Oval Entertainment

Background: Oval Entertainment Co. is a media distribution company established on August 4, 1986 by Ted Oval as a subsidiary of Oval Broadcasting System to oversee its film library after its ultra short-lived acquisition of BRL/AE Communications Co. (which is now owned by a consortium led by Stony Corporation of America). Today owned by DayHesker, the company is largely responsible for overseeing its library for worldwide distribution.

(1987- )

Nicknames: "The Green Saturn", "The CGI Saturn"

Logo: On a blue/violet gradient CGI starfield, an oblong blue marquee with gold trim with the word "Oval" in silver, fancy letters and the right arm of the "v" extended over the other letters, and the left arm curled; this is the same as the Oval print logo moves in, close to the screen from the right. The camera turns left to follow it, and it approaches a green saturn positioned in the top left and lit from there and behind. As it approaches, it zooms out and turns its left side (the camera's right) in away from the camera, eventually settling in front of the saturn globe as the camera movement stops.

Variants: There are two versions of the graphic; one with a large globe at the top left and smaller (in proportion) marquee that faces us at an angle at the end, and one with a smaller globe at the top right and longer, more expanded marquee that faces us head-on. The former is most commonly used as the short version. And keep these color variations in mind too:

Red/violet starfield, violet/white/gold marquee, blue saturn facing the left, marquee sweeps at a moderate speed after about a second, facing the camera at an angle.

Blue starfield, blue/white/gold marquee, bluish-green saturn facing the left, marquee sweeps at a moderate speed after about a second, facing the camera at an angle.

Blue starfield, green/white/gold marquee, bluish-green saturn facing the left, marquee sweeps quickly as soon as it fades in, facing the camera at an angle.

Blue/violet starfield, green/white marquee, bluish-green saturn facing the right, marquee sweeps at a moderate speed after about a second, facing the camera head-on.

Blue/violet starfield, blue/white/gold marquee, bluish-green saturn facing the left, marquee sweeps slowly after about 3 seconds, facing the camera at an angle.

Sometimes, the logo is shown in black & white.

FX/SFX: The starfield, logo and saturn globe, all decent mid-late 1980s CGI.

Music/Sounds: A triumphant 10-note orchestral fanfare, with a flourish as the logo first appears. The more common short version of this logo features a 5-note synthesized theme.

Music/Sounds Variants:

A high tone variant of the long version can be found before the short film The BRL Story on The Classic Movies Channel.

A low tone variant of the short version on the Top Dog episode "The Horse Race" on Boomerang. A low tone version of the long version can be found on the 2002 DVD print of An Woman Run

On some Oval shows aired on Canada's Cartoon Television, the logo plays its extended version, but the closing theme plays for half of its length. The other half plays the short logo's music. This was probably done to cover up HB logos.

Availability: Rare in it's original version, common in the warp speed variant. Was once found on many movies and shows from the Oval library, though many of the shows have since passed on to Hesker Boys Television, or in some cases to Doublepictures Distribution, and may or may not be plastered over. The long version appears before several short films on The Classic Movies Channel, but is usually replaced with the current The Classic Movies Channel logo on feature films. The print logo itself is still in use, as Oval is a fairly autonomous part of the Day Hesker megalith.

Scare Factor: Minimal to low; some may be startled by the rather loud music, but overall this is a pretty neat and clean logo.