Revue Studios

Background : Revue Studios (first known as "Revue Productions, Inc.") was founded in 1943 by MCA when they originally produced live shows. The partnership of NBC and Revue extends as far back as September 6, 1950, with the television broadcast of Armour Theatre, based on radio's Stars Over Hollywood. The company was renamed "Revue Studios" after MCA purchased the Universal Studios lot in 1958. Then in 1962, following the acquisition of Decca Records, who owned Universal-International Pictures at the time, Revue was renamed to "Universal Television".

1st Logo (1951-1953)

Nicknames : "Rotating Camera", "Turning Camera", "Revue Camera", "Camera of Doom", "On 1950's television, Camera pictures you!"

Logo: We zoom in on a shot of a TV camera, which turns sideways, revealing the phrase "A REVUE PRODUCTION" (in a futura font) inscribed onto the camera base. Then it later fades to the MCA-TV "Filmreel" logo.

FX/SFX : Rotation of the TV camera.

Music/Sounds : A dramatic 1940s-esque horn fanfare.

Availability: Extremely rare, as the "Filmreel" is long gone. Has appeared for a short time on some episodes of The Adventures of Kit Carson, among a few others.

Scare Factor : Low to high. The music will probably be a problem with many viewers. The camera zoom-in and it turning can also give someone the shakes.

2nd Logo (1953-1957)

Logo : Over a light shaded background, we see the phrase "Produced by REVUE In Hollywood". The word Revue is taller than the rest of the words, and appears in a very slim, 3-dimensional state. The angle is on the right, looking downward, with a bit of a shadow behind the letters. The remainder of the logo features the other words in a fancy cursive font.

Variant :


 * This logo is shared with the MCA TV "Filmreel" logo on several TV shows.


 * On Tales of Wells Fargo, the logo is superimposed into the background and the word "REVUE" is in 2D.

FX/SFX : None.

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

Availability : Uncommon, though a variant of sorts can be found on first season episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents on Antenna TV and on DVD, as well as the pilot episode of Leave it to Beaver on TV Land, Antenna TV, and DVD, and The Adventures of Kit Carson on DVD.

Scare Factor : None; much tamer than the 1st logo.

3rd Logo (1957-1958)

Logo : We have the Revue name but in Arial font. The name appears "Filmed at Revue in Hollywood" with "revue" in bold lettering and below it has the MCA Arrowhead which has "IN ASSOCIATION WITH" above and "mca tv" inside it with "exclusive representatives" below:

filmed at    revue    ''' ''' in Hollywood

Variants : "Exclusive Representatives" was later changed to "exclusive distributor" on the MCA-TV logo. Sometimes the phrase "IN ASSOCIATION WITH" is seen above the arrowhead. At other times, it would say "produced by revue in hollywood".

FX/SFX : Scrolling of the credits or superimposed.

Music/Sounds : Just the end title theme from any show.

Availability : Common. Seen on almost the entire 1st season and a few early episodes of the 2nd season of Leave it to Beaver on Me-TV, Antenna TV and DVD. Also appears on the first season of Wagon Train on Encore Westerns and 1957-1958 episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents on Antenna TV and Bachelor Father.

Scare Factor : None.

4th Logo (1958-1963)

Nickname : "The Filmstrips"

Logo : Two lines of letters rotate in opposite directions of each other. The top line going left, the bottom line going right. To the tune of their 5-note fanfare, five letters stack horizontally together, unevenly, spelling the name "REVUE". Then the rest of the letters are moved away, bringing in a white-outline transparent shape of a rectangle (kind of similar to the Warner Bros. \\' logo). Then the inside turns into a dark gray color under the black and light gray blocks of letters. Then the phrase appears as being "filmed in hollywood at revue studios" with "MCA-TV EXCLUSIVE DISTRIBUTOR" under it. The MCA byline, which was actually underneath the logo, was usually accompanied by it's own union bug, which was a small globe with the words MCA over it. For those who are curious, here is the line-up of letters that were featured on this logo. The ones used for the logo appear in bold type. And they are...

Top Right: xazcnaqurpemscvxuozserncv

Left azcvrzsnoxureaocvucxozrsx

This logo also appears in series credits. Sometimes, just the name appears just as it's predecessor logo has done before.

Trivia : The top of the row also spells "revue": xazcnaqurpemscvxuozserncv

Variants :
 * This logo appeared in quite a few lengths. There is a long version, that features the full-length version of the fanfare. Some shows, such as those produced in association with Kayro Productions, feature an abridged version of the logo that starts with the TV tube zooming out and a shortened fanfare. There are also several versions of this logo used for co-productions, such as for Kayro shows, JaMco Productions, Hubbell-Robinson Productions, Top Gun Productions, and Shamley Productions; those feature the company name alongside a smaller version of the Revue logo.
 * In 1962, a color version appeared. It featured the regular logo being placed a wallflower-type background with '60s star designs in orange, similar to the 1st logo of Universal Television. The filmstrips above were orange and the bottom were teal. Same animation still applied, but the television tube inside later turns ivory and the phrase saying: "filmed in hollywood by revue studios, MCA-TV EXCLUSIVE DISTRIBUTOR".
 * Another variation existed having the negatives blinking, which later fades to the co-producer's card. This version is bylineless.
 * Another variation existed having this logo on a light blue background, but the inside was red with a white outline and the negatives "r", "v", and "e" were black and "e" and "u" were in blue. Only animation was used was the TV tube finish zooming out and later fades to the 1964 Universal Television logo in color.
 * Early versions have a conjoined Revue/MCA logo, with the Revue logo on the left in a solid-lined TV tube border, and an MCA Arrowhead logo in a dotted-line TV tube connected to it on the right, Venn diagram-style.The usual Revue info is written on the left tube, and "mca tv exclusive distributor" is written on the right tube. The company name in which the show had been co-produced is written above, as usual.
 * One Kayro Productions variant had "Produced by Kayro productions" in a strange font (with "Kayro" in very large letters) and the TV tube containing the Revue logo with no additional text.
 * On season 2 of Leave it to Beaver among other series, it has the words "productions inc." on the Revue logo, which later changed to "studios" in 1959.

FX/SFX/Cheesy Factor : The building block-type animation. Also the scrolling letters not being in alphabetical order may annoy some people.

Music/Sounds : A loud but majestic horn fanfare accompanied by a xylophone; this has appeared in quite a few lengths, corresponding with the logo. There were two jingles, a (rarely-heard) long version and a short version both arranged by Stanley Wilson and Juan Garcia Esquivel. The long version has the first note longer and 4 extra notes. The short version has the 1st note shorter and deleted the 4 extra notes.

Music/Sounds Variants :
 * Over the years, some shows have the regular jingle plastered with the 1964 Universal Television theme.
 * The 1962 logo featured a higher-pitched version of the theme.
 * There is a long version that doesn't feature the echo.
 * A high tone variant of the long version also exists.

Availability : Common. It's currently seen on Leave it to Beaver on TV Land, Me-TV, and Antenna TV, S1 of McHale's Navy and Alfred Hitchcock Presents on Antenna TV with the in-credit logos from 1958-1960 and the animation from 1960-1963. The color version is rare and was last seen on the first season episodes of The Virginian on Encore Westerns and Laramie and the other on the color episodes of McHale's Navy. More recently, the color version has been spotted on several color episodes of Laramie on Encore Westerns, followed by the 1960-63 NBC Studios "Snake" logo.

Scare Factor : Depending on the logo variant: Low to medium for the animated version, mainly because of that infamous jingle that has scared more than a few. None for the superimposed variant.

Final Note : Kayro Productions and Revue Studios formed a partnership by forming Kayro-Vue Productions in 1964.