Descriptions by James Fabiano, Kris Starring, Zach Harden, Kylejaker1988, Logoarto and Mysterious_Guy
Captures by Thatvhstapeguy, TheRealMarcel2000, and Alexander 1999
Editions by Jeff B., Yoshidude987, TheMisterFree, and Trevor807
Video captures courtesy of HBO, Imaginary Forces, Broken Saw, Tyree McKelton, Alex Garza, VectraQS, Venezuelan Rec, NDGAMING Offical channel, Satur-DANG!, Tommy Hale, Westley West, ia2000skid, William William, Carlos Aguilar, Alan, and Chuck D's All-New Classic TV Clubhouse
From the Audiovisual Identity Database, the motion graphics museum
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Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based at Warner Bros. Discovery's corporate headquarters inside 30 Hudson Yards in Manhattan. Programming featured on the service consists primarily of theatrically released motion pictures and original television programs as well as made-for-cable movies, documentaries, occasional comedy, and concert specials, and periodic interstitial programs (consisting of short films and making-of documentaries).
Visuals: This logo has three different variants, but the end result is the same.
Variant A: Everything happens on a black background. First, several Scanimated sets of yellow lines are seen spinning. As they slowly zoom in, they slowly dissolve into an early version of the HBO logo (with the "O" overlapping the "B"), and "HOME BOX OFFICE FROM TIME/LIFE" appears below it shortly after it's formed. Suddenly, the HBO logo dissolves as it zooms towards the screen, and three red studio lamps rise from the bottom of the screen. The lamps turn on one-by-one, and the lights detach from them before merging into one circle that rotates into a purple projector. The projector keeps rotating as yellow film reels move from the left of the screen to the right, turning the projector into a purple film reel when they come in contact with it. After a while, the film reel rotates into a filmstrip with yellow HBO logos on it. The filmstrip curls down as two red drama masks fly in and start rotating rapidly, before flying away as several musical notes start zooming in while rotating and flashing in different colors. This cuts to a French horn rotating in and flipping upside down, before it stretches and turns into a row of piano keys while a ballerina's legs tiptoe towards them and open to give way for a blue version of the Discobolus statue. When the Discobolus moves off-screen, what looks like a disc flies in and turns into a basketball, which falls into a basketball hoop. The hoop dissolves into a baseball glove, and a baseball falls onto it, after which both objects dissolve into a hockey puck and goal. The puck moves around until the goal dissolves into a hockey stick, which hits the puck and dissolves into a tennis racket, which hits a tennis ball. As soon as the ball flies towards the screen, the screen cuts to a blue/red/yellow light with sparks emanating from it. A yellow "H" from the HBO logo appears from the right and glides towards the left side of the screen. After it stops, the letters "BO" flip up to complete the logo, while "HOME BOX OFFICE FROM TIME/LIFE" flips down below it.
Variant B: On a blue background, a group of yellow rings zooms forward, along with a blue HBO logo (in the same pre-1980 format, albeit missing the "cork" inside the O) which launches two copies of its outline in different directions, before the logo itself flies away as well. Then the "HBO" outline fades back in and settles into position in the center of the screen, along with the other pieces; the logo is in white from this point forward. It splits and leaves the screen again while the background dips to black. The logo then flies up from the bottom, dispersing itself one more time atop a tye-dye orange and yellow background, and the text "HOME BOX OFFICE FROM TIME/LIFE" flies up from the bottom before dropping back down in a rollercoaster-like fashion. The background continues to shift to various starburst, tye-dye and other glowing visualizations, usually in a yellow-red-indigo gradient. During this animation, the HBO logo occasionally reappears and splits into the same three parts. Over a final backdrop of helical bezier lines, the entire "HBO" dissection sequence from the beginning happens once more almost verbatim. However, the "HOME BOX OFFICE FROM TIME/LIFE" text stops this time, and the HBO logo zooms in right above it, the resulting layout being quite similar to the previous variant.
Trivia: The HBO logo was designed by Betty Brugger.
Variant A: A jazz piece consisting of horns, saxophones and other jazz instruments. Possibly a stock piece; it also appeared on a 1978 demo reel for Sullivan & Marks.
Variant B: A groovy funk tune. A jazz ensemble is prominently featured at the beginning and end of the bumper, playing in time with the animation of the "HBO" logo itself.
Visuals: On a black background, several neon lines of the colors red, green, and blue wipe in, forming an octagram. The logo zooms in as two sets of neon lines appear horizontally and morph into a tricolored trail consisting of the colors red, yellow and blue. The trail flashes and the HBO logo in white appears zooming in to the right side of the screen. The trail turns solid and the right side of the trail fades out, leaving the left side of it to the left of "HBO".
Trivia: For HBO's 50th anniversary, the logo was made as part of the anniversary's merchandising line, with the words "50 YEARS" added above the logo.
Variant: An HD recreation in widescreen exists on Behind the Candelabra.
Audio: A cheerful 5-note keyboard piece which segues into a horn fanfare. A male announcer says over this: "You're watching Home Box Office." On Behind the Candelabra, the opening theme ("I Feel Love" by Donna Summer) plays.
3rd ID (1991-1994)
Visuals: An orange ball bounces onto a colorful patchwork background four times. Each bounce changes its color (to pink, chartreuse, aqua and purple) and the background (ending with the patchwork background), and several multicolored pieces gradually appear. The pieces eventually form an HBO logo that turns yellow with a green border and the ball lands into the "O", still changing colors.
Variant: On international HBO channels, the ball is replaced by a representation of Earth, and it does not change colors.
Audio: A short calypso theme with a harp and some percussion hits. A male voiceover says "Simply the best choice on TV. HBO."
Audio Variant: The international version has a different male voiceover saying: "The world's greatest movie channel. HBO."
Sign-On/Sign-Offs
ID (1975-December 25, 1981)
Visuals: The then-current HBO logo appears on a black background, with a solid tricolored trail consisting of the colors red, yellow and blue to the left of the "H", and a shining star-like light between the "B" and "O". The ident is still.
Technique: A printed image.
Audio: A male announcer says the following: "Welcome to Home Box Office subscription television, bringing you great movies, sporting events and original shows, unedited and commercial-free. It's good to have you with us."
Visuals: 5 blue neon lines shoot across the screen in a arrow-shaped formation, forming a thick segmented stripe in the center, and a golden 3D HBO logo fades in over the lines. Above and below it, the text "An" and "Production" fade in and glow briefly. They're colored in neon red and are in a script font, with lines connecting both ends. The HBO logo sparkles 2 times.
Variants:
Early on, the colors of the lines were swapped and the logo is smaller.
Sometimes, a copyright date is seen below.
Technique: Motion controlled animation.
Audio: A bombastic 8-note tune, the end theme, or none.
Availability: It was used on non-movie events, like specials, concerts, and programs like HBO Coming Attractions or Video Jukebox (a half-hour expansion of the short music video vignettes aired between programs). It also appeared on original airings of Fraggle Rock.
2nd Logo (April 19, 1996-)
First opening logo (1996-2005)
Second opening logo (2005-2018)
Current opening logo (2018-)
First closing logo (1996-2005)
Second closing logo (1998-2018)
Current closing logo (2018-)
Opening Visuals:
1996-2018: A white line expands in the center of the screen, splitting open to reveal a wall of TV static while shaking a bit around the edges (mimicking a TV screen turning on). Then, a shadowed outline of the HBO logo forms in the top center and glows a white aura for a second. All the static around the HBO logo then fades to black as the static inside of the logo fades to white, and the light aura fades to a dim outline. Below, the text "ORIGINAL PROGRAMMING", or "ENTERTAINMENT" starting in 2005, is seen in Compacta with the same static effect. The 2005 version has "ENTERTAINMENT" in a different, thinner font.
2018-: A revised version of the 1996 logo. A soft white bar of light quickly expands and opens up to reveal TV static, finer-looking than the 1996 version. A white light glows in the center of the screen, revealing an outlined version of the HBO logo briefly before fading to black. An HBO logo, filled with sky blue-tinted static, quickly fades in to cover it.
Closing Visuals:
1996-2005: The logo is seen fully formed, with a Time Warner Entertainment byline below the logo (though sometimes it may not be there). The background slowly begins to fill with static, tinting the logo blue, before the screen switches off like an old TV set.
1998-2018: The screen has the text "THIS HAS BEEN A PRESENTATION OF HOME BOX OFFICE" in a condensed font, with "HOME BOX OFFICE" in a larger size and glowing while "THIS HAS BEEN A PRESENTATION OF" is in a smaller size above; the actual HBO logo is nowhere to be seen. The animation is the same as the 1996 version.
2018-: The HBO logo is seen as the screen quickly fades to white static, overlaying the logo with medium opacity. The logo then wipes to a line and the static fades, quickly flashing to a black screen with "A PRESENTATION OF HOME BOX OFFICE" in the center of the screen in the Gilroy font. Static can be seen in the text.
Trivia:
This logo was idealized by Bruce Richmond, who later became executive vice president of production at HBO. Bruce wanted to represent the fact that when people tuned in to HBO, they were stepping into something special.
The graphics were created using a Quantel Paintbox, and it took three days to fully render the final product (the same probably also applies to the closing variant). The animation was also made prior to any sort of music or sound effects, so the music was written based on the visuals.[1]
This logo was parodied on MADtv at the beginning of a sketch called "Bae Sung Sopranos", a parody of the channel's hit TV series, The Sopranos.
It was also parodied on the forwarder channel to the Nintendo Wii homebrew application, WiiMC.
Imaginary Forces created a branding campaign based on the network's "Static" intro, entitled "Stories Like No Other". A case study can be found on their website here, while the video can be seen on their YouTube channel and Vimeo page here. According to Imaginary Forces, they wanted to make the white noise within the static to create immersive 3D worlds from HBO's original programs at the time.
HBO posted a video about the commentary of the network's "Static" intro from John Oliver, which also features the cast of Game of Thrones and other stars from HBO's original programs at the time. This can be seen on HBO's YouTube channel here.
For HBO's 50th anniversary, it was made as a grey sherpa blanket as part of the anniversary's merchandising line.
If one looks closely at the 2018 variant, the "H" in the HBO logo is slightly misaligned with the "B" and "O".
Variant: A filmed, widescreen version is known to be used on Deadwood and the first five seasons of The Sopranos.
Technique: 2D computer animation.
Audio: A wiping noise and a static sound, followed by a choir and a low synth tone. The closing variant has the choir played backwards, followed by a clicking sound. These were both composed by Bruce Richmond in the key of C major.
Audio Trivia: The music of this logo is officially known internally as the "Static Angel".[2]
Audio Variants:
On the 1997 special Stomp Out Loud, the static is replaced by the sound of a creaky gate, and the choir is replaced by a car alarm going off. The closing variation has the sounds reversed.
On the 2001 miniseries Band of Brothers, both the opening and closing logos are played at a lower pitch.
For the 2018 closing variant, a different clicking sound is used instead.
Availability:
It appears on many post-1996 programs on HBO such as Game of Thrones, True Detective, The Last of Us, Veep, Girls, Real Time with Bill Maher, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, and any HBO original special, among others.
It also appears on uncut prints of other HBO shows, such as Sex and the City, The Sopranos, The Wire, Six Feet Under, and Curb Your Enthusiasm, and is preserved on VHS, DVD, Blu-ray, and streaming prints of these shows. However, it is removed on syndicated prints of these shows.
The logo made its debut on the Season 7 premiere of Tales From the Crypt.
This is also seen on pre-1998 HBO Family programs, before they had their own special logo made. Can also be seen on HBO prints of the 2009 revival of The Electric Company and the 46th season of Sesame Street.
The new HBO logo variants debuted on Succession.
The 2018 variant appears on the HD remasters of Sex and the City and Six Feet Under on HBO Max.
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Visuals: Over a black background, the logo starts with segmented lines (colored differently depending on the variant) that form a diagonal corner at the center of the screen. resting by the corner is a three-dimensional letter rating ("G", "PG" or "R") in with some white text under it (reading wither "General Audiences", "Parental Guidance" or "Restricted").
Announcements:
G: "The following feature has been rated G by the Motion Picture Association of America."
PG: "The following feature had been rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America."
R: "The following feature has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America. This means those under 17 should not see it unless accompanied by an adult. Home Box Office will show this feature only at night."
Variant: The "R" variant would be followed by a black card with the yellow text: "The following program is intended for mature audiences. Parental discretion is advised." This may have also appeared by itself on certain unrated programs like comedy specials.
Visuals: On a black background, a blue MPAA rating symbol ("G", "PG" or "R") is positioned near the top-left of the screen. Below it, white text describing the rating scrolls up from the bottom of the screen and disappears into below the rating.
Announcements:
G: "The following feature has been rated G by the Motion Picture Association of America."
PG: "The following motion picture had been rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America. Parental guidance is suggested."
R: "The following feature has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America. It is intended for mature audiences and parental discretion is advised. Home Box Office will show this feature only at night."
Variants:
An early version of the "PG" bumper has "motion picture" replaced by "feature", and eliminates the phrase "Parental guidance is suggested."
An alternate version of the "R" bumper has a more verbose announcement: "The following feature has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America. This indicates that the film contains mature material. Parents may wish to consider whether it should be viewed by children under 17. For further information concerning this feature, please consult your HBO Guide. Home Box Office will show this feature only at night."
Depending on the video quality, sometimes the rating symbol would be more of a blue-purple, or blue-green.
Technique: Scrolling effects.
Audio: A deep, male voice (Joel Crager, better known as the voice of ABC's movie presentations) reading the text aloud.
Visuals: On a black/blue gradient background, an orange MPAA rating symbol ("G", "PG" or "R") is positioned near the top-left of the screen. Below it, white text describing the rating fades in.
Announcements:
G: "The following feature has been rated G by the Motion Picture Association of America."
PG: "The following feature has been rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America. Parental guidance is suggested."
R: "The following feature has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America. It is intended for mature audiences and parental discretion is advised. Home Box Office will show this feature only at night."
Variants:
When HBO aired the 1981 film Excalibur, which had PG- and R-rated cuts, two custom bumpers were created for both versions when they were shown.
PG: Unknown
R: "The following feature was originally rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for its theatrical exhibition. It is intended for mature audiences and parental discretion is advised. HBO will show this version only at night."
Like the previous set of bumpers, an alternate version of the "R" bumper with more text and a longer voiceover would be used on occasion.
On some occasions, a closed-captioning disclaimer would appear after, with a chat balloon symbol appearing in the top-left like the ratings symbols, with the white text below reading "Closed-captioned for the hearing-impaired."
Technique: Fading effects; these are filmed rather than videotaped.
Audio: An announcer (one of the announcers was Ray Otis who would continue to be heard in the next two bumpers) reading the text aloud.
4th Bumper (February 1, 1985-February 28, 1987)
Visuals: On a dark-blue/light-blue gradient background, with diagonal rows of embossed HBO logos across it, an orange MPAA rating symbol ("G", "PG", "R" or, for the first time, "PG-13") is positioned near the left of the screen. Below it, white text describing the rating fades in.
Announcements:
G: "The following movie has been rated G by the Motion Picture Association of America."
PG: "The following movie has been rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America. Parental guidance is suggested."
PG-13: "The following movie has been rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America. Some material may be inappropriate for young children. Parents may wish to consider whether is should be viewed by those under 13."
R: "The following movie has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America. It is intended for mature audiences. Parents may wish to consider whether is should be viewed by children under 17. HBO will show this feature only at night."
Variants:
For certain unrated programs that contain questionable material (primarily HBO Premiere Films and HBO Pictures presentations), there is a bumper with this announcement: "The following program deals with mature subject matter, and contains frank and explicit language that may not be suitable for all audiences. Viewer discretion is advised."
An alternate version of the "R" bumper has this announcement: "The following movie has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America. This indicates that it contains material of an adult nature. Parents may wish to consider whether is should be viewed by children under 17. For further information, please consult your program guide. HBO will show this feature only at night."
For closed-captioned programs, there is an extra card with the text, "The following program is closed-captioned for the hearing impaired." It may either be on a separate card that fades in from black, or part of the ratings bumper with the text fading in after the rating fades out. (unlike the last bumper, it lacks any chat balloon symbol.)
On April 1, 1986, HBO ran two fake bumpers, with the ratings "NG" ("Not Good") and "B" ("Boring"), that would conclude with a hand stamping an "April Fool's" logo onto the screen. A bumper with the movie's actual rating would follow it.
NG: "The following feature has been rated NG by the Motion Pictures Association of America. It has no redeeming value, content or premise; there is no foul language, naughty bits or racial slurs; there are no dweebs, boobs, nerds or little bratty kids. It contains nothing of any shape, size or form that would offend, make you sick, or even slightly nauseous..."
B: "The following feature has been rated B, for boring. No sex. No violence. Why bother?"
Technique: Fading effects.
Audio: An announcer (either male {Ray Otis} or female {Joyce Gordon}) reading the text aloud; the closed-captioning message is silent. On the April Fool's bumper, a "Boing!" sound is heard when the "April Fools" logo is stamped.
5th Bumper (March 1, 1987-February 12, 1989)
Visuals: On a gray background, with diagonal rows of purple HBO logos and a soft spotlight on it, a purple MPAA rating ("G", "PG", "PG-13" or "R") is positioned near the top-left of the screen. Below it, white text describing the rating, italicized and with a blue drop shadow, fades in.
Announcements:
G: "The following movie has been rated G by the Motion Picture Association of America."
PG: "The following movie has been rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America. Parental guidance is suggested."
PG-13: "The following movie has been rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America. Some material may be inappropriate for young children. Parents may wish to consider whether it should be viewed by those under 13."
R: "The following movie has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America. It is intended for mature audiences. Parents may wish to consider whether is should be viewed by children under 17."
Variants:
For certain unrated programs that contain questionable material, there is a bumper with this announcement: "The following program deals with mature subject matter and contains frank and explicit language that may be unsuitable for all audiences. Viewer discretion is advised."
For programs broadcast in stereo, there is an extra card by a featuring a purple headphones symbol with the word "STEREO" under it. Below it, the text reads, "In stereo where available."
For closed-captioned programs, there is an extra card with the text, "The following program is closed-captioned for the hearing impaired."
Technique: Fading effects.
Audio: An announcer (male or female, same as the previous bumpers) reading the ratings text aloud. Any other cards are silent.
6th Bumper (February 13, 1989-June 9, 1994)
Visuals: On a marble background, a black vertical line divides the screen about a third of the screen. The left side is tinted purple and contains the rating of the movie ("G", "PG", "PG-13", "R" or, for the first time, "NC-17"). The right side is tinted white; near the top is the text "The following movie is rated [X]." Below it are up to three purple boxes containing symbols, with text beside them, pertaining to that particular broadcast:
The letters "ESP" ("En Español" or "In Spanish Where Available")
A "TV speech bubble" symbol ("Closed-Captioned")
Headphones ("In Stereo Where Available")
Dolby's "double-D" logo ("In Stereo and Surround Sound Where Available" or "In Dolby Stereo Surround Sound Where Available")
Below all that is a purple HBO logo.
Variants:
For unrated programs, the bumper is laid out differently. A horizontal black line divides the screen near the bottom, with the top portion white and the bottom purple. Above the line is the purple boxes and text placed in the center of the screen, and below is a white HBO logo.
On the mature subject matter bumper (which is reminiscent of the unrated variant), words are added above them: "The following program contains frank and explicit language" or "The following program contains scenes and language of a frank and explicit nature. Viewer discretion is advised."
Content Descriptors: Starting in early 1994, an extra card was added to alert viewers about the content of particular programs. Along the black line is the phrase "The following program contains:" and certain phrases regarding a program's content: (adult language, mild violence, etc.). These cards anticipated the introduction of the familiar letter symbols that will be described in the next bumper.
Technique: Fading effects.
Audio: An announcer (Bill St. James) saying "The following movie is rated [X]." Slightly different takes of the announcement were used for the "R" bumper at different times. When the content cards were introduced, a different, deeper-voiced announcer was used. Another male announcer, this one with a higher voice, was used exclusively for the "NC-17" bumper.
7th Bumper (June 10, 1994-October 31, 1997)
Rating Bumper: The background is a blurred, purple-tinted image of a man holding a clapperboard. On the left side of the screen is the movie's rating. To the right of it is the text "The following movie is rated [X]." Under that is up to three boxes containing white symbols, with text beside them, pertaining to a particular broadcast:
The letters "ESP" ("En Español")
A "TV speech bubble" symbol ("Closed Captioned")
Headphones ("In Stereo Where Available")
Dolby's "double-D" logo: ("In Dolby Stereo Surround Sound Where Available")
Under all that is the HBO logo. All the text is dark purple with a drop shadow.
Content Bumper: On the same background are the words "The following program contains:", and below it are one to five boxes containing various letter symbols regarding the content of a particular program.
AC (Adult Content)
AL (Adult Language)
BN (Brief Nudity)
GL (Graphic Language)
GV (Graphic Violence)
MV (Mild Violence)
N (Nudity)
RP (Rape)
SC (Strong Sexual Content)
V (Violence)
TV Ratings: Starting on January 1, 1997, HBO began to precede its series and specials with bumpers featuring the TV ratings that were adopted by the rest of the industry: "TV-G", "TV-PG", "TV-14" and "TV-M" (later "TV-MA").
Technique: Fading effects and digital graphics.
Audio: A deep-voiced announcer says, "The following movie is rated [X]." All other cards, including TV ratings, have no voiceover.
8th Bumper (November 1, 1997-August 31, 1999)
Rating Bumper: The background is blue-tinted and wavy, with transparent black bars on the top and bottom of the screen to give the it a "widescreen" effect. On top is the phrase :"The following movie/program is rated [X]". Below it is a white-lined rectangle with the bottom corners rounded. Inside it, on the left, is a red box containing the rating of the coming movie or show, and next to it is up to three white boxes containing symbols pertaining to a particular broadcast.
The letters "ESP" ("En Español")
A "TV speech bubble" ("Closed-Captioned")
Headphones ("In Stereo Where Available")
Dolby's "double-D" logo ("In Stereo and Surround Sound Where Available")
Content Bumper: On the same background, the top text now reads "The following program contains:" In the black box is one to five symbols regarding the content of a particular program, and next to it is white text explaining what they mean.
Variants:
For certain programs, the TV rating may be pushed up a bit to make room for a white box containing additional descriptors ("D", "S", "L" and/or "V").
On Boxing After Dark, the black box is completely empty with no rating whatsoever.
Technique: CGI.
Audio: Same as the last bumper, albeit with a new voiceover, deeper and more baritone compared to the VOs before him.
9th Bumper (September 1, 1999-January 31, 2002)
Rating Bumper: On a white background is a blurred mixture of white, blue and yellow animated effects simulating camera shutters opening and closing, as well as yellow-lined circles pulsating from the shutters; there are also blurry black boxes on the top and bottom of the screen to simulate a "widescreen" effect. At the top and middle of the screen are white lines that form corners, and in between them are the words "The following movie/program is rated [X]". Below the middle "box" is the rating movie or show on the left, and next to it up to three white boxes containing symbols, with text beside them, pertaining to a particular broadcast.
The letters "ESP" ("En Español")
A "TV speech bubble" ("Closed-Captioned")
Headphones ("In Stereo Where Available")
Dolby's "double-D" logo ("In Stereo and Surround Sound Where Available")
All the text is in white.
Content Bumper: On the same background, the text now reads "The following program contains:".In the middle "box" is one to five symbols regarding the content of a particular program, along with white text explaining what they mean.
Dolby Digital Bumper: A white-on-black card may appear after the content bumper, stating "THE FOLLOWING PROGRAM IS PRESENTED IN DOLBY DIGITAL 5.1 WHERE AVAILABLE." This lacks the background elements of the other bumpers (implying it was created after-the-fact).
Variant: For certain programs, there may be a white box under the TV rating containing additional descriptors ("D", "S", "L" and/or "V").
Technique: CGI based on HBO's then-current on-air look.
Audio: Same as the last bumper.
10th Bumper (February 1, 2002-March 2, 2006)
Visuals: On a black background, the camera moves through misty rays of gray light. Near the top of the screen is the white text "THE FOLLOWING MOVIE/PROGRAM IS RATED" with a line below it; next to it is a two-sided "box" containing the rating of the movie or show (with additional letter descriptors below it if necessary. Under the text is up to three orange circles containing symbols relating to the forthcoming program, with orange text to the left of them explaining their meanings.
ESP ("En Español)
CC ("Closed Captioned")
Headphones ("In Stereo Where Available")
Dolby's "double-D" symbol ("In Stereo and Surround Sound Where Available")
The whole bumper is letterboxed. The bottom black bar contains HBO's web address and AOL keyword.
Content Bumper: On the same background, the text now reads "THE FOLLOWING PROGRAM CONTAINS". Under it is up to five symbols regarding the content of a particular program, along with orange text explaining what they mean.
Variants:
On HBO's multiplex channels (except HBO Family), the light rays are different colors (depending on the channel) and also project a ghostly image of the channel's logo; the light colors include blue (HBO 2), red (HBO Signature), orange (HBO Comedy) and green (HBO Zone). Also, the HBO website text is positioned to the left of the screen and colored the same as the rays.
On HBO's HD feed, the additional message "ESP not available on HBO HDTV" appears in white on the first screen.
On programs broadcast in Dolby 5.1 sound, there is a third card with orange text reading "THE FOLLOWING PROGRAM IS PRESENTED IN DOLBY DIGITAL 5.1 WHERE AVAILABLE".
On programs broadcast in high-definition, the third card reads "THE FOLLOWING PROGRAM IS PRESENTED IN HDTV AND DOLBY 5.1 SOUND WHERE AVAILABLE".
There is a variant of the first card that has no rating at all; only the symbols are on screen. This was known to appear on Boxing After Dark.
Visuals: Through a gray environment of window-like panes resembling filmstrips, the camera zooms through and focuses on a pane with a vertical black line in the middle and a horizontal line to the left of it. On the top-left is an orange box resembling a movie ticket containing the black text "THE FOLLOWING MOVIE/PROGRAM IS RATED [X]". On the bottom-left is a space for an additional TV rating descriptor ("D", "S", "L" and/or "V"). On the right side is up to three boxes containing symbols pertaining to the forthcoming program.
ESP ("En Español)
CC ("Closed-Captioned")
Dolby's "double-D" logo ("In Stereo and Surround Sound Where Available")
The camera movies slowly toward the right, while an orange light swoops through the background to illuminate the environment. HBO's web address is seen on the bottom of the screen throughout.
Content Bumper: The box now reads "THE FOLLOWING PROGRAM CONTAINS", and the right side of the pane contains up to five boxes with symbols regarding the content of a particular program. The camera now moves slowly to the left.
HDTV Bumper: On programs broadcast in high-definition, there is a third card with the camera slowly zooming out from a background of panes with gray/blue lighting, and the HBO HD logo in the center. There are two versions of this card.
Above the logo is the black text "THE FOLLOWING PROGRAM IS PRESENTED IN HIGH DEFINITION ON", and below it "WHERE AVAILABLE". Here, the logo and text fade in a second after the background does.
The second version is nearly the same, except the bottom text reads "AND WITH DOLBY 5.1 SOUND WHERE AVAILABLE". Here, the logo and text are already there when the bumper fades in.
Variants: A customised graphical variant exists for the show True Blood.
Visuals: On a black background, there is a black horizontal strip an aurora shimmering behind it to make it visible. On the left is a square resembling a movie ticket containing the program's rating between two lines; above it is the text "THE FOLLOWING MOVIE/PROGRAM CONTAINS", and below it are additional TV descriptors (if necessary). Next to the square is up to three boxed symbols regarding the forthcoming program:
Dolby's logo ("Dolby Digital 5.1 Sound Where Available")
CC ("Closed Captioned")
ESP ("En Español")
Content Bumper: On a black background, a black vertical strip is aligned to the left of the screen, with an aurora peeking from the side to make it visible. Inside the strip is a square containing the text "THE FOLLOWING PROGRAM CONTAINS" between two lines. To the right of the strip is up to five boxes with letter symbols regarding the content of a particular program.
Variants: A customised graphical variant for Game of Thrones exists.
Visuals: On a black background, a vertical line "draws" itself down in the middle of the screen. On the left of the line, the rating for the coming movie or show slides down while fading in; at the same time, on the right, one to five necessary descriptor symbols and their definitions slide down while fading in (bottom to top). After a few seconds, the rating and descriptors slide down and fade out while the line "erases" itself down.
Throughout the bumper, up to three additional symbols appear below, with small vertical lines separating them.
The "CC in a TV" symbol (for closed-captioned programs).
The Dolby logo, with "WHERE AVAILABLE" underneath (for programs with Dolby sound).
"ESP" (for programs simulcast in Spanish)
Technique: 2D animation.
Audio: None.
14th Bumper (March 4, 2017-)
Visuals: On a gray gradient background, the rating for the coming movie or show (on the left) and any necessary descriptor symbols (on the right) pop in all blurry, and then zoom out a little and come into focus. After a few seconds, everything starts to blur and zoom out more as they fade away.
Throughout the bumper, up to three additional symbols appear fade in and out below, placed next to each other.
The "CC in a TV" symbol (for closed-captioned programs).
The Dolby logo, with "WHERE AVAILABLE" underneath (for programs with Dolby sound).
Visuals: Over a black-blue gradient background, the logo starts with the word "SPECIAL" zooming towards the camera, leaving a few copies behind it. Then, as the word stops zooming, the copies of the text slide in various directions, towards the edge of the screen. Then, they merge back together into one text. A gold HBO logo then rapidly zooms in, then zooms back out inside the "C" in "SPECIAL".
Technique: Analog computer effects.
Audio: A disco-like fanfare, with an announcer saying "The following program is a special presentation from Home Box Office".
2nd Bumper (January 11, 1979-September 19, 1982)
Visuals:
Bumper 1: The sequence starts out with a space background with a light grid sheet rapidly moving across the bottom. Then, two triads of searchlights light up on the left and right sides, eventually crossing over each other. At the same time, blue lights appear and many yellow rays rapidly move towards the screen, followed by blue rays, yellow circles, yellow zigzags, colorful criss-cross lines, blue and yellow straight lines, and finally wavy yellow lines with curvy red lines between them. Then the camera pans up to the searchlights, which move down to reveal a box of popcorn with many kernels shooting out. The screen cuts to a scene of five yellow popcorn kernels flying around the screen and falling down with a "shadow" effect, before they draw a marquee with several neon lines and designs (looking like that of the Orpheum or Pantages theater), and the camera zooms in below it. Then, the screen cuts to a plain black screen, and the stacked words "HBO FEATURE MOVIE" zoom out and pan down with a "shadow" effect, flashing when they settle on the background. After the flash dies down, lines appear behind each word, and the text turns red. Finally, the lines shine repeatedly.
Bumper 2: The camera travels down an infinite loop of the Hollywood Walk of Fame, where there are several movie-related items (including a glass slipper, a box of popcorn, and a soda bottle, among others) on the left and right sides of the screen. The screen then zooms into a screen that shows a color-changing background and the aforementioned objects moving around while briefly morphing into blobs, before cutting back to the Walk of Fame where a box office gradually zooms in as the sky turns to a night sky and searchlights move around it. When the box office comes close to the screen, it cuts to the "HBO FEATURE MOVIE" text animating as usual.
Bumper 3: On a space background with a gridded floor there are several bright lights drawing in a stylized movie theater complete with a box office and a marquee with the text "H.B.O. FEATURE MOVIE" on both sides. The screen then zooms into a yellow star on the marquee, and the screen cuts to more bright lights drawing in the interior of the theater. As the camera slowly zooms in, a red curtain on the center rises to reveal a blue pair of curtains, which open as the camera zooms in and it fades to the "HBO FEATURE MOVIE" text animating as usual.
Bumper 4: On a space background, the screen pans through and around many abstract shapes of various colors and sizes, some of which light up. At one point, a circle with a star passes by the shapes, with a bubble trail passing through them shortly after. After a while, a stylized yellow screen moves in from the right and the screen zooms into it as it starts showing the "HBO FEATURE MOVIE" text animating as usual.
Bumper 5: There is a futuristic-like city at twilight, and the camera pans to the left where a neon movie theater is seen with searchlights scanning the sky. Then the screen zooms into the entrance and a bird's-eye view of the theater is shown, lit in brown and orange. The screen slowly zooms into the projection screen and the camera fades to the "HBO FEATURE MOVIE" text animating as usual.
Bumper 6: On a black background, purple streaks rain down the screen diagonally and disappear via a TV power-off effect as the screen fades to see a gray rounded rectangle with a neon pink outline rotating and zooming out, with an ocean at the bottom of the screen. The rectangle gets slowly sliced into 3x3 pieces with yellow sparking lasers and, when it's done, explode into a blue circular flash, which brings forth a series of gold bars flying towards the screen at an angle. They eventually form a theater hallway with the ocean turning into a black floor, and a brown screen quickly zooms in as the "HBO FEATURE MOVIE" text starts animating as usual.
Technique: Depends on the bumper but all were produced by Robert Abel & Associates.
Bumper 1: A mix of live-action shots and backlit cel animation, shot with motion control cameras and slit-scan, then composited together.
Bumper 2: A fusion of cel and camera-controlled animation, chroma-key effects and live-action footage, transferred to film stock.
Bumper 3: Cel and camera-controlled animation.
Bumper 4: Camera-controlled/cel animation and chroma-key effects.
Bumper 5: Wireframe computer animation mixed with hand-painted backgrounds.
Bumper 6: A mixture of stop-motion, CGI and camera-controlled animation, much of it chroma-keyed, plus live-action water.
Audio:
Bumper 1: An orchestral fanfare.
Bumper 2: A jazz rendition of the fanfare.
Bumper 3: An alternate version of the fanfare used in the first logo of the time, only slower and louder.
Bumper 4: A bouncy disco version of the fanfare.
Bumper 5: A smooth synthesized fanfare that starts out low-key and gradually becomes more energetic.
Bumper 6: A relaxing synth version of the fanfare mixed with drums.
3rd Bumper (September 20, 1982-October 31, 1997)
Hungarian variant
April Fool's variant (A)
April Fool's variant (B)
Visuals: The sequence starts with a man tuning the cable on a TV set for a channel (to HBO) in his apartment as he settles down on the couch with his wife. The camera slowly pulls backwards and outside the window to show a somewhat busy city intersection with figurines of vehicles and people standing on the sidewalk at twilight. The music starts, and the camera "flies" forward down the street, through several intersections. At one point, a movie theater with "HBO THEATRE" on the marquee can be seen. The camera flies over some buildings before going into the suburbs, with lots of trees, then several houses and a clock tower. Then the camera pans up into the sky, which briefly takes sunset hues before becoming blue and black with a starfield. The camera goes up into space, eventually panning up to reveal the source of the light; a star (positioned near the top center of the screen) that gets brighter and brighter, and eventually explodes in a scarlet and blue gemstone-shaped flash, leaving behind a shiny chrome model monolith. The monolith moves down and across the screen and rotates clockwise, revealing that it is the HBO logo, then turns around one more time as the camera then zooms in on the side of the "O". The side of the "O" disappears in a flash of light, revealing a stream of red, yellow and blue rays streaking counterclockwise around a silver axis, and "HBO FEATURE PRESENTATION", in a heavy, lavender 3D "gaspipe" font and with each word stacked on top of the other (as well as a line under "PRESENTATION"), appears against an array of purple lines. Some more rays sweep across the words and shine, then the background fades to black with more flashes from the surrounding rays.
Trivia:
HBO mistakenly claimed that this bumper debuted in 1983.
In 2008, this logo was parodied in the music video for Justice's "DVNO".
The HBO short-form interstitial series Behind the Scenes, which aired between features from the early 1980s to about the early 1990s, had one episode titled "A Closer Look: Inside HBO's City" devoted to showing virtually all the work behind this logo and how the ideas of the bumper came up. It should be worth noting that the "HBO" letters were originally designed with a variant of the 1975-1980 logo in mind, with the "O" being not as deep in the "B", before being redesigned to the 1980 logo. The episode can be viewed here.
From 1993 to 2018, HBO sponsored Bryant Park Movie Nights (one block away from HBO's headquarters in New York City), where movies were projected on a massive screen to an audience every summer. The long version starting from the fog was played before each feature. The intro began with "Bryant Park Summer Film Festival" in an old fashioned red and yellow font, then continued as normal. Some organizers and moviegoers in the park were known to dance to the music.
HBO co-sponsored a Washington, D.C. film festival known as "Screen on the Green" along with Comcast from 2005 to 2015. Numerous accounts say that people used to get up and wave their arms left and right above their head when the bumper came on.
Among the members of the creative crew for this bumper were Roberta C. Cornero, who painted all the buildings, rooftops and roads, among other visuals seen in it. The production took four months to prepare.
Variants:
Beginning in late 1983, the long version starts off with the city covered in fog (which slowly clears up), then has the camera pan across the city as usual.
A short version of the logo that starts before the "big bang" was shown most often (the long version would only be used for new features).
There were multiple different endings used depending on what type of program was shown. They include "HBO Feature Presentation" (the standard version), "HBO Premiere Presentation" (for HBO Premiere Films before they were renamed to HBO Pictures), "HBO Family Showcase", "HBO Classic Feature", "HBO Theatre", "HBO Music", "HBO Saturday Night Movie", "HBO Sunday Night Movie", "HBO Special", "HBO Comedy", "HBO Rock", "Standing Room Only", "HBOriginal", "HBO Sports", "On Location", and "World Premiere Presentation" (the last variant used in Dan Soder: Son of a Gary). The "HBO Saturday Night Movie" and "HBO Sunday Night Movie" variants use a different background with thicker burgundy and black stripes, the additional ray flashing between the reveal and the fade to black being absent, and the rays transitioning to the black screen being colored.
Two April Fools Day variants that used much cheaper versions of the model city, the HBO monolith and the end card also exist: one used "HBO Feature Presentation" in the style of a rebus puzzle (H-bee-O Feet-Y-oar Present-A-shun) which flipped up into the screen, while the other had the "lyrics" to the song in a "follow the bouncing ball" style over the model city. When the screen reaches to space, the familiar HBO, now in aluminum foil held by some string, falls down and is spun around by a hand. "HBO FEATURE PRESENTATION" in cheaply arranged paper letters fade in on a black background with a pair of live-action hands briefly making odd movements over it (the rebus puzzle version also faded to this, but with only a half-second of hand movement).
Some end cards had the lines colored royal blue or a red-gray gradient.
An extended version exists. After the man tunes the cable to HBO, him and his family are seen sharing popcorn while HBO is being tuned on TV before zooming out the window. This was apparently used in the first weeks this intro debuted.
Occasionally, during debuts of popular films, when the streaks move around the "O", it cross-fades to a promo, and when the promo ended it fades back to the "Feature Presentation" version, which ends normally.
For HBO's joint venture with Silver Screen Partners, the HBO logo portion was adapted for its logo; this was seen only on the 1984 movie Flashpoint.
On HBO Hungary from 1991 until 1997, the logo plays as normal until the end where the HBO logo fades away before the rays appear, then a still "HBO" logo zooms in in front of the space background (part of the original chrome logo along with its shine can be seen as the HBO logo zooms in). Both full and short variants of it exist.
Technique: The city is an intricately detailed model with lightbulbs placed under the houses, from which a motorized camera was used to film it. There were also crew members who puffed smoke into the city to add the atmosphere. The starburst before the HBO logo appears is the "stargate" animation, made with two pieces of art, moved around and animated traditionally, frame-by-frame, by David Bruce. The HBO logo itself is a model made of brass and is chrome-plated and combined with the starry sky background. The portion with the colored rays was actually a series of fiber optics with motors and gears and pulleys used to change the colors and move them around and put inside the chrome "O". The "HBO FEATURE PRESENTATION" portion was accomplished with cel animation. All done by Liberty Studios in New York City. The Hungarian variant uses 2D analog animation for the HBO logo.
Audio: The sounds of the TV in the opening scene (beginning with a TV host saying "On your big bonus question for..." before getting cut off when the man changes the channel), followed by some honking horns and city noises (or, in the short version, a whoosh, and the fog variant contains wind sounds) A piano/string chord is heard, which leads into a dramatic orchestral theme that gets progressively more tense. When the star explodes, phasing sounds are heard, culminating in a very loud, upbeat, almost disco-style horn-driven overture, ending with synth sweeps (representing the rays "inside" the "O"). Composed by Jay Advertising's Ferdinand Jay Smith III for Score Productions with a 65-member orchestra.
Audio Trivia: There is a full length extended pop rock version of the theme, also composed by Ferdinand Jay Smith, which was also the second part of the network's main theme song, known as "HBO Main Theme", also known as "The Fantasy", while the music, as heard above, albeit without sound effects, is the first part of that song. It was released in vinyl and cassette tape, with the latter only featured the instrumental vision and being given to radio listeners. The full album, entitled "HBO: Music Made for Television", including the full version of the network's main theme song, with and without vocals, can be heard here. This was adapted from the Scherzo movement of Antonín Dvořák's Ninth Symphony.
Audio Variants:
For the first few months the bumper was used, a different end-tune that was similar to the "HBO Special" version played instead of the normal end.
For the "Family Showcase" variant, the music would get softer and play an uplifting theme just after the "O" disappears.
For the "HBO Music/HBO Rock" variants, a rock guitar tune would play near the end.
For the "HBO Special" variant, a faster-paced horn tune would play, which sounds kind of like a game show theme.
For the "Standing Room Only" variant, an upbeat, fast-paced tune would play.
For the "On Location" variant, a slow, jazzy tune would play.
One April Fools variant had the theme being played on kazoos, while a "BOING!" sound is heard while the aluminum HBO comes in on the background.
For the "HBO Comedy" bumper, a "comedic" tune would play.
For the "cross-fade promo" version, a voice-over would begin speaking as the camera enters the interior of the "O", and the first variant mentioned played under the VO at the end.
For the "HBOriginal" variant, a noir film style piece would play.
For its 2019 appearance, the fanfare was re-recorded at a lower key.
Some Hungary variants have a voiceover at the end.
4th Bumper (November 1, 1986-October 31, 1997)
Hungarian "Mozi" variant
Hungarian "A KULISSZÁK MÖGÖTT" variant
Hungarian "HBO" variant
Polish "Film" variant
Visuals: There is a light purple HBO logo across a vertical filmstrip with light rays shooting through it. The camera pans around and zooms back from several CGI squares glowing in various neon colors. Then, the lights shoot out the last square and light up a group of small dots glowing in rainbow colors, then zoom out to reveal the light purple HBO logo from earlier with "Movie" in a script font and in a raspberry-like color with the rainbow circles on a black background behind it.
Variants:
On HBO Hungary, "Mozi" replaces "Movie" and is in a different script style and the ending portion is recreated: the zoom-out is different and animates faster, "Mozi" fades in once the HBO logo zooms out into place (rather than during the zoom), both the logo and text are shinier and brighter, and the circles in the background are larger and scroll faster. The original animation of the glowing dots also fades slightly earlier for the new animation with the modified text.
HBO Hungary behind-the-scenes bumpers replace the "Mozi" text with a shiny transparent bar reading "A KULISSZÁK MÖGÖTT" in a gold condensed font, flying in from the bottom of the screen rather than fading in.
Another HBO Hungary variant exists with only the HBO logo at the end. It's also shortened to just the HBO logo panning out.
In Poland, "Film" in pink replaces "Movie" and the ending portion is once again remade, with an earlier fade-out from the original animation. The recreated animation is closer to the original than the "Mozi" animation, but like the Hungarian variant, the zoom-out is still faster and the background circles are larger and scroll faster.
Technique: The original variant uses CGI by Pacific Data Images. The Hungarian and Polish variants use 2D graphics in a 3D space for the custom text replacements.
Audio: A loud electric guitar tune, which culminates into a brief, funky new wave theme that at the very end ends with another electric guitar strum and a twinkling fade-out.
5th Bumper (November 1, 1986-October 31, 1997)
Visuals: On a violet/white CGI background with a dark blue floor there many colored shapes zooming through the screen. A black rectangle zooms in slowly and settles on a stack of other rectangles on a black base, as two more rectangles fly in and stack themselves above it, and a hot pink HBO logo rises up from it. As the camera starts rotating, the gold words "SPECIAL PRESENTATION" zoom out with a shadow effect and plaster themselves on the front of the base, and the camera stops on a slight angle (a la 20th Century Studios).
Technique: CGI.
Audio: A synthesized rock fanfare with guitar and drums.
6th Bumper (March 1990-1993)
Visuals: On a black-reddish gradient background, there is a translucent filmstrip that has a blue circle with lines dividing it in four quadrants in the style of a movie countdown on its center. Squares fly through its sprocket holes, and a circular light beam shines below its center, starting a countdown of the letters "H", "B", and "O". As this happens, the camera pans to the left and slowly zooms in on the countdown with the beam of light extruding through the circle. After the "O" appears, the circle turns into an "O" and another "O" flies through the film strip and the beam of light with several "O"s appearing and flying behind it. More light beams appear on the left and right as everything turns blue, and the screen scrolls to a stone platform where the "O"s land, after which the screen pans out to reveal it’s part of the word "ORIGINAL" with blue lines above and below. As this happens, the words "THE HBO" scroll in from the left and rest above "ORIGINAL" and the camera zooms out to reveal the word "MOVIE" below it. The platform has two sets of four light beams, one arranged vertically on the top left corner and the second arranged horizontally above the word "HBO". A filmstrip scrolls up behind the logo as a spotlight passes through it twice.
Technique: CGI.
Audio: It begins with an electric guitar solo that segues into a synthesized rock piece with bells heard as the "O"s fly down and synched with the "O"s landing on top of each other.
7th Bumper (August 1991-1993)
Visuals: There is a countdown with the letters "H", "B", and "O". When it stops, it starts again as a globe bounces on it and onto a round red layer with the word "MOVIES" and several gold banners with the words "HBOmovies" on them circling it. The globe bounces into a filmstrip, imprinting bouncing globes onto it, then bounces on the "M" and moves to another layer with the word "BOXING" and several "HBOboxing" banners on it. The globe and the letter "B" fight with each other, pushing the globe onto a layer with the word "MUSIC" and several "HBOmusic" banners, as a bunch of globes appear. Three of the globes turn red and bounce onto a new layer with "FAMILY" and "HBOfamily" banners. The "F" juggles them, throwing them onto a final layer with "COMEDY" and "HBOcomedy" banners. The "C" laughs as the countdown appears again. It turns into an "O", which zooms out to reveal the rest of the HBO logo, and the globe bounces into the middle of the "O".
Variants:
There were five 15-second versions of the opening where the globe bounces on one layer before the first layer returns.
Technique: CGI produced by Jill Taffet at Pacific Data Images.
Audio: A calypso/rock theme with a voiceover saying "Blockbuster movies. Original movies!" (cheering) "Boxing." (Network "boxing ring bell" sound effect) (boxing commentator mentions "Holyfield") "Big music events." (few guitar notes, voice, cheering) "HBO for kids." "Toto, come on, here boy! We haven't got much time Toto!" "Serious comedy." "Is this funny or what?" (Network "laughing boy" sound effect) "HBO."
Audio Variants:
"Movies" ID: A voiceover (with a robotic filter) says "Die Hard 2. Young Guns 2. Presumed Innocent. Flatliners. Days of Thunder. Goodfellas. Ghost. Rocky V. Postcards from Heaven." Another voiceover says "Simply the best movies!"
"Family" ID: A Network "children cheering" sound effect, the audio clip from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz mentioned above, and a male voiceover saying "HBO for kids."
8th Bumper (November 1, 1997-November 5, 1999)
Visuals: On a widescreen effect (with the letterbox bars having a black and blue background), the white text "FEATURE PRESENTATION" appears over the HBO logo, which is in one of many situations (like the ITV "Hearts" idents from the same time). For example, one scenario involves the HBO logo inside a limo with several paparazzi stumbling to get to the limo and taking several pictures. Another features the camera panning around a skyscraper to reveal the top of the skyscraper is in the shape of the HBO logo (an influence on the next logo). Finally, another one shows the HBO logo in a fish tank.
Variant: The first few uses of this logo had a brief look at the movie that's going to play. The logo started as usual, but the word "NOW" zoomed in. Some clips from the following movie then played, before the appearance of the HBO logo in this logo appeared, with the "NOW" animation playing again, and the full logo played as normal after that.
Technique: CGI, often mixed with live action, produced by Telezign.
Audio: A 12-note cover of the 1982 fanfare in different instruments depending on the variant, composed by RK Music. The "Now" variant features an announcer saying over the music "It's on, now. [brief description of movie]. [2 actors from movie] in, [movie title]. It's on HBO, right now."
9th Bumper (November 6, 1999-April 1, 2011)
Visuals: There is a busy street intersection with a theater (a homage to the theater briefly shown in the 8th opening) displaying the HBO logo and the words "FEATURE PRESENTATION" on its marquee. The camera zooms into the theater, past the box office (a homage to the zooming box office from the 3rd opening) and into a bright light. After the light dims down, the camera starts zooming down a street in a residential neighborhood with cars driving and people walking about, and goes through a bridge superstructure shaped like an "H", after which it zooms down a rural highway, passing farms and such. After some fog obscures the screen, the camera zooms down a mountain road, flying over a pit, and heading down a "B" shaped tunnel. The tunnel leads to a desert road surrounded with gorges and cliffs at the other end, and the camera zooms into a truck with an "O"-shaped cylindrical tank, taking the screen through another transition. The screen ends up zooming through a CGI rendering of the city from the 8th opening, then into a skyscraper-filled downtown. Passing through the buildings with a lens flare effect, the camera travels down a freeway as lights from behind several buildings quickly turn on, followed by more lights ahead of them. The camera pans and takes the screen into an aerial view above the clouds, and the spotlights outlining an HBO-logo shaped harbor is shown. The 3D letters "FEATURE" fly in and come together over the HBO logo, and a flash below them brings forth a dark blue rectangle with the word "PRESENTATION" appearing on it letter-by-letter as the screen tilts above the HBO-shaped harbor.
Variant: A shorter, much more common version of this logo was available, which starts off with the lights lighting up. The full version, as described above, was only shown on Saturday night movie premieres from November 6, 1999 to March 26, 2011.
Technique: CGI, directed and designed by Mark Johnston at Pittard Sullivan and animated by Computer Cafe.
Audio: The long version has a powerful, dramatic orchestral fanfare that uses the 12-note HBO fanfare at the beginning, and near the end. During the "HBO City" sequence, there are whooshes that can be heard from passing cars and buses. The short version has just the final seconds of the orchestral fanfare.
10th Bumper (April 2, 2011-)
Visuals: On a black background, a flash appears, turning into a cerulean aurora background as the HBO logo appears on the left and the words "Feature Presentation" (in the Gotham Book font) appear on the right.
Variant: Other channels have their logo in place of their partner logo. Examples are HBO Latino (which replaces the text with "Pelicula") and HBO Family.
Technique: CGI by Jesse Vartanian.
Audio: A brief ascending section of strings, followed by an orchestrated version of the 12-note HBO fanfare, composed by Made Music Studio. HBO also made a prototype fanfare featuring just a latter part of the music out of just a bass and violin, which was exclusively used on HBO Family.
Audio Variant: An alternate version exists where the HBO fanfare sounds different and using the familiar tone (F major) from the previous opening. It was also heard on HBO Canada.
11th Bumper (July 5, 2014-)
Visuals: On a black background, pictures from various movies (which change frequently depending on what's being shown on HBO at the time) fade in and drop down. Then, they fade out and drop down again. Then, the HBO logo and the words "Feature Presentation" from the previous logo drop down.
Variants:
On HBO Family, the word "FAMILY" (in rainbow colors) is under the HBO logo. There is also a variation of that bumper in which the background is white, and the HBO logo and "Feature Presentation" are in light blue. Also, the pictures of the movies were replaced by the pictures of various family movies (such as The Iron Giant, Shrek and The Book of Life).
Two versions have been exclusively used on HBO Asia: the first is the Game of Thrones version which features a teal Game of Thrones background with the GOT logo below fading in. The second one is the Westworld version with the movie pictures being in B&W and the Westworld logo fading in below at the end, against a black & white background.
Sometimes, a movie picture remains at the left as all the pictures drop down, while the split with the HBO logo and "Feature Presentation" appears in the right. This doesn't appear on the Asian version, as of this writing.
Technique: Computer animation.
Audio: The 2011 theme, with the addition of an announcer saying "And now, an HBO feature presentation". There's also a different variant where an announcer says "And now, an HBO feature presentation: [movie title]." On HBO Asia and HBO Family USA, there's no announcer.
Audio Variants:
On the HBO Asia GOT version, it uses a different orchestrated fanfare.
An alternate fanfare from the previous opening is used.
12th Bumper (March 4, 2017-)
Visuals: The screen fades in to a shot of a man holding a bowl of popcorn. As the camera pans to the right is him walking towards his wife, who's snuggling up with a blanket on a sofa. In the background are two sets of home plants, a desk lamp, a set of magazines, and two glasses of what seems to be wine or cola. On the wall, there is a canvas print of another apartment. Below the couch, a pair of shoes are visible. The man places the popcorn on a table, settles down with his wife, and turns on the TV. As the screen zooms out through a window, a suitcase-style turntable can be seen. Zooming further out of the apartment, there is a few more sets of apartment complexes. Two more pairs of shoes can be seen dangling from a telephone wire. Panning further to the right, there are two streetlamps. The screen then zooms out from the streets into the room of two teenage siblings; an older sister and a younger brother. The wall is covered with fan posters of various celebrities. Zooming further out is the sister on her bed, and the brother on a large cushion. The brother holds a tablet towards his sister. Zooming out even further, the camera reaches a balcony. In it, a patio table and a bicycle can be seen. As the camera zooms further out, the screen zooms out into the living room of another apartment complex. This scene is basically a recreation of the 3rd opening, with a few modern touches added (e.g. cushion couches on a rug next to a flat-screen TV, which is showing a portion of the 3rd opening (the part where the screen zooms into the "O"). As the screen zooms out again, it is noticeable that the apartment complex is actually a home, nested on a floating brick lawn. More apartments and condominiums are nested next to the home. The logo zooms in to the living room of yet another apartment. The first thing shown is its flat-screen TV, which is also showing the 3rd opening. In it, a group of college students are seen on a couch, with one of them serving a snack to another. As the screen zooms out yet again, a man holding a phone can be seen on the balcony of yet another apartment. After that, the camera zooms out further and further. It is then revealed that the city is inside the HBO logo, set over a dark sky background on a flat grassy plain, with a river shown beside it. The words "MOVIE PREMIERE" are seen below the logo. At this point, everything shown inside the towering logo is no longer noticeable in detail.
Trivia: According to Imaginary Forces, it was inspired by the 3rd opening, making it a modern-day reimagining to that said opening.
Variants:
A variant exists without "MOVIE PREMIERE".
There is a more common short version that starts near the end when the HBO logo is revealed, and the text under the logo reads "MOVIE PRESENTATION".
On HBO Latino, the text "PRESENTACIÓN DE PELÍCULA" ("PRESENTATION OF THE MOVIE" in Spanish) replaces "MOVIE PRESENTATION", as in which, the short version is only used.
HBO posted a comparison video on March 2, 2017, which compares select scenes of this opening with those from the 3rd opening, albeit with the blur effect with the print HBO logo in white, taken from the network's current on-screen branding package, for a short time before fading out with a cross-blur effect (in which the print HBO logo being blurred when fading out while the screen is not blurred once the animation is done), although being stretched to fill the 16:9 aspect ratio, as with the ones shown during the former. It can be shown as an unlisted video on HBO's YouTube channel here.
A custom variant is used for A Minecraft Movie on HBO Max, with the short version used as its basis. In this version, when the camera reaches its position, the HBO logo is brightened and transforms into a blocky version of it in realistic stone, which shows square particles colored in the same colors used in the logo shown while it happens, while the text "MOVIE PRESENTATION" also transforms into the same UI text font shown in the game itself, also in realistic stone, to fit the graphic style for both the game and movie. Furthermore, the background changes to the Overworld from the film, which shows bees flying around.
Special variants were made for blockbuster movies on HBO Max, aside of A Minecraft Movie, as mentioned above.
Technique: A blend of live-action and CGI that homages the 3rd and 9th openings. It was made by Imaginary Forces. A case study can be found on their website here, while a behind the scenes video can be found on their YouTube channel and Vimeo page here. The A Minecraft Movie variant was done by Kill 2 Birds, who would later solely create special variants for other blockbuster movies on HBO Max, under supervision from Imaginary Forces.
Audio: Similar to that of the 9th opening, it's another powerful, epic orchestral fanfare that incorporates the 12-note 1982 fanfare, starting with only a piano, before progressing with some strings, and leading into a full orchestra. City noises and river sounds can be heard as well. In the comparison video, the sound effects are omitted. Composed by Made Music Studio. A case study can be found on their website here.
Audio Variants:
In the short version, only the ending part of the fanfare is used.
For the A Minecraft Movie variant, building sounds are used, along with a sound of a sheep's "baa" at the end. Both sounds are taken from the actual Minecraft game itself.
In the very short version, the last three notes are used.
Visuals: On a medium dark shade blue background, the following copyright text appears in a small white Helvetica font with a black shadow:
THE HOME BOX OFFICE PAY TELEVISION SERVICE IS A PRODUCTION OF HOME BOX OFFICE, INC. (C)1981 Home Box Office, Inc. All Rights Reserved. No part of the service may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of Home Box Office, Inc.
Technique: A still graphic.
Audio: None.
Availability Note: Before HBO completed its transition to 24-hour broadcasting, the copyright screen was shown at the end of the day’s transmission.
2nd Screen (January 1, 1982-October 31, 1997)
Visuals: Same as before, but the background is black, the text has no shadow, and the copyright now changes every year.
Variants:
Cinemax used essentially the same screen, only with the Cinemax name replacing the first mention of HBO (presumably, the short-lived channel Festival used a similar variant, but no evidence of this has surfaced yet).
Beginning in 1992, the text was updated with a new, more condensed font and a different arrangement, to account for HBO now being a division of Time Warner Entertainment Company, L.P. (a joint venture with telephone company US West); Cinemax used a similar variant.
Technique: A still graphic.
Audio: None.
3rd Screen (November 1, 1997-February 1, 2002)
Visuals: On a letterboxed black background, the same text as used from 1992 is displayed (with appropriate year changes), albeit set in a new font and arranged to take up the entire vertical height within the letterbox; an animated background resembling water ripples behind the text throughout.
Technique: CGI for the background.
Audio: None.
4th Screen (February 1, 2002-March 2, 2006)
Visuals: On a letterboxed black background with colorful designs is this yellow copyright text:
THE HOME BOX OFFICE(R) PAY TELEVISION SERVICE IS A PRODUCTION OF HOME BOX OFFICE A DIVISION OF AOL TIME WARNER ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY, L.P. (C)[YEAR] HOME BOX OFFICE A DIVISION OF AOL TIME ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY, L.P. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NO PART OF THE SERVICE MAY BE REPRODUCED OR TRANSMITTED IN ANY FORM WITHOUT THE WRITTEN PERMISSION OF HOME BOX OFFICE.
Variants:
Until 2004, the background's designs would change every year.
Starting in 2003, the text reads:
THE HOME BOX OFFICE(R) PAY TELEVISION SERVICE IS A PRODUCTION OF HOME BOX OFFICE, INC. (C)[YEAR] HOME BOX OFFICE, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NO PART OF THE SERVICE MAY BE REPRODUCED OR TRANSMITTED IN ANY FORM WITHOUT THE WRITTEN PERMISSION OF HOME BOX OFFICE
Starting in 2004, the text is white and a entirely new background is used.
Technique: A still graphic.
Audio: None.
5th Screen (March 3-December 31, 2006)
Visuals: On a maroon-red filmstrip background with a colorful room is this black copyright text:
THE HBO(R) PAY TELEVISION SERVICE IS A PRODUCTION OF HOME BOX OFFICE, INC. (C)2006 HOME BOX OFFICE, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NO PART OF THE SERVICE MAY BE REPRODUCED OR TRANSMITTED IN ANY FORM WITHOUT THE WRITTEN PERMISSION OF HOME BOX OFFICE, INC.
The URL "HBO.COM" is below the copyright.
Technique: A still graphic.
Audio: None.
6th Screen (January 1, 2007-April 1, 2011)
Visuals: Over a green, gray, off-white, blue and black patterned background, is this black copyright text:
THE HOME BOX OFFICE(R) IS A PAY TELEVISION SERVICE IS A PRODUCTION OF HOME BOX OFFICE, INC. (C)[YEAR] HOME BOX OFFICE, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NO PART OF THE SERVICE MAY BE REPRODUCED OR TRANSMITTED IN ANY FORM WITHOUT THE WRITTEN PERMISSION OF HOME BOX OFFICE, INC.
The URL "HBO.COM" is shown below the copyright.
Variants:
In 2009, the text was updated. It now begins with "THE HBO(R) IS A PAY TELEVISION SERVICE IS A PRODUCTION OF HOME BOX OFFICE, INC."
In 2010, the text was rearranged and given a new font. It now reads:
HBO(R) IS A PAY TELEVISION SERVICE OF HOME BOX OFFICE, INC. (R) & (C)2010 HOME BOX OFFICE, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NO PART OF THE SERVICE MAY BE REPRODUCED OR TRANSMITTED IN ANY FORM WITHOUT THE WRITTEN PERMISSION OF HOME BOX OFFICE, INC.
In 2011, the text was rearranged. It now reads:
(C)2011 Home Box Office, Inc. All Rights Reserved. HBO(R) and related channels and service marks are the property of Home Box Office, Inc.
Technique: A still graphic.
Audio: None.
7th Screen (April 2, 2011-July 4, 2014)
Visuals: On the black background with an aurora at the top and bottom screen, is this white copyright text:
(C)[YEAR] HOME BOX OFFICE, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. HBO(R) AND RELATED CHANNELS AND SERVICE MARKS ARE THE PROPERTY OF HOME BOX OFFICE, INC.
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