Berry Studios

Berry Studios is an American animation studio that's owned by a joint venture between Comcast and Nextar Broadcasting. It was originally founded in 1976 as a joint venture between Universal and Tribune. Originally located in Washington D.C. in Wisconson Avenue (where currently TV station WDCW and WTTG are located), it moved to Universal City, California in 1996. In 2008, Berry Studios launched its in-name unit successor to Filmation known as "Universal Studios Filmation" and in 2018, 50% of Berry Studios was transferred to Nextar Broadcasting following Tribune's merger with the studio.

Originally a producer of Saturday morning cartoons, Berry Studios has produced 24 movies under its label since 1996 and the movie Starlight Moon. Berry Studios also owns the rights to the Toonopolis TV network as well as seven Nextar affiliates (including superstation KTLA 5), and the North American distribution of Sanrio and WildBrain products. Replacing Paramount and Waner Bros. respectively. Berry Studios also formally provided syndicated content for The WB.

Humble Beginnings (1976 to 1983)
Berry Studios silently opened its doors on the night of November 25, 1976, in Washington D.C in the area that would later be used by TV station WDCW 50. The station was mostly inactive, silently producing adverts for Saturday Morning cartoons. Later in December of that year, the station began production for their first animated series. A show known as "Rainbow Child" for CBS and became a hit among children and adults. So in 1978, the studio became known as a pretty big threat to Disney and Hanna-Barbera due to this. Their second show, Sam and the Farm Friends aired in 1979 on ABC, and while not as a big hit as Rainbow Child, it still gained a fanbase that loved it. The two shows would later get a crossover special in 1981 and despite the good reception of the two shows, the crossover ended with poor reception and later resulted in the cancellation of Sam and the Farm Friends. However, things took a giant leap in 1983.

A Saturday Morining Giant and Syndication (1983 to 1995)
In the Summer of 1983, Berry Studios later signed a deal with Scholastic to produce a syndicated series pack for their Weston Woods releases. The series would later be known as "Universal's Story Time" and it aired on NBC from 1983 until 1990 and was distributed by MCA Family Entertainment. It is also known that in 1983, they released all three programs onto VHS, Laserdisc, and Betamax. With Family Home Entertainment handling distribution for British and French markets. Not only that, but in 1985, Berry Studios released a pilot episode for a show based on the Dr.Suess book "The Sneeches" known as "The Adventures of Star and Normal". Star and Normal, compared to the previous shows, failed in rating and ended after 13 episodes and only aired from October 1985 until March 1986. Also in 1996, a new major local channel was formed: Fox. And Berry Studios wanted in. And so Universal Story Time migrated to Fox and they created one of the biggest shows for the studio around this time. In 1987, Berry Studios aired the pilot episode for "Week Family". A show revolving around the days of the week personified as blobs. Berry Studios wanted it to be a prime time show for the new network but they aired it during the daytime instead. Week Family is still running to this day on Toonopolis. Also in 1987, Berry Studios made two more Saturday morning cartoons: Roach Adventures for ABC and their first video game adaptation, Ice Climbers for NBC. However, in 1995, things were about to change.

Rise of UPN and The WB and the launch of Toonopolis (1995-2000)
In 1995, Tribune also entered into a deal with Time Warner to produce a network to battle against the major four: The WB. As did Paramount with their network: UPN. Also in 1995 came the launch of Toonopolis: Universal's network to compete against Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, and Disney Channel but serves as a sister network to The WB.