BBS Productions

Background

BBS Productions was the banner for original programming produced by Baton Broadcasting of Toronto, Ontario; at the time, they had branded all their stations under the moniker of "BBS" (standing for the Baton Broadcast System) and acted in defiance of the larger CTV Television Network, which most of the BBS stations were already affiliated with. This was part of Baton's plan to ultimately take over CTV itself, which culminated in Baton becoming CTV, Inc. in 1998; by that point, the BBS name was no longer needed and was retired.

Logo (1994-1998)

Visuals: Against a dark blue/purple background, a swirl of colourful segments surround a column of light, and the letters "BBS" emerge from beneath. As this happens, the camera zooms back and the segments begin to form a rounded rectangle containing the BBS lettering, ultimately enclosing the text like the iris of a camera. The background becomes a lighter, shifting blue pattern, and the text "PRODUCTIONS" fades in beneath the logo. The multicoloured iris shines with light, as do the BBS letters.

Trivia: The BBS logo was actually adapted from the "multicoloured iris" logo used by the system's flagship, CFTO-TV 9 in Toronto, which had used their own variant (with a "9" in the center) since the 1960s in some form.

Variants:

In a few cases, the "BATON BROADCAST SYSTEM" name would appear below.
This was the default BBS ident used on all BBS stations, and when used locally, the call letters of the station (or, for pan-regional stations, the name/region of the system) would typically be positioned beneath.
In some cases, the text "Special Presentation" would be seen along the bottom.
A short version was used as a station ident only, cutting directly to the logo shining.
The first season of Earth: Final Conflict (except for later episodes) used an in-credit version of the BBS logo.

Local Variants:

Technique: CGI.

Audio: A pleasant piano/orchestral tune, with piano notes marking the BBS lettering rising, and a harp at the very end.

Audio Variants:

The "Special Presentation" variant had an announcer intoning "The following is a BBS special presentation!"
The localized variants used voiceovers denoting the station and in some cases BBS. The short station idents used a shorter cut of the music.
An extended rendition of the music was used for local sign-ons and sign-offs.

Availability: It was seen at the end of BBS-produced TV movies and shows of the era. Most of these shows and movies aren't rerun nowadays, however, and given BBS' absorption into CTV, might mean logo plastering. It has, however, been reported to have been retained on a True Movies airing of Golden Will: The Silken Laumann Story followed by the 1999 Alliance Atlantis logo. The logo was also preserved on the DVD release of This Matter of Marriage, also followed by the 1999 Alliance Atlantis logo (FilmRise prints plaster both logos with the FilmRise one instead). The in-credit version is retained on all releases and airings of the first season of Earth: Final Conflict, as it is part of the credits. CTV's Saskatchewan stations continued to use the extended music in their signon and signoff sequences (which were basically the same as the BBS era, only swapping references for CTV from BBS) into the mid-2000s.