Time-Life Television/Lionheart TelevisionThis is a featured page

Logo descriptions by James Fabiano, Daniel Fuentz, and Sean Beard
Logo captures by Bob Fish
Editions by V of Doom and Mr. Logo Lord


Background: Time-Life Television was a division of Time, Inc. active throughout the Seventies. It was most notable as the US distributor of the BBC's television output including Doctor Who and Monty Python's Flying Circus. Time, Inc. spun it off in 1982 to a HBO/BBC Enterprises joint venture which renamed it Lionheart Television International. The BBC eventually bought Lionheart outright by 1987 making it their North American distribution arm (now called BBC Worldwide Americas). A totally different company operating as Time-Life Television exists today-as the production unit of Time-Life Video.

Time-Life Television

(1971-1982)

Time-Life/Lionheart Television - CLG WikiTime-Life/Lionheart Television - CLG Wiki

Nicknames
: "T-L", "Time-Life", "The Time-Life TV Set", "T-L TV Monitor from/of Hell/Doom"

Logo: A white conjoined, slanted TL (with the L connected near the end of the T) zooms into place onto a television-like box with a red/orange (in other cases green) screen in the center, trailing itself as it goes (å la the 1978-81 Filmways logo). Once it reaches the screen, it quickly flashes and merges with the box forming the logo. On the bottom of the screen, the phrase "TIME LIFE TELEVISION" is seen underneath the logo completing its formation.

Variant:
On the distribution variant, the logo is the same, except the phrase "A BBC-TV Production" is seen below the logo first, being faded out and the "Distributed By TIME LIFE TELEVISION" blurb, centered under the logo, takes its place and then fades out completely.

FX: The TL trailing onto the empty shell of the logo and "flashing" into place. Typical Scanimate effects.

Cheesy Factor: Way off the scale, with the dawn-of-the-Seventies logo design, EXTREMELY crude animation and that JINGLE that sounds just like "You Can Fly" from Disney's Peter Pan!

Music/Sounds: A shrill Moog synthesizer sounder, which sounds like "You Can Fly" from Disney's Peter Pan and seemingly grows louder and higher in pitch as the logo forms.


Avaliability
: Extinct on TV; was prevalent throughout the Seventies on BBC programs shown in the US and Canada, but mercifully replaced with the various Lionheart Television or BBC Worldwide logos over the years (Monty Python's Flying Circus switched distributors completely, with logos for Python (Monty) Pictures Ltd. and Devillier-Donegan Enterprises replacing the Time-Life ID). Surprisingly, it can still be found on certain Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker episodes of Doctor Who from the '70s, whose 1972-78 vintage prints are still in use today.


Scare Factor: High to NIGHTMARE with the jingle and the animation.
The scare factor is much lower for those who are used to seeing it.
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Lionheart Television

1st Logo
(1982-1986)

Time-Life/Lionheart Television - CLG Wiki

Nickname:
"Zooming/Flipping Lion"

Logo: On a plain black background a crude white drawing of a lion holding a thunderbolt. From the left side of the picture the words "AN ABC PRODUCTION" or "A BBC TV PRODUCTION" (with "BBC" in 3D) fly out. That then flips to reveal:

Distributed by
LIONHEART
TELEVISION INTERNATIONAL INC.

"Lionheart" is in a stylized font.

Trivia: The Lion in the logo is part of BBC's Coat of Arms. So it makes a lot of sense to be in this logo.

FX/Cheesy Factor: A creepy Moog synthesizer intro, the "flipping lion". The "flipping lion" almost looks like it has its tognue sticking out.

Music/Sounds: A Moog synthesizer tune that starts with what sounds like a "winning" sound effect on a slot machine or a video game, which is followed by a fanfare.

Availability: Extinct on TV; usually replaced with the 2nd logo.

Scare Factor: Low to medium; this has a very creepy Moog synth tune and a terrible look.

2nd Logo
(1986-1989)
Time-Life/Lionheart Television - CLG Wiki

Nicknames: "Lion and Stripe", "The BBC In America"

Logo: Against a black screen, many white dots "dissolve" upwards and form a red and white lion's head. The words "LIONHEART TELEVISION - THE BBC IN AMERICA" appear from the bottom of the sc
reen while a red and white stripe is "drawn" under the lion's head. There is a "V" shaped bend in the stripe at the part below the head.

FX: The lion materializing, the stripe being drawn, flying words.

Cheesy Factor
: Simple '80s animation.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Can still be seen at the end of Are You Being Served?. However, not every episode has it, not by the usage of the "BBC America Presents" bumper as previously mentioned. If I remember correctly, it is also at the end of Fawlty Towers reruns.


Scare Factor: Minimal; no music and simple animation
may probably scare a few.

3rd Logo
(1989-1994)

Time-Life/Lionheart Television - CLG Wiki

Nickname: "BBC-Lionheart Globe"

Logo: A picture of a globe is seen spinning around while parallelograms with the letters "BBC" drop over the globe. Under the "BBC", the words "LIONHEART TELEVISION" appear with "A BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION COMPANY" in small letters underneath.

FX: The CGI BBC logo flying into place on the globe; the remaining text fading into place.

Music/Sounds: A variant of the fanfare used in the first logo. Also used the ITC 1986 music on one occasion.

Availability: Rare, but seen a good deal on A&E (Lovejoy, A Touch of Frost, Pole To Pole with Michael Palin) and PBS until the mid '90s. This was also used to replace the older Lionheart (and Time-Life) logos on reissued BBC library shows (i.e. Fawlty Towers, Are You Being Served?(other/later episodes), Good Neighbours, 'Allo,'Allo, To The Manor Born).

Scare Factor: None.


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