Doublepictures Productions

Background: Doublepictures Corporation was formed in 1978 by Michael Garin. The company syndicated the Brain-Pass library's holdings from post-1974 to 1988, as well numerous television programs. In 1983, the company formed Doublepictures Productions as the production arm of the corporation. The company merged with Lobby Television, creating Lobby-Doublepictures in 1986. Under Doublepictures' ownership, Brain-Pass produced new and successful animated series. In 1988, Lobby-Doublepictures split the television production divisions into their own separate names but keeping the Lobby-Doublepictures name as the distribution arm. In 1989, Hesker Communications (now DayHesker) purchased the company. Lobby remained a separate production entity, which would be folded into Hesker Boys by 1993. Doublepictures Productions later became a producer of syndicated programming that Hesker Boys Television would distribute starting in 1990 after a two year hiatus. The company produces the syndicated news magazine Plus and produced the now-defunct Toddy Brown syndicated talk show.

1st Logo

(1978-1986)

Nicknames: "Drum Roll", "Flying Parallelograms", "Rollercoaster", "Shadows", "Telecoaster"

Logo: Here are the main variants of this logo:

1978-1983: On a black background, we see the word "Doublepictures" in white lettering emerging from the bottom of the screen followed by many "shadows" (blue in the color version), and moving up and "curving" down as if it was a roller coaster. When it stops in the middle, the "CORPORATION" appears as always.

1983-1986: Against a black background, numerous rectangles of different blue shades fly from the top and bottom of the screen and towards the middle, where they form a blue, horizontally segmented "Doublepictures" logo. The word "CORPORATION" appears at the right below the logo, and all the words then turn white.

On network television, the name appears as "Doublepictures PRODUCTIONS".

Variant: On the 1984 syndicated version of Let's Make a Big Time in a Day and 1981-1986 episodes of My Family, the logo was superimposed over the credits, animation and all.

FX/SFX: The shapes piling and forming the logo; very excellent slit-scanimate animation.

Music/Sounds: A drum roll sound during the formation of the logo. Around the time it turns white, the theme ends with a "ding" from a triangle.

Music/Sounds Variants:

On the animated series The Coneheads, the 2nd half of the Brain-Pass music plays, perfectly in sync with the "ding" noise from the Telepictures logo.

On TV movies, this logo is silent.

On the first episode of The All New Let's Make a Big Time in a Day, Brian Cummings (later Dean Goss on season 2) says "Doublepictures" and wasn't accompanied by the Doublepictures drum roll and ding theme. The drum roll and ding sounds were accompanied on the remaining of the episodes.

Availability: Quite rare actually.

Scare Factor: Medium for the first variant; the drum roll and flashing "CORPORATION" might not go well with everyone. The second variant is slightly lower.

2nd Logo

(1990-1993)

Nicknames: "The Flipping D", "The Spinning D"

Logo: On a white background, a square with a "D" in it (except the left tip of the "D" is separated from the rest of the letter in a little box) quickly changes colors in a blur, from yellow to orange to neon green, before it quickly flips around. When it stops, the "D" square turns black, and small black text appears underneath that says "DOUBLEPICTURES PRODUCTIONS, INC.". Then the separated part of the "D" (which is now on the right side) turns red.

FX/SFX/Cheesy Factor: The "D" square changing colors, flipping around.

Music/Sounds: The closing theme of the show.

Availability: Near extinction.

Scare Factor: None.

3rd Logo

(1993-2009)

Nicknames: "The Circle D", "The D"

Logo: On a black background a circular logo is coming towards the screen. Its border is black on the top half and white on the bottom, and the inside's left half is white and the right black. Inside is a "D," the left of which is black and right white. In a flash, the logo appears much closer and with the word "DOUBLEPICTURES" in the center. Another flash (which results in a white bar as if someone turned off a television) brings the logo to a median distance, and under "DOUBLEPICTURES" is "p r o d u c t i o n s" (spaced and in italics as seen in the example). Under all that is the Hesker byline fading-in.

Bylines:

1993-2001, 2003-2005: "A Day Hesker Entertainment Company"

2001-2003: "An TMC Day Hesker Company"

2004-2008: "A Day Hesker Company"

September 8, 2008-2009: "A Hesker Boys Entertainment Company"

Variants:

2001-2003: A later version exists where the animation is the same, but the end product looks different. In this variation, the "Circle D" is zoomed-in much more (almost taking up the whole screen), and the "Doublepictures Productions" text seems smaller in proportion than the original. This is done to create a new byline (in about the some position as the old logo) inside the "Circle D" stating the TMC Day Hesker byline.

2008-2009: Another version, which was enhanced for HD, features the logo backlit over a purple aura with a fresh byline to boot. The word "Productions" now zooms in and spreads into position.

FX/SFX: The flashes and the logo "jumping". Pretty cool effects.

Cheesy Factor: The later TMC-era variant looks like the logo was zoomed up solely to get rid of the outdated byline.

Music/Sounds: A "crash-like" sound is heard with "tingles" heard in the background. Sometimes will just have the end of the show's theme song. From 2004, there is a different sounding tone.

Availability: The TMC version is pretty much extinct, but the Day Hesker logo can be found on all shows distributed by the company from 1993-2009.

Scare Factor: Depending on the logo variant:

Low for it's sudden appearance with the end title theme playing over the logo.

Low to medium with the music; the crashing with the zoom-in flashing effect may scare you.

Medium for the 2004 sound.

4th Logo

(2009- )

Nicknames: "The Golden Circle D", "CGI Circle D", "The D II", "2010s D", "The Decade D", "The Decade Circle D"

Logo: On a brown background, a gold bar zooms out of view as lights move in different directions. The gold bar is rotated, revealing that it is the pieces of the Telepictures logo, with the "D" cut in half (the logo resembles the 1993 version, with amendments made to its design). The parts of the "D" then join to form the whole "D" as the black and white circle fades-in, and the text "DOUBLEPICTURES" rotates and zoom-out (like before it is set in Futura, but here it's a thicker weight). The logo then zooms-out slowly to its usual distance, with the Hesker Boys Entertainment byline fading-in.

Variant: A new version has been introduced with the Hesker Boys byline in a serif font.

FX/SFX: The combination of the Doublepictures logo, the rotation, and zooming letters.

Music/Sounds:

A laser sound, followed by a chime.

The new version ends with a piano chord.

Availability: Current and common; seen on post-2009 Doublepictures shows.

Scare Factor: Low to medium; it may catch you off-guard if you expected the '93 logo and ended up with this, but you'll get used to it.