Universal-International Television was a short-lived division of Universal Pictures, prior to the merger with MCA. This is one of the rarest and most confusing logos ever made. Even the most experienced logo fans haven't a clue about where this logo appeared or whether or not the television show it appeared on is still rerun. One guess is that it aired on older television reruns of Universal cartoon shorts.
Dennis McDougal's book "The Last Mogul," a biography of MCA's Lew Wasserman, mentions Universal-International's involvement in what are described as several "unmemorable documentary series," ANIMAL FUN AND MISCHIEF, STRANGER THAN FICTION, and GREAT MOMENTS ON THE GRIDIRON; all apparently edited from stock footage in the company's United World/Castle Films library. Those early series are probably the source of this logo. U-I did not release the early Walter Lantz black and white cartoons to TV themselves, but licensed them to Guild Films; who remade all the title sequences and removed any references to Universal.
Universal's subsidiary, United World Films, bought Castle Films from its founder, ex-newsreel cameraman Eugene Castle, in 1947, and operated the company for the next 30 years. Castle Films released the Lantz cartoons and other subjects for home-movie use in 8mm and 16mm. In 1978, Universal closed down Castle in favor of a new home-movie subsidiary called Universal Eight, which operated until about 1983.
Universal Television (first era)[]
1963–1964[]
SVG NEEDED
In this precursory period, following the merger with Universal, the logo design from MCA's television arm Revue Studios was modified to acknowledge their new home at Universal City. The color variant shown here has a typical '60s style wallflower design as a background.
Black & White copy of color variant, minus MCA tag
1964–1969[]
In early 1964, the studio introduced the TV version of the respective theatrical movie logo, which remained thereafter. The company was officially incorporated in the Fall of 1964 as Universal Television.
Color version
B&W version
Bylineless variant
Bylineless color version
Opening logo as seen on made-for-TV movies
Another TV movie opening logo
Trivia: The logo was designed and animated by Universal Title, who also designed and animated all of the logos by Universal until 1990 and handled all title and optical effects for all films and Universal Television series.
1969–1973[]
This was the opening logo for made-for-TV movies used with the next three logos.
1969–1971[]
1970 variation
1971–1973[]
1973[]
In-credit from Emergency +4 (1973)
1973–1975[]
Featured at the beginning of some made-for-TV movies. Also appeared on The Woody Woodpecker Show (1987)
1975–1991[]
"FROM" at the top variant
"IN ASSOCIATION WITH" at the top variant
"AND" at the top variant
"FROM" at the top and "AND" at the bottom of the MCA byline variant
Opening logo variation from The Seekers (1979)
Magnum P.I. finale (1988)
1991–1997[]
2D print logo variation
France version
Early 1997 bylineless version
Early 1997 variation without any additional text. It also resembles its 1996-1997 movie counterpart logo.
This ID has a different space background with the globe facing to Americas on it. Space rocks surround it. The globe had to differed from current Universal Pictures and uses 3 note fanfare inspired from NBCUniversal Television Distribution.
October 2011–present[]
This logo made a new look of the BG and the globe look different than before as part of differentiation of the current Universal Pictures months later. The space rocks now became a crystalline nebula.
HD version
2013 bylineless version. (Note: This variant was used for an extremely short period of time.)
Version with copyright stamp.
2:35:1 version seen on the Netflix series Master of None (2015)
How Murray Saved Christmas (2014)
Trivia: This logo was created and animated by Imaginary Forces. The logo has some elements from the 1991 Universal Television logo.
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