ABC Video (US)

Main

Credits

Descriptions by
Gilblitz112

Captures by
Eric S., snelfu, Stephen Cezar and Doctorine Dark

Editions by
Henrynguye5

Video captures courtesy of
DudeThatLogo & Michel's Tech Reviews

Background

ABC Video Enterprises, Inc. was a home video and cable television unit of the ABC Television Network, formed in July 1979. The group bought a controlling stake in ESPN in the early 1980s, as well as being partners in Lifetime, A&E, and a joint venture with Westinghouse to form the Satellite News Channel (SNC), which was later bought by Ted Turner to cut the competition with his CNN network. In 1993, a year after ABC's new home video unit ABC Video was formed, it was re-purposed as "Capital Cities/ABC Cable and International Broadcasting, Inc.", which later became Disney-ABC International Television. In 1996, Buena Vista Home Video began distributing ABC tapes after Capital Cities/ABC merged with The Walt Disney Company. ABC Video shut down in 1999; the ABC name would return to home entertainment releases of ABC shows in 2008 when distribution of ABC shows on DVD and Blu-Ray were transferred from Buena Vista to Lionsgate Home Entertainment.

1st Logo (1980-1982)

Logo: TBA

Technique: TBA

Music/Sounds/Voiceover: TBA

Availability: Extinct. Seen at the end of The Miracle of Lake Placid and at the start of The Greatest Fights of the '70s. Don't expect to find this on The Horse That Played Center Field or anything released by Magnetic Video Corporation.

2nd Logo (1982-1987, 1991)

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Logo: On a black background, we see the black words "ABC VIDEO" with white sparkling outlines zoom out and connect together. Afterwards, one of the outlines' sparkles, between A (in ABC) and V (in VIDEO), shines, connecting the A in "ABC" to the V in "VIDEO", and the words become bronze. Then the green words "ENTERPRISES, INC.", sandwiched by green lines, appears at the bottom of "VIDEO" via a wipe effect in rays of light. The bronze words "ABC VIDEO" sparkle.

Variant: A filmed variant with pink words exists on The Ghost of Thomas Kempe.

Technique: The sparkles, the words zooming out and becoming bronze, the rays of light.

Music/Sounds: A humming sound when the words zoom out, followed by a loud synth trumpet crescendo when the words turn bronze and the green words appear, closing with a single drumbeat. A silent version exists, as well.

Availability: Rare. At the time, ABC licensed its film and TV library to various companies for VHS/Laserdisc/Betamax release, such as Embassy Home Entertainment, Golden Book Video, CBS/Fox Video, Warner Home Video, and Republic Pictures Home Video (to name a few). The best way to find this logo is looking for an ABC Video Enterprises print logo on the cover. Re-releases put out via Promotional Concept Group Inc. in the late 1980s-early 1990s will most likely use the 3rd logo instead. The silent version can be found at the end of the Playhouse Video release of Here Come the Littles!. It's retained at the start of Echo Bridge Home Entertainment releases of ABC-owned titles, like Home for the Holidays and Huckleberry Finn. Outside of VHS releases, this appeared on Carlton Select airings of Moonlighting (this despite the Buena Vista International Television logo's presence at the end), True Movies airings of No Place to Run and The Kansas City Massacre, Talking Pictures TV airings of The Great Houdini, a January 23rd 1996 AMC airing of The Wild Heart, and the last few frames of this logo were accidentally kept intact on a DHX Junior print of The Littles episode The Spirits of the Night. It may also appear on older prints of ABC made for TV movies.

Legacy: Seeing as ABC's circle logo appeared on the company's print logo (where it was placed on top of the ABC Video Enterprises logo), it's a bit strange that it didn't appear on-screen.

3rd Logo (1986-1993)

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Logo: A large, blue ABC logo zooms out to the center on a space background with the text "Capital Cities/ABC Video Enterprises Inc." below it. Then, when the logo's in place, a comet streaks past the text below and changes it to "ABC Distribution Company" while the ABC logo above changes into an Earth globe. Sometimes, a copyright date appears below it.

Variants:

• A filmed version of this logo exists.
• On some made-for-TV movies, there's a still variant with a different space background and the text below is "Capital Cities/ABC Video Productions Inc.". Below that is "in association with" in yellow fading in. Lady Boss uses a filmed version of this, albeit with the IAW text already there.
• A short version, seen on the TV movie My Son Johnny (and possibly others) starts with the comet streaking.

Technique: CGI. This logo uses bump mapping, something not commonly used in the time period.

Music/Sounds: A majestic, space-like synth fanfare. The ending theme of any show/movie may also be heard as well.

Music/Sounds Variant: On rare occasions, the logo is silent.

Availability: Rare. Can be seen on some old videotapes of TV shows and movies produced and distributed by ABC. It made an appearance at the end of Sundance TV's airings of the My So-Called Life episode "Life of Brian" before the 1998 Buena Vista International Television logo. It also appears on a few episodes on the said show's DVD releases. It also makes an appearance at the beginning of the 2006 Anchor Bay UK DVD release of The Secret Garden and also at the beginning of the Kino Lorber DVD release of Young Pioneers. It may also appear on DVD releases of old ABC TV movies from Kino Lorber and Echo Bridge, like Superdome. This was seen at the end of a 2000s OMNI 2 Canada airing of an old America's Funniest Home Videos episode, before the 2006 BVIT logo. Also appears at the end of some episodes of Wild West Cow-Boys of M.O.O. Mesa. It was surprisingly seen on TubiTV's print of The Magic Flute, licensed by DHX/WildBrain, with the Cookie Jar logo at the end. This could be due to the fact that Tubi/WildBrain used a home video master of the film. It was also seen on the Echo Bridge 7 Action Film Pack DVD of The Kansas City Massacre. The still variant appears on Crackle's print of Captive. The filmed variant is extremely rare and is seen on mid 80’s-early 90’s prints of TV movies, one of which is Notorious (1992).

Legacy: The only flaw is that at the beginning, the space background can still be seen on the side edges of the screen while the logo is close.

4th Logo (1993-1995)

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Logo: On a white background, we see the familiar ABC logo from 1962-2007. Below the logo, we see "Video" in a cursive font. They were intersected by some stripes.

Variants:

• There was a variant seen on kids' tapes where the 1962-2007 ABC logo is in yellow with a hat on it. The stripes are absent in this logo.
• A longer eight second variant exists.

Technique: None.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Rare.

• The normal version appeared on ABC Video distributed tapes at the time such as New York Rangers: 1994 Stanley Cup Champions.
• The kids' variant was seen on Schoolhouse Rock! tapes before Buena Vista Home Video took over, early Bump in the Night tapes, as well as the 1994 VHS release of The Secret Garden.
• The longer eight second variant is extinct. It's only known appearance was on the 1995 laserdisc of The Day After Director's Cut.

5th Logo (1996-1999)

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Logo: On an animated blue shiny background, an opaque ABC logo pops up while a much larger translucent one slides from left to right and the Video part of the logo slides in and then zooms out. Finally, the entire logo meets at the end of the sequence and the objects are still for a few seconds until the logo is over.

Technique: A shimmering blue background and some sliding effects.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Rare. Appears on ABC tapes distributed by Buena Vista Home Video, such as the VHS boxset series The Century: America's Time (w/ Peter Jennings).