Mark VII Limited

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Mark VII Limited was the production company of actor, producer, and director Jack Webb, and was active from 1951 to 1979. Many of their series were produced in association with Universal Television.

Although Mark VII closed down in 1979, the Jack Webb Estate now owns the rights to the library, with the exception of the original 1954 feature film version of Dragnet (originally released by Warner Brothers, but now owned by Universal Pictures), and the films Pete Kelly's Blues and The D.I. (which are controlled by original distributor Warner Brothers). This explains why most of Webb's series are rarely seen on television today.

Webb's three seminal series, Dragnet (the 1967 incarnation), Emergency!, and Adam-12, are now available on DVD from Universal under license from the Webb Estate.

[edit] Programs produced by Mark VII

[edit] The logo

The Mark VII production logo depicted a pair of grimy, sweaty hands working on a silver sheet of metal, holding a stamp in place and hitting it twice (on rare occasions three times and once in later years as shown in this clip) with a hammer while a drum roll sounded. When the hands and tools pull away, a "VII" is seen imprinted on the metal. Above the Roman numeral in white is the word "MARK," and below "LIMITED" (the hands were later revealed to be those of Jack Webb himself). There are several different variations of this logo.

The tag has been widely parodied and imitated:

  • Director Spike Lee's 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks is similar, replacing the "VII" with the 40 Acres logo.
  • The soundtrack (the drum roll and the two clinks of the hammer) is used today in the logo for productions of Cartoon Network's Williams Street.
  • In the Pinky and the Brain episode Welcome to the Jungle, a similar logo appears at the end of Brain's student film.
  • The soundtrack was also used at the beginning of the entrance theme of WWE wrestler Greg "The Hammer" Valentine.
  • At the very end of the 1954 Woody Woodpecker short Under The Counter Spy, the person stamping "the end" on a sheet of metal accidentally strikes his thumb with the hammer and yells out in pain.

[edit] External links