Tomorrow Entertainment

Background
Tomorrow Entertainment, Inc. was a television production company that was founded by former ABC president Tom Moore and owned by General Electric. The company produced movies which were generally acclaimed by critics. In August 1971, the company acquired Alan Landsburg Productions, after having previously purchased Hurok Concerts Inc. and Rankin-Bass. In late 1974, GE chose to exit the entertainment industry, shutting down Tomorrow and spinning off its' other entertainment companies, while retaining ownership of Tomorrow and Rankin-Bass' programs produced up to that point.

Following Tomorrow's closure, Tom Moore established a new production company, Tom Moore Entertainment, and renamed it Tomorrow Entertainment in 1976. By 1981, the company was owned by advertising agency Dancer Fitzgerald Sample, and former CBS executive John Backe became the company's president and CEO. The company planned a move into feature films starting in 1985, but this turned out to be a failure, and Tomorrow ended program production the following year.

GE retained the rights to the first Tomorrow's library until 1987, when it was sold to Broadway Video; it is now controlled by NBCUniversal through DreamWorks Animation and Classic Media. It is unknown who owns the second Tomorrow's library, at one point held by the Backe Group, although some of their movies are currently distributed by CBS Media Ventures, as Viacom Enterprises syndicated movies from both Tomorrow incarnations in the early 1980s.

1st Logo (1972-1980)
Nicknames: "TE", "Superimposed TE"

Logo: Superimposed on the closing credits is a futuristic-looking "TE", with the "E" formed out of three little parallelograms (with the top parallelogram being longer than the rest). The stacked words "a tomorrow entertainment, inc. production" or "tomorrow entertainment, inc. production" are shown to the right in a rounded font.

Variants:
 * The logo may change depending of the movie where it is shown.
 * Sometimes, the logo is placed on a colored background. Colors include dark blue, white, and dark gray.
 * On distributed shows, "presentation", is seen instead of "production".

Technique: None.

Music/Sounds: The closing theme of the show.

Availability: Uncommon. May pop up on some TV movies produced by Tomorrow Entertainment shown on cable, such as The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, Queen of the Stardust Ballroom, or Born Innocent.

2nd Logo (1973?-1980)
Nicknames: "TE II", "The Hummingbird"

Logo: On a light blue background with part of a white rectangle below, a hummingbird flies towards the screen, flying down and back as the "T" from the same logo from before comes together, with the E sliding in its place from the right. The hummingbird flies through the base of the "T" and out of the top line of the "E", and the "TE" slides up with a residue-trailing effect. The hummingbird then flies around the top of the "T" as the words "serif" in the Bookman Swash font appear stacked and aligned to the "TE" in black, along with the byline "A Subsidiary of General Electric" with the GE logo beside it. The hummingbird stays in flight next to the left of the "TE".

Variant: A still version exists. Here, the background is, the "TE" is , "from" is omitted, the text "serif" is in white, and the logo is bylineless.

Technique: The animations of the hummingbird and letters, which are all done using traditional cel animation.

Music/Sounds: A series of musical electronic beeping sounds playing throughout, along with a rising flourish of beeps (sounds like the power-up sound from Super Mario World) ending with a deep "bing" as the company name and byline appears below.

Availability: Extremely rare. The still version was seen on The Disappearance of Aimee.

Legacy: This design of the "TE" is the only one with identical-looking parallelograms, which raises the question that the logos before and after this were done intentionally or not.

3rd Logo (1980-February 8, 1985)
Nicknames: "TE III", "The Hummingbird II", "Silver Hummingbird"

Logo: On a background is a  Tomorrow Entertainment logo (in the same design as the 1st logo), with the words "serif" in Bookman font below the "TE". Suddenly, a silvered hummingbird appears flying from the left and stays in flight next to the left of the "TE".

Technique: The hummingbird flying.

Music/Sounds: Two long deep notes are heard, then a series of musical electronic beeps are played synchronized with the hummingbird's flight.

Availability: Extremely rare. It can be seen at the end of the RCA/Columbia edition of the TV special Gnomes, as well as the Family Home Entertainment VHS of Faeries and other TV movies from the company from the time.

4th Logo (February 9, 1985-March 14, 1986)


Nicknames: "TE IV", "Sunrise To Tomorrow"

Logo: On a nighttime background, the "TE" logo zooms out, turning the background into a dawn sky as it does so, accompanied by the stacked words "serif" in the same font from before. Four sparkles flash on the words and the "TE" one-by-one, while a glowing circle (the sun) appears in the "TE".

Variant: There is a filmed version, where the logo is darker.

Technique: The "TE" zooming out, and the sparkles flashing. Typical 80's animation.

Music/Sounds: A synth crescendo, then four notes accompanied by a synth sounder and drum beats.

Availability: Extremely rare. Only known to appear on On Being a Father and Bad Guys.