Scary/creepy closing logos

[aspric]

I know this was discussed earlier, but the thread was closed due to inactivity. Some logos that didn’t necessarily scare me, but at least mildly creeped me out include:

Viacom “V of Doom”. This is from my pre-literate years, so I didn’t know that was a letter V zooming out. What I saw then was this blocky thing flying out in a menacing manner, with that ominous sounding music. Even when the screen went black, you could still hear the echo from the tympani roll.

PBS 1971-84. I found that weird synth music rather unnerving. It didn’t help that we had a refrigerator that made a sound that perfectly matched the reverb from that musical sting. I remember many nights laying awake in bed in the middle of the night when the refrigerator kicked on, forcing that creepy earworm into my head.

Lorimar “Orange Line of Doom”. Something about the dark nature of that logo didn’t sit too well with me. That music was reminiscent of a haunted basement with the lights out.

The Screen Gems so-nicknamed “S From Hell” didn’t scare me, but it was weird enough to get my attention. This also predated my literacy, so I asked my mother what the heck was going on on the TV, so she explained what it was. I don’t remember seeing it’s replacement, the CPT Pretzel outside of clips of it on YouTube. But I did like that logo’s replacement, the orange half-circle with the sunburst. It always made me think of summer.

So there’s my 2 cents about the subject.

 

[grey_dan]

Not a closer but a station ID… Back in the late 80s, the Weather Channel had a series of IDs where the logo would come scrolling in on its side from the front. The background was usually a soothing scene like a covered bridge or downhill skiing, accompanied by soft jazz music (in typical classic TWC fashion). One variation had a thunderstorm background with an electronic-infused version of their jingle at the time, but it was probably intended to be more cool-looking than scary.

Then there was this rather unsettling take on the campaign, complete with more ominous-sounding music.

 

[bmasters1981]

The Screen Gems so-nicknamed “S From Hell” didn’t scare me, but it was weird enough to get my attention. This also predated my literacy, so I asked my mother what the heck was going on on the TV, so she explained what it was. I don’t remember seeing it’s replacement, the CPT Pretzel outside of clips of it on YouTube. But I did like that logo’s replacement, the orange half-circle with the sunburst. It always made me think of summer.

How did CPT's Sunburst/Abstract Torch make you think of summer? (Great point, BTW.)

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

PBS 1971-84. I found that weird synth music rather unnerving.

I was a young kid during the use of the synth music and it never bothered me. Actually I kind of fondly remember it, even though sometimes when I was really young it made me sad. Sad as in "Sesame Street is over!" (or Mr. Rogers). It would even be worse if it was an episode where they didn't have as funny of a Bert and Ernie skit as other days.

Also any replays of black and white TV shows--especially if they were clips of old soap operas with organ music, especially the 1956-67 ATWT B&W logo, unnerved me as a kid. Sometimes they can still give me goosebumps seeing them today on YouTube, or they would be something I wouldn't want to see while in a darkened room.

 

[Mikey Radio]

For some reason as a kid I always through it was a bit eerie when watching our local stations (NBC and CBS affiliates) sign off for the night at around 12:30 or 1 a.m. They'd usually run a generic graphic in the background while one of our news guys recorded a script that began with "We now conclude our broadcast day....." And would go on to give their studio and transmitter street addresses, frequency and transmitter power information, and explain what time their broadcasts would resume the next morning. That would be followed by the National Anthem, then color bars and tone for a few minutes before they switched off the transmitter. When the color bars went out and the snow appeared once the transmitter was off, for some reason it always creeped me out a bit.

 

[crainbebo]

The V of Doom and the old PBS IDs from the early '80s don't freak me out...I could see how it would scare some younger folks at that time, especially how it looked on an old console TV.

The three that gave me the heebie-jebbies were:

The WGBH violin stinger. The original 7-second version (think back to NOVA and This Old House episodes of the '70s and early '80s) was even worse. I think the TV station itself (ch 2 Boston) was/is using similar IDs at the top of the hour, but that may have changed when they dropped the 'W' from the IDs in 2020.

Klasky-Csupo, the robot-looking face that appeared in the logos on later Rugrats episodes and in the theatrical films, along with As Told By Ginger, Wild Thornberrys, etc. PURE nightmare fuel.

THX freaked me out as a kid too, not as much anymore. But before a Disney movie began on a VHS, more often than not, the THX 'Broadway' logo came on after the Feature Presentation slide. Even though it had that freaky noise, I was a little more tolerable to the Tex version where the THX stops working, and the robot has to work on it. It's amusing. I never saw it on VHS tapes, only on DVDs ('Cars' comes to mind).

For some reason, I wasn't a fan of Harpo Productions either, where a cartoon Oprah Winfrey pulls the wagon that has the Harpo letters on it. My parents often watched Oprah Winfrey's talk show when I was little. I don't remember if it was the jingle or that cartoon version of Oprah that I didn't like.

 

[anotherguyTN]

I posted this on an earlier thread but here it is again:

The logos usually didn't scare me as a kid but the loud flares of music that some of them had did scare me like the ones on some CBS shows like this:

I was old enough later that the logos with bad synthesizer music didn't scare me but a lot of them were irritating.

 

[Route66Fan]

As a kid, I was afraid of the PBS logos that they used between 1984-1998, I wasn't around, at the time, to see the 1971-84 logo so I didn't see that one until about 10-15 years ago. I think that the reason I was afraid of the logos was because of the dark backgrounds, music & effects. When they introduced the first "Circle P head" logo, with people holding it up, in 1998, I wasn't afraid of it anymore.
On a related note, I found this video about the making of the 1993-96 PBS logo:

 

[gr8oldies]

For some reason as a kid I always through it was a bit eerie when watching our local stations (NBC and CBS affiliates) sign off for the night at around 12:30 or 1 a.m. They'd usually run a generic graphic in the background while one of our news guys recorded a script that began with "We now conclude our broadcast day....." And would go on to give their studio and transmitter street addresses, frequency and transmitter power information, and explain what time their broadcasts would resume the next morning. That would be followed by the National Anthem, then color bars and tone for a few minutes before they switched off the transmitter. When the color bars went out and the snow appeared once the transmitter was off, for some reason it always creeped me out a bit.

Let's see, Sermonette, detailed sign-off and the National Anthem recording from 1962

 

[aspric]

How did CPT's Sunburst/Abstract Torch make you think of summer? (Great point, BTW.)

Just the vibe it put out. The sunburst design itself, the warm color scheme, and the music.

 

[aspric]

For some reason as a kid I always through it was a bit eerie when watching our local stations (NBC and CBS affiliates) sign off for the night at around 12:30 or 1 a.m. They'd usually run a generic graphic in the background while one of our news guys recorded a script that began with "We now conclude our broadcast day....." And would go on to give their studio and transmitter street addresses, frequency and transmitter power information, and explain what time their broadcasts would resume the next morning. That would be followed by the National Anthem, then color bars and tone for a few minutes before they switched off the transmitter. When the color bars went out and the snow appeared once the transmitter was off, for some reason it always creeped me out a bit.

Did you stare at that white dot that always showed up after turning off the TV? There was something so eerie about that dot.

 

[anotherguyTN]

Even though I was definitely grown up at the time of the analog TV shutdown it was creepy to me to see them on some stations with signoff videos and test patterns that hadn't been seen in years. This is another video from Oddity Archive about that. The signoff of WNBC New York at about 17:50 was especially creepy:

 

[bmasters1981]

Just the vibe it put out. The sunburst design itself, the warm color scheme, and the music.

All that, and the process of how the Sunburst was condensed into that crescent w/the Abstract Torch-- remarkably well-done for the time, and that makes it, IMO, one of the best logos/insignias/identities of all time for the television operations of a major Hollywood studio.

And here's a great example of that, from that short-lived 1978 CBS action series The American Girls, w/Priscilla Barnes, Debra Clinger and David Spielberg (CPT was behind this):

 

[aspric]

The WGBH violin stinger. The original 7-second version (think back to NOVA and This Old House episodes of the '70s and early '80s) was even worse. I think the TV station itself (ch 2 Boston) was/is using similar IDs at the top of the hour, but that may have changed when they dropped the 'W' from the IDs in 2020.

Ooh, I forgot to mention that one. The synth "music" (I use the term loosely) sounds like what you might hear in a horror movie scene where someone is being abducted by aliens. It was probably designed to sound futuristic at the time. What doesn't help is it's appearance on NOVA. In school we watched a recording of NOVA about fetal development, with creepy footage of fetuses throughout. That's what I mentally associated the WGBH logo with.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

If one wants a recent example of scary logos it's the Nexstar logo prior to them taking over Tribune Broadcasting. Note this logo was seen on KRON4 right after their newscasts in 2018 as a result of Nexstar taking over Media General at the time.

 

[danderson6500]

I was a young kid during the use of the synth music and it never bothered me. Actually I kind of fondly remember it, even though sometimes when I was really young it made me sad. Sad as in "Sesame Street is over!" (or Mr. Rogers). It would even be worse if it was an episode where they didn't have as funny of a Bert and Ernie skit as other days.

Also any replays of black and white TV shows--especially if they were clips of old soap operas with organ music, especially the 1956-67 ATWT B&W logo, unnerved me as a kid. Sometimes they can still give me goosebumps seeing them today on YouTube, or they would be something I wouldn't want to see while in a darkened room.

Sometimes i get unnerved hearing the organ music on clips of Another World from the late 60s....

The one logo i hated though, from watching On Scene: Emergency Response as a child, was the Group W logo (which always followed the 4MN Productions logo). And i think i saw it on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles too.

My favorite one though, was Transworld International, Four Point Entertianment and Samuel Goldwyn Company from American Gladiators, always accompanied by Bill Conti's awesome theme. Hearing those closing notes (also used to introduce Mike Adamle and his co-host) were awesome in my book.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

The 1980's RKO General productions logo that appears after KHJ-TV 9 local programming. Note other RKO owned stations have used this too like WOR/WWOR-TV in transition stages and WHBQ-TV.