ABC Motion Pictures

ABC Pictures Corporation

Background: ABC Pictures Corporation (or ABC Pictures International for international distribution) was a film production division of the American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. The studio's films were distributed by Cinerama Releasing Corporation. The studio never turned a profit for ABC and was shut down in 1972. Walt Disney Pictures owns the rights to the studio's library, while the home media rights have been licensed to several different companies, including Fox Video, Anchor Bay Entertainment, MGM Home Entertainment, and Kino Lorber.

1st Logo (September 23rd, 1968-February 13th, 1972)

Nicknames: "Globe in Space", "ABC Globe"

Logo: We see a picture of a rotating globe on a blue (or pale blue-gray on some movies) background. The letter "b" sketches in the center of the globe and the letters "a" and "c" uncover from the left and right of the "b" to form "abc". The globe turns black over the transparent "abc" letters, the words "PICTURES CORP." fade in below the "abc" as the logo moves to the left and a filmstrip with another rotating globe grows out from the right of the logo. The byline "A SUBSIDIARY OF THE AMERICAN BROADCASTING COMPANIES, INC." in white fades in below, and the word "PRESENTS" fades in below the filmstrip shortly afterward.

Variant: An extremely rare variant exists where the logo takes place on a white background and the "PRESENTS" text and byline are in black. So far, its only appearance has been on Jenny.

FX/SFX: The rotating globe, the "abc" sketching, the globe turning black, the filmstrip growing out. The globe itself is a live-action rotating model, while the rest is Scanimation.

Music/Sounds: None or the opening theme of the movie.

Music/Sounds Variant: On a few films such as Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came? and Jenny, a custom brass fanfare was used.

Availability: Uncommon.

• The logo became extremely rare due to MGM's DVD releases of ABC's film output plastering it with the 2001 MGM logo (or, in some cases, having it blacked out with the opening theme). However, with Kino Lorber Studio Classics' releases of ABC's film library, this logo has become more available.
  • Such films released on DVD and Blu-ray from Kino Lorber that preserve this logo include Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came? (although silent), Kotch, The Grissom Gang, Song of Norway, The Last Valley, and Zachariah. It can also be seen on VHS releases from Magnetic Video Corporation for most of the aforementioned films.
• Some films, such as Straw Dogs (on the Criterion Collection DVD and Blu-ray releases), only contain the 1968 Cinerama Releasing Corporation logo.
• It was also seen on the original Magnetic Video Corporation VHS and LaserDisc of They Shoot Horses Don't They? (current prints, as well as the Kino Lorber Blu-ray, plaster this with the international variant), and the Anchor Bay DVD release and TCM airings of Too Late the Hero.
• The white background variant was spotted on early TV airings of Jenny, and is rumored to exist on its Magnetic Video Corporation release, but is plastered by the international variant on current prints.

Editor's Note: The logo was intended to resemble a film canister, but is ultimately dogged by the perspective limitations of the 2D "abc" logo.

2nd Logo (International Variant; 1973-1984?)

Nicknames: "Globes in Space II", "ABC Globe II", "Scanimate/3D Globe"

Logo: Same concept as the previous logo, except it's a different rotating Earth globe without lines on a zooming space background. The letter "b" sketches in the center of the globe and the letters "a" and "c" uncover from the left and right of the "b" to form "abc". The globe turns black over the white "abc" letters, the words "PICTURES INTERNATIONAL" fade in below the "abc" as the logo moves to the left and a filmstrip with another rotating globe grows out from the right of the logo. The same ABC byline fades in below (albeit without a period at the end), and the word "PRESENTS" fades in below the filmstrip.

Variants:

• A black-and-white version exists on 70's and early 80's reissues of black-and-white films.
• On some prints of The Comeback Kid, the regular ABC logo is entirely chyroned over, text and all, by a different black circle with the ABC text on it. This can be determined because the logo does not match the film quality and shakes differently. Under it, the chyroned in text "ABC PICTURES INTERNATIONAL" is seen below it. "A Subsidiary of the American Broadcasting Companies, Inc." appears a second later below the text. The logo also freeze-frames at the end. Strangely, some prints of the first season of The Littles also used this logo, as seen on a Junior DHX (WildBrain - Kids Videos) upload of the episode "The Little Winner."
  • On educational films, the above variant is used, except it leads into the ABC Learning Resources Inc. logo.

FX/SFX: Same as before, including the stars zooming through space.

Music/Sounds: A very dramatic orchestral fanfare, which is actually an abridged version of "Industrial Power" by Keith Mansfield from the 1974 KPM 1000 Series album Industrial Panorama. In other cases, it's silent.

Availability: Uncommon. It was mostly seen on international prints of films, as well as early home media releases of TV movies, though it's currently unknown when exactly the logo saw regular use.

• Can be seen on the Kino Lorber DVD and Blu-ray releases of Midas Run, Jenny, They Shoot Horses Don't They?, the international theatrical version of Nightmare in Badham County, and the Magnetic Video Corporation VHS and Betamax releases of Straw Dogs, Take the Money and Run, and various television movies aired on ABC, such as Love Among the Ruins, Griffin and Phoenix: A Love Story, and Kolchak: The Night Stalker among others.
• Don't expect this logo to appear on Cabaret or Mame, as both of those films use in-credit notices only.
• It makes surprise appearances on the trailers for The High Commissioner on the Kino Lorber Blu-ray and Ben on the Scream Factory release.
• The black-and-white version of the logo can be seen on the Mill Creek Entertainment DVD release of The Bat, as well as the 1980 Magnetic Video and 1999 Anchor Bay Entertainment video prints of Notorious (an RKO Radio Picture that was produced under license from Selznick International Pictures that ABC acquired the rights to in 1965 when they purchased the Selznick library from the David O. Selznick estate).
• The ABC Learning Resources Inc. variant is extinct and can only be found on old 16mm prints of educational films, such as Infinite Horizons Space Beyond Apollo.

Editor's Note: Not much of a step up from the previous logo, and the dramatic fanfare has been known to get to some, especially when it is found deteriorated on old film prints. The chyroned-in variant also looks cheap.

ABC Motion Pictures

Background: ABC later returned to film production in May 1979 as ABC Motion Pictures. The studio's films were distributed by 20th Century Fox. The studio would close down on October 29th, 1985, with its final film, SpaceCamp, released almost a year later on June 6th, 1986.

The Walt Disney Company owns the rights to the studio's library (as would 20th Century Fox in 2019, renaming it to 20th Century Studios), except for Here Come the Littles, which was owned by DiC Entertainment (whose library is owned by WildBrain). Disney has licensed the home media rights to various studios, such as Embassy Home Entertainment, Vestron Video, Image Entertainment, Anchor Bay Entertainment, MGM Home Entertainment, and Kino Lorber.

Logo (July 16th, 1982-June 6th, 1986)

Nicknames: "The Crystals", "ABC: The Crystal Shards"

Logo: On a black background, we see some moving shots of sparkling transparent crystals. Then a crystal "T" slowly zooms backwards, and more letters are revealed. Finally, when the words "ABC MOTION PICTURES" (each word centered and stacked on top of each other) all appear in sparkling crystal, the logo stops in the middle of the screen.

Trivia: The logo was designed by Universal Hartland Visual Effects in North Hollywood, which also created special effects work for the original Battlestar Galactica series. According to studio employee Kenneth A. Larson: "The letters were made from highly-polished faceted jewel-like glass crystal. They were glued to a plate of glass. No one knew how to attach them without bubbles showing. A fellow employee came up with a solution and this logo was shot on a Hartland stage".

FX/SFX: The sparkling crystals, the company name zooming backward. Very nice live-action shots.

Music/Sounds: A lush synth orchestral fanfare with twinkles. In other cases, it's silent.

Music/Sounds Variant: On some co-produced films, a more generic theme was used.

Availability: Rare. Appears on releases from the company.

• It debuted on Young Doctors in Love and made its final appearance on SpaceCamp.
• This and the 1981 20th Century Fox logos are retained on Kino Lorber's Blu-ray releases of Prizzi's Honor, The Flamingo Kid, National Lampoon's Class Reunion, Impulse, and Young Doctors in Love. Most releases of their films put out by Embassy Home Entertainment, Vestron Video, and Anchor Bay Entertainment also have this logo intact, but DVD releases by MGM have it removed and/or plastered with the 2001 MGM logo.
• It was also seen on international prints of some ABC TV movies, including Who Will Love My Children? and The Day After (which was released on VHS by Embassy Home Entertainment in the 1980s and LaserDisc by Image Entertainment in 1995; the U.S. broadcast print was released by ABC's Summa Video label in 1995).

Editor's Note: A very nice logo overall, utilizing cool live-action shots in an era where computer graphics were dominating the logo scene in the early 80's.