Reg Grundy Productions

From the Audiovisual Identity Database, the motion graphics museum


Background

Reg Grundy Productions, Inc. was the international production division of the Grundy Organization.

Logo (1982-1997, October 13, 2008-March 20, 2009)


Visuals: A remake of the original 1960 RG logo fading in zooms out from the center to right. There is also the name "REG GRUNDY PRODUCTION" in gold fading in underneath the logo.

Variants:

  • The first variant (used in a 1982 pitch tape for the U.S. revival of Sale of the Century) was a static RG, followed by "REG GRUNDY productions" (similar to the logo used in Australia from 1960 to 1977).
  • On the very early episodes of Sale of the Century, the logo is in 2D, and only zooms out much more closer-up to the center and the logo is much smaller and the name "REG GRUNDY PRODUCTION" is in a different font.
  • On the unsold 1983 pilot of Party Line (the precursor to Bruce Forsyth's Hot Streak), the logo rotates to face the viewer head-on.
  • On Goede tijden, slechte tijden (Good Times, Bad Times), the logo is on left with the Joop Van Den Ende TV-Producties on the right. Copyright shown below.
  • On earlier episodes of GTST, the 1st JVDE logo is on the right.
  • On the March 1984 pilot of Scrabble and the 1987 unsold pilot Run for the Money, there is a copyright year underneath this logo.
  • Until mid-late '87, the logo spun from left to right, as seen on the first five seasons of Sale of the Century, the first three seasons of Scrabble, and the short-lived game shows Time Machine (hosted by John Davidson) and Bruce Forsyth's Hot Streak. This version was animated using a 3D model of the logo that is chroma-keyed against the respective show's backdrop.
    • In the final episode of Sale of the Century, it was shown in two television monitors on the broadcast control room, as the team counts down till the end of the show.
  • This logo was placed on a dark blue background with words "Distributed by" above "RG". Below the logo says "REG GRUNDY PRODUCTIONS, INC." The entire lettering and the "RG" logo were in gold with a slow shining wipe effect.
  • Starting in 1996, the byline "A Pearson Television Company" appears below the copyright stamp.
  • On the first episode of Scattergories with Dick Clark in 1993, the RG logo was sort of silverish. The Reg Grundy Productions text was in a smaller font in white, and was not positioned directly below the logo.
  • On the 2008 revival of the UK game show Going for Gold, the logo is on a black background and is bylineless and textless.

Technique:

  • 1982-1983: Simple zooming effects.
  • 1983-1987: Live-action chroma-key effects.
  • 1987-1997: Early CGI.

Audio: For game shows, an upbeat, jazzy brass fanfare can be heard (based on the original Grundy Television theme - specifically the one used for Sale of the Century), along with the announcer (usually either Jay Stewart or Charlie Tuna) saying "(name of show) is a Reg Grundy Production!" Other shows (such as Scattergories in 1993) would have the end title music playing. For the distributor logo, it's just the "whoosh" sound as the shining wipe effect. Other series wouldn't use either the fanfare or the announcement. On the 1985 pilot Matchmates, a different fanfare was heard. On early episodes of the first series of Going for Gold, each episode ended with the following spiel over the closing bars of the show's theme - "Produced in association with Super Channel and the BBC, Going for Gold is a Reg Grundy Production!". In the final episode of Sale of the Century, the director counts down from 5 before saying "We're done!", to signal the end of the show.

Audio Trivia: Gene Wood and Marc Summers were the announcers on Bruce Forsyth's Hot Streak in '86 (this would be the only Grundy game that Gene Wood would announce for, aside from the 1985 pilot Matchmates, and as for Marc Summers, this show's announcing job came before he became host of Double Dare on Nickelodeon that same year).

Availability:

  • It's retained on Sale of the Century on Buzzr. It also appeared on Dangerous Women, Scrabble, Scattergories, the UK version of Jeopardy!, Going for Gold, Small Talk, and How Do They Do That?, among others.
  • Three of the variants, including the 1983 2D variant, made surprise appearances back-to-back on a televised obituary for Reg Grundy in May 2016.