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| Version | User | Scope of changes |
|---|---|---|
| May 11 2008, 7:16 PM EDT | Alvinandthechipmunk4 | 40 words added |
| Apr 19 2008, 9:15 AM EDT | ryanasaurus0077 | 26 words added, 1 word deleted |
Changes
Key: Additions Deletions
Compiled by AsdfTheRevival
1st Logo
(1972-1978)
Nicknames: "Zooming WGBH", "WGBH of Doom", "Zooming Letters"
Logo: Against a dark green background, the letters WGBH in yellow in a generic Arial font quickly zoom back, away from the viewer to the vanishing point. Then the word "Boston," also in yellow, zooms forward really fast, taking up the whole screen and creating a yellow background. And finally, the word "Presents" zooms forward at a fast pace, in dark green.
Variation:
FX: The zooming of the words.
Cheesy Factor: Simple animation.
Music: The long, full version of the jingle, with a choppy, futuristic synth, followed by a rising synth violin stinger. Most likely produced on a Moog synthesizer.
Availability: Extinct; will probably never be seen again outside of tape-trading.
Scare Factor: High to nightmare. The high-contrast colors, extreme "V of Doom"-style zoom-ins, and the eerie synth music would have been sure to unnerve many people.
2nd Logo
(1978- )
Nicknames: "Flash of Doom", "Circle Outline"
Logo: Here are the main variants of this logo:
FX: The lines of electricity, the flash.
Cheesy Factor: The flash and light effects are typical of CGI in the Scanimate era of the 70's and 80's.
Music: The original 1972 music, used to this day. There have been two versions, a long version and a short version. The entire seven-second jingle is used as the long version, and is in much better sound quality. The short version features only the rising synth chord, and is much more common nowadays. Sometimes, an announcer will say "A production of WGBH Boston."
Variations: There are many variations in terms of the music and the announcer:
Availability: Common; can be seen in its various versions on many PBS shows. The 1993 version with the short music and no announcer has recently been sighted on "Fetch with Ruff Ruffman". The "Boston Presents" version can be found on video and may also show up on WGBH shows produced from 1978-93 if your station has older prints.
Scare Factor: Nightmare for the early variant, medium to high for the 1993 variants, and medium for the later neon variant. This logo has scared many with its dark colors, eerie animation, and that dated synth music.
3rd Logo
(1991-1996)
Logo: We see a small Earth globe against a starry sky quickly rotate around counterclockwise, and the words "WQED" (in yellow) with "PITTSBURGH" (in white) below slowly rotate around clockwise, followed by "WGBH" (in yellow) with "BOSTON" (in white) below.
FX: The rotating globe and letters.
Music:
Availability: Only seen on "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?", which is hardly, if ever, re-ran.
Scare Factor: None.
1st Logo
(1972-1978)
Nicknames: "Zooming WGBH", "WGBH of Doom", "Zooming Letters"
Logo: Against a dark green background, the letters WGBH in yellow in a generic Arial font quickly zoom back, away from the viewer to the vanishing point. Then the word "Boston," also in yellow, zooms forward really fast, taking up the whole screen and creating a yellow background. And finally, the word "Presents" zooms forward at a fast pace, in dark green.
Variation:
- A black-and-white version appeared in 1974. In this one, "WGBH" and "Boston" are both black, and "Presents" is white. This can be seen on very early episodes of Nova.
- On "The French Chef", the logo is super imposed over a slanted flag of France against a blue BG.
FX: The zooming of the words.
Cheesy Factor: Simple animation.
Music: The long, full version of the jingle, with a choppy, futuristic synth, followed by a rising synth violin stinger. Most likely produced on a Moog synthesizer.
Availability: Extinct; will probably never be seen again outside of tape-trading.
Scare Factor: High to nightmare. The high-contrast colors, extreme "V of Doom"-style zoom-ins, and the eerie synth music would have been sure to unnerve many people.
2nd Logo
(1978- )
Nicknames: "Flash of Doom", "Circle Outline"
Logo: Here are the main variants of this logo:
- Variant 1: On a black background, two orange lines of "electricity" form two, orange, 2D "shadows", one on top and one on bottom.Then the lines form an orange outline of "WGBH" in between the "shadows". The lines stop, and an orange flash starts behind the outline. The flash clears out "WGBH" as "Boston Presents" appears in an orange Arial font. The "Boston Presents" logo was a bumper used at the beginning of the show.
- Variant 2: Similar to the other logo, but usually with the "WGBH" logo already formed as it fades in, and then the flash occurs and the word "B O S T O N" appears below the logo in an orange Art Deco font.
FX: The lines of electricity, the flash.
Cheesy Factor: The flash and light effects are typical of CGI in the Scanimate era of the 70's and 80's.
Music: The original 1972 music, used to this day. There have been two versions, a long version and a short version. The entire seven-second jingle is used as the long version, and is in much better sound quality. The short version features only the rising synth chord, and is much more common nowadays. Sometimes, an announcer will say "A production of WGBH Boston."
Variations: There are many variations in terms of the music and the announcer:
- (1978-1993) Long music, no announcer, complete animation, has "Boston Presents"
- (1993- ) Short music, abridged animation, no announcer
- (1993- ) Short music, abridged animation, with announcer.
- (1993- ) On NOVA, the announcer says "NOVA is a production of WGBH Boston."
- (1993?- ) Short music, complete (sped-up) animation, and no announcer, but the logo itself has been digitally enhanced. The version used as a station ID has the logo zooming in a bit, and another version had the PBS logo appearing in its place and shining with an announcer saying "You're watching WGBH Boston.".
- (1998- ) On Mystery! and Masterpiece Theatre, the announcer has a British accent.
- (1999-2002) On the new Zoom, a kid on the show voices over, w/ short music. Starting in 2002, there would be no announcer and it would just have the music.
- (2002- ) Short music, complete (sped-up) animation, with announcer.
- Sometimes, the closing theme of the show will play over this logo. This can be seen on "Arthur" and "Between the Lions."
- In 2002, a completely computer-generated logo featuring neon-style tubes connecting and lighting up to form the WGBH logo, with an announcer saying "WGBH Boston", was introduced. As of now, this only plays as a station ident in Boston, not a closing logo.
- Another variation is like the one above, but after that a 2, in the same style as the WGBH logo, flashes, and it's in light blue.
- (1993- ) A version can occasionally be spotted in which the "glowing" animation is played, but no text appears.
- A version has been seen with abridged animation, no voiceover, and slightly lower-pitched music.
- On later episodes of "Arthur", the byline "WGBH is a trademark of WGBH Educational Foundation" in shown below written in the "Arthur" font.
- An in-credit version of the logo has been spotted on "Antiques Roadshow", which simply shows the orange WGBH logo at the bottom of the screen.
- Another in-credit version had the WGBH logo in white and "A presentation of" (I think) above, and "Boston" below.
- (2007-) On some Postcards With Buster episodes it features the red phrase B O S T O N fading in and zooming in slowly until the flash dies down other episodes have a shortend version of the textless WGBH logo
Availability: Common; can be seen in its various versions on many PBS shows. The 1993 version with the short music and no announcer has recently been sighted on "Fetch with Ruff Ruffman". The "Boston Presents" version can be found on video and may also show up on WGBH shows produced from 1978-93 if your station has older prints.
Scare Factor: Nightmare for the early variant, medium to high for the 1993 variants, and medium for the later neon variant. This logo has scared many with its dark colors, eerie animation, and that dated synth music.
3rd Logo
(1991-1996)
FX: The rotating globe and letters.
Music:
- 1991-1993: The introduction to the theme playing repeatedly throughout coupled with Lynne Thigpen saying "Today's caper is presented by WQED Pittsburgh and WGBH Boston.".
- 1993-1996: The end theme of the show coupled with Lynne Thigpen saying "This program is presented by WQED Pittsburgh and WGBH Boston.".
Availability: Only seen on "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?", which is hardly, if ever, re-ran.
Scare Factor: None.
