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TruTV Originals
From the Audiovisual Identity Database, the motion graphics museum
Background
TruTV is an American basic cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. As of January 2016, the channel is available to approximately 91 million households in the United States, The channel launched in 1991 under the name "Court TV", The channel mainly focused on crime shows, legal dramas, and coverage of prominent cases, On January 1, 2008, Court TV rebranded to its current name TruTV and changed their focus to action-oriented docusoaps and "caught on camera" programs.
Court TV Original Productions
1st Logo (1990?-1995?)
 | This logo contains an old telephone number. Please do not try to dial it. |
Visuals: There is the original Court TV logo, which consists of two blue lines. the words "COURT" in the center, along with a blue and a gray rectangle, the gray one has the word "TV", the logo slowly rotates from left to right.
Variants:
- In the original pitch reel for the channel, the logo is on a black background and the words "WATCHING THE REAL LIFE DRAMA OF JUSTICE" fade in under the Court TV logo.
- In the VHS release of The Rodney King Case: What the Jury Saw in California v. Powell, many different footage in blue is seen, which then ends at a court setting, the blue lines then open up to the beginning.
- In Court TV: Inside America's Courts, First, there is black and white footage of a judge's hammer slamming on a gavel, which then the Court TV fades in, on top of the logo is "For information about", at the bottom of the logo is "And the case it covers", along with the company's phone number.
Technique: CGI.
Audio: Either the opening theme or the closing theme of the show.
Audio Variants:
- In the pitch reel, an announcer says "Court TV, watching the real-life drama of drama and justice."
- In the VHS release of The Rodney King Case: What the Jury Saw in California v. Powell, an announcer says "Court TV presents."
- In Court TV: Inside America's Courts, an announcer says "For information about Court TV and the case it covers, call 1-800-9-COURT-0."
Availability: It first appeared in a pitch reel for the channel, it also appeared in the VHS release of The Rodney King Case: What the Jury Saw in California v. Powell and Court TV: Inside America's Courts.
2nd Logo (1999?-2005)
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Visuals: On a blue background with white outlined "COURT"s, the words "In association with" appears with a wipe sparkle effect, then the words "COURT TV" flies letter-by-letter (a la Game Boy), the words "TV" then forms a red fingerprint, the background then moves until the logo fades out
Variants:
- A still version exists, here, the logo is on a white background, "COURT" is in black and is less spaced out and the TV fingerprint is orange.
- Sometimes, the logo is seen with a copyright in the bottom.
Technique: CGI.
Audio: a large swoosh sound followed by a low tone note.
Audio Variants:
- In the still version, none.
- In some shows such as Forensic Files, the ending bit of the ending theme of the show trails off into the logo.
- In some episodes of Masterminds, it's the show's ending theme.
Availability: Seen on Court TV originals at the time, such as Mugshots, early episodes of North Mission Road, Masterminds, Seasons 7-10 of Forensic Files, Stories of the Innocence Project and Trace Evidence: The Case Files of Dr. Henry Lee, later prints of some of these shows tend to remove this logo, but it's preserved in DVD prints of Forensic Files (FilmRise prints plaster this with the Medstar Television logo, with the theme still intact in 2014 prints of the show.) and Tubi and Amazon Prime Video prints of Masterminds, the still version is only seen on Guilt by Association.
3rd Logo (August 15, 2005-January 1, 2008)
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Visuals: On a dark blue background, there is a bunch of red rectangles flying across the screen, which then forms the newer Court TV logo, which consists of the words "CourtTV" with a white rectangle with a gap in which several red lines take the space, the words "IN ASSOCIATION WITH" is at the top like the last logo, along with "ORIGINAL PRODUCTIONS" at the bottom, the logo slowly zooms in.
Variant: like the last logo, the logo is sometimes seen with a copyright byline at the bottom.
Technique: CGI.
Audio: Same as the last logo.
Availability: Seen on Court TV originals at the time until its rebrand to TruTV in 2008, examples include Most Shocking, Jail, Smoking Gun TV, Seasons 10-12 of Forensic Files, Most Daring, Parco P.I., Hot Pursuit, Suburban Secrets and later episodes of North Mission Road, almost all of these shows aren't on TV anymore or haven't seen any home media releases, but Philo prints of Most Shocking and DVD prints of Forensic Files (FilmRise prints plaster this with the Medstar Television logo, with the theme still intact in 2014 prints of the show.) and Hot Pursuit perverse this logo.
TruTV Originals
1st Logo (January 1, 2008?-2012?)
Visuals: The sequence starts at an orange background, which then zooms out to reveal an orange circle in a blue background, when the circle finishes zooming out, the words "tru" slide to the left, and the circle gains the words "TV" and the words "NOT REALITY. ACTUALITY." appears as well.
Technique: Simple 2D digital animation.
Audio: None.
Availability: Its only known appearance is in Bait Car.
2nd Logo (February 11, 2016-2018?)
Visuals: On a black background, a dark blue circle with "TV" in it bounces, which then makes a green background with the text "Tru" sliding from the left like the last logo, the logo stays still for a few seconds until the animation plays in reverse.
Technique: 2D digital animation by Loyalkaspar.
Audio: None.
Availability: Seen on seasons 5-7 of Impractical Jokers, as well as DVD releases of their shows.
3rd Logo (January 9, 2019-2020?)
Visuals: On a white background, there are the words "A Tru ORIGINAL", then a green ball with the word "TV" drops down and bounces until it stops, then the logo stays still before cutting to black.
Variant: In Impractical Jokers: The Movie, the background and the text's colors have been swapped, the background is now black and the text is now white. A 60fps version exists in Paid Off.
Technique: 2D digital animation by Loyalkaspar.
Audio: A 5 note low tone theme.
Availability: Seen on I'm Sorry and Impractical Jokers: The Movie and its trailer. Also seen on season 3 prints of Adam Ruins Everything, and was also added on the steaming prints on HBO Max (Now MAX) before the logo was removed on later prints.
4th Logo (October 29, 2020-)
Visuals: On a blue background, a bunch of TruTV logos start appearing, it later reduces to just one, then the logo glitches to 3 rectangles, each of them jittering slowly, with the first one having the word "ORIGINAL". The TruTV logo reappears and "ORIGINAL" moves to the right, ending the logo.
Trivia: According to Block & Tackle, the company behind TruTV's rebrand, the reason the "ORIGINAL" rectangles jitter like so is because they were actually animated with a computer mouse cursor.
Variant: A red and black version exists, alongside a green and black version.
Technique: 2D digital animation.
Audio: Distorted glitchy 8-bit noises.
Availability: Seen on the ninth season of Impractical Jokers, Top Secret Videos. The red and black version is seen on Hot Ones: The Game Show.
