hey i have a question who owns the popeye cartoon series paramount pictures or king features syndication

....this is a bit complicated. Pay attention---

I'm sure Fred Grandinetti (the co-founder of "The International Popeye Fan Club") would tell you this as well:

The 1933-'57 theatrical Popeye cartoons [originally produced by Max Fleischer {'33-'42} and Famous Studios {'42'-'57}, for Paramount release] are owned physically by Time-Warner (the rights to the characters belong to King Features/Hearst)- the first of the DVD box sets featuring those cartoons are due for release sometime in 2007.

The 1960-'61 TV cartoons are owned by King Features/Hearst, who commissioned them after seeing the success the original theatrical cartoons were having on local TV stations {Associated Artists Productions acquired the rights to those from Paramount in 1956, and released them to TV by the beginning of early '57. In time, United Artists acquired the A.A.P catalog, and Turner Entertainment acquired the U.A. library in 1986...which, in turn, was ultimately merged with Warner Brothers and Time, Inc.}. Five different animation studios were involved in producing over 200 cartoons for King Features TV, and those have been released on DVD as well.

The Hanna-Barbera produced TV series from the '70s and '80s (including "POPEYE AND SON") are controlled by King/Hearst as well.

:tv: