MCA Television Enterprises: Difference between revisions

'''MCA TV''' (first known as "MCA TV, Ltd." and later "MCA Television Enterprises"; commonly known as "MCA Television") was the television production/distribution company of Revue Studios that was founded in 1951, several years before parent MCA's purchase of the U.S. branch of Decca Records (now "Universal Music Group") in 1959 and Universal-International Pictures in 1962. For more than four decades, it was one of the most active producers and distributors of television programming. MCA TV's other television divisions included [[Universal Television]] (formerly "[[Revue Studios]]") and MCA Television Entertainment (also known as "[[MTE]]"). From 1965-December 1973, MCA TV became an in-name-only unit for Universal Television until January 1974, and even then films distributed by MCA TV used the standard Universal film logo until at least 1982. MCA TV also had a global distribution arm called "MCA TV International". In December 1996, MCA was reincorporated as Universal Studios and as a result, MCA TV would be become "Universal Television Enterprises" and MCA TV International would become "Universal Worldwide Television".

"MCA TV" appears in a variation of a Futura font, while ''Ltd.'' which appears underneath, is in a fancy cursive font. Underneath the reel, the words "EXCLUSIVE REPRESENTATIVES" in the same font as "DISTRIBUTED BY", are shown arching upward below the reel, taking up half of its shape.

'''Variant:''' An in-credit variant can be seen on the short-lived series ''The Man Behind the Badge''.

'''FX/SFX:''' The fading in and out or scrolling of the credits.

* ''The Abbott and Costello Show'', for many years, which was the last remaining source of this logo, has gone through syndicator changes. Episodes now end with either [[Alan Enterprises]] (pre-1983 prints) or [[The Program Exchange|(DFS) Program Exchange]] logos (current licensee of TCA Television Corp., the copyright holders) plastering over this logo and the DVD releases completely cut out the credits.

* This logo is intact on some public domain prints of the ''Dragnet'' episode "The Big Crime" (September 9, 1954). It was also left intact on at least one episode of ''The Abbott and Costello Show'' on the ClassicFlix Blu-ray release.

|MCA TV (1953-57) G.png|

* There is a variant that doesn't feature "EXCLUSIVE REPRESENTATIVES" below the film reel.

* This logo was also seen alongside the Revue logo at the end of some programs. The text "IN ASSOCIATION WITH" is seen arched above the film reel.

* This was last seen at the end of ''The Adventures of Kit Carson'' on Encore Westerns, as well as first-season episodes of ''Alfred Hitchcock Presents'' last aired on RTV, the pilot of ''Leave it to Beaver'', and early episodes of ''The Millionaire'', alongside the [[Don Fedderson Productions]] logo (MCA was Fedderson's agent (the latter three titles were in-credit)).

'''Logo:''' On a dark screen, 5 trilons turn to reveal an arrowhead which has the letters "'''mca'''" in a lower-case font inside, set against a satiny background. After a second or two, the letter "'''a'''" appears on top of the "'''mca'''", while "'''tv'''", underneath, and the word "'''release'''", under the arrowhead, fade-in. The trilons then turn in a different direction, and the screen is dark once again.

'''Variant:'''

 

'''Closing Variant:''' An in-credit version was seen at the end of Revue shows alongside the Revue logo from 1956 to 1961, as well as black & white episodes of ''My Three Sons'' made prior to 1965. However, on the Revue/MCA cards in 1958, "Exclusive Representatives" became "'''exclusive distributor'''".

* A fanfare that starts with drumbeats similar to the first notes of [[20th Century Studios|20th Century Fox]]'s famed jingle, then goes to a 3-note ominous sounding horn sounder (sounding like an evacuation alarm).

 

* It appears on old MCA Home Video releases of pre-1950 [[Paramount Pictures|Paramount]] movies; they are pretty easy to spot as they used 16mm MCA TV prints rather than the original Paramount 35mm master negatives, which are therefore lower in picture quality. This company switch is due to Paramount selling their entire pre-1950 film library to MCA.

* The animated version was retained on ''Remember the Night'' with the opening theme and ''Broken Lullaby'' with the theme on TCM. The long version appeared on the 1942 film ''Hatter's Castle'' on TCM.

'''Logo:''' Similar to the 1971-1991 [[Universal Television]] logo, except the company name is replaced by:

* On some of MCA's first-run shows (examples include ''Bionic Six'', ''Puttin' On the Hits'', and ''Pictionary''), the logo was preceded by a card (similar to an "In Association With" screen) with the show's title, copyright notice, the MCA union bug, and a copyright warning. This card appeared in-credit on ''The Best Little Special in Texas''.

* This logo would appear in different colors. The letters would appear in either yellow, neon yellow, gold, athletic gold, or orange, and the globe as either blue or green, though all this may be attributed to film deterioration.

'''FX/SFX:''' Normally, the entire text fades in. Most of the time, it's completely still.

* 1987-1991: Shows like ''Out of this World'' would have the theme start off in various ways.

* ''The New Lassie'' uses an abridged 1981 Universal Television theme, the same one heard on ''Charles in Charge'' starting with season 2 at the time.

* It appeared on ''Bionic Six'', ''FTV'', ''Puttin' On the Hits'' (the only source of the "flipping away" variant known to exist), and reruns of ''Gimme a Break!'' and ''Kate and Allie'' in the '80s.

* This can still be seen on the Canadian complete series DVD (from VEI: Visual Entertainment Inc.) and Antenna TV reruns of ''Gimme a Break!'', 1986-1990 reruns of ''Kate and Allie'', and ''Amen'' on getTV.

* The logo was also spotted on some reruns of the short-lived series ''Parenthood'' on the now-defunct Trio network.

'''Editor's Note:''' The flipping effect and freeze-frame variants of this logo look '''really''' low-budget.

'''Editor's Note:''' This seemed more like a rushed job the way the name was set up.

* It appeared on ''Shades of L.A.'' (a first-run syndication series), but the show hasn't been seen since it last aired on NBCUniversal's now-defunct Sleuth cable network in 2006. This did not appear on every episode, as some feature the 4th logo instead.

'''Editor's Note:''' The globe looks like a cheap CGI model. This is possibly a prototype of the next logo. It is also surprising to see such a unique logo.

'''Logo:''' We see the rotating globe against the starfield background from the 1990-1997 [[Universal Pictures]] logo (this time, the globe and the background are in a {{Font color|purple|purple}} tint). The company name "{{Font color|gold|'''MCA TV'''}}" (which is now in the font used on the MCA Records and [[Universal Pictures Home Entertainment|MCA/Universal Home Video]] logos) slides in from the top of the screen, zooming out, and makes a stop in front of the globe. The words "{{Font color|gold|'''EXCLUSIVE DISTRIBUTOR'''}}" in a Univers Black Extended font, fade in below the MCA name. There is also a shine effect afterward.

'''FX/SFX:''' The slide-in of the name, the shining of the name, and the globe rotating.

* It's currently seen on the last season of ''Amen'' on getTV with the late 1986 Universal Television theme, as well as fall 1991-1993 episodes of ''Roggin's Heroes.''

* The version with the 1991 Universal Television theme originally appeared on early Action Pack TV movies. It also appeared on ''Exosquad'' and ''Monster Force'', which is intact on the DVD releases of said shows.

File:MCA_TV_Exclusive_Distributor_(1994).PNG

* This also surprisingly plastered the 5th logo above on the season 4 DVDs of ''Kate and Allie''.