Not to be confused with the Australian ABC Video.
Background[]
ABC Video Enterprises, Inc. was a home video and cable television unit of the American 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 (1981-1986; 1991)[]
Nickname: "Bronze ABC Video"
Logo: On a black background, the black words "ABC VIDEO" with white sparkling outlines zoom out and connect together. Afterwards, the outlines between the A and V sparks, seamlessly connecting the two letters and turning the rest of the black words 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. After finishing, the bronze words sparkle.
FX/SFX: The words zooming out and sparkling, the spark connecting the letters, the green subtitle appearing. Typical Scanimate effects for the time.
Music/Sounds: A humming sound when the words zoom out with a twinkle as the spark appears. It is followed by a loud synth trumpet crescendo when the words turn bronze and the green words appear, that ends with a drumroll and another twinkle. In some cases, it's silent.
Availability: Rare.
- At the time, ABC licensed its film and TV library to various companies for home video 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 are the best ways to find this logo. 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, and also appears on the Kino Lorber DVD release of The Bounty Man.
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 on cases (where it was placed on top of the ABC Video Enterprises logo), but ironically not on-screen.
2nd Logo (1982)[]
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Logo: On a black background, a blinking orange "V" (with lines cut into it and the ABC logo inside) zooms out with a trail effect behind it. As it eventually stops and turns blue, the white text "ABCVideoEnterprises" fades in at the top, with "Video" in blue.
Trivia: The end result looks very similar to the 1982 Vestron Video logo, which was, coincidentally, another home video company that ABC licensed to later on.
FX/SFX: The blinking and zooming "V", the text appearing. Late-period Scanimate effects.
Music/Sounds: A triumphant trumpet fanfare alongside a male announcer who says "ABC Video Enterprises presents...".
Availability: Extremely rare. This was discovered on the original 1982 MGM/CBS VHS of The Greatest Fights of the 70's. It is currently unknown if this was used anywhere else.
Editor's Note: It took quite a while for this logo to be documented anywhere, as no visual references would turn up on the internet until July 2022.
3rd Logo (1986-1993)[]
Nickname: "Earth Globe", "Space", "ABC Earth in 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 is in place, a comet streaks past the text below and changes it to "ABC Distribution Company" while the ABC logo above reflects the streak and crossfades into an Earth globe.
Trivia: ABC previously utilized an Earth globe for their now-defunct ABC Pictures Corporation theatrical division logos from 1968 to the early '80s.
Variants:
- Sometimes, a copyright date appears below it.
- A filmed variant exists.
- A still variant exists where the space background is slightly different and "in association with" fades in below.
- A French subvariant also exists, which has the text read "en association avec".
- Another still variant exists where the text instead reads "Capital Cities/ABC Video Productions, Inc." with "in association with" already on-screen.
FX/SFX: The ABC circle zooming out, the comet streaking, the crossfade to the globe. Very nice CGI for the time.
Music/Sounds: A majestic, space-like synth fanfare. In some cases, it's silent.
Music/Sounds Variant: The still variants may sometimes use the end theme of the program.
Availability: Rare.
- Can be seen on some videotapes of TV shows and movies produced and distributed by ABC during the period.
- 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.
- The filmed variant was spotted on a 16mm print of The Bollo Caper.
Editor's Note: This is a very nice update to their former theatrical logo.
4th Logo (1993-1995)[]
Logo: On a white background is the familiar ABC circle sandwiched between a single black line above and six more black lines below. Below the circle is the text "Video" in a stylized cursive font placed in front of the six lines.
Variants:
- On ABC Kids releases, the circle is colored yellow with black text, with a red, green and blue baseball cap positioned backwards over it. The black lines are absent.
- On the 1995 Laserdisc of The Day After, the logo is on-screen longer.
FX/SFX: None.
Music/Sounds: None.
Availability: Rare, as it was only seen on a few releases from the period. The ABC Kids variant was seen on Schoolhouse Rock! tapes like Science Rock until Buena Vista Home Video took over.
Editor's Note: It's really not that impressive given that it's a still logo, and the ABC Kids variant had potential to be better than it ended up being.
5th Logo (1995-1999)[]
Logo: On an animated blue shiny background, an opaque ABC logo pops up from the bottom-right while a much larger translucent one slides from left to right. As the opaque circle turns and places itself at the top-middle portion of the screen, the silver text "Video" (in the same style as the previous logo) and a group of six silver lines slide in and then zoom out below the circle. After the logo is complete, the blue background continues to shine softly for several seconds until fading out.
FX/SFX: The circles moving, the "Video" text and lines being placed. CGI animation that looks pretty basic.
Music/Sounds: None.
Availability: Rare. It can be seen on VHS releases of the time such as The Century: America's Time and Dangerous Indiscretion.
Editor's Note: The dated CGI and lack of music make this fairly forgettable compared to their TV idents.