Background: Southern Star Entertainment began in 1972 as an Australian subsidiary of Hanna-Barbera, aptly named as Hanna-Barbera Pty. Ltd. In 1974, half of Hanna-Barbera Australia was purchased by The Hamlyn Group, which in turn was purchased by James Hardie Industries. Hanna Barbera Pty. Ltd. was reorganized in 1983 as Taft-Hardie Group Pty. Ltd., and an American division was eventually established in 1984, known as Southern Star Productions. Programs produced by Southern Star would be animated by the Hanna Barbera Studios in Sydney, Australia, which gave the division the name of Southern Star/Hanna Barbera Australia. Southern Star produced shows mainly for CBS, such asThe Berenstain Bears, Teen Wolf, and the CBS Storybreak. In 1988, the Managing Director of Taft-Hardie, Neil Balnaves acquired Taft-Hardie and reorganized it as The Southern Star Group. The animation studio continued to operate until it was eventually sold to the Turner Broadcasting System, although The Southern Star Group kept the rights to its properties. Southern Star would eventually be acquired by Southern Cross Broadcasting in 2004, Fairfax Media in 2007, and Endemol in 2009. In December 11, 2013, Endemol announced that Southern Star Entertainment will be renamed to Endemol Australia, thus ending the 30-year legacy of Southern Star.
1st Logo[]
(1985-1989)
Nicknames: "Lightning Star", "Cheesy Lightning", "The Thunderclap", "Bad Weather in Space", "(The Other) Thunder from Hell", "A Southern Thunderclap from Australia", "Seizure Star/Southern Seizure"
Logo: On a blue space background, a magenta star quickly zooms out. It plasters itself firmly at the center of the screen, while a yellow lightning bolt slides in from the top-left behind the star, landing so that the star is in the middle of the lightning bolt. The star rotates a little as the bolt moves to the middle. The screen flashes white a few times at high speed, changing the star to blue and the bolt to gray, and two rectangles slide in from the top and bottom of the screen, behind the star and lightning bolt, the top one yellow, the bottom one magenta. When they connect with each other, the colors suddenly swap so that the top one is magenta and the bottom one is yellow. In the magenta rectangle, to the right of the star/bolt shape, is "A SOUTHERN STAR" in a yellow-colored thin Italic font (usually Futura), and in the yellow bottom rectangle is "Hanna-Barbera Australia Production" in magenta and the font normally used for "Hanna-Barbera Productions" on the 1979 H-B Swirling Star logo.
Variants:
- On The Berenstain Bears, a copyright for the Taft-Hardie Group Pty. Limited appears under the logo. The copyright stamp appears in black or pink, depending on the episode, although sometimes a chyroned-in copyright stamp may appear. The stamp may also last the entire duration of the logo.
- On Teen Wolf and CBS Storybreak, the star zooming out is cut, so that it starts on the bolt sliding into shape.
- Late in this logo's life, a variant was seen omitting all mentions of Hanna-Barbera, and had "SOUTHERN STAR PRODUCTIONS" in place of the original name. Also, the yellow and purple colors do not switch positions at the end, but shown darker. It additionally lacks the copyright. This variant was introduced in late 1987, when Southern Star became an independent company, having previously been owned by Hanna-Barbera and Taft.
FX/SFX: Simple movements.
Music/Sounds: The ending of the show's theme, but with a very loud thunderclap sound effect (not sampled from Hanna-Barbera's sound library) edited in with the flash, nearly drowning out the music. On the first season of Teen Wolf and at least two Berenstain Bears episodes, there is no thunderclap. The sound effect was sped up beginning in 1986. This version can be heard on the second seasons of The Berenstain Bears and Teen Wolf, in addition to later episodes of CBS Storybreak. One 1986 episode of The Berenstain Bears had a completely different, sped-up lightning strike sound, and another had the regular thunderclap played at normal speed like in the 1985 version.
Music/Sounds Trivia: The thunderclap was also used in the music videos for "Lobo-Hombre en Paris" by La Union and "Brave the Storm" by Shy, as well as early on in Dario Argento's Suspiria.
Availability: Rare. The logo was seen on the original Berenstain Bears cartoon, as well as the animated Teen Wolf (a few VHS tapes of this series have no logos) and later episodes of CBS Storybreak (earlier episodes only had a credit for Hanna-Barbera Australia, followed by the CBS Entertainment Productions logo). On reruns of The Berenstain Bears shown as part of DiC's syndicated programming package from 2003-06, it was plastered by "The Incredible World of DiC" and the 1994-2005 Southern Star logo. The logo has been preserved on Sony Pictures Home Entertainment's DVDs of The Berenstain Bears (followed by the 2005 Sony Pictures Television logo), and can also be found on the 1990s Berenstain Bears videos from Random House Home Video and Columbia TriStar Home Video.
Note: From here on, Southern Star became an independent company from Hanna-Barbera/Taft.
2nd Logo[]
(1989-1994)
Logo: On a starfield background, we see 2 sets of numerous lines move to the center to merge and form a turquoise star. The name SOUTHERN STAR appears below, with an underline colored in the same color as the star.
FX/SFX: Primitive animation.
Music/Sounds: Silence or the ending theme of the show.
Availability: Was seen on the first season of Blue Heelers, as well as prints of former Hanna Barbera co-productions, such as Drak Pack.
3rd Logo[]
(1994-2005)
Nickname: "The Segmented Star"
Logo: On a black background, we see 2 sets of 9 blue lines curve toward the center to form one set. As this happens, a light appears, and a 7-pointed segmented blue star is formed by the lines.
SOUTHERN
S T A R
with a blue line underneath, is formed below.
Variants:
- A still variant exists, as well as international version with "SALES" below.
- International airings of any of it's shows that use this logo have "SALES" appearing below.
- On shows like Water Rats, the lines are 3-D and more metallic. The underline fades in after the logo is formed rather than simultaneously done with the star and text. In addition, there is a byline that says "WORLDWIDE DISTRIBUTION" appearing at the bottom and "SOUTHERN STAR SALES" underneath.
- On some shows that aired on the Seven Network from 1994-99, it is spliced with the network's production logo used at the time.
- On game shows such as A*mazing, Burgo's Catch Phrase, Time Masters, and Wipeout, "CONCEPT" appears below as well as copyright.
- There is an in-credit version of the "SALES" variant on some shows such as Outriders, Don't Blame Me, and Blue Water High where the star and line are either in silver or white. There was even a yellow version on Pig's Breakfast.
- There is a shortened variant of this logo.
- On To Have and to Hold, the logo is filmed and "FILM SALES" appears below.
FX/SFX: CGI.
Music/Sounds: A deep synth drone followed by a light, airy synth sounder.
Music/Sounds Variants:
- In the logo's early years, the synth has a high pitched sound.
- On the game shows mentioned before, the announcer would say "This has been a Southern Star Production for [name of network]."
- On Snobs, the ending theme plays over it.
Availability: Seen on 1990s prints of Skippy, as well as Blue Heeler and early seasons of McLeod's Daughters when they run on air. It was also seen on Tracey McBean when it ran on Discovery Kids around 2005.
4th Logo[]
(2005-2013)
Logo: Against a dark blue starry sky with mountains below, we see stars forming several ring shapes, causing the Southern Star logo from before, but in a blue tint, to blur in. Copyright info is shown just below it. The sky darkens around it.
Variant: On the last four seasons of Hi-5, there is no byline.
FX/SFX: CGI.
Music/Sounds: A gentle synth sounder with some "whooshes".
Music/Sounds Variants:
- On Meerkat Manor, a version of the music from the previous logo is reused.
- On The Sleepover Club, a booming fanfare is played.
Availability: It's seen on shows such as Raggs and McLeod's Daughters. It also appeared at the end of the CH5 Milkshake show The Beeps.
5th Logo[]
(2013)
Logo: On a dark background, light blue and some multicolored lines emerge from the bottom right corner and form the familiar Southern Star logo. The Endemol logo, animated, appears directly below it.
FX/SFX: CGI.
Music/Sounds: The music from the current Endemol logo.
Availability: Seen on many later programs produced by Southern Star.