SNL Studios

Credits

Descriptions by
Logophile

Captures by
Logophile

Video captures courtesy of
Logo Archive

Background

SNL Studios (a.k.a. Saturday Night Live Studios) is a production company founded in 1997 as a joint venture between SNL creator and producer Lorne Michaels and NBC Studios. Paramount Pictures was also part of the venture, but their part was dissolved in 2004 when NBC merged with Universal Pictures to form NBCUniversal. SNL Studios has produced Saturday Night Live in association with Broadway Video (also founded by Lorne Michaels), as well as produce movies, mainly those featuring SNL sketch characters. No on-screen logo was used until 1999.

(September 25, 1999- )

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Logo: On a black background, several lines of blue light fly by from the right as "SNL STUDIOS" (in white, in the same font used for the show title the company was named after from 1995-2006) dimmers in and out as the light scrolls. It all dies down, except for the bottom of the company name where it leaves circles (in order) the last "S" in "STUDIOS", the "I", the "U", the "T", the "S" and finally a streak under "SNL".

Variants:

• There are different variants which fade in and out early.
• For feature films, there is an extended version where the lights the last a bit longer before "SNL STUDIOS" appears.
• On DVD releases of the first few seasons of SNL, this logo appears to be on videotape, though it was an effect added during production.

Technique: The flying streaks of lights, and "SNL STUDIOS" dimming in and out.

Music/Sounds: The closing theme of the TV show. The theatrical version has a mystical xylophone theme that ascends as it goes along, which ends with a six-note saxophone solo (reminiscent of the saxophone bits in SNL's themes) and twinkles. This was composed by Howard Shore.

Availability: Not too hard to find. It debuted on the Saturday Night Live 25th Anniversary special and appears on the end of SNL episodes from the 25th season (1999-2000) and beyond, and it also can be found on current prints of the first five seasons of the aforementioned show. The movie version can be found on Superstar and The Ladies Man.

External links

• SNL Studios article on Wikipedia