Touchstone Television (2020)

Fox Television Studios

Contents

(May 19, 1998-December 18, 2014)

Fox 21

Contents

(June 1, 2005-March 31, 2015)

Fox 21 Television Studios

Contents

(January 27, 2015-September 18, 2020)

Touchstone Television

Contents

(August 10-October 6, 2020)

Background

Fox Television Studios was the network television division of 20th Century Fox Television, that was formed in 1997 by News Corporation (later "21st Century Fox Inc.", now "The Walt Disney Company").

Fox 21 was a low-scripted and reality television production arm of 20th Century Fox Television, a subsidiary of News Corporation (later "21st Century Fox Inc.", now "The Walt Disney Company") that was formed in 2004.

On December 4, 2014, the Fox Television Group division of Fox Entertainment Group and 21st Century Fox, Inc. (now The Walt Disney Company) merged two of their network television units, Fox 21 and Fox Television Studios, into a single entity called "Fox 21 Television Studios". The company continued operating after Disney's purchase of Fox in 2019. On August 10, 2020, Fox 21 Television Studios was rebranded as Touchstone Television; this served as both a revival of Disney's "Touchstone" brand, and their overall removal of the "Fox" name off of properties Disney inherited from 21st Century Fox. In December 2020, Touchstone Television was folded into 20th Television.

Fox Television Studios

(May 19, 1998-December 18, 2014)

Logo: We see the standard Fox structure, this time reading "FOX TELEVISION STUDIOS". The searchlights are turned off, the normally clear sky is gone, and a thunderstorm is brewing overhead. A bolt of lightning crashes down on the tower, turning on the searchlights. The News Corp. byline is still intact (pre-2013 only).

Trivia: The background of this logo is based on the 1995 Fox Lab logo, minus the two electric beams.

Variants:

This logo is seen for a split-second at the beginning of the Foxstar Productions logo in 1998.
In 2008, the logo was given a more "enhanced" look with more realistic effects and background, with the byline now in all caps and a more cheap-looking Times font. The design also looks cheaper.
Sometimes, the logo is bylineless, but has always been bylineless since 2013, due to the News Corp. split.
On Return to the Batcave: The Misadventures of Adam and Burt and the first four season DVD releases of Soul Food: The Series, a short version is used.
An extended version exists, where the tower (seen darkened) slowly turns and zooms in a bit with lightning in the background. The logo then continues as normal, staying on a few seconds with more searchlight animation and the extended fanfare.
On the TV movie Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House, the logo has more searchlight animation, but not as much as above. On an ABC Family (now Freeform) airing, this version is shortened to the last three seconds.
The DVD and initial TV edits of Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy have a slightly cropped version of the logo. The ending theme plays over it and it appears before the Lucasfilm logo. This is plastered with the 2008 variant in a 2015 revision of the special (which is also the version used on Disney+).
A still version exists.
Sometimes, the logo is shown in-credit.

FX/SFX: CGI animation. The original 1998 version was done by Flip Your Lid Animation, and the 2008 "enhanced" version was done by Cinergy Creative.

Music/Sounds: The final 4 notes of the 1997 Fox fanfare, or the shortened 1997 or 2005 20th Century Fox Television fanfare, accompanied by sounds of thunder.

Music/Sounds Variants:

In some cases, it's the closing theme of the show, the generic network theme or none.
The long version has thunder and an extended short version of the Fox fanfare.
On Olive: The Other Reindeer and a handful of season 1 episodes of Malcolm in the Middle, the 1997 TCFTV music is used, abridged to the last two notes on the latter.
The Home Alone 4 version has the extended version of the music in low-tone.
On some shows, it uses the last four notes of the 1997 TCF movie fanfare, accomplished by a different thunder stock sound.
On Fox airings of Murder in Small Town X, a different thunder sound plays over a generic theme.

Availability: Common.

This logo made its first appearance on the 1998 TV movie Gargantua.
This was also seen on The Glades, Burn Notice, White Collar, the short-lived The Good Guys, Maron, and Saving Grace, among others.
It can be seen on most comedies that Fox produced like The Hughleys and was also seen on network airings of Malcolm in the Middle.
It survives on DVD releases of The Shield.
Some shows on Fox Sports Net also used this logo.
Some reruns of shows like The Hughleys (last seen on FXX and Bounce) and Malcolm in the Middle on Fuse plaster it with the 20th Television logo (sometimes leaving the music intact).
It was also seen on The Girls Next Door last seen on E! and preserved on Tubi prints.
The long version so far was only seen on Night of the Headless Horseman.
Nickelodeon's print of Olive the Other Reindeer plastered this with 20th Television, while Cartoon Network and The WB's print didn't show any Fox logo.
Reruns of Malcolm in the Middle on Comedy Central UK plasters this with the 2013 bylineless 20th Century Fox Television logo, whilst some episodes from later in the series run retain this logo. However, on Netflix prints of Malcolm in the Middle, this logo is plastered by the 2013 bylineless 20th Century Fox Television logo on all episodes. Hulu prints of the sixth and seventh seasons of Malcolm in the Middle retain this logo, beginning with the sixth season episode "Tiki Lounge". It's also preserved on Aussie airings of said show. Speaking of Malcolm, some current prints of the show, like on 4Music UK airings, plasters the original logo with the 2008 version.
On current HD prints of Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House (TV, digital, etc…), this is plastered by the 2013 20th Television logo, sometimes leaving the FTS theme intact.

Fox 21

(June 1, 2005-March 31, 2015)

Nickname: "The Typewriter"

Logo: On a white grain background, we see "fox21." typing in one-by-one. The byline "A NEWS CORPORATION COMPANY" in the same font that appears on all Fox logos fades in underneath the words.

Variants:

The logo would come in either the standard 4:3 version (seen on full-screen prints) or the widescreen 16:9 version.
In 2013, the byline was removed, following the News Corp. split.

FX/SFX: 2D animation.

Music/Sounds: The typing sounds from a typewriter followed by a typewriter ding or the closing theme of the show.

Availability: Uncommon. This was last seen on their shows until 2014 such as Sons of Anarchy (but Audience Network reruns have the Fox 21 Television Studios logo in its place), Homeland, and Brickleberry. It was also seen on Beauty and the Geek, and Anchorwoman.

Fox 21 Television Studios

(January 27, 2015-September 18, 2020)

Nickname: "The Typewriter II"

Logo: Same as the logo for Fox 21, except the logo types much faster, "television studios." appears below "fox21", the background has an orange tint to it, and no byline is present.

FX/SFX: Same as before.

Music/Sounds: The same as the Fox 21 logo, except the typing sound is faster and a different ding sound is used.

Availability: Common. Seen on then-new seasons of shows that were originally produced by Fox 21 and Fox Television Studios which are Graceland, the U.S. version of Sirens, Homeland, Tyrant, Legends, Salem, The Americans, Brickleberry and Maron. It also appeared on its then-new shows such as Dice, American Crime Story, Queen of the South, the Sons of Anarchy spin-off Mayans M.C., Genius, The Chi, The Hot Zone and Pose in which future seasons of the latter seven will use the 20th Television logo starting in 2021. It makes a surprise appearance on international prints (replacing the Hallmark Channel notice) of the TV movies Karen Kingsbury's The Bridge Part One and Two after the MarVista Entertainment logo. On Audience Network reruns of Sons of Anarchy, this plastered the Fox 21 logo.

Legacy: The typewriter format of the logo has been criticized by many in the logo community due to the concept's overuse and overall blandness, especially since it was replacing the Fox Television Studios logo which used a TCF base.

Touchstone Television

(August 10-October 6, 2020)

Nickname: "The Typewriter III"

Logo: Similar to the Fox 21 and Fox 21 Television Studios logos, but the word "touchstone" replaces "fox21 television studios" and is seen being typed on the paper, then the word "television" replacing the dot at the end pops in below.

FX/SFX: See Fox 21 and Fox 21 Television Studios.

Music/Sounds: The same as the Fox 21 and Fox 21 Television Studios logos; the typing sounds accompany the typing of "touchstone", and the "ding" sound accompanies the appearance of "television".

Availability: Extremely rare. Disney introduced this logo on YouTube on the day the branding was announced, and it was expected to appear on shows formerly produced under Fox 21 by the end of the year; however, this logo was quickly retired due to the company folding into 20th Television just a few months after the announcement. This made its only appearance on the Hulu anthology horror film Books of Blood.

Legacy: This logo is seen as a massive disappointment due to re-using the infamous typewriter format used in many other logos, and forgoing the iconic thunderball symbol (especially since there's enough space in this logo for the symbol to appear somewhere). It was short-lived, as Touchstone Television would be folded into 20th Television a few months later.

Final Note: Despite Touchstone Television folding into 20th Television, the name still existed as a copyright notice within the text reading as "© [YEAR] Touchstone Television".

Copyright Stamps

Here is some information about the copyright stamps on Touchstone Television/20th Television series (starting in 2020):