Key Video

Background: Key Video was a sub-label of CBS/Fox Video for low-budget, classic, and TV movie releases on video. It was later reactivated by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment as "Key DVD" to distribute budget DVDs, but the reformation was short-lived.

1st Logo

(1983-1984)

Nicknames: "Space", "Key Video in Space"

Logo: On a computerized space background, the words "KEY VIDEO", in a yellow Helvetica font, appear with a dissolving effect, arranged in a spiral-like fashion. They spin and spiral around five times, then arrange themselves in a straight line. After a couple of seconds, they dissolve out with a "chyron mist" effect.

FX/SFX: The space background, and the words dissolving, spiraling, and arranging in a straight line.

Cheesy Factor: This logo just reeks of early 2D CGI graphics; the font is too plain, and the "dissolving" effects are very outdated by today's standards. Also, the logo also doesn't show a key despite being called "Key Video" and the clichè starfield background looks more like white crayon marks on black paper.

Music/Sounds: A heavy synth theme that seems to increase in pitch during its duration.

Availability: Extremely rare, due to its very short lifespan and the fact that releases with this logo carried the next logo's packaging. Can be found on a Betamax copy of Who'll Stop the Rain and VHS copies of The Buddy System and Listen to Your Heart (not to be confused with the Roxette/D.H.T. song of the same name).

Scare Factor: Medium. The spiraling words can make you dizzy and the music can scare some people.

Nicknames: "The Key", "Tri-Colored Key"

2nd Logo

(1984-1990, 1997)

Logo: On a shady gray background, two 3-D elongated shapes and a cylinder flip towards the screen. The shapes align together, forming the outline of a key, as the 3-D words "KEY VIDEO" zoom out below. The logo “shines” and turns colorful, the top half blue, the circle part red, and the bottom half purple. The text "KEY VIDEO" (in ITC Lubalin Graph Bold) is a shade of pink, white, and blue.

Variants:

The logo sometimes appears in black and white.

This has appeared in orange, blue, and green colors at least once. The background is a more grayish color and the "KEY VIDEO" text is shaded in green, white, and orange.

The Chace Surround Sound logo may appear at the top left of the screen. This is on the one instance of the orange/green variant we know of.

The logo is scaled down to the lower-right of the screen on parts where it explains what the preview about to be shown is about.

FX/SFX: The entire formation of the logo, the shine.

Cheesy Factor: The CGI is very dated, but an improvement over the previous logo nonetheless. The orange/green variant is just the normal logo with the hue changed by 180%.

Music/Sounds: A long synth note at the start, followed by a dated yet calming 3-note synth tune.

Music/Sounds/Voice-over Variant: On the 1987 VHS of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, a male voiceover (Bill St. James, VO artist for HBO, Adult Swim and Nick at Nite, and host of the weekend radio show TimeWarp) says: "Watch the end of this videocassette for a special preview of the Humphrey Bogart series from Key Video's Spotlight Collection".

Availability: Rare, but easy to find on tapes with the Key Video logo at the bottom of the cover and rainbow stripes appearing on the lower-top of it. Tapes with this logo include Where the Boys Are '84, Vindicator, My Man Adam, P.I. Private Investigations, and Tomorrow's Child. An out-of-sync version appears on the 1985 VHS of Helter Skelter. This is retained by surprise on the 1997 20th Century Fox Selections VHS of Better Off Dead, seen after the 1995 Fox Video logo. The black and white variant was spotted on the Key Video releases of Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman and Young Frankenstein among other black and white films. The green/orange variant appears on the VHS release of Footlight Serenade. It is unknown if it has appeared any other times, nor if there is a version without the Chace bug.

Scare Factor: Low to medium. The dated music and the primitive CGI might turn some off, but it's mostly harmless and soothing.

3rd Logo (As Key DVD) (Early 2000s)

Nickname: "The Key to Boredom"

Logo: On a white background is a black key with the prongs pointed upward inside a black rectangle. The text "KEY VIDEO" (or "KEY DVD") in Engravers Gothic font is seen below the rectangle.

Variant:An inverted variant exists with the logo in white on a black background.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Can easily be found on any DVD spouting the Key DVD logo, such as Slaughter of the Innocents. This also appears on the original DVD of Basket Case 3: The Progeny even though the packaging says 20th Century Fox. The DVD Goosebumps: The Ghost Next Door strangely has the Key DVD logo on the entire packaging, but this logo doesn't appear.

Scare Factor: None. This logo is very boring.