Carlton Television

Background
Carlton Television began broadcasting on January 1, 1993 as the third holder of the ITV franchise for London weekdays, after outbidding the much-loved Thames Television - for which it had previously made two unsuccessful takeover attempts - in the auction-style 1991 franchise round. The company quickly became notorious for its low-budget and poor-quality programming - a stark contrast to its predecessor - and for having an appetite for corporate acquisitions. These included fellow ITV stations Central and Westcountry - both of which were rebranded with the Carlton name in 1999 - and the license and broadcast facilities of HTV, as well as Technicolor and the film libraries of ITC Entertainment Group and The Rank Organisation. Carlton eventually ran into financial difficulties (spurred on by ONdigital, a failed digital television joint venture with Granada, and an expensive TV rights deal with the English Football League that went bad), and on February 2, 2004, it merged with Granada to form ITV plc. Subsequently, the Carlton name was dropped from most uses, with ITV reinstating the Central and Westcountry names, while Technicolor Corporation was sold off. The Carlton archive holdings (including the ITC, ATV/Central, Westcountry, HTV, London Films and Rank Film Distributors libraries) are now the property of ITV plc.

1st Logo (1991-1992)
Logo: On a white background, a roll of film flies through the air, spinning. The film roll creates two blue lines. Once the roll of film has left the picture, the word "Times New Roman" in a Bembo font zooms in below the top blue line, while the word "Times New Roman" in the same font zooms in below the bottom blue line.

Variant: A still version was used on some programs.

FX/SFX: All CGI animation.

Music/Sounds: TBA.

Availability: Extremely rare for the animated version. The still version was seen at the end of programs produced by Carlton during the early 1990s, some of which aired on the Children's Channel. This ident did not air on the channel itself.

Editor's Note: None.

2nd Logo (January 1, 1993-September 1995)
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Logo: On a purple background, we see "CARLTON" in a yellow Gill Sans font at the top left corner of the screen, with the "T" smaller than the other letters and resting in the "L". There's also a shadow of a fern plant taking up most of the screen, swaying ever-so-slightly, just as the ITV logo of the time, with "Part of the" above it and "Network" below it, fades in while colored a transparent white in the bottom right corner.

Variants:
 * If the program was in Stereo or in subtitles, a white box in the top right corner containing either "Stereo", "888", or both will be seen.
 * In January 1993, 70 variants consisted of one or more people, supposedly representing "ordinary Londoners", fading in over the background and announcing to the viewer: "You're watching Carlton" or "This is Carlton, Television for London." For instance, the very first logo, broadcast a few seconds after midnight on January 1, 1993, featured town crier Maurice Jones shouting out the latter and ringing his bell three times, as the Carlton logo morphed into the word "LONDON" above.
 * For the former ident, or rarely on its own, the background color and also the shadowed object will change. The text would also change color to white for these, but it could be other colors.
 * In late 1993, the idents were revised to only have 25 standard ident of people doing activities, along with 4 montage versions. The background also changed to a marble-like texture. Different music was used and "You're watching Carlton" or "This is Carlton, Television for London." was no longer used.
 * Sometimes, the ITV logo won't pop up.
 * The closing variant consisted of "Times New Roman CARLTON Times New Roman" and the ITV logo below, in the middle of the screen. The fern also takes up more of the screen. This was a still logo.
 * A 1994 ad for Del Monte parodied this logo. The text "CARLTON" was changed to "CARTON", and The Man from Del Monte (played by Brian Jackson) appeared pouring juice into a glass cup. An announcer says "You're watching...Carton" at the end.

FX/SFX: Just the moving background. None for the closing variant.

Music/Sounds: A synth theme combined with an uninspired 8-note fanfare usually played on a trumpet. The fanfare is also sometimes played on a different instrument. In the variants not featuring "ordinary Londoners", a voice-over would sometimes say: "You're watching Carlton, Television for London" or "This is Carlton, Television for London". For the closing variant, it's the end title theme from any show.

Availability: Extinct for the local variants. The closing variant would appear on various shows of this era such as The Bill.

Editor's Note: A rather bleak and, honestly, really generic ident compared to the likes of Thames before it.

3rd Logo (September 1995-November 1996)
Logo: On a colored background of swirling white rays and lines, these lines slowly reveal the transparent Carlton logo from before, shining on the edges and casting shadows as well. After a bit, they fade to a solid white as the rays and shining continue.

Variants:
 * "888" fades in the top right corner like usual if the following program has subtitles.
 * Alternatively, a different long version is used. The background is different, featuring blocks of transparent glass rotating in the background, as 6 glass bars can be seen in descending size. These slowly spread out and rotate towards the screen to reveal that its the Carlton logo, and it stays on-screen while it shines. Another variant has an alternating hue in the background and it effectively flips the animation at the end.
 * A rare variant has a purple smoky background and the letters appearing in a slow flash of white before quickly dissolving.
 * At the end of programs, a completely different logo is used, featuring an eclipsed sun with red flares coming off of it (rarely animated) and "CARLTON UK Productions" incorporated into it. The logo's style of positioning depends on the program.
 * In both cases, the background can be one or more of six colors - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.

Trivia: This logo was produced by the promotions team at Central Television, which Carlton acquired in 1994, so it's no real coincidence that the aforementioned background colors are the same as the colors in the Central "cake".

FX/SFX: The background animation, the logo shining.

Music/Sounds: A "futuristic"-styled tune with ethereal synths, phaser noises, and orchestral and jazz instruments, while being backed by a continuity announcer. The long version uses different music.

Availability: Extinct for the idents. The production logo could be seen on programs at the time.

Editor's Note: The animation, while really good, is still rather boring to watch. The music's also rather bland.

4th Logo (November 1996-September 1999)
Logo: Just the Carlton logo on a colored background, the combination differing depending on the variant. A soft spotlight also shines across the background. The logo is usually presented in a large myriad of different animated scenarios, over 50 of them. An example would be the "Generic" ident, where the Carlton logo in yellow is seen on a red background. The logo zooms in except for the "T", which morphs into the "T" of the ITV logo, and then the rest appear around it.

Variants:
 * Much like the other logos beforehand, "888", later on as "Subtitles", is displayed in the corner if subtitles are available.
 * Starting in 1998, an URL for "www.carltontv.co.uk" appears on the bottom of the screen in white. The "Generic" ident is also updated with a different end result and color scheme to match the new ITV logo at the time.
 * For the end of programs, a sill version is used.
 * There is an international variant on a pink background.

FX/SFX: Depends on the variant. None for the still variant.

Music/Sounds: None for the still variant. A four note theme which comes in different sounds for the animated variants.

Availability: The ident variants are extinct. The international version was seen on season 4 of Cadfael.

Editor's Note: A bit of heart was put into this, but still is not enough to make it not feel "generic".

5th Logo (September 1999-October 31, 2004)
Logo: An animation of heart shape is shown in varying different styles is shown off, where at the end of the animation, a star shape appears in the upper right part of it and glows brightly before the screen flashes white. It then brings forth a differently colored background with revolving Carlton stars (which is a 5-pointed star with another 5-pointed star cut out of it), with the flash receeding into a blurry white version of it that focuses in, where it also has the "CARLTON" text along with the ITV (later ITV1) logo below it. A byline reading "www.carlton.com" is also seen below. The logo continues to glow a hazy white aura around the edges.

Variants:
 * The logo exists in both 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios. "Subtitles" can also be seen in the corner if the following program contains them.
 * Later on, the URL later read "www.carlton.com/tv" and appeared via a flash of white light before shining with vertical bars of light after a bit. This was removed in 2001 and replaced with the "itv.com" URL animation.
 * A New Years variant has the end result filled with chroma-keyed sparklers raining down.
 * Before an airing of Star Wars in 2002, the background is instead a realistic starfield that zooms in slightly.
 * For the local idents, the background color might be orange/gold, blue, and purple/blue/orange. The final variant also introduces a transparent star that also appears and quickly rotates around the logo as well. Only the 1st set of colors are used for productions, and is usually still.
 * On American-produced shows, "AMERICA" appears just below. The background's also animated.
 * For international distribution, the following texts have been added: "Distributed by" in a small font above the name, "INTERNATIONAL" below the name, and "Carlton International Media Ltd." on the bottom of the screen. This logo is completely still.
 * Some programs have the text "A CARLTON PRODUCTION".

FX/SFX: The stars. Pretty decent animation. None for the international variant and the production variant.

Music/Sounds: A 4-note theme followed by the last 3 notes played in different styles. There would also be an announcer announcing the program or movie airing on UK broadcasts. For the international variant, it's silent, although on episodes of The Dreamstone, the end of that show's theme finishes up over it as it appears shortly after the Central logo. Over the production variant, the end theme plays.

Availability:
 * The ident variants are extinct and appeared in the regions Carlton owned (London Weekdays, Central, Westcountry and eventually Wales/West in 2001 after Carlton purchased HTV due to rights reasons).
 * As for production variants, they are still quite common. It replaced the WB logo on The Big Brawl on Showtime.
 * The production variant was seen on programs such as Dale's Supermarket Sweep.
 * The Carlton International logo is surprisingly common, and was used as a subject of plastering. It plastered over the ITC logo on some of that company's shows and feature films throughout the late 1990s up to Carlton's merger with ITV plc after which the original ITC logos were reinstated (on most TV episodes) or replaced with Granada International, Granada America, or ITV Studios logos (on feature films) on newer prints.
 * It also plasters the CTE logo on some re-runs of Central-produced shows like Bullseye and Family Fortunes and even appears on re-runs of Carlton-produced shows airing in the UK itself following the normal end cap, as well as a few Carlton America releases.
 * The still/silent version of the logo also appears at the beginning of international PAL DVD releases of The Brave Little Toaster and made a surprise appearance on a Thanksgiving Day rebroadcast of the 2002 adaptation of Pollyanna on PBS on November 24, 2016 as well as episodes 9 through 12 of the third season of The Dreamstone.
 * The Carlton America logo is saved on many TV movies made by them. As noted above, the Carlton International logo appears afterwards on most airings.
 * The Carlton International logo remains intact on Shout! Factory TV prints of Borderline, Dead on Time, State Park, Russian Roulette, The Purple Plain, and A Summer Story (1988), as they use older prints.
 * The Carlton International logo was seen on French prints of When He Didn't Come Home.
 * The Carlton International logo makes a surprise appearance at the end of a Virgin Media Three Ireland airing of the TV Movie Breakaway, aka Christmas Rush after the Columbia TriStar Domestic Television logo, as ITV owns some international rights to that movie.

Editor's Note: Literally having hearts poured into it doesn't really make it more creative, although the music's rather catchy. While it does provide a unique take on the "Hearts" identity that the Granada/UNM stations had at the time, its elimination of the coveted Central and less remembered Westcountry names didn't help matters as well. Overall, still a better note to end on for the unique regional identities that ITV removed in 2002.