Background[]
Bing Crosby Productions (BCP) was founded in the late 1940s by actor Bing Crosby to produce films and his early TV series The Fireside Theater. Later, BCP produced the medical dramas Ben Casey and Breaking Point, as well as the World War II sitcom Hogan's Heroes. BCP was sold to Cox Broadcasting in 1968; BCP turned its attention to films after this, and Crosby had no further involvement in the company after 1971, leading to his name being dropped from the company. BCP was shut down by Cox in 1979, following the poor performance of The Great Santini; its library was merged with the Operation Prime Time/Television Program Enterprises library, and is now split between CBS Media Ventures (for TV series) and Paramount (for films), with a few exceptions.
1st Logo (October 2, 1961-May 13, 1963)[]
Nicknames: "The Film Reels", "Film Reels and Symbols"
Logo: Superimposed, the image of two film reels fade into the middle of the screen. Then the words "A" and "Production" fade into place as Bing Crosby's name writes itself over the reels in a stylized font, not unlike that used for Desilu's, at an angle (in the same angled font as Crosby's name), reading "A Bing Crosby Production" (later referred to as "Bing Crosby Productions").
Trivia: On Ben Casey, a bunch of symbols, synonymous to the intro, appear vertical in the background between the reels (from top to bottom: Man (a "male" symbol), Woman (a "female" symbol), Birth (a star), Death (a cross), and an "infinity" symbol).
FX/SFX: The fading-in of the reels and part of the logo's wording and the "signing-in".
Music/Sounds: The closing theme of the show.
Availability: Rare. Originally seen on pre-1963 episodes of Ben Casey. However, this was plastered in the 1980s with the Worldvision logo (gray (or black) "Radar Globe II" on B&W shows, standard version on color shows). This should be reinstated now that CBS Television Distribution is remastering the series.
Editor's Note: None.
2nd Logo (September 9, 1963-June 1974)[]
Nicknames: "BCP", "BCP of Doom", "The Crashing Cars", "Crash Test (from Hell)"
Logo: On a sky blue background, a very thin black line zooms from the upper left side, moves almost halfway across the screen and then flips downward, revealing a yellow capital "B" in a black parallelogram. By the time the "B" is fully revealed, a second line flips downward, which reveals a red capital "C" in an orange parallelogram. When the "C" is fully revealed, a third line flips downward, revealing a light blue capital "P" in a dark blue parallelogram. By the time all three parallelograms are in their places, the words "BING CROSBY PRODUCTIONS" in an italic Copperplate Bold font appear underneath.
Variants:
- The B&W rendition of this logo (1963-1966) featured the company name sliding in place, in the form of two lines colliding on top of each other. The earlier color variant also uses the same effect.
- Another variant is similar to the one mentioned above, but has just the two lines colliding on top of each other, this is only known to appear on the Hogan's Heroes episode "Oil for the Lamps of Hogan".
- Late in the logo's life, the background changed to light tan due to film deterioration.
- A few theatrical features from Bing Crosby Productions had a static rendition of this logo. We see the BCP logo already formed and the text "A Service of COX BROADCASTING CORPORATION" underneath, and the word "PRESENTS" fades in over the BCP logo. No "BING CROSBY PRODUCTIONS" legend is seen. A superimposed version of this was seen as well.
- On the 1973 TV movie Stranger, there is an in-credit notice.
FX/SFX: The lines flipping downward, forming parallelograms.
Music/Sounds: A very loud and dramatic fanfare, having a short and long version, with the short one being more common. It sounds like two car horns going off as they are just about to crash into each other, hence the "Crashing Cars" nickname.
Music/Sounds Variants: PAL Versions have the music in a higher pitch.
Availability: Rare. This logo is intact on Hogan's Heroes on Me-TV and DVD.
Editor's Note: This logo may be nerve breaking to first time viewers, but it’s not too bad compared to other logos from around the period.
3rd Logo (April 25, 1975-October 26, 1979)[]
Nicknames: "BCP II", "Still BCP"
Logo: On a black background, we see a white capital "B" in a dark blue parallelogram, a white capital "C" in a light grey parallelogram, and a white capital "P" in a grey parallelogram. The word "presents" is seen below. No "BING CROSBY PRODUCTIONS" legend is seen.
Byline: The byline "A Service of COX BROADCASTING CORPORATION" would appear on some releases.
FX/SFX: Just the fade in and out of the logo.
Music/Sounds: None or the opening theme of the movie.
Availability: Rare. Can still be seen on their theatrical movies from the time.
Editor's Note: None.
- For other related logos and images see: Bing Crosby Productions/Other