Spiffy Pictures

Spiffy Pictures
Founded:	2003 (19 years ago)
Founder:	David Rudman Adam Rudman

Background

Spiffy Pictures is a Chicago-based production company founded by brothers David and Adam Rudman, both of whom (specifically the former) are known for their work on Sesame Street. The company centers around producing shows for children and are known for their puppetry work. The company was founded in 2003.

(October 31, 2003-November 8, 2008, November 25, 2015-)

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  The animal winks
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  The animal winks (prototype)

Logo: On a tangerine background, a white oval with the head of a cartoon animal (possibly a dog) wearing a beret in the center, "SPIFFY" (in the Witless font) at the top and "PICTURES" (in the Avant Garde font) at the bottom, jumps to the middle of the screen. The animal zooms up towards the viewer, says "Spiffy!", zooms back in place and winks with its right eye.

Variants:

• There are two prototype versions of this logo.
  • The first one was seen on the website where the whole logo is an orange circle, and has another blue circle in the center. The "SPIFFY" text is white with a shadow underneath it, the tagline ”good stuff" is seen below, and "PICTURES" is written in a curved fashion. The animal also winks on the left eye instead of the right eye, and doesn't say anything.
  • The second one was seen on the Curious Buddies episodes "Look and Listen at the Park", "Exploring at the Beach", and "Helping at Home" where the lighting is darker, the letters are closer, and the lines are not filled as much.
• On Bunnytown, the logo was modified. The logo is bigger and slightly positioned upwards, has a drop shadow and a thin white outline, is significantly shortened to just have the animal saying the company name, and the animation is cheaper.
• Starting in 2015, the logo was remade with new animation, a different font for the logo's text (to match the website logo), and the oval zooms in. The audio and overall concept of the original logo were kept the same. However, on Nature Cat and Donkey Hodie, the animal doesn't say anything (due to the ending theme playing over) and just winks.
• On broadcasts of season 2 onwards of Nature Cat on PBS Kids, there's a copyright notice at the bottom that fades in.

Technique: 2D computer animation; Flash animation on the Bunnytown and Nature Cat variants.

Music/Sounds: A two-note accordion jingle followed by the animal's dialogue (voiced by David Rudman) and a ding-dong sound as he winks. On Jack's Big Music Show, the closing theme is heard over the regular music.

Music/Sounds Variants:

• Jack's Big Music Show had two variations:
  • On the episode "Spunky the Alien", the animal says "Swinky!"
  • On the episode "Silly Show", the animal sounds like a parrot. It sounds like he's saying "SPUNKEH?!".
• On Bunnytown, the accordion plays immediately after the "Spiffy!" sound effect.
• On Nature Cat and Donkey Hodie, the ending theme is heard.
  • On season 5 for Nature Cat, while the animal winks, a xylophone note is heard.

Availability: The final logo can be seen on the shows Curious Buddies, Jack's Big Music Show, Bunnytown, Nature Cat, Frankie and Frank, and Donkey Hodie. The prototype version can be seen on the website here.

Legacy: Fans who grew up with Spiffy's works consider this a nostalgic logo; it's also a common subject of "logo edits (also known as "Effects")" on YouTube.