The 1980s
After Norman Lear bought Avco Embassy Pictures, he dropped the name "Avco" and reincorporated T.A.T. Communications to Embassy Television. All series that were still produced by T.A.T. (such as The Facts of Life, The Jeffersons, Gloria, and One Day at a Time) were produced under the Embassy name. All shows by Tandem Productions that were off the air were distributed by Embassy Telecommunications. In 1983, Ken Stump, the former associate producer for Tandem Productions and T.A.T. Communications was made in charge of production for Tandem Productions and Embassy Television.
June 18, 1985, Norman Lear and Jerry Perenchio sold Embassy Pictures Corporation to Coca-Cola for $485 million, but then Coke sold Embassy Pictures to Dino De Laurentiis since De Laurentiis didn't want to release his movies through a major studio anymore. Coke's plan was to keep the television output alive and to spin-off the other labels that weren't part of the deal. De Laurentiis later folded Embassy Pictures with the formation of De Laurentiis Entertainment Group. Majority of the motion picture holdings are currently licensed to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and StudioCanal. However, Columbia Pictures still retains Crimewave and Saving Grace (both co-distributed by Embassy Pictures). SPE also has the television rights to the Avco Embassy Film The Fog (1980) since the revival in 2005.
After the sale of Embassy, CPT also produced the sitcom What's Happening Now!! along with LBS Communications (Colex). The same year, Diff'rent Strokes was moved to ABC from NBC. Tandem Productions was by then reduced down to an in-name-only division of Embassy Television. In 1986, Diff'rent Strokes was canceled from ABC due to low ratings and Tandem Productions was abandoned. Embassy Television merged with Embassy Telecommunications and Tandem Productions to form Embassy Communications (later became part of Columbia/Embassy Television in November 1986). However, Tandem still remained as an in-name-only division of Embassy Communications until February 8, 1988 when it became in-name-only to Columbia Pictures Television and in turn an in-name-only sub-division of ELP Communications. CPT still retained the television rights to those Embassy movies by Joseph E. Levine, Avco Embassy Pictures, and Lear/Perenchio's Embassy Pictures.
In 1986, Coca-Cola spun-off and sold Embassy Home Entertainment to Nelson Holdings, Inc. and became Nelson Entertainment that was also not part of the plan for Coke to keep the home video arm due to RCA's venture with Columbia Pictures Home Video that would've conflicted the joint venture if Coke kept EHE.
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