GBH Productions (WGBH) (1971-1977)

Background
WGBH-TV (channel 2), branded on-air as GBH or GBH 2 since 2020, is the primary PBS member television station in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is the flagship property of the WGBH Educational Foundation, which also owns Boston's secondary PBS member WGBX-TV (channel 44) and Springfield, Massachusetts PBS member WGBY-TV (channel 57, operated by New England Public Media), Class A Biz TV affiliate WFXZ-CD (channel 24) and public radio stations WGBH (89.7 FM) and WCRB (99.5 FM) in the Boston area, and WCAI radio (and satellites WZAI and WNAN) on Cape Cod. WGBH-TV also effectively, but unofficially serves as one of three flagship stations of PBS, along with WNET in New York City and WETA-TV in Washington, D.C.

(October 3, 1971-June 29, 1977)
Nicknames: "Zooming WGBH", "Zooming Letters", "WGBH of Doom"

Logo: Against a background, the letters "WGBH" in yellow in a generic Helvetica font quickly zoom back, away from the viewer to the vanishing point, and disappearing when the text is very small. Then the word "Boston", also in yellow, also appears out of nowhere and then zooms forward really fast, taking up the whole screen and creating a yellow background. And finally, the word "Presents" zooms forward at a fast pace, in.

Variants:
 * An early version of the logo exists, where the colors are instead blue green. It was still used during the mid-1970s. It can be most commonly found on some prints of this logo, due to either film deterioration or film quality.
 * A black-and-white version of the logo appeared in 1974. In this one, the background is white,"WGBH" and "Boston" are both black, and "Presents" is white. It can be oftenly found on black and white prints of many early episodes of NOVA. There is also a rare variant of the black-and-white version with the logo's music in high pitch.
 * The first season of NOVA has this logo with the words all in green, zooming out, and animated as part of the show's intro. And at the end, it flashes rapidly.
 * On the first two seasons and many early episodes of NOVA during the 1970s, the background is beige at first, and turns brown after "Boston" zooms in; the words "WGBH" and "Boston" are brown while "Presents" is in beige and it would zoom forward as always, transitioning to the opening cinematic. The same version also appeared in PBS airings of NOVA.
 * On season 3 of NOVA, everything that is supposed to be green in the variant of the logo from the very first season of the said show is white with the copyright stamp below the logo. Go here to see summary.
 * On The French Chef, the logo is chroma-keyed over a slanted flag of France (which has the colors flipped around, making it look more like a Netherlands flag or the 1792 First French Republic flag) against a sky-blue background, animation and all. Also, when the "Boston" text gets close to the screen, it inverts to being a cutout in a yellow square to get the proper effect.
 * Some episodes of the aforementioned series would have an extremely rare variant of the logo instead of the previous variant that is usually used, where the background is black and the letters are in teal. This is the earliest known version of it.
 * On the Bicentennial edition of Evening at Pops, there is a black background with yellow confetti. The first two words are white and when " Boston" zooms in and takes the full screen, the background is white, and " Presents" is black.
 * A brighter version of the version is featured on several episodes of The Advocates. The version has a bright blue/yellow-orange background. Some episodes also feature the logo with a bright teal/cyan background.
 * Another variant from The Advocates has the burgundy background instead of.
 * On Godspell Goes to Plimoth Plantation for Thanksgiving, the background consists of the bottom view of floating and  balloons. The text are inverted colors of the background with "Boston" changing the whole screen to this effect.
 * On A Blind Teacher In A Public School, the background is but with the text all in white.
 * Sometimes, a version of the blue green version exist where the yellow colors have slightly decreased contrast and while the blue green background is slightly brightened

FX/SFX: The zooming of the words; simple animation. Additionally, The French Chef variant with the transition from Boston to Presents looks awkward: the Boston text moves upward to not fill the screen in this one, and as "Presents" stops zooming in, it's off centered, and the flag looks more like a crooked flag of The Netherlands instead of France. The confetti on the Evening at Pops variant makes the logo look really ugly. And the unmusical "music" is a recipe for disaster.

Music/Sounds: Composed by Gershon Kingsley, the jingle consists of eerie, choppy, UFO-computer like blips which ascend and descend several times. A rising Moog violin stinger starts playing over the blips, until said stinger settles on a high note.

Music/Sounds Variants:
 * The jingle's speed may vary; it can play slower or faster than usual.
 * A high-pitched variant exists.
 * A low-tone variant exists.

Availability: Extinct and extremely rare, will probably never be seen again outside of tape-trading. In the wild, as programming from this era, is usually no longer rerun. You might find this logo on older WGBH programming, assuming it isn't plastered with a later logo. You might find this on old tapes of The French Chef, 1972's Zoom, Evening at Pops, The Victory Garden, Masterpiece Theatre, and/or NOVA episodes from the era. The French Chef variant also showed up when WGBH-2 in Boston, MA had a marathon of old episodes of The French Chef on Christmas Day, 2011. Despite its rarity, the logo can easily be found online on several episodes of The Advocates on the WGBH Open Vault.

Editor's Note: The logo became notorious for its high-contrast colors, fast "V of Doom"-style zoom-ins, and eerie synth music.

Scare Factor: High to nightmare. The high-contrast colors, extreme "V of Doom"-style zoom-ins and the eerie synth music would have been sure to unnerve many people.