The Peacock is back.

[etype2]

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[NowhereMan 1966]

I just saw ABC running their in color bumper too from the 1960's.

[Electronic M]

But does he still have allergies?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pit20Gotp-g

[Jeffhs]

The peacock never left NBC-TV, except perhaps for a short time when the network was using its "N" logo in the '80s. I think there may have been a copyright issue with the latter, as an educational TV network in Nebraska was using an "N" logo, almost identical to NBC's, at roughly the same time NBC-TV was using theirs. This may have been why NBC eventually abandoned the "N" (and later the so-called "proud N") logo and brought back the peacock. NBC may have wanted to go back to its early days of color broadcasting in the 1950s through the early seventies, in which they showed a much larger, elaborate peacock (with an announcer saying "the following program is brought to you in living color on NBC") before every color program they broadcast. The newest iteration of the NBC peacock shows a much smaller version of the bird, with the NBC chimes, of course, and the words "NBC Presents" directly below the peacock.

The peacock is being shown on NBC today probably because it was so well known and recognized in the network's early days of color television. Let us not forget NBC was America's first national TV network, being introduced 65 years ago, when color TV was still very new in north America; most people seeing NBC's color logo in the 1950s through about the 1980s were seeing the bird in black and white. (I was one of them, as my family never had color TV until the early 1970s.) The only time the peacock is not shown is before NBC's world news broadcast at 6:30 p.m. EST, and before NBC News special reports, the latter having its own logo; at all other times, the bird is shown in all its glory (albeit, as I said, much smaller than the original peacock) just before the program begins. Even NBC's signature "Tonight Show" is preceded by the peacock, but that is the last time the bird is shown until the next day, in prime time.

[Ed in Tx]

And now with the streaming "Peacock Network" they get a subliminal advertising message to the broadcast viewers. Why not cash in on the bird? ☺

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by Ed in Tx

And now with the streaming "Peacock Network" they get a subliminal advertising message to the broadcast viewers. Why not cash in on the bird? ☺

I'm not sure how NBC is doing that; that is, putting a subliminal message somewhere, somehow, on America's TV screens while they are showing the peacock. I've been watching NBC-TV as long as I can remember, mostly in black and white until I got my first color set (a well-used Sears Silvertone round-screen table model) in 1970, but I've never seen anything like this. NBC probably recently hired a computer expert, well-versed in modern computer technology, who took the original peacock logo and digitized it. That's the only way I can imagine NBC's peacock showing subliminal messages, as the original bird didn't show messages at all. The only version of the peacock I remember that ever made any sound (except for NBC's own background sound and an announcer saying "The following program is brought to you in living color on NBC") was the one that sneezed.

I'll have to watch NBC's peacock closely the next time it appears. The subliminal message may come and go literally at the blink of an eye, so if you aren't paying strict attention you might miss it.

[Ed in Tx]

Sometimes messages are expressed with no words...

[old_tv_nut]

In other words, there's nothing literally subliminal, just a visual reference to "peacock" that you may remember and link mentally when seeing an ad for the Peacock streaming service.

[consoleguy67]

The Peacock that most of us remember is the 'Laramie' peacock, so called because it was introduced in 1962, shown before the show. This verson ran from 1962 until 1975.

[AlanInSitges]

I was part of the team that launched MSNBC in the late 90s, back when it was a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC. I worked in Redmond, on the "internet side" as it was called. Even then all of our internal software tools had the peacock logo in them, and the NBC chimes would play when an alert sounded - a gift from our coworkers on the East coast.

[kf4rca]

Don't know if you have Comcast CATV where you are but they are proud of the Peacock as well.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by kf4rca

Don't know if you have Comcast CATV where you are but they are proud of the Peacock as well.

No, I have Spectrum cable, phone and Internet. However, I have seen Comcast's peacock here online, but never on TV. Spectrum, that I am aware of, anyway, has no connection or association with the NBC peacock or with the NBC television network itself. They carry NBC programming over local affiliates, but otherwise they have no ties whatsoever with that network or with the peacock. When NBC shows the peacock before its programs, it is strictly NBC, with no ties to local affiliates. (This may be different in cities with NBC-owned and operated affiliates, as in Cleveland from roughly 1965 until some time in the early 1970s.) The peacock appears before every NBC show, unlike in NBC's early days of color TV when the only time the bird was ever seen was the occasional (at the time) color broadcast.

When NBC became "the full-color network" in, I believe, the late '70s, the advertising all but ended, although the peacock, of course, is still seen just before NBC shows, with the G-E-C NBC chimes. The network probably, even likely, wants to hold on to that part of its history; I can't blame them, NBC being America's first network, dating back to 1926 when the NBC radio network was founded, then the NBC television network was founded in the mid-1950s. The NBC radio network was disbanded and totally done away with some time in the late '70s or '80s; I'm not sure exactly when.

BTW, I no longer watch NBC news unless the national newscast is preempted for any reason on ABC or CBS, the reason being after I learned that NBC-TV is heavily involved in politics, much more so than either of the others.

However, there are still several NBC entertainment shows I watch regularly, such as New Amsterdam and several others. These shows are NBC's best, in my opinion. I couldn't care less, however, about NBC's late-night shows, although they must have a loyal following since they are still shown on the network.

New Amsterdam is ending its run on NBC (the 2022-23 season will be its last), although the program is still being shown elsewhere on cable. I think this is a very good thing (that NA is being kept alive, so to speak, off-network), as New Amsterdam, as I said, is, IMO anyway, one of NBC's best programs. It must be, if the show still has a following. I certainly hope NBC eventually finds a replacement for NA because if that program dies, so to speak, network television will have lost one of the best shows of the 21st century.

[Titan1a]

All the "big three" are no damn good and irrelevant. I rely more on BCB and shortwave radio. Government would love to shut down the other TV channels. Try that with radio! When all hell breaks loose with TV and internet there'll still be international radio broadcasts. Everyone should have a receiver and regularly use it. I have multiple.

[nasadowsk]

I’m amazed terrestrial TV broadcasting even exists anymore. The transmitter, tower, STL, etc, has to be a pretty decent line item in the budget of a station.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by Titan1a

All the "big three" are no damn good and irrelevant. I rely more on BCB and shortwave radio. Government would love to shut down the other TV channels. Try that with radio! When all hell breaks loose with TV and internet there'll still be international radio broadcasts. Everyone should have a receiver and regularly use it. I have multiple.

Where do you get this idea the government "would love to shut down the networks" (NBC, ABC, CBS)? That will not happen any time soon or at all, that I am aware of anyway. The so-called "big three" television networks were around (as radio networks, until the '50s) before cable. The government (FCC) is not about to shut them down. While we are at it, where do you get the idea "all hell will (eventually) break loose" with television and the Internet? Broadcast television, not to mention radio, after all, was around long, long before the Internet was even thought of.

Where do you get the idea, again, that the major broadcast networks are no good and even irrelevant? There will always be people who actually enjoy watching the stuff (some might go so far as to call it "garbage" or worse) on TV. You may not care for the programming on the networks, but there is one solution which always works: If you do not like what you see on the networks, you can always change the channel or turn off your TV. There have been many times I have used both options when trying to find something to watch. Another solution would be to completely ignore the TV and do something else with your time. The government has no control over that, although the programs' sponsors may not and do not like it a bit, since they are losing money with anyone who does not watch the program.

PBS is another matter. This is viewer-supported television which depends on viewer contributions; this is why PBS and its affiliates run pledge drives at least once a year.

The government will not shut down radio any time soon that I am aware of, even though television is much, much more popular these days. Many radio stations in small American towns have shut down for good; there is one station I can think of as I write this which did just that at least a year ago. This was station WATJ in Chardon, Ohio, a 1kW daytime-only station. I am not sure by any means exactly what caused the station to call it quits permanently, but I would guess (this is only a stab-in-the-dark guess) the popularity of TV had a lot to do with it.