More Logo-rrhea: The Parternship for a Logo-Free America has curiously not yet succeeded in its quest

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Ah, poor, foolish, idealistic, naïve me: I figured that as soon as we exposed the Great Evil that distracting network logos sitting endlessly in the bottom corner of a TV screen and in-show promos truly are, the networks would come to their senses and recognize such graphics as the passive-aggressive, semi-sociopathic phenomena that they are and immediately send them the way of the dodo and rational discourse in America.

But, no. They’re still around. As are complaints about them from readers:

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There's an old Laurel and Hardy comedy wherein Mr. Hardy develops a phobia against bells. He keeps yelling BELLS....BELLS....BELLS! I've developed a similar phobia against television logos and have started yelling LOGOS....LOGOS...LOGOS!!

You missed a key problem with TV logos and that's the threat of "burn in," especially to the very expensive plasma sets. I have a friend who has a $6,000 plasma set. If you look carefully in the lower right corner you can see the remains of several logos. I won't buy a plasma set for that reason.

If you hadn't guessed, the logos and animations drive me totally crazy. I frequently turn off programs I'd like to watch because of the constant barrage of little happy feet dancing across the bottom of the picture. I keep a black piece of cardboard to cover the bottom portion of my TV screen when it gets out of control.

I've recently dropped Starz, Showtime, Encore, etc because they too feel it's okay to place logos in programming that I'm paying for. As far as I'm concerned, logos and animations are advertising but the F.C.C. turns their back and claims they have no control over logos.

A stationary object in a "moving" picture is a constant irritation, draws the eye and ruins the pleasure one gets from watch a movie. If you know of anyone trying to get the F.C.C. to step in and stop this insanity, let me know and count me in. If the logomania isn't stopped, we will soon see logos in movie theatres!!!

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Not sure if this was already mentioned, but when SciFi (and other channels, I must admit, but I am big on watching "X-Files" reruns and noting some of the actors who had small parts back in the day) burns a blurb for themselves across the entire bottom of the screen at the start of a show, they seem clearly not to care about allowing viewers to see guest star names which I find annoying as well as unfair to those actors. Sometimes, you may catch a glimpse of the top parts of some letters that makes the practice even more frustrating - like they are teasing us as well as insulting the actors. They are so busy advertising what will be on "later tonight" they lose sight of the fact that what is on "right now" is important to some of us.

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I along with most other people hate the network logos in the corner of the screen. It detracts from the show/movie you are watching. There is no earthly reason to keep a network logo on the screen for a 2-hour movie or even a 30-minute sitcom.

In addition the “bottom line” with scores on ESPN is also very distracting. It is OK during SportsCenter or other news show but when they are showing a game of some kind please eliminate the “bottom line”.

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I strongly agree with Jan Brown's comments regarding those annoying logos and messages shown on TV screens during various shows. They are very distracting when trying to concentrate on dialogue and interrupted by these promos that flip by so fast that you can't even read them. If so important show them before or after all the commercials. We usually know what channels we're watching anyway.

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No one likes Elizabeth Hasselbeck. With 37%, she is the host that makes you most want to hit the mute button. With 35%, she also beat out Tyra (25%) and Dr. Phil (23%) as worst interviewer.

Larry King is not! King gets the dubious honor of being the most unsexy host with 54% of the vote, beating out Whoopi Goldberg (25%).

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Oh, wait, that last one came from an unrelated Email. Sorry.

Nonetheless, we shall continue on our bold and quixotic quest to end eyeball strain and banish on-screen clutter during television programming. In the meantime, we can take solace in the fact that those who create the shows really hate them, too, and in the fact that for all its sins, at least The Future of Television conference did not have a panel titled, “Onscreen Logos: How Can We Make Them Even More Conspicuous?”

1 Comments

SoonerandJasper said:

excuse me, but Mr Hardy was ranting "horns, HORNS!"

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david-kronke.jpgDavid Kronke was appointed Mayor of Television after a bloodless coup in 2000. Since then, he has improved infrastructure, championed greater educational opportunities and fought for reforms that have utterly erased corruption and incompetence from the television industry. Since Mr. Kronke has ascended to power, Television is a far better place.

About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by David Kronke published on March 26, 2008 11:41 AM.

The Future of Television is Something I’m Already Trying to Erase from My Memory was the previous entry in this blog.

Tina Fey blames (and evades) the media is the next entry in this blog.

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