PBS idents
From Freepedia
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is a non-profit public broadcasting television service operating in the United States. All programs PBS distributes to its member stations end with an identification implementing the network's name and logo and often a voiceover. Prior to 1984 the logo was usually displayed on-screen for eight seconds; since then the logo has appeared on-screen for a period approximately half as long.
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Main network idents
Note on logo dates: The given ending dates are only the time they ceased to be current; in some cases, they have appeared on television concurrently with later logos on reruns of older programs.
First ident
In 1970, Macdonald Carey (known as Dr. Tom Horton on Days of Our Lives) would voice-over and say "This is PBS, the Public Broadcasting Service." This ident served the network for its first year. The picture was simply a still with the words PUBLIC, BROADCASTING, and SERVICE written in red, yellow, and blue, respectively.
Second ident
In 1971, PBS introduced the long-running "people" ident, which still serves the network today. This logo starts with a blue P on the upper-mid screen initially zooming back into position, later with a head added facing left, and the word PUBLIC written below. Following it is an orange B with 2 black dots within it and the word BROADCASTING below PUBLIC. Then, a green S comes to the far right, with the word SERVICE at the bottom. Music accompanying it is a synthesizer. This logo, according to TeamFX2000, made a surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live to begin a Charlie Rose sketch.
Third ident
In 1984, the logo introduced the "split identity" format, which has become the most popular revision in the people identity's history. A blue P head, just like the one in the previous logo but turned backwards, starts the ident. Then, a piece of it gets copied to the right to form the new logo. The letters PBS come below it in a serif font. Music accompanying this logo is a piano chord.
Fourth ident
The logo was remodeled to its fourth format in 1989; the first to implement computer-generated imagery. In the ident, the P-head first used in the previous logo appears by rotating from the left edge of the screen, leaving a trail, then filling the screen. Simultaneously, a group of lines streak across the bottom of the screen leaving behind PBS in very small letters on the lower-left corner. Music consists of a bell string, followed by a man's voice (most likely sounding like Liam Neeson) saying "This is P-B-S".
It is sometimes the earliest of the surviving PBS identities. (This logo was affixed on all new feeds of PBS shows in October 1989, replacing the "people" and "split identity" closings; however, both are still occasionally seen on older prints, according to TeamFX2000. In turn, when feeds of programs displaying Parental Guidelines were instituted in 1996, much of the availability of the 1989 PBS tag, then usually seen on PBS Kids shows such as "(Barney & Friends)" (In September 1991 the PBS logo has a announcer Liam Neeson saying "This Is PBS" over with the bell string. On the life time videos its episodes showing a silent version of the logo, the next episodes before December 1992 showing the version with Liam Neeson announcing "This is PBS" over the bell string tune), "Sesame Street", "Bill Nye the Science Guy", and "Lamb Chop's Play-Along," was removed.)
Fifth ident
Introduced in 1993, the fifth PBS identity might appear on prints from local PBS stations, but is otherwise rather rare. The animated variant has a glass circle appearing and disappearing with faces of various people before being consumed by the eye of the P-head zooming out. The P-head is orange in an orange CGI environment similar to the pink environment of the alternate, and the familiar "PBS" text spins in, white and in typewriter. A non-animated variant appeared on a few shows, such as Triumph of the Nerds. The music is jazzy, with a female voice singing in the background. The announcer this time, Maximilian Schell, says "This is P-B-S". On the non-animated variant seen on Triumph of the Nerds, the announcer is different (the still variant's announcer being Susan Sarandon). Additionally, this logo was the last to be seen on children's' shows as well as adult programming (although the next ident occasionally made appearences on the 1996 TV shows Arthur and Adventures from the Book of Virtues); after 1993, PBS Kids programs utilized special logos of their own
Sixth ident
The PBS ident was revised in 1996. Now only seen as the ending ident of Adventures from the Book of Virtues, its composition now included of a variety of objects: A telescope rotates in the lower left corner; a globe of the Earth appears at upper right; while at center a framed windowpane zooms in. The various objects fade away to reveal the P-head, which is initially yellow with the right section colored blue. These colors change to blue and green, respectively, while the text "PBS" fades in below. A new female announcer, Lauren Bacall, says "This is P-B-S". She is the only announcer to reprise her job for the following logo (7th logo).
Seventh ident
The first well-known identity in years was the seventh PBS identity, used from 1998 to 2002. Its animation begins with a man holding up a round disc containing the PBS P-head. As he holds the disc in front of his face, several superimposed acrobats jump and somersault around the logo. The letters "PBS" fade in at right, while "www.pbs.org" in smaller letters appeared below. This was the first PBS logo to include the network's web address, as well as the first to be made in a version with a 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio for HDTV programming, and is sometimes still seen today. The accompanying music is a world music piece, with the same announcer saying "This is P-B-S" as in the sixth logo.
Eighth ident
The eighth PBS logo is quite different from all of the previous logos. It features live-action footage and has many variants, including "Young People," "Performers," "Flowers," "Daddy and Son," and "Generations." The voiceover is now "We are P-B-S," or occasionally "I am P-B-S." It was introduced in 2002 and continues to be used today.
PBS Kids idents
Prior to 1993, PBS Kids television programs used the same PBS logos seen on adult-oriented programming. Starting that year, however, a new ident was commissioned specifically for children's' programming that consisted of three P-heads, one of them blue, another one orange, and the last one green, complete with appendages drawn as a cartoon. The P-heads dance and sing the "This is P-B-S" voiceover on this logo, then stop when a dog (also shaped as a P-head) walks by the lower portion of the screen and barks. At the same time, the blue P-Head adlibs and his red hat flies off of his head for a moment, then drops back on his head. The "PBS" text appears in black at lower left. Music is a rock/pop tune. And now "Barney & Friends", "Lamb Chop's Play-Along" and more come to the 1993 PBS kids logo. In 1998 Barney's BIG Surprise! is as came in the 1993 logo.
The identity for PBS children's' programs was revised in 1999, coinciding with the establishment of a 24-hour PBS Kids feed, and made even more dissimilar from the "grown-up" logo as well. Animation began with a child character (either a girl or a boy) with stylized features and green skin taking part in an activity or simply running into view. The Friends Sings P-B-S-Kids! When the character's face is close up, a circle zooms out around the head while the letters "PBS" appear above in a thought bubble. The completed circle is set against an animated background of vertical lines. There are many variations of this logo.
PBS Home Video logos
The first distinctive logo used on PBS Home Video titles was a large P-head on the center of the screen, first seen in 1991. Initially, a cloudy sky pattern fills the logo against a black background, which fades to a blue P-head against a cloudy sky background. An announcer says "The following presentation is from PBS Home Video;" afterward, the screen fades out and cuts to either the "Split Profile" ident ("Cowgirls" only), the "Transparent Blue P-heads" (1989–1993), the "Orange CGI P-Heads" (1993–1996), or the "Windowsill" (1996–1998). The ident (minus the announcer) would repeat itself at the end of the videotape.
In 1998, a whole new ident took form: a blue circle, a green circle, and a red circle (each containing a P-head) merge together and turn purple once they touch and black when "PBS HOME VIDEO" ("PBS DVD" on DVD releases) fades in. There is no cut to a PBS television ident except on PBS Kids titles.
Coinciding with PBS Home Video's distribution changing to Paramount in 2004, a new PBS logo surfaced: It begins on an ethereal blue/purple/red CGI background, then the PBS logo appears within a circle with "Be more" on the left and "PBS" on the right. Again, there is no cut to a PBS television ident on this logo except on PBS Kids titles.
External links
- Screen captures of PBS idents past and present, as well as footage of vintage promos
- Info on the PBS idents
- Stills of the 1991 PBS Home Video logo
- Stills of the 1998 PBS Home Video logo
