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, Masterpipece Productions, 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).

The rights to the company's library as of now are as follows:


 * Time-Life Films, Time-Life Television, HBO, and Masterpiece Productions in general: Home Box Office Inc.
 * British Broadcasting Corporation: BBC Worldwide
 * Public Broadcasting Service and WGBH Educational Foundation: PBS

Individual releases:


 * The Private Eyes: Hen's Tooth Video
 * My Brilliant Career: The Criterion Collection
 * The Kinks: One for the Road: Koch Records
 * Rust Never Sleeps: BMG Rights Management (Sony Music Entertainment)

Distributed libraries

 * Time-Life
 * Time-Life Films
 * Time-Life Television
 * Masterpiece Productions
 * Home Box Office (HBO) (see also HBO Home Entertainment)
 * Cinema 5
 * Cannon Films (see also Cannon Video)
 * Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) (see also PBS Distribution)
 * WGBH Educational Foundation (see also WGBH Boston Video)
 * British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) (see also BBC Video)
 * Media Home Entertainment
 * The Nostalgia Merchant

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: Time-Life Films/Time-Life Television (and feature films) 2000 series: Masterpiece Productions 3000 series: Public Broadcasting Service/WGBH Educational Foundation 4000 series: Live events (including concerts and music videos) 5000 series: British Broadcasting Corporation 6000 series: Short subjects (up to 60 min. in length)