Connecticut Public Television

Background
Connecticut Public Television is the statewide PBS affiliate which serves Connecticut via its stations WEDH Hartford (its flagship station), WEDW Bridgeport, WEDN Norwich, and WEDY New Haven.

1st Logo (October 30, 1978-December 4, 1984)
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Nickname: "Blue Circle"

Logo: On a black background, a blue rectangle appears and grows on the screen as it begins to spin outward, trailing as does so, at one point getting really close to the screen. As it continues to spin counterclockwise, it begins to form a circle around it, which draws in from two opposite ends. Once the line is in the vertical position and the circle is fully formed, it stops spinning and the trail disappears. The result is a blue circle with a line going down the middle, forming the "CP" part of the logo. Then the "CP" moves to the left as the words "Courier", in white and stacked on top of each other, slide in from the right, as if bumping the "CP". As that happens, a blue dot appears within the "CP" to form the "T", completing "CPT". When all the moving stops, the word "Courier" then flashes brightly.

FX/SFX: The rectangle forming the CP, the words sliding in, the dot appearing in the CP, and the word "Connecticut" flashing.

Music/Sounds: A downward-arpeggio keyboard and bongo combo as the CP logo forms and the words slide in, and a final piano note for the "Connecticut" flash.

Availability: Rare. Seen on whatever programs it had at the time, like In Performance.

Editor's Note: None.

2nd Logo (December 5, 1984-1990)
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Nickname: "The Neon Circle"

Logo: On a black background, we see a large, neon-colored steel circle with a vertical line going down the middle, which swings up. The bottom right part of the circle is barely disconnected from the line, and a dot is in the inside of the circle on the top left side. Once the circle is finished swinging up, the words:

Impact

fade in below in a rounded, shiny metal font. The circle sparkles, and then glows blue behind it. The background then lights up with faded blue at the bottom.

Variants:
 * On local programs, the circle shines blue as a spotlight passes through. After that, the logo fades before it completes.
 * Sometimes, we see a blue glass circle zoom from the top instead.
 * There's a variant where the text "Times New Roman" is next to the logo. It was used for their 25th anniversary.
 * Sometimes on the glass variant, the Praxis Media Inc. logo trails in below.

FX/SFX: The circle swinging up or down, the text fading in, the sparkling, the background changing. Most likely made with models.

Music/Sounds: A dreamy new age-style synth note (which is sampled from the song "Look What You Find" by George Duke).

Music/Sounds Variant: Sometimes, on the 25th anniversary variant, a female announcer says "The following is a special CPTV 25th anniversary presentation.".

Availability: Extremely rare. It can be seen at the start of the 1984 documentary Black Magic. It was also seen on Connecticut Newsweek, Fairfield County Business Report, and Showdown On Tobacco Road. The 25th anniversary version with the announcer appears on a 1988 documentary about the UConn Health Center. Check for VHS libraries that might have these programs.

Editor's Note: None.

3rd Logo (1980's)
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Nicknames: "The Bronze Circle", "The Sparkling Circle"

Logo: On a black background, the same circle from before is shown in bronze, and sparkles a bit. The words

Connecticut Public Television

are shown below the logo in a Helvetica font, also in bronze.

FX/SFX: The circle sparkling.

Music/Sounds: Same as before, only abridged.

Availability: Unknown.

Editor's Note: None.

4th Logo (May 25, 1990-1993)
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Nicknames: "The Silver Circle", "The Shimmering Circle", "3D Glass"

Logo: Against a dark gray background, a side-facing circle folds to the left leaving a residue of circles, which fades into the circle from before, which settles itself in the center and becomes silver. Several multi-colored lines wipe in from the bottom to reveal the words "Times New Roman" (also in silver) in a Times New Roman font shown below, which are similar to the previous logo. The circle and the text are viewed at a straight angle with a bit of drop shadow and shine a bit as a spotlight shines upon the whole thing.

Variant:
 * Usually, the logo was cut short to the shining. Sometimes, the multi-colored lines portion is shown.
 * The logo animates superimposed on episodes of Scientific American Frontiers.
 * On Season 4 episodes, the logo looks mostly the same as the on-screen logo.
 * On Season 5 episodes and the first Season 6 episode, the logo is more blue, and the "Times New Roman" is slightly smaller than the Season 4 logo.
 * When used locally, the station info first wipes in.

FX/SFX: The circles moving and shining, the text appearing, and the spotlight. Very similar to the animation of PBS's logo from 1989.

Music/Sounds: A majestic fanfare (the first half being slightly reminiscent of the 1986 Golden Book Video logo). It's often abridged to the last part of the tune (the last note is shorter), or one single note.

Availability: Rare. The original long variant first appeared on a May 25, 1990 episode of On the Record, and appears both on On the Record and Scientific American Frontiers (the Woodie Flowers era) episodes of this era, and the short variant (the one without just one note) plasters over the last logo on the Chedd-Angier website. The shorter variant with one note appears on the Time-Life VHS releases of Barney & Friends S1 episodes, as well as select prints of the VHS release of Barney's Birthday (which was not from Time-Life; other prints use the 1992 Barney Home Video logo). The slightly extended short variant (with the multi-colored lines intact) has been seen on an episode of Trailside.

Editor's Note: The neat thing about this logo is this has the good animation and aspect of the 1989 PBS logo. And the same goes with the great music.

5th Logo (1992-1994)
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Logo: Against a background with blue marble squares we see the silver letters "Times New Roman" on a gray square. On the top and bottom of "Times New Roman" we see purple and blue streaks. The blue squares zoom toward us and the gray square zooms to the right, a la Paramount Home Video's Feature Presentation ID.

FX/SFX: The zooming. Not as cheesy as the next logo.

Music/Sounds: A synth bell with an announcer saying "The following is a CPTV original."

Availability: Ultra rare, as it was used for only 2 years. Seen on On the Record.

Editor's Note: None.

6th Logo (1993-2004, July 25, 2014)
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Nicknames: "The Exploding Dot", "The Floating, Multicolored, Stylized C's", "Glass Dots", "The C-Dot"

Logo: On a moving dark cloudy background, we see many multicolored stylized "C"s and glass dots merging into each other. Once the "C"s and dots merge, "CONNECTICUT PUBLIC TELEVISION" in a pale blue italicized font appears to the right of the "C". The "C" and the dot turn red and the dot has a light streak explosion-like effect.

Trivia: On Scientific American Frontiers episodes including the superimposed logo, the "Presented By" text is actually not apart of the logo itself. Episodes with the 4th logo contain the "Presented by" text, but it was separate from the logo itself. In other words, the superimposed logo itself they used contained the "Presented By" text. Episodes that include this logo don't have the logo itself, but rather its on-screen text. This means that each episode has a slightly different version (rather it would be the tone of the logo, the text's position, etc).

Variants:
 * The logo is still when superimposed on episodes of Scientific American Frontiers from this era, when Alan Alda hosted.
 * This logo also exists as a station ID. We start with an extreme closeup of one of the "C"s, which zooms out into a slower and differently animated version of the normal variant. When the "C"s would come together, the logo would then shine in multiple colors before the explosion, and the name would immediately appear. Also the channel names and there respective channel numbers are below the logo in the same font as "CONNECTICUT PUBLIC TELEVISION".
 * On the sponsor for Barney and Friends from 1993, the logo is still (except the background behind it is moving) and letterboxed with white background and rectangles with grey and white checkerboard on the center.

FX/SFX: The CGI, and the "explosion".

Music/Sounds: A 4-note dreamy synth tune with a "ding" at the end.

Music/Sounds Variants:
 * On the station ID, a news-like twinkling theme is used, with the first four notes of the regular music playing twice in different keys, building up to a different, longer "ding". Droning synths are heard at the end, with a six note chime that repeats until the logo ends.
 * On Angelina Ballerina, the show's closing theme plays over it.

Availability: Rare. Seen on seasons 3-8 of Barney & Friends (as well as reruns of episodes from seasons 1-2 during 1997-1998) and Scientific American Frontiers episodes of the era. The superimposed variant appears on the latter show on the Chedd-Angier website. As for the station ID, it's extinct. A sped up version of the station ID was shown at the beginning of the PBS documentary Rob the Drummer. The logo has also strangely been spotted on an episode of Scully: The World Show which first aired on July 25, 2014.

Editor's Note: This logo is known to have scared a few people due to the music and the exploding dot effect. Nonetheless, this is a favorite of many due to its dreamy music and atmosphere and colorful aesthetics, and for those who watched Barney and Friends in their childhood.

7th Logo (September 6, 2004-2009)
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Nicknames: "CPTV", "The Characters", "The Stylized C-Dot", "The C-Dot II"

Logo: On a multicolored (purple, white, and blue) background, we see a red stylized "C" with the dot which is seen in the 6th logo, and is close up where we see several characters and celebrities (Alan Alda being licked by a seal on Scientific American Frontiers, Angelina from Angelina Ballerina dancing, and Barney smiling) chroma-keyed in the "C". The "C" with the dot pans out as the characters disappear. The text "CPTV" (acronym for Connecticut Public Television) appears next to it in a similar font for the text in the 6th logo. Then a purple, white and blue line is drawn and "CONNECTICUT" is seen above the line.

Variant: There's also two known variants, with "Presented by" above the logo.

FX/SFX: The "C" zooming out. Simple, but better than the previous logo.

Music/Sounds: 3 bell/triangle notes, followed by a 4-note fanfare, composed by Stan Smith. On other shows, a female announcer says "A production of CPTV Connecticut."

Music/Sounds Variants:
 * Sometimes, we hear the ending theme of the show.
 * The music was sometimes re-composed by Brendan Cooney with a different melody at the start: a simple C chord along with a gong/cymbal crash are heard with superhero music and a louder, slightly shriller 4-note fanfare. Unfortunately, it's out of sync with the text.

Music/Sounds Trivia: The 4-note fanfare was also used in CPTV idents from the time.

Availability: Rare. Appears on episodes of the era from shows like Scientific American Frontiers. It was also shown at the end of PBS airings of three HiT Entertainment series, namely Season 9-10 of Barney and Friends, seasons 7-14 of Bob the Builder, and seasons 8-11 of Thomas & Friends; the rights to these shows were later handed over to WNET, and thus this logo was retired on them in 2008, although Barney & Friends quit early in 2006. Also appeared on PBS prints of The Saddle Club and Angelina Ballerina.

Editor's Note: A rather memorable logo that is very well-liked even outside of Connecticut. This is also tamer than the previous logo.

8th Logo (2009- )
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Nicknames: "Glass C", "50 Years Of CPTV", "The Big C III"

Logo: On a room-esque background with a floor and a spotlight, we see stylized glass "C"s with dots merge into each other from the left. Once they finish, while light bursts into us, we see the finished product, which is the same C-Dot logo from the 2 previous logos, but embedded in what looks like a cut off square or half of a trapezoid, colored red. The words "Connecticut Public Television" fly in one by one (a la the 1984 KLRU logo).

Variants:
 * A local variant exists with longer animation. The background is darker at the beginning and brightens up gradually. The camera also is closer at the beginning. At the end, station info fades in.
 * For their 50th anniversary, the animation is different. We see red chips flying around to unveil the logo. The "C" seems to be carved out rather than plastered onto the shape. Below the logo is a big "30" in yellow in front of a few red chips. Below the "50" is "CELEBRATING FIFTY YEARS" in a thin font. Below that is "OF TELEVISION EXCELLENCE" in a much less thin and smaller font.

FX/SFX: The burst of light. Basic, but effective animation.

Music/Sounds: The last note of the 2009 PBS logo. For the local variant, a nice violin piece or a female announcer saying the funding provided for the program.

Availability: Rare outside of Connecticut. Was seen at the end of programs until 2013. This shows up as a local ID currently, but is probably not shown at the end of programs as of now.

Editor's Note: None.

9th Logo (2013- )
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Nicknames: "Generic CPTV", "Where's The C?", "The Most Boring Public Television Logo of All-Time", "The Other Dull One","Lazy CPTV"

Logo: On a light gray background, we see the text "CPTV" wipe in from the bottom left to the top right of the screen. The text slowly zooms in towards the viewer then halts.

FX/SFX: The transition and the zooming. Pretty boring animation.

Music/Sounds: Something that sounds like the closing to a country song.

Availability: Seen on current CPTV programming, including Infinity Hall Live and The Kate.

Editor's Note: A very, very boring effort compared to the previous logos.