West/Shapiro Productions
Hoa and Logophile
Background
This is the production company of owners Howard West and George Shapiro, who both served as executive producers for Seinfeld.
1st Logo (September 8, 1987)
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Logo: On a black background is the text "A SHAPIRO/WEST PRODUCTION" with a copyright notice "©1987 S.W.A. PRODUCTIONS, INC. all rights reserved".
Technique: None.
Audio: The closing soundtrack to the program.
Availability: Seen at the end of Jerry Seinfeld: Stand-Up Confidential, an HBO comedy special which is long gone outside of off-air recordings.
2nd Logo (July 5, 1989)
Logo: On a blue background are stacked words in white. On top is "in association with", in the middle is "Howard West and George Shapiro Productions" and on bottom, "and".
Technique: None.
Audio: None.
Availability: Only seen on The Seinfeld Chronicles (the Seinfeld pilot) on DVD. Re-runs usually cut this out.
3rd Logo (May 31, 1990-May 14, 1998, November 23, 2004)
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Logo: On a black background, we see "A WEST/SHAPIRO PRODUCTION". Below it is "in association with".
Variants:
- On the 1994 prototype reel of NBC's split-screen credits (known as "NBC 2000"), a modified version of the logo is inside of the credits. The logo is much smaller (with the background filling the entire frame) with the show's logo and "PRODUCED FOR NBC BY..." above and "IN ASSOCIATION WITH" below.
- On original NBC broadcasts of Seinfeld episodes from 1994-1998, it uses the demo variant but now just reads "WEST/SHAPIRO PRODUCTIONS in association with".
- On the 2004 documentary The Seinfeld Story, the names are reversed and it reads "A SHAPIRO/WEST PRODUCTION in association with". The font here is also bolder.
Technique: None.
Audio: The closing theme of the show or none.
Audio Variants:
- In "The Blood", salsa music (which played in the scene where Kramer and Newman make sausages) plays over the logo and continues into the Castle Rock logo.
- In "The Race", Fidel Castro (voiced by Michael Sorich) tells George the story of when he was at a party ("Once, when I was at a party"...) which continues into the Castle Rock logo.
Availability: Seen on Seinfeld. The logo is cut out on reruns, but is intact on the show's DVD's. Also seen on the "Best of" Seinfeld 100th Episode VHS tape that was released in 1995 as part of a promotion with General Mills. The Shapiro/West variant was only seen on The Seinfeld Story.
