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melman1:
The \"working at G/T\" thread reminded me of a question that I've had for a while.  The end credits for Blockbusters say that it's a G/T production, but the copyright is listed as \"The Blockbusters Company\".  Most shows seem to work that way - MG's copyright was \"Celebrity Productions Inc.\", I think.

What's that all about?  Why so many layers - I mean, I assume G/T Productions was an independent company.  The shows were all taped and edited/produced at studios owned by the networks, right?  So some people worked for the networks (I assume Johnny O. was a staff announcer for CBS?), some for G/T, others for \"The Blockbusters Co.\"?

If anyone can explain how this worked, I'd appreciate it.

cmjb13:
Those who worked in the biz can correct me here, but I believe they were separate entities because if the show failed, only that part took a hit.

Ex: TTTT company.

tvrandywest:
Yes, it's a universal practice.

Establishing independent corporations limits the parent company's liability, and can often offer additional benefits at tax time. If you think individual tax returns are complicated, corporate tax law is a killer without good guidance and strategy.


Randy
tvrandywest.com

chris319:
It's pretty darn hard for a network game show to lose money. All of the costs are pretty well known up front and are factored into the license fee. The risk is in underestimating the prize budget. Way back in the '50s around the time of the quiz scandal, Tic Tac Dough was reportedly going over its prize budget consistently. I don't know how the overage was dealt with, but nowadays you'd negotiate a higher prize budget with the network. On shows such as TTTT or Tattletales the prize budget is negligible.

clemon79:
[quote name=\'chris319\' date=\'Jul 20 2003, 01:51 PM\'] On shows such as TTTT or Tattletales the prize budget is negligible. [/quote]
 And on Tattletales, how do you miss? You budget for $1750 a show and you can never go wrong! For every show where they have time for an extra question, there's a show where the $300 question went missed, so it evens out. :)

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