Turner Program Services was the syndication arm of

Turner Broadcasting Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. was an American television and media conglomerate founded by Ted Turner in 1965. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, it merged with Time Warner (later WarnerMedia) on October 10, 1996. As of April 2022, all of its ass ...

. It served the same purpose as Turner Entertainment Co.'s distribution unit, with the exception that TPS was more involved in distributing television series rather than films. Founded in 1982, the company was originally responsible for syndicating Turner-produced programs (such as the syndicated game show '' Starcade'') as well as developing programming for TBS such as '' Night Tracks''. TPS expanded its distribution into other networks' series in the 1990s, syndicating series such as ''

The Wonder Years ''The Wonder Years'' is an American coming-of-age comedy television series created by Neal Marlens and Carol Black. It ran on ABC from January 31, 1988, until May 12, 1993. The series premiered immediately after ABC's coverage of Super Bowl X ...

'' (which is now owned by

20th Television 20th Television, Inc. (formerly known as TCF Television Productions, Inc., 20th Century-Fox Television and 20th Century Fox Television) is the television studio arm of 20th Century Studios, owned by Disney Television Studios, a division of the Di ...

since 2011). When Turner bought the rights to the

Hanna-Barbera Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ; formerly known as H-B Enterprises, Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. and H-B Production Co.), simply and commonly known as Hanna-Barbera, was an American animation studio and production company, which was acti ...

library of cartoons, TPS became their distributor to local stations. TPS was also responsible for handling distribution and sales for CNN Newsource. One of the more notable series TPS was responsible for developing was '' Captain Planet and the Planeteers'', which was a co-production with

DiC Entertainment DIC Entertainment Corporation (; also known as DIC Audiovisuel, DIC Enterprises, DIC Animation City, DIC Entertainment, L.P., and DIC Productions, sometimes stylized as DİC) was a French American film and television production company that ...

and centered on a character created by Turner Broadcasting founder

Ted Turner Robert Edward Turner III (born November 19, 1938) is an American entrepreneur, television producer, media proprietor, and Philanthropy, philanthropist. He founded the CNN, Cable News Network (CNN), the first 24-hour United States cable news, ...

. DiC and Turner combined on the development of the series while TPS was responsible for the distribution of the series, which aired on both TBS and in syndication. (When the series' sequel, ''The New Adventures of Captain Planet'', debuted in 1993, Turner Entertainment Co., through Hanna-Barbera, developed and produced the series on its own, and neither TPS nor DiC was involved.) Also, earlier in 1986, TPS, with the help of veteran

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

translator

Fred Ladd Fred Laderman (February 19, 1927 – August 3, 2021),''T ...

, produced a second English translation of the 1970s

Science Ninja Team Gatchaman is a Japanese animated media franchise about a five-member superhero ninja team created by Tatsuo Yoshida and produced by Tatsunoko Productions. The original anime series, which debuted in 1972, was eponymously entitled ''Kagaku Ninja-tai Gatc ...

'' called '' G-Force: Guardians of Space'', which would subsequently air on TBS (1986) and

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (CN) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the Cartoon Network, Inc., a sub-division of the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks division of Warner Bros. Discovery. It launched on ...

(1995–1997). TPS also held partial distribution rights to ''G-Force'' (along with

King Features Entertainment King Features Syndicate, Inc. is an American content distribution and animation studio, consumer product License, licensing and print syndication company owned by Hearst Communications that distributes about 150 comic strips, columnist, newspape ...

) until all rights to the series reverted to license holder

Sandy Frank Entertainment Sandy may refer to: People and fictional characters *Sandy (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or nickname * Sandy (surname), a list of people * Sandy (Iranian music band), Iranian singer, comp ...

in 2003. In 1987, Turner Program Services expanded to build on the pre-May 1986

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...

library with various film packages, provided by Turner Entertainment Co., as well as colorization of various older movie titles. Upon

Time Warner Warner Media, LLC ( doing business as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate owned by AT&T. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City. It was established as Time Warne ...

's purchase of Turner Entertainment Co. in 1996, TPS was absorbed into

Telepictures Telepictures (also known as Telepictures Productions; formerly known as Telepictures Distribution and Telepictures Corporation) is an American television show and filmmaking company, currently operating as a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Entertainmen ...

, which is also now part of Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution (Telepictures still exists as a production company). CNN Newsource began to handle its own distribution and ad sales from then on.

References

Mass media companies established in 1982 Mass media companies disestablished in 1996 Television syndication distributors 1982 establishments in the United States {{US-media-company-stub