NBC National IDs

1st Logo (1943-1950s)
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Logo: Just the word "NBC" in a microphone, surrounded by bolts of lightning.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: An announcer says "This is N-B-C. The National Broadcasting Company", followed by the chime notes "G", "E", and "C" with electrical buzzing in the background.

Availability: Extinct. This may appear on kinescopes of the period.

Editor's Note: This ID will most likely seem very strange to viewers familiar with modern television. However, keep in mind that this is a rather common design for the period.

2nd Logo (1949-1953)
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Logo: We see the words "NBC" surrounded by a square zoom up on a gray background. The letters light up one by one in sync with the NBC chimes.

FX/SFX: The zooming, the letters lighting up.

Music/Sounds: An announcer saying "NBC Television.", followed by the famous "NBC chimes" as the letters light up.

Availability: Extinct. Once again, check old kinescopes.

Editor's Note: This is by far the most classic version of the NBC chimes.

3rd Logo (1955?-1956)
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Logo: We see a card with the words "THIS PROGRAM IS BEING TELEVISED IN", with COLOR below it in a larger font, and below "AND BLACK AND WHITE" in the same font as the text above the word "COLOR".

Variant: A B&W variant exists.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: An announcer saying "The following program is brought to you in compatible color, pioneered and developed by RCA."

Availability: Extremely rare. Both captures appeared on a 1956 episode of The Dinah Shore Show. Ironically, it is only preserved in black and white.

Editor's Note: Some may not be expecting the announcer, but it's harmless.

4th Logo (1956-1962)
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Nickname: "Early Peacock", "Cymbal Crash"

Logo: We see a white peacock facing left on a black BG. Its feathers, outlined in white and tipped with little diamond shapes, begin to fold up. As they meet in the center, they spread out in the opposite directions, becoming colored in the process. The feathers flash multiple colors and "bloom", becoming thicker, with the diamonds changing to teardrop shapes. The result is an 11-feathered peacock with its paper fan-shaped display feathers in various colors.

Variants:
 * The peacock was still in its earliest years. There is also a still version with the peacock appearing over the word "COLOR." On this, there is no music and just the spiel described below.
 * Another still variant has the words "AN NBC COLOR PRESENTATION" under the peacock. This was seen on the 1958 primetime version of the game show Tic-Tac-Dough.
 * B&W variants exist on prints of said colors.

FX/SFX: The peacock spreading its feathers.

Music/Sounds: We first hear a gong crash, then announcer Ben Grauer says "The following program is brought to you in living color on NBC.". This ends with a bombastic fanfare.

Music/Sound Variants:
 * Sometimes, there is no music, and the announcement is provided by Bill Hanrahan instead.
 * A special variant was used on Howdy Doody. It starts out with the NBC chimes performed on a guitar with the characters singing "Everyone in Doodyville is shouting 'hooray'!/'cause we're in living color/we're in living color/we're in living color todaaaaay!".
 * On The Steve Allen Plymouth Show, a big band tune based on the NBC chimes is heard.

Availability: Extremely rare. Appears on the pilot of Bonanza on DVD. This ID was spotted recently in front of the Bonanza episode "The Frenchman" on MeTV, and may appear on other early episodes.

Editor's Note: This logo might startle some, thanks to the cymbal crash, the bombastic fanfare and loud announcer.

5th Logo (1962-1975, May 22, 1992, June 1, 2009)
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Nickname: "Laramie Peacock", "Kaleidoscope Peacock", "Psychedelic Peafowl" "Undead Peacock" (For the Nightmare: The Host and Rodney variant)

Logo: We see a kaleidoscope of many colors rotating. It wipes away, leaving us with the peacock from before, but its feathers greatly enlarged, which shrink down and form its feathers, looking the same from before, albeit with different colors.

Variants:
 * On Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, there is a variant where a man in white rolls a desk with a camera in from the left of the screen on a purplish-pink background. Another man in the same clothing floats down with a green rolled-up 16-millimeter screen. He unfolds it and walks around the movie screen as the movie starts with a countdown, then a blue "PICTURE START" screen, then this logo. The movie screen zooms in to fit the screen. After the music stops, the peacock sneezes, "Ah-CHOO!" and its feathers fly off as it looks around, wondering where its feathers went.
 * On The Dinah Shore Show, the peacock appears 3 times screaming "CAW!" during the opening of the show.
 * On the Star Trek: The Original Series gag reel, when the logo is about to finish, we see a hand holding a gun, shooting the peacock repeatedly, causing the peacock to flipped several times and screaming.
 * On a rare marketing reel for Nightmare: The Host and Rodney, the logo looks a lot more deformed. The colors of the feathers are different, faded, and 2 of the tips are sagging, while the peacock body looks crooked and there are 2 feathers under it. This variant is also still and the Vincent Price-like announcer has an very menacing feel to it, complete with an echo. The voice says "in livid color" (livid is a blue-gray color) instead of "living".
 * B&W variants exist on prints of said colors.
 * On 70s episodes of "Today", the words "TODAY" will appear during the 2nd half of the logo.

FX/SFX: The kaleidoscope effects.

Music/Sounds: A mellow flute and harp tune with a different (and much softer) announcer (Mel Brandt) saying the spiel from before. Sometimes, a different announcer is used, and adds "It just starts in black-and-white." at the end. This was seen on a promo for Get Smart.

Music/Sounds Variants: There are versions of the bumper with a shortened jingle. Also, the announcement can vary depending on the situation.

Availability: Rare; it was first used on the western series Laramie, hence the nickname. It can be seen on DVD's of classic NBC shows, such as Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. The Get Smart variant can be found on the Get Smart complete series DVD. It made an appearance in front of the first episode of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien on June 1, 2009. This can also be seen on at least one The Tonight Show tape from Buena Vista Home Video featuring Johnny Carson, as well as the VHS versions of Movin' With Nancy (starring Nancy Sinatra) and Petula Clark Spectacular. Some of the prime time episodes of Hollywood Squares that GSN aired retained the peacock as well, as well as episodes on Hulu. This logo is restored on the newest prints of Bonanza episodes (dubbed "The Lost Episodes") on Me-TV.

Editor's Note: The logo is much more mellowed out this time, but the Nightmare: The Host and Rodney variant can be creepy for some viewers.

6th Logo (1972)
The logo can be seen in this video at 0:27: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah-jtmCz368

Logo: On a blue background, we see a weird spinning object. The object turns out to be a compressed NBC "Snake" logo. The logo decompresses and turns blue, and the background turns black.

FX/SFX: All of the animation in the logo, which was done by Computer Animation Industries using Scanimate.

Music/Sounds: A UFO sound that gets louder, and then an ascending tone when the NBC logo decompresses. When the NBC logo is formed a six-note theme plays.

Availability: This logo was never used. It was found on a demo reel for Computer Animation Industries.

Editor's Note: This logo features good animation for 1972.

7th Logo (1976-1977)
Logo: On a black background, we see a stylized "N" composed of two white trapezoids zoom out. A couple of seconds later, both trapezoids get colored; the left trapezoid turns red, and the right one turns blue. "NBC" appears in the bottom right corner of the "N".

FX/SFX: The Scanimate effects, which were done by Dolphin Productions.

Music/Sounds: A big band tune with bongos.

Availability: Extinct. It appeared with a Dolphin Productions watermark on their demo reels of the era. You may have a slight chance of being able to find this in an off-air recording of the time period, as it was during this time period that VCRs of all different kinds began to become commonplace.

Editor's Note: While definitely very simple by today's standards, this logo holds the groundbreaking distinction of being the first completely computer animated national television network ID.

8th Logo (1982-1983)
Logo: On a plane consisting of tiles of peacocks with 11 feathers, the text "NBC" rotates and flies out, followed by the text "JUST WATCH US NOW". Then the camera pans to the NBC peacock with the "N" from the previous logo, made by blue lines. Then, the peacock with the "N" zooms in.

FX/SFX: The flying of the text, the zooming.

Music/Sounds: The shortened version of the last part of the jingle "We're NBC, Just Watch Us Now". Sometimes, an announcer (Danny Dark) says, "This is NBC, the network that swept in Emmys.", followed by a chorus singing "We're NBC, Just Watch Us NOW!"

Availability: Extinct. Check old off-air recordings of the period.

Editor's Note: None.

9th Logo (1983-1984)
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Logo: On a moving NBC wallpaper, we see the NBC logo zooming in.

FX/SFX: The wallpaper, the zooming in.

Music/Sounds: Danny Dark says "This is the NBC television network!" over an excerpt of the network's "Be There" theme. After the voiceover, the theme concludes with the jingle "You can N-B-C there, be there!"

Availability: Extinct. Once again, check old off-air recordings.

Editor's Note: The "Be There" campaign is a favorite of many.

10th Logo (1986-1990s)
Logo: Exactly like the 1986 NBC Productions logo, but slowed down and missing the word "PRODUCTIONS".

FX/SFX: Same as the 1986 NBC Productions logo.

Music/Sounds: A Broadway-sounding tune, with the NBC chimes near the end. Danny Dark announces, "This is the NBC television network!" One variant has a jazzy instrumental version of the "Come Home to NBC" promo music.

Availability: Extinct. It was used as a bumper in the 1980s. Check old tapes.

Editor's Note: None.

11th Logo (1993-2002)
Nickname: "The Fireflies", "NBC XAOS"

Logo: We see a rush of white "fireflies" (what they are referred to from now on). The fireflies take on the six primary colors and transform into the NBC peacock. When the peacock is formed, white fireflies continue to fly around in the black background.

Trivia: This was animated by Mark Mahlberg.

FX/SFX: The animation of the fireflies, which still holds up today. In fact, it's so good, it doesn't even look like something you see in 1993!

Music/Sounds: A tranquil synth theme with a backing that sounds a bit like the NBC peacock theme from the '60s.

Availability: Again, it's extinct. However, given its long lifespan (it served in various capacities during the '90s, such as a network ID or serving as NBC's "special presentation" ID, which it did as late as 2002) you might see it on tape somewhere. Another capacity it served was to signal the switch of Philadelphia's WCAU from CBS to NBC in the early hours of September 10, 1995. Also of note: this was one of many NBC IDs that made its debut in 1993, alongside several others (such as ones by John Kricfalusi of Ren and Stimpy fame, and another by Peter Maxx); according to one YouTube comment, this ID was overshadowed by the other ones, though it lasted the longest out of all of them.

Editor's Note: While this ID would certainly be unexpected to a first-time viewer, it is nevertheless a very good ID.

12th Logo (1996-2000s)
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Nickname: "The Ice Sculpture"

Logo: A man uses a chainsaw to make an ice sculpture of the NBC peacock.

FX/SFX: Live action.

Music/Sounds: A rock tune, followed by the NBC Chimes played on electric guitar.

Availability: Extinct. It was used in-between programs in the mid-late 1990s. Check old off-air recordings.

Editor's Note: None.

13th Logo (2009-2010)
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Nickname: "NBC Thursday Night"

Logo: We see various clips of characters from NBC's Thursday night line-up, separated by bars of colors from the NBC peacock logo.

FX/SFX: The colored bars.

Music/Sounds: A female announcer says "The following programs are brought to you in living color on NBC", afterwards a rendition of the NBC chimes is heard on an xylophone.

Availability: Was seen right before Community Thursday nights on NBC.

Editor's Note: A nice throwback to the last two logos, but it feels unnecessary to say “in living color”, since most, if not all modern TVs have color, however it was probably used as a gimmick for full HDTV, especially since this logo was used on the same year the US transitioned to digital from analog. Either way, this is still a good logo.