Plautus Productions was an American television and film production company during the 1960s. The company was founded by producer and director Herbert Brodkin.

Plautus Productions
Company typeTelevision subsidiary
IndustryMotion pictures, television programs
Founded1959
FounderHerbert Brodkin
Defunct1967
HeadquartersLos Angeles, California
ParentParamount Pictures

Plautus Productions was best known as the production company for some of CBS's popular crime dramas including Brenner, The Defenders, The Nurses (also known as The Doctors and the Nurses), and Coronet Blue,[citation needed] along with NBC's Espionage, the only Plautus production produced for a network other than CBS.

Plautus Productions was a television subsidiary of Paramount Pictures.[citation needed]

History

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Plautus Productions was formed in 1959 by producer Herbert Brodkin and Paramount Pictures. The main sole purpose of the company at time of its founding was to provide production and distribution services to Brodkin's new series Brenner which premiered on CBS that same year.

After finding success with Brenner, Brodkin, who served as the president of the company, used that company to produce some of his other television series.

The company closed in 1967, two years after Brodkin, along with fellow producer and business associate Robert "Buzz" Berger founded Titus Productions which took most of Brodkin's attention away from Plautus.[1]

Ownership and distribution of television properties

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Brenner, The Defenders,[2] The Nurses, For the People and Coronet Blue all ran on CBS and are presently owned and distributed by CBS Media Ventures.

Espionage, which ran for one season on NBC, was co-produced by ATV, an ITV contractor in the United Kingdom. Though distributed by the now defunct ITC Entertainment outside of the United Kingdom, the program's distribution rights are now with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which also owns the program.[citation needed]

Productions by Plautus

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Film
Year Film Notes
1961 The Young Lovers
Killer Instinct TV movie
1962 The Broken Barrelhead
Night Shift
The Naked Heiress
The Image of Angela
The Last Six Months
The Voices of the Death
The Locked Room
1963 Judgment Eve
1967 A Time to Be Born, A Time to Die [3]
Television
Year Title Notes
1959-1964 Brenner Produced for CBS
1961-1965 The Defenders Produced for CBS
1962-1965 The Nurses Produced for CBS
Also known as The Doctors and the Nurses
1964-1965 Espionage Produced for NBC (United States) and ATV (United Kingdom)
1965 For the People Produced for CBS
1967 Coronet Blue Produced for CBS

References

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  1. ^ "The Museum of Broadcast Communications - Brodkin, Herb (U.S. Producer". www.museum.tv. Retrieved December 6, 2014.
  2. ^ Mark Alvey. "The Defenders: U.S. Legal Drama". Museum of Broadcast Communications. Retrieved 2009-09-30.
  3. ^ "Plautus Productions Filmography". Archived from the original on December 10, 2014. Retrieved December 7, 2014.