Showtime is a US "premium" channel that shows a mixture of movies, original series, and sports programming, much of it uncut and without commercials. It is most similar to HBO and is considered that channel's rival as far as programming goes.
It was owned by Viacom from its inception - although at points other firms have taken a minority ownership in the service (TelePrompTer, Westinghouse, Warner-Amex), Viacom always owned at least a piece of the service. In 2005, when Viacom split into two companies, Showtime became part of CBS Corporation.
Coming Next...1982
The original logo - a TV set embedded in a sphere - was designed by The Image Factory. In these early presentations, this logo was used as visual shorthand for Showtime - that is, most presentation featured just the TV set/sphere, and no other visual identification for Showtime. Not long after, the more familiar italic "SHOWTIME" logo was used alongside the circle.
This "coming next" promo is interesting - instead of doing HBO's routine of a chyron and voiceover, Showtime placed "Coming Next" bumpers around a regular promo.
Scorsese on Showtime Promo1982
A themed movie night of acclaimed director Martin Scorsese - a typical practice of premium and movie channels before and since. There's that visual shorthand again - the 2D sphere logo is used extensively in the promo.
Showtime Tonight1982
Ahh, here's the channel's name! "Tonight" promos had no voiceover, but featured a few words about the movie or show. The text looks a little unformatted and cluttered here.
Showtime Movie Presentation1982
The main movie open for Showtime features a wide shot of Hollywood. A little plain compared to what the channel's had after it, and certainly compared to what HBO was offering at the time.
Showtime Carousel1982
Carousel was apparently the banner for family films on Showtime. This is actually a lot nicer looking than the main movie open, with what appears to be early computer wireframe animation.So Excited
Showtime began using "Excitement" as its slogan in 1984. By 1985, it had become deeply entrenched in all aspects of its presentation style - rarely was the word "Showtime" seen without the word "Excitement". Dark blues, purples, and reds were the general color scheme, providing an interesting contrast to the brighter colors used on other US networks at the time.
Showtime adapted "I'm So Excited" by the Pointer Sisters as its theme music. And again, this was used extensively. "Next" and "Tonight" stings, movie opens, and special opens all used variations of this theme.
Next On...1987
The second "Next On" used during the "excitement" period - using suitably bold letters.
Tonight1987
Tonight on Showtime - more excitement! A jazzy version of the Showtime "excitement" theme music accompanies a listing of the next two programmes scheduled.
Showtime Feature Presentation1987
The flashy feature presentation open, used from about 1985 to 1988. Again, as with everything, "I'm So Excited" is used as the basis of the theme, although it's used more subtly here than in most other elements of the "Excitement" package. (In fact, this may be the only part of the overall package where the slogan is NOT used.) Not as impressive as HBO's efforts, but the ratings bumper is surprisingly threatening...
Showtime Shortbreak1987
The open to the short films generally featured in longer junctions. This actually seems to be from the initial rendition of the "Excitement" campaign, as the general graphic style and logo treatment matches that.
Showtime Movie Excitement1987
The general overview of the "movie excitement" (as said before, this slogan was pervasive) this month on Showtime. It's long - a few minutes - but it's a good look at the type of movies Showtime was carrying during this point.
Showtime Late Night1987
An obvious embrace of the VCR generation - and of horror movie lovers, as this Showtime Latenight promo focuses on a special horror movie "Mayhem at Midnight" week. Firestarter is one of the main attractions this week.
The Paper Chase Promo1987
"The Paper Chase" - a drama focusing on law students - was one of the first big Showtime original series (and one of the first big original series on either network). Interestingly, there's nary a Showtime logo or circle to be found - a far cry from the current branding-heavy days where the "SHO" logo will be overlaid on everything, including during programming...
The Lennon Legacy Promo1987
This one's a generally more indicative example of how Showtime branded their promos - a very tasteful overlay with the very glossy blue Showtime logo. Compared to the HBO bumpers of this time period, Showtime generally looks far more elegant.
The programme being promoted here is "The Lennon Legacy", a special focusing on both John and Julian Lennon (hence the title), which aired in March of 1987.
Showtime Exclusive Presentation1988
A very nice looking movie opener for Showtime from 1988. Unusually, it's entirely live-action, and seems to focus on the construction of a soundstage. Lots of fog effects are used here, for dramatic effect. And again, note how deemphasized the TV sphere logo has gotten - it looks very indistinct, almost like a circle.1990s
Pittard Sullivan dramatically redesigned Showtime in the early 1990s. At this point, the "circle/TV screen" logo was dropped from use after having been marginalized over the years; the bold "SHOWTIME" logo remained in use, however. Junctions from this time used a new "L-Bar" that not only told viewers what was next, but how many minutes remained until the next show.
Showtime's look was more "upscale" than HBO during this time period; the movie opens in particular were visually dense, with layers and layers of images stacked on top of each other to create a distinctive look.
Exclusive Movie1990
Silk, pillars, glowing lights - it'll take a few viewings of this intro to just appreciate how much Pittard Sullivan put into this open - and we mean that quite literally. As well as trumpeting that the movie is exclusive, both this and the generic movie open emphasize that Showtime movies are "unedited and commercial-free".
Movie1990
The general movie open - again, pretty dense and upscale. The falling filmstrip footage is a brilliant idea - and again, note the unusual "uncut and commercial free" voiceover.
Tonight1990
A long, but pretty simple "tonight" bumper - it's actually two stills with no animation whatsoever. The Showtime script logo is off model - it's in a different font than the "official" logo used during the junctions and openers. "see it" was the slogan used when Showtime introduced its new look.
Something Good is Gonna Happen1993
Showtime's Summer 1993 image promo - there they go with the pop songs again, although "something good is gonna happen" obviously hasn't endured as "I'm So Excited" has.
As you can see here, an L-bar overlay was used during junctions, with the next programme and the time remaining to the next programme. This was adopted by many other premium and pay-TV services, with the notable exception of HBO.
Showtime's All-Star Comedy Club1993
A general example of a regular promo. Most of the time, these were considerably light on the branding - probably because the L-bar contained a massive Showtime logo to begin with.No Limits
The Pittard Sullivan look was dropped in 1995. The new look was simpler, using tasteful typography and light effects in the background. The large L-Bar was gone, replaced by a countdown clock in the top-right of the screen.
1997 brought a somewhat more dramatic relaunch, with a brand new logo - the channel's first one since the early 1980s. The bold red logo uses a spotlight around the first three letters, "SHO" - not coincidentally the channel's abbreviation in TV listings. Accordingly, presentation frequently just uses the abbreviated logo.
Opener 12000
A sharp, black-and-red look was introduced in late 2000. As with the previous two graphics packages, there's extensive use of live-action. The look also makes extensive (and effective) use of the abbreviated SHO logo, treated here as a rotating disc (the nice looking ratings bumper hints at the shape of the logo).
Opener 2 & 32000
Two more opens; there were four "generic" ones in total, as well as specific ones used for Original Pictures, Original Pictures For All Ages, and Original Series. There didn't seem to be any specific criteria as to what ident was used before what movie, although the one with the little girl seems to suggest it was intended for family films.
Tonight - Main Channel2000
No Limits (which they had to license) was Showtime's slogan from 1997 to roughly 2004 - and, like the "excitement" campaign a decade before it, was used extensively. This quite lengthy "tonight" promo is heavy on video footage of not only the night's programming, but of Showtime movies and original material. Again, note the excellent "rotating disc" treatment of the distinctive SHO logo.
Tonight - Showtime 2/Too2000
By 2000, as with the other premium networks, Showtime had numerous "multiplex" channels (not counting TMC and Flix). While some of them had their own distinctive appearance, two of them - Showtime 2 and Showtime 3 - used identical presentation to the main channel. The "tonight" promos were pretty much the only distinctive element.
By 2001, Showtime 2 was given a slight name change - to "Showtime Too". Since the name change was so slight, the old "Showtime 2" voiceovers could still be used!
Tonight - Showtime 32000
The "tonight" for Showtime 3, which includes listings for Showtime 2 (the numeral logo is used, although the "Too" name change was effective by the time this was recorded) and Showtime 1. This is more utilitarian than the Showtime 2 one, since the voiceover doesn't even mention what's on tonight.
Showcase Feature Presentation2001
The changes to Showtime 3 were more dramatic than the changes to Showtime 2. The channel became "Showcase" (sometimes referred to as Showtime Showcase, although the logo doesn't reflect this) and changed its focus to Showtime original content. Presentation was purely graphical (as opposed to all the other Showtime networks), although this movie opener lasted only a few months before being switched out for a more elaborate effort.
Showcase Tonight2001
Tonight on Showcase - and just Showcase, no mention of the other channels. It's simple but effective.
Showcase was stripped of its unique presentation in 2006. In many junctions, it's now impossible to tell whether one is watching Showcase or Showtime.
