World Events Productions
Current logo, featuring a silhouette of Voltron
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| Private | |
| Industry | Entertainment |
| Founded | 1980 |
| Headquarters | St. Louis, Missouri, United States |
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Key people
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Ted Koplar Peter Keefe |
| Products | Anime, cartoons |
| Website | World Events Productions |
World Events Productions is an American-based animation and distribution company in St. Louis, Missouri, best known for releasing the anime titles Voltron, Defender of the Universe and Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs, as well as producing the original animated series Denver, the Last Dinosaur.
Founded in 1980 by Ted Koplar, son of St. Louis businessman and KPLR-TV founder Harold Koplar, World Events Productions started out as a "current events" program on the TV station titled World Events. In 1983, while attending a science fiction convention, Ted Koplar discovered the anime series Beast King GoLion and saw a potential in distributing it on U.S. television. WEP licensed the series from Toei Animation and released it in 1984 in an edited and English-dubbed form as Voltron. The show was met with high ratings nationwide. After airing all episodes of GoLion, WEP adapted Armored Fleet Dairugger XV into the second season of Voltron. Unfortunately, the second season lacked the ratings of the first season, as viewers were more used to the GoLion team. In response, WEP commissioned Toei Animation to produce 20 more episodes of the GoLion-based Voltron.
In 1987, WEP licensed Star Musketeer Bismark from Studio Pierrot and released it as Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs. The series was rewritten with several episodes rearranged or omitted; in addition, six new episodes were animated for the U.S. version. Despite lacking the popularity of Voltron, Saber Rider has received a cult fan following throughout the years; most prominently in Germany.
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Wikipedia