthology series
Warner Bros. Presents on ABC. The one-hour weekly show featured rotating episodes of television series based on the Warner Bros. films
Casablanca and
Kings Row, as well as an original series titled
Cheyenne with
Clint Walker. The first one-hour television western,
Cheyenne became a big hit for the network and the studio with the added advantage of featuring promotions for upcoming Warner Bros. cinema releases in the show's last ten minutes. One such segment for
Rebel Without a Cause featured
Gig Young notably talking about road safety with
James Dean. With only
Cheyenne being a success, Warner Bros. ended the ten-minute promotions of new films and replaced
Warner Bros. Presents with an
anthology series titled
Conflict. It was felt that "Conflict" was what the previous series lacked.
Conflict showed the pilots for
Maverick and
77 Sunset Strip. The success of
Cheyenne led Warner Bros. Television to produce many series for ABC such as Westerns
(Maverick,
Lawman,
Colt .45,
Bronco, a
spin off of
Cheyenne,
Sugarfoot, and
The Alaskans),
crime dramas (
77 Sunset Strip,
Hawaiian Eye,
Bourbon Street Beat, and
Surfside 6), and other shows such as
The Gallant Men and
The Roaring Twenties using stock footage from Warner Bros.
war films and gangster films respectively. Warner Bros. Television also produced
Jack Webb's
Red Nightmare starring
Jack Kelly for the
U.S. Department of Defense that was later shown on American television on
Jack Webb's
General Electric True. All shows were made in the manner of WB's
B pictures in the 1930s and 1940s; fast-paced, much
stock footage from other films, stock music from the Warner Bros. music library and contracted stars working long hours for comparatively small salaries with restrictions on their career. During the
1960 Writers Guild of America strike, Warner Bros. reused many plots from its films and other television shows under the nom de plume of "W. Hermanos". This was another example of imitating Warner Bros.' B pictures who would remake an "A" film and switch the setting. and
Jack Kelly as
Bret and Bart Maverick in
Maverick, 1959 Two of the most popular stars,
James Garner and
Clint Walker, quit over their conditions. Garner never returned to the Warners fold during this period, instead moving forward into a major theatrical film career. Successful Warner Bros. television stars found themselves in leading roles of many of the studio's theatrical films with no increase in salary.
Efrem Zimbalist Jr. was simultaneously the lead of
77 Sunset Strip briefly overlapping with a recurring role as "
Dandy Jim Buckley" on
Maverick, and also headlined several films until exhaustion forced the studio to give him a rest. Many other actors under contract to Warner Bros. at the time, who despite their work conditions, did see their stars rise over time, albeit for most only briefly, included
Jack Kelly,
Will Hutchins,
Peter Brown,
Ty Hardin,
Wayde Preston,
John Russell,
Donald May,
Rex Reason,
Richard Long,
Van Williams,
Roger Smith,
Mike Road,
Anthony Eisley,
Robert Conrad,
Robert McQueeney,
Dorothy Provine,
Diane McBain and
Connie Stevens.
Edd Byrnes and
Troy Donahue would become teen heartthrobs. Another contract player, Englishman
Roger Moore (
Maverick and
The Alaskans), was growing displeased with Warner as his contract was expiring and would relocate to Europe from Hollywood, becoming an international star on television, and eventually, in theatrical films, playing
James Bond among other roles. Warner Bros. also contracted established stars such as
Ray Danton,
Peter Breck,
Jeanne Cooper and
Grant Williams. These stars often appeared as guest stars, sometimes reprising their series role in another TV series. The stars appeared in Warner Bros. cinema releases with no additional salary, with some such as Zimbalist, Walker, Garner (replacing
Charlton Heston in ''
Darby's Rangers), and Danton (replacing Robert Evans in The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond) playing the lead roles; many of the stars appeared in ensemble casts in such films as The Chapman Report and Merill's Marauders. Some stars such as Connie Stevens, Edd Byrnes, Robert Conrad and Roger Smith made albums for Warner Bros. Records. One particular recording, a novelty tune titled Kookie, Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb) became a big hit for Edd Byrnes and Connie Stevens (1959). The following year, Connie Stevens had her own hit, with Sixteen Reasons''. It was during this period that series, particularly Westerns like
Cheyenne and
Maverick, and the crime dramas like
77 Sunset Strip,
Hawaiian Eye and
Surfside 6 featured catchy theme songs that became just as much a part of the American pop culture landscape as the shows themselves. Depending on the particular series (in this case, the Westerns),
William Lava or
David Buttolph would compose the music, with lyrics by
Stan Jones or
Paul Francis Webster, among others. For the crime shows, it was up to the songwriting team of
Jerry Livingston and
Mack David, who also scored the themes for the sitcom
Room for One More, and
The Bugs Bunny Show. In 1960, Warner Bros. Television turned its attentions to younger audiences as they brought
Bugs Bunny and the other Warner Bros. cartoon characters to prime time, with
The Bugs Bunny Show, which featured cartoons released after July 31, 1948 (which had not been sold to
Associated Artists Productions), combined with newly animated introductory material. Also, that year saw the debut of
The Roaring Twenties, which was thought to be a more benign alternative to
Desilu's
The Untouchables. Whether or not that was actually the case, it was, in fact, much less successful. Warner Bros. Television expanded on its existing genre of Westerns and crime dramas, and in January 1962, produced its first sitcom,
Room For One More. Based on the memoirs of
Anna Rose, which in 1952 Warner Bros made into a movie starring
Cary Grant and his then-wife
Betsy Drake (the only movie that they worked together in) about a married couple with two children of their own who went on to adopt at least two more. The TV series starred
Andrew Duggan and
Peggy McCay as George and Anna Rose. Acting legend
Mickey Rooney's son
Tim, and
Ahna Capri, who would continue to do episodic TV roles and feature films (arguably, her best-known movie was
Enter the Dragon starring
Bruce Lee) were cast as the Rose's natural children. The show only lasted for half a season. In the fall of that year, a WWII drama
The Gallant Men debuted, but lasted for only one season. Warner Bros. Television exclusively produced shows for the ABC network until 1962, when
GE True premiered on
CBS. In 1964, Warner Bros. Television once again tried to turn a classic film comedy of its own into a sitcom, with
No Time for Sergeants. Both the sitcom and the 1958 movie were based on the 1955 Broadway play, which starred
Andy Griffith (TV's
The United States Steel Hour also adapted the stage play for TV in 1956). The sitcom starred
Sammy Jackson as Will Stockdale, a naive Georgia farm boy drafted into the military. 1965 saw the debut of
F Troop, a Western spoof taking place at a U.S. Army post after the Civil War. Despite lasting only two seasons, it is still considered a classic of its type.
Forrest Tucker,
Larry Storch, and
Ken Berry led an ensemble cast featuring military misfits, and an Indian tribe, who, among other things, forgot how to do a rain dance. The streak of identifiable series subsided in 1963 with a halt of using
stock company contract players and
Jack Webb taking over WBTV and not being particularly successful. However, many series were still filmed at Warner Bros. such as
F Troop and
The F.B.I. From 1967 to 2000 (
Lynda Carter) in the 1975–1979 television series,
Wonder Woman For four years, from 1967 to 1971, Warner Bros. Television's sole output was the existing television series
The F.B.I.. By 1970, several former personnel from
20th Century-Fox Television, as well as former agent-writers, had moved to Warner Bros., including
Paul Monash,
Rod Amateau,
Bill Idelson and Harvey Miller,
Saul Turteltaub and
Bernie Orenstein, Jerry Gardner and
Dee Caruso, and
Hal Kanter and
A. J. Carothers. By 1971, Warner Bros. Television had returned to prime-time production after producing only one show for four years. Among its first shows upon returning were the NBC series
Nichols and
The Jimmy Stewart Show and the CBS series
The Chicago Teddy Bears. That same year, animation studio
Filmation and Warner Bros. entered into a deal to produce cartoons for film and television, with Warner Bros. Television holding global distribution rights. In 1975, the stars of
Lynda Carter, Warner Bros. and
DC Comics produced the television series
Wonder Woman. National was purchased by
Kinney National Company in 1967 and remained the part of the company until Kinney bought Warner Bros. in 1969. Also that year, Warner Bros. Television secured a deal with
Bill Carruthers and his production company to develop its game shows and other videotaped programming. In 1976, Warner Bros. Television acquired The Wolper Organization, producer of
Chico and the Man and
Welcome Back, Kotter. In 1978, Stan Margulies, who produced
Roots, signed a three-year exclusive contract with the studio. The following week, Warner had acquired contracts with big names like
James Komack,
Danny Arnold, the trio of
Don Nicholl,
Michael Ross and
Bernie West (NRW) and the duo of Alan Blye and
Bob Einstein to distribute programs worldwide. In 1979, Warner Bros. Television produced the television series
The Dukes of Hazzard. In 1980, Phillip Saltzman and his Woodruff Productions company signed a deal with the studio. In 1982,
Aaron Spelling and
his production company had struck a deal with the studio to distribute the shows. The pact would continue until 1988. 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
MGM Entertainment Company, Inc. Turner immediately sold MGM's
United Artists (UA) subsidiary back to Kerkorian for roughly $480 million. The MGM lot and lab facilities were sold to
Lorimar-Telepictures. Prior to the merge with
Time Inc.,
Warner Communications acquired
Lorimar-Telepictures. The acquisition completed on January 12, 1989.
Lorimar Television folded into Warner Bros. Television in July 1993.
Telepictures later became a television production company. In 1992,
Witt/Thomas Productions signed a television contract with Warner Bros. after the previous contract with Disney was not renewed. In 1993, two
Time Warner-affiliated production companies
Quincy Jones Entertainment and
David Salzman Entertainment had merged their companies to form
Quincy Jones-David Salzman Entertainment, which was affiliated with Warner Bros. and Time Warner. Not too long after that,
Lorimar Television was folded into WBTV, taking some key members with them. In 1993,
Tom Arnold and
Roseanne Barr via Wapello County Productions struck a deal with the studio. Later that year, Warner Bros. Television partnered with Bud Grant Productions, a company led by
CBS executive
Bud Grant, and formerly of Grant/Tribune Productions for a two-year, non-exclusive deal. In 1994, writers-producers of
Friends,
Kevin Bright,
Martha Kauffman and
David Crane, and associated with the studio since 1992 had struck its exclusive deal with the studio. In 1996, Warner Bros. Television collaborated with
Universal Television to develop the series
Spy Game for
ABC, with Universal alumnus
Sam Raimi and
Robert Tapert of Renaissance Pictures, and Warner alumnus
John McNamara producing the series, but it did not last long, as it only lasted one season on the air.
From 2001 In 2001, Warner Bros. Television fully took over distribution of
Hanna-Barbera related properties produced by
Warner Bros. Animation such as
Scooby-Doo, producing a steady stream of Scooby-Doo direct-to-video films and two new series, ''
What's New, Scooby-Doo? (2002–2006) and Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue!'' (2006–2008). In 2006, Warner Bros. Television made some of its vast library of programs available for free viewing on the Internet (through sister company
AOL's
IN2TV service), with
Welcome Back, Kotter as its marquee offering. Some of these programs have not been seen publicly since their last syndicated release in the 1980s. On June 11, 2012, Warner Bros. Television acquired
Alloy Entertainment. On June 2, 2014, Warner Bros. Television Group purchased all of
Eyeworks' companies outside of the United States, rebranding as
Warner Bros. International Television Production. Eyeworks USA however, will remain independent. In 2020, Warner Bros. Television was renamed Warner Bros. Television Studios as part of WarnerMedia's restructuring of its television divisions. The Warner Bros. Television name continues to be used on-screen, as well as the company's trade name. On November 30, 2022, Warner Bros Television head Channing Dungey announced that they were in talks with
Amazon to make animated DC content for its streaming service
Amazon Prime Video. One of these projects was
Batman: Caped Crusader, which premiered in 2024. It was followed by the
Bat-Fam in 2025. == Divisions ==