MCA Home Video

Background

MCA Home Video (previously MCA Video Distributing Corporation until 1983) combined MCA's two video labels MCA Videocassette Inc. and MCA Videodisc. In 1986, it signed a partnership with Kartes Video Communications, and a year later, signed a partnership with Goodtimes Home Video to distribute titles on videocassette at a bargain-bin price. It also signed a deal with Image Entertainment to release MCA's titles on Laserdisc. In 1987, it began distributing tiles from International Video Entertainment. In 1990, MCA Home Video renamed itself as "MCA/Universal Home Video" to capitalize the Universal Studios name and to coincide with Universal's 75th Anniversary.

Contents

1st Logo (November 1983-June 12, 1990)	2nd Logo (1986-1990)

1st Logo (November 1983-June 12, 1990)

Standard version
B&W
With byline
B&W with byline
More Programming variant
Other Titles variant
Trailer variant

Visuals: On a CGI starry background, the MCA Home Video logo zooms in slowly. This logo has the usual MCA logo and the words "HOME VIDEO" in a sleek, smaller font that has the same width as "MCA", in a box that resembles a videotape with the MCA logo poking out. Everything is in a shiny metallic gold color. The logo fades out to the starry background for a second, and then an entire fade to black.

Variants:

On some earlier VHS releases featuring this logo, the logo fades in at the bottom, along with "Other Titles Available From" or (on earlier VHS releases) "More Programming Available for You From" at the top, then the screen fades out afterwards. This appears on Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, Max Maven's Mindgames, and The Lonely Guy (a 1996 reprint of the latter retains this).
Some later releases featured a similar text announcement, asking the viewer to stay tuned for previews of future releases that faded out shortly before the logo's appearance. Releases that use this variant include, but are not limited to, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Twins, Biloxi Blues, The Land Before Time, Field of Dreams, Shocker, Reason to Die (Canadian VHS release), and The Dream Team.
MCA releases co-released by GoodTimes Home Video have "UNDER LICENSE TO" at the bottom of the screen. The GoodTimes logo of the period would follow. A black & white version of this also exists, which appears on The Creature from the Black Lagoon. A similar variant also appears on the Kartes Video Communications release of You Can't Cheat an Honest Man.
On some French-Canadian VHS releases such as A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child, a French warning appears before the logo.
On the 1985 LaserDisc release of Spartacus, the logo fades out earlier.
Black and white movies have this logo in black and white, such as The Wolf Man and Destry Rides Again.
Some releases, such as the 1983 VHS release of Jaws 3 and the 1980s VHS release of Rear Window, had this logo segueing directly into the 1963 Universal logo.
Side opening bumpers on some MCA Home Video LaserDisc releases between 1984 and 1986 used the stars by themselves, with "Side 2", "Side 3", etc., appearing by itself in the center of the screen, and then a fade out back to the stars. The 1984 LaserDisc release of Rear Window features this bumper.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: None.

Availability:

It appears on VHS releases such as the 1988 VHS release of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the 1989 VHS release of The Land Before Time (1991 and 1996 reprints use the first MCA/Universal logo), mid-late '80s releases of Back to the Future, a 1987 reprint of Play Misty for Me (which reuses 1981 box art), An American Tail, *batteries not included, and Dragnet.
Since MCA Records was one of the U.S.' largest record companies of the time, it also appears on music related VHS release that predate the founding of MCA Music Video, such as Olivia Newton-John: Twist of Fate, U2 Live at Red Rocks: Under a Blood Red Sky, and Jimmy Buffett: Live by the Bay.
Among the last releases to use this logo before the MCA/Universal logo was introduced are Shocker, Harvey, Dad, and reissues of eleven James Stewart films. The last new release to use this was The Wizard, which used the MCA/Universal print logo on the packaging and labels.
It also appears on Canadian Alliance Releasing VHS releases of Nightbreaker, Deadly Innocents, State of Mind (AKA: Private War), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie, American Boyfriends, Iron Eagle II, Cameron's Closet, Nukie, A Whisper to a Scream, Final Cut (1989) (AKA: Lights! Cameras! Murder!), Devil in the Flesh, Bedroom Eyes II, Reason to Die, and Hot Times at Montclair High, among possible others. The Alliance Releasing logo may appear before or after this logo.
Some VHS releases up until 1991 with the MCA/Universal Home Video print logo on the cover may still have this due to being reprints of earlier MCA titles, such as Arabesque.
It also appears on the 1991 Canadian Cineplex Odeon Video VHS release of The Grifters. It is unknown if this also appears on other VHS releases from Cineplex Odeon, which MCA distributed in Canada.
However, it does not appear on the French Canadian International Video Entertainment release of Eddie et les Cruisers II: Eddie est de retour (Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives).

2nd Logo (1986-1990)

Talk Radio
The Land Before Time
Uncle Buck and Phantasm II
Shakedown
Hellgate

Visuals: The MCA Home Video logo appears in chrome (usually zooming in or sliding into the view). There are different variants:

On the VHS trailer for An American Tail (1986), the logo is in gold on a black background.
On the VHS trailer for Talk Radio (1988), the logo is silver/chrome on an oatmeal gray background. It flashes red, timed to the drumbeats in the background music.
On the VHS trailer for The Land Before Time (1988), the logo is bright red on a black background.
On the VHS trailer for Uncle Buck (1989), the "MCA HOME VIDEO" logo is sky blue and slides in from the left on a black background. This also appears on the VHS trailer for Phantasm II (1988).
On the VHS trailer for Shakedown (1988), the logo is silver on a blue-black gradient background.
On the VHS trailer for Hellgate (1989), which appears at the end of a Canadian VHS release of Reason to Die, the logos starts with a shady gray background of diagonal bars with several "MCA HOME VIDEO" logos appearing inside the bars (like a wallpaper pattern). A sky blue "MCA HOME VIDEO" logo fades in the center and slowly zooms in while rotating/straitening itself into the view. This also plasters the New World Pictures logo originally seen in this film's trailer.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: The music or theme from whatever movie is being advertised.

Availability: Appears primarily on trailers for MCA Home Video releases at the time, all of which are listed above.

◄	MCA Videocassette Inc. MCA Videodisc

MCA Home Video

MCA/Universal Home Video

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