TriStar Television (first spelled Tri-Star) was an American television production company that was launched in 1986 by TriStar Pictures (the studio which was then-currently owned by Columbia Pictures and HBO; CBS was a partner but dropped out in 1985). The same year, Tri-Star Television joined forces with Stephen J. Cannell Productions and Witt/Thomas/Harris Productions and created a television distribution company called TeleVetnures. By December 1987, Tri-Star Pictures was 51% owned by Columbia Pictures Entertainment with Coca-Cola owning 49% and Tri-Star Television was combined with Columbia/Embassy Television into the reorganized Columbia Pictures Television (CPT) in Januuary 1988. Columbia Pictures and Tri-Star Pictures (and their respective television units) were sold in 1989 to Sony of Japan.
CPT would continue on under Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE), but TriStar Television was reestablished in October 1991. In 1994, the companies formed the joint venture Columbia TriStar Television (CTT). However, shows such as Early Edition (a joint production with CBS) and Malcolm & Eddie retained the TriStar logo and copyright until 1999, when TriStar Television folded into Columbia TriStar Television and TriStar television and operated in-name-only. Three years later, SPE retired the Columbia and TriStar names from television, rechristening the company as Sony Pictures Television. Today, TriStar Television operates as in-name only.
Read more about TriStar Television: List of Shows By TriStar Television
Famous quotes containing the word television:
“It is marvelous indeed to watch on television the rings of Saturn close; and to speculate on what we may yet find at galaxy’s edge. But in the process, we have lost the human element; not to mention the high hope of those quaint days when flight would create “one world.” Instead of one world, we have “star wars,” and a future in which dumb dented human toys will drift mindlessly about the cosmos long after our small planet’s dead.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)