Orion Television

Credits

Descriptions by

James Fabiano, Jeffrey Gray, Jess Williams, and Shadeed A. Kelly

Captures by

Eric S., Wisp2007, Shadeed A. Kelly, V of Doom, Logophile, snelfu, bdalbor, and TheEriccorpinc

Editions by

Shadeed A. Kelly, Thesquidgeeks, TheRealMarcel2000 and V of Doom

Video captures courtesy of

Broken Saw, mcydodge919, Introsation, Cassavetesforaday, RobzCaptures, and Paperking99

Background

After the Orion Pictures Company acquired Filmways in 1982, Filmways Television was renamed as Orion Television (also known as Orion Pictures Television), after allowing their catalog to have been distributed by Viacom Enterprises (now “CBS Media Ventures”), and took over Filmways Television content in the same year and began to produce and syndicate various TV shows and movies. As a result of Orion’s financial troubles, its television division was closed in spring 1990, although Orion continued to retain ownership of all its television output up to the time of the bankruptcy, except when Orion sold its Hollywood Squares format to King World in 1991. After 14 years since Orion Television was shut down, MGM revived the television studio in 2013 and in 2014, MGM revived Orion Pictures. All of Orion’s television library is now owned by MGM.

ImageTOC:

1st Logo (October 25, 1982-November 16, 1991)

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Logo: Same as the movie logo of the era, but it starts at the letter “O” flashing. The forming of “ORION” is the same, but “TELEVISION” (in a white font similar to that of “ORION“) appears below, just as wide as the above text.

Variants:

• The font and color for “TELEVISION” may vary. Sometimes, it was colored

  blue

  or white in the font used for the “Pictures Release” text from the movie logo (this was used early on in the logo’s run, though as late as 1987); other times it appeared in a similar yet different font to the movie logo, below the “RION” portion.

• This logo sometimes appears without the additional “TELEVISION” text.
• Some syndicated shows were ID’ed as a presentation of “ORION TELEVISION SYNDICATION”. Some of them had the logo superimposed over the closing credits. Others would have the phrase “PRESENTS” below in the beginning of any program.
• A later variation (circa 1989) ID’ed the company as “ORION TELEVISION ENTERTAINMENT” (this version has been sighted on the 1989 TV movie Passport to Terror, Parker Kane, Homeless, and the 1990 Gambit pilot).
• There is also a short version of the 1981 logo with the registered trademark symbol.
• There is also a superimposed variant of the “TELEVISION” variant used mainly on TV movies.
• On early-to-mid ’80s prints of Filmways shows, such as TV Land reruns of Green Acres, it starts out with the “O” flashing, then the rest of the movie’s animation. The same would be for its movie version with “

  An

  ” above and “

  PICTURES RELEASE

  ” below.

• There is also a variant with a

  blue

  background for the early version.

• On the beginning of the 1984 TV movie A Matter of Sex, the logo was used as an opening title, reading “ORION TELEVISION PRESENTS”.
• A variant that shows the logo (with “TELEVISION SYNDICATION” below) in blue and at the bottom left of the screen was spotted.
• On the first season of the animated series Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventures, there is an in-credit text that reads as “Produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. in association with Orion Television Entertainment and Nelson Entertainment” with a copyright stamp to Orion Television Entertainment and Nelson Films, Inc. below.
• On the second season of the animated series Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventures, there is an in-credit text that reads as “Produced by DiC Enterprises, Inc. in association with Orion Television Entertainment and Nelson 1991, Inc.”.
• On the pilot of the live-action series Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventures, there is an in-credit text that reads as: “ORION TELEVISION ENTERTAINMENT and NELSON ENTERTAINMENT”.

Technique: Motion-controlled animation.

Music/Sounds: An abridged and re-arranged version of the Orion Pictures fanfare, the ending theme of the show, or none. At least one episode of Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventures used the final part of the movie fanfare.

Availability: Rare.

• It was seen on the 1988 TV movie The Murder of Mary Phagan and is retained on the MGM Limited Edition Collection DVD-R and Paramount+’s print of said title, and the version with only the “Orion” text is seen on reruns of The Best of Saturday Night Live (half-hour edit-downs of SNL‘s 1975-79 episodes).
• Cagney and Lacey reruns shown more than a decade ago on TNN (later Spike, now Paramount Network) and Lifetime usually had this logo with the “TELEVISION” text (plastering the Filmways Television logo on those reruns), though on some episodes from the pre-nationally expanded Me-TV reruns from 2007, this logo was plastered with the 5th MGM Television logo.
• The short movie logo has been spotted on Green Acres on MeTV and last seen on TV Land, Amazon Prime Video, and DVD releases (the latter of which even appears alongside the MGM Television logo).
• The superimposed variant was seen on the 1983 game show Just Men! and the TV movie Babes in Toyland.
• The Orion Television Syndication logo is extremely rare and were last seen on a Charge! airing of No Man’s Land and a Comet airing of Making Mr. Right, both before the 2010 MGM Worldwide Television Distribution logo. Also seen on the USA Network reruns of the 1980s versions of The Hollywood Squares and High Rollers, as well as season 2 episodes of Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventures on Pluto TV.
• More recently (as of June 2021), this logo has been appearing on some episodes of Green Acres on MeTV after the Filmways “Globe”.

2nd Logo (September 7, 1998-February 3, 1999)

Logo: This is basically the 2nd half of the 1997 Orion Pictures logo starting with the “RION” wipe effect.

Technique: The 2nd half of the 1997 Orion Pictures logo.

Music/Sounds: See above, but the logo theme would finish playing over the Summit Media Group logo.

Availability: Extremely rare. It’s seen on RoboCop: Alpha Commando, which was last seen on Sinclair Broadcast Group’s now defunct KidsClick block.

3rd Logo (September 23, 2013-February 29, 2020)

Logo: On a space background, there are two flying stars with one flying in from the upper left and the other on the lower right. The stars from the 1981 Orion Pictures logo is seen as it swirls to create the letter “O” as the flying stars swirl in to meet the circling stars and form a platinum letter “O” with a blue laser light effect. The blue light brightens and flies over to the right to form “RION” also appearing in platinum, as each letter wipes in with the laser one-by-one as the laser light disappears on the letter “N“. The “ORION” logo suddenly zooms in and has a shining wipe effect as the word “TELEVISION” with a small Trademark (TM) symbol in subscript beside it fades in underneath and zoom in.

Technique: Computer animation.

Music/Sounds: Whooshing sounds, followed by a quiet synth theme and another whooshing sound while the theme plays.

Availability: Uncommon; it was seen on Lauren Lake’s Paternity Court, Couples Court, and Personal Injury Court in syndication.