PorchLight Entertainment, Inc. was an American animation and live-action production company founded in 1995 by Bruce D. Johnson and William T. Baumann. It focused on the development & production of television series in both live action and animation formats, as well as content for film and home video.
History PorchLight Entertainment began operations on February 20, 1995. The company was founded by Bruce D. Johnson, a former employee of Hanna-Barbera, and former Taft Broadcasting employee William T. Baumann. One of its major projects was acquiring the rights to adapt Adventures from the Book of Virtues for television. The project was later picked up by PBS, which ordered it to series.
In 1997, while on the virtue of its own successful programming, it would spend $10 million on expanding its own programming activity and planning on to do made-for-TV movies. In 1998, it launched a motion picture division, PorchLight Pictures, which specialized on having motion picture distribution.
In 2000, it bought the international film, TV and distribution rights to the motion picture, Heartwood. In 2001, it signed a deal with Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment to distribute titles based on Jay Jay the Jet Plane. In 2004, it was acquired by their senior management and Beringea through Global Rights II, through its parent company, PorchLight Worldwide, Inc.
In July 2010, Germany-based Beta Film GMbH announced that it would acquire the rights to the live-action film catalogue of PorchLight Entertainment for international territories (excluding the United States, where World International Network LLC that Leslie Gershman Wandmacher owned the rights to the post-Hamdon Entertainment library of the studio, acquired digital rights to some PorchLight live-action films in 2023).
In 2011, Bruce D. Johnson, one of PorchLight's co-founders, started Foxfield Entertainment.
In 2018, PorchLight Entertainment was acquired by Trilogy Animation Group for its animated library only, including Tutenstein and Jay Jay the Jet Plane that both subsequently made available for streaming online on the Trinity Broadcasting Network-owned Christian streaming service Yippee TV.
Filmography Animation 64 Zoo Lane A Martian Christmas Adventures from the Book of Virtues Animalia Cedric The Eggs Four Eyes! Gofrette Jay Jay the Jet Plane (CGI) JetCat Kid Paddle LeapFrog The Haunted Pumpkin of Sleepy Hollow The Night Before Christmas: A Mouse TalePorchLight Entertainment - Night Before Christmas The Secret Saturdays Tutenstein Live-action Night of the Twisters Born Champion Pope Dreams I Downloaded a Ghost Rain
Porchlight Home Entertainment
PorchLight Home Entertainment was a home video distributor and subsidiary of PorchLight Entertainment which released content on DVD and Blu-ray in the United States.
History PorchLight Entertainment announced the formation of PorchLight Home entertainment on June 26, 2007, announcing that their first two planned releases would be A Tad of Christmas Cheer and A Christmas Carol for Annie.
On April 24, 2008, PorchLight launched a Christian content sub-label called PorchLight INSPIRE. On May 5, the company announced to enter the Blu-ray market. The company launched another label later on in the year – Ocean Park Home Entertainment – for independent film acquisitions.
In August 2009, PorchLight appointed Canada-based E1 Entertainment as the distributor for their products. Following this deal, PorchLight Home Entertainment went dormant, with their last planned release, Broken Hill, planned originally for a Summer 2010 release, instead being released by Entertainment One in 2011.
Releases Products released by the subsidiary were either existing content from PorchLight's content library or third-party acquisitions. Adventures from the Book of Virtues Jay Jay the Jet Plane LeapFrog
Acquired 64 Zoo Lane Animalia Boowa & Kwala FARMKIDS Funky Valley Funky Town Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids The Lampies Little Leaders Loopdidoo Zakland
Film Acquisitions Dear Me, a Blogger's Tale Together Again
See also LeapFrog
References