WGBH Productions

Credits

Descriptions by
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Captures by
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Editions by
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Video captures courtesy of
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This article is about the production logos. For the TV idents, see WGBH.

Background

WGBH (an abbreviation of Western Great Blue Hill) is a PBS affiliate located in Boston, Massachusetts and owned by the WGBH Educational Foundation. The station launched on May 2, 1955, and introduced an animated on-screen logo in 1968. It is also one of the biggest PBS affiliates, producing much of the national content for the network, and is also one of their two flagship stations. In 2020, the station rebranded as GBH.

Contents 1st Logo (October 11, 1956-1971) 2nd Logo (1968-1971) 3rd Logo (1969-1971) 4th Logo (October 6, 1971-September 1977) 5th Logo (6th logo placeholder) (January 7, 1975?-1976?)   6th Logo (January 5, 1977-2009) 7th Logo (Enterprise "All in the Game" custom variant) (1983) 8th Logo (Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? custom variant) (September 30, 1991-December 22, 1995) 9th Logo (2008-September 1, 2020)

In-Credit Logo

Contents   Logo (March 3, 1974-September 1, 2020)

1st Logo (October 11, 1956-1971)

Visuals: There is the WGBH symbol (an "X" connected to a triangle on the bottom and a vertical line throughout the center, with circles to the left and right of the symbol, respectively) with text next to the word "TV" saying:in association with
WGBH-TV
BOSTON

Trivia: The symbol is actually an ancient Aztec symbol for "family." The triangle and vertical line represent a woman, the vertical line and top two portions of the "X" represent a man, and the circles represent children. The symbol is still in use as the logo for "WGBH Alumni."

Technique: Usually superimposed. Sometimes, camera-controlled animation.

Audio: The in-credit variant uses the ending audio to the program it follows.

Availability: Unknown.

2nd Logo (1968-1971)

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Visuals: On a black background, multiple outlined copies of the text "WGBH", in a Microgramma font, converge in towards each other at the lower center of the screen, scrolling at different speeds. Upon merging into a single white outline, a solid copy appears in a marigold color, the outline fades out, and the logo zooms back slightly to the left. Upon reaching a comfortable distance away from the screen, the text "A PRODUCTION OF" on top, and "BOSTON" on the bottom, fade in around the logo, aligned to the right.

Technique: Camera-controlled animation, animated by Ron Finley.

Audio: None.

Availability: This was recently spotted on the Flick Out episode "Ron Finley". Possibly a prototype.

3rd Logo (1969-1971)

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Visuals: Just text saying A production of
WGBH
BOSTON

in the Futura typeface.

Technique: Superimposed in the closing credits.

Audio: Ending theme of the program.

Availability: This was spotted on the first episode of The Nader Report, currently available for viewing on WGBH's open vault.

4th Logo (October 6, 1971-September 1977)

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Visuals: On a blue background, "WGBH", in a generic yellow Helvetica font, quickly zooms back towards the center of the screen, eventually disappearing at the vanishing point. After a brief second, "Boston" zooms in quickly towards the screen, eventually filling it the screen with yellow and effectively inverting the colors. "Presents", in the same font but blue, then appears in the center and zooms down to the bottom of the screen, stopping just before it reaches off-screen. The text has a slight white outline to it.

Variants:

• Several color variants are known to exist. All of these also lack the white outline.
  • Sometimes, the blue is now forest green.
  • The shade of colors may depend on the program, like teal/golden yellow (WGBH News), dark blue/light yellow (The Advocates), and purple/bright green (A Tribute to John Cage).
  • Early episodes of The Advocates have a burgundy background.
  • On many early episodes of NOVA, the words are brown and the background is a cream yellow color. After "Boston" fills the screen, the background actually becomes a time-lapse shot of a brown morning sky, with the sun coming up after "Presents" zooms off-screen.
  • A Blind Teacher In A Public School has a dark blue background and white words. Uniquely, the background doesn't invert when "Boston" fills the screen and "Presents" fully zooms off-screen.
• On The French Chef, the logo is chroma-keyed over a slanted flag of France (which has the colors flipped around, making it look more like a Netherlands flag or the 1792 First French Republic flag) against a blue background, with a much rougher look to it. The "Boston" text also inverts into being a cutout in a yellow square to get the proper effect, and "Presents" disappears at the end, leaving the background.
  • On two episodes of the aforementioned series, specifically "Coq au Vin (Alias Chicken Fricassee)" and "Mousse au Chocolat", a prototype version of the logo is used with a black background and cyan text. This is the earliest known version of it.
• On Evening at Pops: A Special Program with Arthur Fiedler and Friends from Sesame Street (1971) and its Bicentennial edition, the background is black with falling confetti and the words are inverted colors of the footage.
• On Godspell Goes to Plimoth Plantation for Thanksgiving, its similar to the confetti variant, but the background consists of the bottom view of floating red and blue balloons.
• On The Fight To Be Remembered, the logo is in-credit and colored white. The sound of wind (actually audio from the program) is also heard over the music.
• On the first season of NOVA, the words are in a different font, colored lime green and fully capitalized, and they swoop down in an arch before forming a small green dot, which begins to form swirling patterns just as "PRESENTS" swoops down, and then transforms into the NOVA logo, zooming in as it starts the intro.

Technique: Camera-controlled animation. The French Chef and the early NOVA variants use Scanimation.

Audio: Eerie, choppy, UFO-like computer blips ascend and descend several times. A rising Moog violin stinger starts playing over the blips until the stringer settles on a high note. This was composed by Gershon Kingsley, best known for the song "Popcorn".

Audio Variant: The jingle's speed may vary; it can play slower or faster than usual.

Availability: Seen on older WGBH programming, assuming it isn't plastered with a later logo. You might find this on old tapes of The French Chef, 1972's Zoom, Evening at Pops, The Victory Garden, Masterpiece Theatre, and/or NOVA episodes from the era. The French Chef variant also showed up when WGBH-2 in Boston, MA had a marathon of old episodes of The French Chef on Christmas Day, 2011. It is also found online on several episodes of The Advocates on the WGBH Open Vault.

Legacy: It is often noted for its simple, but fast-paced animation, and music that would later be commonly associated with the 1977 logo.

5th Logo (6th logo placeholder) (January 7, 1975?-1976?)

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Visuals: A light grey background fades in as the white letter "A", in a serif font, slides in from the right side of the screen to the top left, and "Presentation" slides in from the left just below it as the background begins to fade out. "of" slides up from the bottom and then meets up with them, pushing them off-screen as the background fades to black. The WGBH logo, colored white, then fades in the center of the screen, and "Boston" slides in from the bottom left until it stops just after reaching the bottom left edge.

Technique: Motion-controlled animation.

Audio: Eerie, choppy, UFO-like computer blips ascend and descend several times. A rising Moog violin stinger starts playing over the blips until the stringer settles on a high note. This was composed by Gershon Kingsley, best known for the song "Popcorn".

Availability: So far, the only source of this logo is a 1975 KCET broadcast of Ascent of Man.

Legacy: Due to its obscurity and short lifespan, it is often noted by the community as a placeholder of the next logo.

6th Logo (January 5, 1977-2009)

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Visuals:

• 1977-2009: Two flashes appear and move horizontally throughout the screen, forming parallel orange outlines from opposite sides of the screen. Both outlines have several slits and curves. The flashes then move vertically to connect the two lines together, and form an outlined "WGBH" inside of the new shape. Once finished, an orange flash appears behind the outline. As the flash becomes bright, "WGBH" fades out, and "Boston Presents" appears in an orange Helvetica font. The entire logo has a notable glow to it, resembling a neon sign. This was used as a bumper at the beginning of shows.
• 1993-2008: The WGBH logo, already formed, fades in and begins to glow brightly. Upon finishing glowing, the logo clears up, the glow dims, and the word "BOSTON" fades in below, spaced out to fit the width of the logo in an thin orange (red starting in 2007) Univers font.
• 2002-2009: A CGI remake of the 1977 version. The animation is much quicker, sped up to one second, and the outline gains a slight glow effect to it. The flash is also dimmer, with "BOSTON" then fading in below in a different font.

Variants:

• Starting in 1986, a short version starting just as the "WGBH" text is finished forming began to be used.
• A version of the 2002 version has the logo zooming in a bit during the animation, which was also used as a station ID.
• A superimposed variant of the logo can be seen on some episodes of Masterpiece Theater, The American Experience, and Evening at Pops.
• From 1996-2004, the "BOSTON" text may not appear.
• A local version used in the 1980s begins with a blue flash, followed by an orange "2" written in the same style as the WGBH logo zooming up. This variant was always played when the station signed on in the morning and played in reverse when it signed off at night. No music or sounds play here.
• On some episodes of Arthur, the glowing is delayed for half a second and is slightly slowed down. This was only seen on some episodes of Arthur.
• On later episodes of Arthur, the byline "WGBH is a trademark of WGBH Educational Foundation" (and sometimes a URL) is shown below written in the Arthur font.
• There is a version where the logo forms in warp speed and, after the logo flashes, it turns into the PBS logo which shines. This is seen in some episodes of Mystery.
• A variant exists where "Boston Presents" transitions to the text "IN ASSOCIATION WITH MONEY MAGAZINE." "IN ASSOCIATION WITH" is above "MONEY" in the same font as "Presents" as is "MAGAZINE" which is below. "Money" is in its corporate font. The text glows for a couple of seconds until fading out.

Technique: Motion-controlled animation from 1977 to 1993; CGI from 1993 to 2009.

Audio: Eerie, choppy, UFO-like computer blips ascend and descend several times. A rising Moog violin stinger starts playing over the blips until the stringer settles on a high note. This was composed by Gershon Kingsley, best known for the song "Popcorn". Compared to the previous logos, the audio quality is higher and plays at the correct speed. A more common short version features only the rising synth chord (but the UFO noise is still heard, but only abridged).

Audio Variants:

• Sometimes, an announcer will say "A production/presentation of WGBH Boston." or "(show's name) is a production/presentation of WGBH Boston."
• The Mystery version has the full music along with a male announcer saying "Mystery is a production of WGBH. Produced in Boston, shared with the world."
• A version has been seen with abridged animation, no voice-over, and slightly lower-pitched music on Design Squad.
• Two versions can be heard whether it's long or short; one is the original pitch, while the other is slightly higher pitched. The 1986 version has the former, while the 1993 version has the latter. The 1977 version has either.
• Sometimes, the 1993 or 2002 logos have an announcer saying "(Show's name) is a production/presentation of WGBH Boston." or simply "A production/presentation of WGBH Boston". From 1998 to 2002, on Mystery and Masterpiece Theatre, the announcer has a British accent. On the 1999 revival of Zoom, a kid from the show voices over, with the short music. Starting in 2002, there would be no announcer and it would just have the music. One variant has a creepy voice-over say "Mystery is a presentation of WGBH Boston."
• In the "Money Magazine" variant, the logo has a slight reverb.
• Sometimes, the closing theme of the show will play over this logo, mainly on pre-2009 episodes of Arthur and Between the Lions.

Availability: Likely the most readily available PBS logo around.

• The first version made its debut on the NOVA episode "Hitler's Secret Weapon", and can be seen in its various versions on many PBS shows, such as NOVA, Frontline, American Experience, Masterpiece Theatre, The Victory Garden, and Arthur, among others.
• The filmed variant can be found on 16mm dupes of WGBH programming distributed by Time-Life Multimedia for classroom usage.
• The 1993 version with the short music and no announcer has been sighted on early episodes of Fetch with Ruff Ruffman.
• The 2002 version has been seen on episodes of Between the Lions, Frontline, and NOVA.
• The "Boston Presents" version can be found on video and may also show up on WGBH shows produced from 1982-1993 if your station has older prints.
• The original unabridged version can be seen on videocassettes and DVDs of their 1979 miniseries The Scarlet Letter, all of which also preserve the 1971 PBS logo, and also appears on earlier prints of Cathedral and in full near the start of the 2019 documentary This Old House 40th Anniversary.
• The short version is retained on the Turner Home Entertainment VHS of the Ken Burns film Thomas Hart Benton. Current prints of Arthur plaster it with the 12th logo.
• The "Money Magazine" variant only appeared on On The Money.
• The original 1977 logo and shortened 1986 variant can be seen on episodes of This Old House uploaded to their official YouTube channel.
• The 1996 and 1999 variants can be seen on pre-2010 episodes of Arthur, though some 1996-2005 episodes of Arthur used the 1993 variant instead.
• The 2007 variant can be seen on 2007-2008 episodes of Postcards from Buster and Peep and the Big Wide World.

Legacy: Quite possibly one of, if not the most iconic PBS affiliate logo ever, and especially is a favorite of many. It did however give scares to lots of people for its dark atmosphere and music.

7th Logo (Enterprise "All in the Game" custom variant) (1983)

Visuals: On a blue/black background is the text "WGBH BOSTON" fade in and out, revealing more logos doing the same thing.

Technique: Fading effects.

Audio: An announcer saying "This program is presented by WGBH Boston...", where it continues as more logos appear.

Availability: Only seen on the Enterprise episode All in the Game.

8th Logo (Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? custom variant) (September 30, 1991-December 22, 1995)

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Visuals: There is a small Earth globe against a starry sky quickly rotate around counterclockwise, and the words "WQED" (in yellow-orange) with "PITTSBURGH" (in white) below slowly rotate around clockwise, followed by "WGBH" (again, in yellow-orange) with "BOSTON" (in white) below.

Technique: CGI.

Audio:

• September 30, 1991-December 25, 1992: The first part of the show's theme song (performed by Rockapella) as the chief (played by Lynne Thigpen) says "Today's caper is presented by WQED Pittsburgh and WGBH Boston".
• September 27, 1993-December 22, 1995: The ending theme of the show (again, Performed by Rockapella) with the chief saying "This program is presented by WQED Pittsburgh and WGBH Boston".

Availability: Seen only on Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?.

9th Logo (2008-September 1, 2020)

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Visuals: It's an updated variant of the sixth logo. The drawing and lighting effects are smoother and more refined, with stars surrounding the logo, like in space, when it flashes. The flash is also brighter than usual, and the WGBH logo zooms in while it's drawn, and dims out when the logo is done.

Variants:

• There is a variant that is tinted blue. This was seen in their local productions, such as Greater Boston.
• An in-credit version of the logo has been spotted on Antiques Roadshow, which simply shows the orange WGBH logo at the bottom of the screen.
• An extended variant exists where the logo stays on screen after the flash disappears and shines before fading out.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: The short version of the sixth logo theme.

Audio Variants:

• On Greater Boston, a male announcer (with the opening theme playing over his announcement) says, "This is a production of WGBH 2 Boston".
• On a CBeebies print of Arthur, the music from the 2nd WGBH Kids logo plays due to a bad plaster/reverse plaster.

Availability: Seen on episodes of WGBH programming before the rebrand to GBH, such as NOVA, Frontline, and American Experience, among others. Also seen on post-2008 prints of Arthur, plastering the 1993 logo. The unabridged logo is not as common, it can be seen on Mind of a Chef and occasionally on feature-length specials. The blue variant was seen on earlier episodes of Greater Boston, but episodes afterwards started using the standard variant.

Legacy: Like the sixth logo, its considered a favorite of many and is just as iconic.

In-Credit Logo

Logo (March 3, 1974-September 1, 2020)

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Visuals: Superimposed on the end credits of the show, the WGBH logo is shown, which consists of the text "WGBH" in a bold font, with the outlines being extended out from the front and back, creating a shadow effect. " Boston" is typically under it, with the colors for both being different at times. Typically, there's also the copyright for WGBH Educational Foundation.

Trivia: The logo was designed by design firm Chermayeff & Geismar, which has also designed for NBC, PBS, Showtime, Univision, Viacom, and Screen Gems, among others.

Technique: Superimposed.

Audio: None or the closing theme of the show.

Availability: Its first appearance was at the end credits of the series premiere of NOVA. It would appear at the end of WGBH programming until 1993 when the 6th logo was moved to the end. Curious George, Downton Abbey, and select episodes of Masterpiece are the shows that still have this logo, until the GBH rebrand. It also appeared at the end of The Captioned ABC News starting sometime between June 1980 and October 1981 and presumably continuing until that program's discontinuation sometime in 1982. The 2004 variant (blue on green BG) was only seen on season 1 of Peep and the Big Wide World and was plastered by the WGBH Kids logo when the show was moved to PBS, but it can be seen on a promotional DVD of the Ready Set Learn block on Discovery Kids and TLC.

WGBH Productions

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