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The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) has used several corporate logos over its history, yet the peacock is its most well known.
In 1942, NBC television introduced its first official logo, a microphone surrounded by lightning bolts, which was a modification of an existing logo used by the NBC radio network.[1] Lightning bolts were also a part of corporate parent RCA's logo, as well as that of one-time sister company RKO Pictures. The left waves were meant for the radio network, and the right waves were meant for the television network. The video version of this logo says, "This is NBC, the National Broadcasting Company", followed by the NBC chimes. At the beginning of telecasts, another card depicting an NBC cameraman with his camera was shown. On WNBT (now WNBC), heard was "WNBT, New York."
In late 1953, a stylized xylophone and mallet was introduced, accompanied by the three-tone NBC chimes, first heard on NBC radio in 1927. The main chimes were 7 tones. The current tones, however, are the notes G, E' and C'.[1] There is some indication that the xylophone logo was used at 5:32 PM on December 17, 1953 to announce the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) approval of the new color standard, which would go into effect 30 days later. Special permission was apparently used on New Year's Day when the Tournament of Roses Parade was aired.
In 1956, John J. Graham created an abstraction of an eleven-feathered peacock to indicate richness in color. This brightly hued peacock was adopted due to the increase in color programming. This was also due to NBC's owner, RCA being a manufacturer of color television sets. As a result, the Peacock became a marketing tool, in the hopes that people tuning into NBC would purchase color TV sets. NBC's first color broadcasts showed only a still frame of the colorful peacock. The emblem made its first on-air appearance on May 22, 1956.[2][1]
On September 7, 1957 on Your Hit Parade the peacock was animated and thereafter appeared at the beginning of every NBC color broadcast until a revamped animation appeared in 1961. Its musical backing was a gong while the peacock began its formup, then an announcer saying "The following program is brought to you in living color on NBC" while the music crescendoed and after that a bombastic nine-note flourish while the peacock's feathers changed color and finally "filled out". According to Game Show Network executive David Schwartz, the first announcer who spoke those famous words behind the Peacock graphic logo was Ben Grauer, a familiar voice on NBC since 1930. There is rumored to be a variant where the peacock changes its feathers and jumps and his feathers change into multi-color words that say "NBC".
Starting in 1960, an animated logo joined the Peacock, appearing at the end of broadcasts. Beginning with N, each letter would grow from the other, forming a stacked typographic logo ending with C, forming the base. This would be known as the "NBC snake". Several editions of this exist; the earliest being the snake form in front of a multicolored background while a camera passed by with an orchestral version of the NBC chimes, and the second consisting of the snake forming on top of a color-changing background, going from blue to green to red, on each note of the regular, automated NBC chimes.
In 1962, on the Laramie series, a second version of the Peacock opening was introduced in which the bird fanned its bright plumage against a kaleidoscopic color background. As with the 1956 Peacock, this logo only appeared at the start of NBC color broadcasts; as all NBC broadcasts eventually became color, it was generally used only to open those shows that were produced by NBC itself, such as The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. It was however, seen on the NBC telecasts of MGM's The Wizard of Oz as well as on the broadcasts of the 1960 Peter Pan, which had been videotaped at NBC. (NBC had previously telecast live versions of Peter Pan in 1955 and 1956 on the anthology Producers' Showcase.) The "Laramie Peacock", named for the series which introduced it, used the same "living color" spiel as did the first peacock but its music piece was a soft, woodwind-based number and the announcer was Mel Brandt. It was revised further in November 1968; the music was slightly rearranged and the animation was shortened by a few seconds, and a second version, with Vic Roby announcing, "Now, a special program in living color on NBC," was unveiled for airing on television specials during this same period. It was shortened further by the beginning of 1975. This peacock was retired in September 1975.
The "Laramie Peacock" has made special appearances throughout the ensuing years, mostly in a retro-kitsch context or to commemorate a significant broadcast event on NBC. Most recently, the peacock heralded the June 1, 2009 premiere broadcast of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien.
By 1975, NBC's visual trademark was updated as a fancy-cut N was introduced, consisting of two trapezoids. The design was bold, bright and contemporary. One of the technological innovations of this logo was the first electronically animated ident for an American television network and being previewed on-air for the first time in October 1975, before it became official on January 1, 1976.[3] On the January 10, 1976 telecast of Saturday Night Live, Weekend Update host Chevy Chase and Gilda Radner mocked the new logo and its $1 million design cost (at the end of Chase's comments, Radner appeared as the "Dancing 'N'", with an NBC logo-shaped costume covering her head and upper torso).[4] In February 1976, NBC was sued by the Nebraska ETV Network, Nebraska's chain of PBS affiliates, for trademark infringement, since the new NBC logo was virtually identical to the Nebraska ETV Network logo, except in the coloring. An out-of-court settlement was reached in which NBC gave Nebraska ETV Network new equipment and a mobile color unit, valued at over $800,000, in exchange for allowing NBC to retain their logo. In addition, NBC paid $55,000 to Nebraska ETV to cover the cost of designing and implementing a new logo.[5][6]
The Peacock, still with eleven feathers, returned in the fall of 1979. The N and the Peacock were combined together to create a design called the "Proud N". This was the first time the Peacock was actually part of NBC's own logo. It was simplified in keeping with the letter's pared-down design. Although all eleven feathers were intact, the teardrop tips were merged into the rest of the feathers, the feet were missing, the feathers are in a simpler color scheme, and the Peacock's body became a simple triangular shape. On several occasions, the new Peacock was used independently of the N, starting with the 1979 Proud as a Peacock advertising campaign that reintroduced the Peacock, but the N and the Peacock were usually combined together between 1979 and 1986.
Contrary to popular belief, the Peacock was not originally used as NBC's official primary logo; the 1956 and 1962 versions were used solely to identify the network's color broadcasts, while other logos, initially the xylophone logo but most commonly the NBC snake logo, identified NBC itself. Nonetheless, the Peacock became so identified with NBC that it was incorporated into the network logo in 1979 by Fred Silverman, then President of NBC, due to prior research from 1977 in NBC's corporate planning department by Peter H. Kliegman who recommended the station identification value of the Peacock and suggested the Peacock be utilized as a logo. The Peacock became the sole logo in 1986.
On May 12, 1986, during a broadcast of the NBC 60th Anniversary Celebration, NBC stars of past and present stood on stage to introduce a new logo. The arranged marriage of N and Peacock ended and "The Bird" finally assumed its official place as NBC's symbol. The peacock's head was now flipped to the right - this was done to suggest as if it were looking forward to the future, not back to the past. The eleven feathers from its previous peacock logo was shortened to six to reference NBC's six divisions at that time: News, Sports, Entertainment, Stations, Network and Productions. Incorporating the six primary and secondary colors, this Peacock, redesigned by Steff Geissbuhler at Chermayeff & Geismar[7], remains one of the world's most recognized logos. The network maintains specific guidelines for the logo, including proper colors for reproduction, using either RGB, CMYK or Pantone colors. The usage guidelines are contained in the NBC Logo Legal Usage Guidelines which is distributed to NBC employees involved in graphics as well as outside vendors, such as advertising agencies, who may need to use the logo.
Almost all of NBC's affiliates added the new peacock to their logo but a few still kept the old peacock on their logo for a few months after the logo's introduction. The new logo was adopted universally on September 1, 1986, though for NBC's movie opens, the old logo could still be seen until Fall 1987).
The logo first appeared as an on-screen bug in the 1992–1994 television season, appearing only at the opening sequences of shows and staying on throughout shows since the 1995–1996 television season. From 1993 to 2003, the logo appeared on the bottom of the screen and a variety of effects resulting in its formation, usually during a show's opening sequence. These effects alone centered in the middle of a black screen continue to be used as a sort of screensaver during time periods given to local stations for their commercial breaks, and can be seen on an NBC affiliate when it has technical difficulties going to their local advertising and keeps the network feed on-screen.
In 2000, NBC revamped its network identity. A new station ID was introduced, with the NBC logo reflecting through giant glass feathers. It is also the first station ID to show the NBC.com URL.
In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in 2001, NBC introduced a special version of the peacock that replaced the colors with a furled American flag waving within the logo (including within the logo bug), which was used until the 2002 Winter Olympics.
Starting in 2004, if a show was presented in widescreen, the logo would be shrunk and placed to fit within the 16:9 video area. During the 2006-2007 television season, this smaller widescreen logo was only used during live broadcasts, such as Saturday Night Live, the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting, Live Earth and the July 4 fireworks special. The small logo was reintegrated at the start of the 2007–2008 television season on all widescreen programming, including prerecorded standard definition broadcasts in order to insert promos during the show. High-definition programming used a variation of the network's logo bug accompanied by HD text from November 2006 until December 2007. Live broadcasts in high-definition previously used a smaller NBC bug without the HD text. Today, the NBC bug is placed within the 4:3 safe picture, so the logo bug is identical on the standard definition feed as well as the high-definition feed.
The logo bug is also presented opaque in full color during a show's opening credits, with the bug sometimes accompanied by .com text. The Biggest Loser live finale episodes continued to use the version with the NBC calls below the Peacock until its September 2009 conversion to HD, due to that program's production in SDTV being based out of Burbank instead of New York.
The logo is sometimes accompanied with NBC text, usually below the peacock but this is not always the case; the network's logo bug did not incorporate the text until 2002, and it was removed in the fall of 2006 from programs besides NBC Nightly News and Early Today, NBC Nightly News finally got the 2006 bug starting March 26, 2007 to coincide with the program's first high definition broadcast, with the web address for MSNBC later added to the right side on the Nightly News. Some NBC Sports programs, such as golf and olympic sports, use a bug that has the Olympic rings below the peacock. This version is also used on regular programming, starting with the beginning of the television season during seasons with the Winter Olympics, or the beginning of a calendar year with the Summer Olympics.
Shortly after the beginning of the 2006–2007 television season, almost all NBC programming moved their variation of the NBC logo to the left corner of the screen, including graphics for Today, Meet the Press and Dateline NBC. The left version was less embossed than the previous version and did not display NBC beneath it. After the beginning of the 2009 TV season on September 28 as part of the lead-up to the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, the Olympics variant of the on-screen logo is used on all programming, except news programming.
Since December 2007, NBC occasionally places a text advertisement for an upcoming show above or next to the NBC peacock. The ad is present on both the SD and HD feeds.
In 2008, NBC updated its logo once again. All NBC promos and idents end with the peacock feathers blooming out of the peacock's body, forming the logo. The feathers flash in tune to the NBC chimes. Sometimes, the chime was played in different instruments, however, the main instrument for the chimes is the xylophone. Instruments may not even be used, such as the sounds of a telephone in the key of the chimes used in the 2008 promo of The Office, or the sounds of a cash register in the key of the chimes used in the 2008 promo of Deal or No Deal. Two versions of the 2008 logo animation exist. One which is the 3D glass version used in most promos. The second which the 2D logo version which is used in some promos, and also used as a generic ID. Sometimes the .com URL is beside the logo.
Since late 2009, with the "More Colorful" slogan change, the end of promos and idents feature the NBC peacock in the left side of the screen, flickering through all the colors and ending up on the regular logo, usually with a main character of the TV series next to the logo.
In May 2011, NBC began to adopt a new version of the logo with a 3D glass effect to be used in promotional advertising and idents. However, the elements of the More Colorful re-brand was still in use.
In 2007, three different logos were used in November and December, all using the Peacock logo:
Starting in November 2007 during the week of Green Week, NBC, along with all other NBC Universal owned networks, began using green logos and logo bugs as part of Green is Universal, NBC Universal's company-wide environmental initiative, which is also utilized for Earth Week during the week of Earth Day in April, along with St. Patrick's Day for holiday purposes. During the Earth Week logo iteration in April 2008, the Olympic Rings remained their usual gold color (or grey in the logo bug) due to compulsory display standards disallowing any endorsement of another cause beyond the Olympic movement. The November 2009 version of the logo displayed only the Peacock, putting aside the rings completely for the week within the logo bug.
From December 10 to December 26, the peacock was shown in full color with a Santa hat for Christmas with text on top of it promoting an NBC show. Unlike past variations, the logo stayed in full color for the length of the program.
From the 27th of December and until January 1, 2008, a party hat was put on the peacock for New Year's Day. Similar to the holiday variation, it has text on top of it and stays in full color for the program's length.
On May 22, 2008, the NBC peacock bug on HDTV programming was moved from the left corner of the screen to the left side of the 4:3 safe aspect ratio area. Also at this time the advertising text that was once above the bug has been moved to the right of the bug. The bug was moved to this position to make downconverting the network HD feed for SDTV after the June 12, 2009 analog TV shutoff easier. SDTV viewers will still see the bug in its usual position in the left corner.
NBC showed two holiday variations of the peacock for 2010 and in 2011.
On St. Patrick's Day NBC showed the same green peacock as was used in 2007.
From October 29 until October 31, the peacock's normal colors have been swapped out for just orange and black.
From February 7 to February 14, the peacock's normal colors have been swapped out for two shades of red and four shades of pink. This variation was seen at the end of some Valentine's Day promos.
In March 2011, to promote the new movie Hop, the peacock's normal colors have been swapped out for two shades of blue, two shades of green, and two shades of orange.
Sometime in the 1950s the logo was replaced with a card saying, This Program Is Being Televised In COLOR And Black And White.
In the NBC fall preview for special for 1965, the peacock introduction began as normal with announcer Mel Brandt's standard introduction, but when the peacock fades, Brandt says "It just starts' in black and white!" This is because the special begins with almost the complete pre-title teaser of Get Smarts pilot episode, which was shot in B&W.
In 1967, NBC was the first American TV network to show The Beatles' film A Hard Day's Night, but as it was filmed in black and white, NBC had to temporarily replace the peacock: A caption showing I Dream of Jeannie and The Jerry Lewis Show is pushed off the screen by an animated top-hatted penguin waddling on-screen and flapping its flightless wings (imitating the peacock), accompanied by announcer Mel Brandt drolly saying "I Dream of Jeannie and the Jerry Lewis Show will not be seen tonight. Instead... (music cue) The following very, very special program is brought to you in lively black and white, on NBC." At the end of this the penguin takes off its top hat and unzips its chest. The Beatles jump out, performing, then run away chased by fans.
In 1968, an episode of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In started with the 1965 peacock logo. At the very end of the logo, the peacock sneezes, sending its feathers flying off-screen. This clip was later re-used in 1985 to open an episode of TV's Bloopers & Practical Jokes starring Dick Clark & Ed McMahon. The sneezing peacock was only an animation added onto the end of the original clip of the 1965 peacock because the peacock's feathers became brighter when he sneezed.[8]
In 1993, NBC commissioned several artists (including Al Hirschfeld, Peter Max, John Kricfalusi[9][10], J.J. Sedelmeier, David Daniels, Joan Gratz, and Mark Malmberg) to devise personal variations of the peacock for promotional use. Animated versions of the Hirschfeld, Sedelmeier, Gratz, and Kricfalusi peacocks acted as stings. Also, the Kricfalusi, Gratz, Sedelmeier, and Malmberg peacocks continue to air until 2002.[11]