There are huge numbers of TV shows from what is commonly referred to as "Universal Television". In the eighties - think 'The A-Team', 'Airwolf', 'Knight Rider', 'Magnum P.I.', 'Miami Vice', 'Quantum Leap', and many others - it consistently looked like this:



Aside from the logo, there's also always a written-out copyright credit at the end of the credits for "Universal City Studios", like this:



It may be of interest that the rules state: "Do not abbreviate Studio or Media Company names. e.g, use Universal Pictures not just Universal".

So what's the accurate studio name for our purposes here? Just Universal - despite the explicit abbreviation comment in the rules? Or the full Universal City Studios? Or something else, like Universal Pictures or Universal Television?

Why would we use a credit that is not anywhere to be found on the release?

The rules tell us to enter studios in the following order: Theatrical Release Studio(s) & Production Company(s).

'Universal City Studios, Inc' is neither a Theatrical Release Studio nor a Production Company, so it is out.  What we are left with is 'Universal'.

The rules go on to tell us, as T!M noted, "Do not abbreviate Studio or Media Company names. e.g, use Universal Pictures not just Universal", so 'Universal' is also out.  The only choices that are left are to leave it off or enter the actual company name which, in this case, is 'Universal Television'.

Using "Universal" if the credits just say "Universal" is not abbreviating. It is as credited. That shouldn't be a novel concept.

It's the same thing I've been seeing with Blumhouse recently.

According to everything I've looked up about the company, the full actual name of the company is Blumhouse Productions.

A lot of the time, their fancy little mini-movie/logo at the beginning of a film simply says "Blumhouse". And then the credits will say "A Blumhouse Production".

Well, we wouldn't enter the company name as Blumhouse Production just because that's what it says, it doesn't make any sense. And the logo they have only says Blumhouse, but if we enter that, it's abbreviating the studio name, which the contribution rules tell us not to do, so we enter Blumhouse Productions.

For the record, I have no idea about Universal here. I don't know enough about the company's actual name, and my local has about 10 different variations for Universal 

Quoting GSyren:

Quote:
1. There are thoundsands of studios in 100+ years of movies. It is impossible to research "actual names" for every studio that ever existed. We need a rule that handles all studios the same. And the only way to do that is to use the credited name.

Fair enough... I agree to an extent for sure! I have a thread up right now asking about another studio that I can't find enough information on to see how it should be entered (and unfortunately no one else has responded to it at the moment). The only problem is the rules don't tell us to use the credited name. They say do not abbreviate. So if Universal just puts up their logo, but it's a Universal Pictures release, as per the rules, we're supposed to enter it as Universal Pictures.

Going back to the company I used to own, the abbreviation we used in our logo was EP. That was it. Some fancy schmancy graphics (no... not at all  but a couple of basic ones  ) and like I said, we put that on more stuff than we ever put the full company name. If that were the case here, and our logo ended up on a film or documentary or something, going by as credited would have us enter EP as the production company... a production company that technically doesn't exist.

Like I said, I agree to an extent absolutely... the LAST thing I want to do is put more freakin' work into finding something out, especially a studio which is not something I particularly care about really... but if the actual studio name behind it is Universal Television (I haven't looked anything up, I'm just saying if THAT's the company name), then that's the name we're told by the contribution rules to use, no matter what a logo or something else may say.

Not particularly MY opinion, just going by what the rules say.

Well, I don't agree that "Universal" is an abbreviation. If it had said "Universal Television" and we had entered "Universal", then we would have abbreviated it.

Now, it may be that Universal themselves have abbreviated "Universal Television" to "Universal". But that's their business. It's not for us to say. If they call themselves "Universal" in the credits, then "Universal" it is. In my opinion.

Quoting GSyren:

Quote:
Well, I don't agree that "Universal" is an abbreviation. If it had said "Universal Television" and we had entered "Universal", then we would have abbreviated it.

Now, it may be that Universal themselves have abbreviated "Universal Television" to "Universal". But that's their business. It's not for us to say. If they call themselves "Universal" in the credits, then "Universal" it is. In my opinion.

While that is all well and good, the rules, quite clearly I might add, tell us that 'Universal' it isn't.  There is no exception that says, "unless that is what is shown on screen," and that was by design.

What is shown on screen is a logo, not a credit.  Many companies do this, opting for a logo rather than a written credit, but Universal was one that did it most often so, if memory serves, they were chosen as the example.