[#572] WGBH 1972 Logo
Channel: ITB ITB
Date: 24/08/2017

Taken from "ZOOM" (1972-1978).
Requested by Stephen Chase.

CLG Wiki Description: Against a blue background, the letters "WGBH" in yellow in a generic Helvetica font quickly zoom back, away from the viewer to the vanishing point, and disappearing when the text is very small. Then the word "Boston," also in yellow, also appears out of nowhere and then zooms forward really fast, taking up the whole screen and creating a yellow background. And finally, the word "Presents" zooms forward at a fast pace, in blue.

Variants:
- On some prints of this logo, due to either film deterioration or film quality, the blue colors are instead dark green.
- A black & white version exists, in which "WGBH" and "Boston" are both black, and "Presents" is white.
- The very first season of NOVA has this logo with the words all in green, zooming out, and Scanimated as part of the show's intro.
- On many early episodes of NOVA, the background is beige at first, and the brown sky at the dawn after "Boston" zoomed in, the words "WGBH" and "Boston" are brown while "Presents" is in beige and it would zoom forward as always, transitioning to the opening cinematic.
- On The French Chef, the logo is superimposed over a slanted flag of France against a blue BG, animation and all.
- On the Bicentennial edition of Evening at Pops, there is a black background with yellow confetti. The first two words are white and when "Boston" zooms in and takes the full screen, the background is white, and "Presents" is black.
- A brighter version of the blue version is featured on several episodes of The Advocates. The version has a bright blue/yellow-orange background. Some episodes also feature the logo with a bright teal/cyan background.
- Another variant from The Advocates has the yellow "WGBH" text on a burgundy background. This is the earliest known version of it.

FX/SFX/Cheesy Factor:
The zooming of the words; simple animation. Additionally, The French Chef variant with the transition from ''Boston'' to ''Presents'' looks awkward: the ''Boston'' inverts color locations to not fill the screen in this one, and as "Presents" stops zooming in, it's off centered, and the flag looks more like a crooked flag of The Netherlands instead of France. The confetti on the Evening at Pops variant makes the logo look really ugly. Also, the "music" is very terrible.

Music/Sounds:
Composed by Gershon Kingsley, we hear eerie, choppy, UFO-like computer blips that ascend and descend several times, followed by a rising Moog violin stinger.

Music/Sounds Variants:
- The jingle is often sometimes played at a slower speed. 
- Sometimes, the B&W version of this logo has a higher pitch.
- A low tone variant exists.

Availability:
Extremely rare in the wild, as programming from this era are usually no longer rerun. You might find this logo 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. Despite it's rarity, the logo can easily be found online on several episodes of The Advocates on the WGBH Open Vault.

Scare Factor:
Depending on the variant:
- Original Version: High to nightmare. The high-contrast colors, extreme "V of Doom"-style zoom-ins, and the eerie synth music would have been sure to unnerve many people. Especially for those who aren't used to it.
- High-Pitched/Black and White Variant: Nightmare, due to the logo being colorless. Also, the music being higher pitched makes it sound even more creepy than it already was.
- Silent Version: Medium to high, now that the creepy theme is gone, the zoom-ins are still here.

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