Studios productions logos

[Stephane Dumas]

We got the tv stations bumbers and I thought it would be nice to talk of studios productions logos we see at the end of closing credits of our favorites series, movies and cartoons like the Paramount logo at the end of Taxi or Happy Days closing credits.

The ITC logo who was also shown at the beginning or closing of Space 1999 or the Muppet show during its original broadcasting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5ep_6Iw1Z8

Stephen J. Cannell productions
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qweoMJS1DQ8

mid-1970s Hanna-Barbara logo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSdjviVoEy4

[Big John]

Screen Gems

Rankin Bass (Ruldolph the /red Nosed Reindeer)

[US71]

Old Screen Gems (1964)

REVUE (now Universal)

Viacom wigga-wigga

Revised: fixed bad links

[Stephane Dumas]

Old Screen Gems (1964)


REVUE (now Universal)






Viacom wigga-wigga

Resurrecting this thread by mentionning Viacom's earlier logo the "V of Doom".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlKHMS5XgGs

Ruby-Spears entreprises
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlKHMS5XgGs

Paramount TV logo compilation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBTVrdxPhpc

This video is a montage of six different Paramount Television logo themes, all variations of the "Color ID" theme by Lalo Schifrin and all in the same tempo.

Update: Both 1982 versions of the logo are included.

1: 1972-1975
2: 1975-1976
3: 1979-1980
4: 1982-1987 (normal peak)
5: 1982-1987 (taller peak)
6: 1986-1987

[US71]

We got the tv stations bumbers and I thought it would be nice to talk of studios productions logos we see at the end of closing credits of our favorites series, movies and cartoons like the Paramount logo at the end of Taxi or Happy Days closing credits.

The ITC logo who was also shown at the beginning or closing of Space 1999 or the Muppet show during its original broadcasting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5ep_6Iw1Z8

Also Dangerman (& Secret Agent)


ITC used a gold logo also,

[Hwy 61 Revisited]

Ah yes, the vanity plate. I used to make compilations of those when I was a four-year-old "boy."

[bing101]

The Nexstar Productions logo it's used at the end of local newscasts in places where Nexstar owns a station.

The Tribune Productions Logo from the Early 2000's used at the end of the KTLA newscast in Los Angeles

[Scott5114]

You get a bunch of interesting ones on PBS, since the "production company" is usually the station responsible for funding the production. Some of them have geographical references to the cities they're in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F4rJThzb-Y

[iowahighways]

Worldvision Enterprises' "whoosh" logo from the late 1980s/1990s. They distributed a lot of Hanna-Barbera cartoons in syndication, among other shows. It always had that disclaimer at the bottom to avoid confusion with the charity of the same name.

[US71]

"This has been a Filmways Presentation, Dahling"

-- Or --

(Ted Cassidy)

[jrouse]

I have always had a very weird obsession with closing logos. I find that I just have to watch all the way through the end credits of a show to see them.  I liken it to watching a train wreck; as much as it might spook you, you couldn't look away.  I literally get chills down my spine - a mix of that primal fear and maybe a little bit of excitement - watching the end credits of any show and waiting for the logo at the end, regardless of whether I know who produced the show or not. Sometimes I will just watch a show just to see what logo is used at the end.  We recently signed up for CBS All Access and I checked out the 1970s animated Star Trek series just to see if they still used the red split rectangle version of the Paramount Television closing logo from that era or if they had plastered it with the CBS Television Distribution logo. Much to my surprise, it has been retained. (It's the one where they zoom up on the Paramount logo itself).

Some logos freaked me out when I was a kid; others annoyed me, and some didn't bother me at all.  The worst one for me was Paramount Television.  I was most familiar with the  "blue mountain"  logo with that xylophone driven theme.  I hated the music and the look of the "Paramount"  script.  There was often a second or two of black screen between the end of the show and the appearance of the logo.   I am too young to have seen the red split rectangle version of the logo on a regular basis but I did see it once or twice on reruns when I was very little and the part I have always remembered was how it zoomed in on the Paramount logo itself.  I have never understood why they felt the need to do that.  It's like they're saying, "We're Paramount Television! SEEEE?"

The Viacom "V of Doom"  logo was nightmarish with that giant V coming at you and the music that seemed to give you the impression that "this is it, the V is going to get you."   Who comes up with this stuff?

I also didn't like Lorimar.  Here again was a case where the show would end and there would be two seconds of black screen and then those orange letters would start crawling across the screen with that piano jingle.  Ugh.  My mom, as a Texas native, loved watching "Dallas" , so I saw this logo a lot. https://youtu.be/Vu_Uv_2dmOc (this was from "Knots Landing" , a "Dallas"  spinoff).

Anyone remember Sid and Marty Krofft?  They had some unusual logos but the Krofft Entertainment logo at the end of the Donny and Marie Osmond show was spooky with the logo spinning in and the weird laser gun synthesizer jingle,
https://youtu.be/Vcu7ScrHbjs

The Ruby Spears logo and the Hanna Barbera swirling star logo were also ones I didn't like, mostly because of the music.  Of the two, Ruby Spears was the worst with its "whooshing"  sound and the logo flying out from the screen.  There were some Saturday morning cartoons in the 80s that were produced by Ruby Spears or Hanna Barbera in association with Paramount.  Two of my least favorite logos back to back, disturbing my Saturday morning entertainment,

https://youtu.be/_EczESCVGPo

https://youtu.be/zwWv6XGLBB4

Rankin Bass had some weird music for their closing logo.  I loved their claymation holiday specials but that logo at the end just left me with kind of a sour feeling.  Why did such cool shows have to end on such a melancholy note?

The Universal logo in the late 70s and throughout the 80s wasn't scary but was unnerving.  The music was loud and bombastic and there was something about the font that they used for the word "Universal"  that for some reason creeped me out.  When they added the "warble"  effect in the 80s it made it a little better.

I loved Mary Tyler Moore's MTM with the cat meowing.  I know there were several different variations on that logo and the only other version I recalled was a black and white cat playing with a ball, https://youtu.be/am8gBiLkgnk.  I liked the Stephen J.  Cannell logo with Mr. Cannell typing and the paper turning into a "C" .  I thought that was a cool little graphical trick.  I also liked the Columbia torch lady logo of the early 80s with the Coca Cola logo at the bottom; it was amusing to me to think of Coca Cola owning a TV production company.

Fortunately most logos seem pretty tame now.  I liked the first version of the CBS Paramount logo that came out in 2006; that one wasn't used very long.  https://youtu.be/bi4aVpeDSyo I have the music from that logo as my text message alert tone.  The one exception for me has been the Sony Pictures Television logo.  Not only was the music loud and bombastic, but then they started doing that weird thing where they would flash the Sony logo itself before transitioning to the SPT logo and its jarring music.  And the version of the SPT logo now is just dumb. They still flash the Sony logo and then they just show the words "Sony Pictures Television Studios"  and a simple "ding"  sound. https://youtu.be/JKYjQlfWn3E.  Not very creative.  But then again maybe it was created by someone who was, like me, frightened by the closing logos of the 70s and 80s and didn't want to have the same thing happen to their kids.  It would be interesting to find out.

[Scott5114]

I have a feeling the first 40 seconds or so of the PBS video I posted earlier in the thread would have absolutely terrified you as a kid.

[Henry]

Warner Bros. has had an interesting history. As a kid growing up, I remember the slanted W in a rounded rectangle that represented a TV screen, which would be used until 1984, when the traditional shield logo was used for the first time in a decade. For many years, there was no music to go along with it, but then in 1994 they started to use what I refer to as the "Tomahawk Chop Theme", because to me it sounds like something you would hear at FSU or Atlanta Braves games (it originated with the former, where Deion Sanders played, and then he brought it over to the latter). Anyway, I hated that theme so much that I had to mute the TV until it faded out. However, I didn't mind the 75 Years logo that was used in 1998, because it had the soothing background music. After that, they went back to the regular logo with the FSU/Braves music and continued using it until 2003, when the current edition debuted. If you listen to the music played at the beginning of Warner Bros. movies from 1999-now, you'll notice that the closing music for its TV shows came directly from the movie opening. This piece of music is based on As Time Goes By, which was made famous by the 1942 film Casablanca, and it is quite possibly the most beautiful piece of music ever made. I'm glad they carried it over to the redesigned logo in 2018, where the shield zooms in as the theme plays.

For comparison purposes, here's the opening movie theme:

And the closing TV theme:

[US71]

[TXtoNJ]

Why were they so insistent on making these as apocalyptic as possible? Was it something about the Cold War?

[Rothman]

I don't remember seeing the "W7" one before.  I liked the bottom one from when I was a kid, though.

[US71]

I don't remember seeing the "W7" one before.  I liked the bottom one from when I was a kid, though.

W7 only lasted about 3 years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warner_Bros.-Seven_Arts

[Scott5114]

Why were they so insistent on making these as apocalyptic as possible? Was it something about the Cold War?

Probably has to do with the limitations of computer graphics and sound technology at the time. When everyone else has traditionally animated graphics and music, you want to do something NEW and DIFFERENT with TECHNOLOGY and then you realize you can't really make anything very good with the tech at the time. So you do some brightly colored text animations on a black background with some synthesizer tones.

[bing101]

Before Nexstar Took over the old Tribune owned stations like KTLA Los Angeles and WGN Chicago. Nexstar had a productions logo that sounds scary at the end of local Newscasts when they took over KRON 4 San Francisco back in 2017.

[Road Hog]

I can provide links for a number of 20th Century Fox movie and television logos if interested.