Though the dominant Hanna-Barbera Productions launched a phenomenon with the 1981 premiere of "The Smurfs" on NBC, very little else which they produced in this decade caught on. Adding to this was the financial problems of their owner Taft Broadcasting, which was taken over by Carl Lindner, Jr., owner of Great American Insurance Company, in 1987. Two years later, Tom Ruegger launched an exodus of H-B employees to form a relaunched Warner Bros. Animation division. In 1991, Turner Broadcasting System bought the company and its library.