Sunday, February 10, 2008

Network ID's You're Nostalgic For

I was going through some old tapes of Freakazoid! I made when The Global Television Network showed the episodes late at night (kids weren't watching it on the Global "Kids TV" lineup, so they burned it off -- along with Animaniacs and other overly adult-oriented kids' shows -- in the late-night graveyard slot), and I was filled with a weird nostalgia at seeing the station identification that Global used in the late '90s. It had a kind of wistful sax theme that sounded like a cross between jazz and the "Miracle Whip" theme, and for some reason I always kind of liked it. Seeing it again took me back to an earlier time:



I should try and pick out more Global station IDs and promos from my old tapes. They always had a certain charm to them because despite Global's status as a fairly big (for Canada) network, they have always had low-tech, low-quality promos that look like they were put together by people who never watched the shows. (My favorite, which I've mentioned before, was their promo for a King of the Hill episode: "Someone's doing something on King of the Hill! Find out what -- next!")

Are there any network or station ID's you remember fondly?

16 comments:

Linda said...

WSBK TV-38's bouncy little station ID before they became "Borg-ized" as a UPN station. Thank God that's over, but they aren't back to their glory days as the best independent station in Boston.

Anonymous said...

The NBC Peacock in its original versions [1957-1962] and [1962-1976].
WGBH Boston [PBS] in the '70's.
Also the National Educational Television ID from the late 1960's, prior to PBS.
The one that looked like a little house with a TV antenna. Seen on many Mister Rogers reruns.

Anonymous said...

The old CBS Special Presentation bumper. Later much parodied (e.g., Animaniacs). Through the magic of Google I found out that the music they used was a snippet from the score of Hawaii Five-0.

Anonymous said...

NBC also had a black and white logo of a cartoon penguin in a top hat they used briefly in the late 60s/early 70s when showing a black and white movie on their highly touted all color network. I remember A HARD DAY'S NIGHT was preceded by the penguin. Basically it was there way of tipping off the audience the movie was originally in black and white and there was nothing wrong with their TV set.

I also remember a syndicator had a distinctive logo at the beginning of a lot of cheesy sci-fi/horror movies that used to play on TV in the early 60s. I can't remember the name of the company now, but the logo had a drawing of a curtain rising to show three letters inside three diamond shapes, accompanied by a subdued fanfare. I must've seem a hundred or more Corman/AIP/etc. films with that logo.

Linda said...

One more: WGBH's dancing-ala-Rockettes Santa and reindeer station ID at Christmastime.

Will said...

This is a whole montage of PBS bumpers. There are some NET bumpers at the beginning, but my all time favorite starts at 0:48.

And here's the big HBO ident. I loved watching that when I was a kid.
As a special bonus they made a making-of video.

Thad said...

Not a network ID but I'm nostalgic for the CBS Fox Video ID, which was before all of my favorite movies as a kid.

J Lee said...

Loved the main ABC color logo/music theme from the mid-60s (there were three overall, all with the same visuals but with different music and voice-over when the network went to color programming), and the longer version of the 1962 NBC color opening. CBS's color one ... meh.

When I was going to college in Syracuse in the late 70s, Global's signal on a good night would bounce across Lake Ontario and be viewable there (IIRC on UHF Ch. 22). "Global's Got It!" was their network ID tag line at the time, though I remember some of the "It" they had were shows already off prime-time in the U.S. (not that I minded getting "The Odd Couple" on Global right before "M*A*S*H" over on CBS Monday nights in 1976, a year after the former show was canceled by ABC. But it did seem as though they were a little bit short on funds/production values compared to CBC or CTV).

Anonymous said...

Will, love that montage of PBS logos. I remember the one at 0:48 fondly myself. One thing that's sad...it's a 10 second ID, the later ones are 5 seconds. It's sad that now even PBS is either A) pandering to short attention spans or B) saving room for commercial announcements.

Anonymous said...

Not a network ID, but I miss the old, stylish MCA logo (accompanied by an oddly ominous fanfare) that was on the header of syndication prints of pre-1948 Paramount features.

Anonymous said...

Not so much a station/network ID, but I remember the little logo NBC used to have at the bottom center of the screen to announce the program you were watching was in stereo (it was a little headphones-wearing TV set with the NBC logo on it; next to it were the words "In Stereo Where Available"). That takes me back. As does the old Fox "In Stereo Where Available" bug (which you can still see on the occasional Married With Children repeats) and the similar ABC bug (which was included--along with the original closed captioning bug--when Ion recently aired Wonder Years repeats).

But yeah....nothing quite takes me back like the old CBS Special Presentation bumper does. Man, just thinking of that bumper brings back some happy childhood TV-watching memories.

Will said...

Poking through youtube, I found a few more of my faves:
The ABC Sunday Night Movie: I love the big brassy fanfare.
Yet another variant of the HBO Space Station intro.
And lastly, from way before my time, the NBC Peacock in all its glory.

Anonymous said...

More goodies, from New York:
The WABC-TV 4:30 Movie open. Before news and Oprah polluted the time slot. Was great for kids because of theme weeks - Godzilla, monsters, Batman, etc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2es-lfRSDOI

The WOR-TV Million Dollar Movie. Great NY scenics, set to the "Gone With The Wind" theme.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPouWic4qq0&NR=1

WPIX-TV's "Chiller Theater"
If SNL sucked, we watched this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asO97gdn2oo&feature=related

And thttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Taz0XSQ-rCIhe original 1957 NBC Peacock:

Michael Jones said...

I liked the CHCH id from Hamilton, Ont. I remember it as fondly as I do the shows such as Hilarious House of Frightenstein, Tiny Talent Time or Party Game.

Anonymous said...

Nostalgia seems a bit much for something that has been gone for a week or so, but here in the UK, the Aardman animated plasticine blobs that BBC Three used as station identifiers are going to be much missed. Catch a compilation of some of the best here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zccNjxOaEY

Anonymous said...

WSBK TV-38's bouncy little station ID before they became "Borg-ized" as a UPN station. Thank God that's over, but they aren't back to their glory days as the best independent station in Boston