Norman Lear's Companies
Compiled by Matt Anscher and Jeffrey Gray
Tandem Productions
(1970-82)
Logo: Tandem Productions never had a real on-screen logo. In the ending credits of shows like All in the Family and Sanford and Son, the text would scroll up at the end:
A
BUD YORKIN
NORMAN LEAR
TANDEM PRODUCTION
For shows that premiered after 1978, such as "Diff'rent Strokes," it would simply read:
A
TANDEM PRODUCTION
FX: Seen on closing sequences with crawl screens
Music: Closing theme from specific show
Availability: Common, still seen on any show produced by Tandem, such as "All in the Family", "Good Times", "Maude", and "Sanford and Son"
Scare Factor: None
T.A.T Communications Co.
(1975-1982)
The same thing went with T.A.T.Communications, which produced "The Jeffersons" and "One Day at a Time" among others.
Logo: It would just say:
A
T.A.T. COMMUNICATIONS COMPANY
PRODUCTION
But on One Day at a Time, it would read:
A
NORMAN LEAR
T.A.T. COMMUNICATIONS COMPANY
PRODUCTION
TAT?: T.A.T. stood for a Yiddish phrase pronounced "Tokas-adamn-tokin," which meant "Putting one's butt on the line."
FX: The crawl screens again
Music: Closing theme from specific show
Availability: Uncommon, still seen on reruns of "The Jeffersons" and "One Day at a Time"
Scare Factor: None
P*I*T*S Films
(1978-1982)
Logo: Against a blue background reads the following text:
DISTRIBUTED BY (in white)
P I T S (larger, and in green)
FILMS
(normal size, in white)
And in the three spaces of the letters come some white stars, one by one, that seem to be "coming at you," and then settle in their spaces. As it fades out, it reads:
DISTRIBUTED BY (in white)
P*I*T*S (larger, and in green, but the stars are white)
FILMS
(normal size, in white)
FX: The stars "growing"
Cheesy Factor: Very high. The entire logo is done with cheap chyron, and the stars look terrible.
Music: A weird synth tune that ascends and descends repeatedly, ending in a strange fanfare. This tune was composed by John Maxwell Anderson, famous for producing 'Who's The Boss?", "Different Strokes", and "Married....With Children".
Availability: As rare as they get without being extinct. It showed up recently on a rerun of "Good Times" on TBS (the 1978 episode "JJ the Teacher"). It is rumored to still appear on reruns of GT and Sanford & Son in the Chicagoland area. Otherwise expect to see the ever-popular Boxes of Boredom at the end of your favorite Norman Lear series.
Scare Factor: The music can scare many people, but it's mostly just annoying.
TOY Productions
(1977-1982)
TOY Productions was a partnership between TV producers Saul Turteltaub, Bernie Orenstein, and Bud Yorkin.
Logo: A ball with the stylized text: TOY in it, and under it the text:
TOY PRODUCTIONS.
It scrolls in with the credits of a show, much like the Tandem Productions credit. Sometimes the empty space is colored in a very tacky shade of orange.
Variant: An animation rendition of this logo consists of the round ball, and the T and Y sliding from the left and right side of the ball. The O pops in afterward, right before the company name zooms in from the bottom of the screen.
FX: None, it's a still in-credit logo
Music: Closing theme of show.
Availability: Rare; the only show I know of where it appeared was "What's Happening" during the 1977-78 and 1978-79 seasons. It is still seen there as it is attached to the credits. The animated version was seen on the short-lived 1981 NBC sitcom "Me and the Boys" with Mickey Rooney.
Scare Factor: None