Punky, a former NBC in-house production, because Financial Interest and Syndication Rules prevented the network from producing more episodes for syndication after they cancelled it. During the fall of 1986, the sitcom Designing Women began a successful seven-year run on CBS. The same year, Tri-Star Pictures formed Tri-Star Television and produced the short-lived series Downtown. Tri-Star produced more series in 1987, Take Five, Nothing in Common, My Two Dads, Werewolf, and Buck James. Also that same year, Clyde Phillips joined the studio as an independent television producer. In 1987, a major reorganization shook up at Columbia/Embassy Television, whereas Embassy employee Glenn Patrick resigned to start his own film and television production company, and Barbara Corday was appointed president at the organized studio. The Columbia name would now be used for dramatic shows, while the Embassy name would be used for comedic output. Owing to the association with Castle Rock Entertainment with the movie studio, CPT signed on to handle international distribution and off-net syndication of Castle Rock's programs, because Columbia had a 40% interest in the studio. Columbia Pictures Entertainment (1987–1989) On December 21, 1987, Coca-Cola spun off their entertainment holdings and sold it to Tri-Star Pictures, Inc. for $3.1 billion. Tri-Star was renamed as Columbia Pictures Entertainment (which they partially owned) after the film Ishtar turned out to be a notorious failure both critically and financially. CPT Holdings then became a stand-alone division from CPT. In January 1988, Columbia/Embassy Television and Tri-Star Television were formed to create the new Columbia Pictures Television and Embassy Communications was reduced as in-name-only and was renamed as ELP Communications as the copyright holder for the shows by Embassy. Meanwhile, Coca-Cola Telecommunications and Embassy Communications (the distributor arm) were merged into the new Columbia Pictures Television Distribution. All shows in the era ended with the Columbia logo between 1988 and 1991. As a result, many of the staff, including Barbara Corday, who had been as president of the studio since 1984 has been laid off, as well as former Coca-Cola Telecommunications presidents Herman Rush and Peter Seale, who had also been laid off and replaced mostly by Tri-Star alumnus, such as Scott Siegler, who was president of the studio, and former Columbia/Embassy executives were assigned to the new unit, namely Gary Lieberthal, who had the same title as Columbia/Embassy, would assume the position of the new CPT, and Barry Thurston, president of CET, will