Lalo Schifrin (born Boris Claudio Schifrin in 1932) is an Argentine-American composer of award-winning music scores for television and movies.

Based on the 1965 novel by Donn Pearce, the movie "Cool Hand Luke" was released in 1967 starring Paul Newman as Luke, a prisoner in a Florida prison camp who refuses to submit to the system. The song "Tar Sequence" from the soundtrack to the film is used when the inmates are paving a road.

The staccato melody resembles a telegraph and was used outright as a news theme beginning with WABC-TV in New York and followed by many other ABC Owned and Operated stations. Many other non-ABC O&Os picked up the song as well. Nine News Australia has used "Tar Sequence" and variants for nearly 40 years.

"Tar Sequence" has many parts that lend themselves to being considered quintessential "news themes" (0:24, 1:07-1:23, and 2:07). The staccato "ticker" has been replicated in many news themes, and entire parts of the score have been borrowed and incorporated in other pieces.