NBC logo bumper from 1977

[publica74]

Can anyone tell me how to create these graphics today? I know somebody knows how to do it...'fess up geeks:-)

[dcat918]

I remember this well. Thanks for uploading

[CaptinNabil7]

I think this is what the N64 logo ought to look like if it existied in the 70s.

[EricEbac22]

Colortinis--

Wrong; NBC did not have to lose its N logo, because they settled the matter with the Nebraska ETV Network shortly after being hauled into court.

[TServo2049]

I think that the rotating wireframe N was probably generated on a computer and then each frame was printed out and converted into cels or Kodaliths to shoot on a traditional animation stand. Most of the effects look like they were achieved using animation-stand techniques rather than CGI.

[Dakkiller1]

This logo should get remastered in HD and if the data files are lost, the best quality 35mm/16mm print of the logo with dirt and scratches cleaned up and restored to its original awesomeness.

[eyeh8nbc]

@ltsBartmanIsBack If nobody cares, why are you so upset at it being criticized? You're not even old enough to remember when TV was good- you just believe whatever anyone tells you.

[eyeh8nbc]

@ltsBartmanIsBack Anyone who would defend that practice is a whore- if someone routinely shoved a broom handle up your ass would you just "grow up and learn to live with it?" I'm sure the president of Comcast would love to suck your dick, and you'd be happy to let him do it.

[Millennia0007]

In 3D!!!!!!

[Malaran12]

ooooh spinny!

[MattTheSaiyan]

The picture and sound quality are pretty good considering the rarity of the footage and the fact it was uploaded to YouTube in 2007.

[nrdesign1991]

Was it rotoscoped or is it one of these early computer animations?

[Djteedoe420]

1977 The Year i was Born...

[NachoNinja]

wtf?

[paulj0557]

Sort of like, " Man, let's make it high tech like what computers will be able to do some day, but with animation. I remember this logo like it was yesterday. Yes I'm 44 and feeling 30 years like it was yesterday. Someone told about ten years ago I would, when I said, " I can remember 20 years ago like yesterday". ABC was the ruler in those days, Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Charlies Angels. CBS was still for the older folks, who I hated then, but now I totally love their set because I love oldFilm

[chabba77]

Too bad the audio from this doesn't seem to be available as an mp3 file. It would make a cool ringtone.

[videosensei]

i agree

[damron13]

Actually you can download this and convert to mp3 just as easily.

[chabba77]

If you know how you do it, could you tell me. I'll admit I'm not that savvy when it comes to extracting audio from a video.

[cormyrean]

you can download the video using an FLV downloading program. (free) after you have the downloaded FLV file you use a program called "Super" to convert it to any filetype you'd like. Super is also free. sorry if this doesn't make sense i'm 15 and trying to learn myself..any questions and i will answer as best i can

[chabba77]

Thanks! I did that and it worked quite well. This jingle is a pretty good ringtone, loud enough to hear over background noise.

[megamanj2004X]

Besides being the 1st of the original Big 3 networks to use the bug in the TV screen corners, NBC also started another trend (that's still around on TV channels to this day):

They were also the 1st of the original big 3 networks to use annoying, generic split-screened closing credit promos for all their shows.

[chabba77]

Another trend I hate is when networks put little animated ads on the bottom of the screen when you're trying to watch the show. I've even seen some that had sound effects! Have the networks gotten THAT greedy that they have to insert ads INTO the programming? Try to make more profit by degrading the quality of the programming, people WILL tune out.

[chibicelchan]

NBC! *Shakes fist and scowls*

[JMFabianoRPL]

LAWSUIT!

[justme632]

This has got to be the worst NBC logo ever!

[TehFawks]

NBC logo bumper from 1977

[a1cjlock]

The N is spinning the wrong way! Someone should've complained!

[kxmode]

It looks like the GameCube logo!

[mhirtes12]

The Nebraska ETV Network had this logo before NBC adopted it. NBC settled out of court and gave NPTV a sh*tload of state-of-the-art (for the time) TV studio gear for the infringement.

[madx80h]

the N stands for "Nothing"

[chabba77]

Nothing But Crap.

[FunForFunPeople]

1977 is starting to look real good compared with NBC's latest line-up. "Howie Do It"? Really??

[ekkostar]

Very retro. I love the glassy look to it.

[MattTheSaiyan]

Amazingly enough, NBC's "low rated" shows of this time got about 14 million viewers on the regular basis, now their "biggest hits" rarely get more than 7 million! Even "Hello Larry" is starting to look good....

[eyeh8nbc]

And it's their own damn fault for sticking constant crap on the screen during their shows, and showing about twice as many commercials (with that much less time for the show) than they did back then! And that's why I've never cared about HDTV either- I'd rather go back to lo-def black and white with a clean picture and less than 10 minutes of commercials per hour.

[videosensei]

my new ringtone

[loveisok]

yeah right!

[Zachattack2]

Actually, NBC erased nearly all their game shows from the 60's/70's and in that same time period (70's especially) they were on a downward spiral ratings wise.

Though I agree 200% about onscreen bugs and commercials. Now show promo crawls 5 minutes in...ugh.

[vfreeck]

How disco-ey :-)

[e521soediv]

i hate tv today its to many fuckin logos on the screen whenyour whatchin shit such as sports like football games or baseball games why cant they just flash the score like every 5 minutes like they did back in the day instead of haveing some shit constantly on the fuckin screen. its fuckin annoying.

[RebelVoDKa]

Hear hear!  Pisses me off no end. That's why I hardly watch broadcast TV these days.

I'd like to ram those logos up the arse of the cunt who invented them.

[wfb975t]

I feel the exact same way, watchinf national treasure tonite and what do i see near the middle bottom of the screeen? "biggest loser: families" what the fuck is that shit and why is it on the screen all the time[ except for commercials]? Fuck this tv broadcast [nbc].

[joerules829]

like were so stupid. I really need the god damn peacock to tell me that e.r. is on NBC

[dcat918]

This is rather majestic actually. It's sorta like NBC saying. Yea i'm the shit CBS and ABC lol.

[JoeDator]

I always wonderd about this logo. At some point someone at NBC said "How about if it's just an 'N'?" and everyone else said "Yeah! Great!"

I guess it was the only letter in their name that could not also be found in ABC or CBS.

"NBC. We're unique! We have the letter N!"

[crazycrammycunt]

there is something very scary about this logo :(

[jdobbs2001]

That logo took 3 weeks to render on a CDC 7600 supercomputer and cost a fortune.

[Watcher3223]

On top of this, NBC was sued over the stylized N logo since there was another company that apparently also had used a similar looking, if not the same, logo.

[Jnelson09Returns]

The other company was Nebraska Educational Television. I do kinda get the feeling they deliberately stole this logo, because the lawsuit NET filed was quickly settled.

[Watcher3223]

As for rendering the logo, with a computer system only capable of 10 MFLOPS, I can see how it would take that long and be expensive in both energy costs and manpower.

[TheAdmiester]

Just shows that NBC wouldn't stop at anything to make this logo.

[NowhereMan1966]

BTW, one of my co-workers used to run a CDC 7600 among other computers of that vintage. The 7600 was like 12 feet square, a foot thick and you can walk in the middle of it. It was water cooled as well. They were also maintenance hogs and sometimes gets a bit ornery as well and you had to reboot them often.

[seabass11]

A CDC...now THAT is old school! And it was water-cooled, which is even more classic!

[NowhereMan1966]

He also said that it had one main processor with 128K RAM and 11 sub-processors with 64K of RAM each. Instead of having one processor do everything by timesharing, the main processor directed the subprocessors to do most of the number crunching leaving the main processor to do the most important tasks. So you split the computing load among the subpocessors instead of scheduling the one processor to do all the tasks.

[pvx]

@NowhereMan1966 Exactly--those were what Control Data called the 'Peripheral Processors" or "PP"s, the main processor would operate in a rotating "barrel & slot" fashion to distribute the tasks/processes to the PPs...

[aconnor96]

CBS created CSI and Two and a Half Men, two shows that I like.

[RobinMetrocolor]

Awesome logo! I know I've said this too many times already, But NBC has really fallen apart with the High-Profile flops of "Bionic Woman" and "Journeyman". Anyway, It's a fantastic logo, Please upload more if you have them! (BTW, I have some NBC logos from the 50's if you want to see them)

[eyeh8cbs]

All their programming has been unwatchable since 1996 anyways- check out my video called "Why HDTV is Pointless!" Looks like they're now putting constant promos for other shows on the screen too! Ratings-wise they're doing worse than any other time in history, I wonder why?

[RobinMetrocolor]

The sad thing is, even "My Mother The Car" is better than some of NBC's current shows!

[Mysterwright]

Probably because the people they're listening to with money don't spend enough time in America (Canada technically isn't USA) to care about programming here. That or they aren't hiring outside of family since it's cheaper with all the corporate consolidation and paranoia. If you want to know the truth of reality television, watch Wayne Newton's confession at the climax of Ford Fairlane.

[someperson42]

Heroes, Journeyman, and Law and Order: CI are good.

[Jnelson09Returns]

So are My Name is Earl, Scrubs (gonna miss it), 30 Rock, and 1 vs. 100; though the latter is starting to make a lot of mistakes.

[eyeh8cbs]

Too bad they're all unwatchable with all the crap they put on the screen!

[NowhereMan1966]

Yeah, there is a dearth in quality TV shows on Network TV although I love "Jericho" on CBS. I have an HDTV box on my TV and most of the time I watch Retro Television Network and PBS. I miss the 1980's when NBC had a lot of good shows on and I attribute that to Brandon Tartikoff who took it from last place to first, there will never be another one like him, may he Rest In Peace.

[OreckBoy1]

What I wouldn't give for an episode of Brandon Tartikoff's "Manimal" over any lousy reality show right now!

[hotkaramellove5000]

I agree. I can't put my finger on it though - is it because we have so much to choose from in terms of cable/satellite television or that the shows in and of themselves aren't as good as the ones growing up in the 80's?

[OreckBoy1]

You know hotkaramellove5000, TV has taken a real nose dive over the last two years. The blame should be put soley on the networks and the cable companies. Both have opted to throw all their money on producing really crappy "reality" shows that they can produce for cheap (lower overhead)so they can make a profit regardless of the mindless dribble they heap upon us. It's not like they can't make good shows, they can. Case in point: Raines & Jericho are gone while "The Hills" continues??!! WTHeck?!

[a1cjlock]

How majestic..

[furbearingbrick]

Ooo, shinies.

[chabba77]

Very impressive animation, for the mid/late 70s.

[Colortinis]

They had to lose the "N" due to some Nebraska station using it first... Yes, bugs are bad, but at least they moved it to the lower left.

PBS at least should lose the bug. Every affiliate has a different co-logo bug. "Public" broadcasting should be bug-free.

[eyeh8cbs]

I think it was an educational (not PBS?) station that had the same type of "N", nobody knew about it til it was too late. NBC had to pay to get a new logo designed for them.

Our PBS station has been using a bug for a couple years now even though the network feeds are still clean; I stopped giving them money because of that but they could never give me a straight answer as to why they were doing it.

[crooow]

Here's the story of the N and the lawsuit.

On January 1, 1976, NBC proudly unveiled the N. They were promptly sued by Nebraska Educational Television(ETV), who used an identical logo, for copyright infringement. NBC settled out of court with ETV by giving them roughly $800,000 worth of television equipment as well as footing the bill for ETV to design and implement a new logo. In exchange, NBC got the rights to the N.

Coincidence or plagarism? You be the judge.

[TServo2049]

Well, either way, I much prefer the logo that Nebraska ETV came up with to replace the trapezoid N, so I think the lawsuit, and resulting settlement, benefited both parties.

[1L6E6VHF]

@Colortinis

That was the Nebraska ETV Network, A set of full-power stations that covered (and, as of 6/2010, still covers (all of Nebraska with several full-power transmitters).

Nebraska ETV was/is, in turn, affiliated with PBS.

The NE ETV logo predated NBC's use if their logo, and the two were not identical (ETV=all red, NBC=blue and red).

NBC did not give up the logo until they chose to do so years later, a settlement was reached that had NBC footing the bill for NE ETV to change theirs.

[NowhereMan1966]

I like this logo too, brings back memories. Looks like it was done on a computer.

[ChristianWithNES]

Cool Logo!

[dcat918]

Very majestic NBC bumper....kinda gave me goosebumps lol.

[tonycook1966]

Thank You So Much For This NBC Big Event Bumper!!! Please MORE! MORE! MORE! Thanks Again!

[mrceleb2006]

That's when they became "Proud as a Peacock".

[JRaygor]

Its missing a peacock! ;-)

[Squirrel3D]

This was before the peacock.

[ChristianWithNES]

Actually, The Peacock has been around since at least 1957.

[barber747]

True...well, no, you're half right. It was before the second peacock--the one that joined w/ the Proud N.

[eyeh8cbs]

I do have one with "The Big Event" with the rotating "N" next to it- I'll try to put that up soon. There's no more Big Event on NBC- now everything is The Bug Event!

[BigSCTVfan]

I was waiting to hear the chimes, but no luck.

[kresblain]

This, by the way, was one of the many bumpers utilized for "The NBC Big Event" back in the late 1970s.