Family Home Entertainment (FHE) was an American home video company founded in 1980 by Noel C. Bloom.[1][2][3][4] It was a division of International Video Entertainment, which had its headquarters in Newbury Park, California.[5]
The company was founded by Noel C. Bloom as a direct opposite to an earlier company he founded, Caballero Home Video, which was a pioneering video distributor of hardcore adult fare.[1][2]
Early FHE releases were distributed by MGM/UA Home Video, including the very first release of few episodes of Gumby. In the late 1980s, FHE's releases were distributed by MCA (most notably in Canada).[73]
In 1982, the company introduced USA Home Video as a non-family division of the company. Two years later, both FHE and USA became part of Noel Bloom's NCB Entertainment Group (which also included Bloom's other labels Caballero Home Video, Monterey Home Video, Thriller Video, USA Sports Video and later Celebrity Home Entertainment), and in 1985, they were reorganized into International Video Entertainment (which then changed its name to Live Entertainment years later), with "Family Home Entertainment" as a kids and family imprint of IVE/Live. Throughout the 1990s, Family Home Entertainment Theatre was used as a banner for full-length, family-friendly films Live had the rights to; certain FHE titles were also reprinted by Live's budget video brand Avid Home Entertainment. FHE continued as a sub-label of Live through its rebranding as Artisan Entertainment in 1998 and formed another imprint, FHE Kids. By the early 2000s, FHE had begun to concentrate on new direct-to-video material in addition to pre-existing television shows and films, including the Barbie film series, Crayola Home Entertainment product and Baby Einstein (until the rights to that franchise were acquired by Disney). It also had a one off theatrical release division, FHE Pictures, established in 2002; its first and only release was Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie.[80][81][82] Ultimately, the brand was discontinued in 2005 by new owner Lionsgate (who had purchased Artisan in 2003[83]), as the division restructured into Lionsgate Family Entertainment (an internal name only; from that point forward, all family-oriented releases carried the standard Lionsgate branding).[84]
