List of PBS logos
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PBS idents are the television idents used by the US Public Broadcasting Service. Programs distributed to its member stations end with an identification including the network's name and logo and often a voiceover, known in the industry as a "system cue". Prior to 1984 the logo was usually displayed on-screen for eight seconds; since then the logo has appeared on-screen for five seconds.
National Educational Television idents
1st ident
Introduced in 1962, this was National Educational Television's best known ident.
A red block sets down from the left side of the screen, then, a yellow block rises up from the center of the screen and a blue block sets down from the right side of the screen. Afterwards, the blocks turn into the letters "N-E-T" before coming closer to each other. Then a man's voice from 1962-1969 would say "This is N-E-T, the National Educational Television network."
As he says this, the words 'National Educational Television' appears above the NET logo and bends to form a roof with an antenna on it, which connects the T. This logo was used on Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers Neighborhood (with the latter, the logo was superimposed into a building within the model set at the beginning and end of each program).
The music was a choppy synth composed by Eric Siday, who also did the synth for the Screen Gems ident (referred to by some as the "S from Hell") and for CBS's color programming ident.
2nd ident
This identity is rather rare, and only known to exist in black and white. It was used in 1966. First, gray dots appear and disappear rapidly. A white circle is drawn around the dots and several curved vertical and horizontal lines cover the circle to create an image of a globe. A small fire appears in the globe. Several white lines appear under the globe to make the letters "NET". The globe ultimately winds up on top of the "T". The music playing in the background during the animation is industrious-sounding. When the animation is complete, an announcer says, "This is N-E-T, the National Educational Television network."
3rd ident (Color)
The color version of the first ident followed the same principle, except that the announcer would say "This is N-E-T, the Public Television Network." As this is said, a blue line (which replaced the words above "N-E-T") was drawn above the letters, and was bent to form its usual position. This was used from 1969 until the forced merger with New York station WNDT-TV in October 1970, officially disbanding the network.
Main network idents
Note on logo dates: The given ending dates are only the time they ceased to be current; in some cases, they have appeared on television concurrently with later logos on reruns of older programs.
1st ident
On October 5, 1970, Macdonald Carey (known as Dr. Tom Horton on Days of Our Lives) would say "This is PBS, the Public Broadcasting Service." This ident served the network for its first year. The picture was simply a still with the words PUBLIC, BROADCASTING, and SERVICE, set in Helvetica and displayed in red, yellow, and blue, respectively. During this ident's time, it served as a filler for the NET ident until the second PBS ident was introduced.
2nd ident
On October 4, 1971, PBS introduced the long-running "people" ident, which still serves the network today. This logo starts with a blue P on the upper-mid screen which moves back. Suddenly, it turns into a "P-head" (with the face facing the left direction), the word PUBLIC appears below it, and both move to the left of the screen. Following it is an orange B, 2 black dots appear within the B, and the word BROADCASTING appears below PUBLIC, coinciding with the second dot. Then, a green S comes to the far right, 2 black dots appear within it, and the word SERVICE appears below BROADCASTING, coinciding with the second dot. The text is set in Avant Garde Gothic. This ident, created by Paul Alan Levi and the longest to date, was arguably the most infamous because its choppy animation and rather sudden synthesized music often frightened young children. The music began with a rapidly descending, telephone-like scale, followed by five Moog tones. This was the first ident with no announcer.
The logo was used from all PBS programming until the third PBS ident in 1984. Yet still, many reruns of programs during the second ident's era still remained in many stations until the 1990s when the ident was scrapped on all programs past and present in favor of the fourth ident (see below).
It would later be parodied in 2000 in a Saturday Night Live episode (hosted by Freddie Prinze, Jr.) episode introducing a Charlie Rose parody. (It should be noted, however, that this ident was no longer in use when Charlie Rose's PBS show debuted.) However, the logo was slightly altered with colors resembling "Human skin colors".
This logo is retained on the Best of The Electric Company and Sesame Street: Old School DVD sets. On the first Sesame Street: Old School set, this logo can be found following the first (1969) and second season (1970) debuts, even though this logo did not exist at those times, and in 1969's case, PBS did not yet start up.
3rd ident
On September 3, 1984, the logo introduced the "split identity" format. A purple P head, just like the one in the previous logo but turned backwards, starts the ident. Then, a piece of it gets copied to the right to form the new logo. The letters PBS come below it in Lubalin Graph[verification needed]. The music (composed by Jonathan Elias) accompanying this logo is a majestic piano chord accompanied by some pizzicato tones, then a softer version of the piano chord. Again, there is no announcer.
- A special version of the ident, with the P-heads in a dark purple color, was used at the end of the first episode of Square One TV in the late 80s, where the P head and letters multiplied and went into the distance with the vocals "And on, and on, and on..." This was to tie in with the song Infinity, which was featured in that particular episode. This logo was often annoying to viewers.
- Another version was made, where the letters PBS were in yellow, instead of white, so as to enhance the color quality of the identity.
4th ident
The logo was remodeled to its fourth format on October 5, 1989; the first to implement computer-generated imagery. In the ident, the P-head first used in the previous logo appears by rotating from the left edge of the screen, leaving a trail, then filling the screen. After the logo trail finishes rotating, a group of five lines streak across the bottom of the screen leaving behind the PBS text in very small letters on the lower-left corner. The music consists of a bell string, followed by actor Liam Neeson's voice saying "This is PBS".
- In an alternate version of the ident, the P-head appears just by fading in with the PBS text. And no lines streak across the screen. So it is just a still. The same music, as in the ident's original version, is used. Once again, Neeson says "This is PBS".
5th ident
Introduced circa 1992, the fifth PBS identity might appear on prints from local PBS stations, but is otherwise rather rare. The animated variant has a glass circle appearing and disappearing with faces of various people before being consumed by the eye of the P-head zooming out. The P-head is orange in an orange environment similar to the pink environment of the alternate, and the familiar "PBS" text spins in, white and in typewriter. Perhaps in a backlash against the proliferation of computer-generated animated IDs, this version was created traditionally on film. The P-head is frosted glass, the PBS text is rotated into place by rods beneath a rostrum. A non-animated variant appeared on a few shows, such as Triumph of the Nerds. The music, composed by Peter Fish, is jazzy, with a female voice singing in the background. The announcer this time, Maximilian Schell, says "This is P-B-S". On the non-animated variant seen on Triumph of the Nerds, the announcer is different (the still variant's announcer being Liam Neeson). Additionally, this logo was the last to be seen on children's' shows as well as adult programming (although the next ident occasionally made appearances on the 1996 television shows Arthur and Adventures From The Book of Virtues); after in August of 1993, PBS Kids programs utilized special ident of their own. A short featurette about the filming of this ident was aired on some PBS stations to fill airtime.
6th ident
The PBS ident was revised in September 2, 1996. Now only seen as the ending ident of Adventures from the Book of Virtues, its composition now included of a variety of objects: A telescope rotates in the lower left corner; a globe of the Earth appears at upper right; while at center a framed windowpane zooms in. The various objects fade away to reveal the P-head, which is initially yellow-green pigment with the right section colored blue. These colors change to blue and green, respectively, while the "PBS" text fades in below and fades to yellow. A female announcer, Lauren Bacall, says "This is P-B-S". She is the only announcer to reprise her job for the following logo (7th logo). The logo dropped in 1998.
7th ident
The first well-known ident in years was the seventh PBS ident, used from November 1, 1998 to September 1, 2002. Its animation begins with a man or woman holding up a round disc containing the PBS P-head. As he/she holds the disc in front of his/her face, several superimposed acrobats jump and somersault around the logo. The letters "PBS" fade in at right, while the PBS website, "www.pbs.org", in smaller letters appeared below. This was the first PBS logo to include the network's web address, as well as the first to be made in a version with a 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio for HDTV programming, and is sometimes still seen today. The accompanying music is a world music/new age piece, with Bacall once again saying "This is P-B-S". People who have held the round disc with the PBS P-head include Jocelyn Loewen, Jake Martin, Kyle Hebert, Lynne Thigpen, Michelle Ruff, Chris Rock, Steve Burns, Gong Li, and even Bacall herself. Sometimes, the announcer will say "You're watching your public television station, P-B-S."
8th ident
The eighth and current PBS ident is quite different from all of its predecessors. First appeared on September 2, 2002,it features live-action footage and has many variants, including "Young People" (voiceover by Edie Mirman) "Performers" (voiceover by David Kaye), "Flowers" (voiceover by H rren), "Daddy and Son" (voiceover by Kyle Eastwood), "Cowboy" (voiceover by David Kaye), and "Generations" (voiceover by Edie Mirman). The voiceover is now one of these four people saying "We are P-B-S," or occasionally (in the case of "Flowers" and "Cowboy"), "I'm P-B-S." It was introduced in 2002 and is still being used.
There is also a version that uses a purplish-bluish background instead of the original shaggy brown curtains. The words "Perspective. Analysis. Understanding." zoom in briefly and fade out, then "Be More" scans to the right, followed by the circle P-heads and "PBS" in white. A voiceover says, "This is P-B-S." This variant can only be seen on Frontline.
PBS Kids idents
Prior to 1993, PBS Kids television programs used the same PBS idents seen on adult-oriented programming. Starting that year, however, a new ident was commissioned specifically for children's programming that consisted of three P-heads (affectionately called P pals by the PBS staff), one of them blue, another one orange, and the last one green, complete with appendages drawn as a cartoon. (In actuality, the P-heads are in different colors that change throughout the ident and eventually stop on blue, orange, and green, respectively.) The P-heads dance and sing "This is P-B-S! Hooh!" on this ident, then stop when a dog (also shaped as a P-head) walks by the lower portion of the screen and barks "Arf!" and gives the ledaer a balloon. At the same time, the blue P-head adlibs and his red hat flies off of his head for a moment, then drops back on his head. The "PBS" text appears in black at lower left, and the music is a rock/pop tune. This was used on programming such as "Barney & Friends", "Lamb Chop's Play-Along", "Arthur", "Adventures from the Book of Virtues", Mr. Rogers Neighborhood", "Reading Rainbow", "Bill Nye, the Science Guy", "Kidsongs", "Kratts' Creatures", "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?", "Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?", "Zoom", "Wallace And Gromit", "Groundling Marsh", "The Puzzle Place", "Sesame Street", "Teletubbies", "The Magic School Bus", "Noddy", "Theodore Tugboat", "Wimzie's House", "Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends" and "Shining Time Station"
After that the logo was at PTV Park, this logo started with the camera panning down from the sky down into PTV Park, in the background, we hear two kids' voices saying, "Hi, you're in PTV Park on...". We then zoom in on the PBS Kids 1993 logo playing in a short version.
There was also a "surprise!" variant featuring the P pals from the standard ident changing colors (no blue is used in this ident), and they all have O-shaped mouths (not like the standard ident, which only used one O-shaped mouth for the blue P pal, and that was when he adlibs) for the entire time. There is no music, save for noisemakers and Big Bird and many other characters from PBS Kids TV shows shouting "SURPRISE!" in unison, followed by silly laughter. Once again, the left P pal's red hat flies off his head for a moment, then drops back on his head. This was only used spontaneously.
Just after the 6th PBS ident in 1996, this logo added an E/I balloon.
PBS Kids circle logo idents
The identity for PBS children's' programs was revised on May 16, 1999, coinciding with the establishment of a 24-hour PBS Kids feed, and made even more dissimilar from the regular ident as well. The animation begins with a child character (either a girl named Dot, or a boy named Dash) with stylized features and green skin taking part in an activity or simply running into view. When the character's face is close up, a circle zooms out around the head while the letters "PBS" appear above in a thought bubble. The completed circle is set against an animated background of vertical lines. At the end, there is a sung voiceover saying "Doink! P-B-S Kids!" There are several variations of this ident.
PBS Kids GO! idents
Prior to 2004, all PBS Kids programs used the same series idents. Starting in the fall of that year, however, another series of new idents were commissioned for use on programming with a focus on telling children to be active, which consists of a blocks motif and several kids doing several forms of exercise. At the end, the PBS Kids GO! logo appears, with a simple voiceover at the end, a boy saying "GO!". Therefore, this makes this the first PBS ident that had a voiceover not mentioning PBS. As with other current PBS idents, there are several variations.
PBS Kids Sprout idents
PBS Kids Sprout got its first ident in 2005, which consists of a green flower with the words PBS Kids written on it and the word "sprout" under it in children's handwriting.
Miss Lori and Hooper
Within this block, there are many different idents after each program. They do not include the PBS Kids boy or girl as of September 1999, except for the last few seconds when Dash is shown in the PBS Kids logo. Some include still pictures of real children, but do occasionally move a little bit. These idents usually have a general theme, such as dinosaurs, bees, a picnic, or someone taking pictures with a camera.
PBS Home Video idents
When PBS Home Video was distributed by PBS and Pacific Arts (1990-1994) or Turner Entertainment (1994-2004) (now part of Time Warner), the first distinctive ident used on PBS Home Video titles was the large 3-D glass P-head from the 1989 PBS television ident, on the center of the screen, first seen for PBS Home Video in 1990. Initially, a cloudy sky pattern fills the ident against a black background, which fades to a blue P-head against a cloudy sky background. An announcer says "The following presentation is from PBS Home Video" afterward, the screen fades out and cuts to any of the above post-1984 idents. The ident (minus the announcer) would repeat itself at the end of the videotape.
In 1998, the ident was revised to: a blue circle, a green circle, and a red circle (each containing a P-head). The circles merge together and turn purple once they touch and turn black when "PBS HOME VIDEO" ("PBS DVD" on DVD releases) fades in.
Coinciding with PBS Home Video's distribution changing to Paramount in 2004, a new PBS ident was created: It begins on an ethereal blue/purple/red CGI background, then the PBS logo appears within a circle with "Be more" on the left and "PBS" on the right with "Home Video" on the bottom.
External links
- Screen captures of PBS idents past and present, as well as footage of vintage promos (currently down)
- Last known good version through Internet Archive's Wayback Machine
- TeamFX2000 - Representations/descriptions/information on all PBS idents