TriStar Television

Logo descriptions by Nicholas Aczel and Michael Bode
Logo captures by Eric S., Shadeed A. Kelly, and V of Doom
Editions by Shadeed A. Kelly and V of Doom
Video captures courtesy of Eric S., Michael Bass, mcydodge919 and Pepsi9072

Background: Tri-Star Pictures, Inc. launched its own television arm as "Tri-Star Television" in March 1986 after the formation of TeleVentures with Stephen J. Cannell Productions and Witt/Thomas/Harris Productions suggested by Stephen J. Cannell. The first official series was Downtown. After HBO (its last partner) dropped out of the venture the same year, Coke owned 100% of Tri-Star Pictures, Inc. Tri-Star Television was folded into the newly-formed Columbia Pictures Television on January 4, 1988 along with Columbia/Embassy Television after Coke sold its entertainment business to Tri-Star and renamed the company as "Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc." on December 21, 1987. Tri-Star Pictures, Inc. was later spun-off as a reorganized company in 1988. On October 7, 1991 under Sony Pictures Entertainment, TriStar Television was relaunched by dropping the hyphen (-) after acquiring several television shows from New World Television. On February 21, 1994, TriStar Television merged with CPT and became Columbia TriStar Television. Both studios still produced its series independently, but in 1999, TriStar Television was folded into CTT (now Sony Pictures Television) before The Nanny and Mad About You ended on CBS & NBC, but kept its name in credit until 2000 on Early Edition. However, Malcolm & Eddie used the CTT credit. During that time, TriStar Television operated as in-name-only under Sony Pictures Television. On May 28, 2015, SPT resurrected TriStar Television as its boutique production label with the television series The Good Girls Revolt, which made its debut on Amazon Prime Video on November 5, 2015.

1st Logo
(September 27, 1986-March 1988?)

Nicknames: "The Pegasus", "Jumping Pegasus", "Pegasus Over Pyramid", "Pegasus Over Triangle, "Majestic Pegasus", "The Tri-Star Pegasus"

Logo: A violet triangle that contains the background sky of the Tri-Star Pictures logo intro, with a golden border and the text:

TRI
STAR

stacked on each other, zooms-out and plasters itself on a black background, above which the Pegasus is seen posed as in the movie logo. The text "TELEVISION" appears below. Months later, the word "TELEVISION" is already chyroned in underneath the logo.

FX/SFX: The triangle zooming-out, and the "TELEVISION" text appearing.

Music/Sounds: An edited version of the last seven notes of the 1984 TriStar Pictures theme composed by Dave Grusin.

Availability: Extremely rare.

It appeared on Downtown, Take Five, Nothing in Common, My Two Dads, and Werewolf.
Werewolf reruns last aired on Chiller deleted this logo and was replaced by the 2005 SPT logo.
However, this is seen on three episodes on S1 of My Two Dads from Shout! Factory under license by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and on Antenna TV.
This also might have appeared on Reed Down Under.
On a couple of episodes of Werewolf, this had the actual TriStar Pictures logo in place of the TV version. Chiller reruns kept this.

Editor's Note: It's a slightly modified version of the end bit of the movie logo. Sadly, the final result looks nowhere near as polished.

2nd Logo
(November 9, 1991-March 2, 1993)

Nicknames: "Dark Marble", "Sparkling Pegasus", "CGI Marble", "The TriStar Pegasus II", "Pegasus Over Pyramid II", "The Silver Pegasus"

Logo: On a dark gray or dark blue marbled background, the studio name in the same Didot font used on the CBS logo and on the '80s TriStar logo, only in CGI and a light silver color zooms out from the bottom to the center of the screen saying:

TRI-------------
STAR
TELEVISION

By having the word "TELEVISION" in a light silver cote-out rectangular box. Then, the "Pegasus Over Pyramid" logo is formed out of light streaks next to "TRI".

Trivia: This logo is based on the 1991-1993 theatrical logo of TriStar Pictures as seen on trailers, TV spots, and the end of films.

Variants:

On Forever Knight, the phrase "produced in association with" in white is seen above the logo on a dark blue background.
The Fifth Corner has the logo fading out rather than cutting to black as normal.

FX/SFX: The text zooming-out from the bottom and the streaking of the Pegasus.

Music/Sounds: The end-title theme from any show, TV movie, or none.

Music/Sounds Variants:

The Boys of Twilight unsold pilot and two episodes of The Fifth Corner had the last 7 notes of the 1984 movie logo theme.
On Get A Life, the sound clips from the end of the episodes are heard.

Availability: Extremely rare.

Appeared on the 2nd season of Get a Life starting with episode 2, Charlie Hoover, The Fifth Corner, and early S1 episodes of Forever Knight.
Can still be seen on Rhino Home Video's Get a Life season 2 on VHS and DVD.

Editor's Note: An improvement over the previous logo with nice animation on the text and Pegasus.

3rd Logo
(September 19, 1992-June 23, 1999)

TriStar Television (NBC split-screen credits)

Nicknames: "The TriStar Pegasus III", "Ultra Majestic Pegasus"

Logo: We see the white, winged Pegasus with its wings spread out, posed on the dreamy, sun-lit, cloud-filled sky (which is a similar background from the Columbia Pictures logo, but the middle part is a bit shorter) as in the 1993 movie logo. "TRISTAR" appears on the top of the screen in giant bold, white chiseled text like the "COLUMBIA" text from the 1992 CPT logo and on the bottom of the screen in smaller text (all in the same Bank Gothic MD BT font as the 1992 CPT logo), "TRISTAR TELEVISION" with the byline "a SONY PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT company" below it.

Trivia: This logo was painted by artist Alan Reingold.

Variants:

On the 1992 TV movie A Child Lost Forever, the 1995 TV movie Annie: A Royal Adventure, and the short-lived series Hudson Street, the logo appears enhanced.
Sometimes, on some shows and TV movies like the 1995 TV movie Sahara, the logo fades out like the 1992 CPT logo.
On a Jeopardy! episode aired on December 23, 1993, the logo was seen on a "Video clue" question (not a "Video Daily Double"). The logo appears to be close-up, there is no text below the Pegasus and the "TRISTAR" text is not there.
On a French print of the miniseries Dead By Sunset, the logo is superimposed but most of it is invisible due to a poor chroma-key effect.
On original NBC airings of Mad About You, a different version of this logo was used within the split-screen credits: The TriStar logo is in the middle on a blue background with "TRISTAR TELEVISION" and the byline below in Bank Gothic font.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: Depending on the logo years:

1992-1993, 1994-1995: The last 7 notes of the 1984 movie logo theme. Used again for first 3 season 2 episodes on Mad About You. From 1994-1995, this was used on the Michael Moore TV series TV Nation aired on NBC and Fox.
1993-1999: A 5-note majestic orchestral fanfare with bells composed by Jay Asher.
1994-1997: A 6-note majestic theme.
1996-1999: A short version of this has 4 notes based on the 1994 logo theme and is sped up and revamped.
In other cases, it used the closing theme of the show, original NBC and CBS airings would use generic music starting in 1994.
There is a silent version of the logo as well.

Music/Sounds Variants:

There is a high tone variant of the last 7 notes of the theatrical theme on Mad About You S1 episode "Neighbors From Hell".
On Mad About You season 2 episode "Natural History", the 1993 theme echos at the end.
On the short-lived series TriBeCa, it's the last 5 notes of the theatrical theme.
At least one episode of the Designing Women spin-off Women of the House has the logo starting off silently, then playing the last three notes of the 1993 theme.
On one episode of the short-lived sitcom A League of their Own (based on the 1992 Columbia Pictures movie), the 1992 theme is low-pitched.

Availability: Uncommon. Thanks to Sony's habit of plastering over former logos with their more recent ones, this logo isn't quite as easy to find as its sister logo of 1993's CPT, but it's still not too hard to find on certain sources.

It originally appeared on The Edge, Mad About You, season 1 and early season 2 episodes ofEarly Edition, Malcolm & Eddie, TriBeCa, The Nanny, Hudson Street, Ned and Stacey, and the remaining seasons of Forever Knight, among other shows and TV movies, but recent broadcasts of most series plaster this logo over with the Sony Pictures Television logo.
However, this logo is currently seen on Annie: A Royal Adventure on VHS and DVD, the first two seasons of Mad About You on DVD, a surprise appearance on the pilot episode of My Two Dads (plastering the 1986 logo) seen on the DVD release of the first season from Shout! Factory, the first season of Malcolm & Eddie on DVD also from Shout! Factory with seasons 1-3 on Fuse retaining the logo, the first three seasons of Early Edition last aired on FamilyNet and Syfy, the VHS release of the 1994 TV movie Next Door, the first season of Mr. Show on DVD, and appears on all but five episodes (those having the CTTD logo) of The Edge on DVD.
It also appeared on one episode of The Jeff Foxworthy Show instead of the CPT logo on TBS (probably due to the editing mistake or maybe a plaster).
It also appeared on From the Files of Joseph Wambaugh: A Jury of One.
Outside of the U.S. may have this logo in several countries, but others will have the SPT logo.

Editor's Note: Like CPT's logo at the time, it's a still shot of an elegant painting with some glorious fanfares. Likewise with Columbia, this logo appeared about a year before movies had their own version of this then-new Pegasus in 1993.

4th Logo
(November 5, 2015- )

Nicknames: "Ultra Majestic Pegasus II", "The TriStar Pegasus IV", "CGI Pegasus", "Christian Pegasus"

Logo: It starts with the 2014 Sony logo, just like Sony Pictures Television. It very quickly rises into the end of the current TriStar logo with the Pegasus just beginning to spread its wings. "TELEVISION" then fades in underneath in Impact font and spaced out. The byline "A SONY COMPANY" fades in a moment later, in block caps and in a different font than in the regular logo. All of the text appears to be made of solid gold.

FX/SFX: The iris transition from the Sony logo, the Pegasus standing up, and the text fading in.

Music/Sounds: The 1993 theme from the previous logo.

Availability: Common. It's seen The Good Girls Revolt, Shut Eye, and The Last Tycoon all on Amazon Video.

Editor's Note: This features a neat transition and some magnificent animation from the current movie logo. This is infinitely better than the SPT logo.
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Copyright Stamps: Here is some information about the copyright stamps on the TriStar Television series and TV movies:

TriStar Television

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