GoodTimes Entertainment

GT Media, Inc. was an American home video company that originated in 1984 under the name of GoodTimes Home Video. Though it produced its own titles, the company was well known due to its distribution of media from third parties and classics. The founders for the company were the brothers Kenneth, Joseph and Stanley Cayre (often referred to and credited simply as the "Cayre Brothers") of Salsoul Records. Its headquarters were in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The company had a distribution facility in Jersey City, New Jersey and a duplication facility in Bayonne, New Jersey.[1]

Not to be confused with Goodtimes Enterprises.
GT Media, Inc.
FormerlyGoodTimes Home Video Corp. (1984-1993)
GoodTimes Entertainment Ltd. (1993-2003)
GT Brands Holdings LLC (2003-2005)
IndustryHome video company
Founded1984 (1984)
Defunct2009 (2009)
FateFolded into Gaia, Inc.
HeadquartersMidtown Manhattan, New York City
Key people
Kenneth Cayre
Joseph Cayre
Stanley Cayre
Productspublic domain works and anime
ParentQuadrangle Capital Partners (2003-2005)
Gaiam (2005-2009)

Following the bankruptcy, GoodTimes' parent company was sold to Yoga company Gaiam in September 2005.

History

GoodTimes began with the distribution of copies of public domain titles. Though the company also produced and distributed many low-priced fitness videos, its most recognized line of products were the series of low-budget traditionally animated films from companies such as Jetlag Productions, Golden Films, and Blye Migicovsky Productions, as well as a selection of the works of Burbank Films Australia. Many of its home-video titles—such as Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Pinocchio, Sinbad, The Little Mermaid, The Three Musketeers and Thumbelina—were named similarly or identically to big-budget animated films from other studios[2] (though their plots were sometimes very different), and GoodTimes would often release these films close to the theatrical/home-video releases of other studios. This was largely legal, as the stories of the big-budget films were based on folk tales that had long been in the public domain, and the major studios had little room to claim exclusive rights to the stories or the main characters. The Walt Disney Company sued GoodTimes in 1993 because the videotape packaging closely resembled Disney's, allegedly creating the potential of confusing consumers into unintentionally purchasing a GoodTimes title, when they instead meant to purchase a film from Disney.[3] As a result of this lawsuit, GoodTimes was required by law to print its name atop all of its future VHS covers, in order to clearly demonstrate to the public at large that this was not the "blockbuster" title that they would be purchasing. Despite these changes, however, GoodTimes continued to produce animated films based on public domain "knockoff" titles.[4] At the Summer CES 1985, GoodTimes launched a home video label Kids Klassics Home Video, which was specifically designed for a children's audience.[5] The first Kids Klassics videos were 52 different cartoons, which were all meant to be in color and received a 50-50 joint venture with Remco to market the Mel-O-Toons cartoons by Storer Broadcasting.[6] The company made its first licensed client in 1986, by signing a deal with Worldvision Home Video to reissue titles on videocassette, through the Kids Klassics label, which was mostly on Hanna-Barbera cartoons.[7] This was followed in 1987 by signing a deal with major video distributor MCA Home Video to license these titles to videocassette, mainly the Universal Pictures catalog for a price of $15.[8] That year, Goodtimes and Kids Klassics merged their distribution arms to form Goodtimes/Kids Klassics Distribution Corp.[9] In the 1990s they expanded the company into GT Publishing, a division of the company that published children's books under the Inchworm Press imprint.[10] Expanding from home video distribution, GoodTimes founded its spin-off, GT Interactive as a way to distribute video games.[11] This company was sold to the French game publisher Infogrames in 1999. At different times, GoodTimes contracted with Columbia Pictures, NBC, HBO, Worldvision Enterprises, Hanna-Barbera,[7] Orion Home Video,[12] Universal Pictures[8] and Paramount Pictures to release inexpensive tapes of many of their films and TV series. In addition, GoodTimes released several compilations assembled from public domain films, film trailers, earlier television programs and newsreels. Most of these were credited to Film Shows, Inc.

On February 10, 2003,[13] Quadrangle Capital Partners purchased GoodTimes Entertainment for $90 million plus $160 million in debt,[14] and rebranded the company as GT Brands.[13]

Bankruptcy and sale to Gaiam

On July 11, 2005, GT Brands Holdings filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection.[15] A day later, Gaiam announced that they would acquire all of GoodTimes' assets for $40 million.[16] The deal was closed in September 2005.[17] and GT Brands Holdings LLC was renamed as GT Media, Inc.[18] becoming Gaiam's general-interest label that released films and animation from DIC Entertainment and mockbusters from The Asylum.

By the end of the 2000s, the GT Media brand was no longer used by Gaiam, with the company solely distributing fitness and yoga media under the latter label. On April 3, 2012, the company acquired and merged with Vivendi Entertainment, renaming the combined subsidiary Gaiam Vivendi Entertainment.[19] The following year in October, Cinedigm announced their purchase of Gaiam Vivendi Entertainment for $51.5 million. The acquisition closed on October 21, 2013, which after this Gaiam had exited the home video industry, with the subsidiary merging with Cinedigm's New Video to form a standalone distributor under the Cinedigm name.[20][21]

Library

Prior to the company's bankruptcy, GoodTimes Entertainment produced at that time a TV series called Wulin Warriors. The series was an edited version of Pili, produced by Broadway Video and Animation Collective for Cartoon Network's Toonami block in 2006.

See also

References
  1. “Company Information." GoodTimes Entertainment. June 17, 2000. Retrieved on March 15, 2010.
  2. Edwards, C. (January 8, 2014). "The Ultimate Guide to Animated Mockbusters". Cartoon Brew. Retrieved January 12, 2016.
  3. Nichols, Peter M. (1993-09-10). "Home Video". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-11-04.
  4. Nichols, Peter (1993-09-17). "Disney loses suit over Good Times' 'Aladdin' video". Bangor Daily News. Bangor Publishing Company. Retrieved 2013-12-03.
  5. "Heavy accent on video, CD, hardware at Summer CES" (PDF). Billboard. 1985-06-08. p. 96. Retrieved 2021-12-27.
  6. "Firms toy with children's market" (PDF). Billboard. 1985-08-17. p. 27. Retrieved 2021-12-27.
  7. Bessman, Jim (1986-05-03). "Kids Klassics To Market Titles for Worldvision" (PDF). Billboard. p. 53. Retrieved 2021-12-27.
  8. Stewart, Al (1987-06-20). "Lorimar Drops KLV-TV Promotion" (PDF). Billboard. p. 71. Retrieved 2021-12-27.
  9. "Goodtimes In A Merger With Kids Klassics; Will Keep Low Price Policy". Variety. 1987-07-22. p. 47.
  10. "Klusaritz Quits GT Publishing".
  11. "History of GoodTimes Entertainment Ltd. – FundingUniverse". www.fundinguniverse.com. Retrieved 2017-11-04.
  12. 30 Orion Pics to GoodTimes (PDF). Billboard. 1993-06-05. p. 102.
  13. Peers, Martin (2003-02-10). "Quadrangle Buys GoodTimes". The Wall Street Journal. p. B.4. Retrieved 2023-05-03 – via ProQuest.
  14. Del Franco, Mark (2005-07-13). "Gaiam Buys Bankrupt Entertainment Firm". Multichannel Merchant. Penton Media. Archived from the original on 2010-09-26. Retrieved 2023-05-03.
  15. "Oak Point Partners, LLC acquires remnant assets of the GT Brands Holdings LLC, et al., Bankruptcy Estates". November 2021.
  16. "Gaiam grabs Goodtimes". 12 July 2005.
  17. https://www.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2005/09/12/daily27.html
  18. https://web.archive.org/web/20060522190131/http://www.goodtimes.com/GT/corporate/pdf/press/GTE_Gaiam.pdf
  19. MarketWatch - archived from the original on May 5, 2012
  20. "Cinedigm To Acquire Gaiam, Inc.'s Entertainment Unit, A Multi-Platform Content Licensor And Distributor". Archived from the original on October 31, 2013. Retrieved October 20, 2013.
  21. McNary, Dave (17 October 2021). "Cinedigm Bulks Up With $51.1 Million Acquisition of Gaiam Vivendi". Variety. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
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