Logo description by mr3urious

1st Logo
(1954-1955?)

(This logo will soon be described)

2nd Logo
(1955?-1956)

(This logo between the 1st and the next one will soon be described)

3rd Logo
(1956-1962)
Nickname: "Early Peacock"

Logo: We see a white peacock facing left on a black BG. Its feathers, outlined in white and tipped with little diamond shapes, begin to fold up. As they meet in the center, they spread out in the opposite directions, becoming colored in the process. The feathers flash multiple colors and "bloom", becoming thicker, with the diamonds changing to teardrop shapes. The result is an 11-feathered peacock with its paper fan-shaped feathers in various colors.

Variant: The peacock was still in its earliest years.

FX: The peacock spreading its feathers.

Music/Sounds: We first hear a gong crash, then announcer Ben Grauer says "The following program is brought to you in living color on NBC.". This ends with a bombastic fanfare.

Music/Sound Variants:

• Sometimes, there is no music, and the announcement is provided by Bill Hanrahan instead.
• A special variant was used on Howdy Doody. It starts out with the NBC chimes performed on a guitar with the characters singing "Everyone in Doodyville is shouting 'hooray'!/'cause we're in living color/we're in living color/we're in living color todaaaaay!".
  

Availability: Extinct on TV.

Scare Factor: Medium to high, thanks to the bombastic fanfare and loud announcer. None for the Howdy Doody variant.

4th Logo
(1962-1975/2009)

Nickname: "Laramie Peacock", "Kaleidoscope Peacock"

Logo: We see a kaleidoscope of many colors rotating. It wipes away, leaving us with the peacock from before, but its feathers greatly enlarged, which shrink down and form its feathers, looking the same from before.

Variant: On Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, there is a variant where a man in white rolls a desk with a camera in from the left of the screen on a purplish-pink background. Another man in the same clothing floats down with a green rolled-up 16-millimeter screen. He unfolds it and walks around the movie screen as the movie starts with a countdown, then a blue "PICTURE START" screen, then this logo. The movie screen zooms in to fit the screen. After the music stops, the peacock sneezes, "Ah-CHOO!" and its feathers fly off as it looks around, wondering where its feathers went.

FX: The kaleidoscope effects.

Music/Sounds: A mellow flute and harp tune with a different (and much softer) announcer saying the spiel from before. Sometimes, a different announcer is used, and adds "It just starts in black-and-white." at the end. This was seen on a promo for Get Smart.

Availability: Extinct on TV; was first used on the western series Laramie, hence the nickname. The Get Smart variant can be found on the Get Smart complete series DVD. It recently made an appearance in front of the first episode of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien on June 1, 2009.

Scare Factor: Low; this is much more mellowed out this time. The Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In variant is minimal, maybe. But it's funny.