Purchase by Jeffrey A. Montgomery
In 1989, Jeffrey A. Montgomery purchased Harvey from the Harvey family for $7.5 million.[4] With this, the company became a subsidiary of Montgomery's HMH Communication, based in Santa Monica, California, and was renamed Harvey Comics Entertainment.[5][6][7] Universal Pictures secured a 10% stake in Harvey in exchange for producing films based on Casper and select other Harvey properties.[8]
During this period, Montgomery began to re-syndicate the existing animated library as well as reprint older comic book titles. Through Claster Television, Casper & Friends was syndicated to local TV stations for three years between 1990 and 1994, while the "Harvey Classics" comic books began being published around the same time.[9] In 1991, the company licensed out Richie Rich and Casper to Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures respectively to create films based on the characters.[4]
In 1993, Harvey launched two additional comic book imprints to publish titles outside of its existing library - Nemesis Comics and Ultracomics, the latter was made to publish Ultraman comics.[10] In the same year, the company went public under the NASDAQ Small Cap Exchange and was renamed The Harvey Entertainment Company.[4] As such, the first film under its venture was the live-action adaptation of Richie Rich in 1994, produced by Joel Silver and John Davis and starring Macaulay Culkin, and the second was the live action/animated film adaptation of Casper, a co-production with Amblin Entertainment, directed by Brad Silberling and starring Christina Ricci and Bill Pullman. Only Richie Rich was met with negative reviews with critics and was a moderate success at the box office earning $76 million worldwide against a $40 budget, but Casper fared better with both critics and audiences and was more of a box office success earning $290 million worldwide against a $55 million budget, and both films would become cult classics.
In March 1994, the company saw increased losses, with its revenue falling 26%.[11] In May, Marvel Comics took over publishing and distribution for Harvey's comic book titles.[12] In September, the first Harvey television series produced exclusively for television, The Baby Huey Show, aired on syndicated television stations for two seasons. The series featured brand new made-for-TV Baby Huey cartoons, as well as an assortment of existing Harvey cartoons, effectively replacing the previous syndication package.
In 1995, the company partnered with MCA and Universal Family Entertainment to launch Universal/Harvey Animation Studios, which produced series based on Harvey Comics' properties.[13] Under its venture, their first produced series The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper was aired on Fox Kids between 1996 and 1999. It was produced by Universal Cartoon Studios, and acted as a spinoff of the 1995 live-action film, and it was the second newly produced series from Harvey overall.
On May 29, 1996, Harvey commissioned Saban Entertainment to produce new direct-to-video material based on Casper and Richie Rich, with 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment secured as the distributor. This deal was placed outside of the theatrical deal with Universal, of which they would produce a sequel to the 1995 Casper film and retain all other theatrical rights to the character.[14] In September, a third newly produced series, Richie Rich was syndicated for a single series of thirteen episodes.
In February 1997, Harvey re-acquired full merchandising and licensing rights to their properties, including Casper and Richie Rich from Universal Pictures, although they would continue to work with the company on new animated projects.[15] The company reported a net loss of $386,000 in March, which Harvey blamed on the repurchase.[16][17] Following the release of Casper: A Spirited Beginning in September 1997, the company would expand their deal with Saban Entertainment to include a Casper followup - Casper Meets Wendy for a fall 1998 release, with 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment remaining on board as distributor.[18] A Richie Rich sequel - Richie Rich's Christmas Wish was also released under Saban's deal during Christmas 1998.
In February 1998, Harvey pre-sold a package of HarveyToons cartoons, entitled The HarveyToons Show, to the then-upcoming Fox Family Channel.[19] Jeffrey A. Montgomery and Greg Yulish were ousted from the company in March.[8] On July 27, Harvey announced that through a business plan with the Global Media Management Group, the company would produce a slate of twelve direct-to-video feature films and three television shows.[20]
