King Features Entertainment

Logo descriptions by James Fabiano, Nicholas Aczel, Matt Williams, Argus Sventon and Stephen Cezar Logo captures by Eric S., Bob Fish, snelfu, V of Doom, Mr. Logo Lord, and others Editions by V of Doom, Eric S., and Bob Fish Videos courtesy of Phasicblu, Eric S., Stephen Cezar, KeenRich, and Guy Who Knows Too Much

1st Logo (1960-1963, 1978)

King Features Syndicate "KFS Pegasus" Opening Logo (Popeye the Sailor, 1960-1963)King Features Syndicate "KFS Pegasus" Closing Logo (Popeye the Sailor, 1960-1963)

Nicknames: "The KFS Pegasus", "The Pegasus Logo", "The Popeye Logo"

Logo: In the center of a blue background is an image reminiscent of the mythical Bellorophon riding Pegasus or a man riding some winged beast. He is holding a quill pen. On both sides of the image are ribbons with the company's name. "KING FEATURES" is on the left ribbon and "SYNDICATE" is on the right. Below the eagle is a monitor-shaped box that says "TV". The word "Presents" appears under the opening logo in white script. Then a star spins towards the screen from the center of the logo. When it stops, Popeye appears in it and toots his pipe, followed by the title screen and credits.

Closing Title: At the end, the white quill pen writes out "The End" in script, then flips to the right to rejoin the logo.

FX/SFX: The spinning star, the quill pen "writing".

Music/Sounds: •Opening: An abridged version of the generic cartoon sailor song "The Sailor's Hornpipe" (played on what sounds like a flute), leading into Popeye the Sailor Man which plays over the credits. •Closing: The end to "The Sailor's Hornpipe".

Availability: Rare, considering that most people say they haven't seen the made-for-TV KFS Popeye cartoons of the 1960s. This logo may be preserved on the DVD release of said show. The logo also made a surprise return at the end of some reruns of some 1st season episodes of The All-New Popeye Hour, following the 1974 H-B "Rainbow" logo, although when it was last reran on the old Family Channel, this logo was also played in sped-up mode due to time compressing.

Scare Factor: Low. The centerpiece may be a little intimidating. The Popeye music coming out of nowhere with that star may make some people antsy as well.

2nd Logo (1962-1964)

King Features Syndicate "KFS Crown" Opening Logo (Beetle Bailey, 1963)King Features Syndicate Productions (1963, Opening)King Features Syndicate "KFS Crown" Opening Logo (Krazy Kat, 1963)King Features Syndicate "KFS Crown" Closing Logo (Beetle Bailey, 1963) King Features Syndicate "KFS Crown" Closing Logo (Krazy Kat, 1963)King Features Syndicate Productions/Paramount Pictures (1964, Closing)

Nicknames: "The KFS Crown", "The Zooming/Spinning Crown", “The Beetle Bailey Logo”

Logo: On a specific color background (gray, teal, lavender, pistachio, light gray, or sky blue), a small yellow or gold rectangle in the center of the screen zooms in in a spinning manner. The three spikes in the crown pop up one by one from left to right. The word “King” appears on the crown in an old-world font, the “K” is colored a bold red. The “King” spins and settles on the below left of the screen, and the words “Features” and “Syndicate” (the first letter in each also colored bold red) appear to the right of it and “PRESENTS” below. This logo leads into the title screen and opening credits for the cartoon that follows.

Closing Titles:•Different color background (blue, lavender, gray, light gray, or pistachio) background, but the crown is in the upper left corner, and below it are written the stacked words “A KING FEATURES SYNDICATE PRODUCTION”, with the bold red word “TV” written behind it to hence "A KING FEATURES SYNDICATE TV PRODUCTION". •On 1963 Beetle Bailey and Barney Google and Snuffy Smith cartoons, the text “Produced by Paramount Pictures Corporation” is seen below in the Paramount corporate font.

FX/SFX: The zooming/spinning crown, the word animations. None for the closing variant.

Cheesy Factor: The animation is rather simple.

Music/Sounds: •Opening: A horn and xylophone fanfare, leading into the cartoon short theme music. •Closing: The closing theme of the cartoon.

Availability: Rare. Appeared on the animated cartoon series Beetle Bailey and His Friends on network TV. If you really want to see it, some cartoon shorts that originally appeared on the series have been released on three VHS volumes of Rhino Home Video’s “Sunday Morning Funnies”: Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, Beetle Bailey, and Krazy Kat. DVD releases of these shows may preserve the logos, as well.

Scare Factor: Low. The fast animation of the crown combined with the strange cheery music might surprise some, but this is tame.

3rd Logo (1963-1970)

King Features Syndicate Productions (1963, Opening)King Features Syndicate Productions (1963, Closing)King Features Syndicate Productions (1966, Color Variant)King Features Syndicate TV (The Beatles)

Nicknames: "The KFS Crown II", "The Blondie Logo", "Jumping Shapes"

Logo: Against a white (gray in B&W) background, we first see a rectangle with a equilateral triangle in the center, along with two triangles on either side with one curved side each. On the lower left hand corner and upper right hand corner of the rectangle, there are two dots. The dot on the lower left drops and explodes into 8 small dots and 5 larger dots. The triangle on the left side drops along with the other dot. The triangle blossoms like a fan into a flower shape, while the other two triangles drop and form an hexagon shaped by six triangles, except the upper triangle is missing. Then at one point, we see the four "pieces" of the KFS logo on the screen, before they suddenly "multiply" and jump all over the screen, finally forming the KFS crown logo, which shrinks and moves to the upper left of the screen above the words "KING FEATURES PRESENTS" (It is ID'ed as "A KING FEATURES PRESENTATION" at the end of some TV shows).

FX/SFX: The moving shapes jumping across the screen.

Music/Sounds: The theme begin with the sound notes hearing similar to the Universal theme from the late '70s. These occur during the dropping phase. Then big band music is heard while all of the shapes jump all over the screen and during the formation of the KFS crown. This music could be easily heard on The Beatles cartoon.

Availability: Very rare. This logo appeared on the animated cartoon series The Beatles and Cool McCool on network TV. It was also seen on television prints of Columbia Pictures' Blondie movies. This logo maybe vanishing since it was last seen on the KFS-owned Blondie movies with Columbia Pictures original credits last seen on AMC. However, if your station has been showing Blondie for a long time or if you owned a video of the Blondie movies from KFS Home Entertainment, you may see this logo. This logo can be found on the DVD release of Cool McCool from BCI/Eclipse, and may also turn up on a few public domain DVDs of Blondie and Beetle Bailey.

Scare Factor: Low to medium, considering the sudden big band music sounding, and the jumping shapes.

4th Logo (October 7, 1972)

Nicknames: "The KFS Crown III", "'70s KFS Logo", "KFS Radar Globe"

Logo: On a blue background, we see on the right a crudely-drawn crown encapsulated inside a Worldvision-like radar globe, with a large quill behind it. Below, we see the King Features Syndicate (1972)words “King Features” in a bold font aligned to the left.

FX/SFX/Cheesy Factor: None.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Extinct. The only known record of its existence is on the original broadcast of the 1972 ABC Saturday Superstar Movie Popeye Meets the Man Who Hated Laughter.

Scare Factor: None. The scratchy prints may bother a few. Otherwise, it’s mostly a boring logo.

5th Logo (1981-1985)

King Features DistributionKing Features Entertainment (1985)

Nicknames: "The KFS Crown IV", "Crown Trail"

Logo: On a cerulean blue background, the words "King Features Entertainment" slowly zoom out. When the words get to a suitable distance, a "trail" of stylized outlined crowns come from the left and right side above the logo, consolidating into one stylized outlined shield. The words "Produced by" or "Distributed by" may appear in an arc above it.

Variant: Some shows contain a King Features copyright notice below.

FX/SFX: The crown trail.

Music/Sounds: An early '80s synthesizer theme.

Availability: Very rare, but may appear at the end of some movie telecasts, such as The Cartier Affair. Also appears on some prints of An American Werewolf in London, although other prints of that film use the Hearst Entertainment logo. This can also be found on DVDs of The Toughest Man In The World and High School USA.

Scare Factor: Low. The music may get to some.

6th Logo (1985-1990)

King Features EntertainmentKing Features Entertainment Distribution (1991)

Nicknames: "The KFS Crown V", "Rolling Crown"

Logo: On a black/blue gradient background, a blue 3D crown spins onto the screen. It moves towards the top, as the black background begins to become lavender (the color moves up from the bottom). The crown, when it gets near the top and comfortably small, flashes and becomes a 2D stylized crown like in logo 2. Below it the words "King Features Entertainment" appear in the same font as the 2nd logo. The words "A Subsidiary of the Hearst Corporation" appear below it. Sometimes, "Distributed By" may appear above the crown. The warp speed version has no animation.

FX/SFX: The rolling crown. None for the sped-up variant.

Cheesy Factor: Rather poor CGI. Also, copies of this logo sourced from official DVDs seems to be ripped from low-quality tapes, so that makes the logo a bit blurry.

Music/Sounds: A generic synth theme that was played on a Yamaha DX-7. There were two slightly different versions of it. May also have the show's ending theme playing over it. The warp speed version has the last few seconds of the logo's theme playing.

Availability: Can be seen on old videocassettes of Popeye and Krazy Kat as well as the 1970s cartoon of Flash Gordon among other KFS classic cartoons. This logo was seen without music on G-Force on Cartoon Network. When the old Family Channel last played reruns of The All-New Popeye Hour as well as the short-lived Popeye and Son (1987-88), this logo followed after the H-B '74 Rainbow and H-B '79 Swirling Star for the former, and the H-B '86 CGI Swirling Star for the latter version. For the former, this logo was played in sped-up mode due to time compression. Also appears on the DVDs of Get Smart, Again and God Bless the Child. It's also at the end of the Sandy Frank dub of Gamera (1965), which was featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Scare Factor: Low. This is pretty clean.

7th Logo (1987-1989)

Nicknames: "The KFS Crown VI", "Chromed Crown", "Still Crown"

Logo: On a shaded blue background, a 2D stylized crown like in logo 2, and the words "King Features Entertainment" are seen in the same font as the previous logo. Under King Features Entertainment (1987)it, the byline "A Subsidiary of The Hearst Corporation" is also there.

Variant: Some shows contain one or two King Features copyright stamps below.

FX/SFX: None.

Cheesy Factor: Very cheap chrome-in logo!

Music/Sounds: None or the closing theme of the show.

Availability: Very rare. Appears on Blondie & Dagwood episodes from the era.

Scare Factor: Low. The music may get to some.

8th logo (2004)

Nicknames: "The CGI Pegasus",

Logo: A big flash appears which reveals the planet earth, which is spinning. A ribbon is pulling out behind from the earth (with the words "King Features" on the left ribbon, and the word "Syndicate" appearing on the right ribbon), and the symbol from the first logo appears on top of the earth. The flash dies down and the finished product ends up on a dark teal background, which looks similar to the first logo, with a few exceptions (see below).

Trivia: A reinterpretation ofKing Features Syndicate (2004) the first logo, only this time the TV is changed by a earth globe.

FX/SFX: Everything.

Cheesy Factor: Unconvincing and outdated CGI animation, very plastic-like.

Music/Sounds: Silent.

Availability: Seen only (so far) on the direct to video movie Popeye's Voyage: The Quest for Pappy.

Scare Factor: Low. The centerpiece may be a little intimidating.