[Music] Stop and try to imagine the logo, just the logo,
from a show from the last five years. It's not easy. Perhaps Stranger Things, which is a stylistic
throwback, maybe Loki, but for the most part logos for TV shows tend to feel like an afterthought. But it wasn't always this way. In the 1990s, a new business model called
Syndication totally changed American broadcast TV. Instead of airing just on a single channel,
shows could be sold on to be rerun on multiple channels, both domestically and overseas,
turning the most popular shows into cash cows and international phenomena. One format dominated during this era:
the multi-camera sitcom. And judging by the paychecks of sitcom stars,
the 90s truly represented the pinnacle of the genre, giving birth to some of the most
iconic series ever produced and some of the most memorable logos. So in this video I'm going to break down and analyse 10 logos of the most enduring and influential shows of the decade. Of course, to whittle down the list to just 10,
I had to set some criteria, which you can pause if you wish to read. But mostly they're the most famous
or most memorable. For each logo, I'll be judging based on four criteria. Distinctness, appeal, storytelling and execution. Starting with the lowest scoring and
moving to the highest score. With that settled, let's jump in. [Family Matters Theme Song] We start off with Family Matters, and
this was quite famous for its character, Steve Urkel, and his catchphrase,
which is something very 1990s. The opening title of this show features
a logo set in a typeface called Bookman. And this is a quite long-historied typeface,
but it kind of became very ubiquitous to the point of overuse through the 1960s and 1970s. So there was another sitcom during the 80s,
which featured Jason Bateman in one of his early roles, that had almost the
exact same logo as this. It was Bookman in yellow with a drop shadow. And for that reason alone, this is going to
score pretty poorly in its distinctness category. While the logo might hold a certain retro
appeal, it really doesn't provide any insight into the story or the characters. And it's so generic to the point where even
during the time it was on air, they'd often use a different logo than what was in
the opening title, for promotions. And today, if you go on any of the streaming
services to watch this, you'll find a completely different logo. And they've gone with a font that
was actually designed in 2012. And this is a little bit of an improvement
in terms of memorability, not a huge upgrade. Unfortunately, we have to start with the mediocre
examples before we can move on to the more interesting ones. Urkel: I don't have to take this! I'm going home! [Audience laughter] [Full House Theme Song] Next on our list is Full House, the epitome
of the wholesome family sitcom. The soft and friendly logo is kind of emblematic
of the show's spirit, but it's not particularly original. It's not a specific font, but this is a kind
of signwriting-inspired lettering. In fact, you can see this style referenced in a|
signwriter's manual from the 1970s, labeled as cartoon. A signwriting style like this probably inspired
another typeface called Dom Casual, which is from quite a bit earlier, but that's
not the font they used for this logo. Although if you Google the Full House logo font,
what you'll find is a fan-made font. And that's rather common, actually. Around the late 90s and 2000s, when font design
software started coming alogn and actually being pirated often, is that people made these fan-made
fonts as tributes to pop culture they enjoyed. The logo overall is pretty generic to the
point where it is the basis of the parody logo for that viral video "Too Many Cooks"
from a few years back. Despite all the storytelling elements that made
the show unique, the setting of San Francisco or the different kind of ensemble,
isn't really reflected here. So the execution is okay and the appeal is
alright, but the score is going to be pretty low. [Married With Children Theme Song] For a show that completely flips that script,
we have Married With Children, the first sitcom to ever air on Fox when it came out in the late 1980s. It was designed to be the polar opposite of
those sitcom tropes, with a downtrodden dad and his really cynical, horrible family. And the logo clearly reflects that. And it was really well done in terms of setting
expectations right at the front with that logo. It's very disturbing looking with the word
"married" just dripping with slime and icicles or something and the imposing rubber stamp
effect on "with children". It just kind of shows this cynical perspective of the show. Although the appeal obviously is pretty low
and the constraints of having a low budget on a new network with the limited graphic
technology of the late 80s is going to affect the execution score as well. [Friends Theme Song] Now any list of iconic 90s sitcoms
could not skip over Friends. The show is just synonymous with the 90s
and its cast was at one point the highest paid cast on television. However, when it comes to the logo,
I've got a bit of a spicy take. I just don't think the logo is great design. I mean it's simple and distinctive enough,
but I'd hesitate to use the word minimalist because that implies an intentionality
that I don't think is there. I'm not sure I buy that that was such
a genius design move and more just... Ross: I think you're reading a little too much into it? But one thing that really sticks out to me
is the very *un-minimalist* design aesthetic of the show. I mean can you imagine Marie Kondo
stepping into any of these set designs? Like this is 90s maximalism
taken to its logical endpoint. It's just knickknacks and bric-a-brac
and colour everywhere. So to call the logo minimalist is
giving it more credit than it deserves. This is the kind of logo you could sketch
literally on a napkin and call it a day. It's fine, but it's no design masterpiece. So it's going to get a score that reflects that. [Seinfeld Theme Song] Another huge phenomenal show of the 90s was
Seinfeld, of course and it has this very iconic and graphic logo design. But interestingly it didn't actually make its
first appearance until season three of the show. For the first two seasons the opening credits
just have "Seinfeld" written in plain text along with the other opening credits. With each new season the colours and patterns
within the oval and text changed in just a delightful array of 90s colour combinations. So there are actually two different Seinfeld logos. There's the logo in the opening credits and
then there's the promotional logo that you'll find everywhere online, that was probably
created sometime after the show finished. But both of them share the same basic
composition and one of the nice little details in it, is a little triangle, just to kind of hint at it being
slightly offbeat without being full-on slapstick. And it's a slight upgrade overall, actually,
with the new promotional logo. The oval is more balanced and it's
just more tightly composed. It kind of has not a timeless, but an enduring
appeal and it's very strongly graphic. [The Nanny Theme Song] The Nanny is a really strange phenomenon. Despite being extremely specific in its New York
Jewish cultural references it was a huge international success. Being broadcast in over 80 countries it also
had the most* international adaptations of any sitcom on this list. Now looking at the logo it's got this strange
interlocking lettering style that you might think is original, but it's actually a bit of a
throwback to the 50s and 60s, that's sometimes known as "beatnik lettering". This style became popular in a lot of different
places including title cards of sitcoms like Gilligan's Island. This lettering style not only had a revival with
The Nanny in the 90s but also in the series Ren & Stimpy which was extremely influential
in the new wave of Nickelodeon cartoons which then went on to influence shows like
SpongeBob SquarePants. So if you're on the younger side
you might recognise it from: French accent: Approximately 10 hours later... This logo gets pretty good scores all around and
it does a good job of actually also projecting the loud and interesting style
of the lead character. What was interesting about this beatnik
lettering is it wasn't just used for the original English language show but also by many of
the international adaptations of The Nanny including ones that used totally different
alphabets from our Latin one. Speaking of travelling internationally, if you're
planning a trip or just want to change your virtual location you could use
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can get 3 extra months of Surfshark. Just use the link pinned below this video. Thank you Surfshark. [The Simpsons Theme Song] Having touched on animation, no discussion of
90s sitcoms would be complete without acknowledging The Simpsons. The opening sequence to The Simpsons features
the show's name written in all caps in the handwriting of the creator Matt Groening in
this quite blobby, squiggle-vision style and that was effectively used as the logo for
promotions in print and other places until they updated the design to use a much more
deliberate mixed case lettering approach. This is the version of the logo that we're still
familiar with today featuring an enlarged initial S and a lowercase T and E in "The",
which has a much more pleasing overall rhythm and composition. This was probably motivated by the explosion
of Simpsons merchandise through the 90s. The simplicity of the Simpsons logo is
one of its main strengths. I mean it's hard to imagine how
you can improve on it. It's yellowm just like The Simpsons themselves,
and it's Matt Groening's distinctive handwriting. Even though he went on to create many other
shows like Futurama, that handwriting style is going to always be associated
with The Simpsons. [The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Theme Song] For the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, the logo
echoes the whole "fish out of water" narrative, representing this street wise kid thrown into
this upper crust environment by juxtaposing that graffiti style lettering for "Fresh Prince"
with this traditional serif typeface used for "Bel-Air". It was a rather groundbreaking design in many
ways being one of the first mainstream shows to incorporate a graffiti and hip hop aesthetic
which you can also see in the opening title sequence which was more inspired by Will Smith's
music videos at the time than it was by those traditional montage sequences you'd see
at the opening of other sitcoms. However, if we look a bit closer, the execution
of the design has some problems. The E's in "Fresh" and "Prince" are a little
over-tilted forward and the counter of the P in "Prince" isn't great. The serif font for "Bel-Air" could also have
been slightly more of an elegant choice. These points might seem nitpicky but these
are the small details that prevent it from getting a perfect score. The artist behind it probably wasn't a true
graffiti artist so with a more polished execution it would definitely be S-tier but nonetheless it's an
absolute milestone in terms of 90s sitcom logos. [Home Improvement Theme Song] Home Improvement could scarcely be more 90s. I mean the premise is around a cable TV host
and his family, but before diving into what I really love about this logo, I want to
dispel a common misunderstanding. A logo isn't necessarily better because it's
visually representative of what it stands for. This is really reductive thinking. It's not just make thing that looks like other thing. So yes, the Home Improvement logo is shaped
like a house which fits for a show based around the home renovation theme. However, the genius of the logo is really in the
execution and its integration into the show. Especially that opening sequence. No other logo on this list was woven into
the opening credits quite like this. The opening titles are just a charming blend
of stop motion and early digital animation which perfectly encapsulate the characters
in the show and its overall style. And a big part of that is the logo being
reconstructed and different materials that kind of reinforce that theme. It always brings a smile to my face, which I
can't say about watching any of the other opening credits to these shows. Overall, across all of the different scoring
metrics it's getting a top mark. I just don't see there being a better
version of this idea as a logo. Hence I have to say that there is almost no
room for improvement. (Tim Allen Grunt Glissando ) [Frasier Theme Song] Something we've seen less of in American
sitcoms since the 90s is diversity of location. Like it seems the majority of shows are set in
New York and LA and there's certainly some of those in this list. But also we had Full House set in San Francisco,
we had Home Improvement in Detroit and of course Frasier really leans
into its setting of Seattle. Not only being name checked in the closing
theme song but forming the basis of its logo. This creates an opportunity for some fun easter
eggs to be thrown into the opening credits using the skyline but the overall effect is actually
quite sophisticated especially when in combination with that great typography. This is a typeface called Florentine which
was designed in the late 1800s, but was really the perfect choice for Frasier. It encapsulates that sophisticated image
that the characters Frasier and Niles want to cultivate and project. The only modification was to standardise
the A for better readability. The logo for Frasier gets top marks. It's a perfect blend of sophistication and fun,
capturing the essence of the show itself. Just in case anyone missed it, a high score
for the logo does not mean an endorsement for the show or its stars. But what was really interesting in researching
this video is thinking about how differently we interact with shows now
as opposed to in the 1990s. When you browse streaming services on your phone
or TV what draws you in is what they call "key art". In some ways it's what's replaced the movie
poster but it has more in common with designing a good YouTube thumbnail. It's a different calculus than logo design
in the traditional sense. In the 1990s TV shows' logos had to work
in black and white print for the TV Guide. But even then inside a single issue of the
TV Guide there might be one promo for a show using the logo and another using
completely different typography. The actors themselves were so much more recognisable
and pretty much tied to that individual show. So it didn't matter as much if there wasn't perfect
consistency around how the logo was used. That's worth keeping in mind when we look
back and judge these logos from the past as well as taking into consideration the technical
constraints that they worked under. I discussed some of the hardware used to create
broadcast graphics in my previous video about the history of clip art. Let me know if you disagree with my ranking
order or if you enjoy this format, if you'd like to see me tackle other decades or maybe
shows from other countries in the future. Thanks especially to my patrons over on Patreon
for your support in keeping this channel going. My name is Linus and I hope
I'll see you in a future video.
Having watch 90's TV growing up this will be an interesting watch once I have some time off. Thought some of you might enjoy it as well.