Paramount Television

Paramount Television

Former type	Division
Predecessor	Desilu Productions
Successor	CBS Television Studios
Founded	1967 (Original) March 4, 2013 (Relaunch)
Defunct	2006 (Original)
Area served	Worldwide
Products	Television Production
Owner	Gulf+Western (1967–1989) Paramount Communications (1989–1995) "Old" Viacom (1995–2006) "New" Viacom (2006, 2013–present)
Parent	Paramount Pictures (1967–2005, 2013–present) CBS Studios (2006)
Divisions	Paramount Domestic Television Paramount International Television (until 2006) Wilshire Court Productions (1989–2003)
Subsidiaries	Viacom Productions (1995–2004) Spelling Television (1999–2006) Big Ticket Entertainment (1999–2006)

Paramount Television is an American television production/distribution company that was active from 1967 until 2006 and revived in 2013. Most of this time it served as the television arm of the Paramount Pictures film studio. Its predecessor is Desilu Productions.

The company was known for producing and distributing programs such as The Andy Griffith Show in the 1960s, Happy Days on ABC in the 1970s, Cheers and its spinoff Frasier on NBC in 1982 and 1993, the Star Trek franchise, Girlfriends in 2000 (with Grammnet Productions, 2006–08 episodes by CBS Paramount Network Television) on UPN (later CW), Duckman in 1994 (with Klasky Csupo) on USA Network, and the daily Paramount staple Entertainment Tonight in 1981, among others.

The predecessor company, Desilu Productions, was originally founded in 1950 by Lucille Ball (1911–1989) and Desi Arnaz (1917–1986) for the purpose of producing Ball's CBS radio series "My Favorite Husband" and later their sitcom, I Love Lucy, for the CBS network. It later produced Ball's follow-up series, The Lucy Show, as well as such other shows as Our Miss Brooks, The Untouchables, Mission: Impossible, Mannix, and Star Trek (the latter three as well as The Lucy Show would be continued under Paramount Television).