Closing Logo Plastering - Why?

The "weirdest" instance of that Worldvision logo, for me, was seeing it on syndicated reruns of DARK SHADOWS throughout the 1980s.

BTW: Paramount...
You know(?), G&W boss Charles Bludhorn *did* have the business acumen to bring ROBERT EVANS into the company...and he scored BIG, with: Love Story and The Godfather.

 

What about Viacom?

 

It started in 1971... the company's name is a contraction of VIdeo and Audio COMmunications. It, along with Worldvision Enterprises, was formed after the FCC passed a law barring TV networks from syndicating its own productions. This law was finally repealed in 1995. Until the 1971 enactment, Viacom was known as CBS Films, and Worldvision being ABC Films.

Viacom's first logo, seen from 1971 to 1976, was multicolored: it started on a purple background with the letter "V" sliding in from the right of the screen, which changes the background to green. Then the "IA" appears and positions itself next to the "V" which changes the same background to red. Finally, "COM" appears and positioned next to "V" and "IA" changing the background to blue and forming "VIACOM," which after panning out reveals the phrase, "A VIACOM PRESENTATION." Background music is a mishmash of sounds resembling a pinball machine.

(the colors on some versions of this logo will be different owing to the quality of the prints seen - a version even existed in grayscale for B&W shows)


Their second logo, seen from 1976 up to late 1985, was called the "V of Doom." It begins on a light blue background, with the phrase "A Viacom Presentation" zooming in at the bottom, followed by a big dark blue "V" that engulfs the whole screen before going black. The jingle was a five-note synthesized tune accompanied by a timpani drum.
Viacom (high-tone filmed) (1976) (filmed version)
Viacom "V of Doom" Videotaped Logo (Color) (1980's) -HIGH QUALITY- (taped version)
On the filmed version, the logo animation is rather choppy, so obviously the videotaped version has smoother animation.

The videotaped version had many other colored versions, including a dark green V against a bronze background, and grayscale versions existed for both the filmed and taped versions (but mostly the filmed version) as seen on B&W shows.


~Ben

 

The first logo font reminds me of "Mary Tyler Moore"

 

Yes, indeed... the Peignot font was also used on some variations of the 1983 Merv Griffin Enterprises logo.

~Ben

 

Among tons of other things! Peignot - thanks for the info

 

IIRC, when Nick At Nite ran My Three Sons, the black and white episodes had the later Viacom logo (1976) in black and white, and the later color episodes (last few seasons which had not been part of the syndication package) had the earlier 1971 Viacom logo. Is that correct?

The black and white episodes had aired on ABC originally before the show moved to CBS. I always guessed that's why they weren't syndicated with the rest. (I wonder if there were any legal issues which had to be sorted out.) For the later episodes, they came after the earlier color episodes had already entered syndication, while new episodes continued to air on CBS, and they were never added to the package, so this odd combination of episodes (very early and very late) was never syndicated and went right to cable instead. Right?

 

First post here-- I just wanted to say that not all Paramount and Sony shows have had their logos whitewashed on DVD:

--Petrocelli from VEI is one that has the Paramount logos of the time on it (Split Box on the first half [1974-75], and Blue Mtn. on the second half [1975-76]).

--Also, Hart to Hart from Shout!, while it doesn't necessarily have the CPT logo of the time on the fourth- and fifth-season (1982-84) releases (the 80s Coke Lady), does have one that, IMO, is pretty dadgum close to it-- the bylineless gold logo with the same Ciani jingle as the Coke Lady. When I saw that upon receipt of my purchase of that fourth-season release, I thought that while it wasn't the Coke Lady of my childhood (I was born in 1981, and the last two seasons of Hart to Hart were on from when I was 1 to when I was 3), the bylineless logo was close enough to it that it was well worth getting the releases of those last two seasons.

 

First post here-- I just wanted to say that not all Paramount and Sony shows have had their logos whitewashed on DVD:

--Petrocelli from VEI is one that has the Paramount logos of the time on it (Split Box on the first half [1974-75], and Blue Mtn. on the second half [1975-76]).

--Also, Hart to Hart from Shout!, while it doesn't necessarily have the CPT logo of the time on the fourth- and fifth-season (1982-84) releases (the 80s Coke Lady), does have one that, IMO, is pretty dadgum close to it-- the bylineless gold logo with the same Ciani jingle as the Coke Lady. When I saw that upon receipt of my purchase of that fourth-season release, I thought that while it wasn't the Coke Lady of my childhood (I was born in 1981, and the last two seasons of Hart to Hart were on from when I was 1 to when I was 3), the bylineless logo was close enough to it that it was well worth getting the releases of those last two seasons.

 

Other DVD sets that kept the old Split Boxes and Blue Mountains...

With the Split Box (1968-69 with yellow BG at beginning / 1969-75 with red BG at beginning)

Star Trek (The Original Series), season 3 (before 2006)
The Brady Bunch (1969-74; released on DVD 2005-06)
The Odd Couple (1970-75; season 1, via Time-Life, 2007)
Star Trek: The Animated Adventures (1973-75; released on DVD 2006)
Happy Days (1974-84; season 1, 2005)

With the Blue Mountain (1975-87)

Future Cop (1977; released on DVD 2016 via Mill Creek Entertainment)
Washington: Behind Closed Doors (1977; released on DVD 2012 via RLJ/Acorn Entertainment)
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1979; released on DVD 2003 via RLJ/Acorn Entertainment)
Tenspeed and Brown Shoe (1980; released on DVD 2010 via Mill Creek Entertainment, but our NTSC release does not have the pilot episode included due to disagreement between Mill Creek and CBS Studios when the DVD was being prepared)
Police Squad! (1982, released on DVD 2006)
Smiley's People (1982; released on DVD 2004 via RLJ/Acorn Entertainment)
The Winds of War (1983; released on DVD 2003)
Webster (1983-89; seasons 1-4 released on DVD 2012-13 via Shout! Factory)
MacGyver, seasons 1-2 (1985-92; released on DVD 2005)

~Ben

 

And the Mill Creek 2-season release of T.J. Hooker (I think also that the new all-in-one from Shout! might have it as well) has the gold bylineless CPT 80s Torch Lady as well (Sunburst/Abstract Torch on truncated first season from early '82).

 

The yellow split box Paramount logo is on the first season or two of Here's Lucy on DVD, as well.

 

Season 1 only.

I hope the same logo you mention will be on the forthcoming DVD release of The Immortal (1970-71), regarding the 1969 pilot. I'm still unsure if the Young Lawyers DVD set preserves that on the pilot (also from '69).

~Ben

 

Forgot to say this...

Paramount Television's early 1968 "Rising Circle" logo is preserved on these DVD releases:
Mission: Impossible (season 2, version 1 only)
The Lucy Show (season 6, all three versions)

~Ben

 

I just read somewhere very recently that there was a very scary logo at the end of every single Night Court episode.

Is anyone familiar with this?

 

That play button gives me so many memories.

 

If you mean this, you're absolutely right... except on the 1989-92 episodes which end only with the WBTV logo (Reinhold Weege, the executive producer, left production of the series during 1989). Some seasons had the logo theme only, without the laugh.

~Ben

 

Scary? Jesus.

 

I have read numerous accounts of people considering the "Starry Night" tag frightening. I guess the "pop" was startling to some people, and then the following laugh was creepy? I never found it scary because I always enjoyed the "Night Court" theme so much and was so entertained to do the "tap tap" part.

 

Also, everything King World also ended up getting replaced with CBS Television Distribution at the tail. It's a simple "out with old, in with the new" mentality.
Imagine having to replace that logo on hundreds of master tapes, editing machine-to-machine. Oy! (It would be done in Adobe Premiere or Final Cut today)
All the correct production company logos must be present, too, in the correct order. If something happens to them, people get REALLY bent out of shape.

Every now and then, an old logo will be seen. This is because an old master gets pulled, and the customer service people largely do not have that attention to detail;
it's just a barcode to them.


Dan

 

Yes, it is definitely a thing:

An Autistic's Guide to Scary TV Production Logos - TwilightFoundry.com

 

I am not kidding about it either.

 

That's what I read about.

 

Yes. That's what I meant.