ABC News Productions

From the Audiovisual Identity Database, the motion graphics museum




1st Logo (1969-1988)

Visuals: There is the text "A Presentation of ABCNEWS" with "ABCNEWS" in its respective trademarked font. Sometimes, you'll see a copyright stamp under the text: "© (year) American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved."

Technique: Just the scrolling of the credits or superimposed.

Audio: None, just the end title theme from any show playing. Normally you'd hear announcer spiels on any program.

  • ABC Evening News with Howard K. Smith & Frank Reynolds/Harry Reasoner: "This has been the ABC Evening News with Howard K. Smith & Frank Reynolds/Harry Reasoner."
  • ABC Weekend News: "From New York, this has been the ABC Weekend News with (anchor's name). Watch ABC News with Harry Reasoner (& Barbara Walters), Monday through Friday."
  • ABC Saturday News with Ted Koppel: "From New York, this has been the ABC (Saturday) News with Ted Koppel. Watch ABC News with Harry Reasoner (& Barbara Walters), Monday through Friday".
  • ABC News with Harry Reasoner: "From New York, this has been ABC News with Harry Reasoner."
  • ABC Evening News with Harry Reasoner & Barbara Walters: "This has been the ABC Evening News with Harry Reasoner & Barbara Walters."
  • ABC's World News Tonight (with Peter Jennings): "From ABC, this has been World News Tonight (with Peter Jennings)."
  • ABC's World News Tonight Sunday with Sam Donaldson: "This has been World News Tonight Sunday, a presentation of ABC News."
  • 20/20: "This has been the ABC News magazine, 20/20."
  • Nightline: "This has been ABC News Nightline."
  • Weekend Report: "From Washington, this has been the Weekend Report. The Weekend Report is a presentation of ABC News."

Availability: It appeared on the ABC Evening News with Howard K. Smith & Frank Reynolds/Harry Reasoner, ABC Weekend News, ABC Saturday News with Ted Koppel, ABC Evening News with Harry Reasoner (& Barbara Walters), Issues and Answers, A.M. America, ABC's World News Tonight, 20/20, Nightline, Good Morning America and This Week with David Brinkley.

2nd Logo (1988-1990)

Visuals: A large American flag waves behind the Capitol in the District of Columbia as the "ABCNEWS" text zooms out on the globe on the top left corner of the screen. Text appears in two lines one by one on the bottom of the screen: the first line reads "MORE AMERICANS GET", and the second line reads "THEIR NEWS FROM ABC NEWS". A copyright stamp appears below the two lines of text. Horizontal lines are seen from the top all the way to the bottom of the screen.

Technique: Digital editing with the "ABCNEWS" text and spinning globe in CGI.

Audio: A rendition of the ABC News theme plays as an announcer says, "[show] is a presentation of ABC News. More Americans get their news from ABC News than from any other source".

Availability: Seen on television shows produced by ABC News at the time, such as World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, 20/20, Nightline, Good Morning America, the 1989-1990 episodes of Primetime Live and This Week with David Brinkley.

3rd Logo (1990-1994)

Visuals: First, the camera focuses on the top left corner of a computerized map and the "ABC" in the "ABCNEWS" logo of the time, and then the camera zooms out to show the full map and the full "ABCNEWS" logo. Below the "ABCNEWS" logo is text that reads: "MORE AMERICANS GET THEIR NEWS FROM ABCNEWS". Below that is a copyright stamp that is aligned to the right.

Technique: Digital editing with the "ABCNEWS" text in CGI.

Audio: Same as the previous logo.

Availability: Seen on television shows produced by ABC News at the time, such as World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, 20/20, Nightline, Good Morning America, the 1990-1994 episodes of Primetime Live, This Week with David Brinkley, the 1992-1994 episodes of World News Now and 1993-1994 episodes of Day One.

4th Logo (1994-1999)

Visuals: The screen pans down from the North Pole of the Earth to view the following logo positioned just above Florida:

ABCNEWS
MORE AMERICANS GET THEIR
NEWS FROM ABCNEWS

In the bottom left corner of the screen, just above Cuba, is a minuscule copyright notice.

Variants:

  • On World News Now, the notice is the same as above, except the logo shows a scary-looking pair of eyes, and the text below the "ABCNEWS" logo reads: "MORE INSOMNIACS GET THEIR NEWS FROM WORLD NEWS NOW © (year) All Rights Reserved."
  • In 1999, the GO Network logo with "GO" on a green traffic light would appear on the bottom, then change to GO.com.

Technique: CGI with digital editing on the copyright notice.

Audio: A rendition of the ABC News theme plays as an announcer says, "This has been a presentation of ABCNEWS. More Americans get their news from ABC News than from any other source."

Availability: Seen on television shows produced by ABC News at the time, such as World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, 20/20, Nightline, Good Morning America, Primetime Live, Turning Point, This Week, World News Now and the 1994-1995 episodes of Day One.

5th Logo (1999-2007)

Visuals: On a blue gradient background, there is clips of ABC News presenters from ABC News shows and the blue globe spinning. Suddenly, the ABC News program title (depending on the show) zooms in in a blue color while another text does the same thing in white. As the program title fades out, the text "More Americans get their news from ABC News than from any other source" types itself with a red bar at the end of each word. As the text does so, the spinning blue globe we saw earlier fades in and zooms out while the ABC News logo does the same. The globe and the ABC News logo suddenly place themselves and as they do, the clips fade out and all we see is a blue globe spinning around with the ABC News logo in the middle of it.

Technique: Sudden animation with the spinning blue globe in CGI.

Audio: Same as the 4th logo.

Availability: Seen on television shows produced by ABC News at the time, such as World News Tonight with Peter Jennings (later World News with Charles Gibson), 20/20, Nightline, Good Morning America, Primetime Thursday (later Primetime), This Week (with George Stephanopoulos), and World News Now.

6th Logo (1999-2007)

Visuals: There is the ABC News logo with the blue spinning globe in the middle on a blue background on the left side, and a blue-black gradient background. The white lines appear under the ABC News logo with a quick flash of light each time the lines appear, as "PRODUCTIONS" is wiped on similarly.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: None.

Availability: Can be seen on ABC News shows on both VHS and DVD releases.