Dolphin Productions - "Demo Reel" (1978)

Here's a neat demo reel with a lot of vintage clips from Dolphin Productions, a legendary New York-based production company of the 1970's and early '80's that was one of three such firms in the country to use an early, analogue-based video animation system called "Scanimate." (The others were Image West Ltd. of Hollywood, CA and the company that first invented this process, Computer Image Corp. of Denver, CO; a history of the technology can be seen on this site.) After its heyday, it and the other companies using this technology were supplanted in popularity and demand by other graphics companies such as Klein&.

This tape was kept by Cathy Mustari, who from 1974 until the late 80s was WFLD Channel 32's art director; at the time this was produced (in or around 1978), the station was shopping around to find places to get WFLD's graphics done at and had requested various production houses' demo reels.

This demo has a voiceover (by ??) explaining the history of this pioneering technology, an explanation of its use in certain applications, the motivations behind certain visual images, and a behind-the-scenes peek of this technology in action (notice a brief shot of a Norelco PC-70 color camera at one point). Throughout the piece (preceded by a countdown laid out in a way as to show off their way of producing), samples of the following show opens, bumpers, ads, PSA's and other spots from within the U.S. and around the world are shown at certain points, including:

- Station ID for TVE 2 in Spain

- Promo for the ABC Evening News with Harry Reasoner and Barbara Walters

- NBC's 1976-79 'N' logo with red and blue colors filling up the logo

- Opening for The Electric Company (from the show's third season 1973-74)

- Title sequence for Harper News with Joe Harper (aired from 1973-74 on WPIX Channel 11 in New York [sister station to WGN Channel 9], after which it was replaced with Action News)

- VIASA Airlines

- Amtrak

- Ford Motor Company

- Pepsi-Cola

- End of trailer for the 1974 Lucille Ball film version of "Mame"

- New Jersey Bell

- IBM

- Vitali (?)

- Protein 21 Shampoo

- Trailer for the 1974 George Burns / Walter Matthau film "The Sunshine Boys"

- Macy's department store (a major New York institution for over a century)

- Time magazine

- Titles for Jack Paar Tonite (the talk show veteran's short-lived 1973 comeback attempt on ABC)

- Snippet of titles for ABC Wide World of Entertainment

- Part of opening titles for WPIX's The Eight O'Clock Movie

- Part of opening titles for Washington Week in Review

- Olympic Games

- ABC's Wide World of Sports

- Station ID for WHYY Channel 12 in Philadelphia / Wilmington, DE

- Edge (?)

- "Your Great Escape" (with a number 66 at the end - probably for WNBC-AM 660 in New York?)

- Station ID for KCET Channel 28 in Los Angeles

- Open for the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite (opening voiceover by Bob Hite), with explanation as to its significance and a demonstration of how each of the elements worked and were put together (this open first debuted in mid-1975 and would be used until Cronkite's retirement in 1981)

- Gatorade (?)

- Ajax cleanser

- Short segment of promo for WTFM 103.5 FM in Lake Success, NY (frequency now occupied by WKTU) - "New York's Contemporary Sound of Beautiful Music"

- Anti-perspirant ad (probably Secret?)

- Another trailer for "Mame"

- Phone ad (New Jersey Bell?)

- Opening titles for PBS's Theater in America

- News at Noon (which station would this have been for?) (the globe animation seen here would later be adapted for the open for Independent Network News at its start-up in 1980)

- Opening titles for Action News on WBAL Channel 11 in Baltimore, MD

- Logo bumper for American Heart Association

- Commercial for Longfellows hot dogs from Swift Premium

- ABC News title sequence with waveforms morphing into ABC News logo of the time (1976-78)

- Part of opening title for Eye On which aired on WCAU Channel 10 (formerly sister station to WBBM Channel 2, now sister station to WMAQ Channel 5) in Philadelphia, PA

- Opening titles for an NBC News special, The Search for Something Else (which aired Tuesday June 22nd 1976)

- Shot of King Tut's tomb, followed by vintage paintings in an explanation of different uses of color over the ages, and an animation of the significance of sight and different segments of the brain

- Multicolored spinning film reels whose trajectory bears similarities to the opening titles for CBS's In the News

- Station ID for Rede Globo in Brazil

- Tickle (Women's deodorant)

- Eveready batteries (pre-Energizer Bunny)

- Promo for ABC Sports

- Commercial for Foot Locker (voiceover by ??)

- Promo for the Broadway musical Bubbling Brown Sugar

- Camera commercial (?)

- Showing of a portion of a filmed animated PSA for Drug Use Prevention in comparison between old-style cel animation for film and video animation as used in Scanimate, with a look at the system in action (look for a shot of a Pepto-Bismol spot on a monitor) and the process used to produce each work; besides the Norelco, IVC 9000 video tape recorders were used

- Steel (?)

- Distortion of $1.00 bill

- Another part of Washington Week in Review open

- Commercial for Pepto-Bismol

- Yet another part of Washington Week in Review open

- Logo bumper for Kodak camera film

- Two dancers sparkling (?)

- Shot of satellite in space

- Titles for What's My Line? (most likely from its final season of producing new episodes in 1974-75)

- Morphing of dotted images of mother, father and child

- Opening titles for The MacNeil / Lehrer Report (which, after many changes in hosts, is today the PBS NewsHour)

- Head brand skis from AMF

- Logo bumper for TWA airlines

- "RCA Week" spot

- Volkswagen Beetle

- Logo bumper for CITGO

- Another Pepsi spot

- Logo bumper for Western Electric

- New Jersey Bell (again)

- IBM (again)

- Excedrin P.M.

- Logo bumper for Kellogg's

- Logo bumper for United Way

- Part of PSA for U.S. Bicentennial

- "11 Alive" station ID for WPIX Channel 11 in New York (this logo used from 1976 to 1982)

- ABC Wide World of Entertainment bumper

- CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite (again)

- Rock Follies (a British series on which Rula Lenska became a household name - which in turn served as the basis for her Alberto VO5 commercials of the late 1970's)

- Primeira Exibicao - Nacional (aired on Rede Globo in Brazil)
- Shots of New York City and Great Wall of China seen behind a clear spinning globe

- ABC Wide World of Sports (again)

- CBS / WITI Channel 6 (Milwaukee, WI) ID (WITI is today a Fox affiliate)

- Action News title (set in type associated with NBC News from 1972 to 1975)

- Promo for WKTU 92.3 FM ("Disco 92") in New York (this spot featured an instrumental break from KC & The Sunshine Band's "Get Down Tonight" when it aired) (no relation to the current WKTU - see above)

- Animated NBC ID

- Promo for WXIA Channel 11 in Atlanta (which, like WPIX, used the "11 Alive" slogan)

- Promo for WBAL Channel 11 in Baltimore

- Station ID for WDCA Channel 20 in Washington, DC

- Station ID for WCIX Channel 6 (now WFOR Channel 4) in Miami - Fort Lauderdale, FL

- Station ID for WKZO "Active 3" in Kalamazoo, MI

- Station ID for "Action 11" (which station used this slogan at the time?)

- Station ID for Channel 41, an ABC affiliate (which one? where?)

- Bumper animation for WPIX "11 Alive"

- Another ID for WHYY Channel 12

- Title sequence for The Captioned ABC News (which aired on public TV stations from the mid-1970's until the early '80's)

- CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite (yet again!)

- Titles for Channel 24 Saturday Afternoon Movie (which Channel 24?)

- "Sure-Fire Season" (based on the use of Harry Bold, probably for ABC's 1976-77 season)

- Opening titles for Newscene 8 (which station had this logo at that time?)

- Titles for WBAL Channel 11's Million Dollar Movie (title set in Astra)

- Opening titles for Action News Tonight (which station used this one?)

- Channel 4 logo (likely for WTMJ-TV, Milwaukee, WI)

- News 4 Buffalo titles (for WBEN, now WIVB, in Buffalo, NY)

- Another Channel 4 logo (for which station?)

- Action 6 News - Weather Bulletin (for which station?)

- "For the Good Times" (promo for WPGH Channel 53 in Pittsburgh)

- Promo for "Disco" WDAI 94.7 (finally, a Chicago station! - after several more call letter changes over the ensuing years, is known today as WLS-FM)

- Titles for Newscene 22 on WDAU (now WYOU) Channel 22 in Scranton - Wilkes-Barre, PA

- Titles for The Sunday Movie (on which station?) with multicolored film frames zooming to edge of screen

- ID for WVIA Channel 44 in Scranton, PA

- Titles for Eyewitness News Tonight on KSL Channel 5 in Salt Lake City

- Another promo for WPGH Channel 53 in Pittsburgh

- Titles for Movie 20 on WDCA Channel 20 in Washington, DC

- "Treat Yourself"

- ID for WXIA "11 Alive" in Atlanta, GA

- NewsWatch 2 (for which station?)

- News at Noon globe animation (again)

- Titles for The Saturday Movie (on which station?)

- Titles for Editorial on WTVN (now WSYX) Channel 6 in Columbus, OH

- Movie Greats (for which station?)

- ID for WTTG Channel 5 in Washington, DC (this logo variant used between circa 1976 and 1979)

- ID for WKRC Channel 12 in Cincinnati, OH

- Another ID for WBAL Channel 11 in Baltimore

- "Get to Know Us"

- Animated logo sequence for Dolphin Productions, which finally ends this reel

This obviously was never aired anywhere, but it was produced in or around 1978.

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