Logos[]
1st logo: Everything happens on a black background. First, we see a Scanimated effect resembling spinning sets of yellow lines. We slowly zoom into it, and the lines slowly dissolve into an early version of the HBO logo (with the O overlapping the B). Below it is "HOME BOX OFFICE FROM TIME/LIFE", appearing shortly after the dissolving lines. Suddenly, the HBO logo dissolves as we zoom through it. Then, three red studio lamps rise from the background. The lamps turn on, and the lights came out from them before merging into one. It rotates into a purple projector. The projector kept rotating as yellow film reels appear from the left to the right. The projector then rotates into a purple film reel, which rotates into a filmstrip with yellow HBO logos on it. The filmstrip curls down as drama masks appear rotating rapidly, followed by musical notes zooming in while rotating and flashing different colors. This cuts to a French horn rotating to face us before flipping upside down. It dissolves, and we then zoom into piano keys while a lady walks on it (only her legs were shown). The legs then give way for a man with a flying disc in his hands. The man throws the disc, which turns into a basketball, which falls into a backboard (basketball hoop). The ball, as well as the hoop, dissolves into a baseball glove, and a baseball falls onto it. Everything dissolves into a hockey puck and goal. The puck moves around until the goal dissolves into a hockey stick, which hits the puck. The stick dissolves into a tennis racket, which hits a tennis ball. As soon as the ball flies toward the view, we cut to blue/red/yellow light with sparks emanating from it. A yellow H (from the HBO logo) appears from the right and glides into position. "BO" appears turning upward, in the HBO logo font, while "HOME BOX OFFICE FROM TIME/LIFE" rotates downward.
2nd logo: TBA.
3rd logo: TBA.
4th logo: We start out with a space background with a light grid sheet at the bottom running. Then, we see searchlights on the left and right sides, and criss-cross together. At the same time, blue lights appear and yellow rays rain throughout out of the blue light, changing into blue rays, then yellow circles, then yellow zigzags, then colorful criss-cross lines, then blue and yellow straight lines, and finally wavy lines with curvy lines. Then we pan up to the searchlights up close, and the searchlights reveal a box of popcorn, which completely disappears. Then we see yellow animated drawn popcorn moving then falling down with a "shadow" effect. Then, the same popcorn reveals a marquee with the lines and designs (looking like the Orpheum or Pantages theater), and the marquee zooms up. Then, we move to a plain black screen, and the words "HBO FEATURE MOVIE" one above each other zooms and pans down in a "shadow" effect. Then, lines appear behind each word, and the words turn red. The bars shine repeatedly.
5th logo: The camera travels down an infinite lapse of the Hollywood Walk of Fame, where we see some movie items on the left and right sides of the screen (i.e. a glass slipper, a box of popcorn, a soda bottle, etc.) We then zoom into a picture with strange objects moving around, we then cut back to the Walk of Fame where we see a box office from a far distance. As the sky turns to night, we zoom into the box office and the screens cuts to black where the "HBO FEATURE MOVIE" texts animates as usual.
6th logo: On a space background, we see a vortex positioned like a floor, sitting in the middle of the screen. At the same time bright lines begin drawing out a stylized movie theater complete with box office. The sign on the theater reads HBO FEATURE MOVIE twice, in white. We then zoom into a yellow star and then cut to more bright lines drawing out the interior of the theater. Red and blue curtains appear on the stage and as we slowly zoom in as the curtains unveil and we go to a black background where we see the "HBO FEATURE MOVIE" text animates as usual.
7th logo: On a space background, we pan through and around many abstract shapes of varying color and size, some of which light up. They go all over, with a star and circle passing by, along with a bubble snake. After a while, a stylized yellow box moves in from the right and we zoom into it, where we go to the black background again with the text animated out as usual.
8th logo: We see a futuristic-like city at twilight, and we pan to the left where we see a movie theater with searchlights criss-crossing. Then we zoom into an opening where we see a bird's-eye view of the theater lit brown/orange. We slowly zoom into the projection screen and we fade into a black background with the text animating as usual.
9th logo: On a black background, purple streaks rain down the screen at an angle. We then fade to see a gray square with a neon pink outline flipping and zooming away, with an ocean at the bottom of the screen. When it disappears, a blue circular flash brings forth a series of gold bars that fly on the left and right sides of the screen. They eventually form a theater hallway with the ocean turning into the black floor. A brown screen turns the background to black and the usual text animates out.
10th logo: We start with a man tuning the cable on a TV set for a channel (to HBO, of course!) in his apartment as he settles down on the couch with his wife with food items in front of them (i.e. a tub of popcorn, a pizza cut into slices etc.). The camera pans backwards outside the window to show a somewhat busy city intersection with figurines of vehicles and people standing on the sidewalk at twilight. The music starts, and the camera "flies" forward down the street, through several intersections. At one point you can even see a movie theater that actually has "HBO Theater" on it. We fly over some buildings and we go out of the city and into the suburbs, with lots of trees. We fly over several houses and a clock tower. Then the camera pans up into the sky, which briefly turns sunset-ish, then blue and black with a starfield. We go up into space, eventually panning up to reveal the source of the light -- a star (positioned near the top center of the screen) that gets brighter and brighter, and eventually explodes in scarlet and blue upside-down egg-shaped flash, leaving behind a shiny chrome model monolith. The monolith moves down and across the screen and rotates clockwise, revealing itself as the HBO logo, then turns around one more time as the camera zooms in on the side of the O. The side of the O disappears in a flash of light, revealing a stream of red, yellow and blue rays streaking counter-clockwise around a silver axis, and "HBO FEATURE PRESENTATION" (Note: different titles would appear depending on the program) appears, one word atop the other (and a line under "PRESENTATION"), in a heavy, lavender 3D "gaspipe" lettering style against an array of purple lines. Some more rays sweep across the words and shine, then the background would fade to black with more flashes from the surrounding rays.
Variants[]
- A slightly more common version starts off with the city covered in fog (which slowly clears up), then has the camera pan across the city as usual.
- A short version of the logo that starts before the "big bang" was shown most often (the long version would only be used for new features).
- There are seven different endings depending on what the program is. They include "HBO Feature Presentation" (the standard version), "HBO Premiere Presentation" (for HBO Premiere Films before they were renamed to HBO Pictures), "HBO Family Showcase", "HBO Classic Feature", "HBO Theatre (of which the only known use of it was on an HBO Behind-the-Scenes special about the making of the HBO in Space logo)", "HBO Music", "HBO Saturday Night Movie", "HBO Sunday Night Movie", "HBO Special", "HBO Comedy", "HBO Rock", "Standing Room Only", "HBO Originals", "HBO Sports", and "On Location".
- Two April Fools Day variants that used a much cheaper version of the city with HBO monolith, and end card also exist: one used "HBO Feature Presentation" in the style of a rebus puzzle (H-bee-O Feet-Y-oar Present-A-shun) which flipped up into the screen, while the other had the "lyrics" to the song in a "follow the bouncing ball" style over the model city. When we reach to space, the familiar HBO is now in aluminum foil held by string and is spins around by a hand. "HBO FEATURE PRESENTATION" in cheaply arranged paper letters fade in on a black background with a pair of live-action hands making odd movements briefly over it (the rebus puzzle version faded to this, but with only a half-second of hand movement).
- Some end cards had the lines colored royal blue or a red-gray gradient.
- A somewhat rare version exists. After the man tunes the cable to HBO, we can see his family sharing popcorn while HBO started to be tuned on TV before zooming out the window. This was apparently used when this intro first debuted.
- Occasionally, during debuts of popular films, when the streaks move around the "O" it would cross-fade into a promo, and when the promo ended it would fade back to the "Feature Presentation" version, which would end as normal.
- For HBO's joint venture with Silver Screen Partners, the part in space had been adapted for their logo; this was only seen on the 1984 movie Flashpoint.
- On HBO Hungary in the mid-90s, a bumper has the full logo playing as normal until the end where the HBO logo fades away before the rays appeared, then a still "HBO" logo appeared in front of the space background.
11th logo: We see a heliotrope HBO logo across a vertical filmstrip with light rays being shot through it. The camera pans around and zooms back from several CGI squares glowing various neon colors. Then, the lights shoot out the last square and light up a group of small dots glowing rainbow colors, then zoom out to reveal a light-purple HBO logo with "Movie" written in script in a raspberry-like color with the rainbow circles on a black background behind it.
Variant[]
In Hungary, "Mozi" (Hungarian for "movie") appears below, with the colors appearing brighter. Most other countries probably have "movie" written in their own native language as well. In Brazil, "Apresenta" (Portuguese for "presents") appears below.
12th logo: On a violet/white CGI background with a dark blue CGI floor, we see many colored shapes zooming through the screen. A black rectangle zooms in slowly, along with other ones forming a mantel-like shape, where a hot pink HBO logo rises up, and as the camera stops, the gold words "SPECIAL PRESENTATION" zoom out with a shadow effect and plasters itself on the front of the mantel with the HBO letters turned on a slight angle (a la 20th Century Fox).
13th logo: We see a countdown with the letters "H", "B", and "O". Suddenly, a CGI globe appears. It bounces into the next floor, which says "MOVIES", and bounces onto a filmstrip. An "M" bounces it onto the next floor, which says "BOXING". The globe and a letter "B" fight with each other, pushing the globe onto the next level, which says "MUSIC". A bunch of globes appear. Three of the globes turn red and bounce onto the next floor, which says "FAMILY". An "F" juggles them, throwing them into the next floor, which says "COMEDY". A letter "C" laughs as the countdown appears again. It turns into an "O", which is the HBO logo. The globe bounces into the middle of the "O".
14th logo: On a black reddish orange background is a clear filmstrip. Squares fly through the sprocket holes of the strip. A circle with lines appears on there as well made in the style of the countdown seen on some films. A circular lightbeam is seen underneath where the circle is. The circle animates like the 3-2-1 Countdown,The HBO Original Movie except it counts down as “H”, “B”, and “O.” As this happens, the camera pans to the left and closes in on the countdown with the beam of light extruding through the circle. After the “O” counts down, the circle turns into an “O” and another “O” flies through the film strip and flies through the beam of light with several “O”s joining in. More light beams are seen on the left and right as everything turns blue. The screen then scrolls to a stone platform where the “O”s land and the screen pans out revealing it’s part of the word “ORIGINAL” with blue lines above and below. As this happens “THE HBO” scrolls right and rests above “ORIGINAL” and below that is the word “MOVIE”. The platform has two sets of four light beams seen vertically and horizontally above the words. A filmstrip is seen moving below the platform as spotlight shines through the bumper twice.
15th logo: We see the white words "FEATURE PRESENTATION" appear over the HBO logo seen in many situations (like the ITV "Hearts" idents from the same time). For example, one scenario involves the HBO logo inside a limo with several paparazzi stumbling to get to the limo and taking several pictures. Another features a zoom-up from a skyscraper to reveal the skyscraper is in the shape of the HBO logo (an influence on the next logo). Finally, another one shows the HBO logo in a fish form.
Variant[]
The first few uses of this logo had a brief look at the movie that's going to play. The logo would start as usual, but then the word "NOW" would zoom in. Some clips from the following movie would then play. Then, the appearance of the HBO logo in this logo would appear, with the "NOW" animation playing again, and then the full logo would play as normal after that.
16th logo: We see a busy street corner with a theater whose marquee reads "HBO FEATURE PRESENTATION". We zoom into the theater, pass the box office and into a bright light. We end up zooming down a road in a residential neighborhood with cars driving about. The camera goes through a bridge superstructure shaped like an "H". We end up zooming down a rural highway, passing farms and such. After we hit some fog, we are on a mountain road, flying over a pit, and we head down a "B" shaped tunnel. We end up on a desert road surrounded with gorges and cliffs at the other end, and we zoom into a truck with an "O" shaped, cylindrical tank, taking us through another transition. We end up zooming through a CGI rendering of "HBO City" from the 10th opening, and into a skyscraper-filled downtown. Passing through the buildings with a lens flare effect, we travel down a freeway as lights quickly power up from behind buildings, and then more lights activate ahead of us. The camera pans and takes us into an aerial view above the clouds, and we see the spotlights are outlining an HBO-logo shaped harbor. The 3D letters "FEATURE" go into place over the HBO logo, and a flash below that brings forth the word "PRESENTATION" on a black rectangle as we tilt above the HBO-harbor.
Variant[]
A shorter, much more common version of this logo was available, which starts off with the lights lighting up. The full version as described above is extinct and was retired for good on March 26, 2011, and was only shown on Saturday night movie premieres.
17th logo: On a black background, a flash appears. Then, the flash turns into a cerulean aurora background and as it does so, the HBO logo on the left and the words "Feature Presentation" (set in Gotham Book) on the right appear.
18th logo: On a black background, pictures from the movies available on HBO (Including their HBOGO app) fade in and drop. Then, they fade out and drop down again. Then, the HBO logo and the words "Feature Presentation" from the previous logo drop down.
Variation[]
Sometimes, one picture is left behind and the text is at the right.
19th logo: We fade in to a small shot of a man holding a bowl of popcorn. As the camera pans to the right, we see him walking towards his wife, seen snuggling up with a blanket on a sofa. In the background we can see two sets of home plants, a desk lamp, a set of magazines, and two glasses of (what is believed to be) wine. On the wall, we see a canvas print of another apartment. Below the couch, a pair of shoes are visible. The man places the popcorn on a table, settles down with his wife, and turns on the TV. As we zoom out through a window, a suitcase-style turntable can be seen. Zooming further out of the apartment, we see a few more sets of apartment complexes. Another pair of shoes can be seen tangling from a telephone wire. Panning further to the right, we see two streetlamps. We then zoom out from the streets into the room of two teenage siblings; an older sister and a younger brother. The wall is covered with fan posters of various celebrities. Zooming further out, we see the sister on her bed, and the brother on a large cushion. The brother holds a tablet towards his sister. Zooming out even further, we reach a balcony. In it, a patio table and a bicycle can be seen. As the camera zooms further out, we zoom out into the living room of another apartment complex. This scene is basically a recreation of the 10th opening, with a few modern touches added (e.g. cushion couches on a rug next to a flat-screen TV, which is showing a portion of the 10th opening (the part where we zoom into the "O"). As we zoom out again, it is noticeable that the apartment complex is actually a home, nested on a floating brick lawn. More apartments and condominiums are nested next to the home. We zoom in to the living room of yet another apartment. The first thing noticed is the flat-screen TV, which is also showing the 10th opening. In it, a group of college students are seen on a couch, with one of them serving a snack. As we zoom out yet again, a man, holding his phone, can be seen on the balcony of yet another apartment. After that, the camera zooms out further and further. It is then revealed that the city is masked in the HBO logo, set over a dark sky background on a flat grassy plain, with a river shown beside it. At this point, everything shown inside the towering logo is no longer noticeable in detail.
Variants[]
- If the movie premieres on HBO for the first time, the "Movie Premiere" is seen below the logo.
- If the movie airs on HBO (and its channels), the logo is shortened to the tail end with the words "Movie Presentation" below the logo.
Music/Sounds[]
1st logo: A jazz piece which has horns, saxophones and other jazz instruments.
2nd logo: TBA.
3rd logo: TBA.
4th logo: An orchestral fanfare that sounds like it's from Sesame Street.
5th logo: A jazzy version of the fanfare. Fits well with this bumper.
6th logo: An alternate version of the fanfare used in the first logo, only more slower and louder.
7th logo: A bouncy techno version of the fanfare; fits well with this bumper.
8th logo: A rather moody, funky, and smooth version of the fanfare. Again, it fits well with this bumper.
9th logo: A relaxing synth version of the fanfare mixed with drums.
10th logo: A dramatic theme (that in the long version, starts with a whoosh and a piano/string chord and gets progressively more tense) leading into a very loud, upbeat, almost disco-style horn-driven overture, then ending with synth sweeps (representing the rays "inside" the "O"). Composed by Ferdinand J. Smith with a 65-man orchestra.
Music/Sound Variants[]
- For the first few months the open was used, a different end-tune that was similar to the "HBO Special" version played instead of the normal end.
- For the "Family Showcase" variant, the music would get softer and play an uplifting theme just after the "O" disappears.
- For the "HBO Music/HBO Rock" variants, a rock guitar tune would play near the end.
- For the "HBO Special" variant, a faster-paced horn tune would play, which sounds kind of like a game show theme.
- For the "Standing Room Only" variant, an upbeat, fast-paced tune would play.
- For the "On Location" variant, a slow, jazzy tune would play.
- One April Fools variant had the theme being played on kazoos, while a "BOING!" sound is heard while the aluminum HBO comes in on the background.
- For the "HBO Comedy" open, a "comedic" tune would play.
- For the "cross-fade promo" version, a voice-over would begin speaking as we enter the interior of the "O", and the first variant mentioned played under the VO at the end.
11th logo: A loud electric guitar tune, which culminates into a brief, funky new wave theme that at the very end ends with another electric guitar strum and a twinkling fade-out. This half sounds sort of like Speak & Spell-era Depeche Mode.
12th logo: A synthesized rock fanfare.
13th logo: A calypso/rock theme.
14th logo: It begins with an electric guitar solo, then going into rock synthesized piece with bells and jingles heard during the flying "O"s and the bell sounds are also synched with the "O"s landing on top of each other.
15th logo: The head start of 1982 fanfare heard in different instruments depending on the variant. The "Now" variant features an announcer saying over the music "It's on, now. [brief description of movie]. [2 actors from movie] in, [movie title]. It's on HBO, right now."
16th logo: A re-orchestrated version of the 10th fanfare that is longer and even more loud, powerful and dramatic than the original. During the 'HBO City" sequence, there are whooshes that can be heard from passing cars and buses.
17th logo: A brief ascending section of strings, followed by an orchestrated version of the head start HBO fanfare. Not as epic as the fanfare from the previous logo, but not too shabby.
18th logo: Same as before, but an announcer says "And now, an HBO feature presentation". On the variation, it the same as before, but the announcer adds "[FILM TITLE]" after the last line.
19th logo: A re-orchestration of the 10th and 16th openings. We start off with three piano notes, then a set of strings add further power and adrenaline. The theme gets more intense as the logo progresses.
Scare Factor[]
1st logo: Medium. The fast-paced effects as well as the music may not sit well to some.
2nd logo: TBA.
3rd logo: TBA.
4th logo: Low. The music may not sit well with some.
5th logo: Low. The music might be loud to some, but this is nothing compared to the next bumper...
6th logo: Medium to high. The flashing effects and loud music might not sit well with most people.
7th logo: Low. The abstract animation might scare a few, but it's a lot tamer.
8th logo: None to minimal.
9th logo: Minimal. If you thought this was good, wait until the you see the 10th opening...
10th logo: Low, due to the somewhat fast movement of the city scene, the dramatic music, the loud synth sweeps, and the flashing at the end. But that notwithstanding, this is a very popular bumper. It is probably one of the most beloved opening bumpers of the 1980s--in fact, one might argue it's the most popular opening bumper.
11th logo: Low to medium. The glowing is not as bad as the "HBO Feature Presentation"'s flashing, but that loud synth-guitar music may get to some. All in all, it's a good bumper; it may not be as memorable as the previous bumper, but it shares the same impressiveness.
12th logo: None at all. It's a cool logo of some sort, otherwise its camera pans might startle a few there.
13th logo: None.
14th logo: Low.
15th logo: None to high. It all ultimately depends on the variant of this bumper.
16th logo: None to minimal. Some people may be very put off by the fast pace of the bumper, but otherwise, while it may not be as memorable as the original 1982 HBO opener, it is still a great opening filled with spectacular computer graphics and an amazing, adrenaline-rushing fanfare. A very suitable successor.
17th logo: None, but compared to its predecessors, it's a very boring bumper, but still nice looking.
18th logo: None.
19th logo: Low to medium. The beginning may be harmless, but as the music gets more dramatic and the towering HBO logo is revealed, this may scare young viewers, but this is still a very fantastic logo and a favorite to many.