King Features Entertainment

Credits

Descriptions by
James Fabiano, Nicholas Aczel, Jess Williams, Argus Sventon, Stephen Cezar and Henrynguye5

Captures by
Eric S., Bob Fish, snelfu, V of Doom, Mr. Logo Lord, GrischaDJ TWO (Grig2007) and others

Editions by
V of Doom, Eric S., Bob Fish, Kramden II, Henrynguye5, TheRealMarcel2000 and Michael Kenchington

Video captures courtesy of
Phasicblu, Eric S., Stephen Cezar, KeenRich, Guy Who Knows Too Much, Broken Saw and LogicSmash

Background

King Features Entertainment was originally formed in 1980 as Novacom, Inc. by Bruce Paisner and PBS affiliate WGBH in Boston has a stake in the company, to distribute television movies for syndication. The company itself was sold to The Hearst Corporation in 1981 and it was renamed to King Features Entertainment. In 1983, it absorbed the assets of PolyGram Television into this company. It signed on a relationship with Phoenix Entertainment Group, distributing telemovies internationally, and acquired it outright in 1989. In 1990, it was renamed to Hearst Entertainment. Hearst Communications sold its live-action Hearst Entertainment library to Lionsgate in 2015, and integrated Hearst's animated content library into King Features Syndicate.

1st Logo (1981-1985, October 9, 1988)

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Logo: On a cerulean blue background, the words "King Features Entertainment" slowly zoom out. When the words get to a suitable distance, a "trail" of stylized outlined crowns come from the left and right side above the logo, consolidating into one stylized outlined shield. The words "Produced by" or "Distributed by" would appear in an arc above it.

Variant: Some shows contain a King Features copyright notice below.

Technique: Scanimate.

Music/Sounds: A somewhat dramatic synthesizer theme.

Availability: Very rare.

• May appear at the end of some syndicated movie telecasts, such as The Cartier Affair.
• Also appears on some prints of An American Werewolf in London, although other prints of that film use the Hearst Entertainment logo, with the KF music preserved.
• This can also be found on DVDs of The Toughest Man In The World and High School USA.
• This logo also makes a surprise appearance on the 1988 TV movie Going to the Chapel.
• It can be seen at the end of the Blondie films on the Movies! network and Amazon Prime.
• This logo appears on GREAT! Movies Classic airings of The Pursuit of D.B. Cooper and An American Werewolf in London as they use old 4:3 SD masters.
• This logo does not appear at the end of The All-New Popeye Hour DVD releases or Tubi TV prints as it's been plastered over with the next logo below instead.

2nd Logo (1982, 1985-1990)

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Logo: On a black background, a blue 3D crown spins onto the screen. It moves towards the top, as the black background begins to become lavender (the color moves up from the bottom). The crown, when it gets near the top and comfortably small, flashes and becomes a 2D stylized crown, similar to the 5th logo but completely colored in. Below it the words "King Features Entertainment" appear in the same font as the 5th logo. The words "A Subsidiary of The Hearst Corporation" appear below it. Sometimes, "Distributed By" may appear above the crown.

Variants:

• Sometimes, the logo is still.
• A warp speed variant exists.
• A slightly longer version exists where the words slowly fade in.
• On the test pilot of the cartoon Defenders of the Earth, the text reads "AND King Features Entertainment, Inc." with the small version of the Crown placed to the left of the company name.
• A unique version was seen as the intro to King Features' cartoons on VHS where the background is blue. Here, the crown is above a long white stripe spanning the entire screen, with "King Features Entertainment" on it. Below it is a copyright for King Features Syndicate. "The Sailor's Hornpipe" plays here, in which when the whistle blows, the crown zooms in and takes up the entire screen, with the inside of it fading to the intro itself as the stripe and copyright disappear. At the end, the crown appears over King Features' line up of characters and zooms in, takes up the entire screen again, and goes back to the logo, thus ending the intro.

Technique: CGI animation. None for the sped-up variant.

Music/Sounds: It starts with a several synth taps, which is followed by a whirring sound getting louder and with more reverb. 4 synth notes then play in series of 2. A drum plays when the text starts to fade in, with the byline appearing with a twinkle. All of this was played on a Yamaha DX-7. The closing themes of the animated Blondie specials from 1989, as well as Ask Dr. Ruth, were heard over the logo.

Music/Sounds Variants:

• There were two slightly different versions of the theme.
• It may also have the show/movie's ending theme playing over it.
• The still variant has the last few seconds of the logo's theme playing.
• The warp speed variant had the logo's theme doubled in speed.
• High tone and low tone variants of the logo's theme also exist as well.

Availability: Uncommon.

• Can be seen on old videocassettes of Popeye and Krazy Kat as well as the 1970s cartoon of Flash Gordon among other KFS classic cartoons.
• This logo was seen without music on G-Force on Cartoon Network.
• When reruns of The All-New Popeye Hour, as well as Popeye and Son (1987-88) were seen on the Family Channel in the early 1990s, this logo followed after both the H-B 1974 "Rainbow" and the 1979 "Swirling Star" for the former, and the 1986 "CGI Swirling Star" for the latter version. For the former, this logo was played in sped-up mode due to time compression.
• It also appears on the DVD releases of Get Smart, Again and God Bless the Child, respectively.
• It's also at the end of the Sandy Frank dub of Gamera (1965), which was featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000.
• The sped-up variant was also seen on Defenders of the Earth and was preserved on the DVD release.
• It also appeared at the end of the syndicated series Ask Dr. Ruth, which aired during the 1989-1990 season (the parent King Features Syndicate distributed Dr. Ruth Westheimer's column to newspapers, so naturally their TV arm produced her show).
• It also made an appearance on AMC's print of Six Weeks back in the early 2000s.
• On Tubi TV reruns of The All-New Popeye Hour under The Continuing Adventures of Popeye name, this logo and the Hanna-Barbera logos were played in normal mode.
• On BET airings of The Women of Brewster Place, the warp speed version is seen with the ending theme playing over it.

3rd Logo (1987-1989)

Logo: On a shaded blue background, a 2D stylized crown like in 6th logo, and the words "King Features Entertainment" are seen in the same font as the previous logo. Under it, the byline "A Subsidiary of The Hearst Corporation" is also there.

Variant: Some shows contain one or two King Features copyright stamps below.

Technique: None.

Music/Sounds: None or the closing theme of the show.

Availability: Very rare. Appears on the Blondie & Dagwood specials from the era.

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King Features Entertainment

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