MCA Home Video

Background

MCA Video Distributing Corporation was renamed to MCA Home Video in 1983, and decided to discontinue the two separate labels MCA Videocassette Inc. and MCA Videodisc, unifying it into one label for all of home video releases. In 1986, it signed a partnership with Kartes Video Communications, and a year later, signed a partnership with Goodtimes Home Video to distribute titles on videocassette for a bargain bin. It also inked a deal with Image Entertainment to release titles on Laserdisc. In 1987, it began distributing tiles from International Video Entertainment. In 1990, MCA Home Video renamed itself as "MCA/Universal Home Video" to capitalize the Universal Studios name and to coincide with Universal's 75th Anniversary.

Contents

1st Logo (November 1983-May 10, 1990; June? 1991 (Canada))	2nd Logo (1986-1990)

1st Logo (November 1983-May 10, 1990; June? 1991 (Canada))

Standard version
With byline
B&W with byline
More Programming variant
Other Titles variant
Trailer variant

Logo: On a CGI starry background, we see the MCA Home Video logo (in Earth yellow color). This logo has the usual MCA logo (with the "C" and "A" connected) and the words "HOME VIDEO" (in a sleek, smaller font that has the same width as "MCA") in a box that resembles a videotape (but "MCA" overlaps this box on the top, making it "cut open"). The logo zooms in slowly, like the Universal globe at the time. The logo fades out to the starry background for a second, and then an entire fade to black.

Variants:

Some later releases featured an announcement asking the viewer to stay tuned for previews of future releases that faded out shortly before the logo's appearance. Releases that use this variant include, but are not limited to, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Twins, Biloxi Blues, The Land Before Time, Field of Dreams, Shocker, Reason to Die (Canadian VHS), and The Dream Team.
MCA releases co-released by GoodTimes Home Video have "UNDER LICENSE TO" at the bottom of the screen. The GoodTimes logo of the period would follow. A black & white version of this can be found on The Creature from the Black Lagoon. A similar variant was also spotted on the Kartes Video release of You Can't Cheat an Honest Man.
On some French-Canadian tapes such as A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child, a French warning will appear before the logo.
On the 1985 LaserDisc of Spartacus, the logo fades out earlier.
On some early '80s VHS tapes featuring this logo, the logo fades in at the bottom, along with "Other Titles Available From" or (on earlier tapes) "More Programming Available for You From" at the top, then the screen fades out afterwards. This can be seen on Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, Max Maven's Mindgames, and The Lonely Guy and makes a surprise appearance on a 1996 reprint of the latter.
Black and white movies would have this logo in black & white, such as The Wolf Man and Destry Rides Again.
Some releases, such as the 1983 VHS of Jaws 3 and the 1980s VHS of Rear Window, often had this logo segueing into the 1963 Universal logo.
Side opening bumpers on some MCA Home Video LaserDiscs between 1984 and 1986 used the stars by themselves, with "Side 2", "Side 3", etc., appearing by itself in the center of the screen, and then a fade out back to the stars. The 1984 LaserDisc release of Rear Window features this bumper.

Technique: CGI animation.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Uncommon.

Check your thrift stores for tapes featuring this logo on the cover.
It was seen on tapes such as the 1988 video release of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and the 1989 release of The Land Before Time (1991 and 1996 reprints use the first MCA/Universal logo).
Others include the mid-late '80s releases of Back to the Future, a 1987 reprint of Play Misty for Me (which reused 1981 box art), An American Tail, *batteries not included, and Dragnet.
Since MCA Records was one of the U.S.' largest record companies of the time, it also can be seen on music related tapes that predate the founding of MCA Music Video, such as Olivia Newton-John: Twist of Fate, U2 Live at Red Rocks: Under a Blood Red Sky, and Jimmy Buffett: Live by the Bay.
Among the last releases to use this logo were Shocker, Harvey, Dad, and reissues of eleven James Stewart films.
It can also be found on Canadian Alliance Releasing Home Video VHS releases of Nightbreaker, Deadly Innocents, State of Mind (AKA: Private War), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie, American Boyfriends, Iron Eagle II, Cameron's Closet, Nukie, A Whisper to a Scream, Final Cut (1989) (AKA: Lights! Cameras! Murder!), Devil in the Flesh, Bedroom Eyes II, Reason to Die, and Hot Times at Montclair High, among possible others. The Alliance Releasing logo may appear before or after this logo.
Some tapes up until 1991 with the MCA/Universal Home Video print logo on the cover may still have this due to being reprints of earlier MCA titles, such as Arabesque.
It was also recently spotted on the 1991 Canadian Cineplex Odeon Video VHS release of The Grifters. It is unknown if this appears on other VHS releases from Cineplex Odeon, which MCA distributed in Canada.
This does not appear on the French Canadian International Video Entertainment release of Eddie et les Cruisers II: Eddie est de retour (Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives).

2nd Logo (1986-1990)

Blue Version
Red Version
Silver Version
Blue Version #2
Silver Version #2

Logo: The MCA Home Video logo appears in chrome (usually zooming in or sliding into the view). There are different variants:

On the VHS trailer for An American Tail (1986), the logo was in gold on a black background.
On the VHS trailer for Talk Radio (1988), the logo is silver/chrome on an oatmeal gray background. It flashes red, timed to the drumbeats in the background music.
On the VHS trailer for The Land Before Time (1988), the logo is bright red on a black background.
On the VHS trailer for Uncle Buck (1989), the "MCA HOME VIDEO" logo is sky blue and slides in from the left on a black background. This also appears on the VHS trailer for Phantasm II (1988).
On the VHS trailer for Shakedown (1988), the logo is silver on a blue-black gradient background.
On the VHS trailer for Hellgate (1989), seen at the end of a Canadian VHS of Reason to Die, the logos starts with a shady gray background of diagonal bars with several "MCA HOME VIDEO" logos appearing inside the bars (like a wallpaper pattern). A sky blue "MCA HOME VIDEO" logo fades in the center and slowly zooms in while rotating/straitening itself into the view. This also plasters the New World Pictures logo originally seen in this film's trailer.

Technique: Typical late-'80s computer effects/animation.

Music/Sounds: The music or theme from whatever movie is being advertised.

Availability: Extremely rare. Seen primarily on trailers for MCA Home Video releases at the time.

◄	MCA Videocassette Inc. MCA Videodisc

MCA Home Video

MCA/Universal Home Video

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