Background
All American Television (later known as "All American Communications Television") was a television syndication company active from 1981-98 when it was sold into Pearson plc. and reincorporated as Pearson Television in 1997, however AATV continued until 1998 as Pearson's American division. It was founded by Anthony J. and Ben Scotti and Joseph E. Kovacs. All American Television merged with Scotti Bros. Entertainment Industries and formed "All American Communications, Inc." in early 1991. The company was known for producing and distributing popular television shows such as Baywatch, America's Top 10 hosted by Casey Kasem, and the Mark Goodson Productions library of game shows, including Family Feud and The Price Is Right. Currently, all of AATV's library is owned by FremantleMedia.
1st Logo (May 9-December 26, 1982)
Nickname: "The AATV Block"
Logo: On a black background, a wide rectangular block that's outlined in white fades in. Another outline with a diagonal red/white/blue pattern and the text "ALL AMERICAN" in a bold font and "T E L E V I S I O N" in a smaller Arial font with a star on each side are inside it.
Variant: This logo would appear as in-credit.
FX/SFX: The logo fading in.
Music/Sounds: The end-title theme of any show.
Availability: Extinct. It was seen on season 3 of America's Top 10.
2nd Logo (January 2, 1983-September 22, 1991?)
Nicknames: "The Blue/Red Star", "Cloud BG", "The Air Force Star"
Logo: On a cloudy sky background, we see a blue star quickly sliding in from the left side, and a segmented blue hexagon with 3 red lines on the sides sliding in from the right, and they both join together. Under that, we see 2 lights forming 2 red lines, with "ALL AMERICAN'" between the 2 red lines. Once the text is done forming, the word "TELEVISION" and another red line under it drops down from under "ALL AMERICAN".
Early Variant: A still, in-credit variant appeared on America's Top 10 episodes as early as 1983. The star and lines in the logo are red or pink, the "ALL AMERICAN" text and the lines above and below are white, and the word "TELEVISION" is light blue.
FX/SFX: The stars forming, the text "ALL AMERICAN" forming and "TELEVISION" sliding down.
Music/Sounds: The end-title theme of the show or any music video from America's Top 10.
Availability: Extremely rare.
- It was spotted on America's Top 10, season one of The Howard Stern Channel 9 Show, and early Baywatch episodes.
- It's also seen on the 1990 syndicated TV special Disorder In The Court: A 60th Anniversary Tribute To The Three Stooges and edited reruns of the ABC sketch comedy show, Fridays, which were last seen on USA Network and local syndication in the mid-late 1980s.
- Also appeared on The Stuntmasters, and TNT MonsterVision airings of Howling III: The Marsupials and Ghoulies II.
3rd Logo (September 23, 1991?-May 27, 1994)
Nicknames: "Orbit A", "Silver Orbit A", "The Prism"
Logo: On a black background, we see an stylized "A" with reflections, with an orbit around it, which has a star orbiting it. The text "An All American Television" is above it, and then "Production" flashes in under it. The entire logo "shines".
Variants:
- On America's Top 10, the logo appears in-credit with the copyright year stamp below. On the final season, it appears in-credit for a few seconds, then the background from any music video later fades to a black background.
- The company's name was changed to "All American Communications Television" starting in 1992, and sometimes appears with either "Produced By" in silver, "Distributed By" in gold, or nothing above the logo.
- There is also a still image that only features the logo without any text.
- There is also an extremely rare "Presents" variant.
FX/SFX: The star orbiting the orbit, the word "Production" or "Television" flashing in, and the logo "shining".
Music/Sounds: There are three music variations:
- 1991-94: A synth tune with a brief humming sound at the beginning, a piano playing throughout, and a brief synth-string note.
- 1992-93: A spaceship sound and a synth orchestral note.
- 1993-94: A quiet five-note synth tune.
- For the "Presents" variant, a ping accompanied by a soft synth tune when "presents" appears, followed by a 7-note walking bass tune.
- There is also a silent variation.
- Some shows would have the end-title theme over it.
Availability: Near extinction.
- This was seen on the original U.S. airings of 1991-1994 episodes of Baywatch.
- This was also seen on the first season of Acapulco H.E.A.T. and some DiC shows on syndication.
- As for the still shot variant, it was seen on the second season of The Howard Stern Channel 9 Show.
- The distributor version was also used on the 1994 version of Family Feud hosted by Richard Dawson. All American bought most of LBS' rights when the logo debuted. It is surprisingly retained on Hallmark Movies Now's print of Can You Feel Me Dancing? (1986).
- However, you will not be able to find this on reruns of Baywatch (except on Universal HD Brazil), because newer prints replace it with the FremantleMedia North America logo.
- This was also seen on the final two seasons of America's Top 10.
- The "Presents" variant was seen on Madonna: Exposed, and might be on its VHS release, syndicated prints of some '90s TV movies and also on a USA Network print of Killer Klowns From Outer Space.
4th Logo (September 12, 1994-June 12, 1998)
Nicknames: "Orbit A II", "Blue Orbit A", "The Animated Prism", "CGI Orbit A", "CGI Prism".
Logo: On a CGI blue background with the "A" (in the font seen in the "A" in this and the previous logo) in the background, we see an "A", zooming out, with a star forming the orbit and orbiting. After the "A" stops zooming, reflections of the "A" are formed, making the "A" logo the same as the in the previous logo. The text "ALL AMERICAN TELEVISION PRODUCTIONS" fades in under the "A".
Variants: There are four variations of this logo:
- 1994-98: An alternate variation that doesn't have the word "PRODUCTIONS" below.
- 1996-98: The byline "A Subsidiary of All American Communications" was added under the company's name.
- 1997-98 (A): The byline "A Pearson Television Company" is seen below the logo.
- 1997-98 (B): Another alternate variant is almost the same as the All American-Fremantle International logo, but with "ALL AMERICAN" blacked out over "FREMANTLE".
- This logo was also used for Talbot Television, Ltd. and Fremantle UK Productions, Ltd.
- There's in-credit text that reads, "In association with All American Television, Inc." on The Adventures of Sinbad.
FX/SFX: The "A" and orbit forming, and the text fading in.
Music/Sounds: A 9-note synth tune, with the ninth note longer and being orchestral.
Music/Sounds Variant: On The Price Is Right from 1996-1998, the 1991 theme is played.
Availability: Rare.
- It's seen on The Adventures of Sinbad, Baywatch episodes (U.S. only) starting from season 5, as well as The Price Is Right episodes from 1996-fall 1998, and later episodes of Family Feud.
- It's also seen on 3-2-1 Contact and 1995-96 episodes of The Richard Bey Show when the show went into national syndication.
- The 1997 variant is rare, probably spotted on some Baywatch episodes and the 1998 version of Match Game.
- The logo is seen on both DVDs of The Adventures of Sinbad in Canada.
- It also used to be seen on syndicated prints of Live/Artisan Entertainment titles, and was recently spotted on a Charge! airing of Pentathlon (1994), ThisTV airings of Kickboxer III: The Art of War (1992) and Kickboxer IV: The Aggressor (1994), an old AMC airing of The Private Navy of Sgt. O'Farrell, and a 2005 Sci-Fi (now Syfy) airing of Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings among others. It was also seen on a DVD release of The Seven Little Foys.