You know, that thing - like the ‘I Made This!’ bit at the end of every Chris Carter/Ten Thirteen production - with the logo and the slogan. Oh you know what I’m talking about, yeah?
Firstly, what DO you call those? End trailers? End logos? The thing-after-the-credits?
Secondly, which are your faves?
I like the Ten Thirteen one. That and ‘Sit, Ubu, sit! Good dog…’ at the end of Family Ties.
And I’ve always wondered about the chunk of text that comes at the end of Dharma and Greg.
For “The Bob Newhart Show,” you have Newhart’s voice saying “meow.”
“The White Shadow” had the kitten bouncing a baskeball.
“Hill Street Blues” had the kitten wearing a cop’s hat.
Chuck Lorre use a bunch of small text that could only be read if you freezed the frame; it was different for each episode of each show – basically the same as a weblog.
The worst of these, BTW, was that for Lou Scheimer/Norm Prescott Productions (makers of cartoons, most notably “Star Trek: The Animated Series”). Their names were in a revolving circle (as though they couldn’t agree on top billing) that took up half of the (admittedly short) closing credits. They’d get 15 seconds, while the names of the people actually making the cartoon got less than one.
At the end of the George Burns and Gracie Allen Show, the announcer would tell us it had been brought to us by “Carnation Evaporated Milk [show picture of Carnation can], the Milk from Contented Cows [show photo of meadowful of cows, looking reasonably contented].”
When I was a kid, I always found the ones for “Dic” funny as hell, simply because there was this little kid saying “Dick”.
I don’t know the company, but it starts off with a guy on a type writter, he pulls out his page, tosses it in the air, and as it flutters down, the background becomes black, the paper becomes animated, and in lands on a small stack, which curls up to form three Cs. I just thought that was cool.
“Grr. Arrgh.”
For mysteries, the MTM kitten is dressed up like Sherlock Holmes, and when it meows, the little pipe drops out of it’s mouth. I think that’s cute as hell. I also like the ones where it roars like a lion.
It’s true. These two (who were actually the heads of Filmation) intentionally designed their credit that way so no one would get top billing.
As a former member of an online club called “The Closing Logo Group,” I find this thread interesting.
RealityChuck, there is an official site at chucklorre.com that lists all of the logocards for his company and their texts that appeared on Dharma and Greg.
The guy at the typewriter El Elvis Rojo is thinking of is Steven J. Cannell.
I don’t really know if I have a favorite, but I do find them intriguing. I tend to tack on the Screen Gems or Revue jingle at the end when I’m humming an old TV theme.
For the series finale of St. Elsewhere the MTM logo was modified to have the kitten hooked up to an IV and heart monitor and the heart monitor flatlined! We had just put our cat to sleep earlier that week and the logo was very disturbing.
The typewriter paper to three Cs logo is for Steven J Canell productions.
My favourite is the much-missed Lynch/Frost Productions logo with the Vandegraff-like animation. It’s simple, but I can’t (and sadly, don’t) get enough of it.
There’s also the one where he see the back of a guy is leaving the office at the end of the day. His secretary says “Goodnight Mr. [something]” and he grumbles a response. I’m pretty sure that it appeared at the end of Taxi, and the guy was James L. Brooks…but I’m not sure…
I’ve caught three variations of the “Grr, arrgh!” guy at the end of “Buffy”: at the end of a halloween episode he was wearing a costume, at the end of a sad episode (someone important dies) he’s crying, and at the end of the last episode he turns and faces the screen.
Mad About You had a good one once, with Paul Reiser making fun of the usual closer. Can’t remember all of the elements, but he was saying something like, “X, Y, and the stupid horse with the wings” (the TriStar logo).
Don’t really have a favourite. That one with the fetus giggling makes my skin crawl, don’t know why. And the brief Satin City logo always makes me think I’m about to see a tampon commercial.