for a fourth season, revolving around the Whitman children taking the role of Flipper's guardians/playmates and their mother becoming involved in a serious relationship with Porter. Sandy and Bud presumably would have made a cameo visit in an episode or two. All this was for naught, however, as Ivan Tors chose not to continue to make a fourth season in this new format, so NBC cancelled it. Flipper has seen periodic syndication since its NBC cancellation. The show has aired on cable's Family Channel, Nickelodeon, Animal Planet, Discovery Kids, in high-definition on satellite provider Voom's Family Room channel, and on digital subchannel Antenna TV. Most of the images of Flipper jumping against a skyline were not in the originally aired version, as the filming took place in an enclosed lagoon. They were filmed at the end of the series and added for syndication. The rights to Flipper were later acquired by the Samuel Goldwyn Company, later becoming a subsidiary of Orion Pictures, who in turn would later be acquired by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (whose MGM Television division originally produced the series). As a result, MGM owns distribution rights to the series; the series copyright is held by Orion Pictures (whose own holdings include the Goldwyn library). It is also one of few pre-May 23, 1986 titles in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer library, including pre-1986 MGM Television programs, that is currently not distributed by Warner Bros. or its Turner Entertainment subsidiary. Thus, the physical home video rights of this series is currently distributed also by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment (since 2020, under the joint venture division, Studio Distribution Services in which after Fox and MGM Worldwide home media deal expired). Flipper appears as a character in the Cartoon Network series The Annoying Orange. As of November 2016, Flipper airs as one of a handful of classic TV series (alongside Ivan Tors' earlier series Sea Hunt) on the primarily movie-oriented digital subchannel This TV. In 2017, Flipper and Sea Hunt began airing together on Light TV. The series was broadcast in the early 1970s in the USSR, and the show was well received by the Soviet people, both old and young alike. Also, it was broadcast in Romania. Merchandise Flipper merchandise generated for the juvenile market during the show's first run is now scarce and collectible. Flipper vintage collectibles include lunch boxes, song books, comic books, coloring books, a Whitman novel, Big Little Books, souvenir spoons,