TriStar Television/Summary

 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, and mcydodge919

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 Entertainment. 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 Mad About You and The Nanny ended, but kept its name until 2000 on Early Edition. However, Malcolm & Eddie used the CTT credit. In May 28, 2015, it was relaunched once again as a boutique production label for Sony Pictures Television. The first new series under this label was Amazon's The Good Girls Revolt.

===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, the "TELEVISION " text appearing.

 Music/Sounds:  An edited version of the last notes of the 1984 TriStar Pictures theme composed by Dave Grusin that's listed below:
 * 1986: The last 8 notes of the 1984 TriStar Pictures theme that's slightly edited.
 * 1987-1988: Another edited version only using the last 7 notes of the theme.

 Availability:  Extremely rare.
 * It appeared on Downtown, Take Five, Nothing in Common, My Two Dads, and Werewolf (though Chiller airings of Werewolf plastered it with the Sony Pictures Television logo).
 * This is preserved on three first-season episodes of My Two Dads, as released on DVD via Shout! Factory under license from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and on Antenna TV.
 * This also might have appeared on Reed Down Under.

 Editor's Note:  It's the end bit of the movie logo of the time period but slightly modified. While adequate, it's 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 unsold pilot The Boys of Twilight 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 the episode "Larry on the Loose," 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; it is unknown if the same can be said for Shout! Factory's 2012 DVD release.

 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)
 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. " T RI S TAR" 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), " T RI S TAR TELEVISION" with the byline "a SONY PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT company" below it.

 Trivia:  This logo was designed 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 Daily Double" question. The logo appears to be close-up, there is no text below the Pegasus and the " T RI S TAR TELEVISION" text is not there.

 FX/SFX:  None.

 Music/Sounds:  Depending on the logo years:
 * 1992-1993, 1994-1995: The last seven notes of the 1984 movie logo theme. Used again for the first 3 season 2 episodes of Mad About You. In 1994-95, 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.
 * 1994-1995: 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.
 * NBC and CBS used their generic themes on the logo.
 * In other cases, it used the closing theme of the show.
 * There is a silent version of the logo as well.

 Music/Sounds Variants: 
 * There is a high tone variant of the 1992/94 theme on the first-season Mad About You episode "Neighbors From Hell".
 * On Mad About You season 2 episode "Natural History," the 1993 theme echos at the end.
 * On the ultra short-lived series TriBeCa, the 1992/94 theme is cut down to its last five notes.
 * At least one episode of the short-lived 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 the CPT logo at the time, 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 of Early 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 most current releases of Annie: A Royal Adventure, 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 (Fuse airings of seasons 1-3 also retained the logo), the first three seasons of Early Edition when aired on FamilyNet and Syfy, the VHS release of the 1994 TV movie Next Door (the Amazon Prime print has it cut alongside the Showtime Networks credit notice that followed), the first season of Mr. Show on DVD, all but five episodes (those having the CTTD logo) of The Edge on DVD, and HBO Max prints of The Nanny.
 * It also appeared on episode 8 of The Jeff Foxworthy Show instead of the CPT logo on TBS (probably due to the editing mistake or maybe a plaster), and it's also retained on Crackle's print as well.
 * It also appeared on From the Files of Joseph Wambaugh: A Jury of One, and is retained on Sony Movie Channel's broadcast and digital prints.
 * This is retained on Sony Movie Channel airings and the Crackle/Amazon Prime prints of the 1997 TV movie, Home Invasion.
 * On Blu-ray, this can be seen on the 2018 Australian release of To Sir, With Love II from Via Vision Entertainment; it's also intact on the US Sony Pictures Choice Collection DVD-R release and iTunes/Amazon/Google Play/Vudu digital prints. However, the Sony PAL DVD and a True Movies UK broadcast have it plastered by the 2003 Sony Pictures Television International logo.
 * The Sony Pictures Choice Collection DVD-Rs of Dead By Sunset and Never Say Never: The Deidre Hall Story (alongside digital prints of the latter) retain this as well. It may also be preserved on the Sony DVD-R of The Disappearance of Vonnie (this is however plastered by the Sony Pictures Television logo on Amazon Prime's print from Samuel Goldwyn Films under license from Sony Pictures), as well as three episodes of A League of Their Own as included as a bonus feature with the film's 2020 4K Ultra HD release as part of Columbia Classics Collection Vol. 1.
 * International airings of TriStar series/TV movies may maintain this logo, but others will have the SPT (or SPTI) 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 began using 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", "Welcome Back, TriStar Television!"

 Logo : It starts with the Sony Pictures Entertainment logo, just like Sony Pictures Television. It very quickly irises into the end of the current TriStar logo with the horse just beginning to spread his wings. "TELEVISION" then fades in underneath in the same font as the TriStar logo 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 horse rearing up, and the text fading in.

 Music/Sounds : The 1993 logo theme.

 Availability : Common. It's seen Good Girls Revolt, Shut Eye, and The Last Tycoon, all on Amazon Prime Video. Also seen on the Showtime series On Becoming a God in Central Florida.

 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.

Copyright Stamps
Here is some information about the copyright stamps on the TriStar Television series and TV movies:


 * 1986-1988: Copyright © (year) by Tri-Star Television - A Division of Tri-Star Pictures, Inc.
 * 1988-1989: Copyright © (year) Columbia Pictures Television, Inc. (used on My Two Dads season 2)
 * 1988, 1989-1990: Copyright © (year) 12 Year Old Productions, Inc. (used on My Two Dads season 1 (last few episodes) and 3)
 * 1991-1998, 1999-2000: Copyright © (year) TriStar Television, Inc.
 * 1994: Copyright © (year) TriStar Television, Inc./Showtime Networks Inc. (used on the TV movie Next Door)
 * 1996-1998, 1999: Copyright © (year) Tri-Star Television, Inc. (used on Malcolm & Eddie)
 * 1998-1999: Copyright © (year) Global Entertainment Productions GmbH & Company Medien KG
 * 1999-2000: Copyright © (year) Columbia TriStar Television, Inc. (used on the final season of Malcolm & Eddie)