Sterner Stuff

Background
Sterner Stuff is a production company ran by former bodybuilder and producer Julia West and screenwriter, producer and director Phil Sterns, based in Decatur, Illinois but also having offices in Oakville, Ontario. It was originally formed in 1987 as Sternwest Productions, both Sterns and West previously served as writers on The Halloween Gang and had agreed to co-finance the show's syndication package. The company would go on to produce television films and specials, along with low budget films. In 1995, producer Linda Dunn joined the company and it rebranded to Sterns/West/Dunn Films and the company shifted their focus to film production, later booking an exclusivity agreement with Blockbuster Video to distribute their films. The company shut down in 2001 due to financial issues and legal trouble following allegations of Sterns and West using their Ontario branch as a front to use Canadian funding in their films, though the suit was dismissed as frivolous. In 2017, the company was resurrected as Sterner Stuff.

1st logo (1987)
Logo: On a black background, we see a picture of a victorian house in a blue frame. A light activates in one of the windows and "STERNWEST PRODUCTIONS" fades in below.

Variant: On local reruns of The Halloween Gang, text reading "PRODUCED UNDER LICENSE TO STERNWEST PRODUCTIONS" is below

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: A three note fanfare.

Availability: Seen on the syndicated run of The Halloween Gang, and along with the Gecko Studios logo, plastered the Blessard Animation Productions logo on reruns of the first season in local syndication and home video releases through Family Home Entertainment. This was removed on more recent prints due to Blessard buying them back.

2nd Logo (1989-1992)
Logo: We fade into a black and white with balloons, helium tanks and party favors, along with a table holding a red box with horns on either side. The left side has the word "NO" and the right has the word "YES". By the bottom we see the word "STERNWEST". A hand comes in and squeezes the horn to the right, with "PRODUCTIONS" appearing in the first honk, and the environment gaining color at the second.

FX/SFX: Live-action.

Music/Sounds: Two horn honks.

Availability: Extinct. Appeared on the four part yearly special Commercial Corner on Nick at Nite and the unsold pilot for an American adaptation of Watch with Mother.

3rd Logo (1989-1994)
Logo: We fade in to a crowd of people wearing 3D glasses. One of the people looks to be combined of two halves (representing Sterns and West). A negative copy fades in over the picture, save for a circular cut-out encasing the conjoined people. "STERNWEST PRODUCTIONS" surrounds the circle.

Variant: Early on, we just see the image and the circle fades in with the company name in an arched fashion. On The Milkman, going with the theme of the credits, we just see the logo without the background. "IN ASSOCIATION WITH" is above it.

FX/SFX: The fading.

Music/Sounds: None or the opening theme of the movie. From 1995 to 1999, a piano synth tune is heard.

Availability: Appeared on No Air and The Milkman.

4th Logo (1994-1996)
Logo: We fade in to a room with a table, chair, waste basket and a window overlooking a giant field. Two portraits containing caricatures of Sterns and West are on opposing sides of the window. "sternwest productions" appears above in a typewriter fashion. Suddenly, a knife flies in from the right and hits the wall, causing the caricatures' expressions to turn into that of shock. The image shakes, implying someone fainted.

FX/SFX: Stop-motion animation.

Music/Sounds: Typewriter sounds, followed by the sound of the knife hitting the wall, a woman screaming and the thud.

Availability: Appeared on two TV movies, Hotter than the Sun and Dead and Aside, which both aired on Fox.

1st Logo (1995-2002)
Logo: On a black background, various white lines draw in. We zoom back as we see particles of green, red and blue zoom back and fill shapes formed by the lines, those shapes being a rhombus with two sections cut out to represent an "S", two triangles blended together to resemble a "W" and a triangle on its side to represent a "D". The background becomes blue and black gradient and the text "STERN/WEST/DUNN" appears below in white.

Variant: Filmed and taped versions exist.

FX/SFX: The lines and particles.

Music/Sounds: A synth theme.

Availability: Appeared on the 1995 remake of The Beast of Yucca Flats and Lockin.

2nd Logo (2001)
Logo: On a black background we see an image of a black mountain against an orange sky, with three figures walking up it. "STERNS/WEST/DUNN FILMS" is below in white.

FX/SFX: None, beyond the fade-in.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Appeared on The Piano Teacher.

1st Logo (2017-)
Logo: Same concept as the 3rd logo, this time animated to pan through the crowd, then the negative fading and the company name appearing around the circle.

FX/SFX: 3D animation.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Appeared on 7 Deadly Tales and Turn Away.