Spiffy Pictures

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.

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

(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, an oval with a cartoon animal (most likely a fox) wearing an artist's cap with "SPIFFY" (in the Witless font) at the top and "PICTURES" at the bottom, jumps to the middle of the screen. The animal zooms up, says "Spiffy!", zooms back out and winks on the right eye.

Variants:

• On Bunnytown, the logo was changed.
  • The logo is bigger and slightly positioned upwards.
  • The logo has a drop shadow.
  • There's a thin white outline on the logo.
  • The logo is significantly shortened, only showing the part with the animal saying "Spiffy!".
  • The animation is slower and more puppet-like.
• 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. On Nature Cat and Donkey Hodie, the animal doesn't say anything and just winks.
• There are two prototype versions of this logo.
  • The first one was seen on the website where the whole logo is a circle, and has an oval in the center. The "SPIFFY" text is white with a shadow underneath it, and the tagline ”good stuff" is seen below. 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.
• From season 2 onwards of Nature Cat on PBS Kids, there's a copyright notice at the bottom that fades in. This is seen on broadcasts of the series on PBS Kids.

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

Music/Sounds: A 2-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.

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

Legacy: A nostalgic logo for fans who grew up with this company's work. It is also, for better or worse, a common subject of usually low-quality "logo edits" on YouTube.