HBO Entertainment

"HBO" redirects here. For other uses, see HBO (disambiguation).

Background

Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery and the flagship property of HBO's namesake parent subsidiary, Home Box Office, Inc. Launched on November 8, 1972, it is the oldest and longest continuously operating subscription television service.

Contents

1st Logo (1983?-1990s?)	2nd Logo (April 19, 1996-)

1st Logo (1983?-1990s?)

Visuals: On a black background, there are five glowing blue lines wiping in from the left through the center, and a large gold HBO logo fades in over the center of the lines, as two glowing red lines flash in above and below the logo (with the former line having the word "An" in its middle, and the latter having the word "Presentation"). The HBO logo then "sparkles" a bit.

Variants:

An early version of the logo had the logo slightly smaller and the colors of the lines and the text swapped (with the center lines in red and the top and bottom lines in blue).
Sometimes, a copyright date is seen below.

Technique: Motion controlled animation.

Audio: A bombastic 8-note tune, the end theme, or none.

Availability: It was used on non-movie events, like specials, concerts, and programs like HBO Coming Attractions or Video Jukebox (a half-hour expansion of the short music video vignettes aired between programs).

2nd Logo (April 19, 1996-)

First opening logo
Second opening logo
Current opening logo
First closing logo
Second closing logo
Current closing logo

Visuals: The logo starts on a black screen, before the screen animates like a TV screen turning on, and it fills with static. A shadowed outline of the HBO logo appears, along with "ORIGINAL PROGRAMMING" below it. The static fades into a black background, leaving the logo, which is still filled with static.

Trivia:

This logo was idealized by Bruce Richmond, who later became executive vice president of production at HBO. Bruce wanted to represent the fact that when people tuned in to HBO, they were stepping into something special.
The graphics were created using a Quantel Paintbox, and it took three days to fully render the final product (the same probably also applies to the closing variant). The animation was also made prior to any sort of music or sound effects, so the music was written based on the visuals.^[1]
This logo was parodied on MADtv at the beginning of a sketch called "Bae Sung Sopranos", a parody of the channel's hit TV series, The Sopranos.
It was also parodied on the forwarder channel to the Nintendo Wii homebrew application, WiiMC.
Imaginary Forces created a branding campaign based on the network's "Static" intro, entitled "Stories Like No Other". A case study can be found on their website here, while the video can be seen on their YouTube channel and Vimeo page here. According to Imaginary Forces, they wanted to make the white noise within the static to create immersive 3D worlds from HBO's original programs at the time.
HBO posted a video about the commentary of the network's "Static" intro from John Oliver, which also features the cast of Game of Thrones and other stars from HBO's original programs at the time. This can be seen on HBO's YouTube channel here.

Closing Variants:

A simple closing variant shows the fully-formed logo with the byline "A Time Warner Entertainment Company" below, before the background fades into static and the logo turns off like a TV set. This was used from 1996-2005.
A bylineless version of the aforementioned variant exists.
The screen has the text "THIS HAS BEEN A PRESENTATION OF HOME BOX OFFICE" with "HOME BOX OFFICE" in a larger font and "THIS HAS BEEN A PRESENTATION OF" in a smaller font above. This was used from 1998-2018.
The HBO logo filled with static is seen and when the screen is filled with static again, it transitions out horizontally, and a flash makes the static disappear and turns the logo into the text "A PRESENTATION OF HOME BOX OFFICE" in the Gilroy font. This is currently in use since 2018.

Later Variants:

From 2005-2018, a variant with the word "ENTERTAINMENT" replacing the text "ORIGINAL PROGRAMMING" was used in tandem with the standard logo.
Starting in 2018, the logo is enhanced and now simply says "HBO".

Technique: Computer animation.

Audio: A wiping noise and a static sound, followed by a choir and a low synth tone. The closing variant has the choir played backwards, followed by a clicking sound. These were both composed by Bruce Richmond in the key of C major.

Audio Variants:

On the 1997 special Stomp Out Loud, the static is replaced by the sound of a creaky gate, and the choir is replaced by a car alarm going off. The closing variation has the sounds reversed.
On the 2001 miniseries Band of Brothers, both the opening and closing logos are played at a lower pitch.
For the 2018 closing variant, a different clicking sound is used instead.

Audio Trivia: The music of this logo is officially known internally as the "Static Angel".^[2]

Availability:

It appears on many post-1996 programs on HBO such as Game of Thrones, True Detective, The Last of Us, Veep, Girls, Real Time with Bill Maher, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, and any HBO original special, among others.
It also appears on uncut prints of other HBO shows, such as Sex and the City, The Sopranos, The Wire, Six Feet Under, and Curb Your Enthusiasm, and is preserved on VHS, DVD, Blu-ray, and streaming prints of these shows. However, it is removed on syndicated prints of these shows.
The logo made its debut on the Season 7 premiere of Tales From the Crypt.
This is also seen on pre-1998 HBO Family programs, before they had their own special logo made. Can also be seen on HBO prints of the 2009 revival of The Electric Company and the 46th season of Sesame Street.
The new HBO logo variants debuted on Succession.
The 2018 variant appears on the HD remasters of Sex and the City and Six Feet Under on Max.

Legacy: For a long time, the logo was rumored to have debuted in 1993. This was eventually disputed.

External Links

Official website
HBO article on Wikipedia

References

[1] ttps://www.20k.org/episodes/itsnottvitshbo

[2] ttps://www.yahoo.com/video/netflix-sound-called-tudum-other-142709173.html

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