Roadshow Entertainment

Background

Roadshow Entertainment (formerly Roadshow Home Video) was formed by a merger with Australian film distributor Roadshow and Australian cinema chain Village Cinemas. Before the establishment of its home video division, Roadshow released its films on videocassette through Video Classics. Roadshow Entertainment is currently one of the largest and oldest home entertainment distributors in Australia, currently releasing content from Warner Bros. Pictures, Village Roadshow Pictures, BBC, ABC, Lionsgate Films, STX Entertainment, FilmNation Entertainment, The Weinstein Company as well as Australian TV content. They also used to distribute Walt Disney Home Video and Touchstone Home Video releases in Australia. They had their own duplication facilities, which also duplicated tapes for fellow Magnificent Seven member Rigby-CIC Video.

Contents

1st Logo (April 16, 1982-October 1985)	2nd Logo (October 1985-1993)	3rd Logo (March 1993-)

1st Logo (April 16, 1982-October 1985)

Visuals: On a space background, a blue outline of Australia with the Tasmania island below zooms out from the bottom of the screen to the centre with a "light trail" effect. "Roadshow", in a yellow font (the same font, in fact, as in the first Roadshow Films logo, but with more bold), appears via "scanning" effect in pieces shooting out from the Australia before flashing. As this happens, the yellow text "HOME VIDEO" zooms in below "Roadshow" in an arc.

Trivia: The logo is basically a squeezed-in variant of the 1979 Roadshow theatrical logo, with the addition of the "HOME VIDEO" and the footage being freeze-framed after "Roadshow" flashes.

Variants:

After the logo, "SNEAK PREVIEWS FROM OUR CATALOGUE", in yellow, appears over a zoomed-in still of the Australia outline and, after a few seconds, zooms out into it.
A variant exists where "HOME VIDEO" and "SNEAK PREVIEWS FROM OUR CATALOGUE" are in red instead of yellow.
There are variants with just no "SNEAK PREVIEWS" or just "Roadshow" and no "HOME VIDEO" or "SNEAK PREVIEWS".
On very early tapes, such as The Fifth Musketeer and the very first release of Mad Max, a combo of variant 2 and the Roadshow Films logo plays. "HOME VIDEO" is in red (like variant 2), then the Roadshow Films logo's animation plays ("Roadshow" reverses onto Australia, "The Australian Company" appears), and "HOME VIDEO" zooms out. After an introductory scroll, the opening animation is repeated, but it freeze-frames when the Australia hits the usual position. "SNEAK PREVIEWS FROM OUR CATALOGUE" in red zooms out just as the freeze frame begins, then zooms out again.

Technique: Backlit animation and chyron.

Audio: A calm, synthesized horn and piano fanfare.

Audio Variant: On some tapes, an announcer says, "Welcome to Roadshow Home Video. Before the movie, we'd like to show you previews of some of our films.".

Availability:

Seen on Australian VHS & Betamax tapes in the early '80s, including First Blood, Mad Max, Gallipoli, Alvin Purple, An American Werewolf In London, Halloween II, Far East, Mr. Mom, and Cujo.
It was also seen on early Walt Disney Home Video releases they distributed beginning in 1985, including Love Leads the Way. The very first Roadshow Home Video releases were Mad Max, Atlantic City, Insatiable, Sex World, King of the Mountain, Montenegro, A Change of Seasons, The Never Dead (aka Phantasm), Little Lord Fauntleroy, Endless Love, and Scanners (very likely the first title released by Roadshow Home Video).
Covers with this logo usually have the "Roadshow" text in the same font as this logo, with "Home Video" and "Presents" underneath it.
Titles released under the Roadshow Vibrant Video label should also have this logo, despite the different logo on the cover.
One of the last tapes to use this logo was The Mean Season.

Legacy: This logo (along with its successors) is popular among Aussie video collectors and logo fans.

2nd Logo (October 1985-1993)

Visuals: On a black background, three stylized, separate, golden "V"s are formed by yellow flashing effects from the right side. Three more are formed, filling the gaps. The result is a giant "V", or a triangle comprised of six progressively smaller "V"s. The giant "V" zooms out a little, and glowing text "ROADSHOW HOME VIDEO", in a white ITC Avant Garde Gothic font, zooms up below the "V" and loses the glow. The "V" shines, and yellow "lazers" appear from the top-left and top-right corners of the screen and move below the text, forming "VILLAGE ROADSHOW CORPORATION" when they connect and disappear.

Trivia: The logo is basically the same as the Roadshow Films logo of the time, however the words "ROADSHOW HOME VIDEO" appear instead of "ROADSHOW" in a smaller font. The text appears to stabilise differently from the rest of the logo.

Promo Variants:

On rental releases and some sell-throughs, once the logo finishes, a page-turning effect occurs, revealing the message "SNEAK PREVIEWS FROM OUR MOVIES" in brown and white.
On some videos released in 1988 (Australia's bicentennial year), the logo starts out like the previous logo, with the Australia outline, but then fades into this logo as an announcer says, "In the Australian tradition, Roadshow Home Video brings you a 6-pack, the Aussie 6-pack. In this, our bicentennial year, for only $19.88 each, you can have in your home library six of the all-time greatest Australian movies".

Technique: Cel animation.

Audio: A synth stinger accompanied by a synthesized phasing sound and a laser sound.

Audio Variants:

The 'SNEAK PREVIEWS FROM OUR MOVIES' variant has an additional laser sound when the aforementioned text is revealed.
At the end of the Absolute Beginners VHS, the music fades out after the "Village Roadshow Corporation" text forms. The opening has the regular logo play out.

Availability: Seen on Australian VHS & Betamax tapes in the late '80s and early '90s.

Titles include The Falcon and the Snowman (the first release with this logo), The Terminator, Rambo: First Blood Part II, Short Circuit, 9 & 1/2 Weeks, The Running Man, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie, and RoboCop II.
It is also seen on the video board game Rap Rat.
It does not appear on 1991-1992 ABC Video releases, even though the logo is featured on the back; they just use the Video Selection Australia logo of the time.
This also appears on Walt Disney Home Video and Touchstone Home Video titles they distributed at the time.
Tapes with this logo should usually have the Village Roadshow logo in gold (sometimes it's a solid colour) with "ROADSHOW HOME VIDEO" underneath it on the spine of the cover.
Some early releases with this logo continued to use the previous logo on the labels.
It also appears on New Zealand ABC Video releases along with the Video Selection Australia logo.
One of the last releases to use this logo was Atmosfear.

3rd Logo (March 1993-)

Home Video version
Early version
From Golf Pro 2000 Downunder (1997)
Entertainment version
2011 version
Home Entertainment version
With slogan
DVD Promo
Blu-Ray Promo

Visuals: A chrome curve comes from the right of screen. The curve then moves down, turning out to be the large "V", and several more segments appear. They all zoom back to reveal the logo same as before, but chrome. Underneath the words "ROADSHOW ENTERTAINMENT" along with a line separating the byline "A VILLAGE ROADSHOW COMPANY" fade in.

Trivia:

This logo is the same as the theatrical logo from the era, except the segments move from front to back rather than the other way around (at a faster speed), and "ROADSHOW ENTERTAINMENT" appears in place of "ROADSHOW".
It is widely thought this logo started in late 1992, yet the earliest releases to use it date back to February-March 1993.

Variants:

On some of the first releases with this logo, the words "HOME VIDEO" replace "ENTERTAINMENT".
On some early releases (with the "ENTERTAINMENT" text), the logo has a grayish tint.
At the start of most rental tapes until 1995, when the logo is finished, the words "COMING SOON" appear, the "HOME VIDEO" version of this logo has a different version of this. There is also a "MORE PREVIEWS TO FOLLOW" variant of this.
On some releases like The Dish, Space Cowboys and Looking for Alibrandi, the text fades in with a different, smaller font and the word "HOME" is added. The byline is not italicized.
There is a special promo variant in which there is a smaller logo at the top of the screen, and "Power to the People at Home" (with an announcer repeating the line) in silver script is wiped in below, then it flashes (it could also be seen as a print logo on some of their releases such as Pulp Fiction).
From around 1996 onwards, the company name just zooms out with the "V".
In 2011, the logo became more orange-tinted, and the text "ROADSHOW ENTERTAINMENT", with its byline, zooms out with the logo to end up with the same result as the previous version of the logo.
On the 1993 VHS release of the third episode of DIC's Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, "Lovesick Sonic", the logo appears via an wipe-up transition, and the music is slightly cut-short.
On widescreen DVD releases, the logo is presented in 14:9.
On some 2007-2011 releases, the animation is sped-up.
On the 1993 VHS of Wolves of the Sea, the logo is in black and white.
This logo can be rendered at 40 and 60 fps.
There is a special variant used on a promo for Blu-ray releases. After the logo finishes animating, the background crossfades into the Blu-ray logo sequence. The Roadshow logo then slightly faces the left, shines, and flies down to make room for the Blu-ray logo's appearance.

Technique: CGI.

Audio:

1993-1996: A low-pitched calm synth tune with 4 chime sounds with a low synth sound at the end. As the V zooms out, a sound that resembles a drum roll can be heard. The synth tune and low synth sound come from the backing track of the Roadshow Films theme (i.e. without the twelve-note melody). The text fades in exactly at the low synth sound.
1996-2011: A five-note synth chime arrangement, based on the Roadshow Films theme.
2011-: A calm, echoing 8-note electronic piano tune. This is basically the last eight notes of the Roadshow Films theme.

Audio Variants:

On the DVD releases of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (the 2005 Tim Burton remake), Music and Lyrics, Happy Feet, Ocean's Twelve, Ocean's Thirteen, and I Am Legend, the 1998-2005 Village Roadshow Pictures music is heard in PAL.
On Blu-ray releases (and some DVDs, such as Mad Max: Fury Road), the music is in a lower tone due to PAL to NTSC sound conversion. This applies to both the 1996 and 2011 audio variants.
On the video board game Nightmare IV: Vampire (aka Atmosfear IV), different sounds consisting of some spooky sounds and a few whooshes can be heard.
On the "Power To The People At Home" Promo variant, there is a funky tune with the announcer saying "Roadshow Entertainment, Power to the People at Home!".
On the 1993-1995 Coming Soon variant, once the Roadshow logo finishes, the 1993-1995 music is still heard, but slightly extended.
On Hamish & Andy's Euro Gap Year (disc 2) and Hamish & Andy's Caravan of Courage - Australia vs. New Zealand, the 1996-2011 music is used with the 2011 variant.
The 2007-2011 variant uses a “duophonic” version of the 1996 music, in which the right channel has a slight delay, creating a “doubling” effect.
At the end of the 1994 VHS Mike Jackson's Concert for Little Kids, oddly, the logo is silent.

Availability: Appears on all Roadshow material during its era.

It was seen on all 1993-2005 ABC Video and 1996-2005 BBC VHS releases they distributed, but it doesn't appear on the DVDs, even though the logo could be seen on the back and on the disc; however, early ABC DVDs such as The Wiggles: Wiggly TV, Wild Rhapsody & La Boheme feature this logo.
The 1993 music variant can be seen on every release with this logo until 1996, such as Pulp Fiction, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, and The Mask. It also appears on locally-made New Zealand Roadshow tapes. It makes an appearance at the end of Blink on the Australian Reel Entertainment DVD, possibly due to using the master from the 1994 Roadshow VHS release. This music was last heard on the VHS game Atmosfear: the Soul Rangers.
The 1996 music variant is intact on the 2021 Paramount Region 4 DVD releases of Sleepy Hollow and Mansfield Park (1999), due to being reprints of their original Roadshow DVD releases. It also appears at the end of the 1998 reprint VHS of Fireman Sam: A Spot Of Bother, despite the opening being recycled from its 1992 VHS release. The standard 14:9 version of this variant makes an appearance on the DVD releases of Hamish & Andy’s Gap Year, Hamish & Andy’s Euro Gap Year (disc 1), Hamish & Andy’s Gap Year Asia, Hamish & Andy’s Gap Year South America and Hamish & Andy Learn India & Reministmas Bonus Disc. It also makes an appearance at the end of Little Voice on the Australian Reel Entertainment DVD, possibly due to using the master from the 1999 Roadshow VHS release. It can also be seen on the 1997 video game Golf Pro 2000 Downunder for MS-DOS.
The 2011 music variant can be seen on more recent releases, such as the DVD release of Red Dog.
The Home Video variant appears at the end of the 1993 VHS Babar: The Elephant Express, even though the beginning uses the regular version.
The Home Entertainment variant appears at the end of the 2004 DVD release of Short Circuit, despite the regular variant being used at the beginning.
The VHS release of Space Cowboys uses the Home Entertainment variant, however the DVD release of said film uses the regular variant, despite the Roadshow Home Entertainment print logo appearing on the cover, spine, back and disc.
This does not appear on the 1999 Kultur VHS release of the 1973 film adaptation of Don Quixote, despite the Roadshow Entertainment print logo appearing on the back cover.
It also does not appear on Sesame Street related, Bob the Builder and certain Thomas the Tank Engine DVDs, despite the 1995 warning screen appearing at the beginning.
The Blu-ray promo variant can be seen on the 2010 DVD release of The Expendables.