Sterling Entertainment Group

Not to be confused with Sterling Home Entertainment.

Background

United American Video Corporation (also known as "UAV Corporation", "UAV Entertainment", or "United American Video") was founded in 1984. It was the longtime competitor of GoodTimes Entertainment, Anchor Bay Entertainment, Celebrity Home Entertainment, and many other sell-through home video companies.

In 1998, UAV Corporation was renamed to Sterling Entertainment Group. In 2002, Sterling was sold to a private equity firm. In 2006, the firm lost control of Sterling and it was shut down.

UAV Corporation

1st Logo (1984-1988)

Nickname: "American Tapes"

Logo: On a background consisting of an American flag, a white rectangle flips forward into view. Inside of the rectangle is a red segmented upside down trapezoid with a star in the middle and the blue script text "United American Video" also in the middle. The logo zooms back towards the top of the screen as it is replaced by a grey background with a red, white and blue line. Beneath the line is the white text, "For better picture quality, adjust tracking control on VCR."

FX/SFX: The flipping of the rectangle and the wiping transitions.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Ultra rare. Not all tapes used this logo, so be on the lookout.

Editor's Note: It's pretty cheap compared with the rest of the company's logos and others from its time, but it's a lot tamer compared to the ones below.

2nd Logo (1989-1991)

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Nicknames: "American Tapes II", "Loud Whoosh"

Logo: On a mostly blue gradient starry background with black in the top right corner, we see an American flag come out of nowhere and zoom out at the top of the screen. We then see a brief shine where the American flag zoomed out, and the large letters "UAV," which are blue with red stripes and are meant to resemble the American flag form after the shine. After this, we see a white star zoom out and rest on the "A." The text "United American Video Corp." appears below the letters.

Variant: On some tapes, the text is not shown at all.

FX/SFX: The American flag zooming out, the shine, the letters forming, the star zooming out, the appearance of the text below. It's an immense improvement from the previous logo.

Music/Sounds: A tremendous "whoosh" sound that slowly increases in volume, followed by a thunder rumbling sound.

Availability: Uncommon. Seen on releases from the era such as Southern Comfort, Lovers & Liars, Gold Rush, Godzilla vs. Megalon, some Jay Ward cartoons such as The King And Odie Show some tapes of The Andy Griffith Show and some early public domain cartoon tapes including Looney Tunes, Casper the Friendly Ghost, Popeye, and Superman. Some tapes such as Sunshine Porcupine does not have this logo at all.

Editor's Note: The loud whoosh would certainly catch some off guard, especially if it's at a high volume.

3rd Logo (1991-1998)

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Nicknames: “Whoosh of Death”, "Loud Whoosh II", "The Palindrome Logo"

Logo: Against a black background, a giant, two-toned blue letter A comes lazily sweeping from the back, joined by (turning around, in small white font) the letters making up the word "CORPORATION", and from the sides by the letters "U" and "V". A red bar indented with the word "CORPORATION" comes up from the opposite direction, spinning slowly like an axle, until it stops to interlock with those letters. The entire logo then immediately shifts to face toward the upper left and pauses for about 1.5 seconds, then the entire animation plays in reverse (like a palindrome, meaning one half of the logo is playing forward, and the other half is played backward).

Variant: Some tapes that show the company's tracking control screen has the logo fade in and fade out at the point where the letter A and the word "CORPORATION" appear. This variant was first shown in 1993 and last shown in 1995.

FX/SFX: The multiple rotating CG letters and bar, the slow zooming. It mostly feels corporate, like they want to have fun with the new computers at the time. The reversed animation at the end may also be seen as lazy.

Music/Sounds: Same as the previous logo.

Availability: Can be found on tapes from this era such as public domain cartoon tapes, public domain movies, tapes of The Andy Griffith Show, UAV Gold releases, Animalympics and some old Davey & Goliath tapes, which are easy to spot out because the logo covers most of the company's video cover. It also appeared on the 8 min. series of workout tapes including the Kathy Ireland series. It surprisingly appears on the 1999 VHS of Gulliver's Travels (1939 film), due to the fact the tape label has the Sterling Entertainment Group logo while the cover has the Ovation Home Video logo.

Editor's Note: The whoosh will also definitely creep someone out at high volumes and also makes it feel like something will blow up. The black background, huge letters, and reversed animation, especially that it may appear both after the warning screen or after the program, may also contribute to its infamy.

4th Logo (1996-1998)

Nicknames: "UAV in Space", "The Palindrome Logo in Space"

Logo: A supernova (a large explosion from space) happens on a starry background. The UAV logo in the previous logo, this time with "ENTERTAINMENT" in gold lettering on the red bar, flies into view. Once the logo is into place, light beams come out of it, and pans ever so slightly towards us. The supernova (as well as the light beams) then disappears, leaving the UAV logo floating in space.

FX/SFX: CGI animation. Much better than before.

Music/Sounds: An explosion, then a truncated whoosh from the previous logo (which is much softer), and a synth note.

Availability: Uncommon; seen on some later UAV Corporation tapes such as Gilad tapes, Kansas City Confidential, and Moses: Egypt's Great Prince. Used in tandem with the previous logo until 1998. It is unknown if this was seen on any of the DVDs UAV released.

Editor's Note: It's not as infamous as the previous 2 logos, since it doesn't have that loud whoosh, though the explosion may throw some off.

Sterling Entertainment Group

1st Logo (1998-2003)

Nicknames: "Black Sunrise"

Logo: First, we see a giant metal-backed sunrise-like shape coated with black somersault into view. The background is black at first, until a light blue sheet of metal flips into the background and slides into place, engulfing the screen to better stand-out the black logo. As all that happens, the words "STERLING ENTERTAINMENT GROUP" slide out from both sides of the screen at the bottom in a bold serif font with "STERLING" larger than the rest of the words.

FX/SFX: CGI animation.

Music/Sounds: The 1989/1991 UAV whoosh, only a bit quieter.

Music/Sounds Variant: On later releases, it's silent.

Availability: Rare. Seen on releases distributed by the company from the era such as Remember Pearl Harbor, Curious George, The Retrievers, the Double Feature DVD release of The Secret of Mulan/Moses: Egypt's Great Prince, the 2003 Sterling Entertainment Group DVD release of Animal Farm, The Last Leprechaun, The Retrievers, Miracle Dogs, Sleepy Hollow High, the 2000 re-release of Operation Dalmatian, Operation Dalmatian 2, Mee Christmas, The Polar Bear King, the 2002 Sterling Entertainment Group DVD release of Too Young To Die? Max Magician and the Lord of the Rings, and Atlantis: The Underwater City.

Editor's Note: None.

2nd Logo (2003-2006)

Logo: On a blue background, the same "STERLING" text from the previous logo, in white, zooms out letter-by-letter. The "sunrise", also in white, pans up, causing an optical flash of light to appear and dim for a few seconds. After that, they fade out.

FX/SFX: The words and sunrise forming and the flash.

Music/Sounds: A whooshing sound when the words form, a growling whoosh and a cymbal crash when the sunrise pans up.

Availability: Seen on releases distributed by the company from the era.

Such examples include the 2005 DVD release of Curious George Comes to America, Miracle Dogs Too, The Last Christmas, the 2006 Feature Films for Families VHS and DVD release of The Adventures of Scamper the Penguin, and Barclay's Big Adventure.
The 2005 VHS release of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe (the 1979 film) has the logo on the spine, but doesn't have this logo on the tape.
DIC Entertainment releases the company distributed don't have this logo ether, instead only having the 2001 DIC Home Entertainment logo on the tape/DVD.

Editor's Note: None.