Logo descriptions by Juniorfan88
Logo captures by Juniorfan88, Shadeed A. Kelly, Wisp2007, V of Doom and others
Editions by Juniorfan88, Shadeed A. Kelly and Brendan Richards
Video captures courtesy by Bob Fish, Bigrene2, Mcy919 and JoeCool85


Background: 1976 was the year that Henry Siegel created Lexington Broadcast Services. In 1984, Mr. Siegel changed the name of Lexington Broadcasting Services to LBS Communications. Over the years, the company would produce/distribute miscellanious television shows such as Inspector Gadget, Heathcliff, What's Happening!!, What's Happening Now!!, Baywatch, Family Feud, and World of Wrestling. The company started losing money in the late 1980s and went bankrupt in the early 1990s leaving LBS to give 80 to 85% of the assets to All American Television in March 1992. Despite all the adversity, LBS would still live on in the 1990s, but the production company would close in 2001. All LBS shows, with some exceptions, are owned mainly by FremantleMedia.


1st Logo (1976-1984)

Nickname: "The Pan-Out"

Logo: On a black background, a white beam of light with several twinkles on it "scans" across the screen, leaving a large blue fused "LBS," consisting of an L and an S fused together and a B in the gap between them, in its trail, in the center of the screen, then the Blue LBS logo slides back a little. After the LBS text slides, a small white flash appears, and leaving behind the words "LEXINGTON BROADCAST SERVICES COMPANY" in white. However, the the 1983 alternate version has the text not as primitive looking, and it has "Inc." at the end.

FX: The beam of light, and the flash revealing the company name.

Cheesy Factor: Of course, the music and SFX seems pretty cheesy at this point right now, and the animation seems fairly primitive. Of course at the time, this was at least a decent logo.

Music/Sounds: A rising synth sound, a bizarre synth tune which accompanies the rising synth sound, and a synthesized "zap" accompanying the flash. All three elements of the soundtrack sound like they were made on a Moog synthesizer.

Availability: The early version is no longer seen on TV, but can be found on the Inspector Gadget: The Original Series DVD set. The variation with "INC." is rare, but can be seen on some early episodes of Tales from the Darkside on Sci Fi Channel.

Scare Factor: Low to medium; generally depends on whether you think this logo's synthesizer score is grading, great, or in between. The animations not that bad on the logo per-say but maybe some people don't like where the logo flashes at the very end.


2nd Logo
(1984-1987)

Nickname: "The Unfolding Letters"

Logo: On a background consisting of a light-to-dark violet gradient, a light blue, curved "LBS" (exactly like the "LBS" in logo 1, but a darker shade of blue) zooms out while "unfolding." It stops in the center of the screen. "LBS COMMUNICATIONS, INC." "shines" in under the logo.

Variants:

• There are also two main sets of this version; a filmed version and a videotaped version.
• A still variant with magenta letters can be seen on 21 Jump Street.

FX: The "LBS" unfolding, the company name "shining" in.

Cheesy Factor: Well, the background is primitive because you hardly see a background scheme like that on any logos anymore, and the animation is pretty good but cheesy because of the way the letter shine the same way the bottom text does.

Music/Sounds: A pretty dramatic synthesizer score.

Availability: Rare. The videotaped version still survives on Tales from the Darkside on Chiller and Sci-Fi Channel and on a DVD of The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin. It was also seen on season two of Inspector Gadget and was on most of the seasons of Heathcliff and the Cadillac Cats. The filmed version is hardly seen on television again, but was seen on Rainbow Brite which does not reair on TV anymore, along with other DiC shows from this era.

Scare Factor: Low, unless you're not a big fan of overly dramatic synthesizer music.



3rd Logo
(1987-1992)

Nicknames: "CGI Space and Dots", "Comets and Dots", "Slide-In"

Logo: A group of round balls pan to the left of the screen. The "LBS" slides in from the right of the screen, during which two groups of lights streak through. The logo makes a stop at the front of the screen, the company name fades in.

FX: The panning out and sliding in of the logo and background.

Cheesy Factor: None, unless you count the '89 version with the musical selection it chose.

Music/Sounds: The '87 version of the logo plays first an ascending/descending jingle with several bird sounds
(notably a seagull) followed by a synthesized remix of the '84 version. The '89 version plays a rather eerie synth jingle.

Availability: Extremely rare for the '87 version, but was spotted on a repeat of Hazel on TV Land. It was also on the final season of Tales from the Darkside (that would feature the 2nd Tribune logo), but Sci Fi Channel's prints feature the previous Tribune and LBS logos. You can still find the '89 version on some shows currently like What's Happening Now!! (Whenever TV Land decides to re-broadcast it) and the first season of Baywatch.

(1991)

Nicknames: "15th Year Anniversary Logo", "The LBS Egg Logo", "Happy Birthday LBS"

Logo: It starts out with a yellow/white oval coming out first; then, it has an unusual red LBS logo going down from the top of the screen, and afterwards it displays a purple banner which the text reads "15th Anniversary." After the logo is completed, the entire logo sheens of where they show the year of when they started to the current year.
FX/Cheesy Factor: The animation is not as good as the previous logo, and it is pretty cheap.

Music/Sounds: A mellow, synthesizer score with a nice "ching" sound to indicate the sheen. Short versions have a three note tune.

Availability: Extinct. The short version is intact on all Baywatch episodes from the era on its DVD box sets, surprisingly.

Scare Factor: None.

Final Note: LBS then folded in 2001, and these days FremantleMedia owns the rights to most LBS shows.