King Features Entertainment

Credits

Descriptions by
James Fabiano, Nicholas Aczel, Matt Williams, Argus Sventon and Stephen Cezar

Captures by
Eric S., Bob Fish, snelfu, V of Doom, Mr. Logo Lord, GrischaDJ TWO (Grig2007) and others

Editions by
V of Doom, Eric S., Bob Fish, and Kramden II

Video captures courtesy of
Phasicblu, Eric S., Stephen Cezar, KeenRich, and Guy Who Knows Too Much

Background

Hearst Communications sold its live-action Hearst Entertainment library to Lionsgate in 2015, and integrated Hearst's animated content library into King Features Syndicate.

1st Logo (1960-1963, 1978)

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Nicknames: "The KFS Pegasus", "The Pegasus Logo", "The Popeye Logo"

Logo: In the center of a blue background is an image reminiscent of the mythical Bellorophon riding Pegasus or a man riding some winged beast. He is holding a quill pen. On both sides of the image are ribbons with the company's name. "KING FEATURES" is on the left ribbon and "SYNDICATE" is on the right. Below the eagle is a monitor-shaped box that says "TV". The word "Presents" appears under the opening logo in white script. Then, a star spins towards the screen from the center of the logo as it fades out. When it stops, Popeye appears in it and toots his pipe, followed by the title screen and credits.

Variant: On reruns of The All-New Popeye Hour on the Family Channel, the logo was sped-up for time compressing.

Closing Title: At the end, the white quill pen writes out "The End" in script, then the script slides to the left as the quill flips to the right to rejoin the logo as it fades in.

FX/SFX: The spinning star (which was re-used from the Paramount Popeye cartoons), and the quill pen "writing" in the closing logo. This would also serve as the opening logo for The All-New Popeye Hour before the start of the opening credits.

Music/Sounds:

• Opening: An abridged version of the generic cartoon sailor song "The Sailor's Hornpipe" (played on what sounds like a flute), leading into an abridged version of Popeye the Sailor Man which plays over the credits. On Barbecue for Two and Hits and Missels (the first two cartoons of the 60's series), however, the Famous Studios version of the theme song is heard.
• Closing: The end to "The Sailor's Hornpipe". Some Rembrahndt Films Popeye cartoons replaces it with a peppy version of the end of the Popeye the Sailor Man theme song.

Availability: Extremely rare. This logo may be preserved on the DVD release of the made-for TV KFS Popeye cartoons of the 1960s. The logo also made a surprise return at the end of some reruns of some 1st season episodes of The All-New Popeye Hour, following the 1974 H-B "Rainbow" logo, as well as an opening logo for syndicated prints of seasons 2-4 of The All-New Popeye Hour as seen on Tubi (excluding the Valentine's day special.).

Editor's Note: None.

2nd Logo (1960?-1964)

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Nicknames: "The KFS Crown", "The Zooming/Spinning Crown", “The Beetle Bailey Logo”

Logo: On a specific color background (gray, teal, lavender, pistachio, light gray, or sky blue), a small yellow or gold rectangle in the center of the screen zooms in in a spinning manner. The three spikes in the crown pop up one by one from left to right. The word “King” appears on the crown in an old-world font, with the “K” being colored a bold red. The “King” spins and settles on the below left of the screen, and the words “Features” and “Syndicate” (the first letter in each also colored bold red) appear to the right of it and “PRESENTS” (in either black or red) below. This logo leads into the title screen and opening credits for the cartoon that follows.

Closing Titles:

• A different color background (blue, lavender, gray, light gray, or pistachio) background, but the crown is in the upper left corner, and below it are written the stacked words “A KING FEATURES SYNDICATE PRODUCTION”, with the bold grey/white word “TV” written behind it to hence "A KING FEATURES SYNDICATE TV PRODUCTION". This can be only seen on cartoons that are animated at Jack Kinney Productions, Rembrahndt Films, Artransa Park Film Studios, Joseph Oriolo Animation (G&H Films, Inc.), and many more.
• A crown-less version of the aforementioned closing title is seen on some Krazy Kat cartoons.
• Cartoons produced at Paramount Pictures Cartoon Studios will have the “Produced by Paramount Pictures Corporation” credit written in it's signature font on the bottom right, with the "KING FEATURES SYNDICATE TV PRODUCTION" words moved on the top left, above and next to the crown.

FX/SFX: The zooming/spinning crown, and the word animations. None for the closing variant.

Music/Sounds:

• Opening: A horn and xylophone fanfare that syncs with the animation, leading into the cartoon short theme music.
• Closing: A horn and percussion fanfare, which varies depending on the cartoon.

Availability: Very rare. First appeared on the 1960 Beetle Bailey cartoon Labor Shortage. It also appears on the umbrella series The King Features Trilogy (the umbrella title for Beetle Bailey, Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, and Krazy Kat cartoons) on syndicated TV in 1963. If you really want to see it, some cartoon shorts that originally appeared in the series have been released on three VHS volumes of Rhino Home Video’s “Sunday Morning Funnies”: Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, Beetle Bailey, and Krazy Kat. DVD and streaming site releases (like Tubi) of these cartoons may preserve the logos, as well (the logo has been retained on the Krazy Kat Kartoon Kollection DVD box set released by Koch Vision in 2003).

Editor's Note: None.

3rd Logo (1963-1970)

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Nicknames: "The KFS Crown II", "The Blondie Logo", "Jumping Shapes"

Logo: Against a white (gray in B&W) background, we first see a rectangle with a equilateral triangle in the center, along with two triangles on either side with one curved side each. On the lower left hand corner and upper right hand corner of the rectangle, there are two dots. The dot on the lower left drops and explodes into 8 small dots and 5 larger dots. The triangle on the left side drops along with the other dot. The triangle blossoms like a fan into a flower shape, while the other two triangles drop and form an hexagon shaped by six triangles, except the upper triangle is missing. Then at one point, we see the four "pieces" of the KFS logo on the screen, before they suddenly "multiply" and jump all over the screen, finally forming the KFS crown logo (which is either fully black in B&W, or the tips are orange when in color), which shrinks and moves to the upper left of the screen above the words "KING FEATURES PRESENTS" (It is ID'ed as "A KING FEATURES PRESENTATION" at the end of some TV shows).

FX/SFX: The moving shapes jumping across the screen. Each piece of animation is synced perfectly with the music, which is pretty cool.

Music/Sounds: The theme begin with the sound notes hearing similar to the Universal theme from the late '70s. These occur during the dropping phase. Then, big band music is heard while all of the shapes jump all over the screen and during the formation of the KFS crown. This music could be easily heard on The Beatles cartoon. Other times, the opening or end theme may play over the logo.

Availability: Very rare. This logo appeared on the animated cartoon series The Beatles and Cool McCool on network TV. It was also seen on television prints of Columbia Pictures' Blondie movies. This logo maybe vanishing since it was last seen on the KFS-owned Blondie movies with Columbia Pictures original credits last seen on AMC. However, if your station has been showing Blondie for a long time or if you owned a video of the Blondie movies from KFS Home Entertainment, you may see this logo. This logo can be found on the DVD release of Cool McCool from BCI/Eclipse, and may also turn up on a few public domain DVDs of Blondie and Beetle Bailey.

Editor's Note: None.

4th Logo (October 7, 1972)

Nicknames: "The KFS Crown III", "'70s KFS Logo", "KFS Radar Globe"

Logo: On a blue background, we see on the right a crudely-drawn crown encapsulated inside a Worldvision-like radar globe, with a large quill behind it. Below, we see the words “King Features” in a bold font aligned to the left.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Extinct. The only known record of its existence is on the original broadcast of the 1972 ABC Saturday Superstar Movie Popeye Meets the Man Who Hated Laughter.

Editor's Note: None.

5th Logo (1981-1985, October 9, 1988)

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Nicknames: "The KFS Crown IV", "Crown Trail"

Logo: On a cerulean blue background, the words "King Features Entertainment" slowly zoom out. When the words get to a suitable distance, a "trail" of stylized outlined crowns come from the left and right side above the logo, consolidating into one stylized outlined shield. The words "Produced by" or "Distributed by" would appear in an arc above it.

Variant: Some shows contain a King Features copyright notice below.

FX/SFX: The crown trail.

Music/Sounds: A somewhat dramatic synthesizer theme.

Availability: Very rare. May appear at the end of some syndicated movie telecasts, such as The Cartier Affair. Also appears on some prints of An American Werewolf in London, although other prints of that film use the Hearst Entertainment logo, with the KF music preserved. This can also be found on DVDs of The Toughest Man In The World and High School USA. This logo also makes a surprise appearance on the 1988 TV movie Going to the Chapel. It can be seen at the end of the Blondie films on the Movies! network and Amazon Prime. Don't expect this logo to show up at the end of The All-New Popeye Hour DVD's or Tubi TV reruns as it's been plastered over with the next logo below. This logo appears on GREAT! Movies Classic airings of The Pursuit of D.B. Cooper and An American Werewolf in London as they use old 4:3 SD masters.

Editor's Note: None.

6th Logo (1985-1990)

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Nicknames: "The KFS Crown V", "Rolling Crown"

Logo: On a black/blue gradient background, a blue 3D crown spins onto the screen. It moves towards the top, as the black background begins to become lavender (the color moves up from the bottom). The crown, when it gets near the top and comfortably small, flashes and becomes a 2D stylized crown, similar to the 5th logo but completely colored in. Below it the words "King Features Entertainment" appear in the same font as the 5th logo. The words "A Subsidiary of The Hearst Corporation" appear below it. Sometimes, "Distributed By" may appear above the crown.

Variants:

• Sometimes, the logo is still.
• A warp speed variant exists.
• A slightly longer version exists where the words slowly fade in.
• On the test pilot of the cartoon Defenders of the Earth, the text reads "AND King Features Entertainment, Inc." with the small version of the Crown placed to the left of the company name.
• A unique version was seen as the intro to King Features' cartoons on VHS where the background is blue. Here, the crown is above a long white stripe spanning the entire screen, with "King Features Entertainment" on it. Below it is a copyright for King Features Syndicate. "The Sailor's Hornpipe" plays here, in which when the whistle blows, the crown zooms in and takes up the entire screen, with the inside of it fading to the intro itself as the stripe and copyright disappear. At the end, the crown appears over King Features' line up of characters and zooms in, takes up the entire screen again, and goes back to the logo, thus ending the intro.

FX/SFX: The rolling crown. None for a sped-up variant.

Music/Sounds: It starts with a several synth taps, which is followed by a whirring sound getting louder and with more reverb. 4 synth notes then play in series of 2. A drum plays when the text starts to fade in, with the byline appearing with a twinkle. All of this was played on a Yamaha DX-7. The closing themes of the animated Blondie specials from 1989, as well as Ask Dr. Ruth, were heard over the logo.

Music/Sounds Variants:

• There were two slightly different versions of the theme.
• It may also have the show/movie's ending theme playing over it.
• The still variant has the last few seconds of the logo's theme playing.
• The warp speed variant had the logo's theme doubled in speed.

Availability: Uncommon. Can be seen on old videocassettes of Popeye and Krazy Kat as well as the 1970s cartoon of Flash Gordon among other KFS classic cartoons. This logo was seen without music on G-Force on Cartoon Network. When reruns of The All-New Popeye Hour, as well as the short-lived Popeye and Son (1987-88) were seen on the Family Channel in the early '90s, this logo followed after both the H-B '74 "Rainbow" and the '79 "Swirling Star" for the former, and the '86 "CGI Swirling Star" for the latter version. For the former, this logo was played in sped-up mode due to time compression. Also appears on the DVDs of Get Smart, Again and God Bless the Child. It's also at the end of the Sandy Frank dub of Gamera (1965), which was featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000. The sped-up variant was also seen on Defenders of the Earth and was preserved on the DVD release. Also appeared at the end of the short-lived syndicated series Ask Dr. Ruth, which aired during the 1989-1990 season (the parent King Features Syndicate distributed Dr. Ruth Westheimer's column to newspapers, so naturally their TV arm produced her show). Also made an appearance on AMC's print of Six Weeks back in the early 2000s. On Tubi TV reruns of The All-New Popeye Hour under The Continuing Adventures of Popeye name, this logo and the Hanna-Barbera logos were played in normal mode. On BET airings of The Women of Brewster Place, the warp speed version is seen with the ending theme playing over it.

Editor's Note: None.

7th Logo (1987-1989)

Nicknames: "The KFS Crown VI", "Chromed Crown", "Still Crown"

Logo: On a shaded blue background, a 2D stylized crown like in 6th logo, and the words "King Features Entertainment" are seen in the same font as the previous logo. Under it, the byline "A Subsidiary of The Hearst Corporation" is also there.

Variant: Some shows contain one or two King Features copyright stamps below.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: None or the closing theme of the show.

Availability: Very rare. Appears on the Blondie & Dagwood specials from the era.

Editor's Note: None.

8th Logo (November 9, 2004)

Nicknames: "The KFS Pegasus II", "The Pegasus Logo II", "The Popeye Logo II", "The CGI Pegasus"

Logo: A big flash appears which reveals the planet earth, which is spinning. A ribbon is pulling out behind from the earth (with the words "KING FEATURES" on the left ribbon, and the word "SYNDICATE" appearing on the right ribbon), and the symbol from the first logo appears on top of the earth. The flash dies down and the finished product ends up on a dark teal background, which looks similar to the first logo, with a few exceptions (see below).

Trivia: A reinterpretation of the 1st logo, only this time the TV is changed to a globe of the Earth.

FX/SFX: The flash, the rotation of the earth, the movement of the ribbons and text, and the background changing color.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Ultra rare. It was only seen on the direct-to-video movie Popeye's Voyage: The Quest for Pappy.

Editor's Note: None.