NBC Color Presentation

Contents

1st Open (1955?-1956)	2nd Open (May 22, 1956-1962, 1984, 2019)	3rd Open (September 25, 1962-1975, May 22, 1992, June 1, 2009)

1st Open (1955?-May 21?, 1956)

Visuals: On a dark-colored card, the words "THIS PROGRAM IS BEING TELEVISED IN" are seen in a white font stacked in 2 lines. Below it, "COLOR" is seen in various different colors (although the only preserved footage shows various shades of white) and in a bigger font than the rest of the text, and "BLACK & WHITE" below it in the same font and size as the text above "COLOR". Everything is aligned to the left.

Variants:

A variant as the text surrounding "COLOR" in black.
On The Milton Berle Show, the "COLOR" text is thicker while the rest of the text is much smaller.

Technique: A printed card.

Audio: An announcer saying, "The following program is brought to you in compatible color, pioneered and developed by RCA." At the end of the program, the announcer now says "The preceding program has been brought to you in compatible color, pioneered and developed by RCA."

Availability: Appeared on a few preserved 1956 episodes of The Dinah Shore Show and The Milton Berle Show, only preserved in black and white.

2nd Open (May 22, 1956-1962, 1984, 2019)

Early version
Early version, colorized
Freak-out version
Faded version

Visuals: A white drawing of an abstract peacock, facing left, is seen with a large fan of white-outlined feathers looping through a diamond pattern. After a gong crash is heard, the peacock's tail feathers fold upwards into themselves into a tight batch, filling in with a rainbow of colors as they continue to animate. The fully-colored feathers, which no longer have a looping animation to them, then unfurl into 11 distinct feathers, each tipped with a diamond and are multi-colored. The feathers then shift through multiple colors for a few seconds, and then "puff out" into a more solid fan shape, with the diamond tips turning into teardrop-like shapes. The feathers also stop color changing.

Variants:

From 1956-1960, a still version was primarily, then sometimes used since the summer of 1957. Here, the peacock was fully formed and shifted up slightly, with the words "AN NBC COLOR PRESENTATION" under the peacock.
- An still version of the regular logo was seen on an 1957 episode of The Dinah Shore Chevy Show.
- An version with "A COLOR PRESENTATION" was seen on The Art Carney Show.
B&W variants exist on prints of said colors.
A few special variants have been known to exist:
- A variant of the "AN NBC COLOR PRESENTATION" logo appears on The Arthur Murray Show. Here, two peacocks (one of them has a bow tie on its neck) are seen in a dancing position and swinging left and right in front of the feather fan.
- An unknown B&W variant also exists where the screen fades into the peacock, who suddenly freaks out and starts erratically moving in different directions, causing it to have its feathers ruffled up rather horribly and its body stretched out, resembling it screeching in pain. It then collapses to the ground, most likely it's having a heart attack or dying for some strange reason.
- A parody variant exists from the 1961 Disney cartoon An Adventure in Color. Here, Ludwig Von Drake is playing The Spectrum Song on a piano, while the feathers of the peacock are forming. When the peacock's feathers are done forming, the peacock walks to the front, while Ludwig Von Drake's piano gets broken. After that, Ludwig Von Drake gets through the peacock's feathers, saying to her "Oh, what a showoff!" The peacock then hits his neck using her feathers and walks away angrily, while Ludwig Von Drake grumpily says "How do you like that guy?"
- A variant in 1984 is seen where the logo animates as usual, but the peacock's feathers did not change into teardrop shapes. Instead, the peacock yawns while its feathers act as if they're its arms. After it's done, the peacock gets up, in its rollerskates. The peacock then says "I just had a really weird dream. I trapped somebody put an entire hour of commercials on the air. "It then laughs a little bit, and says "Ridiculous! Nobody would watch that." As the peacock rollerblades out, it yawns and then says "I gotta lay off the alfalfa sprouts." This was seen in the Television's Greatest Commercials 5 TV special.

Technique: Traditional animation by Elektra Films.

Audio: First, a gong crash, then announcer Ben Grauer says, "The following program is brought to you in living color on NBC.". This ends with a bombastic fanfare that is accompanied by shimmering sounds for the feathers flashing multiple colors.

Audio Variants:

On some shows, the announcer would be different and mention the sponsor of the program.
Sometimes there is no music, and the announcement is provided by Bill Hanrahan instead.
A special variant was used on Howdy Doody. It starts with the NBC chimes performed on a guitar with the characters singing, "Everyone in Doodyville is shouting 'hooray'!/'cause we're in living color/we're in living color/we're in living color todaaaaay!".
On The Steve Allen Plymouth Show, a big band tune based on the NBC chimes is heard.
On The Perry Como Show, an shrill ascending string tune was used.
Sometimes, the announcement from the previous logo is used.

Availability:

The logo premiered on an episode of The Bob Hope Show, while the fully animated logo debuted on an episode of Your Hit Parade.
Was seen on Sunday Showcase, early episodes of Bonanza, The Jerry Lewis Show: The Jazz Singer, The Steve Allen Plymouth Show, The Tennessee Arnie Ford Show, and any other show filmed in color at the time.
The still "AN NBC COLOR PRESENTATION" logo was seen on The Dinah Shore Chevy Show, Kraft Music Hall, The Jerry Lewis Show, and others.
It made a surprise reappearance on Television's Greatest Commercials 5 in 1984, as well as Elvis All-Star Tribute in 2019.
Appears on the pilot of Bonanza on DVD.
This open was also spotted recently in front of the Bonanza episode "The Frenchman" on MeTV, and may appear on other early episodes.

Legacy: This marks the first appearance of the iconic NBC peacock, with the design being in use until 1975. NBC didn't use another peacock logo until 1979, four years later.

3rd Open (September 25, 1962-1975, May 22, 1992, February 7, 1993-December 2, 1993, June 1, 2009)

Visuals: A large rainbow-colored pattern made up of 6 overlapping circles takes up the whole screen, before 2 translucent copies begin to rotate in opposite directions of each other, creating a kaleidoscope-like effect. As it duplicates another copy that rotates, the entire thing then wipes away in a odd fashion to the bottom of the screen, revealing the peacock from before against a different rainbow pattern that produces a kaleidoscope. After a few seconds, the pattern then fades to 6 distinct ovoids shrinking to form the tail feathers of the peacock, which then bunch up and "inflate" into the same feather pattern from before, although with the orange and purple colors hue-shifted to resemble the red and blue feathers.

Variants:

B&W variants exist on prints of said colors.
On 1970s episodes of Today, the word "TODAY" appears during the 2nd half of the logo.
Like the previous open, several unique variants exist:
- On Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, there is a variant where a man in white rolls a desk with a camera in from the left of the screen on a purplish-pink background. Another man in the same clothing floats down with a green rolled-up 16-millimeter screen. He unfolds it and walks around the movie screen as the movie starts with a countdown, then a blue "PICTURE START" screen, then this logo. The movie screen zooms in to fit the screen. After the music stops, the peacock sneezes, it's feathers changing to have brighter and cooler colors and flying off as it looks around. An audience can be heard laughing off-screen.
- On the NBC Children's Theater specials "The Wonderful World of Jonathan Winters" and "A Day with Bill Cosby", the logo is preceded by the stacked words "Hot Dog" and "Jambo" (in yellow and blue respectively), which are sandwiched between a red line.
- On The Dinah Shore Show, the peacock appears three times screaming "CAW!" during the opening of the show.
- On the Star Trek: The Original Series gag reel, when the logo is about to finish, there is a hand holding a gun, shooting the peacock repeatedly, causing the peacock to flip over several times and scream.
- On a rare marketing reel for Nightmare: The Host and Rodney, the logo looks a lot more deformed. The colors of the feathers are different, faded, and two of the tips are sagging, while the peacock body looks crooked and there are two feathers under it. This variant is also still and the Vincent Price-like announcer has a very menacing feel to it, complete with an echo. The voice says "in livid color" (livid is a blue-gray color) instead of "living".
- On the A Hard Day's Night variant in 1967, it starts with the text of "I DREAM OF JEANNIE" and "THE JERRY LEWIS SHOW", while the announcer says "I Dream of Jeannie and The Jerry Lewis Show will not be seeing tonight. Instead," a penguin with a top hat and a bowtie pushes out of the text, goes to the middle, and looks left and right. He starts waving his hands, while the music plays and the announcer says the line from the normal version in B&W. When the music finishes, the penguin takes off his hat and his belly rolls like a paper, revealing The Beatles. The Beatles come out and play music, and then hear the audience complaining. With that, they then run away.
- On The NBC Saturday Morning Preview Revue in 1972, someone in a red chicken suit is seen as he opens his arms, showing the feathers in fabric, while the announcer (voiced by a different portrayer) says "The following special is brought to you in living color on NBC." After the music ends, the announcer says "Wait a minute. You're not the NBC peacock!", as the cane snatches the red chicken's head and takes him away, while the red chicken squaks while being taken.

Technique: Cel-animation, also animated by Elektra Films.

Audio: A mellow flute and harp tune with a different (and much softer) announcer (Mel Brandt) saying the spiel from before.

Audio Variants:

Local variants exist where the announcer says the station callsign in place of NBC.
There are versions of the bumper with a shortened jingle. Also, the announcement can vary depending on the situation.
- On specials, a different announcer (Vic Roby) says "Now a special program in living color on NBC.".
- As the logo fades out on some shows, the announcer says "It just starts in black and white.".

Availability:

It first appeared on the final season of the western series Laramie.
It also appears on the DVD releases of classic NBC shows, such as Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In.
The version with the announcer saying "It just starts in black and white." appears on the Get Smart complete series DVD.
It made a reappearance on Laugh-In 25th Anniversary Special on Feburary 7, 1993 and Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In Past Christmas Present on December 2, 1993.
It also made an appearance in front of the first episode of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien on June 1, 2009.
It also appears on at least one The Tonight Show VHS release from Buena Vista Home Video featuring Johnny Carson, as well as the VHS versions of Movin' With Nancy (starring Nancy Sinatra) and Petula Clark Spectacular.
Some of the prime time episodes of Hollywood Squares that GSN aired retained the peacock as well, as well as episodes on Hulu.
This logo is also restored on the newest prints of Bonanza episodes (dubbed "The Lost Episodes") on Me-TV.

Legacy: Perhaps one of the most iconic television opens of the 1960s.