Southern Star Entertainment

Background
Southern Star Entertainment began in 1972 as an Australian subsidiary of Hanna-Barbera, aptly named as Hanna-Barbera Pty. Ltd. In 1974, half of Hanna-Barbera Australia was purchased by The Hamlyn Group, which in turn was purchased by James Hardie Industries. Hanna Barbera Pty. Ltd. was reorganized in 1983 as Taft-Hardie Group Pty. Ltd., and an American division was eventually established in 1984, known as Southern Star Productions. Programs produced by Southern Star would be animated by the Hanna-Barbera Studios in Sydney, Australia, which gave the division the name of Southern Star/Hanna Barbera Australia. Southern Star produced shows mainly for CBS, such as The Berenstain Bears, Teen Wolf, and the CBS Storybreak. In 1988, the Managing Director of Taft-Hardie, Neil Balnaves acquired Taft-Hardie and reorganized it as The Southern Star Group, and the Sydney animation studio was sold to the Walt Disney Company and became Walt Disney Animation Australia, although The Southern Star Group kept the rights to its properties. Southern Star would eventually be acquired by Southern Cross Broadcasting in 2004, Fairfax Media in 2007, and Endemol in 2009. On December 11, 2013, Endemol announced that Southern Star Entertainment would be renamed to Endemol Australia, thus ending the 30 year legacy of Southern Star.

1st Logo (September 14, 1985-March 10, 1989)
Nicknames: "Lightning Star", "The Thunderclap", "The Australian Thunderstorm"

Logo: On a blue space background, a magenta star quickly zooms out. It plasters itself firmly at the center of the screen, while a yellow lightning bolt slides in from the top-left behind the star, landing so that the star is in the middle of the lightning bolt. The star rotates a little as the bolt moves to the middle. The screen flashes white a few times at high speed, changing the star to blue and the bolt to gray, and two rectangles slide in from the top and bottom of the screen, behind the star and lightning bolt, the top one yellow, the bottom one magenta. When they connect with each other, the colors suddenly swap so that the top one is magenta and the bottom one is yellow. In the magenta rectangle, to the right of the star/bolt shape, is "A SOUTHERN STAR" in a yellow-colored thin Italic font (usually Futura), and in the yellow bottom rectangle is "Hanna-Barbera Australia Production" in magenta and the font normally used for "Hanna-Barbera Productions" on the H-B Swirling Star logo.

Variants: On The Berenstain Bears, a copyright for the Taft-Hardie Group Pty. Limited appears under the logo. The copyright stamp appears in black or pink, depending on the episode, although in 1985, a chyroned-in copyright stamp lasting the entire duration of the logo appears instead (usually in magenta, or in white or yellow lettering with a black border). On Teen Wolf and CBS Storybreak, the star zooming out is cut, so that it starts on the bolt sliding into shape. Late in this logo's life, a variant was seen omitting all mentions of Hanna-Barbera and lacking from a copyright, and had "SOUTHERN STAR PRODUCTIONS" in place of the original name. Also, the yellow and purple colors do not switch positions at the end, but appear somewhat darker. This variant was introduced in 1988, when Southern Star became a separate company from Hanna-Barbera and Taft.

FX/SFX: The star zooming out, the bolt, the rapid flashing, and the rectangles.

Music/Sounds: The ending of the show's theme, but with a very loud thunderclap sound effect (a BBC/Cinesound effect not sampled from Hanna-Barbera's sound effect library, ironically, and is also heard in the Ismail Productions and Lightning Video logos, among others) edited in with the flash, nearly drowning out the music.

Music/Sounds Variants: On most first season episodes of Teen Wolf and at least two Berenstain Bears episodes, there is no thunder crashing. The thunderclap sound was sped up beginning in 1986. This version can be heard on the second seasons of The Berenstain Bearsand on later episodes of Teen Wolf andCBS Storybreak, though one second-season episode of The Berenstain Bears had the regular thunderclap played at normal speed like in the 1985 version. The Berenstain Bears episode "Get Stage Fright"/"Go Bonkers Over Honkers" had a completely different, sped-up (and almost menacing-sounding) thunder sound. On another 1986 episode of The Berenstain Bears, the thunder effect briefly fades in and out, and a brief snippet of the show's end theme plays before stopping, and letting the already-playing ending theme continue as normal. This is due to sloppy editing.

Availability: Rare. The logo was seen on the original Berenstain Bears cartoon, as well as the animated Teen Wolf (a few VHS tapes of this series have no logos) and later episodes of CBS Storybreak (earlier episodes only had a credit for Hanna-Barbera Australia, followed by the CBS Entertainment Productions logo). On reruns of The Berenstain Bears, in DIC's syndicated programming package from 2003 to 2006, it was plastered by the 2001 "The Incredible World of DiC" logo (even though they didn't produce the show) and the 1994 Southern Star logo. The logo has been preserved on the recent Berenstain Bears DVDs from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (followed by the Sony Pictures Television logo) and is seen at the end of some episodes that have been uploaded on the official Berenstain Bears YouTube channel, and can also be found on the 1990s Berenstain Bears videos from Random House Home Video and Columbia-TriStar Home Video. It's also preserved on Multicom Entertainment Group's streaming prints of Teen Wolf.

Editor's Note: Some may find the loud thunderclap sound very startling, especially if they weren't expecting it. The cheesy 80s computer effects (probably Scanimate) also don't help much, either.

Note: From here on, Southern Star became separate from Hanna-Barbera/Taft.

2nd Logo (Mid-Late 1989-November 22, 1994)
Nicknames: "The Segmented Star", "Turquoise Star"

Logo: On a starfield background, we see 2 sets of numerous lines move to the center to merge and form a turquoise star. The name "SOUTHERN STAR" appears below, with an underline colored in the same color as the star.

Variant: A variant exists where after the logo forms, "SULLIVAN" zooms in underneath the blue line.

FX/SFX: The formation.

Music/Sounds: Silence, the ending theme of the show or rarely a chime, then a space-like robotic noise.

Music/Sounds Variant: On rare occasions like on some later prints of Dinky Dog, the 1988 Worldvision Enterprises theme can be faintly heard over the logo.

Availability: Rare. It was seen on the first season of Blue Heelers (and is intact on 7Plus streaming prints), as well as prints of former Hanna-Barbera co-productions such as Drak Pack.

Editor's Note: None.

3rd Logo (September 15, 1994-December 25, 2005)
Nicknames: "The Segmented Star II", "Blue Star"

Logo: On a black background, we see 2 sets of blue lines (9 on the left and 10 on the right) curve toward the center to form one set. As this happens, a light appears and a 7-pointed segmented royal blue star is formed by the lines along with the words that say

SOUTHERN S T A R

and a line in the same color as the star underneath the text, is formed below.

Variants: International airings of any of it's shows that use this logo have " SALES " appearing below. On shows like Water Rats, the lines are 3-D and more metallic. The underline fades in after the logo is formed rather than simultaneously done with the star and text. In addition, there is a byline that says " WORLDWIDE DISTRIBUTION " appearing at the bottom and " SOUTHERN STAR SALES " underneath. On some shows that aired on the Seven Network from 1994 to 1999, it is spliced with the network's production logo used at the time. On game shows such as A*mazing, Burgo's Catch Phrase, Time Masters, and Wipeout, "CONCEPT" appears below as well as copyright. There is an in-credit version of the "SALES" variant on some shows such as Outriders, Don't Blame Me, and Blue Water High where the star and line are either in silver or white. There was even a yellow version on Pig's Breakfast. There is a shortened variant of this logo. On To Have and to Hold, the logo is filmed and "FILM SALES" appears below. FX/SFX: The formation of the star and company name.

Music/Sounds: A deep synth drone followed by a light, airy synth sounder.

Music/Sounds Variants:
 * In the logo's early years, the synth has a high pitched sound.
 * On the game shows mentioned before, the announcer would say "This has been a Southern Star Production for [name of network]."
 * On Snobs, the ending theme plays over it.

Availability: Uncommon. Seen on 1990s prints of Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, seasons 2-11 of Blue Heelers, the first four seasons of The Secret Life of Us, the first four seasons of McLeod's Daughters as well as the first two seasons of Tracey McBean and early seasons of Hi-5. It was also seen on Snobs, Pig's Breakfast, Foreign Exchange, High Flyers, Don't Blame Me, Outriders, the first season of The Sleepover Club, The Adventures of Sam, Kangaroo Creek Gang, Ketchup: Cats Who Cook, Faireez, Water Rats, and Bad Cop, Bad Cop along with game shows like A*mazing, Burgo's Catch Phrase, Flashback, Time Masters, and Wipeout. Also was seen at the ending of the Spanish VHS tape from the 1977 adaptation Gulliver's Travels distributed by Goodtimes. The short variant was seen on reruns of the 1985 cartoon of The Berenstain Bears when it aired on the DiC Kids Network, following the 2001 DiC logo.

Editor's Note: None.

4th Logo (February 9, 2005-2013)


Logo: Against a dark blue starry sky with mountains below, we see stars forming several ring shapes, causing the Southern Star logo from before, but in a blue tint, to blur in. A byline for Southern Cross Broadcasting is usually shown just below it. The sky darkens around it.

Variant: On the last four seasons of Hi-5, there is no byline.

FX/SFX: The stars forming the company logo and the darkening sky.

Music/Sounds: A gentle synth sounder with some "whooshes".

Music/Sounds Variants: On Meerkat Manor, a version of the music from the previous logo is reused. On The Sleepover Club, a booming fanfare is played.

Availability: It was seen on shows such as RAGGS Kids Club Band, Meerkat Manor, the second season of The Sleepover Club, and the last four seasons of Hi-5 and McLeod's Daughters.

Editor's Note: None.

5th Logo (2013)
Logo: On a navy blue background, light blue lines emerge from the bottom right corner to form the familiar Southern Star logo. The Endemol logo, appears by spinning directly below it with "an endemol company" underneath.

FX/SFX: The lines, the spinning and the shining.

Music/Sounds: The music from the current Endemol logo.

Availability: Seen on many programs produced by Southern Star until it was renamed Endemol Australia.

Editor's Note: None.