MTM Enterprises

MTM Enterprises, Inc.

Former type	Corporation
Industry	Television production
Fate	Folded into 20th Century Fox Television
Founded	1969
Defunct	1998
Key people	Mary Tyler Moore Grant Tinker
Owner(s)	Independent (1969–1990) TVS Entertainment plc (1990–1992) International Family Entertainment Inc. (1992-1996) News Corporation (1996-1998)

MTM Enterprises (later known as MTM Enterprises, Inc.) was an American independent production company established in 1969 by Mary Tyler Moore and her then-husband Grant Tinker to produce The Mary Tyler Moore Show for CBS. The name for the production company was drawn from Moore's initials.^[1]

History

For many years MTM, with CBS, co-owned the CBS Studio Center in Studio City, California, where a majority of their programs were filmed and videotaped. In turn, most of MTM's series aired on CBS.

MTM Enterprises acquired Jim Victory Television from Viacom Enterprises in 1980 taking the MTM library with it. Victory was later reincorporated as MTM Television Distribution, which in turn was folded into 20th Television after News Corporation bought MTM.

After being an independent production company for many years, MTM was sold in 1990 to British production company TVS Entertainment, which was in turn acquired by Pat Robertson's International Family Entertainment in late 1992. IFE along with MTM was sold to Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation in 1996. MTM ceased operations and was folded into 20th Century Fox Television on August 15, 1998 when The Family Channel became Fox Family. The library of non-MTM shows was subsequently sold on to form part of ABC Family's archive.

MTM Enterprises also included a record label, MTM Records, which was in existence from 1984 to 1988.^[2]

Programs

MTM's productions included:

• The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970-1977)
• The Bob Newhart Show (1972-1978)
• Paul Sand in Friends & Lovers (1974–1975)
• The Texas Wheelers (1974-1975)
• Rhoda (1974-1978)
• Doc (1975-1976)
• Three for the Road (1975)
• Phyllis (1975-1977)
• The Tony Randall Show (1976-1978)
• Lou Grant (1977-1982)
• The Betty White Show (1977-1978)
• The White Shadow (1978-1981)
• WKRP in Cincinnati (1978-1982)
• Paris (1979-1980)
• The Last Resort (1979)
• Hill Street Blues (1981-1987)
• Remington Steele (1982-1987)
• St. Elsewhere (1982-1988)
• Newhart (1982-1990)
• Bay City Blues (1983)
• The Duck Factory (1984)
• Beverly Hills Buntz (1987-1988)
• Capital News (1990)
• The New WKRP in Cincinnati (1991-1993)
• The Pretender (1996-2000) (Note: Only the first season was produced by MTM, with 20th Century Fox Television assuming the series thereafter.)
• Sparks (1996-1998)
• Good News (1997-1998)

In addition to the above shows, MTM has distributed programs such as:

• The Steve Allen Show
• Graham Kerr
• Xuxa
• America's Funniest Home Videos (Now owned by Disney-ABC Domestic Television)
• Evening Shade (with CBS Productions)
• Rescue 911 (with CBS Productions)
• Peter Gunn
• Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (with CBS Productions)
• Shopping Spree

Films

• Something for Joey (1977, TV movie)
• The Boy Who Drank Too Much (1980, TV movie)
• A Little Sex (1982)
• Just Between Friends (1986)
• Clara's Heart (1988)
• Night of the Twisters (1996, TV movie)
• Christmas Every Day (1996, TV movie)

CBS connection

MTM programs appeared almost exclusively on CBS until the early 1980s, when Grant Tinker assumed the additional role of president of NBC. Soon, NBC picked up a number of MTM shows, and Tinker stepped down as head of MTM to avoid a conflict of interest. His intention was to leave NBC after 5 years (in 1986) and return to MTM, taking over the reins from interim MTM president Arthur Price. However, Price fired many of the key players in the company's ranks, and by 1986 they had few shows left on the schedules (Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere and Remington Steele were all nearing the ends of their runs, leaving Newhart as the sole entrant on the schedule). There was also a record label in the 1980s featuring the logo on the label. No major mainstream artists recorded for this label; however, Judy Rodman and country girl group, The Girls Next Door, did have a few minor hits on the country charts in the mid-1980s.

Mimsie the Cat

Mimsie the Cat (1968-1988) was the cat seen in the MTM Enterprises logo, in an apparent spoof of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's famed lion mascot, Leo.

In the standard version of the logo, as first used on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Mimsie appears in a seated position, looks up at the camera, and meows once. Mimsie would not meow for the camera crew, so they eventually used footage of her yawning, run in reverse, with the sound effect added. There were many different variants of this logo, with Mimsie often appearing in a different "costume" corresponding to the style and theme of that particular show. A partial list of Mimsie variants follows.

• A Little Sex: An animated Mimsie meows, then is joined by an animated male cat. They rub each other and purr.
• Bay City Blues: An animated Mimsie wears a baseball cap and glove in her right paw; she catches a baseball and meows as usual.
• The Bob Newhart Show: Used the standard version, but the first season Christmas episode had Mimsie encircled by a holiday wreath instead of the usual gold ribbon.
• The Duck Factory: The singer of the closing song would ask "Where's the cat?", followed by Mimsie quacking.
• Eisenhower and Lutz: The show's closing theme ends with Mimsie's "meow" dubbed by a group of singers.^[3]
• Graham Kerr: Mimsie wears a chef's hat.
• Hill Street Blues: Mimsie wears a police cap.
• Lou Grant: There is a still picture of the logo. This is also used for Paris. A smaller still logo is in the end credits of Just Between Friends.
• Mary Tyler Moore: The 20th Anniversary Show: Mimsie's meowing is replaced with Mary Tyler Moore saying "Bye!"
• MTM Home Video: Mimsie is seen holding a remote control. After meowing, she "rewinds" and meows a second time.
• The New WKRP in Cincinnati: Mimsie's meow is replaced with Les Nessman exclaiming "oooooOOOOooooh!"
• Newhart: Most episodes feature Mimsie meowing in Bob Newhart's deadpan voice. The exceptions are the series pilot (which used the standard logo) and the finale (in which Mimsie bellowed "QUIET!" in the voices of the two Darryls, their first and only spoken word in the series).
• Remington Steele: Mimsie is dressed as Sherlock Holmes, complete with deerstalker cap and pipe; the pipe would drop out of Mimsie's mouth when she meowed.
• St. Elsewhere: Mimsie is seen animated in medical scrubs and a surgical mask. On the show's final episode, Mimsie is in a hospital bed as the credits roll, and then when the credits end, she flatlines and dies.
• The Steve Allen Show: Mimsie wears Allen's glasses and lip-synchs Allen's "Schmock."
• The Texas Wheelers and Paul Sand in Friends & Lovers: Mimsie is a live cat photographed against a real landscape.
• Xuxa: Mimsie says "Ciao!" in Xuxa's voice.

Other variations of the MTM logo do not feature Mimsie (or an animated version of Mimsie):

• Carlton Your Doorman (animated TV special): Carlton's cat is in the ribbon. Carlton, out of view, can be heard saying "Say 'Meow!' C'mon, say 'Meow!'" When it doesn't, Carlton grumbles "Damn cat!"
• The Mary Tyler Moore Show: At the end of episode #71, Mary appears saying "That's all folks!", a line spoken by Mary Richards during that episode. This line also appeared at the end of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons.
• The White Shadow: A calico cat is seen dribbling an animated basketball. A variation, used only for the series pilot, has the ball bouncing but the cat just watching it.
• Vampire: At the end of this 1979 TV movie (a Steven Bochco-devised pilot for a proposed series), the logo has no cat at all. Instead, the words "An MTM Enterprises Production" appear in the logo's normal type (the space where Mimsie would normally appear is blank), but in blood-red against a black screen, the same colour scheme as the rest of the movie's end credits.

One of the last versions of the logo before being sold to Fox had a five note jingle before Mimsie meows.^[4]

References

1. ^ "MOORE, MARY TYLER - The Museum of Broadcast Communications". Museum.tv. 1995-11-26. http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/M/htmlM/mooremaryt/mooremaryt.htm. Retrieved 2011-03-21. 
2. ^ Kingsbury, Paul (2004). The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Sourcebooks, Inc.. p. 359. ISBN 0195176081, 9780195176087. http://books.google.com/books?id=v4GQDYx_RnkC&pg=PA359&lpg=PA359&dq=%22MTM+records%22+mary&source=bl&ots=J39_o_k1Nt&sig=6bIOwGFjSRXHUcS_riH2kbpEDnM&hl=en&ei=IhZzStW6BpGsNraZ_LAM&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9#v=onepage&q=%22MTM%20records%22%20mary&f=false. Retrieved 2009-07-31. 
3. ^ "MTM (Einsenhower and Lutz, 1988)". YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeHmlYQKahM. Retrieved 2011-03-21. 
4. ^ "MTM Enterprises logo (1996)". YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06kP15SjhIg. Retrieved 2011-03-21. 

External links

• MTM Enterprises at the Internet Movie Database