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Background[]
The Public Broadcasting Service, known on-air as PBS, is a publicly funded non-profit distribution service (founded on November 3, 1969) that serves a variety of television stations in the United States, as well as some areas of Mexico (a Spanish-speaking country) and Canada. PBS replaced its predecessor NET on October 5, 1970. Some of the most prominent of their original member stations were KPBS in San Diego, WNET in New York, GBH in Boston, WQED in Pittsburgh, KQED in San Francisco, WTTW in Chicago, and KCET in Los Angeles. Currently, PBS has over 350 member stations, most of which are owned by educational institutions.
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1st ID (October 5, 1970-September 18, 1971)[]
Visuals: Just the words "PUBLIC BROADCASTING SERVICE" stacked on top of each other on a black background.
Variants:
- A black and white version exists.
- On Firing Line and most of the first episodes of Thirty Minutes With... (save for the premiere with Secretary Elliot Richardson), the logo cuts in from the CPB logo.
Trivia: It's possible that this was developed as a placeholder logo during the NET to PBS transition, given the color scheme is the same as the 11th NET logo and the next logo being identified as the 1970 logo in Making the PBS Logo.
Technique: A printed image filmed by a camera.
Audio: An announcer, MacDonald Carey, saying "This is PBS, the Public Broadcasting Service." Later programs used different announcers (at least two distinct announcers have been identified on Firing Line and Thirty Minutes With...).
Audio Variant: On Calebration, the opening theme plays over the logo, and there is no announcer.
Availability: This logo is considered to be one of the hardest from PBS to find, due to its incredibly short lifespan combined with it taking place before the home video era.
- For many years, the only circulating copy was one of very poor quality that could be found on TVARK, and it had barely any information regarding its source. What was known is that it came from Go Ride the Music, and even then many casual observers failed to connect it with Fanfare for years. However, starting in the late 2010s, more copies as mentioned below have come to light, giving the community a few additional captures of this very elusive ID.
- It was used concurrently with the NET logo from 1970 to 1971 mid-season as a placeholder logo (the NET logo appeared at the beginning of Our Vanishing Wilderness and at the end of the first few broadcasts of Realities during that season) and then quickly replaced with the 2nd logo.
- Though PBS officially went on the air on October 5, 1970, it had actually been formed the year before, in 1969, with the logo reportedly premiering on the Hollywood Television Theatre pilot, "The Andersonville Trial", and appearing on the first season thereof. It also appeared on the Grateful Dead concert program Calebration and the initial broadcasts of the Fanfare episode "Go Ride the Music", featuring Jefferson Airplane and Quicksilver Messenger Service (the aforementioned bootleg DVD preserves it).
- The logo was likely seen on the fourth season of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and the second season of Sesame Street, but modern prints have featured either the 1971 or 1989 logo. It was also seen on some of the earliest known extant episodes of WNET's Soul!, the first season of The Great American Dream Machine, and the first Masterpiece Theatre serials (from The First Churchills to Pere Goriot).
- It was found on a 1971 episode of Firing Line, which was uploaded to YouTube on January 26, 2017, and is also retained on a few other early episodes thereof. A repeat of the series premiere of Realities, as well as other episodes including "If Eugene Talmadge Were Alive Today...", and the Black Journal episode "Justice?" also have this logo. It was also seen on episodes of Thirty Minutes With... featuring Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, NBC News correspondent David Brinkley, Senator Allen J. Ellender (D-LA), and Secretary Elliot Richardson.
- In what appears to be the first known live presentation snafu in the network's history, President's Report on Indochina, which replaced the first planned broadcast of The Nader Report following a delay stemming from objections from the oil companies regarding that show's political content, starts playing the voiceover over a title card reading "An NET News Special"; due to the video file hosted by the American Archive of Public Broadcasting cutting out at that moment, it is currently unknown whether this logo actually appeared on that program.
- It is unknown whether the Kultur International Films releases of A Memory of Two Mondays and Paradise Lost, presented by NET Playhouse during the season this logo was in use, preserve this.
2nd ID (September 18, 1971-September 30, 1984)[]
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Visuals: On a black background, an abstract "P" zooms out to the top portion of the screen. The "P" turns into a P-shaped head (known internally at PBS as "Everyman"; nicknamed "P-Head" by fans) facing left with the text "PUBLIC" appearing underneath (this set and the later lines of text underneath being set in ITC Avant Garde); both move to the left side of the screen. An abstract "B" pops in to the right of the P-Head and two black dots form the holes within the "B" (the latter dot coinciding with the text "BROADCASTING" appearing below "PUBLIC"). An abstract "S" appears to the right of the "B" and two black dots cut the inner curves of the "S" as the text "SERVICE" appears below "BROADCASTING" (coinciding with the second dot). The finished product is like this:
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PUBLIC
BROADCASTING
SERVICE
Trivia:
- This logo was designed by Herb Lubalin, also responsible for the aforementioned Avant Garde. Lubalin and his design team theorized numerous concepts before settling on the final draft:
- "PBS" with stars on it.
- "PBS" with a star-shaped vortex next to it.
- A falcon with a "PBS"-shaped neck, colored pink.
- Numerous color schemes, including the scheme of the American flag. The idea was rejected due to the political climate at the time. NET had already been killed as a network under pressure from the conservative Nixon administration, and PBS worried that a red left-facing P-head may be interpreted as a pro-Communist symbol if it had been approved.
- Some of the aforementioned logo designs make appearances in a late '80s PBS promo using Lionel Richie's "Say You, Say Me" as its jingle. There is a mini-documentary about the logo and its evolution from the Media Probes episode "Design" here.
- This logo was parodied in the first Saturday Night Live episode (with "P" and "B" colored red and green).
- This logo was also parodied in the Family Guy S1 episode "The Son Also Draws", where it is already formed and is still, the "PBS" logo is all white and the text is yellow and crudely drawn, the P-Head is facing the opposite direction, and the text reads "PUBLIC BROADCASTING SYSTEM" instead of "PUBLIC BROADCASTING SERVICE".
- This logo was brought back by PBS as the logo for their "PBS Digital Studios" YouTube channel.
Variants:
- There were two different endings: one with a fadeout, and one without a fadeout.
- A still version was used for program breaks on very long programs, such as the BBC Shakespeare plays, as well as a placeholder before the animation debuted.
- A still recreation was used on The Ford Carter Debates Pre-Debate Discussion. The text is in a bold Helvetica font, the holes are slightly larger and a bit misplaced, the letters are thicker and conjoined, and everything appears to be colored white.
- A still version exists where the logo is more saturated, to the point where the "B" is red, and the text is thinner. This appeared on Presidential Forum.
- A few promo-based variants exist:
- In 1972 promos, a grey female P-head appears (but she is unhappy) then she changes to pink while the P, B and S come to it and the red heart fades in on top of her, then the red heart appears on top of the blue P-head, then the hearts merge together into one heart while the pink P-head, kisses the blue P-head, then she walks with the blue P-head (the heart fades out on top of the blue P-head) to the left side to make the way for the text "PREMIERING THIS WEEK ON PUBLIC TV:" sliding right, then some animations, then the blue P-head, a pink P-head and a red heart appear one by one. The pink P-head fades out. The letters "B" and "S" appear; the heart grows as the letters move up to it. Then the heart fades out and the words "PUBLIC BROADCASTING SERVICE" appear.
- On the 1977 "Go Public" promo, the entire logo is seen minus the text below. Also, the "B" is red and the logo is shifted to the middle. Then, the "B" and "S" move away in opposite directions while the "P" moves from the left into the middle. What proceeds this sequence is currently unknown, as the only footage available cuts before the announcer can finish.
- On some broadcasts of The MacNeil/Lehrer Report, the blue slant in the show's title expands diagonally, resulting in a solid blue screen with the same shade as the "P"; the logo begins from here. This version premiered when the program changed titles from The Robert MacNeil Report to The MacNeil/Lehrer Report on September 6, 1976. The slant was red for its first week of use; on September 14, 1976, it changed to the familiar blue color. The color change was probably intended for September 13, but bad timing resulted in a rushed show closing.
- On the April 19, 1977 edition of The MacNeil/Lehrer Report, the above variant was executed incorrectly, resulting in the logo being keyed over the final shot of the show. The black background cut back in after the "S" appeared.
- A similar error occurred on the September 22, 1978 edition of Wall $treet Week; the technician is initially going to fade to black, but accidentally keyed out the black background during the last second.
- On The Dull Lewis Report, the logo is flipped vertically while an orchestral arrangement of "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" plays.
- On One Year Later..., the "PBS" letters appear one-by-one, before the text below it fades in slowly. The logo is also perfectly still (aside for some slight shuffling), possibly because it was made via computer animation.
- On an episode of Alvin Toffler's The Third Wave, and some episodes of Sneak Previews on IMDb, the P-Head is green, with the B being red and the S being blue. This is most likely due to videotape deterioration.
Technique: Cel animation.
Audio: A telephone-like synthesizer scale descending rapidly, followed by 5 synthesizer tones as the black dots appear; there is an echo in the final note. Composed by Paul Alan Levi, using an EMS VCS3 Putney synthesizer.
Audio Variants:
- On We Interrupt This Week, a short-lived game show produced for PBS by WNET in 1978, the regular music was replaced by a male choir singing very loudly, "Happy birthday to you!!". This audio was taken from the episode itself and used as a liner for this variant. The source of the audio from this episode was when the host played a video of the male choir singing the song to a woman (the birthday recipient). At this point, PBS had celebrated its 9 years on television. If one listens carefully at the beginning of this variant, the normal music can be faintly heard underneath.
- The Southbound episode "Mouth Music" had an acapella version of the logo's music.
- A low-tone variant exists.
- The still variant may have a voiceover, different than the previous logo, which also says, "This is PBS, the Public Broadcasting Service." In other cases, this is silent, or may rarely play the normal logo's music.
- On From Star Wars to Jedi: The Making of a Saga, there is no music, only a voiceover that says, "This logo is the symbol of the only station on the air that you own."
Availability:
- DVD releases and streaming have made this logo easier to find in recent years.
- One of the logo's first appearances was on Jude the Obscure, broadcast as part of Masterpiece Theatre between October 3 and November 7, 1971; the prototype logo appeared on a few episodes of Firing Line in the late summer of that year. Also made a sneak appearance on a few 1977-82-era episodes of The Dick Cavett Show on Decades.
- The logo plays on many episodes of The MacNeil/Lehrer Report (later The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour) from the era, available for viewing on the American Archive of Public Broadcasting website. Many episodes of Seasons 2-5 of This Old House also retain this logo on the show's official website. It does not appear on MacArthur Library tapes of programs from the era.
- The logo can be found on the DVD sets The Best of the Electric Company and Sesame Street: Old School. In the latter case, this logo replaces the NET and 1970 PBS logos on the respective episodes. The DVD of Zoom: Back to the 70s has this logo and the original WGBH logo. The Great American Dream Machine also has this at the end of each episode on Volumes 1, 2, and 4, and at the end of the final episode on Volume 3.
- The U.S.A. Home Video/International Video Entertainment release of the Hollywood Television Theatre pilot, "The Andersonville Trial", also has this, plastering the previous logo, as do the VHS and DVD of The Scarlet Letter, a DVD for KERA's coverage of the 1981 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, and the occasional Vestron Video VHS of NOVA, such as "The Science of Murder".
- Apart from the occasional appearance in select promos and as archive footage in documentaries and public affairs programs, this made its last known appearance on PBS itself on the 2000 rebroadcast of The Lathe of Heaven, also appearing on the subsequent VHS and DVD release that same year.
- The logo can be found on Twitch.tv and Amazon.com prints of color Mister Rogers' Neighborhood episodes that PBS last aired before 1990 (final airdates here), sometimes plastering the NET logo - this includes episodes 1271, 1300, 1309, and 1324 on Amazon; and the 1988 PBS Video release of the episode "Death of a Goldfish", which had this logo until 2017, after which it was itself plastered by the 2013 PBS Kids logo on the 2018 rebroadcast.
- Other sightings of this logo include KETC's 50th anniversary special and WTVS' analog-to-digital sign-off (although in the latter, only the last part of the logo plays - the part where dots appear in the S with "SERVICE" appearing below - before cutting to WTVS' program intro tag from the 1970s, both with generic piano music played over the logos). The anniversary specials for KPTS and KVIE also had this logo, but, the logo just "pops" up one letter at a time in KPTS' 40th anniversary special, while a still logo can be seen in KVIE's 50th anniversary special. It also appears in full on Won't You Be My Neighbor?, a 2018 documentary about Fred Rogers.
- This has appeared occasionally on later PBS programs and promos that reference their older materials, including a PBS NewsHour segment on Sonia Manzano (Maria from Sesame Street) from 2015, the This Old House 40th Anniversary special, and a 2020 promo for the PBS NewsHour, though not often in good quality -- the 2020 NewsHour promo even stretched it to 16:9.
Legacy: Many individuals who grew up during this logo's time period have strong memories of it, whether fond (because of it mostly standing for a symbol of nostalgia) or otherwise (because of the synthesizer music and animation). Today, while this logo is a target for several fan-made parodies, it has seen legitimate use either as a visual element or a logo for a PBS subsidiary such as PBS Digital Studios, particularly during the 10th logo's tenure.
3rd ID (September 30, 1984-September 17, 1989)[]
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Visuals: On a black background, a blue P-head appears on the upper-mid screen, facing backwards. A piece, unofficially known as "The Split", comes out to the right and settles itself about half an inch away. The text "PBS
" appears below in a slab-serif font, which was designed specifically for PBS (named "ITC Lubalin Graph Bold").
Trivia:
- Using the "P" in the previous logo as a basis, this logo (and the accompanying lump serif font) was designed and animated by Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv, a firm also responsible for many other logos such as the Screen Gems "S from Hell", the 1986 NBC peacock and the Warner Bros. Discovery logo. The logo introduced at the PBS annual meeting on March 30, 1984, and made its first network appearance six months later to the day.
- Despite being created on a 60-field system, this logo runs at 24p.
Variants:
- There is also a still version, which is sometimes accompanied with a voice-over saying, "This is PBS, the Public Broadcasting Service."
- As with the previous logo, this faded out sometimes, including on Eyes on the Prize.
- On season 1 episodes of Shining Time Station, one of the latest new programs to use this logo, the fade-out was slower.
- A filmed variant exists.
- A variant exists with the piece colored red. On superimposed footage of fireworks, two CGI P-Heads (blue and red) appear from off-screen. As the P-Heads turn, the blue head is placed behind the red one, where most of it dissolves away, forming the piece in front of the blue P-Head. After the logo settles in place, the footage fades to black and the company name fades in. This was spotted on a KETC sign-off in 1991. Sometimes, a white P-Head fills the Split.
- A 3D version of this logo was used on Saturday Night Live episodes involving the "An*l Retentive" sketches, like "Fishing with the An*l Retentive Sportsman" and "Cooking with the An*l Retentive Chef." This also appears on "The Best of Phil Hartman", since the latter sketch is included.
Technique: 2D computer effects.
Audio: A majestic piano chord, followed by six string pizzicato tones, and then a softer version of the piano chord. Composed by Jonathan Elias.
Audio Variants:
- Very scarcely (possibly, only a few times during this logo's lifespan), a narrator might talk over the logo. This variant was first found on an airing of Sesame Street from November 18th, 1987.
- On some pledge drive programs, most notably including The Making of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, an announcer can be heard saying "When you see this logo, you know that you're watching only the best, member-supported public television."
- The filmed variant is silent.
Availability: It appeared on old prints of PBS shows produced from 1984-89. Can also be found on early PBS Home Video releases from the '80s; just look for a banner with the P-Head on the left and "PBS VIDEO" filling the entire rest of the banner.
- The logo reportedly made its first appearance on the Nature episode "Krakatoa: The Day That Shook the World", broadcast on September 30, 1984. This is surprisingly easy to find on Time-Life Video tapes of Nature, most often with the 1987 WNET logo at the beginning.
- The logo has also appeared on the 1994 rebroadcast and 1995 PBS Video reissue of Pyramid, part of a series of architectural documentaries hosted by David Macaulay, even though earlier installments had this (and the earlier logo, in the case of Castle) plastered with the 1992 logo in the same reissue of the series. It also appeared on the 1997 Turner Home Entertainment release of Spaceflight.
- In an oddity, recent prints of the 1976 miniseries The Adams Chronicles, including the DVD release, end with both this (preserved from a 1987 rebroadcast) and the 2006 WNET logo.
- The logo showed up on the Twitch.tv prints of episodes #1417 and #1456 of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.
- This logo has plastered the previous logo on rebroadcasts from the era of Christmas Eve on Sesame Street, The Nutcracker, and earlier episodes of Great Performances and This Old House.
- It appeared on Milwaukee Public Television's 50th anniversary special.
- The last known appearance of this logo on television was in 2009 on UNC-TV after an episode of Lap Quilting with Georgia Bonesteele.
- This logo can also be viewed at the end of many episodes of The MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour from the era, available for viewing on the American Archive of Public Broadcasting website.
Legacy:
- The logo is still very highly regarded and is a favorite of many due to its simplicity and calm piano music.
- It was long rumored that there was a variant seen on the series premiere of Square One TV where, after the logo forms, the P-head and letters multiply off into the distance (with voice-overs singing "And on..." multiple times). It is not yet known whether the rumor is true, as the only verified recording to have been uploaded online plasters the next logo over whatever originally followed it.
4th ID (September 15, 1989-July 31, 1993)[]
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Visuals: On a black background, a side-facing crystalline dark blue P-head pans to the right side of the screen, leaving behind a residue trail of P-heads. The residue trail fades into the PBS logo from before, which settles itself in the center of the screen, occupying almost all of it. Five spectral lines wipe across the bottom of the screen, leaving the text "PBS
" in the same font as the previous logo in the bottom left corner of the screen.
Alternative Video Description from Contemporary PBS Press Release: The five-second ID begins with seven computer-generated crystalline images of PBS's "Everyman" logo. As the images rotate toward the background along their vertical axes, they merge into one full head and one profile. Five spectral lines, in a rainbow of colors that also appear on the beveled edges of the logo, race across the bottom of the screen. The PBS initials then appear over the spectral lines.
Trivia:
- Eagle-eyed viewers will notice that the residue trail has a total of seven P-Heads, including the initial P-Head.
- This logo is videotaped and runs at 30i rather than PBS' usual 24p (only the 1st and 6th logos share this speed).
Variants:
- In an alternate version of the ident, the "P-head" appears just by fading in with the text "PBS
". No lines streak across the screen; therefore it is a still version of the ident.
- There is a 1990 "Just Watch Us Now" ident where the screen zooms out of the P-Head made of glass with light rays coming out of the P-Head's eye. Then the words "TV WORTH WATCHING" zooms out, and goes to the bottom-left. The rest of the animation proceeds to this logo starting with lines wiping the word "PBS
". The animation is reversed at the start of a fall season programming promo, with footage from The American Experience keyed into the eye.
- There is another version of the ident that fades in, lines already intact. This was used for program breaks. (The Civil War just used the regular version for intermissions.)
- There is a promo variant where the background is changed to white and there are multi-colored shapes rotating around the P-Head. The text "PBS
" is also colored purple.
- On the PBS Viewer Response Line promo, the sequence starts with a background of the same crystalline color as the P-heads. Six crystalline rectangles sweep downward, with a crystalline rectangle featuring the logo animation appearing from between the top two crystalline rectangles in the center of the screen, and turn upwards before disappearing at the bottom of the screen as "VIEWER RESPONSE LINE" appears above the animation and "1-800-866-1400" below, in a white Cloister-like font.
Technique: CGI by Pacific Data Images, made using a Silicon Graphics 4D/25 workstation, and designed by John C. LePrevost. The final master was output to 1-inch Type C videotape.
Audio: A long held-out string note combined with synth bells (played on a Roland D-50 using the Fantasia preset) and chimes, followed by an announcer (possibly Mike Pengra) saying "This is PBS".
Audio Variants:
- On the still version, the same music, as in the ident's original version, is used. Once again, the announcer says "This is PBS". There is also a silent variant of this variation.
- There is a still, silent variant with announcer William Daniels saying, "This is PBS, the Public Broadcasting Service." This was spotted during an episode of Great Performances.
- A silent version was used on VHS releases of Barney & Friends season 1 episodes. This version also appeared on the Mister Rogers' Neighborhood episode "No & Yes #1541".
- The still version with the lines intact uses a different male announcer saying, "This is PBS, the Public Broadcasting Service."
- On Mister Rogers' Neighborhood episode 1250, the normal theme plays. However, if you listen closely, the 1971 logo's music plays quietly. This is a result of a bad plaster.
- On the white background promo variant, a synth note is heard instead and the announcer also says "This Fall, on PBS".
- On the PBS Viewer Response Line variant, announcer Peter Thomas says, "If you've enjoyed the program you just watched, or have comments or suggestions, please call the PBS Viewer Response Line at 1-800-866-1400."
Availability: As with other vintage PBS logos, the chance of showing up on television now is almost nothing, but some PBS Home Video releases from the era may have it. Just look for a square in the top-left corner on the front of the box with "PBS VIDEO" below a P-head.
- The logo premiered after Washington Week in Review on September 15, 1989.
- This logo plasters the 1971 logo on Twitch.tv and Amazon.com prints of various 1971-75 Mister Rogers' Neighborhood episodes that last aired on PBS in the '90s (final airdates here); this includes episodes 1176, 1177, 1179, 1180, 1261, 1281, 1384, and 1389 on Amazon. This also plasters over the 1984 logo on episodes dating from 1984-1989 on the latter program when it aired on Twitch.tv.
- This may plaster earlier PBS logos on Time-Life Video releases of Nature, including "Forest in the Sea" (which preserves its original WNET logo). Other programs where it plastered earlier logos in the early '90s include Dinner at Julia's, French in Action, Reading Rainbow, rebroadcasts of Season 1 episodes of Shining Time Station and later episodes of Season 20 of Sesame Street beginning with episode 2576, and certain of Ken Burns's earlier works, including Brooklyn Bridge, The Shakers: Hands to Work, Hearts to God, The Statue of Liberty, and Huey Long.
- Appearances of this logo on DVD are scarce as they're usually plastered over or trimmed off. It appeared on DVD releases of some episodes of The American Experience and NOVA from the era, including "Last Stand at Little Bighorn", "Earthquake!", and "Tornado!" (the latter where it plasters the previous logo), which retained it on television even as the series began appearing on PBS's website in 1995.
- For its last year, it was used in tandem with the 5th logo, appearing on Healing and the Mind with Bill Moyers, MotorWeek '93, The American Experience, The New Yankee Workshop, most 24th season episodes of Sesame Street, most 11th season episodes of Nature, all 20th season episodes of NOVA, all 2nd season episodes of Lamb Chop's Play-Along, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, and many early-to-mid-'90s reruns of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. It also appears at the end of of the Turner Home Entertainment VHS releases of Brooklyn Bridge and Thomas Hart Benton. This logo can also be viewed at the end of many episodes of The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour from the era, available for viewing on the American Archive of Public Broadcasting website.
- The silent version can be seen on Time-Life and Lyons Group tapes of season 1 Barney & Friends episodes.
- The last known national appearance of this logo was on the 2011 marathon rebroadcast of An American Family, using prints from the early '90s; its last known appearance on television was in 2012 on KET KY (a sub-channel of Kentucky Educational Television) after an episode of Destinos: An Introduction to Spanish. Some episodes of the latter can still be viewed in a hidden portion of KET's website, with logo included. This logo could also be seen up until late 2006 after Reading Rainbow on many PBS stations.
- It does not appear on the PBS Video release of The Civil War, which uses the off-air version (it appeared on the 1990 broadcast version, but not the Pacific Arts release of the same).
- The PBS Viewer Response Line variant is only known to have appeared at the end of the broadcast premiere of the first episode of The Civil War.
- This plasters the next logo on current prints of Lamb Chop's Special Chanukah.
- Feature Films for Families preserves this on its release of A Girl of the Limberlost on behalf of Home Vision Entertainment.
Legacy: This logo is well-liked for its animation and music.
5th ID (January 4, 1993-July 29, 1997)[]
Visuals: On a pink/orange lighted background, several transparent ellipses revealing people's faces appear and disappear one at a time. Then the screen zooms out through a circle, which turns out to be the eye in the PBS P-Head standing on a floor, made from glass. To the left of the P-Head, the text "PBS
" rotates to face the screen.
Trivia:
- While it may seem as CGI at first, this was a live-action logo, captured on 35mm film (though final compositing was done on a Quantel Paintbox). The people's faces were captured on October 19, 1992; the actual logo was filmed two days later. It was created with models; the P-Heads were frosted glass and the "PBS
" text was rotated with rostrums. The logo was designed by Telezign.
- Much like HBO and their famed "In Space" opening, this logo also had its own mini-documentary detailing the making of it. You can watch it here.
- The footage is sped up to better fill the 30i space allotted to NTSC.
- Eagle-eyed viewers can make out a total of eight faces during the first half of the logo.
Variant: There is a completely still variant with a male or female announcer saying, "This is PBS, the Public Broadcasting Service." This was used for program breaks. The same still variant, without the announcer, would be substituted in place of the "Viewers Like You" credit on Ken Burns' The West.
Technique: Live-action footage, with compositing being done on a Paintbox.
Audio: A funky, boogie piano tune with choir vocalizing, followed by an announcer (Chris Murney, the voice of Elisha Hunt Rhodes in Ken Burns' The Civil War) who says "This is PBS." The music was composed by Peter Fish, who has also done music for CBS News.
Audio Variant: There is a variant that exists without the voice-over. This was seen on the aforementioned mini-documentary Making the PBS Logo, which was used as a filler program for when there was time left at the end of any program.
Availability: Your best bet to find it is '90s PBS Home Video tapes, including the Turner releases of The Dinosaurs and the films of Ken Burns. This appeared at the beginning of most PBS Home Video releases from Turner Home Entertainment from July 1994 to mid-1997, as a secondary logo for PBS Home Video. The logo is also preserved on certain episodes of NOVA on DVD, including "The Universe Within", "Hunt for the Serial Arsonist", and a 1994-1995 re-run version of the 1989 episode "Hurricane".
- It first appeared in print in late December 1992 on an issue of Broadcasting Magazine dated January 4, 1993, and the animated version premiered in full on the January 4, 1993 edition of The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. For its first year, it was used in tandem with the previous logo, appearing on some episodes of Nature (starting in its 11th season), Sesame Street (particularly late in the 24th season and on the Spring/Summer 1993 rebroadcast of the season), and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood (mainly episodes that premiered in 1993 as well as some mid-'90s reruns of older programs) as well as all third-season episodes of Shining Time Station, 1993 episodes of Newton's Apple, a March 31, 1993 rebroadcast of Empire of the Air, Barney in Concert, new editions of Washington Week beginning on January 8, 1993, and the earliest nationally-broadcast episodes of Charlie Rose, among others.
- Among post-1993 PBS Kids programs, it also appeared on the first run of the second season of Barney and Friends, as well as early broadcasts of the second print run of the first season thereof (identifiable by use of the second season's funding credits), before being plastered by the P-Pals logo on subsequent reruns, and is believed to have appeared on A Magic School Bus Halloween. The 1995 Shining Time Station prime time specials, Wallace and Gromit: The Wrong Trousers, and Lamb Chop holiday specials released during this time also used this logo, as did Newton's Apple, FutureQuest, and the first two Square One TV Math Talk programs.
- In the mid-'90s, this logo became the chief means of logo plastering for PBS, appearing on newer prints of Castle (1994 rebroadcast), Cathedral (1994 rebroadcast), Eyes on the Prize, The Civil War (1994 rebroadcast), The Shakers: Hands to Work, Hearts to God, The Statue of Liberty (1994 rebroadcast), Huey Long, The Congress, Empire of the Air, How Difficult Can This Be?, Frontline, and Nature, among other programs.
- This logo can be seen on various episodes of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood from 1974-1980 on Twitch.tv, its first appearance being on Episode #1362. It can also be viewed at the end of many episodes of The MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour from the era, available for viewing on the American Archive of Public Broadcasting website.
- The logo's latest new appearance was on the September 4, 1996 edition of The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, though as mentioned earlier this would continue as a secondary logo for PBS Home Video for some time afterwards, appearing at the start of Thomas Jefferson and at the end of the Adventures from the Book of Virtues episode "Generosity" (both of which use the next logo in the programs themselves). This logo, surprisingly, appeared at the end of an August 5, 2018 airing of An Ice Cream Show, after years of plastering with later logos from 1998 and 2002, on WFWA-TV's 4th sub-channel, known as PBS39 Explore. This is the first confirmed time this logo has aired on television since 2009 on a UNC-TV airing of Faces of Culture.
- It also appears on what seems to be a 25th anniversary promo for PBS that was shown during the Fall 1993 pledge drive on many stations.
- It doesn't show up on mid-'90s episodes of MotorWeek, which used the Maryland Public Television logo at the end instead from 1993 to 1997.
Legacy: This logo is highly regarded by the community due in part to its production process, done without resorting to primarily using computer animation.
6th ID (August 12, 1996-December 5, 1999)[]
Visuals: On a black background, a CGI window appears with a bird's-eye view of the Earth, a plastic globe spinning on the top right, and a telescope rotating on the bottom left. A pear-colored PBS P-Head (with the split colored light blue) appears in front of the window and grows smaller as the window grows bigger. As the two meet each other, the window disappears. Inside the P-Head are transparent images of two globes, a feather and a telescope. The P-Head takes its place in the top center of the screen and turns to light blue and aquamarine as the text "PBS
" fades in below them.
Trivia:
- This was based on a 1995 rebranding of PBS produced by PMcD Design and animated at Tape House Digital by Patrick Inhofer on a Grass Valley Group Kadenza and Michel Suissa on a Silicon Graphics Onyx with Reality Engine 2 using Discreet Logic FLAME (this was a few months before their Inferno product, which would displace FLAME on the Onyx line, was launched); this rebranding would gradually be adopted by many PBS stations over the ensuing years, including WITF, WSJK/WKOP, WNET, WQED, WVIZ, Iowa PBS, Kentucky Educational Television, Maine Public Broadcasting Network, Twin Cities Public Television and Vermont ETV.
- This would be the last PBS logo to be produced in 30i.
Variant: Some programs that featured this logo had this fading in and out.
Technique: CGI.
Audio: A calm new-age tune with guitars and flutes, composed by Elias Associates, followed by a female announcer (Lauren Bacall) who says "This is PBS."
Audio Variants:
- On some shows, the announcer says "You are watching PBS." This was used for program breaks.
- Some programs, such as the first 17(?) episodes of Baking with Julia, have this with a similar tune (G#-D#-F), with a different announcer saying "This is PBS."
Availability:
- The logo's first confirmed appearance was on August 12, 1996, at the end of the first day of The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer's coverage of the Republican National Convention.
- This appeared at the start and end of Turner Home Entertainment's releases of Adventures from the Book of Virtues, and also plasters the 4th and 5th logos on episodes of American Experience, one of which was packaged with Warner Home Video's 70th anniversary Blu-ray release of Citizen Kane, and Triumph of the Nerds.
- It also appeared on original broadcast prints of pledge drive specials Keeping Up Appearances: The Memoirs of Hyacinth Bucket and The Carpenters: Close to You, the latter which is now distributed on PBS stations directly by T.J. Lubinsky's Timeless Collection division.
- It appeared at the end of Are You Being Served? episodes broadcast on KYVE in 1999.
- Even when the next logo began to be used, it continued to be used by some programs for some time, with its latest new appearance being on Doo Wop 50. During this transitional period, it also appeared on, among other programs, standard definition prints of early high definition programming such as Chihuly Over Venice and Over Ireland (as seen on KCTS's own VHS of the former and the Warner Home Video VHS of the latter). Its last known appearance on television was in 2009 on UNC-TV after an episode of Faces of Culture.
- On DVD, it can be found at the end of at least a few WGBH Boston Video releases of NOVA episodes from that era, including "Einstein Revealed", "Odyssey of Life", "Super Bridge", and a 1998 re-broadcast version of the 1995 episode, "Lightning".
- On PBS Kids programming, it appeared on pre-1998 daytime prints of first season episodes of the aforementioned Adventures from the Book of Virtues, Lamb Chop holiday specials of the time, The Magic School Bus Family Holiday Special (full-length hour-long version only), Elmo Saves Christmas, the final episodes of Newton's Apple, and the Wallace and Gromit short subjects A Grand Day Out and A Close Shave.
- This appears on commercial prints of the KTEH/KCET miniseries Cadillac Desert, with the Columbia Pictures Television logo following.
7th ID (September 11, 1998-September 22, 2002)[]
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Visuals: On a computer-animated green sky background, a person positioned to the left holds up a black disc-like object in front of their face, with the PBS P-Head printed on it in white. Acrobats behind the subject emerge from where the circle is placed, and do a certain movement in the air (i.e. somersaulting). The text "PBS
" fades in to the right of the subject, with the URL "www.pbs.org" fading in below it afterwards. Throughout the logo, there is more action in the background: small superimposed silhouettes of acrobats doing movements behind the subject, and figures (also superimposed) either tip-toeing or waving an umbrella in a circle on the right-hand side of the screen before fading out.
Trivia:
- This logo was designed at Lee Hunt Associates by Bob English and animated at Manhattan Transfer/Edit by Kieran Walsh on a Silicon Graphics computer using Discreet Logic FLAME. Mastering was done on D5 videotape.
- This logo was filmed and animated entirely at 30p, whereas PBS usually has its logos produced in 24p or 30i.
- The many variations of this logo marked the beginning of a trend for PBS idents that continues to this very day. The P-Head and the split would also be inside a circle for every logo going forward.
Variants: This is the first logo to have alternate versions that are randomly picked to air at the end of each program. Differences for every version include a unique person holding the P-Head, and different acrobats in the background. The versions are listed as follows:
- Man in gold shirt; female acrobats in orange do a backflip.
- Man in blue shirt; same acrobats from 1st variant.
- Woman in blue shirt; male acrobats in yellow shirts do a "side spin". (This version was also used for high definition programming.)
- Woman in deep red shirt; male acrobats in Prussian blue shirts curl into a ball and spin around.
- Man in orange-tan shirt; same acrobats from 2nd variant.
- Older woman in red shirt; same acrobats from 3rd variant.
- Woman in folly shirt; same acrobats from 3rd variant.
- Man in dark blue shirt; same acrobats from 1st variant.
- Woman in red shirt; same acrobats from 2nd variant.
Technique: Computer effects combined with live-action.
Audio: A brief synth swell and a 3-note flute fanfare with a trombone and strings in the background, then a new-age percussion tune (with men vocalizing), followed by the announcer from the previous logo (Lauren Bacall) who says "This is PBS."
Audio Variant: There is a variant that exists with the announcer saying "You are watching PBS." This was used for program breaks.
Availability: This logo can usually be found on reruns and some PBS Home Video tapes (mainly the ones that use the Warner Home Video logo instead of the PBS Home Video logo) such as An Ice Cream Show. It is also preserved on '98-'02 episodes of Scientific American Frontiers on the Chedd-Angier website. On home video, the man in gold shirt variant appeared on An Ice Cream Show (where it plasters the 5th logo), and the woman in blue shirt variant appeared on Great Old Amusement Parks and A Hot Dog Program.
- It also plasters older logos on more recent prints of American Experience (various, as early as the 4th logo), French in Action (3rd and 4th logos), Solutions to Violence (5th logo), and Julia Child's cooking programs (5th and 6th logos).
- This still appears on Workplace Essential Skills if your station is broadcasting it.
- In addition to program breaks, the "You are watching PBS" variant also appears at the end of Digital TV: A Cringely Crash Course.
- The logo first appeared on Season 18 of MotorWeek.
- Oddly enough, this appeared on the Sesame Street 30th anniversary special Elmopalooza instead of the P-Pals logo, and is also retained on commercial prints of the American Masters documentary Gene Kelly: Anatomy of a Dancer, where it is followed by the Warner Bros. Television logo.
- On DVD, this logo can be seen on:
- Man in gold shirt: Harvest of Fear (NOVA/Frontline)
- Woman in blue shirt: Building Big (widescreen version); A Conversation with Koko (Nature)
- Woman in deep red shirt: Cracking the Code of Life and To the Moon (NOVA); Leonard Bernstein: Reaching for the Note (American Masters)
- Man in orange-tan shirt: Alfred Stieglitz: The Eloquent Eye (American Masters); Secrets of the Mind (NOVA); Return with Honor (American Experience)
- Woman in red shirt: A Man, A Plan, A Canal, Panama and Why the Towers Fell (NOVA)
- Woman in folly shirt: Norman Rockwell: Painting America (American Masters)
- Man in dark blue shirt: The Killer's Trail and Cancer Warrior (NOVA); The Presidents Collection: Ike (American Experience)
- Woman in red shirt: Search for a Safe Cigarette (NOVA)
8th ID (Stay Curious) (April 4, 2001-July 21, 2002)[]
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Visuals: Against an orange background is the PBS circle in a light yellow color with the P-head being the same orange color as the background. The circle slowly eases back and fades out as four green circles appear and spread around the screen revealing smaller light yellow circles inside. Four more circles appear and the outer circles merge with the other circles before they begin spreading out. The circle, now in the standard black and white colors, appears with a blur effect. Small circles form "pbs.org" below in a white sans-serif font.
Variants:
- A variant begins on a blue background with a darker blue P-head. The camera zooms into the pupil, and multiple green, blue and white circles zoom in and out before merging in the center. As the circle disappears, it reveals a lime green background, and the PBS logo appears in the center. The words "Stay curious." fade in, as another blue circle zooms up behind the logo before disappearing again.
- Another variant begins on the same background as the second variant, starting with the P-head on the left side of the screen. Seven pulsating circles appear in a horizontal line, "rippling" between the left and right sides of the screen. The PBS logo then fades in, with the text "Stay curious. PBS" fading in shortly afterward.
Trivia: As with the previous branding, this was designed by Lee Hunt Associates, by that point having merged with Razorfish.
Technique: 2D computer animation.
Audio: A three-note ascending tune (D, E, A); most likely played on sitar, Gibson Les Paul or a Rickenbacker 325 (put through a wah-wah pedal) and a voiceover saying "This is PBS."
Audio Trivia: This is most likely a coincidence, but the notes used in the tune are the same used in UPN's 1995-1998 jingle.
Availability: This appears to have been used only briefly, and even then as an alternate logo, during PBS's "Stay Curious" campaign. It ended up being retired quickly and the previous logo continued to be used for another year. Unlike other logos, it's not known to have ever plastered an earlier logo. One program on which this logo appeared was American High.
9th ID (Be More) (September 23, 2002-December 3, 2010 (2002-present on satellite feeds))[]
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Visuals: There is a letterboxed clip show of live-action footage, filmed on a large set with hardwood floor and a background of bushy raw sienna-colored curtains. Culturally and generationally diverse people are employed in the variants, each giving various performances on-camera. As the last clip plays is the circle P-head logo animating with the word "PBS
" in PMN Caecilia on the right and the slogan “Be more” on the left. The text has been modified a bit after the past 18 years. Throughout the bumper, a bug for the PBS URL is seen in the lower-left corner.
Variants: Here are some of the variations that have been seen of late, with a list of the clips in each variant in chronological order:
- Young People: A teenage girl presses her hands on her boyfriend’s cheeks and gives him a kiss; a mother plays with her baby’s feet; a father and his young son are holding guitars; mother and daughter are side by side; a black mother runs pulling a red wagon holding her two younger daughters (Edie Mirman: “We are PBS”).
- Standard 1: A woman threads her fingers through her hair; a young black woman is moving from right to left; a baby wearing a hat walks. ("We are PBS").
- Standard 2: A close-up of a young black woman; a man pets with his dog; a close-up shot of the daughter kissing her mother; and a close-up of a dressy black man (Edie Mirman/Kyle Eastwood: "We Are PBS").
- Literature: A man sits with a pile of books; a young man smiling; a close-up of a smiling young Latina woman; a close-up of the same man smiling. ("We are PBS").
- Performers: A man sits on a stool holding a guitar; a dressy man from "Standard 2" plays his trumpet; a teenage boy is "bopping" to his headphones; a young Asian woman is dancing; an elderly man takes a bow (David Kaye: “We are PBS”).
- Activities: A black man sits with a pile of books, a woman takes a picture of flowers with her camera; a young man in a wheelchair; catches a soccer ball; a man pets with his dog (same footage from "Standard 2"); a young woman hula-hoops.
- Flowers: A close-up of a smiling woman’s face; then we see her holding a large bouquet of flowers, a close-up of the flowers, Finally, a close-up of the woman holding the flowers (Helen Mirren: “I am PBS").
- Father and Son: A father and his young son are holding guitars; a close-up of them playing; and the father and son on a playground swing (Kyle Eastwood: “We are PBS.”)
- Mother and Daughter: A mother and her teenage daughter are seen spinning and dancing; a close-up shot of the daughter kissing her mother (same footage from "Standard 2"); and the two hug (Edie Mirman: "We are PBS.").
- Generations: A mother holds her baby; an old man smiling; a young man takes off his cowboy hat. (Edie Mirman: “We are PBS.”)
- Cowboy Hat: The young man from the "Generations" variant is dancing with his cowboy hat; a close-up of him wearing it; Finally, he briefly tosses it at the camera and giggles (David Kaye: "I'm PBS.").
- Basketball: There is a facial close-up of the man in a wheelchair from "Activities"; he plays with his basketball; then we see him on the left smiling ("I am PBS.")
- Young Woman: This variant features the same dancing woman from "Performers". First is her riding on a scooter, then smiling at the camera wearing a picture hat, and finally spinning as she does in the "Performers" variant, but closer to the right of the screen so we see the logo animating ("I am PBS").
- Elder: The same elderly man from "Performers" dances and takies a bow ("I am PBS").
- Caregiver: There is the same woman and her baby from "Generations", in which were taking care of themselves and smiling at the camera. ("We are PBS").
- There is also a version of the logo without any live-action footage. A burst of light comes in from either side of the screen, and we see an outline of the "P-head" logo (in a style similar to the 1984 logo). Other lighting effects occur, and at the end the circle "P-Head" logo animates, with "PBS" on its right side and "Be more" on its left. There is no voice-over.
- On Carrier, the voice-over says “This show will return in a moment over most of these local stations. We are PBS.”
- On The This Old House Hour, there was another version with a voice-over saying "This PBS show will return in a moment".
- There is also a version that appeared on Frontline and a few editions of The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer from 2003. On the same background as the CPB logo of the time but darker, the words "Perspective. Analysis. Understanding." in white slowly zoom in and shine. Then the words "dissolve" away and the "Be More, PBS" logo animates. In the background throughout the ident is a wallpaper-like array of transparent copies of the words (Aware, Connected, Engaged, Human, etc.) seen earlier (Bob Hilton: "This is PBS.").
- There is another non-animated variant which is adapted from the 2004 PBS Distribution logo, which is normally shortened at the end except after a 29-minute program (usually from PBS Kids). As with the blue variant of the previous logo, this was used as the national network ID on the satellite feed.
Technique: Mostly live-action, combined with CGI for the logo animation. This, along with its corresponding graphics package, was done by PMcD Design. [1]
Audio: A majestic orchestral tune with a choir. Composed by Tonal Sound and Elias Associates. The same tune is always used, but is rearranged for some variants and has a different voice-over (see below for examples).
- On the "Flowers" variant, the music is given a Baroque-style arrangement.
- The "Daddy and Son" variant uses a guitar-rock arrangement with horns.
- The "Mother and Daughter" variant uses a soft guitar arrangement.
- The "Cowboy Hat" variant uses a groovy country-style version of the tune, played on bass.
- The "Basketball" variant uses a funky hip-hop style version of the tune.
- The "Elder" variant uses a groovy piano style version of the tune.
- The "Caregiver" variant uses a light piano arrangement.
- The Frontline variant uses a piano arrangement, ending in a dramatic string cadence.
- The satellite ID variant uses an extended version of the piano arrangement.
- There is a version with a voice-over saying "The following PBS show is closed-captioned".
- There is another version with a voice-over saying "PBS will return in a moment".
Availability: It is still preserved on reruns of older PBS programming.
- This includes the specials Lawrence Welk: Milestones and Memories, where it plasters the previous logo; Lawrence Welk: God Bless America, and Welk Stars Through the Years (the former two use the "Flowers" variant, while the latter uses the "Performers" variant).
- This wasn't used much for plastering, unlike previous logos, though it did appear on rebroadcasts of An Ice Cream Show from 2002 to 2018, when the original logo was surprisingly restored.
- Though the logo officially ended on September 27, 2009, the transition to the next logo would be staggered among programs, with programs such as Washington Week and Bill Moyers Journal among the earlier programs to make the transition.
- The satellite ID variant continued to appear between programs until late October or early November 2022, shortly before the next logo was ultimately retired.
10th ID (Be More) (September 28, 2009-November 6, 2022 (2009-present on satellite feeds)[]
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Visuals: There is a video of a person or people having activities. Suddenly, the PBS logo appears with "Be More" on the left and "PBS
" on the right. The word "PBS " then changes to the URL "pbs.org". A voice-over says "Be More, PBS." as the logo animates.
Trivia: This beat out PBS's 2nd logo as its longest-lasting ID just a month or two before its retirement.
Variants:
- Art Interacts: A man is walking in a street when he encounters a gigantic tropical Pine Green object that looks like a Rubik's-Cube slanted on its corner, which twirls around quite to the man's amusement.
- Big Dreams: An Ecru-clad woman and her daughter are looking through a glass display, with an astronaut suit inside. The camera shifts to a shot where the young girl peeks at the suit's helmet; a reflection of her can be seen, positioned as if she was inside the helmet.
- Observing Child: A boy in a forest-green jacket is walking in a shallow lake with his doodling pad.
- Family Viewing: A family is looking through a telescope at the stars in the sky.
- Bluesman: Calvin Keys is playing the tune on his guitar while someone films it on camcorder. On Bluegrass Underground, this fades in and out.
- Photo Album: A elderly man and his grandson are looking at old pictures of their African ancestors in a scrapbook.
- Symphony: A symphony orchestra performs the tune. The camera sees the violin, bass clarinet, marimba, cymbal and tuba.
- Strange Recipe: A storekeeper recommends a durian to his supermarket's customer.
- Generic: Sometimes, there is no live action footage; instead the logo is placed on a custom background with bubbles. The background is used in four different colors: blue, green, orange, and magenta. On some shows, an announcer says, "You're watching PBS". On the orange variant, "PBS" never changes to the URL.
- Masterpiece: A variant appears on episodes of Masterpiece. Clips from episodes of the anthology series are shown one-by-one over the blue background before the PBS logo appears as usual. The voiceover says, "Masterpiece, only on PBS." Retired as of November 10, 2019, it made its final appearance throughout the final PBS broadcast of Downton Abbey in June 2020.
- Antiques Roadshow: A variant appears on episodes of Antiques Roadshow. Clips from episodes are shown together over the orange background before the PBS logo appears as usual. The voiceover says, "Antiques Roadshow, only on PBS." Officially retired as of November 4, 2019, having last appeared on the program on October 28, 2019.
- Public Affairs: A variant appears on episodes of Frontline and Washington Week, as well as on the special America After Charleston. Depicted over the blue background are various public affairs personalities (as of 2016, Gwen Ifill, Judy Woodruff, Hari Sreenivasan, and Charlie Rose, in that order; early programs with this logo featured a alternated montage with a different slate of public affairs personalities), before the PBS logo appears as usual. The voiceover is the same as on the generic variants. This variant was retired following Ifill's death in November 2016.
- Generic (We'll Be Right Back): As with the previous logo, the generic logo (often using the blue or green version) is sometimes shown at the start of program breaks, with a voiceover saying, "This PBS program will return in a moment."
- Opening Variant: Against a blue background, the circle P-head appears in the center.
Technique: Mostly live-action, combined with CGI. This logo was done by EyeballNYC. [2]
Audio: A five-note tune, composed by creative director Alex Moulton of Expansion Team. [3] Like the ninth logo, the same tune is always used, but is rearranged for some variants and has a different voice-over.
- Art Interacts: The music is played on percussion, electric piano, and celesta.
- Big Dreams: The music is played on electric piano.
- Observing Child: The music is played on a harp and concertina.
- Family Viewing: The music is played on piano and cello.
- Bluesman: The music is played on guitar.
- Photo Album: The music is played on drums, piano, and electric guitar.
- Symphony: The music is performed by an orchestra.
- Strange Recipe: The music is played on woodwinds, with the CPB logo's music playing as a backing track (albeit muffled or in a different arrangement)
- Generic: The music uses either the standard strings and keyboard arrangement or (for the orange and magenta versions) a classical guitar and harp arrangement.
- Masterpiece: The music is played on strings and keyboards.
- Antiques Roadshow: The music is played in a soft guitar and piano arrangement.
- Public Affairs: A hard-rock arrangement of the music.
- Generic (We'll Be Right Back): The music is played either on strings, keyboards, guitars, and drums (for the green version) or in an electronic arrangement (for the blue version).
- Opening Variant: Just a short string of rising piano notes.
Availability: Still used on reruns of most PBS first-run shows, though it took three years for it to be phased out of new episodes. The variants are used randomly, as with the previous logos, on many programs, including NOVA, This Old House, Motorweek, and The Woodwright's Shop; however, on certain programs the following variants are used:
- Art Interacts: Seen at the end of American Masters, some Secrets of Britain specials, some first-season episodes of A Chef's Life, and recent rebroadcasts of A Program About Unusual Buildings and Other Roadside Stuff, and in rotation on Vicious. Some broadcasts of Masterpiece during pledge drive season will end with this instead of the custom variant created for the series, as seen during a nationally-broadcast series six marathon for Downton Abbey, and it also appears in place of said custom variant on the Downton Abbey series finale.
- Big Dreams: Seen at the end of Charlie Rose: The Week, The Brain with David Eagleman, and Jackie Robinson.
- Observing Child: Seen at the end of Earth's Natural Wonders, Wild Alaska Live (including the PBS Kids Channel simulcasts), and recent rebroadcasts of The Adirondacks.
- Family Viewing: Seen at the end of Hometime, some first-season episodes of A Chef's Life, some Secrets of Britain specials, Carol Burnett's Favorite Sketches, and recent rebroadcasts of the original version of Great Old Amusement Parks. It was actually the first variant to be shown, debuting on The National Parks: America's Best Idea.
- Bluesman: Seen at the end of Washington Week (until July 24, 2015), To the Contrary, Jazz, most episodes of Austin City Limits, Bluegrass Underground, and a 2016 rebroadcast of A Ride Along the Lincoln Highway. Also seen at the end of concerts broadcast on PBS, including Simon and Garfunkel: The Concert in Central Park, Alice's Restaurant 50th Anniversary Concert, current broadcast prints of the United Artists film The Last Waltz, and Journey Live in Houston 1981: The Escape Tour, and many a My Music special, including California Dreamin': The Songs of the Mamas and the Papas.
- Photo Album: Seen at the end of PBS NewsHour Weekend, Tavis Smiley, The Roosevelts: An Intimate History, and The Civil War. It also appeared on Great Old Amusement Parks as part of the Rick Sebak's Summer Fun collection and the first episodes of Charlie Rose: The Week.
- Symphony: Seen at the end of PBS Previews, A Capitol Fourth, some current episodes of Austin City Limits, and some Secrets of Britain specials.
- Strange Recipe: Seen at the end of A Chef's Life and The Great British Baking Show.
- Generic (Blue): Seen at the end of PBS NewsHour, Washington Week, Third Rail with Ozy, Amanpour on PBS, Beyond 100 Days, BBC World News, current prints of The Statue of Liberty, and in rotation on Vicious. Also appears on many a My Music special, including Summer, Surf & Beach Music We Love.
- Generic (Orange): Appeared on several programs towards the end of this logo's lifespan, including the first two episodes of Retro Report on PBS, and on a 2020 rerun of the Austin City Limits episode "Run the Jewels".
- Generic (Magenta): Seen at the end of the final episodes of Charlie Rose, and also on Point Taken, Call the Midwife, and in rotation on Vicious.
- Rebroadcasts of An Ice Cream Show instead use either the previous logo or (since 2018) the 5th logo.
- The opening variant was only seen on Retro Report on PBS.
- Even after the next logo was introduced, this remained on PBS NewsHour until November 13, 2019, Martha Stewart's Cooking School until November 17, 2019, Washington Week until December 27, 2019, BBC World News until February 28, 2020, Amanpour and Company until April 17, 2020, Motorweek until April 3, 2021, Firing Line until June 18, 2021, and To the Contrary, the last program to still use it on new episodes; until November 6, 2022, and is retained on the 2020 national rebroadcasts of The Roosevelts: An Intimate History and The Talk: Race in America. The extended version of Photo Album was shown among the post-program content at the end of the fourth episode of The War when it was rebroadcast in 2020, even though the closing logo is the 2020 Documentaries ID.
11th ID (November 4, 2019-)[]
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Visuals:
- Selfies: A man and his girlfriend take a selfie together. It fades to another shot of them walking down a wooded path. On Washington Week, this fades in and out.
- Nature Walk: A woman is in a forest. She grabs onto a leaf on a tree, lets go of it and stares at it in awe. It cuts to another shot of her opening a notebook with a sketch of a leaf. Then it fades to another shot of the woman sitting down while the PBS logo and the letters come out from left side of the logo and shifts to the right.
- Backyard Party: A family is gathered in a backyard late at night following a party, watching a Nature episode being shown on a projector.
- Kayaking: Two women kayak down a river.
- All-American Memories: A woman labels a photo of a waterside mountain as "Beautiful ♥". It cuts to another shot of her pinning the photo on a map of the United States before admiring her handiwork.
- Guitar Lesson: A Latino man teaches a guitar chord to his son and shows his approval when he plays something on the guitar.
- Cooking: A Latina woman reads a recipe from a digital screen, and she and her daughter mix some of the ingredients in a bowl and knead some dough.
- Gaming: A black girl and her father play a PlayStation 4 game together.
- Family Dinner: Family and friends are gathered together in a kitchen. One man dices some vegetables and pours them into a pot on the stove. One woman prepares some pasta while the man is cooking the diced vegetables in the background.
- Planetarium: Children are in awe as they watch a show and view some other exhibits at a planetarium.
- Dancing: As onlookers watch backstage, a hip-hop dance troupe performs at a small-town auditorium, to great applause.
- Antiques (June 2020-): A group of women check out a pair of telephones in an antique shop.
- The Learning Experience (June 2020-): Children paint their hands with paintbrushes and press them against a white wall to make color art as their teacher watches.
- Earth Science (June 2020-): Two children catch a caterpillar and study it.
- Coffeehouse (June 2020-): Unknown.
- Volunteer Gardeners (June 2020-): Volunteers plant a tree in a park.
- Temptations (July 2020-): Unknown.
- Audiobooks (July 2020-): Unknown.
- Photography (July 2020-): Unknown.
- Unknown (July 2020-): Unknown.
- Generic: The P-Head circle zooms out against a PBS blue background and slides to the left, with "PBS" appearing in white, in the PBS Sans font, to the right.
Trivia: This logo incorporates elements of the 1971, 1993, 2002, and 2009 logos, with emphasis on blues, live-action variants, and a quick zoom-out through the eye of the P-head.
Variants:
- Opening Variant: Same as the generic variant, except somewhat quicker. On some programs, the logo will animate in reverse, with the opening shot of the program fading in within the P-head's eye.
- On the 2020 rebroadcast of The War, an in-credit version of the P-Head is used during the "Viewers Like You" funding spot, with a black P-Head in a white circle and the old serif PBS to its right.
- In lieu of the actual "Viewers Like You"/"Thank You" text, the P-Head animation, without zooming, is used for the "Viewers Like You" funding spot as a whole on Driving While Black.
Technique: Most variants are in live-action, while the PBS logo itself has simple 2D computer animation by Lippincott. [4]
Audio:
- Selfies: An upbeat piano rendition of the 2009 logo's theme. A male voice-over says, "You're watching PBS."
- Nature Walk: A piano piece followed by a guitar rendition of the 2009 logo's theme. A male voice-over says, "You're watching PBS."
- Backyard Party: Same as "Nature Walk". The extended version has the sound of a dog barking at the beginning.
- Kayaking: Same as "Nature Walk".
- All-American Memories: A held synth chord followed by a synth rendition of the 2009 logo's theme. A male voice-over says, "You're watching PBS."
- Guitar Lesson: Same as "Nature Walk".
- Cooking: Same as "Nature Walk".
- Gaming: Same as "Selfies".
- Family Dinner: Same as "Selfies".
- Planetarium: An orchestrated version of those "Selfies", "Gaming", and "Family Dinner" variants, but violins and brass instruments were added. A male voice-over says, "You're watching PBS."
- Dancing: Same as "Selfies", but with the sound of applause at the end. Sometimes, it uses the "All-American Memories" variant's music instead.
- Antiques: Similar to "Nature Walk", but driven by woodwinds instead. A male voice-over says, "You're watching PBS."
- The Learning Experience: Same as "Selfies".
- Earth Science: Same as "Nature Walk".
- Coffeehouse: Same as "Antiques".
- Volunteer Gardeners: Same as "Nature Walk".
- Temptations: Same as "Antiques".
- Audiobooks: Same as "Nature Walk".
- Photography: Same as "Nature Walk".
- Unknown: Same as "Antiques".
- Generic: Same as "Planetarium", but extended at the beginning with the first six notes of those "Selfies", "Gaming", and "Family Dinner" variants. When used for intermissions, the voice-over instead says, "This PBS program will return in a moment." This intermission variant premiered on November 14, 2019.
- Opening Variant: A shortened version of the "All-American Memories" variant's music, only using the modified 2009 theme (C-D-G-F#-power chord D).
Audio Variants: On PBS NewsHour, the audio on the "Selfies" variant fades out early on the last note.
Availability:
- This logo was formally announced on November 4, 2019, and premiered later that night on Antiques Roadshow's Extraordinary Finds.
- The opening variant premiered on Independent Lens, and the intermission variant premiered between the This Old House episode "Westerly: The Doors" and the Ask This Old House episode "Switch, Affordable Geothermal" as part of the November 14, 2019 edition of The This Old House Hour.
- The 2020 rebroadcast of The Roosevelts: An Intimate History instead uses the previous logo, though the extended bumpers appear among the post-episode content.
- It also plasters the previous logo on the final PBS broadcast of the final two episodes of Downton Abbey.
- Oddly enough, the 2021 National Memorial Day Concert has the generic variant at both ends, even in place of the opening variant.
- As of 2022, it is the current logo in use between programs on the satellite feed, even within the PBS Kids block.
Legacy: The logo design and corporate brand unification have garnered less favorable reactions compared to previous logos.
References[]
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