Time-Life Video

Background
Time-Life Video was the home video division of Time-Life Films, established in 1977 to distribute content from Time-Life Films, Time-Life Television, BBC, PBS, WGBH Educational Foundation, HBO, and a few other studios on the VHS, Betamax, and 16mm formats. Their most notable releases are Stagecoach (which, according to film review site Rotten Tomatoes, is their highest-rated title, at a 100% "fresh" critic rating), a western film released in 1939 that was directed by John Ford and starred John Wayne and Claire Trevor, and The Kinks: One for the Road, a live concert music video album by the rock and roll band, The Kinks. In 1982, the assets of the original Time-Life Video were rearranged to form Vestron Video, which reissued many of Time-Life's titles (including the aforementioned Stagecoach).

June 1980
This point is where Time-Life would retire their brown clamshells for any new release in favor of the slightly more common gatefold boxes with a neon Time-Life marquee inside the box and a rainbow colored banner on the front of the cover, which would become their standard packaging for future releases. At the time, the company also introduced a new catalog numbering system: TLV XXXX (XXXX indicates a four-digit numbering system; 4000 from The Kinks: One for the Road was given as an example of this).

Catalog numbering systems (all start with "TLV"): 1000 series: Feature films (including Time-Life Films releases) 2000 series: Time-Life Television 3000 series: Public Broadcasting Service 4000 series: Live events (including concerts and music videos) 5000 series: British Broadcasting Corporation 6000 series: Short subjects