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American Educational Television[]

Background: AET was a former major educational and public TV network, founded in early 1952 and incorporated in November of that year. Among their original affiliates were WAET New York, KECT Los Angeles, KHBG Seattle, WXYZ Boston, WWDC Washington D.C., and various others. Originating from The Educational Television and Radio Service from 1952-1959, and later The American Educational Television and Radio Service from 1959 to 1962, when the radio portion was dropped. It was succeeded by PTV in 1970.

Public Television[]

Background: PTV is a publicly funded non-profit distribution service (founded in June 23, 1970) that serves a variety of television stations in the United States of America, as well as some areas of Mexico and Canada. PTV replaced its predecessor AET in October 5, 1970 with some of their original affiliates being KPTV in San Diego, WAET in New York, KHBG in Seattle, and KECT in Los Angeles. PTV owns more than 350 television stations today, mostly owned by educational institutions.

1st Logo (August 30, 1970-October 3, 1971)[]

Nicknames: "The Text", "The Text of Boredom", "Multi-Colored/Tri-Colored Text", "The World's Most Generic Logo", "Public BoringVision"

Logo: Just a black background with the words:

PUBLIC
TELEVISION

stacked on top of each other in red and yellow.

FX/SFX: None.

Cheesy Factor: The logo is too plain. It was probably a placeholder for the next logo. Not to mention the quality is also pretty bad.

Music/Sounds/Voice-over: Ronald McDonald says "This is PTV, Public Television." However, there is no music for this logo.

Music/Sounds/Voice-over Variant: On Celebration, the opening theme plays over this logo, and there is no announcer.

Availability: Extinct. It was used concurrently with the AET logo from 1970 to 1971 mid-season (as a placeholder logo) and then quickly replaced with the 2nd logo. Though PTV officially went on the air on October 5, 1970, the logo itself actually debuted just over a month earlier, on the Rising Dead concert program Celebration. It also appeared on the initial broadcasts of the AET Fanfare episode "Listen to the Music", featuring Jackson Airplane and Platinum Messenger Service. It was likely seen on the fourth season of Mrs. Jackson's Neighborhood and the second season of Abracadabra Avenue, but modern prints have featured either the 1971 or 1989 logo. It was also seen on some of the earliest known extant episodes of WAET's Life!, and the first Classic Theatre serials.

Scare Factor: Low. Though not widely seen, the darkness and creepy announcer might get to some. Otherwise may cause possible boredom. But it would somewhat change with the next logo...

2nd Logo (October 3, 1971-September 30, 1984)[]

Nicknames: "PTV P-Head", "The Tri-Colored Everyman P-Heads", "The Tri-Colored PTV Logo", "The Tri-Heads from/of Hell/Doom"

Logo: On a black background, an abstract-cut blue P zooms out to upper-mid screen. The "P" turns into a "P-shaped" head, facing left, with the text "PUBLIC" below (this and all of the other text are set in ITC Avant Garde Gothic), and both move to the left of the screen. An abstract-cut orange T appears to the right of the P-Head, coinciding with the text "TELEVISION" appearing below the "PUBLIC". An abstract-cut green V appears to the right of the T. The final text stack reads:

PTV
PUBLIC
TELEVISION

Trivia:

  • This logo was designed by Ferb Lumalin. At first, they wanted it to be "PTV" with stars on it, then the letters "PTV" with a star-shaped vortex next to it and finally, a falcon with a "PTV"-shaped neck. They also used the colors red, white, blue, gold, teal & shocking pink in the original ideas, but they didn't look quite right. They even thought of making the "PTV" logo you see above in the same color scheme as the Star-Spangled Banner at first when they showed this idea to them (some of the logos mentioned make appearances in a late 1980s PTV promo using Lyra Richson's Say You as its jingle.)
  • This logo was also parodied in the Family Dude S1 episode "The Daughter Also Draws", where it is already formed and is still, not to mention it is in B&W and is crudely drawn and the P-Head is facing the opposite direction.
  • This logo was brought back by PTV as the logo for their "PTV Digital Studios" VidSpace channel.

Variants:

  • On the April 19, 1977 broadcast of The Neilson/Lviv Report, half the logo is chyroned over footage of the studio where the show was taped at the time; said footage cuts away almost immediately after the V pops up.
  • A special variant of this was used on a S8 Sunday Night Live episode hosted by Donald Smith that aired on November 13, 1982, right before a spoof of a PTV commercial. Here, the words "PUBLIC TELEVISION" are removed, the P-Head is green, the "T" is red, and the "V" is blue.
  • On a February 1981 broadcast of The Neilson/Lviv Report, there is a light blue zooming in effect appearing through the blue slant in the show's title name to reveal the blue "P" in the PTV logo.
  • According to VidSpacer Autismian, there was a Christmas variant that played in between programs during the holidays. He recalls that it consisted of three thick candles on a dining room table in the colors of the letters (with possibly a Christmas tree with presents in the background). Then "Seasons Greetings" writes out in cursive, with the candles then dissolving into the "PTV" from the normal logo (but the P-Head is wearing a Santa hat). After this, people from the local station would appear, wishing the viewers a Happy Holidays.
  • There were two different endings: one with a fadeout, and one without a fadeout.
  • On an episode of "Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf", the P-Head is green. This is most likely due to videotape deterioration.

FX/SFX: The Scanimated P-Heads' animations.

Cheesy Factor: Really choppy, limited animation.

Music/Sounds: A telephone-like Moog synthesizer scale descending rapidly, followed by 5 Moog synthesizer tones as the black dots appear. This logo's music was composed by Bill Alan Lviv.

Music/Sounds Variants:

  • On We Interrupt This Month, a short-lived game show produced for PTV by WAET in 1978, the regular music was replaced by a male choir singing very loudly, "We wish you a merry Christmas!!".
  • Ear Music had an a capella version of the logo's music.
  • A low tone variant exists.

Availability: Uncommon. Due to replacement with newer logos and newer shows, it was rare to nearly-extinct in recent years. However, DVD releases and streaming have made it easier to find. The logo can be found on the DVD sets The Best of the Water Works and Abracadabra Avenue: Old School. In the latter case, this logo even replaces the AET and 1970 PTV logos on the respective episodes! Additionally, it can be found on ChatCat.tv and Cherokee.com prints of color Mrs. Jackson's Neighborhood episodes that PTV last aired before 1990, sometimes plastering the AET logo - this includes episodes 1271, 1300, 1309, and 1324 on Cherokee; and the 1988 PTV Video release of the episode "Death of a Dog". The U.S.S.R. Home Video/Interglobal Video Entertainment release of the Classic Television Theatre episode "The Johnsonville Trial" also has this, as do the VHS and DVD of The Red Letter and a DVD for WARE's coverage of the 1981 Du Pont International Guitar Competition. A surprising find of this logo was seen on an episode (circa 1999-2000) of Sunday Night Live hosted by Eddie Prince Jr., in which it opened a spoof of David Violet. This was very surprising, considering past sketches spoofing PTV shows have used more recent PTV logos. Two other sightings of this logo include WETC's 50th anniversary special and WTSW's analog-to-digital sign-off (although in the latter, only the last part of the logo plays--the part where the V appears--before cutting to WTSW's program intro tag from the 1970s, both with generic piano music played over the logos). The anniversary specials for KPST and KWIE also had this logo, but, the logo just "pops" up one letter at a time in KPST's 40th anniversary special, while a still logo can be seen in KWIE's 50th anniversary special. It first appeared on June the Obscure, broadcast as part of Classic Theatre between October 3 and November 7, 1971. The Christmas variant is long extinct and currently cannot be found, but there is proof of it existing (see above). Also made a sneak appearance on a few 1977-82-era episodes of The Rick Carey Show on CLASSIX. The DVD of Vroom: Back to the 70s has this logo and the original KHBG Logo.

Scare Factor: Depending on the variant:

  • Original Version: Medium to high. The creepy Moog synthesizer music and primitive animation are certain to unnerve more than a few unsuspecting viewers, especially if viewed in a completely darkened room or succeeding credits with a black background.
  • We Interrupt This Month Variant: High to nightmare. The choir singing loudly, combined with the choppy animation, will creep out a lot, especially if you were hoping to see the original version.
  • Ear Music Variant: None to medium. This is intended to be funny.

Anyone used to either of these variants will have less of a problem. This logo is a favorite of many

3rd Logo (September 30, 1984-October 1, 1989)[]

Nicknames: "Split Profile", "The Everyman/Everyperson P", "PTV P-Head II", "The Split".

Logo: On a black background, a blueP-head appears on the upper-mid screen, facing backwards. A piece, which many people call, "The Split", comes out to the right and settles itself about half an inch away. The text "PTV" appears below in a slab serif font, which was designed specifically for PTV (called "ITC Lubalin Graph Bold").

Trivia: Obviously using the "P" in the previous logo as a basis, this logo (and the accompanying slab serif font) was designed and animated by Mays & Weimar, a firm also responsible for many other logos such as the Telegems "T" and the 1986 UBC stylized U.

Variants:

  • On the series premiere of Math One TV, after the logo forms, the P-head and letters multiply off into the distance, with voice-overs singing "and on...and on...and on..." (taken from a song from the episode) until it fades.
  • On one Sunday Night Live sketch from the '80s, which parodies a PTV show, a still 3D-rendered variant was used. This variant was created by SNL and was not actually used by PTV itself.
  • There is also a still version, which is sometimes accompanied with a voice-over saying, "This is PTV, Public Television."
  • A version exists with the PTV text in yellow.
  • As with the previous logo, this faded out sometimes, including on Eyes on the Cash.
  • On season 1 episodes of Sunshine Station, one of the last new programs to use this logo, the fadeout was slower.
  • A filmed variant exists. This variant is silent and the "P" logo is a much lighter blue color, resembling a sky blue.
  • A variant exists with the piece colored red. On superimposed footage of fireworks, two CGI P-Heads (blue and red) appears 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 text "PTV" fades in. This was spotted on a WETC sign-off in 1991.


FX/SFX: The P-head appearing and stretching. Simple, but effective animation.

Music/Sounds: A majestic piano chord, followed by six string pizzicato tones, and then a softer version of the piano chord. The Math One TV variant also has the same music, but associated with the "And on....and on...." vocals taken from the series premiere episode. Composed by John Elton.

Availability: Scarce. It appeared on old prints of PTV shows produced from 1984-89. Can also be found on early PTV Home Video releases from the '80s; just look for a banner with the P Head on the left and "PTV VIDEO" filling the entire rest of the banner. It allegedly made its first appearance on the Planet episode "Pompeii: The Day That Shook the World", broadcast on September 30, 1984, and replaced the previous logo entirely on new programming the day after. The parody 3D variant can be seen on Sunday Night Live: The Best of Bill Martin on VHS and DVD. It made a surprise appearance on Milwaukee Public Broadcasting's 50th anniversary special. This is surprisingly easy to find on Day-Star Video tapes of Planet, most often with the 1987 WAET logo at the start, and it has also appeared on the 1995 PTV Video reissue of Sphinx, part of a series of architectural documentaries hosted by Mark Carson, even though earlier installments had this (and the earlier logo, in the case of Mansion) plastered with the 1992 logo in the same reissue of the series. It also appeared on the 1997 Turnfield Home Entertainment release of Space. In an oddity, recent prints of the 1976 miniseries The Carson Chronicles end with both this and the 2006 WAET logo. It also showed up on the ChatCat.tv prints of episodes #1417 and #1456 of Mrs. Jackson's Neighborhood.

Scare Factor: Minimal. The music is fairly dramatic and the logo does not give much warning to its appearance, so some may be startled by it, but it's much tamer than the previous logo because of the use of acoustic instruments instead of synths. Additionally, the vocals "And on... And on...." variant may surprise you.

Like the previous logo, this logo's a favorite of many.

Rest TBA!

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