Netflix Originals

Background
Netflix is a video streaming service founded on August 29, 1997 as a DVD-by-mail service. In addition to offering movies and TV shows from a variety of companies, Netflix also offers original content such as House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and BoJack Horseman, as well as international shows and continuations of cancelled series.

1st Logo (August 19-October 14, 2005)


Logo: An in-credit notice with the text "Produced in Association with" and the 2001 Netflix logo on the bottom.

Variant: From episode 2 and onwards of Hopeless Pictures, the Netflix logo on the bottom is squeezed.

Technique: None.

Music/Sounds: The end theme of the show.

Availability: Only known to be seen on Hopeless Pictures.

2nd Logo (In-credit variants) (January 25, 2012-)
Logo: Technically, this is just in-credit text that reads "A NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES" or "A NETFLIX SERIES".

Variants: There are many custom versions of this logo. Here are some notable variants:
 * Lilyhammer: On a black/dark blue gradient background with some snow falling, the text "A NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES" in an Arial font is seen. The text shines.
 * House of Cards: On a black background, the text "A NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES" in the custom House of Cards font fades in and out.
 * Hemlock Grove: TBA.
 * Orange Is The New Black: The camera pans slowly to the left, as we see a metal fence on a cloudy background. Behind the fence is the text "a NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES" in the custom OITNB font. The text appears blurry at first, but the image quickly sharpens as the camera's focus goes past the fence and onto the text. The camera keeps panning until the logo is finished.
 * Glitter Force: TBA.
 * The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants: On a light blue sunburst background, we see George Beard and Harold Hutchins with the text "A NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES" on the Jerome Horwitz Elementary billboard. George and Harold change the message, which is different in every episode. The two then giggle.
 * Bojack Horseman: The episode "The Showstopper" replaces it with "A WHATTIMEISITRIGHTNOW.COM ORIGINAL SERIES" (a fictional website in Bojack that is what the URL suggests, which produced the show-within-a-show Philbert). The episode begins with the intro for Philbert.
 * The Dragon Prince: Bait crawls for a few seconds and "a netflix original series (in the font used in the series) fades in above him. He looks at the text, turns red, and, towards the viewers, imitates the "tudum" sound. On season 4, "original" is removed.
 * Oddballs: A cactus is shown holding an RV. A bird flies in from the left, and the cactus eats it, burping "A NETFLIX SERIES" from its gas. The cactus sniffs, and the text fades out.

Technique: Depends on the variant.

Music/Sounds: Depends on the variant.

Availability: Current.
 * Seen on the first seasons of Lilyhammer, House of Cards, Hemlock Grove, and Orange Is the New Black.
 * Still used on its current and then-new shows, and newer shows such as Go! Go! Cory Carson also use it. Also seen on Glitter Force (the English dub of Smile PreCure!) and exclusive international shows.
 * Don't expect seeing this and the 5th and 6th logos on international and linear TV airings of their originals as they remove this in-credit text. However, this and the 5th logo were retained on The Magic School Bus Rides Again when it aired on the now-defunct Qubo.
 * This was also originally seen on the Marvel Television shows co-produced with Netflix, but the Disney+ prints of these shows since 2022 has this and any mention of Netflix, including on the opening credits, edited out.

3rd Logo (December 24, 2013-April 4, 2014)


Logo: On a black background, a shadow appears. Then, a square with the word "Impact" (with an arc shape at the bottom of the word) fades in, and it slowly zooms in.

Technique: None other than the fade-ins. However, this was probably a placeholder for the next and the 5th logos.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Seen on the first ten episodes of Turbo FAST and the second season of House of Cards. Don't expect to see this on the US release of Leo the Lion, as it only uses The Weinstein Company logo instead.

4th Logo (2013-2014)


Logo: On a background, the letters of the 2001 Netflix logo (in CGI and in 3D) turn to face the viewer. Some text which varies based on the genre is below:
 * Comedy - "COMEDY" or "A NETFLIX COMEDY SPECIAL"
 * Documentaries - "A NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY"

Technique: CGI animation.

Music/Sounds: None or the closing theme of the show.

Availability: Common. The documentary variant was seen on documentaries such as The Short Game. The comedy variant was seen on Netflix comedies such as Marc Maron: Thinky Pain and Mike Birbiglia: My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend, as well as the first season of Derek.

5th Logo (June 6, 2014-February 1, 2019, August 27, 2021)
Logo: On a white gradient background, the letters of the white word "NETFLIX" (with an arc shape at the bottom of the word, like the previous logo, but in a different font) pop up one-by-one, leaving shadows. Then, the letters lower one-by-one, the shadows shrink, and the logo turns 2D and as it zooms out and stops.

Trivia:
 * The "TUDUM" sound is taken from the final scene of the second season of House of Cards, in which Frank Underwood quickly knocks on his desk twice. It was created by Netflix VP of Product Todd Yellin and Oscar-winning sound editor Lon Bender. Initial plans included using the bleat of a goat as the logo's audio, parodying Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The finalized "TUDUM" sounder was made by recording the knocking of Yellin's wedding ring against a cabinet in his bedroom, a "slowed anvil sound", and a very very old electric guitar recording that was reversed so that it no longer sounds like a guitar. The onomatopoeia was adopted by Netflix as the name of a companion fan site, which launched on December 9, 2021.

Variants:
 * On trailers, either the text "ONLY ON" is above the animation with the date of the show's series or season premiere below, or the text "NOW STREAMING" would be below the animation with no additional text.
 * At the end of He's All That, a still version with a black background is used.

Technique: Typical 2010s CGI animation.

Music/Sounds: Two electronic drum beats (see Trivia), followed by a synth note that holds out until the text stops zooming out. The official onomatopoeia for the soundtrack is "TUDUM" (in all caps), though some third party media outlets also use "ta-dum". Otherwise, it's silent. Essentially a slightly extended version of the sound that plays when you open Netflix on a TV.

Music/Sounds Variant: On Bright, we hear sounds of electricity as the logo is formed and we hear the "TUDUM" sound as usual.

Availability: It was once very common, but it is slowly growing uncommon due to being constantly plastered by the next logo. However, many other Netflix original shows and movies still have this logo.


 * Seen on then-current prints of currently-streaming Netflix original shows, such as House of Cards, The Magic School Bus Rides Again, Turbo FAST, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and others.
 * It strangely makes a surprise appearance at the end of He's All That following the next logo below.
 * On linear and international TV airings of their shows such as Dinotrux this logo and the second logo is usually omitted and removed. The Disney+ prints of Netflix produced Marvel shows has this logo and any mention of Netflix removed. However, this and the second logo were retained on Qubo airings of The Magic School Bus Rides Again.

Legacy: Probably one of the most iconic logos of the 2010s.

6th Logo (February 1, 2019-)
Logo:
 * Short (Original Series): On a black background, the current secondary Netflix logo (the letter "Impact" with an arc shape at the bottom, with the middle diagonal stroke in a lighter color) draws in from the vertical stroke on the left to the vertical stroke on the right. We then zoom into the "Impact" and it soon draws out, this time as lines grouped together to form a whole. We continue zooming in to the lines that made up the leftmost line of the "Impact" as their colors shift into various hues. We continue to zoom past the lines and end on the same black background we started out on.
 * Long (Original Film): In space, a line shoots up into the air and hundreds of different colored lines shoot down from the sky. As we pan through them, they tilt vertically and are revealed to be the inside of a bigger  line, which draws to reveal itself as the "Impact" from the short logo. It continues to zoom out before fading to black.

Trivia:
 * According to a Netflix spokesperson speaking with Fast Company, the vertical lines were "inspired by the idea of turning Netflix’s own show thumbnails sideways, like records on a shelf." This logo was designed by Imaginary Forces.
 * This logo won a Bronze Clio Entertainment Award in 2019.
 * A Gold Clio Entertainment Award-winning 2022 Brazilian Netflix ad uses a remixed hip-hop version of the "TUDUM" with autotuned vocals of the word "TUDUM" throughout as its soundtrack. It also features brief visuals of the ad's protagonist falling through the lines. It can be watched here.

Variant: On trailers of a show or a film, the original series logo's animation, in reverse, is usually chyroned into the last part of the trailer, before the background becomes black to normal. The MPA rating card is often underneath the logo.

Closing Variant: A shortened version of the Original Film variant, starting wherein the "Impact" zooms out, appeared at the end of limited theatrical screenings of The Mitchells vs. the Machines from November 21-22, 2021.

Technique: CGI animation, designed by Imaginary Forces. A behind-the-scenes featurette can be seen on their website.

Music/Sounds: For the Original Series variant, the same "TUDUM" sound effect from the previous logo. For the Original Film variant, a rising orchestral piece, ending with an orchestrated version of the traditional sounder, composed by Hans Zimmer.

Music/Sounds Variants:
 * Season 4 of Stranger Things has the sounds of thunder and lightning with the usual "TUDUM" sound.
 * On A Boy Called Christmas, the Original Film variant has the chorus on it.
 * On the season 4 Manifest episodes "Go-Around" and "Inversion Illusion", the end theme plays over.

Availability: Current and common.
 * It was first seen on Russian Doll, and can be found on other current and upcoming Netflix films and TV shows.
 * It also plasters the previous logo on later prints of Netflix originals (House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, etc.).
 * Also appears on American prints of the 23rd season of Pokémon, labeled as Pokémon Journeys: The Series, where it is absent on the original Japanese linear airings.
 * Both variants have also been used theatrically; the Series version appeared on limited screenings of Don't Look Up before the Netflix release (kept in the streaming print) as well as on select films, and the Film version appeared on screenings of the aforementioned The Mitchells vs. the Machines in place of the Series version.
 * This logo gets cut out on international and linear TV airings of their originals just like the second and fifth logos.
 * On international prints of the three films that Netflix distributed outside of the US Wounds, Run and Mother/Android it plasters the Hulu Originals logo.
 * In countries where the films The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run and The In Between are on the service (such as Australia and the United Kingdom), this replaces the Paramount+ Originals logo despite Paramount+ being available in these countries.
 * AMC+'s print of El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie remove this logo, and so does Sony Pictures Home Entertainment's limited DVD/Blu-ray release and AMC airings of that film.
 * This logo surprisingly appears on BabyFirst airings of Word Party.

Legacy: A generally well-liked logo, though it has gained some criticism for seeming too busy or resembling a stock YouTuber intro.