Telepictures Productions

Logo descriptions by Matt A., James Fabiano, Adam P., and Ben Masters Logo captures by Shadeed A. Kelly, Bob Fish, Eric S., Mr. Logo Lord, V of Doom, megamanj2004, and others Editions by Shadeed A. Kelly, Eric S., and V of Doom Video captures courtesy of Eric S., Phasicblu, JohnnyL80, Royger Short, Stephen Cezar, and TVLogoFan2

Background: Telepictures was formed initially as "Telepictures Corporation" in 1978 by Michael Garin. The company syndicated the Rankin-Bass library's holdings from post-1974 to 1988, as well numerous television programs such as My Favorite Martian, Here's Lucy, Love Connection, and The People's Court among others. In 1983, the company formed Telepictures Productions as the production arm of the corporation. Telepictures merged with Lorimar Productions, creating Lorimar-Telepictures Corporation (or just simply "Lorimar-Telepictures") on April 21, 1986. Under Telepictures' ownership, Rankin-Bass produced new and successful animated series; for example, ThunderCats and SilverHawks. In 1988, Lorimar-Telepictures split the television production divisions into their own separate names but keeping the Lorimar-Telepictures name as the distribution arm. In 1989, Warner Communications (now TimeWarner) purchased the company. Lorimar remained a separate production entity, which would be folded into Warner Bros. by 1993. Telepictures Productions later became a producer of syndicated programming that Warner Bros. Television would distribute starting in 1990 after a two year hiatus. The company produces the syndicated news magazine Extra and produced the now-defunct Jenny Jones syndicated talk show. It is also involved in online area, including operating the TMZ celebrity blog, amongst others.

1st Logo (1980-1986)

Telepictures Corporation (1981)Telepictures Corporation (1983)Telepictures Productions (1983)Telepictures - Love Connection (1983)Telepictures: The People's Court (1983-b) Telepictures-LMAD: 1984Telepictures-LMAD: 1984-bTelepictures-LMAD: 1984-cTelepictures Corporation- shadow mode (1985)Telepictures Corporation

Nicknames: "Drum Roll", "Flying Parallelograms", "Rollercoaster", "Shadows", "Telecoaster"

Logo: Here are the main versions of this logo: •1980-1983: On a black background, we see the word "Telepictures" in white (in ITC Lubalin Graph Std Bold) emerging from the bottom of the screen followed by many "shadows" (blue in the color version), and moving up and "curving" down as if it was a roller coaster. When it stops in the middle, the "CORPORATION" (in ITC Lubalin Graph Std Demi) appears as always. •1983-1986: Against a black background, numerous rectangles of different blue shades fly from the top and bottom of the screen and towards the middle, where they form a blue, horizontally segmented "Telepictures" logo. The word "CORPORATION" appears at the right below the logo, and all the words then turn white. •On network television, the name appeared as "Telepictures PRODUCTIONS".

Variants: •A later variant of the "rollercoaster" had smoother animation, "Telepictures" emerging more rapidly, the blue color more vivid, and instead of the shadows constantly trailing, a limited number appear and then piling into the logo. •Sped-up variants of this logo exist. •On the 1984 syndicated version of Let's Make a Deal, 1981-1986 episodes of The People's Court, the 1985-1986 US version of Catch Phrase, and the 1st season (1983-84) of Love Connection the logo was superimposed over the credits, animation and all.

FX/SFX: The shapes piling and forming the logo depending on the variant; very excellent slit-Scanimate animation.

Music/Sounds: A drum roll sound during the formation of the logo, and when it turns white, the theme ends with a "ding" from a triangle. Sometimes it is silent or has the end-theme playing.

Music/Sounds Variants: •On the first season of ThunderCats, the Rankin-Bass logo music segues into a custom five-note horn fanfare (composed by Bernard Hoffer), which keeps the "ding" at the end. The "ding" sound is longer on earlier episodes of said show. •On the animated specialThe Coneheads, (based on the SNL sketch), the 2nd half of the Rankin-Bass music plays, mixed with the drum roll, perfectly in sync with the "ding" noise from the Telepictures logo. •On produced TV movies, this logo is silent, meanwhile on distributed, the logo has its normal music. •On the first episode of The All New Let's Make a Deal, Brian Cummings (later Dean Goss on season 2) says "Telepictures!", but was not accompanied by the Telepictures drum roll and ding theme. The drum roll and ding sounds were used on the remaining of the episodes.

Availability: Quite rare actually. It was last seen on Love Connection and the 1984 syndicated version of Let's Make a Deal (in-credit version) both on GSN. Most tapes of Telepictures' movies had the logo deleted, and most of the shows that Telepictures distributed have since been acquired by other companies. This also appeared on early seasons of The People's Court when it was last reran and appeared on AOL's In2TV site. Can also be found on ThunderCats DVD releases from the first season. This was also seen on the very short-lived 1985 U.S. version of Catch Phrase with Art James. The 1980 "rollercoaster" version can be found at the end of a sales promo from 1981 for the syndication release of Here's Lucy. This promo is available on disc 4 of Shout Factory's DVD "best of" release.

Scare Factor: Medium for the first variant. The drum roll and flashing "CORPORATION" might not go well with everyone. The second variant is slightly lower.

2nd Logo (1990-1993)

Telepictures Productions (1990)

Nicknames: "The Flipping T", "The Spinning T"

Logo: On a white background, a square with a "T" in it (except the left tip of the "T" is separated from the rest of the letter in a little box) quickly changes colors in a blur,from yellow to orange to neon green, before it quickly flips around. When it stops, the "T" square turns black, and small black text appears underneath that says "TELEPICTURES PRODUCTIONS, INC." in spaced-out lettering. Then the separated part of the "T" (which is now on the right side) turns red.

Byline: On 1992-1993 episodes of The Jane Whitney Show, the byline "A TIME WARNER ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY" (in the same font used in the Warner Bros. Pictures and Warner Bros. Television logos) fades in after the separated part of the "T" on the right side turns red.

FX/SFX/Cheesy Factor: The "T" square changing colors, flipping around.

Music/Sounds: The closing theme of the show.

Availability: Near extinction, though it was seen on the final season of Fun House, as well as the first two seasons of Jenny Jones, and the short-lived early '90s game show Trump Card, among other programs. This was also seen on the early episodes of the short-lived talk show The Jane Whitney Show.

Scare Factor: None.

3rd Logo (1993-2009)

Telepictures ProductionsTelepictures (2001)Telepictures Productions (2004)Telepictures Productions (2008)

Nicknames: "The Circle T", "The T"

Logo: On a black background a circular logo is coming towards the screen. Its border is black on the top half and white on the bottom, and the inside's left half is white and the right black. Inside is a "T", the left of which is black and right white. In a flash, the logo appears much closer and with the word "TELEPICTURES" in the center. Another flash (which results in a white bar as if someone turned off a television) brings the logo to a median distance, and under "TELEPICTURES" is "p r o d u c t i o n s" (spaced and in italics as seen in the example). Under all that is the Warner byline fading-in.

Bylines: •1993-2001, 2003-2005: "A Time Warner Entertainment Company" •2001-2003: "An AOL Time Warner Company" •2004-2009: "A Time Warner Company" •September 8, 2008-2009: "A Warner Bros. Entertainment Company"

Variants: •2001-2003: A later version exists where the animation is the same, but the end product looks different. In this variation, the "Circle T" is zoomed-in much more (almost taking up the whole screen), and the "Telepictures Productions" text seems smaller in proportion than the original. This is done to create a new byline (in about the some position as the old logo) inside the "Circle T" stating the AOL Time Warner byline. •2008-2009: Another version, which was "enhanced" for HD, features the logo glowing blue with a fresh byline to boot. The word "Productions" now zooms in and spreads into position.

FX/SFX: The flashes and the logo "jumping". Pretty cool effects.

Cheesy Factor: The later AOL-era variant looks like the logo was zoomed up solely to get rid of the outdated byline. The glow on the HD version also looks kind of tacky.

Music/Sounds: •1993-2004: A thunderclap sound is heard, along with a "shout", with "tingles" and "wind" heard in the background. Sometimes it will just have the end of the show's theme or having the sound effect playing with the show's theme, which happened on The Jane Whitney Show. •2004-2009: Sounds similar to before, but the "crash" sounds more percussive and the wind has been replaced with a synth drone.

Availability: The AOL version is pretty much extinct, having been seen on Street Smarts, among others, but the Time Warner logo can be found on all shows produced by the company from 1993-2009, such as Jenny Jones,The Tyra Banks Show, Judge Mathis, and TMZ on TV. The WBE version was seen only on episodes of The Ellen DeGeneres Show from September 8, 2008 up to the time their next logo was introduced in 2009.

Scare Factor: Depending on the logo variant: •Low to medium for its sudden appearance with the end title theme playing over the logo. •Medium with the music. The crashing with the zoom-in flashing effect may scare you. •Medium to high for the 2004 music, which is not helped by the darkness.

4th Logo (2009- )

Telepictures Productions (2009, Widescreen)Telepictures Productions Logo (2009)

Nicknames: "The Golden Circle T", "CGI Circle T", "The T II", "2010s T", "The Decade T", "The Decade Circle T"

Logo: On a brown background, a gold bar zooms out of view as lights move in different directions. The gold bar is rotated, revealing that it is the pieces of the Telepictures logo, with the "T" cut in half (the logo resembles the 1993 version, with amendments made to its design). The parts of the "T" then join to form the whole "T" as the black and white circle fades-in, and the text "TELEPICTURES" rotates and zoom-out (like before it is set in Futura, but here it's a thicker weight). The logo then zooms-out slowly to its usual distance, with the Warner Bros. Entertainment byline fading-in.

Variant: A newer version has been introduced with an alternate jingle and the Warner Bros. byline in a serif font.

FX/SFX: The combination of the Telepictures logo, the rotation, and zooming letters.

Music/Sounds: •A laser sound, followed by a two-note chime. This was used from 2009-2010. •The current version ends with a piano chord.

Availability: Common. It's seen on post-2009 Telepictures shows currently in syndication such as The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Extra, TMZ,Judge Mathis, Dr. Drew's Lifechangers, and The Real. Don't expect this to appear on current episodes of The People's Court, though. Also appears on videos uploaded for the Tumblr blog DC All Access, which are produced by Telepictures.

Scare Factor: Low to medium. The fast animation may catch you off-guard. Low for the piano variant.