Five Favorite Transitions & Bumpers From Kids Shows

We talk a lot about TV shows we love but sometimes one of my favorite things are  little things we often overlook. For instance the commercial bumpers. On most shows it’s just a person announcing that they would be right back after these messages over a shot of the title, and sometimes it can be extremely lazy as they will just Photoshop an image over the title announcing the ad break. You see this a lot in syndicated re-runs. But once in awhile they can be a little extra special. Like on Alf when he usually had a clever joke. Or on A Different World which would tease the second half of the episode rather than just say “We’ll Be Right Back”. Of course Linkara on AT4W came up with clever ways to announce those annoying midrolls.



I also like clever scene transitions. It’s one thing to change scenes, with adult shows it’s simple a dissolve followed by a new location shot. Oh, some shows do different things. Home Improvement used silly animations of the Home Improvement logo to break the scenes up, Roseanne shows pictures of various locations around Lanford, Big Bang Theory uses a shot of a molecule to transition between locations, Caroline in the City used to use cartoon drawings to establish new locations which was kind of different, and of course 3rd Rock From the Sun used those cool animations of the solar system as transitions and those were always clever and well done.



About two years ago I talked about famous network bumpers. For that article click HERE. But when kids show and cartoons do these kind of things they become, in their own way, as much a part of the show as anything else. It sounds silly but just hearing a silly scene transition is enough to make you smile. Here are five examples of scene transitions which I love!




He-Man

He-Man’s transition image was a shot of the sword, and that was Ok. But I loved the bumpers, which had Orko announcing the commercial. My favorite one is when he breaks through the wall announcing the break, and when we return we see Orko taping up the damage as he announces it’s back to the show. By the way,  yes She-Ra did the same gimmick with Kowl or whatever his name was, but since that was the girl show I of course did not like it as much.







Saved By The Bell  (ok this is way cheating but the only clip I could find was from the NC review of this show)

This one is memorable because it isn’t clever or creative, but just so bland. The show had a very distinct musical cord it used before it’s ad breaks. And as Nostalgia Critic pointed out way back, it was so vague that it could be used for any mood. You never knew if it was good or bad unless you watched the scene just before it. It’s just one of the many quirky things about this series which makes it so fondly remembered even today. The bumper was just the title over more music, nothing to special.





Superfriends/Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends

Two simple one’s for the price of one. On Superfriends, the bumpers were nothing really, but the thing everyone seems to remember is the transition effect. It was three stars flashing by the viewer. It made no sense, it wasn’t tied in to anything, and yet it used all the time. I like it myself. As for the Spider-Man cartoon, I don’t remember the bumpers but that transition shot of the web is very much something I remember. I loved both these shows, right down to these silly transitions.








Transformers

With most of these it’s one or the other. Here we get a great transition shot and a great ad bumper! Who doesn’t know this transition shot? I don’t care if you’ve never seen the classic shows, you have seen this transition!! The bumpers were pretty cool too, it really kept you excited as the shoe went to a break. If you saw the NC episode he parodied them pretty well. G.I.Joe? They were less interesting. Transformers really knew how to keep you interested.









Mr.Rogers Neighborhood (this links to part of a whole episode just an fyi)

This is a little different but where else am I going to discuss this one? The transition from the regular show to the Land of Make Believe was accomplished via the Trolley. What’s the big deal? Yeah maybe this is just me, but I loved the trolley, with that piano music that accompanied him. It was always fun when he shows up. And he was a character in his own right. The other characters often said hello and talk to it, it even has a personality of sorts as it responds to the situation with his bells and whistles. I love it and now that I think of it…how come I never had one????? Actually I wanted the whole Land of Make Believe playset, pretty sure I never got that either    I didn’t want the puppets though, they were kind of…creepy.








This was fun, why is it so hard to find this stuff on YouTube? If I come up with five more great example I’ll come back, comment and let me know one that stands out in your memories.