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| Version | User | Scope of changes |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 28 2008, 1:09 AM EDT | VofDoom | 34 words added, 6 words deleted |
| Oct 20 2008, 9:21 PM EDT | benjithedog | 1 word added, 1 word deleted |
Changes
Key: Additions Deletions
Written and Compiled by Nicholas Aczel, Dan DeCosta and Juniorfan88
Logo captures by mr3urious, V of Doom and Mr. Logo Lord
Editions by V of Doom and Curious George 60
Background: In 1969, when Sesame Street was made, Children's Television Workshop was born. During the induction year through the year 2000, Children's Television Workshop has produce such shows such as 3-2-1 Contact, Square One, Cro, Ghostwriter, The Electric Company, Big Bag, Dragon Tales and many other edutainment titles. In 2000, Children's Television Workshop was renamed Sesame Workshop, so as to capitalize on the Sesame Street name.
Children's Television Workshop
1st Logo(1969-1983, (Sesame Street 1984-1985)Custom Logo)
(1969-1983/1984-1985)
Nickname: "The Plaque"
Logo: On episodes of Sesame Street, two sets of stills were shown on the screen. The first one was of a regular on the show (i.e. Big Bird, Oscar, Susan, Gordon, Bob, etc.) holding up the Sesame Street title logo, which was a rectangular street sign in dark green and had a light green border. A small text in a semi-circle above the rectangle read CTW, which stood for "Children's Television Workshop". The second still featured another regular holding up a fancy-looking plaque made of marble. The name:
appears in blue, black, or pale green in front of the plaque. The text may be neatly written or more sloppy, like it was done by a child.
FX: None; it's a still logo.
Cheesy Factor: Static logos are always cheap.
Music/Sounds: The closing of the Sesame Street credits theme plays, as a random Sesame Street character says this, "Sesame Street is a production of the Children's Television Workshop".
Availability: While 1969-1983 Sesame Street episodes are no longer aired on TV, this logo can be found on the Sesame Street: Old School DVD box sets.
Scare Factor: None.
2nd Logo (The Electric Company Custom Logo)
(1971-1977)
Nickname: "The Electric Company Logo"
Logo: On episodes of The Electric Company, the closing credits always featured the animated opening title to the show, in which the logo is seen in a cloud-like shape which in turn is seen with several cloud-like shapes and a box that's connected to either side of the screen. The words "The Electric Company" wave, wiggle, and change shape into the words "THE CHILDREN'S TELEVISION WORKSHOP" in orange. Afterwards, the box-like shape would open up and allow the CTW logo to wiggle away.
Variant: In the first two seasons, this logo was just two stills of "The Electric Company" and "The Children's Television Workshop" in the cloud-shape.
FX: The words changing/zooming away, the box opening up. Typical Scanimate effects.
Cheesy Factor: This logo just SCREAMS "early-'70s", with the tye dye-ish design of the box and the clouds and the pattern seen on the words inside.
Music/Sounds: The closing theme was usually heard, and a character from the TV show would always say, "'The Electric Company' gets its power from... the Children's Television Workshop".
Availability: Although The Electric Company is no longer seen on TV, the logo can be found on the show's two "best of" DVDs, released in 2006.
Scare Factor: Minimal; seems very party-ish overall, though the cheap animation and voice-over may give a few people the shakes.
3rd Logo
(1978-1983)
Nicknames: "The Orange Snake", "CTW Snake"
Logo: On a black background, four vertical orange rectangles appear in the center of the screen and start transforming into the letters in "CTW" simultaneously. The rectangle on the left stretches slightly to the right and left until it forms a square, then curves to the top and bottom to form a "C." The rectangle in the middle stretches on all sides vertically and horizontally until it resembles a cross with the top right corner slightly bent, then the bottom side stretches out somemore and curves to the right to form a lower case "T." The two rectangles on the far right stretch in opposite horizontal directions until they connect each other in the middle with a bend in one of the quadrilateral corners for emphasis. The two quadrilaterals, along with the middle right corner of the "T," stretch to the bottom to form the "W." The small blue text
appears in the top left corner where the "T" and "W" connect.
FX: The rectangles stretching.
Cheesy Factor: The animation is certainly cheesy because you can tell it was merely cel-animated.
Music/Sounds: An eerie synthesizer/electronic tune which sounds like outer-space music, and the once the logo completes, we hear a "ding" at the end to mark the appearance of the "Children's Television Workshop" text.
Music/Sound Variant: The Christmas variant is much different as we hear a dreamy 8-note tune accompanied by bells and strings.
Availability: Near extinction; has been plastered over with the Sesame Workshop “House of Boredom” logo when older CTW shows were seen on Noggin before being taken off the air. It can be found on older VHS prints of Christmas Eve on Sesame Street.
Scare Factor: Medium to high; it may scare some with its cheesy animation and slyly creepy electronic music, but its pretty tame compared to its successor. The Christmas variant is much tamer though.
4th Logo
(1983-1997)
Nickname: "Sparks (of Doom)"
Logo: On a black background, a spark flies across the top left corner of the screen, writing the word CHILDREN'S in blue. It shifts to the middle left corner and writes TELEVISION. Then it shifts to the bottom left corner and writes WORKSHOP. A ray of light flies from the bottom of the screen and explodes. The logo "glitters".
FX: All the animation in the logo.
Cheesy Factor: This logo is probably more cheesy than the previous logo because the way the spark scrolls and come back flashing seems very cheesy, almost like a real sparkler used against a blue screen, and the light from the bottom looks like a laser, and electronic sounds are certainly amongst what a stereotypical 1980's logo would sound like as well.
Music/Sounds: An electronic keyboard scale quickly descending is heard over the spark animations, followed by a laser zap accompanying the light explosion.
Music/Sound Variant: On The Best of Elmo and Sesame Street Celebrates Around the World, a series of bells ending with a "clang" sound is used instead.
Availability: Rare; the "House of Boredom" logo has plastered itself to most older CTW shows when they were reran on Noggin, but this logo can be found on older 1980s/early 1990s Sesame Street and 3-2-1 Contact tapes.
Scare Factor: High, mainly because of the loud electronic music, but some may be put off by the light effects. Low for the "bells" variant.
5th Logo (Cro Custom Logo)
(1993-1997)
Nicknames: "The Rolling Stone", "The Cro Logo", "Prehistoric CTW"
Logo: We see two pink boulders against a blue background; one is round, while the other is in the shape of an inverted triangle. Both have cracks and niches in them. From the screen's right, we see a third pink
boulder in the shape of a square rolling in. It bumps into the second boulder, and all three boulders crumble apart slightly; each one forms a letter: the first one forms "C", the second forms "T" and the third one forms "W." Copyright information fades in at the bottom of the screen.
FX: The boulders rolling and breaking.
Cheesy Factor: A somewhat simple logo.
Music/Sounds: First we hear several descending trumpet notes, then the sound of the boulders crumbling, and then an ascending four-note piano jingle accompanied by a descending four-note trumpet jingle.
Availability: Extremely Rare/Extinct; only seen on the show Cro, and is usually plastered over with the "House of Boredom" logo.
Scare Factor: Low;Minimal to low; this logo is rather cute, but the huge boulders/jagged "CTW" design could turn some people off.
6th Logo (Square One TV Math Talk Custom Logo)
(1995-1996)
Logo: Against an animated purple BG with a white copyright notice below, and after the Square One TV Math Talk logo appears,
the CTW logo from logo 4 (in white) slides in word-by-word and in the correct order, from the left, right, and left sides of the screen, respectively. This is succeeded by the funding credits.
FX: Just the letters sliding in.
Music/Sounds: The end theme to Square One TV Math Talk (an upbeat tune with horns) with a female announcer saying "Square One TV Math Talk is a production of the Children's Television Workshop".
Availability: Uncommon. Seen on tapes of Square One TV Math Talk (a spin-off of Square One TV used for instructing teachers), which is hardly, if ever, aired on TV.
Scare Factor: None.
7th Logo
(1997-2000)
Nicknames: "The Bouncing Letters", "Play it Smart", "The Sailors' Hornpipe Logo"
t Smart".
Logo: On a shady cyan background, we see a yellow semi-circle (the same one from the Sesame Street logo) turned on its bottom side with the red letters C, T, and W positioned from left to right. The C bounces on the semicircle, making it slant to the left. Then the T twists around while the W bounces. The semicircle rebounds to its original position, then the three letters bounce together, pushing the semicircle to the ground. The semicircle bounces up and rotates a few times before settling into a position halfway up the screen. The text "CHILDREN'S TELEVISION WORKSHOP" comes from underneath the semicircle. The three letters fly in the air and land on the face of the semicircle. The sign bounces once more as the text "PLAY IT SMART" appears below.
Variants:
FX: Awesome CGI!
Music/Sounds: A horn playing a tune that starts out similar to "Sailor's Hornpipe", accompanied by bouncing sound effects.
Availability: Extremely rare/near extinction, due to replacement with the Sesame Workshop logo. Your best bet of finding this logo are late-1990's Sesame Street tapes. Also appears on Elmo's Letter Adventure, and Elmo's Number Journey.
Scare Factor: None; this is a cute logo.
_______________________________________________________________
Sesame Workshop
1st Logo
(2000- )
Nickname: "House of Boredom"
Logo: On a white background, we see an abstract green house with a purple roof and the text text:
outlined below. The window of the house is filled with yellow glitter. The house bounces and the roof explodes open to the right, sending the glitter sprinkling all over. Some of the glitter remains to form a lightning bolt crowned with a star, some sprinkles to the left to fill the "sesame" text with purple, and some sprinkles to the right to fill the "workshop" text with green, rendering it like this:
Variants: Here are the four variants of this logo:
In-Credit Variant: On 2007-2008 episodes of Sesame Street, an in-credit variant of the logo was used which consisted of the "a production of sesameworkshop" and the "The non-profit organization..." byline as well, all in green text.
FX: The sparkles and house forming.
Cheesy Factor: None.
Music/Sounds: A tuba plays at the start, then we hear a "pop" sound for the roof with a giggling child, and then a short accordion piece. In some cases, it uses the closing theme of the show.
Availability: Very common, as it is pretty much on every show PBS and Sesame Workshop distribute. Also, when shown on Dragon Tales, this logo would appear before the Boxes (or Bars) of Boredom!
Scare Factor: None; it's a clean (and BORING!) logo.
2nd Logo
(2008- )
Logo: On a yellow background, the green "sesame" text is seen, arranged like this:
Next to it, various stills of CTW/Sesame Workshop characters appear one-by-one next to the logo, including characters from CTW/Sesame Workshop co-productions outside of the U.S. Characters include, from left to right: Cookie Monster, Chamki [from Galli Galli Sim Sim, the Indian co-production of SS], Bert, Big Bird, Ernie, Abelardo Montoya [from Plaza Sesamo, the Mexican co-production of SS], a yellow monster reading a book [Possibly Nac from 5, rue Sesame, the French co-production of SS] and an animated girl. Then the "workshop" text pops in letter-by-letter from right to left, replacing the characters, and is now arranged like this:
A still of Elmo fades in reclining on the O, and we hear Elmo's distinctive laughter.
FX: The characters appearing and changing into the text, Elmo fading in.
Music/Sounds: The end of the show's theme, with Elmo's laugh heard at the end.
Availability: Used on current (2008-present) episodes of Sesame Street.
Scare Factor: None, unless you hate Elmo so much he scares you. ;)
Logo captures by mr3urious, V of Doom and Mr. Logo Lord
Editions by V of Doom and Curious George 60
Background: In 1969, when Sesame Street was made, Children's Television Workshop was born. During the induction year through the year 2000, Children's Television Workshop has produce such shows such as 3-2-1 Contact, Square One, Cro, Ghostwriter, The Electric Company, Big Bag, Dragon Tales and many other edutainment titles. In 2000, Children's Television Workshop was renamed Sesame Workshop, so as to capitalize on the Sesame Street name.
Children's Television Workshop
1st Logo(1969-1983, (Sesame Street 1984-1985)Custom Logo)
(1969-1983/1984-1985)
Nickname: "The Plaque"
Logo: On episodes of Sesame Street, two sets of stills were shown on the screen. The first one was of a regular on the show (i.e. Big Bird, Oscar, Susan, Gordon, Bob, etc.) holding up the Sesame Street title logo, which was a rectangular street sign in dark green and had a light green border. A small text in a semi-circle above the rectangle read CTW, which stood for "Children's Television Workshop". The second still featured another regular holding up a fancy-looking plaque made of marble. The name:
CHILDREN'S
TELEVISION
WORKSHOP
appears in blue, black, or pale green in front of the plaque. The text may be neatly written or more sloppy, like it was done by a child.
FX: None; it's a still logo.
Cheesy Factor: Static logos are always cheap.
Music/Sounds: The closing of the Sesame Street credits theme plays, as a random Sesame Street character says this, "Sesame Street is a production of the Children's Television Workshop".
Availability: While 1969-1983 Sesame Street episodes are no longer aired on TV, this logo can be found on the Sesame Street: Old School DVD box sets.
Scare Factor: None.
2nd Logo (The Electric Company Custom Logo)
(1971-1977)
Nickname: "The Electric Company Logo"
Logo: On episodes of The Electric Company, the closing credits always featured the animated opening title to the show, in which the logo is seen in a cloud-like shape which in turn is seen with several cloud-like shapes and a box that's connected to either side of the screen. The words "The Electric Company" wave, wiggle, and change shape into the words "THE CHILDREN'S TELEVISION WORKSHOP" in orange. Afterwards, the box-like shape would open up and allow the CTW logo to wiggle away.
Variant: In the first two seasons, this logo was just two stills of "The Electric Company" and "The Children's Television Workshop" in the cloud-shape.
FX: The words changing/zooming away, the box opening up. Typical Scanimate effects.
Cheesy Factor: This logo just SCREAMS "early-'70s", with the tye dye-ish design of the box and the clouds and the pattern seen on the words inside.
Music/Sounds: The closing theme was usually heard, and a character from the TV show would always say, "'The Electric Company' gets its power from... the Children's Television Workshop".
Availability: Although The Electric Company is no longer seen on TV, the logo can be found on the show's two "best of" DVDs, released in 2006.
Scare Factor: Minimal; seems very party-ish overall, though the cheap animation and voice-over may give a few people the shakes.
3rd Logo
(1978-1983)
Nicknames: "The Orange Snake", "CTW Snake"
Logo: On a black background, four vertical orange rectangles appear in the center of the screen and start transforming into the letters in "CTW" simultaneously. The rectangle on the left stretches slightly to the right and left until it forms a square, then curves to the top and bottom to form a "C." The rectangle in the middle stretches on all sides vertically and horizontally until it resembles a cross with the top right corner slightly bent, then the bottom side stretches out somemore and curves to the right to form a lower case "T." The two rectangles on the far right stretch in opposite horizontal directions until they connect each other in the middle with a bend in one of the quadrilateral corners for emphasis. The two quadrilaterals, along with the middle right corner of the "T," stretch to the bottom to form the "W." The small blue text
CHILDREN'S
TELEVISION
WORKSHOP
appears in the top left corner where the "T" and "W" connect.
FX: The rectangles stretching.
Cheesy Factor: The animation is certainly cheesy because you can tell it was merely cel-animated.
Music/Sounds: An eerie synthesizer/electronic tune which sounds like outer-space music, and the once the logo completes, we hear a "ding" at the end to mark the appearance of the "Children's Television Workshop" text.
Music/Sound Variant: The Christmas variant is much different as we hear a dreamy 8-note tune accompanied by bells and strings.
Availability: Near extinction; has been plastered over with the Sesame Workshop “House of Boredom” logo when older CTW shows were seen on Noggin before being taken off the air. It can be found on older VHS prints of Christmas Eve on Sesame Street.
Scare Factor: Medium to high; it may scare some with its cheesy animation and slyly creepy electronic music, but its pretty tame compared to its successor. The Christmas variant is much tamer though.
4th Logo
(1983-1997)
Nickname: "Sparks (of Doom)"
Logo: On a black background, a spark flies across the top left corner of the screen, writing the word CHILDREN'S in blue. It shifts to the middle left corner and writes TELEVISION. Then it shifts to the bottom left corner and writes WORKSHOP. A ray of light flies from the bottom of the screen and explodes. The logo "glitters".
FX: All the animation in the logo.
Cheesy Factor: This logo is probably more cheesy than the previous logo because the way the spark scrolls and come back flashing seems very cheesy, almost like a real sparkler used against a blue screen, and the light from the bottom looks like a laser, and electronic sounds are certainly amongst what a stereotypical 1980's logo would sound like as well.
Music/Sounds: An electronic keyboard scale quickly descending is heard over the spark animations, followed by a laser zap accompanying the light explosion.
Music/Sound Variant: On The Best of Elmo and Sesame Street Celebrates Around the World, a series of bells ending with a "clang" sound is used instead.
Availability: Rare; the "House of Boredom" logo has plastered itself to most older CTW shows when they were reran on Noggin, but this logo can be found on older 1980s/early 1990s Sesame Street and 3-2-1 Contact tapes.
Scare Factor: High, mainly because of the loud electronic music, but some may be put off by the light effects. Low for the "bells" variant.
5th Logo (Cro Custom Logo)
(1993-1997)
Nicknames: "The Rolling Stone", "The Cro Logo", "Prehistoric CTW"
Logo: We see two pink boulders against a blue background; one is round, while the other is in the shape of an inverted triangle. Both have cracks and niches in them. From the screen's right, we see a third pink
boulder in the shape of a square rolling in. It bumps into the second boulder, and all three boulders crumble apart slightly; each one forms a letter: the first one forms "C", the second forms "T" and the third one forms "W." Copyright information fades in at the bottom of the screen.FX: The boulders rolling and breaking.
Cheesy Factor: A somewhat simple logo.
Music/Sounds: First we hear several descending trumpet notes, then the sound of the boulders crumbling, and then an ascending four-note piano jingle accompanied by a descending four-note trumpet jingle.
Availability: Extremely Rare/Extinct; only seen on the show Cro, and is usually plastered over with the "House of Boredom" logo.
Scare Factor: Low;Minimal to low; this logo is rather cute, but the huge boulders/jagged "CTW" design could turn some people off.
6th Logo (Square One TV Math Talk Custom Logo)
(1995-1996)
Logo: Against an animated purple BG with a white copyright notice below, and after the Square One TV Math Talk logo appears,
the CTW logo from logo 4 (in white) slides in word-by-word and in the correct order, from the left, right, and left sides of the screen, respectively. This is succeeded by the funding credits.FX: Just the letters sliding in.
Music/Sounds: The end theme to Square One TV Math Talk (an upbeat tune with horns) with a female announcer saying "Square One TV Math Talk is a production of the Children's Television Workshop".
Availability: Uncommon. Seen on tapes of Square One TV Math Talk (a spin-off of Square One TV used for instructing teachers), which is hardly, if ever, aired on TV.
Scare Factor: None.
7th Logo
(1997-2000)
Nicknames: "The Bouncing Letters", "Play it Smart", "The Sailors' Hornpipe Logo"
t Smart".
Logo: On a shady cyan background, we see a yellow semi-circle (the same one from the Sesame Street logo) turned on its bottom side with the red letters C, T, and W positioned from left to right. The C bounces on the semicircle, making it slant to the left. Then the T twists around while the W bounces. The semicircle rebounds to its original position, then the three letters bounce together, pushing the semicircle to the ground. The semicircle bounces up and rotates a few times before settling into a position halfway up the screen. The text "CHILDREN'S TELEVISION WORKSHOP" comes from underneath the semicircle. The three letters fly in the air and land on the face of the semicircle. The sign bounces once more as the text "PLAY IT SMART" appears below.
Variants:
- There was an early version of this logo without "PLAY IT SMART."SMART".
- A still version of this logo was seen on Nintendo 64 versions of Elmo's Letter Adventure and Elmo's Number Journey.
FX: Awesome CGI!
Music/Sounds: A horn playing a tune that starts out similar to "Sailor's Hornpipe", accompanied by bouncing sound effects.
Availability: Extremely rare/near extinction, due to replacement with the Sesame Workshop logo. Your best bet of finding this logo are late-1990's Sesame Street tapes. Also appears on Elmo's Letter Adventure, and Elmo's Number Journey.
Scare Factor: None; this is a cute logo.
_______________________________________________________________
Sesame Workshop
1st Logo
(2000- )
Nickname: "House of Boredom"
Logo: On a white background, we see an abstract green house with a purple roof and the text text:
sesameworkshop
outlined below. The window of the house is filled with yellow glitter. The house bounces and the roof explodes open to the right, sending the glitter sprinkling all over. Some of the glitter remains to form a lightning bolt crowned with a star, some sprinkles to the left to fill the "sesame" text with purple, and some sprinkles to the right to fill the "workshop" text with green, rendering it like this:
sesameworkshop
Variants: Here are the four variants of this logo:
- Green house and purple roof (most common variant it replaces the CTW logo shown on 1999 episodes of Dragon Tales).Tales).
- Purple house and green roof (seen on CTW/Noggin co-productions such as Upside Down Show).
- Purple house and red roof (usually plasters CTW logos). This one is the first to contain the byline as described below.
- Blue house and green roof (seen on Plaza Sésamo and perhaps other foreign-language co-productions of Sesame Street).
- The text "The nonprofit organization behind Sesame Street and so much more" (in the same color as the house) is shown below on occasion.
In-Credit Variant: On 2007-2008 episodes of Sesame Street, an in-credit variant of the logo was used which consisted of the "a production of sesameworkshop" and the "The non-profit organization..." byline as well, all in green text.
FX: The sparkles and house forming.
Cheesy Factor: None.
Music/Sounds: A tuba plays at the start, then we hear a "pop" sound for the roof with a giggling child, and then a short accordion piece. In some cases, it uses the closing theme of the show.
Availability: Very common, as it is pretty much on every show PBS and Sesame Workshop distribute. Also, when shown on Dragon Tales, this logo would appear before the Boxes (or Bars) of Boredom!
Scare Factor: None; it's a clean (and BORING!) logo.
2nd Logo
(2008- )
Logo: On a yellow background, the green "sesame" text is seen, arranged like this:
sesame
Next to it, various stills of CTW/Sesame Workshop characters appear one-by-one next to the logo, including characters from CTW/Sesame Workshop co-productions outside of the U.S. Characters include, from left to right: Cookie Monster, Chamki [from Galli Galli Sim Sim, the Indian co-production of SS], Bert, Big Bird, Ernie, Abelardo Montoya [from Plaza Sesamo, the Mexican co-production of SS], a yellow monster reading a book [Possibly Nac from 5, rue Sesame, the French co-production of SS] and an animated girl. Then the "workshop" text pops in letter-by-letter from right to left, replacing the characters, and is now arranged like this:
sesameworkshop
A still of Elmo fades in reclining on the O, and we hear Elmo's distinctive laughter.
FX: The characters appearing and changing into the text, Elmo fading in.
Music/Sounds: The end of the show's theme, with Elmo's laugh heard at the end.
Availability: Used on current (2008-present) episodes of Sesame Street.
Scare Factor: None, unless you hate Elmo so much he scares you. ;)
