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Petitioners demand Disney bring back 'Fox' name in its brand, here's how 20th Century Fox came to be

End of an era: One of the most recognized names in entertainment history is officially no more after Disney dropped the 'Fox' name as part of rebranding

On August 11, Disney announced that they are rebranding one of its TV studios 20th Century Fox. As reported by CNN, one of the most recognized names in entertainment history, is officially no more. The company is rebranding 20th Century Fox Television, as 20th Television -- excluding both the "Century" and the "Fox" from the studio's name. As per the report, this move follows Disney’s decision to drop ‘Fox’ name from its 20th Century Fox film brand in January. The report states the company, which closed a $71 billion deal to acquire many of Fox's assets last year, renamed the longtime studio as just 20th Century Studios. The much-recognized logo and title card, which has the words 20th Television stacked above spotlights, will stay the same minus the excluded words. These changes will be reflected on the new episodes of 20th Television TV series starting this fall. Older titles, which have already aired before the rebrand, will maintain the former logo and name, as reported by CNN.

The report further states, Disney cutting Fox from all of its studios indicates the confusion it might create for consumers -- the remaining assets from Fox such as the Fox Entertainment, Fox Sports and Fox News are a part of Fox Corporation, which has nothing to do with Disney.

Disney will also rebrand its other TV studios with new names and graphics, reported CNN. That will include changing ABC Studios and ABC Signature Studios to ABC Signature and Fox 21 Television Studios will become Touchstone Television. The report quotes a statement from Craig Hunegs, Disney Television Studios' president where he said, "Our new studio names and logos mark a new day for ABC Signature, 20th Television and Touchstone Television while honoring their rich histories and the creative power of The Walt Disney Company."

However, this move irked a few loyal fans and followers of the studio. Two separate petitions were started on Change.org to demand Disney should ‘undo’ their decision. One petition stated, ‘Make Disney undo removing the FOX name from 20th century’, demanded, “We need to solve Disney removing the FOX name because it's famous name including FOX Searchlight Pictures, and more. And many people also got mad from this too.” While the other, titled ‘Bring back 'Fox' to 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight’, stated, “20th Century Fox is one of the most iconic brands in the film industry and it is a shame that Disney has decided to kill it off after 85 years. "20th Century Studios" feels like it has no significance and memorability. Without the 'Fox' name, what would we use to associate with the beloved franchises from that studio? It would just not be the same without that classic name.” While the former petition had a goal of 100 signs with more than 80 signatories, the latter one had a goal of 200 signs with more than 100 signatories. Fans called 'Fox' brand "one of the most storied names of entertainment".

Putting the removal in pictures a fan tweeted a GIF to show how Disney removed the Fox brand. 

History behind the company

The 20th Century Fox film studio formed in 1935 after a merger between Twentieth Century Pictures and the Fox Film Corporation, as stated in Britannica. William Fox, a New York City exhibitor who began distributing films in 1904 and producing them in 1913, moved his studio to Los Angeles and named it the Fox Film Corporation in 1915. Due to his financial woes caused by borrowing heavily during the Great Depression, Fox lost control of his company in 1930. The studio merged with Twentieth Century Pictures, a company founded by Joseph Schenck and Darryl F Zanuck in 1933, after Zanuck had quit as head of production at the Warner Brothers studio, as stated in the website. The two companies merged to form Twentieth Century–Fox.

In 1953, the studio introduced CinemaScope -- the process by which a picture is projected on a screen two and a half times as wide as it is high. Their first wide-screen feature film, The Robe (1953), began the trend toward the use of wide screens in motion-picture theatres. The same company was behind Marilyn Monroe’s rise to stardom in the 1950s.

According to Britannica, after the box-office failure of its expensive epic Cleopatra (1963), Zanuck was brought back to serve as chief executive in place of Spyros Skouras (1942–62). Zanuck risked the company’s remaining fortunes on another epic, 'The Longest Day' (1962), whose commercial success kept the company alive. Then it was followed by the commercial success of the iconic 'The Sound of Music' (1965) film. After surviving a few more flops, the company turned its fortunes around with films such as 'Patton' (1970) and 'M*A*S*H' (1970). And, of course, Star Wars (1977; later retitled Star Wars: Episode IV—A New Hope), the latter of which launched one of the most lucrative film series in the history of the industry, according to Britannica. They also owned the rights to several Marvel Comics series, notably Deadpool, Fantastic Four, and X-Men, all of which were made into blockbuster movies.

In 1981 the Twentieth Century–Fox Film Corporation was bought by Marvin Davis and his family, who in turn, in the course of 1985, sold it to the international publisher Rupert Murdoch, as stated in Britannica. At that time the hyphen was dropped from the name. Murdoch united his American film and television companies under a holding company, Fox, Inc., which was overseen by the News Corporation conglomerate. In 2013, the News Corporation was divided into separate publishing and television/film companies, called News Corporation and 21st Century Fox, respectively. And that’s why the 20th Century Fox came under the oversight of 21st Century Fox, as per Britannica. In 2017, the Disney Company agreed to purchase 20th Century Fox and most other holdings of 21st Century Fox.