ABC Signature’s Shutdown Ends 4-Decade Legacy: From ‘Golden Girls’ To ‘Lost’, ‘Black-Ish’ & ‘Grey’s Anatomy’
deadline.comDisney’s long-expected move to fold ABC Signature into 20th Television brings to an end the media conglom’s in-house TV studio, which started off as Touchstone Television a decade before Disney bought ABC, subsequently being renamed ABC Studios and more recently ABC Signature.
Launched in 1985, Touchstone TV’s first major hit was Golden Girls, which ran on NBC for seven seasons. Other successful series from that era include Blossom, also for NBC, and Home Improvement, Ellen and Boy Meets World for ABC.
In the first years after ABC became part of Disney, Touchstone Television continued to sell to all networks — which is how 20th Television operated for its entire run at Fox — with shows such as Felicity and Popular for the WB and The PJs for Fox/WB.
The studio gradually shifted its attention to its own network, supplying it with series such as Once And Again, My Wife And Kids, Alias and 8 Simple Rules, Less Then Perfect and According To Jim, with occasional hits elsewhere, including Scrubs on NBC, which ended up on ABC post-cancellation, and Ghost Whisperer on CBS.
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