Rhodes Productions

Background

Rhodes Productions was a television distribution company that was founded in 1970 by Taft Broadcasting. The original company was renamed by Taft as Taft, H-B Program Sales in 1975, while a revived Rhodes Productions was started under Filmways' aegis two weeks later. Filmways held ownership until Rhodes broke apart from the company and became independent again in 1978 after Filmways formed their own syndication unit. Rhodes was SCTV 's original U.S. syndicator since 1977. In 1983, John Blair & Company acquired Rhodes from its owners and renamed the company Blair Entertainment, and continued operate under that moniker until 1992. The rights to The Cisco Kid currently belong to the Peter Rodgers Organization (most likely on behalf of the Rhodes family; Rhodes Enterprises is credited on the official DVD releases). As for SCTV, Western International Communications (WIC), who had since absorbed SCTV's co-producer Allarcom, would obtain the rights in 1998. Rights to the show are currently administered by its co-producers (the Second City Toronto and Fireworks Entertainment, who inherited WIC's rights after they were merged with Fireworks by CanWest).

Logo (September 1, 1975-1983)

Normal variant
Smaller variant
Smaller variant w/ Filmways credit

Visuals: On a black background, the words "Syndication through" in white appear to the left, then letter by letter come the words:

RHODES
PRODUCTIONS

Both are in the slightly modified Bauhaus 93 font. After the letters appear, 22 white stars appear in a haphazardly-placed arrangement on the right.

Variants:

A shorter version appears on SCTV, where the logo starts mid-way through the animation.
From 1975-1978, a byline for Filmways (with the Filmways logo) may appear after the stars finish appearing.
On the syndicated edition of the original Hollywood Squares and Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, this logo had an in-credit appearance with only 11 stars rearranged and a larger Filmways byline. Sometimes, though, the logo would have all 22 stars.

Technique: Camera controlled/cel animation.

Audio: An ascending 8-note Moog synthesizer tune (the eighth note rapidly tremolos for the stars' appearance before it's released once the stars finish appearing) composed by John Gonzalez. In some cases, the closing theme of the show was used.

Availability:

Seen at the end of the game show Pitfall, and as a still shot in the end credits of episodes of the original run of Hollywood Squares.
Was also seen during the original syndicated run of SCTV (1977-81) and also seen later on some episodes of the 1984 syndicated repackage of the show and on Nick at Nite airings (as the shows used the original ending credits on certain 1977-81 episodes) but was replaced with the Blair Entertainment logo on Comedy Central reruns.
Was also responsible for prints of The Cisco Kid that aired on the syndicated version of SCTV in 1981.
The in-credit version appeared on syndicated runs of the original Hollywood Squares and the first season of Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, which is available on DVD.