Ubu Productions

Ubu production was responsible for several films and television programs with its most notable work being Family Ties. Family Ties ran for seven seasons and starred Micheal J. Fox. The companies closure was caused by several factors, most being external.

The most internal cause of the company’s shutdown was the 1996 film Bye Bye Love which was a critical and financial bomb. The company only made three films total during its lifespan and mainly focused on television. While under normal circumstances, it was succeeding, it was too small to receive the benefits of diversifying its products like a conglomeration would be able to. The movie was too expensive for the successful television side of the company to mitigate the risk of making. But Although Bye Bye Love did put a financial strain on the company, it wasn’t Ubu’s downfall.

The primary cause of the closure of Ubu Productions was a strained relationship with NBC, this was due to a legal issue. In 2000 Tracy Keenan Wyn filed a class action lawsuit with several older Hollywood writers. Demanding 200 million dollars in damages the group claimed that there was ageism in Hollywood for screenwriters. Ubu’s founder and Executive Producer of Spin City was quoted saying they had "no writers on the set over the age of 29 — by design." The quote ended up being used as inciting evidence for the case. While this was occurring Ubu had a new show called Battery Park that was being distributed by NBC. With already subpar ratings and accusations of ageism coming directly from the partnering companies’ heads. NBC had no incentive to let Battery Park find its footing. Ubu Productions was unable to stand by itself production wise often relying on collaborations with other companies and like every TV studio at the time heavily dependent on the networks. In addition, the company’s last failure occurred right before the 2001 recession which created an environment with no potential bailouts. Because of a string of bad luck and circumstances the company was shut down.