Gecko Studios

Background
Gecko Studios was a production company that was formed by Elliot Strange in 1987 and based in Tyler, Texas. Gecko was initially formed by Strange in order to co-finance a syndication package for The Halloween Gang after leaving the network run following ABC setting out to restructure their programs under the guidance of the Q5 Corporation. In 1989, Gecko expanded to film production, producing a new film, as well as aiding on the localization of an acquired anime which was released independently. In 2002, Gecko was acquired by Sterner Stuff and became their animation division, aiding on acquiring and managing animated properties, though the venture would end in 2006 following the financial failure of their last film and Gecko was spun-off. The company would shift their focus to short-form entertainment but would become dormant by the end of 2012. The company resurfaced in 2017 but kept its presence to online entertainment initially. In 2020, Gecko announced they would be involved in producing reboots of two television shows, and that they would be rebranded as "The HAHAHA Room". In August of 2021, Strange announced that when their last show concludes, he will retire and the company will close; following Netflix's premature cancellation of the show, the company shut down.

1st Logo (1987)
Logo: On a grey background, we see a tiny illustration of a gecko embryo toward the bottom left, and the word "STUDIOS" arranged in a vertical fashion. The word "GECKO" in a skinny font unfurls and knocks the embryo into "STUDIOS", causing it to fall down and land next to "GECKO", causing the area to shake.

FX/SFX: The words.

Music/Sounds: A grunt, followed by a creek and a thud.

Availability: Appeared on syndicated episodes of The Halloween Gang. This and the Sternwest logo would also plaster the Blessard Animation Productions logo on episodes from the show's first season and the first five episodes of the second season (the latter being attributed to a trade-off during the show's initial broadcast.) The same principle applies to initial home media releases by Family Home Entertainment as Strange sanctioned those.

Editor's Note: After Blessard bought back the rights to the show, as a reversal of Gecko's plastering practices the Blessard Animation Productions logo plastered the Gecko Studios and Sternwest logos, while those for DiC Entertainment and Coca-Cola Telecommunications were replaced by those for Cookie Jar Entertainment and Sony Pictures Television respectively. DiC were never involved with the syndicated run; Korean studios were directly outsourced, yet the Cookie Jar logo appears on newer prints of those episodes, though it's understandable the SPT bars of boredom appear on all the episodes as they acquired distribution rights. Oddly, the logos for Scholastic Productions, The Maltese Companies and Atlantic/Kushner-Locke are removed on newer prints.

2nd Logo (1989-1993)
Logo: We fade in to a white background with scribbles on it, as well as a black number "3". The area flashes a bit before cutting to the number "2" against the same background but with smaller, more faded blue scribbles, then cutting to "1" with green and yellow scribbles. Suddenly, an image of a girl with her hair arranged in a pony-tail fashion and wearing a red sports shirt with blue jeans, standing in a fighting stance, fades in. The background flickers as the girl throws a punch before the image clears out, leaving an image of the girl in a circular frame, with "GECKO" above her in yellow and red squares (a gecko embryo replaces the "O" in "GECKO" and "STUDIOS" below in a spaced out font. All of this is on a grey stone background.

FX/SFX: Traditional animation.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Seen on The Key to Laurie Locke and the Streamline Pictures dub of The Fairies of Silver Platte.

Editor's Note: Films released any point between 1992 and 2006 used the next logo at the end.

3rd Logo (1997-2004, 2008-2010)
Logo: In a messy room, we see a girl sitting by a computer (this one different from the previous ones, looking more gothic with pale skin. "GECKO STUDIOS" is on the wall behind her, arranged in the "Hollywood sign" fashion. As the girl clicks on something, a live-action fist emerges from it and punches her off-screen.

FX/SFX: Flash animation, with a mix of stop-motion animation.

Music/Sounds: Either the closing theme of the show or none.

Availability: Appeared on the short-lived The Halloween Kids on FX, early episodes of the web series Odd Reads and Big Judy, Small Issues which were hosted on YouTube and Revver, the Machinima series Green Jean's Down and Five Minutes or Less, which was available on TheWB.com. First appeared on the unsold pilot for Hang in there, Yogi Bear! and the ultra short-lived revival of Inner Sanctum.

4th Logo (1999-2006)
Logo: We see a table with various pieces of lab equipment and full beakers on it. We zoom into a filled beaker with bubbling green liquid and whgreen overtakes the screen, the area turns purple as atoms zoom forward. One of them morph into the girl from before, who then takes a position on her knee as the company name zooms in below.

FX/SFX: 3D animation.

Music/Sounds: Electronic sounds, ending with a 15 note synth tune.

Availability: Appeared on Inside-Out Boy, The Incredible Hulk vs. The Wolfman and The Doomed Stones.

5th Logo (2010-2012)
Logo: Against a wooden wall with a visible table, we see a picture frame containing a boy, four girls and a picture of the girl from the previous logos taped to the right of it. A fly lands on it and a fly swatter comes into view, hitting the frame and causing it to fall. "GECKO STUDIOS" is etched into the wall behind the picture.

FX/SFX: Live action.

Music/Sounds: A pedal steel guitar tune, sounds corresponding to the actions and a man saying "O-okay just leave- leave that."

Availability: Seen on later episodes of Odd Reads and Big Judy, Small Issues, namely compilations of each episode.

1st Logo (2020-2021)
Logo: We see an image of a decrepit room with two lamps, a chair, a small table, a crate, a dresser, a visible outlet, a safe, and the photo from the last Gecko Studios logo, as well as the graffitied word "HA HA HA" in black. A man is present, looking around anxiously.

Trivia: The name of the company and logo are a reference to the 1990 Nintendo Entertainment System game Dirty Harry. This is a room a player can enter and upon doing so, is unable to get back out.

FX/SFX: Sprite animation.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Seen on the first season of the 2020 reboot of Princess Natasha. However, not every print has this and five other logos; it was only available on HBO Max and on-demand prints, but network broadcasts and prints on Cartoon Network's app only showed the Cartoon Network Studios logo. Following controversy around the second season and its new show runner, the show was purged. The logo also appeared on the first episode of Sami.

2nd Logo (2021)
Logo: A CRT TV activates, revealing a title screen for a game titled "Relatively Clean Gecko", the title being in red cursive against a night sky and fashioned similarly to the start screen for the first Mega Man game. To the lower left are difficulty levels reading "Beginner", "Novice", "Expert", "Veteran" and "Hateful Monarch". The selection goes to the latter and it cuts to the footage from the previous logo, albeit redone in higher quality, this time featuring a muscular woman and a gruff-looking man on opposing sides of the character from before, armed with handguns. The two proceed to shoot the character.

Trivia: The "Hateful Monarch" option is actually a reference to infamous YouTube let's player DarkSydePhil, who also trades under "The King of Hate." and is known for his angry reactions to failure in gaming.

FX/SFX: Same as before.

Music/Sounds: A Mega Man-sounding tune, ending with a man shouting.

Availability: Appears on Sami.