Television disc releases with original logos (1 Viewer)

[MatthewA]

Ben, thanks for those. They must have been taken from different episodes than the ones I checked, and they must have switched them around from week to week until Paramount retired the blue mountain altogether.

The Golden Girls on DVD ends with the "Touchstone Television" logo on all 7 seasons when originally on NBC, it used "Touchstone Films*" for season 1, then "Touchstone Pictures" for season 2, but didn't switch to the word "Television" until season 3 or 4. The DVDs also have a Buena Vista International logo after that, but since Disney no longer uses the Buena Vista name for distribution, all the Hulu versions have are the Touchstone logo.

The company that made The Facts of Life changed its three times in nine years; during that time, its ownership changed as well. They didn't start using a logo until late 1982 after T.A.T. Communications merged with Embassy and an actual logo came into use for the first time, and they kept using it until the middle of the 9th season, but on DVD only seasons 5 and 6 (the Edna's Edibles seasons) have it. At first, I thought they didn't want to give Coca-Cola free advertising, but that doesn't explain why some, but not all, episodes of Designing Women on DVD still have the Columbia Pictures Television logo with a Coca-Cola byline while also capturing the logo changes between 1986 and 1993 without any Sony additions at the end.


*Sorry I could only find that in the context of another show. How ironic Ellen Burstyn failed in a sitcom the same time Lucille Ball did in Life With Lucy after Linda Lavin spent 9 years on Alice playing a role Ellen won an Oscar for, but re-written by Lucy's old writers from her first three shows, And coincidentally, Jenny Lewis went from playing Lucy's granddaughter in Life With Lucy to playing the girl who stole Rose Nylund's teddy bear on Golden Girls to playing Shelley Long's daughter in Troop Beverly Hills, whose costume designer, Theodora Van Runkle, also designed the costumes for the movie Mame, which Lucille Ball and Bea Arthur were in.

 

[ClassicTVMan1981X]

Original logo on DVD roundup as of July 2019:
The Bad News Bears: The Complete Collection - original Paramount Television "Blue Mountain" logo, with the respective 1978 (season 1) and 1979 (season 2) jingles.

Here's Boomer (season 1) - original Paramount Television "Blue Mountain" logo, with 1979 jingle, intact on all nine episodes and the lead-off Christmas special ("A Christmas for Boomer" aka "Boomer in Love").

~Ben

 

[Mark Y]

Batman has the original 1960s 20th Century Fox logo at the end.

The various releases of Filmation shows (Isis, Shazam, Jason of Star Command, Space Academy, The Ghost Busters, Fat Albert, etc). still retain the Filmation logo on the end credits (though it's probably supplemented by distributor logos after that).

I'm sure I have other examples, but I'm not in front of my collection right now.

For UK logos, only the Region 1 release of Rising Damp has the original Yorkshire Television opening and ending logos (they're cut and/or replaced in other regions). The Benny Hill Show has the original Thames TV opening/ending logos.

There are many other examples of UK logos on Region 2/4 releases, but I don't want to derail the thread too much, as I'm sure US shows was the focus here.

The third season of Batman has the wrong Fox logo at the end of all the episodes. Originally it was shorter, but the DVDs replace the original end logo with the longer one from the first two seasons. I have no idea why.

 

[ScottRE]

- Star Trek TOS has its Desilu logo

However, the 1968 episodes of the second season all have the wrong logo. It should be the Paramount "Rising Circle" Logo with the Desilu theme. You can find it on Mission: Impossible episodes of the same year.

 

[ClassicTVMan1981X]

However, the 1968 episodes of the second season all have the wrong logo. It should be the Paramount "Rising Circle" Logo with the Desilu theme. You can find it on Mission: Impossible episodes of the same year.

The Lucy Show: The Complete Sixth and Final Season DVD set does have that logo intact on all the nine episodes that carried it, and with all three variations.


These would also have been seen on all ten 1968 episodes of Mission: Impossible (season 2) and on Mannix (season 1) starting with the two-part episode "Deadfall"; but on DVD, M:I only has the first version intact and with the wrong 1966 version of the Desilu theme (that Star Trek also had), while Mannix replaces all instances of that with the CBS Television Distribution logo.

~Ben

 

[bmasters9]

The third season of Batman has the wrong Fox logo at the end of all the episodes. Originally it was shorter, but the DVDs replace the original end logo with the longer one from the first two seasons. I have no idea why.

You think that perhaps the film of that shorter third-season TCF logo could have been damaged?

 

[Mark Y]

You think that perhaps the film of that shorter third-season TCF logo could have been damaged?

I kind of doubt that, especially since each episode had a unique closing, and that logo also was used on many other shows, so could easily be taken from another source if necessary.

My best guess (and it's only a guess) is maybe since Warner released the set, at some point they weren't going to include the Fox logos so they were cut from the digital masters, then the decision was reversed and they were added back on, and whoever did it forgot or didn't know they were different. If that's not what happened, I bet it was something along those lines.

By the way -- On the first ("uncorrected") release of Season 1, the first episode (without the opening narration) had the correct visuals for the Fox end logo, but the audio was from a 1990s TV version, which was shorter. The "corrected" disc not only has the narration, but the correct Fox logo audio as well.

Also, I just checked the last disc of Season 3 -- the "Batgirl" pilot demo film is on there, bit it is not "remastered" like the main episodes. It has the longer Fox logo. I am guessing this is correct for that pilot film? (Meaning it predates the use of the shorter logo?)

Speaking of which -- there are several extras on the old "Holy Batmania" DVD which was released years before the series itself, which did not make the cut for the series releases -- including a short presentation reel from the first episode, which is similar to the Batgirl pilot, but while it uses footage from "Hi Diddle Riddle," the narration and score are different in places. I remember hearing Ramsey Lewis's "The 'In' Crowd" in there somewhere -- this must have been before they finished what would be the final score for the show. (The short Batman presentation also has the standard ABC in color intro at the beginning rather than the Batman-specific "color logo.")

 

[ScottRE]

The ABC Promos for the series, which were on the Holy Batmania DVD, didn't make it to the blu-rays. Unless I missed them. The one where Batman and Robin get behind the batscreen under fire by a pool was used on my local syndication station to promote the reruns.

Timecode 1:35 or 2:35. They either ran the longer or shorter. I don't remember which.



Obviously editing out the ABC info....

 

[Mark Y]

The ABC Promos for the series, which were on the Holy Batmania DVD, didn't make it to the blu-rays. Unless I missed them. The one where Batman and Robin get behind the batscreen under fire by a pool was used on my local syndication station to promote the reruns.

Timecode 1:35 or 2:35. They either ran the longer or shorter. I don't remember which.



Obviously editing out the ABC info....

Channel 32 in Chicago used that as a promo too, in the early 1970s -- and I also remember them using the Season 2 one where they introduce the new Bat-equipment. I note some of the promos on that DVD have two versions, with ABC references and without.

Channel 32 ran the show circa 1973-1980. (Previously it had been on WGN-Channel 9.) After it had been off a few years, they brought it back and they used one of those later promos (produced on video) -- "Batman and Robin ride again!" "Let's just hope we're not too late!" They cross-faded it at the end with the station's logo (they were affiliated with Metromedia at the time).

There is a similar Munsters set with A&E Biography episodes and various promos. One of the ones on that DVD (with Eddie in a tree) was used as a promo by WSNS-Channel 44 in the 1970s.