History of the Firm

[TinaT]

A question was asking on another thread as to why did Anna have to sell the Firm. So I thought a new thread was in order. I would appreciate help filling in the blanks and making sure of accuracy from those who have a been around long enough to remember please. (I'm one of them, but I still want to be accurate).

The general details are that there was a lawsuit brought on by a couple of her staff in regards to monetary rights with the Firm. I believe...please correct me someone... Anna lost. On top of legal fees and loosing, ect. she had to sell the Firm. Along with all her workouts she had created, not just the name/brand.

Anna then produced the original Fitprimes that show cased instructors like Tracie Long and Susan Harris to name only two. There were others.

Then came WHFN (Women's Health and Fitness Network) that included her sister and ex-husband (I believe), in helping produce the Kickbutt/Fitprime 12 dvd series of workouts.

By now GAIAM owned the Firm and talks took place with them and Anna in regards to her regaining the rights back to her original Firms. Because she was able to regain the rights to her work, we now have the remastered Firms from Fitness Favorites.

Those are the bullet points with much more detail scattered throughout. Hope this has brought clarity and understanding to anyone who is curious.


ETA: Anna did not loose the case. But legal costs were why she had to sell the Firm.

[fatkat555]

I could be wrong, but I don’t think she lost? It was the cost of litigation that made the Bensons and Anna’s husband (Mark Hendrickson) sell the rights to the name. I could be totally wrong on this. If the plaintiff had won, he’d be collecting from any sales of the original work and I don’t believe this is the case. FitnessFavorites was hers, but then run by her child after she passed.

I should add that this was the epitome of a frivolous lawsuit. How it changed the Firm’s impact nationwide is immeasurable. I think the Firm was poised to carve out a niche nationally. Look at Les Mills Bodypump and their success currently. Anna’s work (and I could be wrong) preceded Les Mills and some even believed at the time that Les Mills was a knockoff of what the Firm started.

[TinaT]

Fatkat ~ you are absolutely right. Reading what you wrote brought it all back. Thank you for the correction. I will make an edit to my original post.

[kat999]

There was also the era in between Anna and Gaiam when the workout series was owned by GoodTimes, and that's when we got the Fanny Lifter and whatnot. Some instructors and backgrounders from videos went with the FitPrime/WHFN route while others stuck with GT and then Gaiam. There's also the whole history of the actual physical studio, too, which was technically separate from the video series.

I personally still do/collect/love FIRM workouts from every single era and don't make as much of a distinction, because even though some of the later what we call "pink" FIRMs were not designed by Anna, they still use all of Anna's terminology, often very similar tools, and have the same scripted delivery that matches moves to the music. I also like a LOT of the pink-era instructors and some of them are my absolute favorites, including Alison, Emily, and Rebekah. Stephanie Huckabee and Pam Cautheen even came back for the Zip trainer era, which was the IIRC the very last set of FIRM releases. The last few active FIRM instructors also did the BeMAX series, which I really enjoyed and wish had physical releases instead of just being available on streaming on a service I don't really like otherwise.

As one example of Anna's legacy, I always appreciated that the FIRM differentiated between a lunge and a dip. I really loathe when I'm doing a different but similar style of workout (Jari Love is guilty of this; a lot of her stuff is very FIRM/Les Mills-y) and they call out "LUNGE!" and then do what I think of as a dip instead. The word "lunge" implies forward momentum. If you want to call it a reverse lunge, fine, but calling it a dip helps me understand that it's dipping your knee toward the floor rather than lunging forward.

[Jane P.]

What is the difference between Fitprime and Kickbutt? I know that some were produced as a formal set, while others seemed to be filmed in Anna's home. If anyone can point me to a list, I'd appreciate it. I also agree about the terminology regarding lunges and dips. The Firm also brought stepping up onto a tall platform into common use.

[carly]

Originally Posted by Jane P.

What is the difference between Fitprime and Kickbutt? I know that some were produced as a formal set, while others seemed to be filmed in Anna's home. If anyone can point me to a list, I'd appreciate it. I also agree about the terminology regarding lunges and dips. The Firm also brought stepping up onto a tall platform into common use.

As TinaT stated:

"Anna then produced the original Fitprimes that show cased instructors like Tracie Long and Susan Harris to name only two. There were others.

Then came WHFN (Women's Health and Fitness Network) that included her sister and ex-husband (I believe), in helping produce the Kickbutt/Fitprime 12 dvd series of workouts. "

The original FitPrimes were lower quality "think film it yourself" videos. They were actually harder and longer than the professional productions that came later.

https://www.fitnessfavorites.com/category-s/150.htm

The Fitprime/Kickbutt's were basically edited routines from the originals with different instructors in a professional production. Then I think there were a few new workouts that weren't produced in the original set.

https://www.fitnessfavorites.com/category-s/134.htm

I always thought the Kickbutts were a little harder than the FitPrimes.

[carly]

Case Appeals lists legal argument of Plaintiff vs Meridian Films:

https://www.ca4.uscourts.gov/opinion...d/001359.U.pdf

First few paragraphs are interesting to read about the multi camera production.

[bzar]

Originally Posted by TinaT

The general details are that there was a lawsuit brought on by a couple of her staff in regards to monetary rights with the Firm. I believe...please correct me someone... Anna lost.

ETA: Anna did not lose the case. But legal costs were why she had to sell the Firm.

Originally Posted by fatkat555

I could be wrong, but I don’t think she lost? It was the cost of litigation that made the Bensons and Anna’s husband (Mark Hendrickson) sell the rights to the name.

Originally Posted by TinaT

Fatkat ~ you are absolutely right. Reading what you wrote brought it all back. Thank you for the correction. I will make an edit to my original post.

Originally Posted by carly

Case Appeals lists legal argument of Plaintiff vs Meridian Films:

https://www.ca4.uscourts.gov/opinion...d/001359.U.pdf

the plaintiff in the pdf that Carly linked was Everett C. Davis, who was production manager and 0.015% royalty recipient.

just some random rhetorical questions that i don't necessarily need the answer to, just for discussion:

The pdf mentioned remanding - were there further judgments by the lower court?

legal costs in defending your products can be costly as shown clearly by this and many other examples throughout history. why didn't insurance cover the cost of defending this lawsuit, unless Anna was self-insured?

[fatkat555]

For so long I was a Firm/Anna purist snob and would only buy Anna’s direct products like classic Firm, FitPrime, WHFN FitPrime and Kickbutt. In the past few years, however, I was able to pick up the post Anna workouts for a steal on EBay and I’m happy I did. So funny how our perceptions change. I also have all Tracie Long dvds post Firm as well, but never did the BeMax ones. Speaking of Tracie Long, has anyone tried this YouTube short workout of hers? My sister loves it.

https://youtu.be/jS_BrLAk0uY

[TinaT]

Thanks ladies for giving more detail throughout the thread. I didn't want to post all of it at once or most folks might not of read it for being too long. LOL.

IMO I feel the WHFN Fitprimes and Kickbutts productions for quality, sound/music and content was some of the best from the Benson Family. Right up there with Anna's Firms. I love everything about them. I am venturing out and have acquired quite a number of Goodtimes and Gaiam Firms.