Loco for Logos: The TV Edition

I'm going to start with a disclaimer before the audiovisual gods send me to hell where I have to watch this monstrosity of a production logo for eternity. This is an absolute mixed bag. I threw production companies, channel indents, a TV broadcasting company, and a mass-media conglomerate together in one. But there are some common threads. All of these logos aired on TV at one point in time. And all of them are my favorites.

So, picture this. You're lazily half-watching TV while you scroll on your phone. You put on something familiar. Let's say The Simpsons. Yes, I know that the popular sentiment is that The Simpsons isn't as good as it used to be. But let's pretend.

The episode ends. You haven't looked up from your phone yet, but you hear something very familiar. I bet you can hear it without playing the video, just by looking at the thumbnail alone.

But I'll sing it anyway. Shhhhh. Da da dunnn dun dun dun dunnn dun dunnnn.

A feeling of comfort and happiness washes over you. Or one of satisfaction and longing. If you're like the 1.2 million people who have watched that YouTube video, you likely feel nostalgic and are transported to a time when cable TV was a larger part of your life.

For me, it was childhood. It's 8 p.m. on a Sunday night and my family is gathered in our small living room. It's dark, and I'm sitting on a large floral sofa in front of an equally large tube TV, or if there was no room, on the old, chipped wood floor. I'm trying to get the last bit of chocolate frosting out of the Dunkaroos container like a pig in front of a trough. Homer is strangling Bart for the hundredth time. Before I know it, the Gracie Films production logo appears on the screen, and I'm shooed to my room, its jingle being my parents' audible cue for bedtime.

But it's not nostalgia that brings me to YouTube at 1 a.m. to watch the Gracie Films production logo. No. It's because the logo is fucking rad. The rapid change from the soft, warm lighting to the strong, cool royal blue that lights up every corner of your room. It really makes you feel like you're in a movie theater screening room. The simple jingle, only three major chords, or so I'm told by this guy in his Gracie Films jingle piano tutorial (with Tree House of Horror variation). I don't play piano. But it's easy to remember and instantly recognizable. An earworm that is actually worthy of being an earworm.

For me, the logos or indents that would appear in-between or at the end of a TV show were very much part of the show. Each logo and associated jingle was a company signature, a visual and audio corporate identity. Some companies would make variations of their logo or jingle if a special episode aired or to match the characters or theme of a TV show. Or they would continuously change it because creativity and the constant state of being current was a part of their shtick. Either way, I looked forward to seeing them and their many evolutions.

Viacom

Oh "Wigga Wigga" logo. You’re a direct line to the pleasure center in my brain. Your modified Futura Extra Bold font with silver chrome coloring. The blue gradient background that looks like a PowerPoint slide. How the V quickly elongates into a bouncy zig-zag line to form the letters that make up Viacom. It feels zippy and so very “It’s the 90s and this is what we think the future is going to be like.” All other logos can go home, for they are the inferior product.

(Oh my God, it even has a watermark...)

Of your many musical variations, the one with the synthesized rock score and Don LaFontaine's commanding voice-over is my favorite. Did you know one of Don LaFontaine's nicknames was "Thunder Throat?" I didn't know what to do with that information and now you don't either.

Buena Vista Television

I'm used to the shortened version of the Buena Vista Television production logo, but I linked the long version just so you could see and hear how epic it was. We join three comets racing around a 3D-animated Earth. As they travel around the back, we zoom out quickly enough to see them loop around as they decide to take the journey into space together. Yes, I personified the comets. They are friends. You can blame Pixar for that.

As the comets travel out of frame leaving their frozen image behind, we fade into a boxed-in Earth and space over a black background. The consummately spaced letters of the words "Buena Vista Television" smoothly wipe across the screen, at first illuminated by the light of the passing comets, and then settling into, at least in my favorite variation, a gradient of gold, orange, pink, and purple, mimicking the color gradations between the sun, sunset, and space.

An absolutely fluid, flawless transition, all to a soundtrack of the most triumphant-sounding horns you have ever heard. This isn't part of the show, this is the show thank you very much. And it blasted me right off Earth.

DIC Entertainment

DIC Entertainment may be gone, but this production logo remains in my heart and among 90s childish humor. It is the ultimate cozy logo. The caboose lamp. The beagle sleeping at the boy's feet. The toys neatly posed on the dresser. Who doesn’t want a Hulk Hogan action figure? I've never seen a crystal-clear version of this logo, even during its heyday, but the blurry image adds an overall sleepy softness effect that would be hard to part ways with. Even the music is some kind of dreamy synth. Just 10 out of 10 on theme.

I want to stay here, but we can’t. The open window beckons. As we slowly move toward the open window to look at the stars, what is supposed to be a silver-spiked star moves toward us until it looks like you can almost reach it. I say “what is supposed to be a star” because a star is not the first thing that came to mind, even though it is the most obvious choice. I mean, it’s in the sky. But I thought it was a glitter pom pom. Classic kid misunderstanding. I have a ton of those, but we’d be here all day.

A sliver of something indiscernible appears under it until it slowly turns into view and in the process, moves closer and closer to the screen. The silver chromed word "DIC" settles off-center on the screen among the tiny stars. In this variation, a kid clearly and cheerfully says "DIC." Pronounced, "deek." Oh, did you think it was pronounced differently? You're not the only one.

Thames Television

Sadly, Thames Television ceased broadcasting for London’s ITV Television Network on December 31, 1992. It lives on in my dad’s Danger Mouse and Count Duckula DVDs, where I discovered it for the first time. And good thing too, because now that I know it exists, I would hate to have lived without it.

I want to pause (and I have paused) at the very beginning of this TV network logo. A cloudy horizon, met by a reflective body of water. The perfect place to clear your mind. My problems don’t matter. Everything can and will pass. Big, deep breaths. I am thankful for the TV I am about to watch.

Press play, and some of London’s famous landmarks rise up (and down in a very cool mirror effect) from the horizon, which includes Big Ben, the BT Tower, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and the Tower Bridge. And yet despite the realistic background, the white, all-caps, building-sized Thames, strangely fits in. The jingle, known as the “Salute to Thames” oozes formality. The most realistic logo of this bunch, I feel like it could have at least made it to the mid-2000s before being oversimplified into oblivion.

Castle Rock Entertainment

You’ve seen the sped-up version if you’ve ever watched a Seinfeld episode. Or maybe you have seen it from watching famous movies like Misery, The Shawshank Redemption, and The Green Mile. Named after the recurring fictional Maine town in Stephen King books, Castle Rock Entertainment has produced both TV and movie magic (and bombs) for decades.

If you’re familiar with this logo, you might wonder, why choose the dark variation of the Castle Rock Entertainment logo when there are plenty of variations that showcase the harbor and a beautiful sunset?

While those are visually appealing, there is something comforting about seeing a shining beacon of light cut through the darkness. It’s like we’re being guided to a safe harbor. We were lost, but now we can find our way home. Home to good TV.

This is backed by its five-note fanfare, which sounds kind of hopeful, adding to the "you're saved!" theme. We slowly gain visibility from both the lighthouse beacon and the rising sun. The rising sun reveals the silhouette of the lighthouse and harbor, altering the darkness into a burnt orange sky.

The rotating beacon reveals the words “Castle Rock Entertainment,” before concluding its rotation behind the lighthouse. I like how “entertainment” provides a foundation for the rest of the logo. It feels solid. Let’s hope it’s solid enough to hold up the company after its 2020 relaunch.

MTV and Nickelodeon

Admittedly, including MTV (formerly known as Music Television) and Nickelodeon in this list feels like it's cheating. But I feel like it would be an audiovisual sin if I didn’t. In my imagination, MTV and Nickelodeon were always in a silent competition for who could be the most artistic and original with their channel indents, a cousin to production logos. Never a clear winner, always neck at neck. I challenge you to think of another company that has come up with as many variations as these two have. OK, OK. Adult Swim. But if there was a tier system for best to worst, these logos would stand among the greats.

Because there are so many indents, it is hard for me to find a favorite. Can I just love them all equally? I really can’t choose. But I will name two that I put near the top of my list. MTV had so many indents that were wacky, weird, gross, and some that were just straight-up art. The 1989 MTV indent, "Horses," animated by Piotr Dumala, is one of those. A quick series of scratched images are brought to life in a technique called destructive animation. See it for yourself. It looks like it should be in an animation museum.

For Nickelodeon, it’s the "Never Done Doing Nickelodeon" indent. In this indent, the children continuously reshape the claymation Nickelodeon logo while the music reverses and scratches until they get the spelling right. While this might seem like a weird pick, I think it visually hammers home that the logo can be anything you want it to be. And based on the plethora of Nickelodeon indents, it is.

Mutant Enemy Inc.

Joss Whedon controversy aside, he got it right with his Mutant Enemy production logo, named after the first typewriter he received at the age of 15. I can’t tell you how many times I have walked around my apartment, muttering “grr, argh,” to myself.

I love the simplicity of this. The hand-drawn stylized text feels childlike, like something that a teenager would doodle and shade in during class. Combined with animation, which looks like someone holding a paper cut out of the zombie and making it move across the screen, it feels so accessible. Anyone could have made this. But if you’re watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, or Firefly on Hulu, you would miss out on making “grr, argh” a part of your daily life.

More people are turning to streaming services and on-demand viewing, where the display of logos, no matter what kind, is less prominent. Anyone watching Netflix or one of the many other streaming services can easily skip over them. That is if they're there at all. I'm even guilty of doing this sometimes. If you decide not to skip them, then the streaming app can minimize them through means of a countdown to the next episode.

While that does allow for a more seamless streaming experience, it kind of sucks. I mean, I’m not going to argue that the diminishing presence of these logos marks a major loss for media consumption. But they add to the appeal of the TV show, in the same way that a catchy theme song makes you want to sit through it every time instead of skipping. I can feel the loss of its presence.

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If you have a love for logos that might be bordering on fixation, like me, check out the Audiovisual Identity Database and Logopedia.