Family Home Entertainment

Family Home Entertainment (FHE) was an American home video company founded in 1980 by Noel C. Bloom. It was a division of International Video Entertainment, which had its headquarters in Newbury Park, California.
Summary
General information
The company was founded by Noel C. Bloom as a direct opposite to an earlier company he founded, Caballero Home Video, which was a pioneering video distributor of hardcore adult fare. G.I. Joe, Jem, ThunderCats, Inspector Gadget, Defenders of the Earth, Pound Puppies, the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series, Gumby, Clifford the Big Red Dog, The Care Bears, and other non-animated shows like Baby Einstein and the Laurel and Hardy comedy series from the 1920s and 1930s by Hal Roach. It also had a one off theatrical release division, FHE Pictures, established in 2002; its first and only release was Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie. FHE was one of the two distributors for most of the seasonal Rankin/Bass television specials aired on CBS, a relationship that began in 1989. The other distributor for this library was Vestron Video, a now-defunct company which would be ironically acquired by FHE's then-parent Live Entertainment in 1991. However, it would lose the home video rights to the Rankin/Bass library in 1998 to Sony Wonder and Golden Books Family Entertainment. The company has also released several VHS releases of British kids' cartoons and animation in the US since the 1980s (i.e., Roobarb, Wil Cwac Cwac, James the Cat and Fireman Sam), as well as some Japanese anime, such as Robotech and The Adventures of Ultraman, plus the Australian Dot films. Their output wasn't always children and family friendly, though; in the early '80s, several titles were released under the "World of Horror" label directly by FHE, including Journey into the Beyond and The Child (which was later rebranded as a Monterey Home Video release). Since 1982, they also released Filmation's TV shows such as Lassie's Rescue Rangers, The Lone Ranger, ', Blackstar, and The New Adventures of Zorro, plus the only Filmation movie released at the time, Journey Back to Oz. Or sometimes, when FHE issued Laurel and Hardy videos by Hal Roach, it showed both the FHE logo and the Artisan Entertainment logo although in reality it was an Artisan release up until 2005.
Early FHE releases were distributed by MGM/UA Home Video, including the very first release of few episodes of Gumby. In the late 1980s, FHE's releases were distributed by MCA (most notably in Canada). Canadian releases were distributed by two companies in the early 1980s, which were International Home Entertainment Canada (IHEC) and Vidéo Screencraft, IncEntertainment.
In 1982, the company introduced USA Home Video as a non-family division of the company. Two years later in 1984, both FHE and USA became part of Noel Bloom's NCB Entertainment Group (which also included Bloom's other labels Caballero Home Video, Monterey Home Video, Thriller Video, USA Sports Video and later Celebrity Home Entertainment), and in 1985, they were reorganized into International Video Entertainment (which then changed its name to Live Entertainment years later), with "Family Home Entertainment" as a kids and family imprint of IVE/Live. Live would later go on to become Artisan Entertainment in 1998, which has since been acquired by Lions Gate Entertainment. In 2005, FHE was folded into Lionsgate Home Entertainment.
In 1998, Artisan established Family Home Entertainment Kids as a specific kid-oriented label of FHE, which shifted its focus more on general family and faith-based material.
Today, the bulk of the FHE releases are now on DVD including The Care Bears and Clifford the Big Red Dog. Once prominently available but today fallen into obscurity was the Australian animated film, Grendel Grendel Grendel, an adaptation of John Gardner's novel, Grendel, starring Peter Ustinov in the title role.
Here's a breakdown of which properties FHE lost over the years:
* Rankin/Bass: 1989-1997 (Fate: Rights transferred to Sony Wonder and Golden Books Family Entertainment in 1998, later became Classic Media in 2001 whereas Sony Wonder was later shut down in 2007. It then shifted to Genius Products however that too was dissolved by 2009 causing it to shift distributors, this time going to Vivendi Entertainment later as a unit of Gaiam until 2013 when it was merged and absorbed into New Video by its new parent, Cinedigm which has remained to this day sans the purchase of Classic Media by Dreamworks Animation and subsequently renamed DreamWorks Classics in 2012.)
* Gumby: 1982-1989 (Fate: Now distributed by NCircle Entertainment.)
* Filmation: 1982-2000 (Fate: After L'Oreal's entertainment unit, Paravision, Inc. filed for bankruptcy and closed down in 1989 and being dormant for six years, it was acquired by Hallmark Cards in 1995 thus forming the Hallmark Entertainment division. However, it was sold, this time going to Entertainment Rights in 2004. It too filed bankruptcy and was later sold and subsequently merged into Classic Media who are the current rights holders of the Rankin/Bass library. Now distributed by New Video.)
* Clifford the Big Red Dog: 1985-2003 (Fate: Once prominent but now fallen out of print.)
* Baby Einstein: 1999-2001 (Fate: Creator Julie Aigner-Clark decided to sell Baby Einstein to The Walt Disney Company in November 2001. Following this, the infant-oriented videos have been released under . However, in 2009, video production was terminated by Disney in response to critical studies as well as Aigner-Clark's departure. Despite the absence of new videos, Baby Einstein remained a Disney Product until October 2013, when Kids II, Inc. acquired the brand and became its current owner and operator.)
* The Hal Roach catalog (Laurel and Hardy, Our Gang, etc.): 2000-2005 (Fate: Home video rights initially carried over to Lionsgate when it acquired Artisan/FHE in 2005. However, it then lost the rights in 2009 to Vivendi Entertainment, later Gaiam Vivendi Entertainment and known as New Video as of 2013.)
* The Republic Pictures library: 1998-2005 (Fate: Initially continued with Lionsgate after 2005 when it acquired FHE. However, it eventually lost the rights in 2012 when Artisan/FHE's successor Lionsgate declined to renew its lease with Paramount Pictures in 2012. Olive Films took over distribution of the library from Lionsgate and is the current distributor of the library through its parent company Melange Pictures LLC.)
*The DIC Entertainment catalog: 1983-2005 (Fate: Initially continued to be distributed by Lionsgate for a very short duration as a result of its acquisition of FHE in 2005 after previously acquiring it back from Disney in 2000 of which it had the rights from 1996-2000. However, it later lost the rights to the DIC library to Shout Factory that same year, Cookie Jar Entertainment acquired DIC in 2008, DHX Media purchased Cookie Jar in 2012, today DHX Media licenses the DIC catalog to various distributors, including NCircle Entertainment.)
* The Sunbow Productions catalogue: 1983-1998 (Fate: Home video rights shifted to Sony Wonder when it purchased the company in 1998 only to be bought by TV-Loonland in 2000. It was subsequently closed in 2004. Sony Wonder itself would also shutter three years later in 2007, but was later moved to Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Hasbro eventually bought the library in 2008 and subsequently shifted the home video rights to the catalog once more, this time going to Shout Factory in 2009.)
Filmography
*Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie (Co-production with Big Idea Productions)

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu