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Question about Miss Ball


Irene Kampen Tripp

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I want to correct a statement I made here.  Regarding Here's Lucy, I said that Telepictures was "hired to syndicate the series.  That's not accurate.  Claude's statement that it "was released to syndication thru Telepictures" is a little closer.  What actually happened is that Lucille Ball sold distribution rights of the series (not the series itself) to Telepictures.  She didn't sell them the series -- she retained ownership of that -- but just the exclusive rights to distribute the series.  Selling them distribution rights -- which means that THEY paid Lucille Ball -- is a lot different from her hiring them to distribute it, in which case Ms. Ball would have been paying them to perform a service for her, which is not what happened.

 

I have no idea exactly what that arrangement entailed, but obviously, by paying for the right to distribute the show --  and I'm assuming this is limited only to over-the-air broadcast distribution -- Telepictures was making an investment in the show and would have to be compensated for that investment.  And that compensation would have been through the revenues generated from rebroadcasts of the show.  Whether this arrangement entitled Telepictures to 100% of the broadcast revenues, or if they split those revenues with Lucille Ball, I don't know.  I'm assuming Lucille Ball did receive a portion of the broadcast revenues because I distinctly remember her doing voice-over ads promoting reruns of the show in local markets.  But then again, the deal could have been, "we'll buy the distribution rights from you, Ms. Ball, with the understanding that you will help us promote the show, and we also get 100% of the revenues."  There's any number of ways they may have sliced and diced that deal.  However they did it, it was probably wise of Ms. Ball to sell them the distribution rights, rather than maintaining those rights and paying someone as a distributor, because that meant that, no matter how well or how poorly the show did in syndication, she would have still made money off of it regardless.  It was a win-win for her.  And it appears to have been either a very, very long term deal, or a permanent one because those distribution rights, to this day, remain with the current owner of Telepictures, which is Warner Brothers.

 

But as I indicated above, it appears the distribution rights are limited only to broadcast television because I don't think Warner Brothers gets anything from the DVD sales.  It appears that all goes to MPI and the Ball/Arnaz estate because I see no mention of Warner Brothers anywhere on the DVD packaging.  It only indicates MPI and the copyright owned by Lucille Ball Productions/Desilu Too.

 

 

Lucie and Desi Jr. own Here's Lucy. Telepictures never owned Here's Lucy. Telepictures was only hired to syndicate the series; in other words, do all the groundwork to contract with local television stations to air it. So in answer to the original poster's question, yes, Lucy's estate makes money on every broadcast and DVD sale of Here's Lucy. As for The Lucy Show, as you note, with the sale of Desilu Productions and Desilu Studios to Gulf & Western, The Lucy Show was part of that package. However, Paramount didn't acquire G&W, it was the other way around. At the time G&W bought Desilu, it already owned Paramount Pictures; they had purchased Paramount Pictures a year before they bought Desilu, which is why they changed the name Desilu to Paramount Television.

There have been lots of transactions over the years since then. G&W became Paramount Communications in the late '80s, then merged into Viacom in 1993, which bought CBS Corporation (which owns I Love Lucy) in 1999. So since 1999, The Lucy Show and I Love Lucy have been owned by the same company. Viacom eventually split into two different companies, and in the years since, numerous other mergers, de-mergers and restructurings have occurred. At this point, I think the TLS (as well as all former Paramount Television shows) is owned by CBS Corporation. (Paramount Pictures and the other Viacom properties, are now part of a separate company, unaffiliated with CBS Corporation and the former Paramount Television.) But anyway, when Lucille Ball sold Desilu to G&W in 1967, she didn't exchange it for cash, but rather for shares in the company. To my knowledge she held onto that stock until her death, at which point it went to her children. If they have continued holding onto all that stock, then they are now shareholders in CBS Corporation, which owns TLS and ILL. And thus they would indirectly profit from DVD sales of TLS and ILL, as well as any other CBS Corporation product. But it's such a huge corporation, and revenues from TLS and ILL would only be a small piece. So Lucie and Desi Jr. would unlikely have any clue how much of the money they make from CBS Corporation (assuming they still own shares) would be impacted by TLS and ILL because they're profiting from the overall health of the company.

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I want to correct a statement I made here.  Regarding Here's Lucy, I said that Telepictures was "hired to syndicate the series.  That's not accurate.  Claude's statement that it "was released to syndication thru Telepictures" is a little closer.  What actually happened is that Lucille Ball sold distribution rights of the series (not the series itself) to Telepictures.  She didn't sell them the series -- she retained ownership of that -- but just the exclusive rights to distribute the series.  Selling them distribution rights -- which means that THEY paid Lucille Ball -- is a lot different from her hiring them to distribute it, in which case Ms. Ball would have been paying them to perform a service for her, which is not what happened.

 

I have no idea exactly what that arrangement entailed, but obviously, by paying for the right to distribute the show --  and I'm assuming this is limited only to over-the-air broadcast distribution -- Telepictures was making an investment in the show and would have to be compensated for that investment.  And that compensation would have been through the revenues generated from rebroadcasts of the show.  Whether this arrangement entitled Telepictures to 100% of the broadcast revenues, or if they split those revenues with Lucille Ball, I don't know.  I'm assuming Lucille Ball did receive a portion of the broadcast revenues because I distinctly remember her doing voice-over ads promoting reruns of the show in local markets.  But then again, the deal could have been, "we'll buy the distribution rights from you, Ms. Ball, with the understanding that you will help us promote the show, and we also get 100% of the revenues."  There's any number of ways they may have sliced and diced that deal.  However they did it, it was probably wise of Ms. Ball to sell them the distribution rights, rather than maintaining those rights and paying someone as a distributor, because that meant that, no matter how well or how poorly the show did in syndication, she would have still made money off of it regardless.  It was a win-win for her.  And it appears to have been either a very, very long term deal, or a permanent one because those distribution rights, to this day, remain with the current owner of Telepictures, which is Warner Brothers.

 

But as I indicated above, it appears the distribution rights are limited only to broadcast television because I don't think Warner Brothers gets anything from the DVD sales.  It appears that all goes to MPI and the Ball/Arnaz estate because I see no mention of Warner Brothers anywhere on the DVD packaging.  It only indicates MPI and the copyright owned by Lucille Ball Productions/Desilu Too.

AND i'll never forget that part of the promotion she did for her series was appearing on The Price is Right to say that the show would be premiering on the network, CBS, the following Monday, happened to see that one.  Finally, the only reason I KNOW about Telepictures distributing the series was seeing their name at the end of it when it played on CBS mornings for a year or so.

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  • 1 month later...

Here's a question that has irked me for years.... Why oh WHY wern't Lucy and Viv or Lucy and Gale or Lucy Viv and Gale or Lucy herself NOT featured in It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World? All of Hollywood's funny people are in it but them....anyone know why?

I've wondered that for years, I also thought why isn't LUCY in this great comedy, forgot what year it was made but maybe she was just too busy or there wasn't a role for her, I mean the only role would be Merman's and maybe Lucy thought it just wasn't sympathetic enough.  But then Lucy appeared in that other monstrosity Guide for the Married Man and they wasted her talents on that little unfunny cameo so . . . .

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