Twentieth Century Fox Television, Inc. (also spelled
20th Century Fox Television) is the television production division of the
Fox movie studio, a subsidiary of the
Fox Entertainment Group, part of
Rupert Murdoch's
News Corporation.
Twentieth Television (also spelled
20th Television) is a separate
distribution arm overseen by News Corp.'s
Fox Television Stations Group, although it uses a variant of the studio logo.
[Fox to launch MyNetworkTV - News Corp. press release; FTSG's oversight of 20th TV mentioned in second-last paragraph.]
20th Century Fox Television was founded in 1949 as other studios were branching out into television production as well. At that time, the company was known as
TCF Television Productions, Inc. until 1955. TCFT absorbed the operations of TV production companies
Metromedia Producers Corporation in 1986 and
MTM Enterprises in 1998, and is the current distributor for most of the shows originally produced by the two companies.
Since 1986, TCFT has served as the Fox television network's unofficial production arm, producing the bulk of series airing on the network, including
The Simpsons. Twentieth Television produced the first two series that aired on Fox's sister network,
MyNetworkTV:
Desire and
Fashion House.