And today in more "TV history I've been trying to find leads on for years, but hadn't gotten anywhere until now":
I remember being mystified by the old kids' series Big Blue Marble. Not because I remembered the show, really (it was just a teensy bit before my time),but because 1) I remember seeing the intro someplace, and noting that it was sponsored by former industrial giant ITT 2) its production house, Alphaventure/The Blue Marble Company, was mentioned several times in the back of Total Television in the awards section.
As in the other thread, here's where it gets weird.
After doing some spelunking on YouTube, and cross-referencing it to credits on IMDB, it would seem The Blue Marble Company was Robert Wiemer's baby. He also produced a few TV movies in the 1980s, and the rights to Big Blue Marble seem to have reverted to him. It also turns out that one "Richard Berman" was a producer on Marble, and yes, it's exactly who you think it is. Turns out Wiemer directed a few episodes of TNG as well. XD
There's a few captures of this logo from a company I've never heard of before called "Hamdon", and I was totally mystified as to where they came from.
Also, I found a copy of an old miniseries I'd been looking for the logos on for *years*, and it turns out I wasn't dreaming—it *did* have the World International Network logo on it, complete with the member list. The print I found *also* had a Hamdon logo in it!
It turns out these two things are related. Carlton and NDR-ARD bought the original WIN from its founder in 1995, and renamed it "Hamdon". I'm also pretty sure it's directly ancestral to ITV Studios America, but I can't prove that as of yet.
Or maybe I can: There's a few clips on Eric S.'s channel of end credits that are pretty obviously old WIN Not-LLC/Hamdon releases, but have been doctored to use the Carlton or Granada America logos. Bingo.
In other news:
I wonder why I have it in my head that ABC is The Olympic Network, when the only year in my entire life that they've covered both Summer and Winter is 1984, and they haven't covered the Olympics at all since Winter 1988. I guess because my mom liked them?
I always thought the syndication version of the The Wonder Years end credits were incredibly sad. It was the "crystal heaven" New World logo, combined with the TPS logo with what sounded like "In Memoriam" music on it that did it.
I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
"At CBS, Touchstone is developing an action series for next fall with film producer Jerry Bruckheimer (Armageddon). CBS has ordered a script for the series that is said to be about Las Vegas criminologists."
Touchstone TV hatched CSI? And by the time it got rolling they owned 0.0% of it! Holy shit!
Yeah, and they probably put it in turnaround, which let CBS snap it up.
I'm reading Keep Circulating the Tapes on TVT, and apparently Disney never really wanted the Saban Entertainment/Fox Kids library? If this is the case, they should sell it off to DHX or DreamWorks Classics (or even Saban Brands, for that matter) so all of that stuff will come out of The Disney Vault.
I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
DreamWorks Classics, soon to be a subsidiary of chief competitor NBCUniversal! Disney is not going to want to help out a competitor by selling them Eek! the Cat, whatever minimal help that may be. Also, Disney and DreamWorks aren't best friends anyway.
DHX and Saban Brands are less of a threat to Disney, so they'd be more likely buyers.
I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
DHX should really use their endless stream of CanCon money to buy that stuff off of Disney. It wouldn't be the first time that Disney rejects found their way into the DHX library (DHX inherited the DIC library from Cookie Jar)
I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
DHX actually gets their library out there (AND they don't plaster logos either!), which is impressive considering that 90% or more of it is either unremarkable or absolute shit
Okay, so some of Four Star's library isn't controlled by Fox anymore, and I know L-G-L got the rights to The Rifleman back, but how the hell did StudioCanal get Wanted: Dead or Alive? (And is that information even accurate?)
I foud a picture of the back of the MIll Creek release, and it has a StudioCanal print logo in it, so that much is accurate. What's more interesting is that it was apparently sublicensed to Mill Creek from New Line Home Video, who released the original DVDs years ago. *boggle*
I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
What all does Four Star own? It feels like one of those things that News Corp/Fox bought purely by accident (Rupert bought New World almost solely to get his hands on the TV stations)
Their biggest draws were their old shows from the 1960s (when they still made new stuff), but of those, I'm pretty sure The Big Valley is the only one Fox still cares about.
Availability: Rare. Seen on The Big Valley reruns on Me-TV and on DVD (not the international releases, as it was removed in favor of the 2011 StudioCanal logo at the beginning), as well as on Honey West. The in-credit version is extinct and was seen only on the short-lived game show Shenanigans and the pilot of The Hollywood Squares.
so StudioCanal had international rights for some things. I wonder if Orbis was involved somehow.
Can be seen on TV in America on some shows. It's on the beginning of every episode of both Wanted: Dead or Alive and The Big Valley on Encore Westerns, but does not appear on Me-TV's airings of the aforementioned show.
I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
speaking of rights shit, apparently Lionsgate owns Carolco's Wagons East! outright, and inherited it from Artisan. Why did LIVE/Artisan only own that movie in full, while the rest stayed in Carolco's hands (and went to Canal+ later)?
interestingly, some of the posters for the movie, including the UK one, mention LIVE Entertainment. I'm guessing that they held international rights to the movie, and when Carolco failed, that made them first in line.
Okay, I really wish CLG had better checks against fake and misattributed logos. They should really know better, considering how many people are compelled to post their fever dreams as actual sightings. :P
It happened with the fake CBS Films logo, and now it looks like that last "Tomorrow" logo may be misattributed as well; it seems to have been a bumper for SelecTV circa 1981-1982.
There seems to be two types of logo fans: The fans that enjoy the history and like seeing how the pieces go together...and the ones that want to play with them like they're dolls, don't really care about the real history, and seem to see the CLG as some sort of odd role-playing experiment.
I'm not keen on the latter, to be really honest. especially when the fantasy starts splashing over into the historical bits.
I think it's more personal; I see the CLG as more of a reference work than a creative outlet, and so I get just a bit annoyed when egregiously wrong information sticks around for too long, especially when it's a logo that is so different from the other examples that you think someone would have noticed.
There are a few bogus logos that, until recently, had been hanging around since the Yahoo! Groups days (like the early King World logo that might have been a print logo, but no one knows for sure).
Then again, I suppose that's because there was no way to verify a lot of this until YouTube and friends showed up, as well as various online archives of old TV trade magazines.
Then again, I suppose that's because there was no way to verify a lot of this until YouTube and friends showed up, as well as various online archives of old TV trade magazines.
Then again, I suppose that's because there was no way to verify a lot of this until YouTube and friends showed up, as well as various online archives of old TV trade magazines.
man life as a logo fan before YouTube was misery
I know, right? I remember wanting the CLG logo compilations really bad back in the day, though I never bothered because availability was always spotty (they were hand-copied IIRC).
There seems to be two types of logo fans: The fans that enjoy the history and like seeing how the pieces go together...and the ones that want to play with them like they're dolls, don't really care about the real history, and seem to see the CLG as some sort of odd role-playing experiment.
I'm not keen on the latter, to be really honest. especially when the fantasy starts splashing over into the historical bits.
Isn't the fantasy supposed to be quarantined off to its own section?
I assume it's bled into the historical section over time.
It also answers a long-standing question of mine—why the pre-1974 Rankin-Bass stuff was still owned by GE. Apparently Tomorrow Entertainment was spun out by GE that year, as part of an exit from the entertainment business. For whatever reason, though, they retained Tomorrow's library from that time, and didn't dispose of it until, what, 1988?
In any case, it seems they're gone now. They made one last film (under the name "AM/PM") in 1989 and called it quits. I don't know who owns the rights to their post-1974 library; the last film they made was in association with Tribune, so that may be a clue.
I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
what did he get from GE?
I know there was a time when Lorne Michaels went on this "family entertainment" buying spree (their family entertainment division, headed by Eric Ellenbogen, was a precursor to Classic Media), I wonder why he did that
Not exctly TV history, but: Apparently, the movie of Tommy was produced by Robert "Don't Ask Me About Moment By Moment[1]" Stigwood, but The Who produced Quadrophenia themselves.
---
[1] Or Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, or Grease 2, for that matter.
They own the distribution rights, but only because the show was originally distributed by NBC themselves, and NBC sold that unit to NTA in the early 1970s.
Comments
There's a few captures of this logo from a company I've never heard of before called "Hamdon", and I was totally mystified as to where they came from.
Also, I found a copy of an old miniseries I'd been looking for the logos on for *years*, and it turns out I wasn't dreaming—it *did* have the World International Network logo on it, complete with the member list. The print I found *also* had a Hamdon logo in it!
man life as a logo fan before YouTube was misery
I assume it's bled into the historical section over time.
As late as 1990, Cleveland was a top-ten market