All I can say is.. bravo NBC.

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When I was in the states last year I stumbled upon an enjoyable little television programme called Infomania, that was being broadcast on an even littler network called Current TV.

Founded in 2005 by Al Gore, the network felt a bit like what would happen if the Hungry Beast kids were given their own channel (in a good way). The Emmy and Peabody award winning channel was thrust into the spotlight earlier this year with the announcement that Keith Olbermann would join the network.

Along with the arrival of Keith came a refreshed look and a brand new logo. The old logo was pretty ordinary and didn’t really say much. The new look however is simply stunning – and works just as well static or animated. It’s a truly unique channel, now with the branding to match.

Credits: Identity by Wolff Olins and on-air look by Loyalkaspar.

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Launching on January 1st 2011, OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network is a natural extension of the hyper-popular daytime talk show, and surely one of the few networks in the world built around a single figure.

With Oprah’s recent visit to Australia, the nation has grown even more enamored with the women and her message, and despite my gender-and-age I’ll happily admit that she produces an incredible show with a relentless message of personal growth, interwoven with philosophy aligned with the likes of Jung or Frankl.

Two years in the making, Philadelphia based BIGSMACK designed the new on-air look through “the numerous branding twists and turns” taken prior to the channel launch. On the technical side, the largely animated look of the network is complimented by a number of organic touches:

To create the on-air look BIGSMACK shot an array of natural elements — including light reflected through a variety of objects like crystal and Plexiglas, as well as water, glitter and particle dust — on a soundstage using a Canon 5D camera. That organic basis was then composited with digital elements animated using Cinema 4D and Adobe After Effects.

The montage gives a taste of the IDs, menus, bumpers and lower thirds created for the network, along with the colour coding of the various dayparts (orange mornings, green afternoons and purple evenings).

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UPDATE: Fox News have responded with their own “Move Forward” spots.

American cable news network MSNBC recently unveiled a new slogan and brand positioning. Directed by Spike Lee, these new spots ask us to Lean Forward, and suggests that the “the future belongs to the fearless”.

Conceptually its a poignant and aspirational message, likely to be identifiable to those generally offended by Fox News. And while Jon Stewart isn’t thrilled with it, it’s hard not to like the idea, with comparisons to Think Different sure to arise.

Unfortunately I’m not sure the execution of these two promos, filled with stock footage and web clips live up to the gravity of the message trying to be conveyed.

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Breakfast television was invented in the United States, and continues to frustrate, entertain, inform and provide moving wallpaper to millions everyday.

Three network broadcasts dominate the genre, and all three are broadcast from New York City. The Today Show from NBC defined the genre in 1952, followed by Good Morning America from ABC in 1975 and the latest attempt from CBS in the form of the Early Show in 1999.

I’m still waiting for Aaron Sorkin to dramatize the world of morning television, but until then I guess we’ll have to keep tuning into the real thing.

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The Emmy and Peabody award winning performance art and cultural phenomenon that is Stephen Colbert recently took his show into the world of high definition, and you know what that means.. a new opening sequence.

Produced by the New York based gang at Mr Wonderful, the new look is as delightfully jingoistic as the old, and a perfect way to start an almost perfect show.

Or as Stephen puts it in the press release they’ve “created the Avatar of show opens”… topical and funny, you’ve done it done Colbert.

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Continuing my series of blatant bias towards public broadcasters, and blind rage towards commercial networks.. I present you with the new look for PBS.

Although funded differently to the BBC or the ABC, the Public Broadcasting Service of the United States shares a similar mission to “educate, inspire, entertain”. Like other public broadcasters around the world it is also considered its nations “most trusted national institution”.

But enough about the philosophy, what about the brand. Created by Eyeball, the new look is distinctively non-commercial, yet polished, two qualities sometimes considered mutually exclusively, but beautifully executed here.

Sidenote: Carrier is one of the best documentary series I’ve ever seen.

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The 2009 Primetime Emmy for Main Title Design has just been awarded, last year Mad Men won, and in the running for it this year was:

> Vampire drama True Blood from HBO
> Showtime’s multiple personality comedy United States of Tara.
> AMC’s industry chat fest Storymakers
> HBO telemovie Taking Chance
> And Fox’s body language drama Lie To Me.

And the winner is..

For all the details on who made what, check out this.

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An update to last years 31 Days of Oscar spot produced by Fresh Paint for TCM, a little late after award season I know, but still one of the most creative executions of what is essentially just a collection of clips I’ve seen.

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While opinion remains mixed, I’m still a huge fan of the SciFi to SyFy rebrand, and think its one of the more clever name changes we’ve seen recently.

To mark the dumping of the old brand, Syfy have produced a series of idents wiping the old logo away to make room for the new. BBC Three did a very cute and similar thing when they relaunched last year.

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If there’s one thing I love more than a good cast photo (like the cast of the Sopranos on a boat, or the cast of Scrubs.. also on a boat), its a good cast promo.

Full or overly symbolic references and imagery, its the kind of stuff you can only get away with when your playing outside the bounds of the shows usual narrative (or at least a dream sequence) and quite frankly no one does it better than HBO.

Take for example the series return of True Blood, set to the Bob Dylan track “Beyond Here Lies Nothing” is a beautiful moving portrait, open to intrepretion of what we might be able to expect from the latest instalment of the vampire thriller.

Another show that was rampant in there use of seasonal teasers was Six Feet Under, watch some examples after the jump.

Season 5, featuring the song “Breathe Me” by Sia.

Season 4, featuring the song “Feeling Good” by Nina Simone.

Season 3, featuring the song “A Rush Of Blood To The Head” by Coldplay.

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Brazillian based agency Santa Motion have created this strange yet compelling opening sequence for a new MTV show called Acesso.

The broad concept behind the video is about how information changes people, an idea represented through the various transitions. MTV Latin America have always pumped out really interesting stuff, including this from a few years back.

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Comparing the opening titles of the original Kath and Kim to the American remake, its clear this isn’t going to be a line-for-line remake. Most importantly though, for the millions of American’s who will meet Kath and Kim for the first time this Thursday on NBC, I think they might just enjoy themselves.

The pilot made its pre-air debut on iTunes not long ago. All you need to do to download a copy if you’re outside of the States, is get yourself an iTunes account.

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True Blood is the latest creation from Alan Ball, the creator of Six Feet Under and American Beauty screenwriter. Just like Six Feet Under, the main titles for True Blood have been designed by Digital Kitchen, who also did the opener for Dexter.

The high concept premise behind True Blood revolves around the co-existence of vampires and humans in the southern US state of Louisiana. And from the pilot episode at least, it appears Ball intends to draw on vampires and their recent “outing” into mainstream society as an allegory for the struggle to achieve homosexual rights, racial equality and acceptance.

The gritty and compelling opening sequence, accompanied by the track Bad Things by Jace Everett, even goes so far to feature a sign saying “God Hates Fangs”, an obvious play on the famous protest signs of the Westboro Baptist Church.

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In a rare show of solidarity, three of the big commercial networks in the US dedicated an hour of commercial free programming to broadcast the Stand Up 2 Cancer telethon. With the usual mix of serious appeal and humour, the highlight of the night was Homer Simpson’s fantastic voyage into his own colon.

NBC, ABC and CBS simulcast the event Friday night with all money raised going to the translational cancer research, which “encourages scientists to collaborate rather than compete, translating basic science into applicable therapies for patients.”

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The Office, Scrubs and 30 Rock are three of the best shows on television, they’re all broadcast by NBC on Thursday nights, and they all made their post-strike returns to our screens just a few days ago.

These three shows have all received Peabody Awards in recent years, and given the chance I’ll happily go on about how important good comedy is.

NBC has a strange place in my heart, and although its unfair to judge any network by the sum of its parts, its undeniable that NBC has some amazing individual programs, and from this outsiders opinion appears to foster quality in its programming, sometimes at the expense of immediate ratings gratification.

Whether its The Office, 30 Rock, Scrubs, Friday Night Lights, or Saturday Night Live, no other network delivers as much of my television content as NBC, which is quite an achievement, and also a little sad that its not an Australian channel.

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Not surprisingly, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip reignited an interest in Saturday Night Live for me. Sure Studio 60 over romanticised the importance of late night comedy, and its place as a cultural institution, but I still wouldn’t change an episode.

Comedy and satire are important (as I went on about here), and although SNL isn’t perfect, its still pretty good. Locally however, while The Chaser may not have the long history that SNL does, it has been having the actual, tangible impact on Australian culture that Studio 60 claimed its show-within-a-show was having.

This week SNL was hosted by NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams, who pokes fun at himself in this ‘digital short’, the second video is from an earlier ‘digital short’ this season where Andy Samberg serenades Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

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Of all the North American television I watch.. and there’s a lot, it would seem that less of it comes from CBS then probably any other major network. And while any network that brings me Letterman deserves my respect, my life would probably continue to exist if I stopped watching Old Christine and How I Met Your Mother.

The videos are short ID spots (sans audio) that started running on CBS last week, and while these certainly look great, the United States isn’t exactly known for its idents in the same way as the UK, so don’t expect S4/C-esque extravagances or cultural commentary.

- Thanks for the videos Mitch.

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MTV can get pretty trashy.. and it can get very tiring, but what can you do? You take a break. Literally. This stunning “narrative and visual break” ident created by Sägas for MTV Latin America is two minutes of hypnotic look-up-at-the-sky-and-smile bliss.

Designed to rest the eyes and mind, this video marks the first post on this blog about a South American production, and I couldn’t be more impressed, with not only the execution of the piece, but also the beauty of the concept.. literally breaking from a stations usual fare to give you a breather (not entirely unlike this).

Download some high resolution stills from the video below..

- And a huge thanks to Fernando from Sägas for the video.