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The S from hell

ahh, yes, they waged on ongoing effort with Viacom to ensure that you woke up in time for
the start of the next program
 
I was one of the few who was never scared by that logo. Now, those mid-to-late '60s through '71 Universal TV logos, that's another story. Whoever did the thing is a bit off by a year on when the S first appeared.
 
None of the above bothered me...Now the CBS Eye, especially the "zooming camera shutter" version...A different story. And the closing CBS eye wallpaper that aired at the end of stuff like "Perry Mason" and "The Twilight Zone"? Yikes!
 
I like that logo.....maybe it was scary years ago.....now I do get a chill seeing H-B swirling star, MGM, or old 60's Twentieth Century Fox logo's........gotta still mute the tv at times...lol
 
Kurt Toy said:
Now, those mid-to-late '60s through '71 Universal TV logos...

Don't forget its late '50s to mid '60s predecessor, the "scary Revue tag."

There you are, dozing off during the final season Beav credits (with the
jazzy Pete Rugolo arrangement), and all of a sudden you're jarred awake
and scared (bleep)less by the xylophone sounder and the visual with the
letters scrolling left and right, down and up, across the screen.
 
That logo never scared me either (kinda wished the producers of "The Monkees" did a goofy variant on that logo but never did.)...Before the red "S" was used Screen Gems used the "Dancing Sticks" closer for its TV shows in the 1964 and 1965 seasons. Hanna-Barbera's anmiated programs also used the closer (Johnny Quest,The Flintstones,Magilla Gorilla,Peter Potamus)when Screen Gems still had the distribution rights until 1969 when Taft Broadcasting bought the H-B company. The first season of "Bewitched" and last season of "Route 66" also used the Dancing Sticks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xf8HFgAsTEI&NR=1



Scarest logo from my childhood?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-rxDtqQT5A

......talk about surreal...AAAAHHHHHHH!!!!! :eek:

...and that other surreal-ist (and art deco-ish) "REVUE in hollywood" logo from the 50s coupled with MCA's filmreel from hell also gave me the jitters.
 
I like the S, always have. From the long fanfare in the 60s to the abbreviated music of the 70s it's been IMHO kind of trippy and entertaining (then again I'm a geek who's into fanfares and logos). ;D

The S was gone for years, replaced by cutting the show off after the last credits to substituting the logo of the distribution company. Then Sony brought back Screen Gems in 1999 and now it's seen regularly on WGN after SG shows (Bewitched & IDOG). :)

I say Long Live the S! :D Sweet! ;)
 
ajc_trw said:
Then Sony brought back Screen Gems in 1999 and now it's seen regularly on WGN after SG shows (Bewitched & IDOG). :)

WGN-TV/WGN America: still the home of bad production values.

If they must squeeze the end credits (on Jeannie and Bewitched, for example)
in order to run a lower-screen promo, then at least pre-produce it so it fades
up from black with the video already squeezed in the graphic, then fades to
black with the Sony tag in the squeeze box, and dump it into the playback
server. Instead they run the master control video feed into the DVE and
shrink it and expand it on the fly, rarely with good results.

Reminds me of Cubs games on WGN in the 1980s when all the fonts were added
at the station rather than from the remote truck at the game site--going into
a break, station master control would take the remote video and squeeze it down
while popping in the Chyron (Vidifont, whatever). Looked schlocky, as did the
simple player ID fonts also added at the station which often stayed up after
the game site cut to another shot after the batter close-up.
 
Limp73 said:
That logo never scared me either (kinda wished the producers of "The Monkees" did a goofy variant on that logo but never did.)...Before the red "S" was used Screen Gems used the "Dancing Sticks" closer for its TV shows in the 1964 and 1965 seasons. Hanna-Barbera's anmiated programs also used the closer (Johnny Quest,The Flintstones,Magilla Gorilla,Peter Potamus)when Screen Gems still had the distribution rights until 1969 when Taft Broadcasting bought the H-B company. The first season of "Bewitched" and last season of "Route 66" also used the Dancing Sticks.

The "red S" logo looked out of place on The Flintstones (it was used during the 6th (that is, final) season (65-66). OTOH the populuxe*-looking "dancing sticks" somehow fit right in.

*Read Thomas Hine's Populuxe and you know what that word refers to.

ixnay
 
donnyg said:
The one that scared the crap out of me was the NBC "SNAKE" where the N and the B and the C each morphed out of each other and the chimes played. That one would almost have me crapping my pants!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83fxl537itA
Really?! I can watch that one again and again (especially the three-color version)....along with the NBC peacock. I think the snake "NBC", their peacock, and the CBS eye are the most iconic logos of all broadcast TV history. Most recognizable, most elegant, most prolific.

In other words, really, really cool.
 
oldschooler1 said:
donnyg said:
The one that scared the crap out of me was the NBC "SNAKE" where the N and the B and the C each morphed out of each other and the chimes played. That one would almost have me crapping my pants!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83fxl537itA
Really?! I can watch that one again and again (especially the three-color version)....along with the NBC peacock. I think the snake "NBC", their peacock, and the CBS eye are the most iconic logos of all broadcast TV history. Most recognizable, most elegant, most prolific.

In other words, really, really cool.
I guess I should explain a bit. As a child, I was very sensitive to noises and things like that, So for some reason, when that logo appeared with the chimes, it really freaked me out. I totally agree about the coolness of the logo. As a matter of fact, I wish they would use the logos nowadays to signify the end of a program as a tribute to what tv should be. I always loved the old school peacock at the beginning of an NBC show. I actually had the peacock as a startup for my computer at one time. I also used to freak out when the TV stations went off the air at night! I hated it if I got up too early and my TV stations weren't on the air yet. Now I'd love to see an old fashioned sign off ;D
 
Maybe it's just me, but I never got what was so "scary" about these logos. ??? Granted, some of them could be loud, but so were commercials! My favorite was the "CBS special presentation" logo, because it always preceded "Peanuts" specials, so a special memory for me there.

As for cutting off closing credits, it always annoyed me when they cut off the closing credits to Solid Gold, because that was often when the dancers did their best booty-shaking moves, usually turning their butts right toward the camera! ;D (Although it was occasionally hard to see because of those closing credits!)
 
[/quote]
Really?! I can watch that one again and again (especially the three-color version)....along with the NBC peacock. I think the snake "NBC", their peacock, and the CBS eye are the most iconic logos of all broadcast TV history. Most recognizable, most elegant, most prolific.

In other words, really, really cool.
[/quote]

The NBC color snake (black,blue,green,red)with chimes I thought were cool and yes..iconic! The snake logo was by far the coolest and HIPPEST of all logos used by NBC! Only time it scared was when I was watching the first season of Get Smart and I was expecting the peacock network was still using the 64/65 closer of the cameraman passing in front of the multicolored floodlights.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqJv-VHf6zs&feature=related
 
I caught my first glimpse of the SFH when I was 5 years old, at the end of "The Farmer's Daughter". It felt like a knife was ripping through my chest. :eek: For the next several years after, when shows like "Bewitched" would start to roll the end credits, I'd be running to the other side of my house yelling "Help! Help! Screen Gems! ABC! Screen Gems!", then go into my bedroom closet, curl up into a fetal position and drown out the music. Dur Dur Ding-a-Ling Ding RRRINNG a RRRRINNGGG!!!

The SFH still gives me the chills to this day, the one that Sony uses for their movies is pretty cool, though.

Also scary to me back then were the Four Star banner (Filmed by FOURRRRRRR STARRRRRRRRR!!), the BCP crashing cars, The Revue filmstrips, The WB shield over the top of the WB studios, The Rankin-Bass RB logo, The SG Dancing sticks, and the SG fanfare from hell (the one that always preceded The Three Stooges)!

OTOH, the Viacom "V of Doom" was my favorite! :D
 
Nobody's post production never scared me, But that red stopper sounder from Scrabble used to scare the bejesus out of me when I was 5 or 6. (Even though I loved the show)
 
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