In 1943, Columbia felt the series was slipping, and ended the string with "It's a Great Life" and "Footlight Glamour", deliberately omitting "Blondie" from the titles to attract unwary moviegoers. After 14 Blondies, stars Singleton and Lake moved on to other productions. During their absence from the screen, Columbia heard from many exhibitors and fans who wanted them back. The studio reactivated the series, which ran another 14 films until discontinued permanently in 1950. Because some demand from movie theaters still existed, Columbia began reissuing the older films, beginning with the 1938 "Blondie", and continued to release them in their original sequence well into the 1950s, when these were packaged for television by Columbia's video subsidiary Screen Gems.