Filmways Inc was an independent motion picture and television company founded by American film executive Martin Ransohoff in 1958. The company became well-known through its trade mark sign off, which in a number of instances involved a cast member announcing "This has been a Filmways Presentation."
Over the course of its lifetime the company expanded its media interests by buying several organisations, including the Washington-based Cascade Broadcasting Group (CBG). At the time of its sale in 1968 CBG comprised four television and two radio stations. Filmways Inc also absorbed American International Pictures (AIP) in 1979 and the following year became known as Filmways Pictures. When the company was itself bought out by Orion Pictures Corporation (OPC) in 1981 all its operations were closed down except for Filmways Television, which became OPC's distribution arm.
The Filmways Inc and Filmways Pictures productions include television shows such as: Mr Ed (1961-66), The Beverley Hillbillies (1962-71), Petticoat Junction (1963-70), The Addams Family (1964-66), 21 Hours at Munich (1976) and Cagney and Lacey (1982-88). Among its film credits are: The Sandpiper (1965), A Patch of Blue (q.v., 1965), The Cincinnati Kid (1965), Dance of the Vampires (1967), Ice Station Zebra (1968), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1968), Hamlet (1969), King Lear (1971), Blind Terror (1971), Two Minute Warning (1976) and Blow Out (1981).
