Biography
Saban Entertainment was a worldwide-served independent American television production company formed in 1983 by music and television producers Haim Saban and Shuki Levy as "Saban Productions", a U.S. subsidiary of "Saban International Paris" (now SIP Animation).
Several years later, the company created "Saban International" (now Disney-ABC International Television), for international distribution of its shows (note: though used interchangeably with "Saban International Paris", they were technically two different entities). In 1988 the company renamed itself "Saban Entertainment".
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In 1986, Saban Productions bought the foreign rights to the DIC Entertainment library of children’s programming, and then sold the rights to Jean Chalopin. DIC then sued Saban for damages and in 1991, DIC and Saban reached a settlement.
In 1996, Fox Children's Productions merged with Saban Entertainment to form Fox Kids Worldwide.
Marvel was developing a Captain America animated series with Saban Entertainment for Fox Kids Network to premier in fall 1998. However, due to Marvel's bankruptcy the series was canceled before the premier. Ironically, both Marvel and Saban would become parts of the Walt Disney Company; Saban (renamed BVS Entertainment, aka Buena Vista) in 2002 and Marvel by the end of 2009.
Saban was known for importing, dubbing, and adapting several Japanese series such as, Maple Town (...Stories), Noozles (Fushigi na Koala Blinky and Printy), Samurai Pizza Cats (Kyatto Ninden Teyande), Dragon Ball Z and the first three Digimon series to North America and international markets for syndication, including both animation and live action shows.
Saban was involved in the co-production of French/American animated shows created by Jean Chalopin for DIC Entertainment. Some of these early 1980s co-productions were Camp Candy, Ulysses 31, Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, and The Mysterious Cities of Gold (the third of which was a Japanese co-production).
Saban is also notable for their various toku adapts, which include Power Rangers (based on the Super Sentai series), Beetleborgs (based on Juukou B-Fighter), VR Troopers (featuring elements of Metal Hero Series Uchuu Keiji Shaider, Jikuu Senshi Spielban and Choujinki Metalder), and Masked Rider (an original interpretation using scenes from the Japanese Kamen Rider Black RX).
Saban has also provided music for various TV programs, such as Super Mario Bros. Super Show and Inspector Gadget.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.