Background[]
Connecticut Public Television is the statewide PBS affiliate which serves Connecticut via its stations WEDH Hartford (its flagship station), WEDW Bridgeport, WEDN Norwich, and WEDY New Haven.
1st Logo
(October 30, 1978-December 4, 1984)[]
Nickname: "Blue Circle"
Logo: On a black background, a blue rectangle appears and grows on the screen as it begins to spin outward, trailing as does so, at one point getting really close to the screen. As it continues to spin counterclockwise, it begins to form a circle around it, which draws in from two opposite ends. Once the line is in the vertical position and the circle is fully formed, it stops spinning and the trail disappears. The result is a blue circle with a line going down the middle. aereby forming the "CP" part of the logo. Then the "CP" moves to the left as the words "Connecticut Public Broadcasting" in white and stocked on top of each other slide in from the right, as if bumping the blue "CP". As that happens, a blue dot appears within the "CP" to form the "T" to form "CPT". When all the moving stops, the word "Connecticut" then flashes brightly.
FX/SFX: The rectangle forming the CP, the words sliding in, the dot appearing in the CP, the word "Connecticut" flashing.
Music/Sounds: A downward-arpeggio keyboard and bongo combo as the CP logo forms and the words slide in, and a final piano note for the "Connecticut" flash.
Availability: Rare. Seen on whatever programs it had at the time, such as, most notably, In Performance.
2nd Logo
(December 5, 1984-1988)[]
Nickname: "The Neon Circle"
Logo: On a black background, we see a large, neon-colored steel circle with a vertical line going down the middle, which swings up. The bottom right part of the circle is barely disconnected from the line, and a dot is in the inside of the circle on the top left side. Once the circle is finished swinging up, the words:
Connecticut
Public Television
fade in below in a rounded, shiny metal font. The circle sparkles, and then glows blue behind it. The background then lights up with faded blue at the bottom.
Variants:
- Sometimes we see a blue glass circle zoom from the top instead.
- There's a variant where next to the logo is the text "25th Year".
FX/SFX: The circle swinging up or down, the text fading in, the sparkling, the background changing. Most likely made with models.
Cheesy Factor: The 1st variant is a much cheaper incarnation of the original logo.
Music/Sounds: A dreamy, yet rather ominous new age-style synth note.
Music/Sounds Variant: On the 25th Year variant, a female announcer says "The following is a special CPTV 25th anniversary presentation.".
Availability: Very rare. It can be seen at the start of the 1984 documentary Black Magic.
3rd Logo (1988-September 30, 1990)[]
Nicknames: "The Bronze Circle", "The Sparkling Circle"
Logo: On a black background, the same circle from before is shown in bronze, and sparkles a bit. The words
Connecticut
Public Television
are shown below the logo in a Helvetica font, also in bronze.
FX/SFX: The circle sparkling.
Music/Sounds: Same as before, only abridged.
Availability: Ultra rare, bordering on extinct. Check to see if your local PBS affiliate has old tapes of CPTV-produced shows.
4th Logo
(October 1, 1990-1993)[]
Nicknames: "The Silver Circle", "The Shimmering Circle", "3D Glass"
Logo: Against a dark gray background, a side-facing circle folds to the left leaving a residue of circles, which fades into the circle from before, which settles itself in the center and becomes silver.Several multi-colored lines wipe in from the bottom to reveal the words "Connecticut Public Television " (also in silver) in a Times New Roman font shown below, which are similar to the previous logo. The circle and the text are viewed at a straight angle with a bit of drop shadow and shine a bit as a spotlight shines upon the whole thing.
Variant:
- Usually, the logo was cut short to the shining.
- The logo animates superimposed on episodes of Scientific American Frontiers.
- When used locally, the station info wipes in first followed by the usual text.
FX/SFX: The circles moving and shining, the text appearing, the spotlight. Very similar to the animation of PBS's logo from 1989.
Music/Sounds: A majestic fanfare (the first half being slightly reminiscent of the 1986 Golden Book Video logo). It's often abridged to the last part of the tune (excluding the last note), or one single note.
Availability: Rare. The long variant appears on Scientific American Frontiers (the Woodie Flowers era) episodes of this era, and the short variant (the one without just one note) plasters over the last logo on the Chedd-Angier website. The shorter variant with one note appears on the Time-Life VHS releases of Barney & Friends S1 episodes, as well as select prints of the VHS release of Barney's Birthday (which was not from Time-Life; other prints use the 1992 Barney Home Video logo). The full (longer) logo was also seen on On the Record.
5th Logo
(1992-1994)[]
Logo: Against a background with blue marble squares we see the silver letters "CPTV" on a gray square. On the top and bottom of "PTV" we see purple and blue streaks. The blue squares zoom toward us and the gray square zooms to the right, a la Paramount Home Video's FP ID.
FX/SFX: The zooming. Not as cheesy as the next logo.
Music/Sounds: A synth bell with an announcer saying "The following is a CPTV original."
Availability: Ultra rare, as it was used for only 2 years. Seen on On the Record.
6th Logo
(1993-2004)[]
Nicknames: "The Exploding Dot", "The Floating, Multicolored, Stylized C's", "Glass Dots", "The Stylized C-Dot", "The C-Dot"
Logo: On a moving dark cloudy background, we see many multicolored stylized "C"s and glass dots merging into each other. Once the "C"s and dots merge, "CONNECTICUT PUBLIC TELEVISION" in a pale blue italicized font appears to the right of the "C". The "C" and the dot turn red and the dot does this light streak explosion-like effect.
Variants:
- The logo animates superimposed on the Alan Alda-era episodes of Scientific American Frontiers from this era, when Alan Alda hosted.
- This logo also exists as a station ID. The animation would play slower than usual, and when the "C"s would come together, the logo would then shine in multiple colors before the explosion. Also the channel names and there respective channel numbers are below the logo in the same font as "CONNECTICUT PUBLIC TELEVISION".
FX/SFX: The CGI, the "explosion".
Music/Sounds: A 4-note dreamy synth tune with a "ding" at the end. On the station ID, the music is extended to have the same synth notes repeat in a higher key, then the ding sound is held out longer to include a news-like theme at the end.
Availability: Rare. Seen on Barney & Friends (including reruns of the first season) and Scientific American Frontiers episodes of the era. The superimposed variant appears on the latter show on the Chadd-Angier website. As for the station ID, it's extinct. Check your old tapes for this logo.
Editor's Note: Not very professional for 1993. The merging of the C's is okay, but the explosion throws everything off.
7th Logo
(2004-2009)[]
Nicknames: "CPTV", "The Characters", "The Stylized C-Dot II", "The C-Dot II", "The Generic Dot"
Logo: On a multicolored background, we see a stylized "C" with the dot which is seen in the 4th logo, and is close up where we see several characters and celebrities (Alan Alda being licked by a seal, Barney, Angelina Ballerina, etc.) chroma-keyed in the "C". The "C", with the dot, pans out as the characters disappear and both the "C" and dot are red. The text "CPTV" (acronym for Connecticut Public Television) appears next to it in a similar font for the text in the 4th logo. Then a line is drawn and "CONNECTICUT" is seen above the line.
FX/SFX: The animation in the logo.
Music/Sounds: 3 bell/triangle notes, followed by a 4-note fanfare. On some shows, a female announcer says "A production of CPTV Connecticut."
Music/Sounds Trivia: The 4-note fanfare was also used in CPTV idents from the time.
Availability: Rare. Appears on episodes of the era from shows like Barney & Friends and Scientific American Frontiers. It was also originally shown at the end of Bob the Builder and Thomas & Friends on PBS at the time, whereas on some shows, it is now replaced with the 14th WNET logo. Also appeared on U.S. prints of The Saddle Club.
8th Logo
(2009-)[]
Logo: On a room-esque background with a floor and a spotlight, we see stylized glass c's with dots merge into each other from the left. Once they finish, while light bursts into us, we see the finished product, which is the same C-Dot logo from the 2 previous logos, but embedded in what looks like a cut off square or half of a trapezoid, colored red. The words "Connecticut Public Television" fly in one by one (a la 1984 KLRU logo).
Variants:
- A local variant exists with longer animation. The background is darker at the beginning and brightens up gradually. The camera also is closer at the beginning. At the end, station info fades in.
- For their 50th anniversary, the animation is different. We see red chips flying around to unveil the logo. The "C" seems to be carved out rather than plastered onto the shape. Below the logo is a big "50" in yellow in front a few red chips. Below the "50" is "CELEBRATING FIFTY YEARS" in a thin font. Below that is "OF TELEVISION EXCELLENCE" in a much less thin and smaller font.
FX/SFX: The burst of light. Basic, but effective animation that only gets more simple with the next logo.
Music/Sounds: The last part of the 2009 PBS logo theme.
Music/Sounds Variants:
- The local variant has an orchestral violin driven fanfare.
- The 50th anniversary variant uses the full version of the 2009 PBS music.
Availability: Rare. This shows up as a local ID currently, but is probably not shown at the end of programs as of now. The normal variant was seen at the end of programs until 2013.
9th Logo
(2013)[]
Nicknames: "Generic CPTV", "Where's The C?", "The Most Boring Public Television Logo of All-Time", "The Other Dull One"
Logo: On a light gray background, we see the text "cptv" wipe in from the bottom left to the top right of the screen. The text slowly zooms in towards the viewer then halts.
FX/SFX: The transition and the zooming.
Music/Sounds: Something that sounds like the closing to a country song. This might be the end theme of a program.
Availability: Seen on current CPTV programming, including Infinity Hall Live and The Kate