A couple of days ago
I posted the above screen shot from an episode of the 1970s TV show
Room 222, and speculated on where it was I'd seen that font before. The post prompted some feedback, including a note from FOB (Friend of the Blog) "e" linking to a YouTube clip of
the end credits of the classic
Gilligan's Island. I spent several hours peering intently at every matching letter between the two data sets, and ultimately realized it was a waste of time trying to find any difference (although I'm still not sure the R's are identical). They are, for all intents and purposes, the same font, and I'm willing to concede that a memory of the latter is deeply embedded in my unconscious from endless repeat viewings of Gilligan's hijinks over the years. However, I was still a little curious. The fact is that, while I was exposed to numerous reruns of the program in the past, it's probably going on twenty years since I last watched the show. So I wondered if there wasn't a more recent match that was setting off my radar. I decided to investigate further, and began pumping names of programs into the YouTube search engine. I started with the shows that I had first considered:
M*A*S*H,
The Odd Couple, and
Barney Miller; sure enough, there was a hit:
That's a screen-capture from the closing credits to
Barney Miller. So now, I started wondering just how ubiquitous this particular font was, so I started to barnstorm. I looked at credits from
The Partridge Family,
The Brady Bunch,
Welcome Back Kotter (suggested by my sister Theresa),
Nanny and the Professor,
The Governor and JJ, and a bunch of others. I mostly focused on shows from the ABC network, since that's where
Room 222 and
Barney Miller were broadcast, and especially Friday night shows, since that's when they aired. No other hits, but I wasn't convinced I'd gotten to the bottom of the issue since, although I've seen it more recently than
Gilligan's Island, it still had been years since I've watched
Barney Miller. And then, it hit me:
Earlier this Fall, my morning exercise routine was accompanied by viewing the first season of
My Three Sons. I popped in one of those discs, and there it was in the end credits-- the exact same font as that used in
Room 222. That almost certainly was why it looked so familiar: I'd seen it every day for the four or five weeks it took me to go through the season's episodes, and just a few weeks before I moved on to the other show. In another interesting fluke, although
My Three Sons appeared for most of its long run (about twelve years or so) on CBS, it actually started out as an ABC show, just like
Room 222 and
Barney Miller (though
Gilligan was a CBS program). I don't know what this all means, but I can assure you that getting to the bottom of this little mystery has definitely taken a load off my mind.
A couple of days ago I posted the above screen shot from an episode of the 1970s TV show Room 222, and speculated on where it was I'd seen that font before. The post prompted some feedback, including a note from FOB (Friend of the Blog) "e" linking to a YouTube clip of the end credits of the classic Gilligan's Island. I spent several hours peering intently at every matching letter between the two data sets, and ultimately realized it was a waste of time trying to find any difference (although I'm still not sure the R's are identical). They are, for all intents and purposes, the same font, and I'm willing to concede that a memory of the latter is deeply embedded in my unconscious from endless repeat viewings of Gilligan's hijinks over the years. However, I was still a little curious. The fact is that, while I was exposed to numerous reruns of the program in the past, it's probably going on twenty years since I last watched the show. So I wondered if there wasn't a more recent match that was setting off my radar. I decided to investigate further, and began pumping names of programs into the YouTube search engine. I started with the shows that I had first considered: M*A*S*H, The Odd Couple, and Barney Miller; sure enough, there was a hit:
That's a screen-capture from the closing credits to Barney Miller. So now, I started wondering just how ubiquitous this particular font was, so I started to barnstorm. I looked at credits from The Partridge Family, The Brady Bunch, Welcome Back Kotter (suggested by my sister Theresa), Nanny and the Professor, The Governor and JJ, and a bunch of others. I mostly focused on shows from the ABC network, since that's where Room 222 and Barney Miller were broadcast, and especially Friday night shows, since that's when they aired. No other hits, but I wasn't convinced I'd gotten to the bottom of the issue since, although I've seen it more recently than Gilligan's Island, it still had been years since I've watched Barney Miller. And then, it hit me:
Earlier this Fall, my morning exercise routine was accompanied by viewing the first season of My Three Sons. I popped in one of those discs, and there it was in the end credits-- the exact same font as that used in Room 222. That almost certainly was why it looked so familiar: I'd seen it every day for the four or five weeks it took me to go through the season's episodes, and just a few weeks before I moved on to the other show. In another interesting fluke, although My Three Sons appeared for most of its long run (about twelve years or so) on CBS, it actually started out as an ABC show, just like Room 222 and Barney Miller (though Gilligan was a CBS program). I don't know what this all means, but I can assure you that getting to the bottom of this little mystery has definitely taken a load off my mind.
No comments:
Post a Comment