United American Video Corporation

1st Logo (1984-1989)
Logo : On a background consisting of an American flag, a white rectangle flips forward into view. Inside of the rectangle is a red segmented upside down trapezoid with a star in the middle and the blue script text "United American Video" also in the middle. The logo zooms back towards the top of the screen as it is replaced by a grey background with a red, white and blue line. Beneath the line is the white text, "For better picture quality, adjust tracking control on VCR."

 FX/SFX : The flipping of the rectangle and the wiping transitions.

 Music/Sounds : None.

 Availability : Extremely rare. Not all tapes used this logo, so be on the lookout.

2nd Logo (1989-1991)
 WARNING : The video is very loud, so lower the volume before watching it.

 Nicknames : "American Tapes II", "Loud Whoosh", "5th Place For The Loudest Logo Ever Award"

 Logo : On a mostly blue gradient starry background with black in the top right corner, we see an American flag come out of nowhere and zoom out at the top of the screen. We then see a brief shine where the American flag zoomed out, and the large letters "UAV," which are blue with red stripes and are meant to resemble the American flag form after the shine. After this, we see a white star zoom out and rest on the "A." The text "United American Video Corp." appears below the letters.

 Variant : On some tapes, the text is not shown at all.

 FX/SFX : The American flag zooming out, the shine, the letters forming, the star zooming out, the appearance of the text below.

 Music/Sounds : A tremendous "whoosh" sound that slowly increases in volume. This is something that should only be heard on low volume.

 Availability : Uncommon. Seen on UAV VHS releases from the era such as Southern Comfort, Lovers & Liars, Gold Rush, the original UAV VHS issue of Godzilla vs. Megalon, some tapes of The Andy Griffith Show, and some early public domain cartoon tapes including Looney Tunes, Casper the Friendly Ghost, Popeye, and Superman.

 Editor’s Note : It's an immense improvement from the previous logo, but the whoosh is very unnecessarily loud, as if the audio engineer missed work. It gets worse with the next logo.

3rd Logo (1991-1999)
 WARNING : LIKE THE PREVIOUS LOGO, THE VIDEO IS VERY LOUD, SO LOWER THE VOLUME BEFORE WATCHING IT.

 Nicknames : "Whoosh of Annoyance", "3-G Home Video's Brother", "The Palindrome Logo"

 Logo : Against a black background, a giant, two-toned blue letter "A" comes lazily sweeping from the back, joined by (turning around, in small white font) the letters making up the word "CORPORATION", and from the sides by the letters "U" and "V". A red bar indented with the word "CORPORATION" comes up from the opposite direction, spinning slowly like an axle, until it stops to interlock with those letters. The entire logo then immediately shifts to face toward the upper left and pauses for about 1.5 seconds, then the entire animation plays in reverse (like a palindrome, meaning one half of the logo is playing forward, and the other half is played backward).

 Variants :


 * On many tapes with the company's tracking control screen, the logo fades in and out during the point where "CORPORATION" appears.
 * On early UAV Gold releases, the logo neither fades in or out.
 * On some tapes, such as the UAV Silver VHS release of The Swan Princess, the end of the logo would fade out.
 * Sometimes, only the beginning of the logo would fade in.
 * Most of the time, the logo would fade in and out during the point where the letter "A" emerges from the top of the screen.

 FX/SFX : The multiple rotating CG letters and bar, the slow zooming.

 Music/Sounds : Same as the previous logo, but much louder.

 Availability : Can be found on UAV VHS tapes from this era such as public domain cartoon tapes, public domain movies, tapes of The Andy Griffith Show, UAV Gold and UAV Silver releases, and some old Davey & Goliath tapes, which are easy to spot out because the logo covers most of the company's video cover. It also appeared on the 8 min. series of workout tapes including the Kathy Ireland series, as well as early UAV DVDs such as the 1997-98 DVD releases of Where the Red Fern Grows and Where the Red Fern Grows Part II. It surprisingly appears on the 1999 VHS release of Gulliver's Travels (1939), due to the fact that the tape label has the Sterling Entertainment Group logo while the cover has the Ovation Home Video logo.

 Editor’s Note : This logo suggests that the designers really wanted to use their new computers just for the thrill of it. Also, it looks almost excruciatingly corporate, and the animation playing in reverse midway through seems like this company didn't have that large of a budget to begin with!

4th Logo (1994-1999)
 Nicknames : "UAV in Space", "The Palindrome Logo in Space",

 Logo : A supernova (a large explosion from space) happens on a black background. The UAV logo in the previous logo, this time with "ENTERTAINMENT" in gold lettering on the red bar, flies into view. Once the logo is into place, light beams come out of it, and pans ever so slightly towards us. The supernova (as well as the light beams) then disappears, leaving the UAV logo on a black background.

 FX/SFX : CGI animation.

 Music/Sounds : An explosion, then a truncated whoosh from the previous logo (which is much softer), and a synth note.

 Availability : Uncommon; seen on some later UAV Corporation tapes such as Gilad and Kid Power tapes, Kansas City Confidential, the Where the Red Fern Grows movies, Aesop’s Fables: The Tortoise and the Hare, and Moses: Egypt's Great Prince. Used in tandem with the previous logo until 1999. It is unknown if this logo appeared on UAV DVDs.

 Editor’s Note : The explosion from the beginning of the logo will throw people off, but it's a turnaround from the loud whooshing of the previous 2 logos.

 Final Note : Later on, UAV renamed their home video division to Sterling Entertainment Group.