Columbia Pictures Television: Difference between revisions

On May 6, 1974, Screen Gems was reincorporated as "[[Columbia Pictures Television]]" (now "[[Sony Pictures Television]]"). The name's change was announced on May 1 and was suggested by David Gerber, who was president of Columbia's television division. In 1984, Coke demerged Columbia Pictures and Columbia Pictures Television. CPT was transferred to "CPT Holdings, Inc.". On January 30, 1984, CPT joined forces with Lexington Broadcast Services Company, Inc. (later known as "[[LBS Communications|LBS Communications, Inc.]]") and created "[[Colex Enterprises]]". It was created to distribute most series by Screen Gems and CPT from the 1950s to the '70s. In October, CPT created "The Television Program Source" with Alan Bennett and former [[King World Productions|King World]] president, Bob King. On November 24, 1986, CPT was merged with [[Embassy Communications]] by forming "Columbia/Embassy Television". This was also the birth of [[Coca-Cola Telecommunications]], when CPT's distribution division merged with the Television Program Source. Coke also regrouped CPT, Embassy Communications, and [[Merv Griffin Enterprises]] into "Coca-Cola Television". On December 21, 1987, Coke's entertainment business was sold to [[TriStar Pictures|Tri-Star Pictures, Inc.]] for $3.1 billion. Tri-Star Pictures, Inc. was renamed to "Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc." (now "Sony Pictures Entertainment") and CCT was shut down ten days later and folded into the reorganized Columbia Pictures Television Distribution. In October 1991, CPT, [[TriStar Television]], and MGE were reorganized into the "Sony Pictures Entertainment Television Group" (a.k.a. "Sony Television Entertainment"). On February 21, 1994, Columbia Pictures Television merged with TriStar Television by becoming "[[Columbia TriStar Television]]" and Columbia Pictures Television Distribution was renamed to "Columbia TriStar Television Distribution". On January 1, 2001, Columbia Pictures Television was folded into Columbia TriStar Television as a failed attempt to become a network television syndication division called Columbia TriStar Network Television (later replaced by Columbia TriStar Domestic Television), however, the CPT name was retained in the in-credits of ''The Young and the Restless'' until October 2002. Currently, the division is known as [[Sony Pictures Television]]. A separate entity of CPT continues to exist on paper as an intellectual property holder, and an in-name-only unit and division of SPT known as "CPT Holdings" (formed in 1983) to hold the copyright for the TV show ''The Young and the Restless'' including the UK version of ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?'', as well as old incarnations from the company's television library such as ''What's Happening!!''.

* The still variant with the Columbia byline can be found on most episodes of the first season of ''Police Story'' on DVD, released by Shout! Factory. It was also shown in an edited form on Fox Family reruns of ''The Partridge Family'' and in a sped-up form without music on Hallmark Channel reruns of ''Bewitched''. A good few episodes of ''Bewitched'' when aired on the UK satellite channel ''Living'' have this logo, often followed by the Sony Pictures Television International logo.

* Crackle prints of ''Hawk'' has this plastered with the [[Sony Pictures Television]] logo.  

* This logo has gained a relatively large cult following (even transcending the core closing logo community), due to its notoriety for scaring some viewers (particularly children). This is mostly due to the animation and Siday's early Moog stinger, which has been described to as "creepy"<ref>http://www.milanofamily.org/scrngems/scrngems.htm</ref> and "horrifying"<ref>https://mfqreviews.medium.com/once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-is-quentin-tarantinos-ultimate-love-letter-to-60s-cinema-and-bare-edeab9ef10a4</ref>. Commonly referred to alongside other "scary" logos, such as the [[Viacom]] "V of Doom", [[VID (Russia)|VID]]'s "Mask of Guo Xiang", [[Klasky-Csupo]]'s "Super Scary Face", [[Paramount Television]]'s "Closet Killer", and [[THX]]'s "Deep Note". Its notoriety was even enough to spawn a short mockumentary in 2010 called ''The S from Hell'', as well as get featured in a particularly tense scene in Tarantino's "''Once Upon a Time in Hollywood".''  

'''Music/Sounds''': A slightly sped-up version of the 1970-1974 [[Screen Gems Television|Screen Gems]] music as the first three opening notes bring forth the three initials in the logo. The rest of the theme plays normally. The first three notes appear to be played faster than on the Screen Gems version.

[[Columbia TriStar Television]] took over for then-current shows formerly ending with this logo by 2001, though the copyright holder at the end of each show would credit "Columbia Pictures Television, Inc." or "CPT Holdings, Inc." until 2002, shortly after the debut of the Sony Pictures Television logo. However, "CPT Holdings, Inc." is still being used today as the copyright holder of ''The Young and the Restless'' and old incarnations from their television library such as ''What's Happening!!'', the Sony-owned Pyramid incarnations, and others. But it would also be used on foreign shows by Sony Pictures Television International from 2002-2010.