NOTE: Not to be confused with the Australian ABC Video
Background: ABC Video Enterprises, Inc. was a home video and cable television unit of the ABC Television Network, formed in July 1979. The group bought a controlling stake in ESPN in the early 1980s, as well as being partners in Lifetime, A&E, and a joint venture with Westinghouse to form the Satellite News Channel (SNC), which was later bought by Ted Turner to cut the competition with his CNN network. In 1993, it was re-purposed as "Capital Cities/ABC Cable and International Broadcasting, Inc.", which later became Disney-ABC International Television.
1st Logo[]
(1981-1987, 1991)
Nickname: "Bronze ABC Video"
Logo: On a black background, we see the black words "ABC VIDEO" with white sparkling outlines zoom out and connect together. Afterwards, one of the outlines' sparkles, between A (in ABC) and V (in VIDEO), shines, connecting the A in "ABC" to the V in "VIDEO", and the words become bronze. Then the green words "ENTERPRISES, INC.", sandwiched by green lines, appears at the bottom of "VIDEO" via a wipe effect in rays of light. The bronze words "ABC VIDEO" sparkle.
FX/SFX: Early CG.
Music/Sounds: A humming sound when the words zoom out, a twinkle, followed by a loud synth trumpet cresendo when the words turn bronze and the green words appear, that ends with another twinkle.
Music/Sounds Variant: On some releases, including the end of the Playhouse Video release of Here Comes the Littles, it was silent.
Availability: Rare. At the time, ABC licensed its film and TV library to various companies for VHS/Laserdisc/Betamax release, such as Embassy Home Entertainment, Golden Book Video, CBS/Fox Video, Warner Home Video, and Republic Pictures Home Video (to name a few), which is the best way to find this logo. Of course, re-releases put out via Promotional Concept Group, Inc. will most likely use the 3rd logo instead. It's also retained on Echo Bridge Home Entertainment DVD prints of the TV movies Home for the Holidays and Pray for the Wildcats.
Editor's Note: The animation is pretty decent, but why isn't ABC's circle logo in there? It did appear on the company's print logo (where it was placed on top of the ABC Video Enterprises logo), but ironically not onscreen.
2nd Logo[]
(1982)
Logo: A blinking orange "V," with lines cut into it and the ABC logo inside, zooms out on a black background, with a trail effect behind it. It eventually stops and turns blue, with the text "ABCVideoEnterprises" inside it.
FX/SFX: Late-period Scanimate effects.
Music/Sounds: A trumpet fanfare, along with a male announcer saying "ABC Video Enterprises presents."
Availability: Extremely rare. This was discovered on the 1982 MGM/CBS VHS of The Greatest Fights of the 70's.
3rd Logo[]
(1986-1993)
Nickname: "Space"
Logo: A large, blue ABC logo zooms out to the center on a space background with the text "Capital Cities/ABC Video Enterprises Inc." below it. Then, when the logo's in place, a comet streaks past the text below and changes it to "ABC Distribution Company" while the ABC logo above changes into an Earth globe. Sometimes, a copyright date appears below it.
Variants:
- A filmed version of this logo exists.
- There's also a variant where there's a different space background and the text below is "Capital Cities/ABC Video Productions Inc.". Above that is "in association with".
FX/SFX: CGI.
Music/Sounds: A majestic, space-like synth fanfare. Sometimes, it's silent.
Availability: Rare. Can be seen on some old videotapes of TV shows and movies produced and distributed by ABC. It made surprise appearances at the end of Sundance TV's airings of the My So-Called Life episode "Life of Brian," on a 1995 ABC Video VHS of The Magic Flute, and on a 1998 Anchor Bay VHS of The Flamingo Kid. This logo also appears at the beginning of Echo Bridge DVD prints of Young Pioneers' Christmas, Nightmare in Badham County, and Superdome, perhaps due to the usage of old ABC Video-era masters.
4th Logo[]
(1993-1995)
Logo: On a white-green gradient background, we see the familiar ABC logo from 1962-2007. Below the logo, we see "Video" in a cursive font. They were sandwiched by some stripes.
Variants:
- There was a variant seen on kids' tapes where the 1962-2007 ABC logo is in yellow with a hat on it. There are no stripes on the logo.
- On the 1995 Laserdisc of The Day After, the logo is on-screen longer.
FX/SFX/Music/Sounds: None.
Availability: Rare overall. The normal variant is uncommon. The kids' variant was seen on Schoolhouse Rock! tapes like Science Rock until Buena Vista Home Video took over.
5th Logo[]
(1995-1999)
Logo: On an animated blue shiny background, an opaque ABC logo pops up while a much larger translucent one slides from left right and the "Video" part of the logo slides in and then zooms out. Finally, all of it meets at the end of the logo and the objects are still for a few seconds until the logo is over.
FX/SFX: CGI.
Music/Sounds: None.
Availability: Rare. It can be seen on the VHS release of The Century: America's Time.