The NBC Peacock - The Colorful Story Behind a Broadcasting Icon · 9:16pm Sep 7th, 2016
The Peacock was brought to us in living colour by John L. Graham.
NBC's longest-running star is proudly celebrating his 60th anniversary in 2016. Dazzling television viewers since his debut, the NBC Peacock was created in 1956 to banner NBC programming broadcast in what was then a new medium...color. The Peacock, however, is not only a TV star. Appearing on clothing, drinking glasses, playing cards, Beanie Babies, and even beach towels, The Peacock is a multi-media icon for one of the most recognizable brands in the world, NBC. The Peacock's longevity in television and as a corporate logo for NBC is a tribute to the talents of his creator, John J. Graham. While Graham's Peacock was a highlight of his long career as Director of Design at NBC, it was just one of his many contributions that helped establish the on-air look of NBC television.
A native New Yorker, Graham trained at the Manhattan School of Industrial Arts and joined NBC as an art director shortly after the end of World War II in 1945. His responsibilities included designing the television division's various logos, title cards, print materials, advertising, and promotions, which at the time consisted of variations on the famous NBC chimes and NBC network radio signage. An introspective man, Graham was highly intelligent, articulate and thoughtful. "My father was aware of his talent and was very humble," says Graham's son Bruce. "He never raised his voice, and preferred to work behind the scenes, even omitting his own name from books and publications that he designed. His loyalty to NBC and his fellow employees is legendary."
By 1954, Graham and his staff of 15 artists had toiled for almost a decade within the limited black, white and gray palette of 50's television. For any artist, it would be frustrating, and even more so for Graham, an art lover who was strongly influenced by Picasso. All that was about to change because of a long-term and intense competition between CBS and NBC to develop and gain governmental approval of a color television system. FCC approval of NBC's 'compatible color' system came in late 1953, and color television would finally become a reality on January 1, 1954, with NBC's coast-to-coast colorcast of the Pasadena Rose Parade.
For the landmark Rose Parade telecast, NBC's famous Chimes (the famous 'Bing-Bong-Bing' sound) were rendered in red, blue, and green. Early RCA TK-40 color television cameras were also adorned with this logo:
(Look for it REALLY carefully now)
NBC, owned at the time by electronics giant RCA, was charged with spurring public interest in buying the first generation of pricey (around $1,000) color television receivers. As NBC added more color programming to their schedule, it became clear that viewers watching in black and white needed to be reminded that these shows would best be appreciated on a color TV (and hopefully on an RCA Color TV).
John Graham was the obvious choice to create such an icon. Already steeped in the corporate culture, and having designed the on air look for NBC, its owned and operated stations and affiliates across the country, Graham further supervised the layout of special NBC publications and dozens of trade ads. His influence spread into the real world by creating the visual look of annual NBC press junkets and affiliate conventions.
Graham's task was to design something compelling. Something to let the black-and-white set owner know that he was missing out on the full picture. Something that would make him go out and purchase an expensive color TV set manufactured by RCA.
RAINBOWS, BUTTERFLIES, AND PEACOCKS
Work commenced on the color project during the summer of 1956. In contrast to the controlled chaos of the adjacent NBC television studios at Rockefeller Center, Graham's space on the seventh floor was a tranquil environment shared with the NBC art directors. The office was an assemblage of drafting tables, tacked-up storyboards, and lots of scissors and paste (the norm 40 years before the digital age).
Graham knew from the start that his logo would need to have as much impact in black and white as it would in color. To ensure that monochrome viewers got the Peacock's message, Graham made frequent use of the color television equipment located in Studio 3H to ensure that his renderings were well chosen for viewing on color and black and white receivers.
Graham pondered the possibilities of color themes, and most likely bypassed the rainbow as too obvious. Turning to nature for inspiration, it didn't take long for him to arrive at a wonderful color symbol: The butterfly!
Butterflies, with their pastel, graceful shapes, are universally loved by humans. They are the essence of beauty and tranquility. Yes, the 'NBC Butterfly.' Nope. Butterflies, while lovely, are also too tame for television…more than a little on the 'soft' side. (45 years later, the butterfly would indeed become a logo for MSNBC.)
At home, Graham discussed the ongoing process with his then-wife Candella. Brainstorming over the animal kingdom, ideas flew back and forth. Images of parrots, flora, and fauna floated in the air until Candella suggested the peacock.
Peacocks, known for their bright plumage and regal, elegant gait, were definitely more interesting than the butterfly. Everyone knew what it meant to be "proud as a peacock." When the male bird spreads his colorful feathers for all to see, it's always a very dramatic, attention-getting moment. Still, positioning a 'glorified fowl' as the symbol of the network would provide Graham with a unique artistic challenge.
Graphic design in the mid 50's was exploding with color, forms, and ideas. Exaggerated shapes (the 50's 'boomerang', for example), overlapping hues, and wild new typefaces were being used to create visually arresting graphics. Graham's first rendering reflected this trend when he envisioned a very avant-garde peacock outline with pigeon-feet. The body was backed by eleven feathers highlighted with splashes of color. Sort of 50's 'moderne'. And probably a little too far out.
Graham simplified the Peacock's head and body to a basic white outline and shaped the comical pigeon-feet into elegant tapers. The eleven individual feathers became geometric shapes emerging from the body and tipped with teardrops echoing the natural designs within real peacock feathers.
Graham's Peacock was feathered in six colors -- maroon, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet. To ensure that nothing interfered with the Peacock's visual impact he was placed over a solid black background. This first Peacock was simply a piece of flat artwork photographed on color film and mounted onto a slide.
The First Peacock, as introduced in 1956
Appearing on the air for the first time in September, 1956, the Peacock immediately served as an attention-getting device: "Hey, you could be watching this show in glorious color!" Recognized by viewers and the television industry as NBC's symbol of color, pride, and excitement, the Peacock was a success and led Graham to use his storyboard talent to create an animated version.
Produced through Elektra films in New York, the 12 second animated open began with a dramatic cymbal crash. As announcer Ben Grauer intoned, "The following program is brought to you in living color on NBC," the Peacock unfolds his monochrome feathers, which transform into vibrant, shifting hues before finally settling on the familiar colors Graham had chosen for the original design. This animated Peacock premiered on "Your Hit Parade" in September, 1957, and remained basically unchanged for the next five years.
The Peacock was a great marketing tool. Local television dealers held Peacock promotions to publicize the color schedule on NBC. NBC affiliates used the Peacock as promotional giveaways on ashtrays, playing cards, puzzles, and coffee mugs.
The Peacock even got its own board game in the mid 1960's.
Meanwhile, Graham designed the equally famous NBC 'snake' animation in 1959, which usually appeared at the end of NBC-produced programming. So called because it forged the letters 'NBC' out of one continuous line, the snake also became an animated logo, adorned letterheads and company memos, and appeared on the sides of NBC studio and field cameras until the mid 70's.
PSYCHEDELIC 60'S
Taking the Peacock animation to a more lyrical motif, in 1962 Graham's new animation was kaleidoscopic, supported musically by a gentle flute and harp. This new Peacock appeared for the first time in an episode of the long running western series Laramie, and is commonly referred to as "The Laramie Peacock."
When NBC became the first full-color network in 1966, the Peacock literally signed on the network with The Today Show and concluded 16 hours later with The Tonight Show. During his heyday, the Peacock appeared an average of 20 times per day!
DEFENDING THE BIRD
Confident in Graham's proven abilities as an artist and executive, NBC deemed him "Director of Design" in 1966. In a memo to all employees, the president of NBC, Julian Goodman, stated, "(Graham) should be consulted for advice, guidance, and approval in all matters of design." Frequently the Peacock's chief defender, Graham put the kibosh on plans to superimpose Danny Thomas' face over the Peacock's, and a later attempt by Howard Johnson to have the Peacock 'spew' their products in a rainbow pattern. "My responsibility here is to remind ourselves of the importance of the tasteful use of the Peacock symbol," Graham wrote in a memo. "The prospect of our bird spitting Howard Johnson rainbows may start it toward a terrible case of the pip, making it not only dead, but inedible."
Although Graham was fervent in protecting NBC's corporate logo from this type of contamination through cross promotions, some humor slipped under the radar. Laugh In managed an end-run around NBC management when they animated the Peacock sneezing and blowing away his own feathers.
The animated Peacock billboard was retired in the late 60's. By that time, NBC and the other two networks were full color, and there was no need to banner it at the beginning of every program. The Peacock continued to appear in promotional items for NBC, but was largely unseen by the public in the 1970's.
PEACOCK REDUX
Seeking to stay contemporary in its on-air look, NBC management decided that a new network logo was needed and the quest began in 1974. Graham was consulted on the new corporate logo but NBC opted to go out-of-house with submissions from outside design firms. Much money and effort were spent developing the infamous corporate "N," which premiered in 1975. NBC was chagrined to learn that a similar N was already in use by Nebraska Educational Television, and paid another large sum to secure the exclusive use.
Graham left NBC in 1977 and continued his association with the network by serving as a consultant. The rest of Graham's time was spent painting, illustrating and designing layouts for books.
Meanwhile at NBC, the corporate "N" never caught on the way management had hoped for, leading the way for the Peacock's corporate comeback in the early 80's.
This time, the Peacock shared space with the 'N'. Eventually the Peacock prevailed and the "N" quietly disappeared. The new Peacock lost his feet and a few feathers in the process, retaining only six representing each division of NBC (News, Sports, Entertainment, Television Stations, Television Network, and Operations & Technical Services). The tiny spray of feathers above the Peacock's head disappeared and the Peacock turned his head to the right.
In the early 1990's NBC's promotion department experimented with some new Peacock promotional designs under the auspices of caricaturist Al Hirschfeld, avant-garde designer Peter Maxx, animation director John Kricfalusi (of Ren and Stimpy fame), animator J.J. Sedelmeier, and graphic artists David Daniels, Joan Gratz, and Mark Malmberg. Animated versions of the Kricfalusi, Hirshfeld, and Max designs were seen on NBC during 1993. Although technically a parody of the Grapham Peacock, the integrity of the presentations did not belittle the bird but celebrated his persona and even opened the door for even more cutting-edge animations over the next few years.
Today's on-air Peacock appears as a lower third 'bug' branding the show you're watching as being on NBC. His print and merchandising self is still colorful and popular as ever, appearing in a myriad of products, including Beanie Babies, that are available through the NBC store. In the mid 1990's NBC issued collectible Peacock pins that detail the icon's history from Graham's original design to the current 21st Century design.
In the first decade of the 21st century declining network audiences and a bad economy made it necessary for NBC and the other networks to look for additional sources of revenue. NBC relaxed the Graham rule against using the Peacock and corporate branding as seen in the example below.
In September of 2009 NBC's marketing department introduced a new Peacock campaign dubbed "More Colorful," a slogan that harkened back to the bird's 1950's origin.
For several years the Peacock went missing in the NBC/Universal logo but returned to the design in 2012.
For over fifty years John Graham's peacock has served the network as an iconic and popular branding tool.
In a lasting nod to its corporate logo, NBC is known by Variety, the 'bible' of the entertainment industry, as "The Peacock" network.
ALL NBC GRAPHICS/IMAGES/LOGOS (C) 2013 NATIONAL BROADCASTING COMPANY/UNIVERSAL
To see Peacock animations and lots of other great color television content, visit Kris Trexler's site at http://www.kingoftheroad.net/colorTV/colorTVlogos.html.
- Mike Clark (copied from his website.)
file this under random ass history