CTW/Sesame Workshop
Written and Compiled by Nicholas Aczel and Dan DeCosta
Children's Television Workshop
1st Logo
(1969-1982)
Nickname: "The Plaque"
Logo: On episodes of "Sesame Street", two sets of stills were shown on the screen. The first one was of a regular on the show (i.e. Big Bird, Oscar, Susan, Gordon, Bob, etc.) holding up the Sesame Street title logo, which was a rectangular street sign in dark green and had a light green border. A small text in a semi-circle above the rectangle read CTW, which stood for "Children's Television Workshop". The second still featured another regular holding up a fancy-looking plaque made of marble. The name "CHILDREN'S TELEVISION WORKSHOP" appears in blue in front of the plaque.
FX: None, this is a still logo
Music: None
Availability: Extinct. Was once widely available on early episodes of “Sesame Street” when shown on Noggin, but were sadly taken off the air.
Scare Factor: None
2nd Logo
(Late 70s-1982)
Nickname: "The CTW Snake"
Logo: On a black background, four vertical orange rectangles appear in the center of the screen and start transforming into the letters in "CTW" simultaneously. The rectangle on the left stretches slightly to the right and left until it forms a square, then curves to the top and bottom to form a "C." The rectangle in the middle stretches on all sides vertically and horizontally until it resembles a cross with the top right corner slightly bent, then the bottom side stretches out some more and curves to the right to form a lower case "T." The two rectangles on the far right stretch in opposite horizontal directions until they connect each other in the middle with a bend in one of the quadrilateral corners for emphasis. The two quadrilaterals, along with the middle right corner of the "T," stretch to the bottom to form the "W." The small blue text
CHILDREN'S
TELEVISION
WORKSHOP
appears in the top left corner where the "T" and "W" connect.
FX: The quadrilaterals stretching.
Cheesy Factor: Simple animation.
Music: An eerie electronic tune, with a "ding" at the end to mark the appearance of the CHILDREN'S TELEVISION WORKSHOP text.
Music Variation: A dreamy tune with bell strings was heard over this logo on "Christmas Eve On Sesame Street."
Availability: Near extinction, has been plastered over with the Sesame Workshop “House of Boredom” logo when older CTW shows were seen on Noggin before being taken off the air. It’s still retained on “Christmas Eve on Sesame Street.”
Scare Factor: Median, it may scare some with its cheesy animation and slyly creepy electronic music. But its pretty tame compared to its successor.
3rd Logo
(1982-1997)
Nickname: "Sparks"
Logo: On a black background, a spark flies across the top left corner of the screen, writing the word CHILDREN'Sin blue. It shifts to the middle left corner and writes TELEVISION. Then it shifts to the bottom left corner and writes WORKSHOP. A ray of light flies from the bottom of the screen and explodes. The logo "glitters."
FX: The spark "writing," the ray of light exploding, the logo "glittering."
Cheesy Factor: The whole logo is basically stop-motion using a firecracker/sparkler.
Music: An electronic keyboard scale quickly descending is heard over the spark animations, followed by a laser zap accompanying the light explosion.
Availability: Rare, the
"House of Boredom" logo has plastered itself to most
older CTW shows when they were reran on Noggin, but this logo can
thankfully be found on older "Sesame Street" and
"3-2-1 Contact" tapes.
Scare Factor: High, the electronic sounds and light effects are potentially frightening.
4th Logo
(1997-2000)
Nickname: "Play It Smart"
Logo: On a shady cyan background, we see a yellow semi-circle (the same one from the Sesame Street logo) turned on its bottom side with the red letters C, T, and W positioned from left to right. The C bounces on the semicircle, making it slant to the left. Then the T twists around while the W bounces. The semicircle rebounds to its original position, then the three letters bounce together, pushing the semicircle to the ground. The semicircle bounces up and rotates a few times before settling into a position halfway up the screen. The text "CHILDREN'S TELEVISION WORKSHOP" comes from underneath the semicircle. The three letters fly in the air and land on the face of the semicircle. The sign bounces once more as the text "PLAY IT SMART" appears below.
Variation: There was an early version of this logo without "PLAY IT SMART."
FX: The animation in the logo.
Music: A playful horn tune that sounds similar to “Sailor’s Hornpipe” in the opening notes accompanied by bounce and boing sound effects.
Availability: Near extinction, usually replaced with the "Sesame Workshop" logo.
Scare Factor: None, this is a cute logo.
Sesame Workshop
(2000-)
Nickname: “The House of
Boredom.”
Logo: On a white background, we see an abstract green house with a purple roof and the text
sesameworkshop
outlined below. The window of the house is filled with yellow glitter. The house bounces and the roof explodes open to the right, sending the glitter sprinkling all over. Some of the glitter remains to form a lightning bolt crowned with a star, some sprinkles to the left to fill the "sesame" text with purple, and some sprinkles to the right to fill the "workshop" text with green:
sesameworkshop
Color Variants:
FX: The animation in the logo.
Music: A pop sound effect when the roof explodes, followed by a playful tuba and a child giggling, and an accordion part at the end.
Availability: The chief means of plastering. Seen on "Sesame Street," “Sagwa the Chinese Siamese Cat” and "Dragon Tales" on PBS, and, if any older CTW shows are rerun in the future, expect this logo to plaster over the CTW Snake and Sparks logos. To make matters worse, the Columbia/Tristar “Boxes of Boredom” follows this logo on “Dragon Tales!”
Scare Factor: None, you’ll just be annoyed by how many times you saw it.