Later this week, the Max streaming service will release a six-part documentary series on media mogul Ted Turner.
The service has released a trailer with a release date scheduled for this Wednesday, November 13.
The series was produced by Joni Levin and written & directed by Keith Clarke.
Turner is among the most influential media figures of the past fifty years from operating stations in Atlanta & Charlotte and expanding with the launch of WTCG in January 1970.
The infancy of the Atlanta-based WTCG was built from the airings of The Andy Griffith Show and Georgia Championship Wrestling before acquiring the rights to broadcast Atlanta Braves games in 1973.
In 1976, Turner purchased the Braves, and it was the same year that WTCG was put on satellite giving access across the country to his programming.
Within two years of satellite distribution, there were fourteen million cable subscribers and Turner doubled down on news with the launch of CNN in 1980.
Turner was always loyal to professional wrestling and played a major role in the Atlanta war of 1972 between the N.W.A. affiliate and Ann Gunkel’s renegade promotion, All South Wrestling, allowing both to have television exposure on his network. This led to pro wrestling occupying a two-hour block on Saturdays beginning at 6:05 p.m. ET and existing through 2000. It was a nasty war for several years until Gunkel’s operation shut down.
In 1984, Vince McMahon executed a takeover of Georgia Championship Wrestling for $750,000 and took over the coveted time slots despite the attempted blocking by Ole Anderson, who was blindsided. McMahon’s first broadcast occurred on July 14, 1984, dubbed “Black Saturday” with McMahon appearing in the WTBS studios with Freddie Miller. The relationship was relatively short-lived and McMahon earned a profit selling the slots to Jim Crockett for $1 million.
In 1988, Turner purchased Jim Crockett Promotions for $9 million and it was shortly rebranded to World Championship Wrestling as Turner absorbed losses for many years before the company turned a profit in the mid ‘90s when WCW caught fire under Eric Bischoff.
The landscape changed in September 1995 when TNT carved out one hour on Mondays for the launch of Monday Nitro to air head-to-head with Monday Night Raw on the USA Network. Nitro had the advantage of running live each week introducing more competitive matches and profiling junior heavyweights on its undercard.
Nitro expanded to two hours in May 1996 coinciding with the arrival of Scott Hall & Kevin Nash and the launch of the company’s most successful angle involving the N.W.O.
By January 1998, Nitro had grown to become a three-hour weekly show along with the addition of a two-hour Thursday program, Thunder airing on TBS.
Turner lost considerable power and influence after selling off Turner Broadcasting to Time Warner, which merged with AOL leaving the mogul as a figurehead with a position on the board of directors.
WCW’s programming was canceled in 2001 with the company being purchased by the WWF in March, ending the decades-long association between the Turner networks and pro wrestling.
Turner would leave the board of directors in 2006 and has been out of the public eye as he battles Lewy Body Dementia, which he disclosed in 2018.
