PBS logos

The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is a non-profit public broadcasting television service operating in the United States. All programs PBS distributes to its member stations end with an identification implementing the network's name and logo and often a voiceover. Prior to 1984 the logo was usually displayed on-screen for eight seconds; since then the logo has appeared on-screen for a period approximately half as long.

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Note on logo dates: The given ending dates are only the time they ceased to be current; in some cases, they have appeared on television concurrently with later logos on reruns of older programs.

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First logo

In 1970, Macdonald Carey (known as Dr. Tom Horton on Days of Our Lives) would voice-over and say "This is PBS, the Public Broadcasting Service." This ident served the network for its first year. The picture was simply a still with the words PUBLIC, BROADCASTING, and SERVICE written in red, yellow, and blue, respectively.

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Second logo

In 1971, PBS introduced the long-running "people" ident, which still serves the network today. This logo starts with a blue P on the upper-mid screen initially zooming back into position, later with a head added facing left, and the word PUBLIC written below. Following it is an orange B with 2 black dots within it and the word BROADCASTING below PUBLIC. Then, a green S comes to the far right, with the word SERVICE at the bottom. Music accompanying it is a synthesizer. This logo, according to TeamFX2000, made a surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live to begin a Charlie Rose sketch.

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Third logo

In 1984, the logo introduced the "split identity" format, which has become the most popular revision in the people identity's history. A blue P head, just like the one in the previous logo but turned backwards, starts the ident. Then, a piece of it gets copied to the right to form the new logo. The letters PBS come below it in a serif font. Music accompanying this logo is a piano chord.

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Fourth logo

The logo was remodeled to its fourth format in 1989; the first to implement computer-generated imagery. In the ident, the P-head first used in the previous logo appears by rotating from the left edge of the screen, leaving a trail, then filling the screen. Simultaneously, a group of lines streak across the bottom of the screen leaving behind PBS in very small letters on the lower-left corner. Music consists of a bell string, followed by a man's voice (most likely sounding like Liam Neeson) saying "This is P-B-S".

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It is sometimes the earliest of the surviving PBS identities. (This logo was affixed on all new feeds of PBS shows in October 1989, replacing the "people" and "split identity" closings; however, both are still occasionally seen on older prints, according to TeamFX2000. In turn, when feeds of programs displaying Parental Guidelines were instituted in 1996, much of the availability of the 1989 PBS tag, then usually seen on PBS Kids shows such as "(Barney & Friends)" (In September 1991 the PBS logo has a announcer Liam Neeson saying "This Is PBS" over with the bell string. On the life time videos its episodes showing a silent version of the logo, the next episodes before December 1992 showing the version with Liam Neeson announcing "This is PBS" over the bell string tune), "Sesame Street", "Bill Nye the Science Guy", and "Lamb Chop's Play-Along," was removed.)

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Alternative logo

An identity now defunct was used as an alternative for the fourth, fifth, and sixth PBS identities. It was used on all NewsHour episodes from 1995 to 1997. This logo has animation that begins with a blur, then sharpens a la the 1981 Buena Vista Pictures logo. The image is a pink P-head on a pink environment with PBS in typewriter font at left. The music is the same bell string, with that same announcer, Liam Neeson, saying "This is P-B-S".

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Fifth logo

Introduced in 1993, the fifth PBS identity might appear on prints from local PBS stations, but is otherwise rather rare. The animated variant has a glass circle appearing and disappearing with faces of various people before being consumed by the eye of the P-head zooming out. The P-head is orange in an orange CGI environment similar to the pink environment of the alternate, and the familiar "PBS" text spins in, white and in typewriter. A non-animated variant appeared on a few shows, such as Triumph of the Nerds. The music is jazzy, with a female voice singing in the background. The announcer this time, Maximilian Schell, says "This is P-B-S". On the non-animated variant seen on Triumph of the Nerds, the announcer is different (the still variant's announcer being Susan Sarandon). Additionally, this logo was the last to be seen on children's' shows as well as adult programming (although the next ident occasionally made appearences on the 1996 TV shows Arthur and Adventures from the Book of Virtues); after 1993, PBS Kids programs utilized special logos of their own

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Sixth logo

The PBS ident was revised in 1996. Now only seen as the ending ident of Adventures from the Book of Virtues, its composition now included of a variety of objects: A telescope rotates in the lower left corner; a globe of the Earth appears at upper right; while at center a framed windowpane zooms in. The various objects fade away to reveal the P-head, which is initially yellow with the right section colored blue. These colors change to blue and green, respectively, while the text "PBS" fades in below. A new female announcer, Lauren Bacall, says "This is P-B-S". She is the only announcer to reprise her job for the following logo (7th logo).

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Seventh logo

The first well-known identity in years was the seventh PBS identity, used from 1998 to 2002. Its animation begins with a man holding up a round disc containing the PBS P-head. As he holds the disc in front of his face, several superimposed acrobats jump and somersault around the logo. The letters "PBS" fade in at right, while "www.pbs.org" in smaller letters appeared below. This was the first PBS logo to include the network's web address, as well as the first to be made in a version with a 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio for HDTV programming, and is sometimes still seen today. The accompanying music is a world music piece, with the same announcer saying "This is P-B-S" as in the sixth logo.

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Eighth logo

The eighth PBS logo is quite different from all of the previous logos. It features live-action footage and has many variants, including "Young People," "Performers," "Flowers," "Daddy and Son," and "Generations." The voiceover is now "We are P-B-S," or occasionally "I am P-B-S." It was introduced in 2002 and continues to be used today.

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