"Family Affair" question

I just got the season 1 dvd set of "Family Affair" and at the end of the
closing credits is the logo for "Universal Television Distribution". How did
they get the rights? I thought "FA" was a CBS/Paramount owned entity?
Another case of where CBS didn't give a rat's ass and turned over the
rights?

hobbyfan...

Family Affair was originally a Don Fedderson production. IIRC, MCA
(Universal) handled distribution for DF programs back in the day (i.e.
Family Affair, My Three Sons, Millionaire), and I remember seeing an
old MCA logo under the Fedderson logo at the end of one of those shows.

Uniblab...

I don't think Universal ever handled "My Three Sons". When it first went
into syndication in the 70s, it had that old, scary "a viacom production"
logo.

My guess, Jude, is that when Fedderson sold "Family Affair" to CBS, he had
more clout as a producer than when he sold them "My Three Sons". Perhaps he
was able to use that clout to retain syndication rights to the show, and he
later used MCA to handle syndication sales. A similar thing happened with
Paul Henning's Hooterville trilogy. The first two shows - "Beverly
Hillbillies" and "Petticoat Junction" - were coproductions of Filmways and
CBS, with CBS retaining the syndication rights. By the time they got to the
third entry, CBS wasn't in a position to demand a piece of the ownership,
and "Green Acres" was wholly owned by Filmways. That's why the first two
shows are handled now by CBS Paramount, while the third show isn't.

Uniblab...

If you saw a Paramount logo on it when it was on TV Land, then perhaps CBS
(and later Viacom and later Paramount) only got syndication rights, and
nothing else, in its deal with Fedderson. So his heirs were able to strike a
deal with Universal for home video. Just a guess. But home video and
syndication rights don't always go hand-in-hand - early Columbia House
videos of "Beverly Hillbillies" had nothing to do with Paramount or Viacom.
Instead, they were done in association with original producer CBS (not yet
associated with Viacom at the time of release).

Jude Cormier...

=----

MPI is handling the DVD sets for "Family Affair"--MPI is not associated with
CBS or Universal.

Jude Cormier...

I just know that when "FA" was on TV Land (back when TV Land was still a
great novelty act), "FA" had the Paramount logo at the end. Just one of
those silly little TV mysteries, I guess.

Can someone clarify?

J. C. Gilbert