Lionheart Television

Credits

Descriptions by
James Fabiano, Daniel Fuentz, Sean Beard, Logophile, BenIsRandom and Kris Starring

Captures by
Hb1290 and Camenati

Video captures courtesy of
WNED17, Jordan Rios Logo Vault and LogicSmash

Background

Lionheart Television International, Inc. was formed on May 1, 1981 as a joint venture primarily consisting of Western World Television and Public Media, Inc. Lionheart took over the US distribution rights to the BBC's television output after a previous deal with Time-Life Television expired, as well as that of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The BBC eventually bought Lionheart outright by 1987, making it their North American distribution arm, which was renamed to "BBC America" in 1994.

1st Logo (1982-1987)

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Logo: On a black background, a white drawing of a lion zooms in before stopping, taking up a good portion of the screen. The lion is drawn in an ugly "ornate" style with its tongue sticking out, a collar-like mane, and rather "fluffy" appearance. Its also holding a spectre in its front right (or left, depending on how you see it) paw, with 2 wing-like attachments at the top and emitting lightning bolts off of it. From the bottom of the spectre, the text "A BBC TV PRODUCTION" zooms in and settles below the lion, with "BBC" in a larger, "3D"-styled font. A few seconds later, it "flips" around to reveal "Distributed By" in a small print, as well as "LIONHEART TELEVISION INTERNATIONAL, INC." in a larger print. "LIONHEART" is also presented in a similar "ornate" style.

Trivia: The lion in the logo is part of the BBC's Coat of Arms (though not this crude, obviously).

Variants:

• For shows produced by ABC, the text will instead read "AN ABC PRODUCTION" with "ABC" larger than the rest.
• A different version of this logo had the lion and "LIONHEART" text on a chrome silver plate, flying up from the bottom of the screen. After it settled, the regular text fades in.
• A still version exists where the logo's coloured in orange.

Technique: Scanimate animation.

Music/Sounds: A Moog synthesizer tune that starts with what sounds like a "winning" sound effect on a slot machine or a video game, which is followed by a fanfare.

Music/Sounds Trivia: This logo's soundtrack is perhaps more notable nowadays for its use on the outro for some videos by Everything Is Terrible!

Availability: Extinct. Usually replaced with the 2nd logo. It may or may not appear on the original VHS of The Home Whovian. It did appear on some episodes of the Blackadder series when last seen on New York's WLIW 21 in the 2000s.

2nd Logo (1987-1991)

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Logo: Against a black screen, many white dots "dissolve" upwards and form a red and white lion's head. The words "LIONHEART TELEVISION - THE BBC IN AMERICA" appear from the bottom of the screen while a red and white stripe is "drawn" under the lion's head. There is a "V" shaped bend in the stripe at the part below the head.

Variant: Some shows had a copyright date below the logo. Sometimes, the animation would begin superimposed over a scene from the preceding program.

Technique: Early computer animation.

Music/Sounds: None, or the end music of the show.

Availability: Can still be seen at the end of Are You Being Served? episodes when seen in certain markets (WLIW 21 in New York and East Tennessee PBS in Knoxville, for instance). Also at the end of some Fawlty Towers reruns. The version with the superimposition and the copyright date was seen at the end of the short-lived U.S. adaptation of Top of the Pops, which aired briefly Friday late-nights on CBS in the 1987-88 season.

3rd Logo (1991-1995)

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Logo: The 1985-1991 BBC1 "COW" globe is seen spinning around while parallelograms with the letters "BBC" drop over the globe. Under the "BBC", three red lines and the words "LIONHEART TELEVISION" appear with "A BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION COMPANY" in small letters underneath.

Technique: CGI animation.

Music/Sounds: A synthesised fanfare that sounds vaguely like the one in the 1st logo.

Music/Sounds Variant: On Madison's Adventures: Growing Up Wild, it uses the 1987 ITC Entertainment Group Gold Diamonds fanfare.

Availability: Rare, but seen a good deal on A&E (Lovejoy, A Touch of Frost, Pole To Pole with Michael Palin) and PBS until the mid '90s.

• Its first appearance appears to have been on original PBS prints of Keeping Up Appearances, first broadcast on PBS stations in late 1991/early 1992.
• This was also used to replace the older Lionheart (and Time-Life) logos on reissued BBC library shows (i.e. Fawlty Towers, Are You Being Served? (other/later episodes, including “The Hero”), Good Neighbours, 'Allo, 'Allo, To The Manor Born).
• This also appeared on some of the CBS/FOX-distributed BBC Video tapes (Blackadder's Christmas Carol; Shada).

Lionheart Television

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