King World Productions

King World Productions, Inc. (also known as King World Entertainment or simply King World) was a syndicator of television programming in the United States until its eventual 2007 incorporation into CBS Television Distribution. It currently functions only in name as a distributor of the Oprah Winfrey Show and as a copyright holder (under the moniker KWP Studios) for the TV show Rachael Ray. The division was started in 1964 by Charles King. It was ... more

King World Productions, Inc. (also known as King World Entertainment or simply King World) was a syndicator of television programming in the United States until its eventual 2007 incorporation into CBS Television Distribution. It currently functions only in name as a distributor of the Oprah Winfrey Show and as a copyright holder (under the moniker KWP Studios) for the TV show Rachael Ray. The division was started in 1964 by Charles King. It was a company that expressly handled television distribution of the classic Hal Roach Our Gang shorts. When Roach lost the rights to the name Our Gang (it was retained by Metro–Goldwyn–Mayer, who bought the series from Roach in 1938), the shorts were retitled as The Little Rascals. It was through this acquisition that the comedy shorts from 1929 through 1938 have been made available to audiences for the past forty years. King World later co-produced an animated version of the shorts with Hanna-Barbera. In 1983, company chairmen, brothers Roger... less