I've become a bit fond of Vanity Cards - you know, those odd little cards which appear at the end of tv shows? Or before a film starts? They are also often known as idents. But I couldn't make a pun in the post title with that, so Vanity Cards they are.
I don't know why, but for me they are as much part of the tv show as anything, and the little stings of music which go with them are like the smell of roast chicken - they can by association bring back the memory of a tv show or film. Unlike the opening titles, which are a direct memory, the vanity card is often a half remembered subconscious trigger. It's all a bit Proustian.
I may be overthinking this.
For me, it starts, as so many things do, with the BBC. The BBC ident on videos released in the 90s was a short animatic which ended with the logo below, after the colours had merged, with a little sting of music.
To teenage RV, this meant the start of a couple of hours watching Doctor Who, Blake's 7, I Claudius and so many more. The sound and image still does...I actually feel myself breathe deeply and sink into my seat when I dig out an old VHS and that plays.
More recently, the sight and sound of the vanity or ident is something I am more aware of, often specific producers in American tv.
Whether Bellisarius productions:
Which will always make me say 'Oh Boy' like Sam arriving on the latest leap, or Mutant Enemy:
And be honest, if that means anything to you, you just said "Grrr, Argh".
In the X-Files every week, we were told that "I made this" by Ten Thirteen Productions, and David E. Kelley has been calling people a stinker for years, which to me always says Boston Legal:
The idents before films say so much as well - the Universal ident, with that stirring music, suggests a world far bigger than our own is about to be revealed, and the Fox ident...well, honestly, it says Star Wars. If it isn't going to be on the new films, they won't feel quite right, will they? I can't see the Pixar ident without thinking of Randy Newman. Which just looks wrong written down.
The master of the vanity card is Chuck Lorre. His cards have been stream of consciousness rants, pithy comments and outright whimsy which reward the viewer with a pause button or internet browsers. If I'm on my own, I stop the show and read them out, partially as a vocal and sight reading exercise, mainly as they are really designed to be said. They can all be found at his website, but below is a particular example of the art. The bad timing of this card to coincide with Charlie Sheen entering a Manic phase prompted one of the most public meltdowns of recent years...all for a flip smartarse comment at the end of a card on show for only a couple of seconds.
Comedy central has lifted this idea and runs station vanity cards in the middle of adverts. The two below are screen grabs from the last few weeks. It is slightly odd how often I find myself agreeing with the content of these.
Vanity cards form part of your life if you are a tv watcher. A geek with a long standing desire to work in the business like me will spot them, absorb them, enjoy them. Everyone else is simply being subliminally programmed, and, as I inferred before, these stings of sound and music probably bring out a more visceral memory of a show then the opening theme. The principle is not dissimilar to the advertising which forms the 'sponsored by' before shows. Giff Gaff means Big Bang, Schwarzkopf is HIMYM, Blackberry Z10 means...Game of Thrones, Blue Bloods - basically Sky Atlantic. Hell, even I can't hear the hum and see the static which makes up the HBO logo without expecting to hear the Sex and the City Music. Vanity Cards get in your head.
No point to this post, just musing.
Oh, and I lied (I do that - rule 1). It wasn't the BBC ident which I first remember. It was this one, which I oddly always thought had a crocodile to one side, rather than Tower Bridge. In your 30s? I challenge you to look at the below without hearing the theme from Rainbow, or similar.
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