Sony Pictures Television International

From the Audiovisual Identity Database, the motion graphics museum



Background

On September 16, 2002, Columbia TriStar International Television was reincorporated as Sony Pictures Television International. On April 1, 2009, SPT, SPTI, Embassy Row, Starling, and the other SPT companies were combined under one roof under the "SPT" brand, so SPTI currently runs as in-name-only.


1st Logo (Fall 2002-August 2004)

Visuals: Against a lined background, the words "SONY PICTURES TELEVISION INTERNATIONAL" (in the Sony typeface and stacked word-by-word with "SONY" being largest) emerge and zoom away downwards from the screen. The three words are not directly stacked at first, but as the animation progresses, they slide into place. A horizontal line is drawn between the "PICTURES" and "TELEVISION". While this happens, there is a bright white light on the left side of the screen that later reveals the names; as the light dies down, the lines in the background themselves back away as well, eventually moving back to the upper part of the screen and into a diagonal pattern to form the logo. The flash dissipates and there is an oblong orange-white glare surrounding the logo and words, which shrinks into the bars to give it a shine. The finished logo, which is a striped parallelogram, appears against a shaded navy blue background.

Variant: On the Turkish version of Married... with Children (entitled Evli ve Çocuklu) and the Indonesian version of Hollywood Showdown (entitled Showbiz), the long version of the logo is used.

Technique: CGI by Rick Scott at Tigar Hare Studios.

Audio: A majestic 5-note orchestral theme composed by David Kurtz, which sounds vaguely similar to the Habanera section of Bizet's opera Carmen, the 1976 Viacom "V of Doom" theme and the 1993 TriStar Television theme (specifically the long version).

Audio Variant: On the December 4, 2002 episode of the Russian version of Russian Roulette [entitled Русская рулетка], the Madchester beat from the 1997 Columbia TriStar International Television logo is heard, likely due to an editing mistake.

Availability:

  • It was first shown on the early season one episodes of Men in Black: The Series on Nickelodeon's short-lived action program SLAM! in 2003 and UK airings of The Real Ghostbusters.
    • However, it has long since been replaced by the standard Sony logo.
  • It is also preserved on CTV Throwback's print of season 3 episodes of The Naked Truth.
  • Even after the next logo was introduced, this logo remained to be seen on the Russian version of Russian Roulette [entitled Русская рулетка] until it concluded in August 2004.

2nd Logo (July 2003-Late 2009)

Visuals: On a black background, a striped cylinder swirls and zooms back at the same time in 3D. Below the bars, the company name (in the same alignment as the previous logo) zooms in slowly from the shadows. At the end, the cylinder turns into the Sony Pictures logo. There is a blue (sometimes purple) spotlight spinning at the bottom and shining on the logo that is also following the animation of the Sony Pictures logo until it stops.

Variants:

  • In 2005, a widescreen version was introduced. Like the SPT logo, a compressed version of this can also be seen on 4:3 prints.
  • A B&W variant of the logo exists, which was seen at the end of a UK airing of We'll Meet Again (1943) on Talking Pictures TV.
  • A prototype variant of the logo also exists.
  • On Isa TKM, a variant exists, where "En asociación con:" appears on top of the logo, and is off-centered.

Technique: CGI by Suzan Armstrong.

Audio: An ascending, zoom/guitar-like synthesizer effect. It's mostly consisting of samples from Spectrasonics' Distorted Reality 1 sample CD.

Audio Trivia: The sample used is "Rise Up!" of the Spectrasonics' Distorted Reality 1 sample library. It was also heard at one point in The Fairly OddParents episode "Crash Nebula".

Audio Variants:

  • From 2006, a longer version of the SPTI theme was introduced.
  • There are two short music versions of this logo. The first is the 2nd half of the logo, and the other is an edited version that cuts off at the end with the sound of an echo.
  • Sometimes, the 2002 Sony Pictures Television theme may be heard over this logo.
  • On one episode of The Nanny on Australian channel Fox Hits (now Fox Comedy), it used the 1993 TriStar Television theme. This was also heard on at least one airing on 7Flix. The same thing also happens on Encore airings of the 1997 TV movie Home Invasion (7Mate airings in Australia have the 2002 SPT logo with the normal SPT music instead and the credits cut off, a common thing sometimes done by the channel and its sister stations for unknown reasons).
  • High pitched and double pitched variants were also later introduced, with the former being usually found on PAL prints.
  • Some international prints of Starsky and Hutch episodes have a PAL pitched 1993 CPT theme.
  • On French prints of Young Americans, the 1995 Columbia TriStar Television theme is heard.
  • A French dub of Parker Lewis Can't Lose has the 1988 CPT theme.
  • Sometimes, the logo would be silent or have the closing theme of any TV shows/movies.
  • On the Region 2 DVD release of Men In Black: The Series: Volume 1 print of episode 3 titled "The Irritable Bow-Wow Syndrome", a snippet of the 1995 Columbia TriStar Television theme can be heard before the 2003 SPTI logo.

Availability:

  • This logo is retained on season 5 of Good Times on TV One and international airings of Sue Thomas' F.B. Eye.
  • It was last seen on Dawson's Creek on The N (now TeenNick), and early Designing Women episodes last seen on TV Land.
  • It can also be found on Shout! Factory's release of season 4 of Barney Miller, replacing the Four D Productions logo on all but two episodes from that season.
  • This logo was also seen on TBS' prints of Saving Silverman and The Sweetest Thing, a Sony Movie Channel broadcast (and Crackle print) of Kings of South Beach (replacing the 2002 SPT logo), a TCM airing of Operation Bikini (1963) (following the 1996 MGM Television logo), Paramount Network UK (now 5Action) airings of Coroner Creek (1948, following the 1943 Columbia Pictures logo), ThisTV airings of The Great Escape, We airings of Ghost World, old AMC/We airings of Mary Reilly, and old AMC airings of Original Sin, and A View to a Kill.
  • This logo may or may not be followed by the 2002 Sony Pictures Television logo on some recent airings.
  • It can also be seen on a handful episodes of Family Law last seen on Start TV.
  • It can also be spotted on certain prints of select Adelaide Productions series, including PAL DVD prints of the Stuart Little animated show, select episodes of Jumanji on Hulu (most episodes retained the 1995 Columbia TriStar Television logos), and Amazon Prime prints of Jackie Chan Adventures.
  • This logo can still be seen on some Sony-owned movies and shows via The Roku Channel or Crackle.
  • It was also seen on old FX airings of Daddy Day Care and Are We There Yet?, but recent airings of these two films omit that.
  • It also shows up on the live-action version of The Tick on the Mill Creek DVD release.
  • The standard high-toned variant was used to plaster the TriStar Television logo at the end of Australian reruns of The Nanny.
    • Prints found on Stan (an Australian streaming service) also have it followed by a regular high-toned 2002 Sony Pictures Television logo.
  • The standard high-tone variant was also seen on international broadcasts of Godzilla: The Series, plastering the 1995 CTT logo before the credits (an artifact of the show running on Fox Kids in the U.S., where all logos preceded their split-screen credits).
  • This logo is also preserved on the Sony Pictures Choice Collection DVD-R release of Reunion at Fairborough (1985), plastering the CPT "Coke Lady" logo.
  • It also shows up at the end of CTV.ca's streaming print of The Wedding Planner (2001).
  • Most episodes of The Nanny on HBO Max use this logo; the rest retain the TriStar Television logo.
  • It can also be found on airings of Ghostbusters II (1989) on Corus Entertainment channels (ex. MovieTime), although Bell Media channels use the regular 2002 SPT logo.
  • Some episodes of Stargate Atlantis on Sky Sci-Fi in the UK use this logo, one such episode being "Poisoning the Well".
  • It was also seen at the end of a November 13, 2014 airing of S02E09 of Rockface on Nova Cinema.
  • It is also seen on GREAT! TV UK airings of Sue Thomas' F.B. Eye.
  • It can also be found on VHS releases of Harold and the Purple Crayon, although DVD releases thereof have the regular 2002 SPT logo instead.
  • It can also be seen on Russian 2x2 airings of the Lenore, the Cute Little Dead Girl Flash web series.

Legacy: It's considered to be less hated than the SPT logo due to its visuals, animation and music.

Logo (2002-Unknown)

Visuals: Essentially just an in-credit logo saying "Produced by", "Produced by [name of the company] and", or "Produced in association with", and then the Sony Pictures Television International logo in a white rectangle. Other series have only the SPTI in-credit logo, depending on the country and its native language.

Technique: A still image.

Audio: The ending theme from any show.

Availability:

  • Seen on some international adaptations of classic Sony shows, such as The Nanny, Mad About You, Married with Children, and I Dream of Jeannie.
  • Also seen on Los Simuladores (translated as Simulators).
  • Other shows would carry this like Dragons' Den (the UK version of Shark Tank) which was last seen in America on the now-defunct Fox Reality Channel.
  • This logo can be seen scrolling in the end credits of Les Z'amours (the French version of The Newlywed Game).
Columbia TriStar International Television
Sony Pictures Television International
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