Playhouse Video

Background: Playhouse Video was another sub-label of CBS/Fox Video for children and family releases on video.

(1985-90)

Nickname: "Multicolored Snow-Globe"

Logo: On a white background, we see a black dot sketching a round snow-globe outline. Then it draws another round outline, followed by outlines of a tree, neighborhood with house, a sun, apples on the tree, and a window on the house. The outlines fill with a rainbow color hue, and the words:

PLAYHOUSE
V I D E O

appear below via a “wiping” effect.

Variants:

• On Jim Henson's Muppet Video releases, after the logo finishes animating, the background turns red and blue, the logo flies away, bouncing in the process, afterward, segueing in to the start of the Muppet Video logo.
• There was a grayscale variant on videos of black & white films. (Strangely, Curly Top uses the color logo.)
• The Chace Surround Sound logo may appear at the top left of the screen.
  • Both variants appear combined on the 1989 VHS of Stand Up and Cheer!.

FX/SFX: The “etch-a-sketch” style animation, the color “fill-in” effect, the wiping of the words.

Music/Sounds: A synthesized trumpet/piano fanfare.

Voiceover Variant: On the 1988 VHS of Curly Top, Bill St. James says: "Watch the end of this videocassette for a special preview of Playhouse Video's Shirley Temple Collection."

Availability: Rare. Tapes that have this include Dr. Seuss specials, Muppet Video releases, episodes of Doctor Who, and feature films such as Bad Medicine, Kid Colter, In Search of a Golden Sky, Batman: The Movie, Eliminators, Song of Norway, the Planet of the Apes films, Rio Conchos, A Boy Named Charlie Brown, and Snoopy, Come Home, among others.

Editor's Note: This is a favorite among many, including those who grew up with it.