Playhouse Video

Credits

Descriptions by
Jess Williams and James Stanley Barr

Captures by
Eric S. and V Of Doom

Video captures courtesy of
DudeThatLogo

Background

Playhouse Video was a sub-label of CBS/Fox Video for children and family releases on video.

Logo (July 7, 1985-1990)

• 
• 
  Black and white variant
• 
  Muppet Video Variant

Visuals: On a white background, a black dot sketches a round snow-globe outline, followed by a inner outline revealing a tree, a house with a cote-out roof, and a tall bush. The outlines continue with the right half of the tree with an extra bush, the Sun, 6 "apples" in a pentagon-like formation, and the window of the house. The outlines then fill with black as a rainbow color hue slides down to fill the inside of the snowglobe, and the words "PLAYHOUSE V I D E O" with "V I D E O" in spaced-out letters wipe in from top to bottom, as well as a small "_TM" bug.

Variants:

• On videos associated with Muppet Video, the background would turn red and blue, the Playhouse Video logo would fly away, and the Muppet Video logo animation would form.
• There was a grayscale variant on videos of black and white films.
• The Chace Surround Sound logo may appear at the top left of the screen.

Technique: 2D CGI animation for the drawing, basic computer effects for the rest.

Audio: A synthesized trumpet/piano fanfare.

Availability: It's seen on any tapes by this company from the era, such as the 1970s Dr. Seuss TV specials aired on CBS, Muppet Video releases, and feature films such as Bad Medicine, Kid Colter, In Search of a Golden Sky, Batman: The Movie, and Eliminators, among others. It also appears on the early VHS of A Boy Named Charlie Brown (the later versions were distributed by Paramount Home Entertainment) and several Doctor Who releases like Pyramids of Mars, which retain this logo even on reprints as late as 1997.