T.A.T. Communications Company

Background

T.A.T. Communications Company (also spelled simply as "TAT") was formed in 1974 by Norman Lear and comedian Jerry Perenchio, a year before Bud Yorkin ended his partnership with Lear, which produced The Jeffersons and One Day at a Time among others. In 1976, T.A.T. formed its own distribution division. On January 6, 1982, T.A.T. Communications Company was reincorporated as "Embassy Communications, Inc." and renamed the T.A.T. production division as "Embassy Television" (now ELP Communications) with the acquisition of Avco Embassy Pictures Corporation by Lear and Perenchio, while the distribution division of this company was renamed "Embassy Telecommunications". T.A.T. stood for a Yiddish phrase pronounced "Tuchus Affen Tisch", which meant roughly "Enough talk- put your [butt] on the table"^[1]. T.A.T. Communications Company is now known as ELP Communications and serves as an in-name only unit of Sony Pictures Television.

(1979?-1982?)

The above capture is from a partial recording of the logo before it was cut out by a CBS ID. A recording of the logo's jingle, as described below, can be heard here.

Logo: An orange screen first appears. The screen then starts to zoom out to reveal that it's a Scanimated star, as it reveals a black background with the text "TAT" in lined letters and "COMMUNICATIONS COMPANY" in white. It's currently unknown what the rest of the logo is, as the video gets cut off near the end, though given the PITS Films logo had similar animation (the big difference being the stars zoomed in in the PITS logo), it's possible that it's just the first star and a second star similarly appeared between the A and the second T.

Technique: Scanimate effects.

Music/Sounds: A 12-note synth theme that was composed by associate producer John Maxwell Anderson.

Availability: 15 years of searching have yielded only a partial recording.

It was only seen on original daytime CBS reruns of One Day at a Time and The Jeffersons and CBS Late Movie airings of Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, as well as original NBC reruns of The Facts of Life. It has been said that it appeared on a few broadcasts of Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman on TV Land in 2002 during the Norman Lear Marathon and in 1994 on reruns of The Jeffersons on WGN-TV.
VHS releases of Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman were rumored to have it, but it has been confirmed it's not on them.
A partial clip of the logo before it was cut out by a CBS ID was finally spotted on the October 21, 1980 rerun of a 1975 episode of One Day at a Time.
A very faint segment of the tune before it was cut out by the Columbia TriStar Television Distribution logo had also been spotted on another episode of One Day at a Time that originally aired on December 9, 1979.
This logo was quickly replaced in syndication with the Embassy Telecommunications logo once it was introduced. As of now, it is unknown if the full logo will ever surface.

Legacy: This is perhaps the rarest logo on this wiki. As a result of its rarity, it is also one of the most popular/infamous logos in the community, spawning a widespread amount of parodies, remakes, and fake "findings".

References

↑ Even This I Get to Experience written by Norman Lear. p 260 https://archive.org/details/eventhisigettoex0000lear/page/260/mode/2up

T.A.T. Communications Company

Embassy Television

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[1] Even This I Get to Experience written by Norman Lear. p 260 https://archive.org/details/eventhisigettoex0000lear/page/260/mode/2up

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