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Screen Gems Television
Logo descriptions by James Fabiano, Jason Jones, and Shadeed A. Kelly
Logo captures by Eric S., V of Doom, Shadeed A. Kelly, JohnnyL80, mr3urious, Michael Bass, snelfu, and Logoboy95
Editions by Shadeed A. Kelly, kidinbed, V of Doom and Lee Cremeans
Video captures courtesy of supremetaco, classictvfan, DanDMan16, JohnnyL80, KLXT77, KidCairbre, actionsub, Ridgerazarsixtyfour, and Eric S.
Background: Screen Gems was revived as a television subsidiary by Columbia Pictures Corporation in 1948. It was responsible for television production, TV movies, syndicating the Columbia Pictures movie library, and starting in 1958, The Three Stooges shorts starting with the Curly series. Also in August 1957, Screen Gems also syndicated the Universal Horror Package from Universal-International for 10 years called Shock and Son of Shock in 1958 and from 1957-1966, the cartoons by Hanna-Barbera. In 1968, Screen Gems merged with its parent Columbia Pictures Corporation and the whole organization was reincorporated as "Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.". On May 1, 1974, Screen Gems was reincorporated as "Columbia Pictures Television" (now "Sony Pictures Television"). The name was suggested by David Gerber, the then-current president of Columbia's television division.
1st Logo
(April 1951-1952, December 14, 1957-1974)
Logo: On a light gray background, we see an in-credit text that reads:
Variants:
FX/SFX: None or the cross-fading. Except on Days of Our Lives, where the text scrolls.
Music/Sounds: The end-title theme from any show.
Availability: Uncommon. It's currently seen on the first two seasons of The Flintstones on Boomerang and DVD. It was also seen on Top Cat and some first season episodes of The Jetsons and early seasons of The Ford Television Theatre.
Scare Factor: None.
2nd Logo
(October 2, 1952-August 20, 1955)
Nicknames: "The TV Tube"
Logo: On the same light gray background seen on the last logo, we see a TV tube-like shape that's outlined in dark gray and filled in black. There are a couple of stars shining inside (like stars in the sky) under the phrase "A SCREEN GEMS, INC. Presentation" or "A SCREEN GEMS, INC. Production".
Variants:
FX/SFX: The little stars twinkling.
Music/Sounds: The end title theme of any show or silent.
Availability: Ultra rare. It only appeared on the first season of Father Knows Best. Currently seen on the complete first season on DVD. Was also seen on The Ford Television Theatre and Captain Midnight.
Scare Factor: Low to medium.
3rd Logo
(August 27, 1955-June 24, 1960) 
Nickname: "Torch Lady"
Logo: Like the 1942 version of the 1936 Columbia Pictures logo, we see a lady (Columbia, a representation of the USA) holding a light torch on top a pedestal with a backdrop of clouds over her. The Torch Lady's head and upper body is between the words "SCREEN GEMS" with the letter "A" in Vivaldi font above it and "FILM PRESENTATION" or "FILM PRODUCTION" below it. The byline "TELEVISION SUBSIDIARY: COLUMBIA PICTURES CORPORATION" appears below that.
Trivia: The Torch Lady happens to be Amelia Bachelor, a Texas-born model and a minor actress.
FX/SFX: The lady's torch "shining".
Music/Sounds/Voice-over: A majestic horn fanfare at the begin/end of some syndicated programs (nicknamed the "Fanfare of Doom"), or the opening theme of the movie or short. Usually, as a closing logo, you will hear the ending theme for whatever show played over it with Harry Cohn announcing, "This has been a Screen Gems Film Production, from the Hollywood studios of Columbia Pictures".
Music/Sounds Variant: When the movie 20 Million Miles to Earth premiered on television, Screen Gems plastered the Columbia Pictures logo, keeping the fanfare intact.
Availability: Rare. Seen on seasons 2-4 DVD releases of Father Knows Best. Despite the logo blending in with the show itself, C-T has deleted the logo on several occasions. This logo isn't seen on Antenna TV's reruns of Father Knows Best or Dennis the Menace as it has been deleted and replaced by the Colex Enterprises logo.
Scare Factor: Depending on the logo variant:
4th Logo
(September 3, 1960-July 7, 1963)
Nickname: "Torch Lady II"
Logo: Same as the 1955 logo, excluding the clouds and the additional captions. Only the name "SCREEN GEMS" remains, and the words are smaller and somewhat stretched out, and the words are shown on each side of the lower body and legs.
Variants:
FX/SFX: The lady's torch "shining".
Music/Sounds/Voice-over: Usually, the end title theme from any show has played over this with Harry Cohn, the longtime president of Columbia Pictures announcing:
Availability: Rare. Last seen on reruns of Hazel, Dennis the Menace, The Naked City, and Route 66, to name a few. Surprisingly, this has been edited over with or followed by the Columbia TriStar Television or the Sony Pictures Television logo on some shows recently. Currently seen on The Naked City and some episodes of Route 66 on RTV.
Scare Factor: Low to medium.
5th Logo
(September 15, 1963-June 25, 1965)
Nicknames: "The Dancing Sticks", "Stars and Spotlights"
Logo: Eleven animated lines "drop down" at the right of the black screen to ascending jazz notes as a swarm of circles scatter near the middle of the left side leaving behind the words "SCREEN GEMS" in a Benguiat Frisky font. (These circles were what one rec.arts.animation post described as the "spotlights." The "stars" may come from the fact that the circles sparkle like stars.) As this happens, the lines shrink somewhat and spread out, filling the right half and shaking slightly back and forth.
Color Variant: When filmed and broadcast in color, the sticks are pale rainbow colors and the dots are brighter. Also, on one color variant, the dots are rainbow colors as well.
FX/SFX: The lines dropping and shrinking.
Cheesy Factor: The lines' animations. Also, what are the dancing sticks supposed to represent?
Music/Sounds/Voice-over: An 8-note jazzy trumpet fanfare that ascends as the sticks drop in, and ends with a 5-note stinger when the logo finishes. An announcer states that the production is "A Screen Gems Presentation (or Production)." near the end. One extremely rare version of the logo does not use an announcer spiel. This was often used on international prints of Screen Gems shows.
Availability: Ultra rare. It does appear in color without the signature music on the 1999 Columbia Pictures documentary The Lady with the Torch. However, due to replacement with various newer logos, both Sony Pictures Television-related and syndication, this is very hard to find on television. The color logo with no announcer was spotted on extremely rare syndication prints of The Peter Potamus Show.
Scare Factor: Low to medium. The dramatic music and spooky announcers may make some jumpy. But pretty tame, especially compared to its successor.
6th Logo
(September 13, 1965-August 29, 1974)
Nicknames: "The Spiral S", "The Filmstrip S", "The Creepy Screen Gems Logo", "The S From Hell", "The Spiral S (From Hell)", "Burning S", "Scream Gems", "Attack of the Killer S", "The Personification of All That Is Evil"
Logo: Two parallelograms come from the top and bottom of the screen, and the upper one is at a distance while the lower is closer. They fly towards each other, and the higher moves forward while the lower backs away. As they do so, they grow in length and wrap around a space where a dot appears, forming a stylized "S." Under that the words "SCREEN GEMS" zooms-in.
Trivia: The "S" logo was designed and animated by Chermayeff & Geismar, a firm also responsible for the 1986 six-feathered NBC Peacock, the 1984 PBS logo, the 1990-2005 Viacom logo and the Chase Manhattan Bank logo, among other designs.
Variants:
FX/SFX: The parallelograms wrapping around the dot, "SCREEN GEMS" zooming-in.
Cheesy Factor: Really rough animation all over, and music so cheap and cheerful it's disturbing.
Music/Sounds: Composed by Eric Siday, the entire score was performed on a Moog modular synthesizer (Siday was one of the first musicians to have one). It consists of six French horn-like notes, followed by two synth-brass triplets with the last note held. In 1970, it was shortened so only three notes came before the tones. This shortened variant was sped-up and was used for the first short-lived Columbia Pictures Television logo.
Music/Sounds Variants:
Availability: Pretty common. This logo has been beautifully restored on reruns of Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie on WGN America and the former on TV Land and The Partridge Family on Antenna TV. Ironically, the DVD versions are not so lucky; except for one B&W episode of Jeannie, the logos were removed on disc, but the short version complete with jingle has been restored starting with the seventh season DVDs of Bewitched. The only other DVDs with this logo are the 1971 Brian's Song, and the 1974 miniseries QB VII, with theme music over it, plus the Columbia byline. The still variant with the Columbia byline can be found on most episodes of the first season of Police Story on DVD released by Shout! Factory. It was also shown in an edited form on Fox Family reruns of The Partridge Family and in a sped-up form without music on The Hallmark Channel reruns of Bewitched. The still variant is extinct, and was seen originally on the TV show Soupy Sales. A good few episodes of Bewitched when aired on the UK satellite channel Living have this logo, often followed by the Sony Pictures Television International logo.
Scare Factor: Medium to nightmare for the full music variant and low to high for the 1970-1974 variants. Numerous people have very un-fond memories of this logo, mostly due to the creepy theme music combined with the animation, which is very in-your-face (though it's less scary for those who are used to seeing it). Possibly one of the scariest logos ever made. The scare factor is low to medium for the trumpet variant. None to minimal for the other variants.
Logo captures by Eric S., V of Doom, Shadeed A. Kelly, JohnnyL80, mr3urious, Michael Bass, snelfu, and Logoboy95
Editions by Shadeed A. Kelly, kidinbed, V of Doom and Lee Cremeans
Video captures courtesy of supremetaco, classictvfan, DanDMan16, JohnnyL80, KLXT77, KidCairbre, actionsub, Ridgerazarsixtyfour, and Eric S.
Background: Screen Gems was revived as a television subsidiary by Columbia Pictures Corporation in 1948. It was responsible for television production, TV movies, syndicating the Columbia Pictures movie library, and starting in 1958, The Three Stooges shorts starting with the Curly series. Also in August 1957, Screen Gems also syndicated the Universal Horror Package from Universal-International for 10 years called Shock and Son of Shock in 1958 and from 1957-1966, the cartoons by Hanna-Barbera. In 1968, Screen Gems merged with its parent Columbia Pictures Corporation and the whole organization was reincorporated as "Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.". On May 1, 1974, Screen Gems was reincorporated as "Columbia Pictures Television" (now "Sony Pictures Television"). The name was suggested by David Gerber, the then-current president of Columbia's television division.
1st Logo
(April 1951-1952, December 14, 1957-1974)
Logo: On a light gray background, we see an in-credit text that reads:
A
SCREEN GEMS, INC.
SCREEN GEMS, INC.
PRODUCTION
Variants:
- On Days of Our Lives, the text would read as "A CORDAY PRODUCTIONS, SCREEN GEMS PRESENTATION"
- For those co-produced by Hanna-Barbera, it would say "A SCREEN GEMS FILM PRESENTATION, TELEVISION SUBSIDIARY COLUMBIA PICTURES CORPORATION".
- On The Jetsons episode "The Coming of Astro", the letter "A" isn't shown next to the words "SCREEN GEMS". (This version can still be seen intact on the Jetsons episode on Boomerang and Amazon Video on Demand.)
FX/SFX: None or the cross-fading. Except on Days of Our Lives, where the text scrolls.
Music/Sounds: The end-title theme from any show.
Availability: Uncommon. It's currently seen on the first two seasons of The Flintstones on Boomerang and DVD. It was also seen on Top Cat and some first season episodes of The Jetsons and early seasons of The Ford Television Theatre.
Scare Factor: None.
2nd Logo
(October 2, 1952-August 20, 1955)
Nicknames: "The TV Tube"
Logo: On the same light gray background seen on the last logo, we see a TV tube-like shape that's outlined in dark gray and filled in black. There are a couple of stars shining inside (like stars in the sky) under the phrase "A SCREEN GEMS, INC. Presentation" or "A SCREEN GEMS, INC. Production".
Variants:
- There is one version where the stars shining are more animated and differently shaped. Also, there isn't any glow surrounding them.
- Until late 1954-early 1955, the word "Film" is added inside the tube.
FX/SFX: The little stars twinkling.
Music/Sounds: The end title theme of any show or silent.
Availability: Ultra rare. It only appeared on the first season of Father Knows Best. Currently seen on the complete first season on DVD. Was also seen on The Ford Television Theatre and Captain Midnight.
Scare Factor: Low to medium.
3rd Logo
(August 27, 1955-June 24, 1960)
Nickname: "Torch Lady"
Logo: Like the 1942 version of the 1936 Columbia Pictures logo, we see a lady (Columbia, a representation of the USA) holding a light torch on top a pedestal with a backdrop of clouds over her. The Torch Lady's head and upper body is between the words "SCREEN GEMS" with the letter "A" in Vivaldi font above it and "FILM PRESENTATION" or "FILM PRODUCTION" below it. The byline "TELEVISION SUBSIDIARY: COLUMBIA PICTURES CORPORATION" appears below that.
Trivia: The Torch Lady happens to be Amelia Bachelor, a Texas-born model and a minor actress.
FX/SFX: The lady's torch "shining".
Music/Sounds/Voice-over: A majestic horn fanfare at the begin/end of some syndicated programs (nicknamed the "Fanfare of Doom"), or the opening theme of the movie or short. Usually, as a closing logo, you will hear the ending theme for whatever show played over it with Harry Cohn announcing, "This has been a Screen Gems Film Production, from the Hollywood studios of Columbia Pictures".
Music/Sounds Variant: When the movie 20 Million Miles to Earth premiered on television, Screen Gems plastered the Columbia Pictures logo, keeping the fanfare intact.
Availability: Rare. Seen on seasons 2-4 DVD releases of Father Knows Best. Despite the logo blending in with the show itself, C-T has deleted the logo on several occasions. This logo isn't seen on Antenna TV's reruns of Father Knows Best or Dennis the Menace as it has been deleted and replaced by the Colex Enterprises logo.
Scare Factor: Depending on the logo variant:
- Medium to high. The old B&W film and Torch Lady might send some chills, but the fanfare has been considered by many to be overly bombastic and scary.
- Low to medium with the opening and closing themes.
4th Logo
(September 3, 1960-July 7, 1963)
Nickname: "Torch Lady II"
Logo: Same as the 1955 logo, excluding the clouds and the additional captions. Only the name "SCREEN GEMS" remains, and the words are smaller and somewhat stretched out, and the words are shown on each side of the lower body and legs.
Variants:
- An updated version of sorts can be seen as the logo for the "Screen Gems Network", the syndicated package of classic SG, Columbia, Tandem, and ELP shows.
- A rare color variant of this logo was seen on Hazel.
- An opening version featured the lettering "COLUMBIA" over a filming studio, with a camera rotating (something similar to the NBC logo) and then it fades to the Screen Gems logo.
FX/SFX: The lady's torch "shining".
Music/Sounds/Voice-over: Usually, the end title theme from any show has played over this with Harry Cohn, the longtime president of Columbia Pictures announcing:
- "This has been a Screen Gems Film Presentation (from Columbia Pictures), Herbert B. Leonard, Executive Producer".
- "This has been a Screen Gems Film Production, from the Hollywood studios of Columbia Pictures". Announced by Hal Gibney.
- The opening variants would have a fanfare with a different announcer saying, "From Columbia Pictures, A Screen Gems Production".
Availability: Rare. Last seen on reruns of Hazel, Dennis the Menace, The Naked City, and Route 66, to name a few. Surprisingly, this has been edited over with or followed by the Columbia TriStar Television or the Sony Pictures Television logo on some shows recently. Currently seen on The Naked City and some episodes of Route 66 on RTV.
Scare Factor: Low to medium.
5th Logo
(September 15, 1963-June 25, 1965)
Nicknames: "The Dancing Sticks", "Stars and Spotlights"
Logo: Eleven animated lines "drop down" at the right of the black screen to ascending jazz notes as a swarm of circles scatter near the middle of the left side leaving behind the words "SCREEN GEMS" in a Benguiat Frisky font. (These circles were what one rec.arts.animation post described as the "spotlights." The "stars" may come from the fact that the circles sparkle like stars.) As this happens, the lines shrink somewhat and spread out, filling the right half and shaking slightly back and forth.
Color Variant: When filmed and broadcast in color, the sticks are pale rainbow colors and the dots are brighter. Also, on one color variant, the dots are rainbow colors as well.
FX/SFX: The lines dropping and shrinking.
Cheesy Factor: The lines' animations. Also, what are the dancing sticks supposed to represent?
Music/Sounds/Voice-over: An 8-note jazzy trumpet fanfare that ascends as the sticks drop in, and ends with a 5-note stinger when the logo finishes. An announcer states that the production is "A Screen Gems Presentation (or Production)." near the end. One extremely rare version of the logo does not use an announcer spiel. This was often used on international prints of Screen Gems shows.
Availability: Ultra rare. It does appear in color without the signature music on the 1999 Columbia Pictures documentary The Lady with the Torch. However, due to replacement with various newer logos, both Sony Pictures Television-related and syndication, this is very hard to find on television. The color logo with no announcer was spotted on extremely rare syndication prints of The Peter Potamus Show.
Scare Factor: Low to medium. The dramatic music and spooky announcers may make some jumpy. But pretty tame, especially compared to its successor.
6th Logo
(September 13, 1965-August 29, 1974)
Nicknames: "The Spiral S", "The Filmstrip S", "The Creepy Screen Gems Logo", "The S From Hell", "The Spiral S (From Hell)", "Burning S", "Scream Gems", "Attack of the Killer S", "The Personification of All That Is Evil"
Logo: Two parallelograms come from the top and bottom of the screen, and the upper one is at a distance while the lower is closer. They fly towards each other, and the higher moves forward while the lower backs away. As they do so, they grow in length and wrap around a space where a dot appears, forming a stylized "S." Under that the words "SCREEN GEMS" zooms-in.
Trivia: The "S" logo was designed and animated by Chermayeff & Geismar, a firm also responsible for the 1986 six-feathered NBC Peacock, the 1984 PBS logo, the 1990-2005 Viacom logo and the Chase Manhattan Bank logo, among other designs.
Variants:
- There's an in-credit logo that's shown on the short-lived series Adventures of the Seaspray with the text "in association with" and "Screen Gems" in the same font as the credits.
- Another in-credit version was shown on The Pierre Berton Show with the text "SCREEN GEMS Canada Production" in the same font as the credits.
- Starting in late 1973, the byline "A DIVISION OF COLUMBIA PICTURES INDUSTRIES, INC." zooms up with "SCREEN GEMS".
- When shown in black & white, the standard scheme seems to be a light gray screen and black S and words. When shown in color, the standard scheme seems to be a yellow screen, red "S", and black words. The words may or may not have actually been red at one time as well. On some prints of The Partridge Family, the S and the words were both black, attributed by some to film deterioration. However, when the Columbia byline was added, everything was changed to a light gray, and that color change seemed more natural. At the same time, other Screen Gems shows carried the normal color scheme (as did The Partridge Family when it was rerun on Hallmark Channel).
- Several shows in 1970 didn't have the name in bold.
- There is also a still variant of this logo with the phrase "DISTRIBUTED BY" in small print above "SCREEN GEMS".
- Another still variant with and without Columbia bylines respectively was seen on the first season of Police Story.
- Another variant has the byline appearing after the company logo/text animation stop. This variant was seen on early episodes of the miniseries QB VII.
FX/SFX: The parallelograms wrapping around the dot, "SCREEN GEMS" zooming-in.
Cheesy Factor: Really rough animation all over, and music so cheap and cheerful it's disturbing.
Music/Sounds: Composed by Eric Siday, the entire score was performed on a Moog modular synthesizer (Siday was one of the first musicians to have one). It consists of six French horn-like notes, followed by two synth-brass triplets with the last note held. In 1970, it was shortened so only three notes came before the tones. This shortened variant was sped-up and was used for the first short-lived Columbia Pictures Television logo.
Music/Sounds Variants:
- There is a version of the logo where no music is played. This was seen on the 1973 television movie Brian's Song.
- The latter version had the end theme of Police Story playing over the logo.
- At least one show, the 1966 series Hawk (with Burt Reynolds), carried an alternate recording of the Eric Siday music, which had sharper, more "shrill" tones.
- On some first season episodes of I Dream of Jeannie (seen in syndication in the 70s and early 80s), as well as the half hour packaging of Batfink, an alternate trumpet fanfare played over the logo. (This may be the fanfare attributed to Van Alexander, but this is not certain.)
- In other cases, it used the closing theme of the show or TV movie.
- When ABC reran Bewitched on their daytime schedule in 1968, this logo had the 1963 "Dancing Sticks" music attached to it, probably due to a plastering error.
Availability: Pretty common. This logo has been beautifully restored on reruns of Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie on WGN America and the former on TV Land and The Partridge Family on Antenna TV. Ironically, the DVD versions are not so lucky; except for one B&W episode of Jeannie, the logos were removed on disc, but the short version complete with jingle has been restored starting with the seventh season DVDs of Bewitched. The only other DVDs with this logo are the 1971 Brian's Song, and the 1974 miniseries QB VII, with theme music over it, plus the Columbia byline. The still variant with the Columbia byline can be found on most episodes of the first season of Police Story on DVD released by Shout! Factory. It was also shown in an edited form on Fox Family reruns of The Partridge Family and in a sped-up form without music on The Hallmark Channel reruns of Bewitched. The still variant is extinct, and was seen originally on the TV show Soupy Sales. A good few episodes of Bewitched when aired on the UK satellite channel Living have this logo, often followed by the Sony Pictures Television International logo.
Scare Factor: Medium to nightmare for the full music variant and low to high for the 1970-1974 variants. Numerous people have very un-fond memories of this logo, mostly due to the creepy theme music combined with the animation, which is very in-your-face (though it's less scary for those who are used to seeing it). Possibly one of the scariest logos ever made. The scare factor is low to medium for the trumpet variant. None to minimal for the other variants.
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Keyword tags:
Columbia Pictures Television
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More Info: links to this page
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| Started By | Thread Subject | Replies | Last Post | ||
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| KramdenII | "S from Hell" with "Dancing Sticks" music | 15 | Apr 28 2012, 11:42 AM EDT by nevadabell | ||
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Thread started: Apr 5 2012, 9:00 PM EDT
Watch
When I was only 6 years old in 1968, I remember ABC once reran an episode of "Bewitched" on their daytime schedule (I don't remember which one, however) and at the end the Screen Gems "S from Hell" appeared, but the much more palatable "Dancing Sticks" music by Frank DeVol played over the logo, with the "A Screen Gems presentation" announcement intact. Those last five notes seemed to go *very* well with the "Screen Gems" zooming out at the bottom of the logo.
Does anyone else remember this? (I'm sure this version of the logo is now extinct, especially considering Sony's "plastering" of the pre-1964 Screen Gems logos with the Sony Pictures Television logo.) Picture it in your mind. Don't you think the "Dancing Sticks" music would have gone *much better* with that "S" logo? If Columbia had retained *that* music for the logo rather than using that creepy Eric Siday moog music, I'm sure we youngsters back then would have *better* memories of that logo now, and it probably wouldn't have been called "The S from Hell!" |
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| PrimeEvil | S From Hell Documentary from the Sundance Film Festival | 8 | Apr 9 2012, 8:20 AM EDT by HiddenResearcher | ||
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Thread started: Aug 16 2010, 1:33 PM EDT
Watch
Well, I thought it was funny.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YM2AxGYn8jU&feature=fvw |
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| beerTVbuff | Screen Gems Torch Lady II 1960-63 | 2 | May 6 2011, 10:04 AM EDT by GeorgeJetson3 | ||
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Thread started: Mar 9 2011, 3:23 PM EST
Watch
The change of background for the Screen Gems Torch Lady in 1960 occurred under then Columbia president Abraham "Abe' Schneider, who replaced Harry Cohn after his death in 1958. For the change in 1960, an announcer would be brought in to read several variants of the disclaimer accompanying Torch Lady II for all the studio's TV shows, so Hal Gibney was given the assignment. There was never any record of Cohn reading an announcement for Screen Gems Torch Lady I, unless somebody out there has something to upload to this site!
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