Compiled by James Fabiano, Jeffrey Gray and Matt Williams
Logo Pictures by Eric S.
Editions by Shadeed A. Kelly and V of Doom


Background: After Orion Pictures Corp. merged with Filmways in 1982, it took over Filmways Television in 1983 and began to produce and syndicate various TV shows and movies. As a result of Orion's long-running financial troubles, its television division was sold to ABC in 1988 and became ABC Productions, although Orion continued to retain ownership of all its television output up to the time of the bankruptcy. All of Orion TV's library is now owned by MGM.


(1982-1996)

Nicknames: "The Constellation", "Starry Sky"

Logo: Same as the movie logo of the era, but we start at the animation where the stars spin around. The forming of "ORION" is the same, then "TELEVISION" (in white, similar font to ORION, in caps) appears below, just as wide as the "RION" segment of the above text.

Variants:

• The font and color for "TELEVISION" may vary.
• This logo sometimes appears without the additional "Television" text.
• Some syndicated shows were ID'ed as a presentation of "ORION Television Syndication". Some of them had the logo superimposed over the closing credits.
• A later variation (circa 1990) ID'ed the company as "ORION Television Entertainment." (This version has been sighted on the 1989 TV movie Passport to Terror, and the 1990 unsold game show pilot Gambit.)
• There is also a short version of the 1981 logo with the registered trademark symbol.
• There is too a superimposed variant used generally on TV movies.
• On TV Land reruns of Green Acres, it starts out with the O flashing, then the rest of the movie's animation. The same would be for its movie version with "An" above and "PICTURES RELEASE" below.

SFX: The flashing of the "O," the rest of the logo appearing and the line being drawn on it. In other cases, it's still.

Music: Usually has the ending theme play over, but may be silent.

Availability: Rare; was seen on the late 1980's versions of Hollywood Squares and High Rollers, and the version with only the "Orion" text is seen on reruns of The Best of Saturday Night Live (half-hour edit-downs of SNL's 1975-79 episodes). Cagney and Lacey reruns shown a few years ago on TNN usually had this logo on (with the "TELEVISION" text). The short movie logo can also be seen on Green Acres on TV Land. Also, the superimposed variant was seen on the TV movie Babes in Toyland.

Scare Factor: Low.