So, for some reason I know that the little reflecting water video clip for the curiosity company was from an old video Matt Groening’s father shot. I was just watching Southpark, and have always wondered what the hell Braniff, “believe it” meant. I then started thinking about all those little post credit jingles we’ve had drilled into our brains over the years, such as “sit ubu sit”.
Any thoughts? Any more background on them?
Braniff was an airline. I think the clip is from an old commercial.
The production companies that are the true owners and creators of tv shows make these little taglines. Each company has its own characteristic picture, music, action, etc. They have meaning to the company, and usually are as obscure to outsiders as user names are.
sit, ubu, sit is from Gary David Goldberg.
An explanation of the meaning of his and a few others of these taglines can be found at:
http://www.tvacres.com/signoffs_taglines.htm
from southparkstudios.com
Well, I happen to recall the “Mutant Enemy” one from one of the Buffy or Angel commentaries (probably Season 1 Buffy).
Joss Whedon and ??? (partnered w/ someone, can’t remember off hand, Doug Petri, maybe?) had the show set up with the WB, but ended up needing the “tagline” for the production company with very little time available. Well, Joss drew up the “Mutant Enemy” logo and the little mutant figure on some paper they had lying around, ran a camera while someone “walked” the figure across the logo, and Joss did the “grrr, arghhh” vocal.
And the jingle played over the “Braniff” bit at the end of South Park was a bit of music done for Matt and Trey’s “Cannibal: the Musical”, the student film they did together in college. The song was titled “A real spre-doinkal day”, IIRC (at least that was the chorus).
Let’s see, there was the “MGM kitty” (probably not MGM, but some production company had a little kitten meowing in a similar logo) I remember from sometime back in the late 80s. The “giggling fetus” at the end of “The Drew Carry Show” always strikes me as odd. And Exapno’s link goes over that massive screen of text at the end of “Dharma and Greg”, I never realized there were different ones.
You’re right, these are weird.
MTM used the kitten, in obvious reference to their near-namesake’s lion.
OK, complete hijack, but I was looking at houses in Portland, OR and in one of them there was a plaque honoring Homer Groening for something like salesman of the year or such. Turns out it was Matt’s boyhood home and Homer is his father’s name. It took all my will power not to steal the plaque.
In addition, the kitten did different things depending on the show:
Mary Tyler Moore Show: Kitten meows
Bob Newhart Show: Kitten meows in Bob Newhart’s voice
Hill Street Blues: Kitten is wearing a policeman’s hat
The White Shadow: Kitten bounces a basketball
The Duck Factory*: Kitten quacks. Just before this, the singer of the theme song sings “Where’s the cat?”
*I wish someone would bring this back. It seems a natural, since it starred Jim Carrey.
Man, you guys are good. Realitychuck, I’m a huge fan of the variations on a theme thing. Wasn’t there one with Tom & Jerry?
God, I can’t even remember which show it was now, but I loved the signoff that went like this:
[woman’s voice] “Good night, Mr. Walters!”
[man’s voice] Groaaaan.
Taxi?
<hijack continued>
I read an article in the local paper about Homer Groening once, and it turns out that, unlike that Simpson fellow, it was a pretty smart guy. The accomplishment that stands out most in my mind was he was the first person to use athletes to sell a product (in this case, sportswear–it seemed a natural fit). One of his first models was Frank Gifford. Seems obvious now, but it was pretty revolutionary at the time. That’s probably what earned him the plaque 
</hijack discontinued>
And a couple more MTM kitten sightings:
St. Elsewhere: Wore surgical mask and cap (and on the last episode flatlines! :eek: )
Remington Steele: Wore Sherlock Holmes hat and pipe–and when he meowed, the pipe dropped to the bottom of the screen!
I seem to remember that on the last episode of Newhart the MTM kitten yelled “shut up”. The only words that Daryl and Daryl ever spoke.
Vocabulary Words Du Jour:
front·cap (frunt**’**kap’) n. — The logo thingy they show before the program (the Universal globe, the MGM lion, the 20th Century-Fox monolith, etc). Primarily used to label the program’s distributor, e.g. Buena Vista, whether or not the distributor is also the producer of that program.
end·cap (end**’**kap’) n. — The logo thingy they show after the program (the harried executive, the MTM kitten, the Braniff airplane, etc). Primarily used to label the program’s producer, e.g. ITC Filmed Entertainment, whether or not the producer is also the distributor of that program.
Next week: Titles and Credits.
“Goodnight Mr. Walters” was, indeed, the end-cap to Taxi.
–Cliffy
“Show’s over.”
“But I have nowhere to go.”
gig - that sounds so bloody familiar… Whose is it?
One of the several different tags to The Critic, where the lights come up in a theater with Jay being hassled by a teenage usher. Other replies included “I’m stuck to the floor!” and “Get away, zitface.”
Anybody know the story on the end cap for Robert Smigel’s cartoons, where he says, “Let go of my shoe”?
What does the end cap for “The Man Show” mean? It sounds like “You go zuna”. And where did Adam Carolla and Jimmy Kimmel get the name “Jackhole Productions”? I’m guessing it’s just sophomoric humor, but maybe there’s a story behind it?
The most bizarre end cap I’ve seen was, IIRC, at the end of the ill-fated Comedy Central “Let’s Bowl” show. I remember bizarre music and some sort of strange picture of an animal slowly descending down the screen.
I like Dave Chapell’s: “I’m rich, beeyach!”
‘Yukozuna’ is what Jimmy’s…brother, IIRC, calls his oh-so-classy move of dropping his pants, and leaping at an unsuspecting victim so his ass lands in their face. (Jimmy explained this on the show once. Complete with video.)
I’m assuming Jackhole comes from Jackass + Asshole - Ass^2. Just a wag, though.
Thanks, Miller. I was a HUGE Critic fan. I can’t believe I forgot that.