WitzEnd Productions

Background

WitzEnd Productions Ltd. was a production company that was formed in 1975 by Allan McKeown, Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais. Initially started off making commercials, then Porridge, it branched out to television production in 1980. It acquired SelecTV in 1986, and the company had grown enough to launch Alomo Productions with comedy writers Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, and Clement/La Frenais Productions. SelecTV itself was sold to Pearson Television in 1996. Most of WitzEnd's library today is now owned by Fremantle.

Until 1992, the company had no real on-screen logo, and used in-credit notices beforehand.

1st Logo (1992-14 May 1993)

Visuals: On a black background, a red stop sign with a white border is seen, with the word "End" shown in the center. "Witz" slides to the left of "End", pushing it to the right, and then a period appears to the right of it, making the word "WitzEnd.". The word "PRODUCTIONS" appears at the same time, and then the word "in association with" appears below in a script font.

Technique: 2D cel animation.

Audio: The sound of a car driving.

Availability: Seen on the unsold pilot In Security and the short-lived Dudley.

2nd Logo (26 December 1992-13 December 1999)

Visuals: On a black background, the multi-colored word "End." is seen in the center. The word "Witz", also in multi-colors, slides to the left with a stretch effect and crashes into the word, which causes the letters to jump and move towards the center. The word "PRODUCTIONS" in spaced-out letters is shown below the word "WitzEnd.".

Bylines:

1993-1996: "SelecTV". This version has the same special animation as it was on the Alomo Productions logo, as the text turns blue.
1999: "A Pearson Television Company"

Variants:

On programs produced for the BBC, this logo appears with the 1988 BBC logo.
On Lovejoy, the blue word is part of the text that reads "WitzEnd/McShane Productions".
A still version of the logo exists.
On Hearts and Minds and series 3 of Pie in the Sky, the text reads "PRODUCTIONS LTD", and is also still.
On the later series of Pie in the Sky, the text reads "A WitzEnd/nicework PRODUCTION".
On Dr. Willoughby, this logo appears with the Pearson byline and "for ITV" (with ITV being in the form of the 1998 logo) and the copyright notice reading "(C) Thames Television Limited 1999" appearing below.

Technique: 2D digital animation.

Audio: A car driving sound and a crash sound. The SelecTV version has a whoosh sound.

Availability: Seen on WitzEnd's later shows, like Pie in the Sky, later episodes of Lovejoy, the 1995 version of Shine on Harvey Moon, the first season of Tracey Takes On, Hearts and Minds and Dr. Willoughby.