T.A.T. Communications Company

Background

The 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 "Putting one's butt on the line". Currently, T.A.T. Communications Company is now known as ELP Communications and serves as an in-name only unit of Sony Pictures Television.

1st Logo (January 19, 1975-December 12, 1982)

Logo: Depending on the show, it would say either:

A T.A.T. COMMUNICATIONS COMPANY PRODUCTION

or

A T.A.T. COMMUNICATIONS CO. PRODUCTION

But on certain shows like The Jeffersons, One Day at a Time, and Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, it would read:

A (NORMAN LEAR) T.A.T. COMMUNICATIONS COMPANY (PRODUCTION) (AND) or (IN ASSOCIATION WITH) [NAME OF THE COMPANY]

Variants:

Some series would feature a copyright stamp below the text, such as on later S1 episodes of Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.
Some in-credit notices would appear in shadow mode in 1979.
On The Facts of Life episode "The Affair", the text is centered at the bottom.
On some shows like Fernwood 2-nite and the final season of Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (a.k.a. Forever Fernwood), this text was also used following the "standard" T.A.T. text:

WORLD WIDE DISTRIBUTION BY T.A.T. COMMUNICATIONS CO.

On early syndicated broadcasts of Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, this text over a blue background was used to plaster the "standard" text:

A T.A.T. COMMUNICATIONS PRODUCTION WORLDWIDE DISTRIBUTION BY

On early season 2 episodes of Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, the text says:

PRODUCED BY T.A.T. COMMUNICATIONS CO. AND PRESENTED IN ASSOCIATION WITH FILMWAYS, INC.

FX/SFX: The scrolling of the credits or superimposed. On Fernwood 2Nite, the text fades.

Music/Sounds: The closing theme from any specific shows.

Availability: Uncommon.

It was retained on two episodes of The Jeffersons on TV One and Me-TV since the remaining has been plastered by the SPT logo (which makes it bad editing after the T.A.T. copyright stamp), seasons 1-3 of The Facts of Life on Me-TV, and One Day at a Time on FETV. It also appears on The Jeffersons on Starz In Black.
It's also seen on DVD releases of One Day at a Time, The Jeffersons, The Facts of Life, and Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.
TV One prints of The Jeffersons omit this logo, cutting straight to the SPT logo after either the "Videotaped at Television City", "Videotaped at Metromedia Square", or T.A.T. copyright notice.
This also can be seen at the beginning of the 1978 film Blue Collar, after the 1975 Universal Pictures logo.
Despite T.A.T. being replaced with Embassy in September 1982, this made a surprise appearance on The Jeffersons season 9 episode, "Appointment in 8-B".

Editor's Note: None.

2nd Logo (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.

Nicknames: "The T.A.T. Star", "Cheesy Star", "The Infamous Star", "The Lost Star"

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.

FX/SFX: The Scanimated star descending onto the background.

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

Availability: Long extinct. 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 "Boxes of Boredom" 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.

Editor's Note: This is perhaps the rarest logo on this wiki. As a result of its rarity, it is one of the most popular/infamous logos on here. It is also infamous for the widespread amount of parodies, remakes, and fake "findings" of it that have spread as a result.