Scary Logos

[ixnay]

This is a great thread!

The NAB "Television Code" logo was used by WKBS-48 Burlington, NJ/Philadelphia during its signons and -offs. It looked like it was going to bust the sides of the screen. Scared the **** out of me.

So did the EBS tests on TV and radio. But if a station in the Philadelphia market or its rimshots used a more "human" EBS announcment, I never heard it.

To me, the "dancing sticks" Screen Gems signature only slightly scared me. I always imagined Fred Flintstone being unceremoniously dumped into that animation intime to be a) have his spare tire poked repeatedly by those sticks or B) have those sticks turned into jail cell bars. ;D And I say this although I've always been a fan of the 1960-1966 primetime "Flintstones" series, which is more than I can say for, say, "The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show" or "The Flintstone Funnies". (I wish I could afford Boomerang. ) But that's another thread.

I also remember seeing the "dancing sticks" being used at the end of at least one ep of "Bewitched". If there was a logo that looked so first-half-of-the-'60s, that was it.

ixnay
(who recently drove through Flintstone, Maryland [just off Interstate 68] on my way home from Cumberland)

 

[dxnemo78]

I don't recall any of the program closing logos being particularly frightening to me. I must have been psychologically numbed by flying monkeys (Wizard of Oz), Civil Defense PSA's (Regarding where to find a "Fallout Shelter") and Grandfather Clock (Captain Kangaroo).

Now that you mention it, Grandfather Clock WAS a little creepy.....

As was Dancing Bear, to me anyhow ;D

It may not sound too nice, but one local station's 10:00 PM news crew used to creep me out somewhat, particularly the cold intro the lead anchor did at the beginning (I have no recollection of the theme music, or even if they used any in the early-mid '70's). During the same era, their competitor used a nightmare-invoking intro piece that included omnious bass drums and clapping hands ***shudder***

 

[Stanislav]

I don't recall any of the program closing logos being particularly frightening to me. I must have been psychologically numbed by flying monkeys (Wizard of Oz), Civil Defense PSA's (Regarding where to find a "Fallout Shelter") and Grandfather Clock (Captain Kangaroo).

Now that you mention it, Grandfather Clock WAS a little creepy.....

As was Dancing Bear, to me anyhow ;D

And what about Mr. Green Jeans? Didn't he look like exactly like the guy in your neighborhood that your mother warned you about? The one whose house you bypassed on Halloween, and into whose yard you didn't dare venture to retrieve an errant baseball? Mr. Moose's asthmatic voice didn't inspire confidence, either, and what's up with Bunny Rabbit? Is he really mute, or just pretends not to be able to speak?

Actually, you gotta wonder about the Captain himself. Something unnerving about a grown man who wears a Buster Brown hairdo and 1890's mustache, and habitually dresses in that odd uniform of uncertain provenance. Funny....it all seemed so innocent back in the day, but looking back through the prism of adulthood, that was really one surreal show.

 

[ixnay]

BION for some reason I hardly watched Captain Kangaroo. To me he's basically some dude the Statler Brothers sang about. ;D

ixnay

 

[Stanislav]

BION for some reason I hardly watched Captain Kangaroo. To me he's basically some dude the Statler Brothers sang about. ;D

"Countin' flowers on the wall...that don't bother me at all..." GREAT old song!

 

[kirkiefan]

Bob Keeshan was Captain Kangaroo for much of the program's 50s/60s/70s run on CBS and later to American Public Television (PBS' sydnication arm) in the 80s.

I remember reading in the Dayton Daily news a few years before Keeshan's passing, a new version of the children's show was going into production somewhere in Florida with a younger actor portraying the captain...and that was the last time I heard of it.

As for Dancing Bear with his wide open mouth never speaking,that never creeped me out...neither did Grandfather Clock...granted it did look just a tad surreal ...almost as did the"bullet in the eye injury" scene in the 1902 Georges Melles silent film "A Trip To The Moon" which is so scary,you hurt and greive for the lunar characature.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndQ0FKa92J8&feature=related

 

[azumanga]

Bob Keeshan was Captain Kangaroo for much of the program's 50s/60s/70s run on CBS and later to American Public Television (PBS' sydnication arm) in the 80s.

I remember reading in the Dayton Daily news a few years before Keeshan's passing, a new version of the children's show was going into production somewhere in Florida with a younger actor portraying the captain...and that was the last time I heard of it.

This new version of the show did exist during the 1997-1998 season, after Saban (the Power Rangers people) bought the series. The serites featured a new person playing the Captain, John McDonough, with wildlife segments taped at Busch Gardens in Tampa. Bob Keeshan, who played the original Captain, was invited to join the cast as the "Admiral", but decided not to have anything to do with it after seeing the pilot. It is unknown of the show's fate today, but chances are that Disney now owns the Captain Kangaroo property (after its 2001 acquisition of Saban).

 

[X-Man]

For some strange reason the ABC logo back in the 70's was kinda creepy, also the first Viacom logo after the ending of show was pretty scary. Also the Mark IV after the end of Dragnet and Emergency kind creeped me out too.

 

[bpatrick]

For some reason I never could stand the original
opening of "As The World Turns," not the globe,
not the organ music, not the original announcer,
Dan McCullough. But when the graphics and the
theme song changed, and Dan Region became the
announcer, my attitude changed (I correspond with
Region once in awhile, mainly because of an article
about Gettysburg he wrote for his hometown paper
and which I use in my U.S. history classes, and he is
a super nice guy).

As for "The Edge Of Night," I'm sorry that the poster
couldn't stay in the room when it came on, but IMO
here was a case of a perfect match of announcer (Hal
Simms) and show.

My least favorite game-show opening by a country
mile: "Truth Or Consequences." Beulah the Buzzer
gets on my nerves to this day. OTOH, I wish "What's
My Line?" had let the theme music from its last two
seasons on CBS (1965-67) go a little longer.

And since we're talking about logos, I won't say I'm
scared of it, but I think WCAX/3 Burlington-Plattsburgh
has the ugliest logo I have ever seen, yet it's been picked
up by other stations on Channel 3, like WAVE Louisville and
WTKR Norfolk.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

For some reason I never could stand the original
opening of "As The World Turns," not the globe,
not the organ music, not the original announcer,
Dan McCullough. But when the graphics and the
theme song changed, and Dan Region became the
announcer, my attitude changed (I correspond with
Region once in awhile, mainly because of an article
about Gettysburg he wrote for his hometown paper
and which I use in my U.S. history classes, and he is
a super nice guy).

As for "The Edge Of Night," I'm sorry that the poster
couldn't stay in the room when it came on, but IMO
here was a case of a perfect match of announcer (Hal
Simms) and show.

My least favorite game-show opening by a country
mile: "Truth Or Consequences." Beulah the Buzzer
gets on my nerves to this day. OTOH, I wish "What's
My Line?" had let the theme music from its last two
seasons on CBS (1965-67) go a little longer.

And since we're talking about logos, I won't say I'm
scared of it, but I think WCAX/3 Burlington-Plattsburgh
has the ugliest logo I have ever seen, yet it's been picked
up by other stations on Channel 3, like WAVE Louisville and
WTKR Norfolk.

When I was younger (even up until my early high school years), I would get huge goosebumps and chills whenever I saw clips containing the old ATWT organ music and original BW globe opening. Basically any B&W versions of current TV programs/current product advertisements would give me the frights seeing them in then-1980s/very early '90s eyes. But this went away by about 1991 or so, mainly because I gave up on listening to Top-40 radio and started listening to Oldies then (and also enjoying watching nostalgic programs like "The Wonder Years" and "I'll Fly Away").

(Now I did watch, in 6th grade, the fall 1988 CBS special "Four Days in November" than included the brief, heavily edited clips of the 11/22/63 ATWT episode with the organ/globe opening--which actually was at the beginning of the show instead of at 12:40 as the special portrayed--and this brief clip didn't scare me that time).

Although the scene did not contain the old "Edge of Night" logo, the part in "Driving Miss Daisy" where the maid died suddenly while she and Hoke were watching a circa-1963 episode of "Edge" in Miss Daisy Werthan's kitchen gave me chills when I first saw the movie (not from the death scene, but rather from the Edge organ music and Hal Simms' gothic-sounding "The Edge of Night has been brought to you by . . . Ivory Soap" announcement at the moment the maid died and the peas fell to the floor). And I was in 7th grade when I saw that movie in the spring of 1990!

Also I would basically be scared to see any program (including Happy Days, etc.) when I was about 5 or so that was a Paramount production (I was born in '77--so back in the days of the blue background). Seeing older, B&W or early color Paramount logos in movies, old programs, etc. gave me even more of the creeps.

Now it's an enjoyable treat to come across the old clips on YouTube and the like containing clips of old commericials and the ATWT organ opening (including the 11/22/1963 episode interrupted by coverage of JFK's assassination that I posted here a few weeks ago), as well as similar programs. Give me those any day (even though I'm generally not a soap fan) than the stuff that passes for "reality TV" today.

 

[Kurt Toy]

...when I was a kid, the spinning diamonds ITC logo drove me nuts.
I was cool with that one, 'cause it meant the Muppets were coming on. Also, for some reason, this stuff was more scary when it was at the end of shows rather than the beginning.

Another freaky one was when CBS used to have the eye wallpaper at the end of their dramas with those big, blaring musical signatures ("Perry Mason" & "The Twilight Zone" were the worst).

Were you scared even worse when the "eye wallpaper" was followed by the Viacom "V of doom"?

 

[dxnemo78]

The ancient "As the World Turns" opening never scared me at all, but to this very day, if I hear it i think of........ mashed potatoes ;D

As a very young child, my mom was usually preparing lunch when ATWT came on after the noon news, and in farm country, "dinner" in those days most always involved meat and mashed potatoes. So if I heard that song right now, I'd think of the odd-shaped saucepan she always fixed mashed potatoes in, and her with an old GE hand-held mixer, creating a mighty static on the old Zenith, no doubt. So unlike EON, the ATWT opening brings back pleasant memories for me 8)

 

[timmyb]

I think it was 1960-61 or 1961-62 when the CBS wallpaper was accompanied by a five second ditty. It (the jingle) scared the crap out of me. It followed shows like "Gunsmoke" "Perry Mason" "Have Gun, Will Travel" "Checkmate", etc. I was 3 or so.

The NET closing after the very early years of Sesame Street and Mister Rogers.

The diamond MCA with the horns from hell.

ABC had a weird thing with their logo and a tune that went something like "boo-boop-boo-boo-booooooooooooo!"

The Perry Mason opening where the camera zooms from a wide shot of the empty court room to Raymond Burr who simply looked up from a paper and smiled and the camera zoomed away. The theme was creepy. Also, the slide before the commercial break and the silhouette of lady justice. That made me shiver.

The one season where the Twilight Zone opened with a spinning cone in space. OMG!!!

Paladin's holster over the closing credits as Johnny Western sings "Paladin". The chess knight looked scary.

The old Filmways logo with the extremely grim voice over "This has been a Filmways presentation." Then it was really cool to hear either Elly May or Lisa Douglas intone, especially Elly's peppy voice. But Lurch's intone creeped me a bit.

The black silhoutted head with all the white dots for Anacin. UGH!!!

And yes, the CBS eye zoom with the shutter that open and said "CBS Television Network" and then closed again. I am now 50 and that to this very day gives me the creeps.

 

[Corky Marlowe]

Were you scared even worse when the "eye wallpaper" was followed by the Viacom "V of doom"?
Not really...That didn't come along till, what, the 70's? If I had been a little kid at the time, maybe.

 

[oldiesfan6479]

ABC had a weird thing with their logo and a tune that went something like "boo-boop-boo-boo-booooooooooooo!"

Consider yourself lucky, while also frightened.

I may have seen that at the end of ABC daytime shows on those
rare out-of-school or summer occasions, however all I saw at the
end of ABC prime time was a still of the ABC studio camera and
no sounder. Nope, no promos tagged to the system cue on the
crummy 16mm reduction prints for the ABC evening shows that
I saw for so many years, courtesy of being in the Mountain zone
--aka the "short bus" of time zones. ;D

The old Filmways logo with the extremely grim voice over "This has been a Filmways presentation." Then it was really cool to hear either Elly May or Lisa Douglas intone, especially Elly's peppy voice. But Lurch's intone creeped me a bit.

Did Lurch really do the Filmways tag at the end of Addams Family?
I never heard it. Being in the "16mm film prints from hell" audience, the
Filmways tag was always silent. Unless by "grim voice over" you are
referring to the tag done by Larry Keating at the end of Mr. Ed, which BTW
was still used after his death.

 

[dxnemo78]

The voice on the Addams Family Filmways tag was undeniably that of Ted "Lurch" Cassidy. I heard it in fairly recent times, must have been on TVLand. Whether his voice was used on the tags for the entire series, I have no clue. Cassidy did a guest shot on Beverly Hillbillies as Mrs. Drysdale's gardener, and his "normal" voice on there sounded just like the voice on the tag.

Could you elaborate on the "16 mm prints from hell" in the Mountain time zone subject? Sounds interesting...

And BTW, "Brown Eyed Girl" sucks. They should replace it with "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport" ;D

 

[Corky Marlowe]

Unless by "grim voice over" you are
referring to the tag done by Larry Keating at the end of Mr. Ed, which BTW
was still used after his death.
That was Addison? I always thought it was Allan "Rocky" Lane (Ed's voice).

One closing logo that came along much too late for me to be actually scared by it (but I can understand how it could scare wee ones) was the Carson Productions logo at the end of the Tonight show and the sitcom "Amen".

 

[oldiesfan6479]

Could you elaborate on the "16 mm prints from hell" in the Mountain time zone subject? Sounds interesting...

Early and mid-1960s.
KTVK Phoenix (then-ABC, now indie).
KGUN-TV Tucson (ABC)--fed by KTVK via microwave link.

KTVK either didn't have sufficient VTR gear, or didn't think
what they had was reliable enough, to do any prime time
tape-delaying of ABC--not even on the nights where you
could flip the 7:30 ET hour to 9:00, and air 8:30-11 ET
"live" 6:30-9. That would have taken only two machines
(primary and backup record).

On some nights doing the "flip" would not be a savvy move
as the first ET hour was kidvid or young adult, and they
certainly weren't set up to delay everything one hour "in
pattern"--none of the PHX or TUS affils were.

On Saturday nights KTVK/KGUN cleared prime time live
starting at 5:30, but Sunday-Friday they ran 16mm film
prints of all the shows--same night (not a one-week or
longer delay as ABC shipped KTVK the films in advance)
and in pattern 6:30-10 (6-10 on Sunday). This included
the ABC Sunday Night Movie.

Of course the 16mm reduction prints looked terrible and
sounded tinny.

KTVK did have to tape and turn around the occasional
video tape show, and in the 66-67 season they started
to experiment with hit-and-miss VTR delays (but you
never knew when that would occur). The next season
or two is kind of a blur, and KGUN did do some things
separately by the late '60s, but they finally got into
full-blown one-hour (two hour summer) tape delays
by the early '70s.

It was also posted some time ago (on the PHX TV
board, IIRC) that in the '70s KTVK fed not only TUS
but also ABQ and ELP. I believe the poster was a
KTVK staffer at the time and he said in the summer
they did a one-hour delay for ABQ/ELP and then
turned the same playback segues around again an
hour later for PHX/TUS (two-hour delay--thanks to
the "drive-in movie lobby" which conned the state
legislature into exempting AZ from DST).

 

[dxnemo78]

Thanks for the explanation. It would be interesting for me to observe some of those crummy 16mm prints. Today, you get better technology all the time, but a bunch of crummy shows!! :-\

 

[dxnemo78]

Unless by "grim voice over" you are
referring to the tag done by Larry Keating at the end of Mr. Ed, which BTW
was still used after his death.
That was Addison? I always thought it was Allan "Rocky" Lane (Ed's voice).

One closing logo that came along much too late for me to be actually scared by it (but I can understand how it could scare wee ones) was the Carson Productions logo at the end of the Tonight show and the sitcom "Amen".

I was also grown when the Carson Productions logo came along, but it's one of my all-time favs. Something about it represents California, the "big time", the good life with Johnny and the gang, all that BS to this hayseed, anyway ;D (Johnny started life as a bit of a hayseed, ya know :)