This is the logo your looking forward to. Widescreen and 60fps version: https://turbowarp.org/719876792?interpolate&size=640x360
Nicknames: "Swirling Star", "Twisting Star", "Taft Swirling Star", "Rainbow Twist", "H-B Swirling Star" Logo: On a black background, a white star swirls down from the top, leaving behind a rainbow trail. It then settles into the center of the screen as it twirls, occasionally shrinking and twisting, forming a circular trail. It then twists into the middle of the circle and comes to a stop. The words “Hanna-Barbera Productions” in Belwe Medium font appear below. Trivia: Basically, this is the Taft swirling star as seen on the Taft International Pictures logo, only rainbow colored. The logo was designed by Saul Bass. Bylines: September 8, 1979-January 31, 1981: “A TAFT BROADCASTING COMPANY” (in a white font) September 12, 1981-May 20, 1986: “A DIVISION OF THE TAFT ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY” In 1982, the 1981 byline was altered/amended with "A DIVISION OF" over "THE TAFT ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY". In 1983, the 1981 byline appears in a large yellow font, and the logo appears smaller in this version. June 7, 1990: "A GREAT AMERICAN BROADCASTING COMPANY" Post-1988 prints of H-B shows from this era often have the Taft byline blacked out. Variants: In 1990, a special version of this was used at the end of Jetsons: The Movie. This features the same animation, but “Hanna-Barbera” is written in the familiar cursive “script” font, first introduced in 1987 and the animation freeze-frames very shortly before the original animation ends. This variant also features a Great American byline, and is the only H-B logo to do so. Beginning in 1984, Hanna-Barbera created an opening logo to use at the beginning of some of their shows. It’s the same as the closing logo but it fades in during the middle of the animation. The text is changed, “Hanna-Barbera” is larger, and a small “PRESENTS” is shown below. This opening variant (the version with the regular music) can still be found at the beginning of every episode of The Smurfs on Boomerang. There is also an extremely rare still opening variant seen on the 1986 feature film GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords and at the end of the 1982 Hanna-Barbera feature film Heidi's Song, in which there is a large "A Hanna-Barbera Production" byline and the logo is tiny in size. On an older print of one episode of The Scooby-Doo Show, the logo is moved up a bit so that the Taft byline cannot be seen. A rare variant is seen on the 1989 VHS Top Cat: T.C.'s Back in Town where the Swirling Star plays as usual, but it ends with the letters "HB" in black on top of the star itself and the star itself zooms in to make way for the words "HANNA BARBERA", which zooms out from the center to flash in multiple colors before ending in a red color. The music accompanying it is score music from A Pup Named Scooby-Doo. On the TV special A Yabba-Dabba-Doo Celebration: 50 Years of Hanna-Barbera, an I.A.T.S.E. bug appears below the logo. This also appears on a pre-launch reel for Cartoon Network. On an earthquake preparation video made for the Los Angeles Earthquake Preparation Program, the text on the bottom says "Hanna-Barbera PRESENTS" with the text below in a Helvetica font. The white star then suddenly zooms in and engulfs the screen, and flashes to the video's introduction. At the end, the "Swirling Star" is smaller and the text says "A HANNA-BARBERA PRODUCTION FOR CITY OF LOS ANGELES EARTHQUAKE PREPARATION PROGRAM". Another dark/deteriorated variant was seen on a recent Boomerang airing of the 1983 Smurfs episode "The Smurfs' Time Capsule", where the trail was almost entirely invisible. Only the star and the text could be seen. Technique: The star and residue trail. Cel animation effects. Music/Sounds: Best described as “futuristic synthesized music", we start out with ascending and descending chimes mixed with a "whoosh" sound with each revolution of the star. When the star stops, the entire thing culminates in a somewhat gentle, but abrupt acoustic guitar and bass chord as the chimes finish in the background. This was written by Hoyt Curtin. Availability: Common in its “unaltered” form, though many prints still have the logo's Taft bylines blacked out or bylineless.
