Sunn Classic Pictures/Summary

Background : Sunn Classic Pictures was founded in 1971 as a subsidiary of the razor company Schick. The company was among the many that popularized the concept of “Four Walling”, in which a studio goes from town to town leasing theatre space for a limited engagement, saturates the local market with advertising, and rakes in all the box-office grosses instead of sharing it with the individual theatres. Sunn Classic also used computerized market research to develop its films. Its niche was in speculative documentaries and family-friendly narrative films such as Grizzly Adams. Sunn was acquired by Taft Broadcasting in 1980, and it was briefly renamed into Taft International Pictures before it was reverted back to its original name. Its distribution operations, were meanwhile sold to Jensen Farley Pictures. Currently the movie library is owned by Viacom through Paramount Pictures and Melange Pictures, LLC and syndicated by Trifecta Entertainment and Media, and the TV library is owned by CBS Corporation thru CBS Television Distribution and Spelling Television, all of them under National Amusements, Inc. Many of their films have not been available on DVD with the exceptions of Cujo and The Boogens.

1st Logo
(November 13, 1974-1980)

Nicknames : "The Sun", "The Cheesy Sun"

Logo : On a space background, we zoom out and we see an eclipsed sun, which turns into a drawing of a sun. "SUN" on a bold font appears inside it. Below it, these words appear:
 * 1974-1979: "SCHICK SUN CLASSIC PICTURES PRESENTS" (with "Schick" above "SUN")
 * 1975-1978: "SUNN CLASSIC PICTURES PRESENTS" (with "Schick" above "SUNN")
 * 1978-1987: "SUN CLASSIC PICTURES"

FX/SFX : The animation of the flames on the eclipsed sun.

Music/Sounds :
 * The opening variant often featured a triumphant orchestral piece.
 * In other cases, a more orchestrated version with bells and percussion sounds was heard.
 * On In Search of Historic Jesus, a long version of the Taft International Pictures jingle was heard.
 * The closing logo featured a majestic sounding orchestral piece made of strings. Another variant of the same jingle was also used, but using piano and brass as main melody.

Availability : Very rare. It appeared on Vestron Video releases of Greatest Heroes of the Bible: The Story of Esther, The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams, and Battle Beyond the Street, and the Starmaker Entertainment release of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, among others. Was plastered with the Taft logo during the '80s when they owned the company. If any of these films is ever shown or released on DVD, it's unknown if the logo will be preserved or a Paramount or Republic Pictures logo will plaster this one.

2nd Logo
(1982)

Logo : On a white background, we see a stylized image of a yellow sun with a orange circle. Below it is the words "Sunn Classic Pictures" in a Serif Gothic font, and below it is the byline "A Taft Entertainment Company" in black.

FX/SFX : None.

Music/Sounds : The end theme of the show.

Availability : Seen on the short-lived syndicated series Laugh Trax.

3rd Logo
(August 12, 1983-January 1987)

Logo : Just a generic in-credit text saying "SUNN CLASSIC PICTURES, INC.", under it, the byline "A Division of the Taft Entertainment Company" is seen. Sometimes, "IN ASSOCIATION WITH" is seen above.

FX/SFX : The scrolling of the credits or none.

Music/Sounds : The closing theme of the movie, or none.

Availability : Seen on Schick Sunn movies from the Taft period, such as Cujo and P.K. and the Kid among others.

Taft International Pictures
(January 30, 1981-1982)

Nicknames : "The Swirling Star", "Taft Swirling Star", "Bronze Taft Swirling Star"

Logo : On a starry background, we see an orange light streak, then the light streak turns at the left and a bronze sversion of the company's corporate swirling star emblem appears. Then the words: TAFT                      INTERNATIONAL

PICTURES             appear on the right in a futuristic font.

Variant : On The Capture of Grizzly Adams, the byline "TAFT ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY" appear in gold in a 2D version in Denmark font and the background is blue.

FX/SFX : The metal swirling star, the lights, the words, and the logo shining are all advanced for 1981.

Music/Sounds : A majestic fanfare that was one of the many fanfares from the 1974 Sunn Classic Pictures logo. In "The Capture of Grizzly Adams" variant, there is a 5-note trumpet fanfare.

Availability : Extremely rare. Still preserved on The Boogens and The Capture of Grizzly Addams.