Saban Entertainment
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Saban Entertainment was an independent television production company formed in 1983 by music and television producers Haim Saban and Shuki Levy (who also reached the bottom line with the edition of "Nippon Animation Grimm's Fairy Tales") as "Saban Records", a U.S. subsidiary of "Saban International Paris" (now SIP Animation) who provided music soundtracks to shows made by other companies (most notably DiC). In 1984, the company expanded in television production of its own, and was renamed "Saban Productions". Several years later, the company also established "Saban International" (now Buena Vista International Television), for international distribution of its shows (note: though used interchangeably with "Saban International Paris", they were technically two different entities). Finally, in the early 1990s the company renamed itself "Saban Entertainment".
This company is known for importing, dubbing, and adapting several Japanese series such as, Maple Town (...Stories), Noozles (Fushigi na Koala Blinky and Printy), Samurai Pizza Cats (Kyatto Ninden Teyande), Dragon Ball Z and the first three Digimon series to North America and international markets for syndication, including both animation and live action shows.
Before moving to the United States, Haim Saban lived a decade in France, where he founded the aforementioned Saban International Paris, and participated in the importation of the first Japanese anime and sentai series which started in 1978, by producing the adaptations' score and opening theme. The successful importation of Japanese licenses in France gave him a solid experience and the idea to apply the same principles in a bigger market, the United States, where he moved in 1983.
Saban was involved in the co-production of French/American anime shows created by Jean Chalopin for DIC. Some of these early 1980s co-productions were Ulysses 31, Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, and The Mysterious Cities of Gold (the third of which actually was a Japanese anime).
Saban is also notable for their various toku adapts, which include Power Rangers (based on the Super Sentai series), Beetleborgs (based on Juukou B-Fighters), VR Troopers (featuring elements of Metal Heroes series Shaider, Spielban and Metalder), and Masked Rider (an original interpretation using scenes from the Japanese Kamen Rider Black RX).
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Early operation
Several original animated series were produced for Marvel Comics, and the company's dubbed products began to rapidly increase as the anime boom began. Through a merger with Fox Children's Entertainment in 1996, Fox Kids was born (with "Fox Kids Worldwide" as the holding company), although the Fox Kids block had actually been promoting itself officially as "Fox Kids" since 1993; prior to that, they were just simply the "Fox Kids Network", and all shows at that time had been promoted as airing "on Fox"
Tokusatsu adaptations
During the anime boom of the 1980s/early-1990s, Saban decided to take a risk and introduce the Henshin Hero genre to America. In Japan, the Henshin Hero genre gained a lot of popularity led by manga writer Shotaro Ishinomori (creator of Kamen Rider, and co-producer of Toei) who is considered to be the "Father of Henshin Heroes." Meanwhile, in America, the only forms of tokusatsu that Americans were familiar with were mainly Godzilla, Gamera, and Ultraman.
Shuki Levy decided to adapt a show from the Super Sentai genre, his first choices being Sun Vulcan, Bioman and Jetman which became Saban's first choice for the first season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Finally, 1992's Zyuranger was accepted and used for footage in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers' first season in 1993, in conjunction to the release of Jurassic Park.
There were many doubts about how the series would turn out; surprisingly, the series became a hit. After the success of Power Rangers, Saban would go on to introduce other genres in Tokusatsu. The Metal Hero adaptations, VR Troopers, and Beetleborgs became hits as well, but ended prematurely due to lack of footage. Ishinomori's Kamen Rider character was introduced as a Power Rangers spin-off series, but compared to the other adaptations, it did not fare well in ratings.
Renaming
In October 2001, the group was sold to Disney as part of the sale of Fox Family Worldwide (now ABC Family) by Haim Saban and the News Corporation, and renamed BVS Entertainment. Concurrently, Fox Kids was replaced with the Fox Box (now known as 4Kids TV), featuring a line of shows from 4Kids Entertainment. Disney gained ownership of all Saban's products, and began to air many of them on ABC Family, and later on Toon Disney in a programming block called Jetix. The European Fox Kids channel continued to run under that name until the beginning of 2005, when it was also rebranded as "Jetix", as is the former Fox Kids channel in Latin America.
List of television shows and films
(This list also includes shows made by DIC Entertainment, which Saban provided the music for. Also, with the exception of Pinocchio, shows produced by "Saban International Paris" feature "Saban's" in their title. This list also includes live-action movies they provided music for.)
1960s
Acquired from New World Communications. Originally produced by Grantray-Lawrence Animation.
- The Marvel Superheroes Show (featuring "The Sub-Mariner," "Mighty Thor," "Iron Man," "Hulk," and "Captain America" segments)
- Spider-Man (1967 TV series)
1970s
Acquired from New World Communications. Originally produced by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises (later became Marvel Productions).
1980s
The Marvel Comics-based series were acquired from New World Communications. They were originally produced by Marvel Productions.
- Adventures of the Little Koala (provided music; show was distributed by Viacom)
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
- Alf: The Animated Series
- AlfTales
- Bumpety Boo
- Camp Candy
- Captain N: The Game Master
- Dennis the Menace (1986 animated series)
- Diplodo
- Dungeons and Dragons (distributed rebroadcast version which features an edited version of the original opening with original music)
- Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics
- He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (music for 1983 Filmation series)
- Inspector Gadget
- I'm Telling!
- Kidd Video
- Kissyfur
- Lazer Tag Academy (produced by Ruby-Spears)
- The Legend of Zelda (aired as part of the Super Mario Bros. Super Show)
- Macron 1 (adaptation of GoShogun and Srungle)
- Maple Town
- My Favorite Fairy Tales
- The New Archies
- Noozles
- Ox Tales
- Rescue Me
- She-Ra: Princess of Power (Filmation)
- Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea ("Les Mondes Engloutis")
- Spider-Man (1981 TV series)
- Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends
- Super Mario Brothers Super Show!
- Treasure Mall
- Voltron (music for 1984 WEP English dub)
- Wowser
1990s
The Marvel Comics-based series were acquired from New World Communications. They were originally produced by Marvel Productions.
- Addams Family Reunion
- Adventures of Oliver Twist
- Adventures of Pinocchio
- All New Captain Kangaroo
- Saban's Around the World in 80 Dreams
- The Avengers: United They Stand
- Bad Dog
- Battletech
- Beetleborgs
- Blind Vision
- Bureau of Alien Detectors
- The Bots Master (provided music; produced by "Creativite et Developpement", later absorbed by SIP)
- Casper: A Spirited Beginning
- Casper Meets Wendy
- Christmas Reunion
- Creepy Crawlers
- Croentin
- Diabolik
- Digimon
- Dragon Ball Z (distributor of English dub produced by Funimation and dubbed by Ocean Studios)
- Dragon Warrior
- Eagle Riders (adaptation of second Gatchaman series)
- Fantastic Four
- Flint the Time Detective (Jikuu Tantei Genshi-kun)
- Funky Fables
- Saban's Gulliver's Travels
- Guns of Honor
- Heidi
- The Incredible Hulk
- Iron Man
- The Littl' Bits (originally made in 1980)
- Little Shop
- Mad Jack the Pirate
- Masked Rider (Kamen Rider Black RX, ZO, J and Dragon Knight(from Kamen Rider Ryuki)
- Maya the Bee (originally made in 1975)
- Men of Means
- Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
- Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (co-production with and distributed by 20th Century Fox)
- Monster Rancher (provided music; dubbed by Ocean Studios for BKN)
- The Mouse and the Monster
- The Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog
- Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation
- Power Rangers in Space
- Power Rangers: Lost Galaxy
- Power Rangers: Turbo
- Power Rangers: Zeo
- Prey of the Chameleon
- Saban's Princess Sissi
- Revenge on the Highway
- Round Trip to Heaven
- Rusty: A Dog's Tale
- Saban's Adventures of the Little Mermaid
- Samurai Cowboy
- Samurai Pizza Cats
- Scorch
- Silver Surfer
- The Secret Files of the Spy Dogs
- Space Strikers
- Spider-Man Unlimited
- Sugar and Spice
- Super Pig
- Sweet Valley High
- Teknoman (adaptation of Tekkaman Blade)
- Tenko and the Guardians of the Magic
- Till Death Us Do Part
- Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie (distributed by 20th Century Fox)
- Under Investigation
- VR Troopers
- Walter Melon
- The Why Why Family
- WildC.A.T.S.
- X-Men (last six episodes)
- Xyber 9: New Dawn
2000s
- Cybersix
- Dinozaurs
- Escaflowne (edited TV broadcast version with altered music; originally distributed by Bandai Entertainment)
- Los Luchadores
- Mon Colle Knights (final new series from Saban to be broadcast on Fox Kids)
- Pigs Next Door
- Power Rangers: Lightspeed Rescue
- Power Rangers: Time Force
- NASCAR Racers
- Shinzo
- Transformers: Robots in Disguise
Media releases
Most Saban owned media from the early 1990s made its way to VHS in most regions. However, from the late nineties on, almost all Saban owned entities were only released as Region 4 (Australia). According to current rights holders in the US, Buena Vista Entertainment, which acquired it through their buyout of the Fox Family Channel, they have no plans to release these films on to DVD, instead, some of it is seen on their daughter networks, Disney Channel, and ABC Family.
