Lionheart Television International, Inc. was formed on May 1, 1981 as a joint venture primarily consisting of Western World Television and Public Media, Inc. Lionheart took over the US distribution rights to the BBC's television output after a previous deal with Time-Life Television expired, as well as that of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The BBC eventually bought Lionheart outright by 1987, making it their North American distribution arm, which was renamed to "BBC America" in 1994.
Visuals: On a black background, a white drawing of a lion zooms in before stopping, taking up a good portion of the screen. The lion is drawn in an "ornate" style with its tongue sticking out, a collar-like mane, and rather "fluffy" appearance. It's also holding a spectre in its front right paw, with 2 wing-like attachments at the top and emitting lightning bolts off of it. From the bottom of the spectre, the text "A BBC TV PRODUCTION" zooms in and settles below the lion, with "BBC" in a larger, "3D"-styled font. A few seconds later, it "flips" around to reveal "Distributed By" in a small print, as well as "LIONHEART TELEVISION INTERNATIONAL, INC." in a larger print. "LIONHEART" is also presented in a similar "ornate" style.
Trivia: The lion in the logo is part of the BBC's Coat of Arms.
Variants:
Technique: Scanimate animation.
Audio: A Moog synthesizer tune that starts with what sounds like a "winning" sound effect on a slot machine or a video game, which is followed by a fanfare.
Audio Trivia: This logo's soundtrack is perhaps more notable nowadays for its use on the outro for some videos by Everything Is Terrible!
Availability:
Visuals: Against a black screen, many white dots "dissolve" upwards and form a red and white lion's head. The words "LIONHEART TELEVISION - THE BBC IN AMERICA" appear from the bottom of the screen while a red and white stripe is "drawn" under the lion's head. There is a "V" shaped bend in the stripe at the part below the head.
Variant: Some shows had a copyright date below the logo. Sometimes, the animation would begin superimposed over a scene from the preceding program.
Technique: Computer animation.
Audio: None, or the end music of the show.
Availability:
Visuals: The 1985-1991 BBC1 "COW" globe is seen spinning around while parallelograms of the 1988 BBC logo with the letters "BBC" drop over the globe. Under the "BBC", three red lines and the words "LIONHEART TELEVISION" appear with "A BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION COMPANY" in small letters underneath.
Technique: CGI.
Audio: A synthesized fanfare that sounds vaguely like the one in the 1st logo.
Audio Variant: On Madison's Adventures: Growing Up Wild, it uses the 1987 ITC Entertainment Group "Gold Diamonds" fanfare.
Availability: Seen a good deal on A&E (Lovejoy, A Touch of Frost, Pole To Pole with Michael Palin) and PBS until the mid '90s.
|
Lionheart Television |
|