PorchLight Entertainment, Inc. was an American animation and live-action studio founded in 1995 by Bruce D. Johnson and William T. Baumann. It is focused on development & production of television series in both live action and animation. It specializes in producing animation for television, film and home video.
History
On February 20, 1995, PorchLight Entertainment officially began its operations. It was headed by Bruce D. Johnson, former employee of
Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ) was an American animation studio and production company which was active from 1957 to 2001. It was founded on July 7, 1957, by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera following the decision of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer t ...
, and former
Taft Broadcasting
The Taft Broadcasting Company (also known as Taft Television and Radio Company, Incorporated) was an American media conglomerate based in Cincinnati, Ohio.
The company was rooted in the family of William Howard Taft, the 27th President of the Un ...
employee William T. Baumann. Their first acquisition is to bring ''
Adventures from the Book of Virtues
''Adventures from the Book of Virtues'' is an American animated children's television series based on the books '' The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories'', and ''The Children's Book of Virtues'', both by William Bennett, who served ...
'' to television. Their project was then picked up by
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of ed ...
, who ordered it to their series commitment.
In 1997, while on the virtue of its own successful programming, it would spend $10 million on expanding its own programming activity and planning on to do made-for-TV movies. In 1998, it launched a motion picture division, PorchLight Pictures, which specialized on having motion picture distribution.
In 2000, it bought the international film, TV and distribution rights to the motion picture, ''
Heartwood
Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin t ...
''. In 2001, it signed a deal with