Lorimar Productions

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Lorimar Productions was an American television production company, active from 1968-1993. It was founded by Merv Adelson, Irwin Molasky and Lee Rich, who named the company after Adelson's ex-wife Lori, and their last initials (M for Molasky, A for Adelson, R for Rich).

Lorimar's first major hit production was The Waltons, which premiered in 1972. Throughout the 1970s, Lorimar produced several other shows as well; of these, the most popular by far was Dallas. In 1980, Lorimar Productions purchased the bankrupt Allied Artists Pictures Corporation.

In the 1980s, Lorimar's output swung toward family-friendly sitcoms; among these were Perfect Strangers and Full House. In 1986, Lorimar merged with television syndication firm Telepictures, becoming Lorimar-Telepictures; later that year, they purchased the MGM lot from Ted Turner.

In 1988, Lorimar-Telepictures was purchased by Warner Communications. Telepictures' distribution business was folded into Warner Bros. Television; since then, the Telepictures name has been resurrected as both a production company (circa 1990), and once again as a syndication company (1996, after the Turner merger). The former MGM studio lot was sold to Sony to house Columbia Pictures and Sony's other film operations (interestingly, Sony would eventually acquire MGM itself). Lorimar continued as a production company until 1993, when it was absorbed into Warner Bros. As of 2006, the last series to premiere under the Lorimar name was Time Trax.

Additionally, Lorimar has owned key components of the film library of the defunct Allied Artists film studio (originally Monogram Pictures); these too are now owned by Warners.

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Notable productions

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