The Gracie Films logo until 2009.
Gracie Films is an American film and television production company, created by James L. Brooks in 1986. The company has produced many award-winning films and television series, some of which include Broadcast News and Jerry Maguire, but most notably, The Simpsons. The company is primarily associated with film studio and distributor Sony Pictures Entertainment, but it still has an office at the 20th Century Fox lot due to the indefinite contract Gracie Films has with Fox for 31 years of The Simpsons (and counting).
The Gracie Films logo consists of a chatty audience at a movie theater. A woman, who is to the far left, puts her index finger to her mouth and says, "Shhhhh!". Afterwards, the audience stops chatting and the movie theater darkens as a blue projector beam appears. The blue movie theater screen has the "GRACIE FILMS" text in white. During all of this, after the shush, the infamous 9-note jingle plays.
Gracie Films Distribution is a distribution company formed on New Year's Eve 2012. They formed distribution of classic films that were originally from classic movie studios.
Some standard and special versions of the company's logo and jingle were made to fit television shows, most notably "The Simpsons", which has lots of unique variants, as described below.
Variants
- The Simpsons:
- In Treehouse of Horror episodes, there is a pipe organ that plays the jingle after a lady screaming.
- In II and III, the organ plays without the lady's scream.
- In IV and V, the lady's scream was added in with heavy reverb.
- In VI, the jingle plays in a Myst/Philip Glass-style theme as heard in the "Homer³" segment (First of two episodes to hold the Halloween SFX).
- In VII, VIII, XI, XIII, XVI, XVII, XVIII, XX, XXV, XXVII and XXVIII, the organ plays slightly different.
- In IX, before the organ plays, the lady's scream was replaced with Regis Philbin screaming, "My eyes, my beautiful eyes!" as heard in the "Terror of Tiny Toon" segment.
- X's version of the logo is a reuse of the original logo from IV. Except the scream has small reverb and not heavy reverb.
- In XII, The organ played first then the lady's scream appears.
- In XIV, The Lady's scream is more drawn out. (Confirmation needed)
- In XV, the lady's scream was replaced with Homer screaming throughout this logo and the 20th Century Fox Television logo, similar to "The Blunder Years". This variant was reused in XXII and XXIII, though in those, Homer only screamed once.
- In XIX, the jingle plays in a Peanuts-style theme as heard in the "It's the Grand Pumpkin, Milhouse" segment, which was later reused in "Gone Abie Gone" (Second of two episodes to hold the Halloween SFX).
- In XXI, the organ plays, but the lady's scream was replaced by the famous Wilhelm scream heard in the segment "War and Pieces"
- In XXIV, the lady's scream was replaced with a small crowd shouting the phrase, "One of us!" as heard in the "Freaks, No Geeks" segment.
- In XXVI, the organ plays, but the lady's scream was replaced with Homerzilla roaring.
- Because the episode is canon, Halloween of Horror has the normal logo instead of the Halloween variant.
- In some episodes that feature songs during the ending credits, the closing song continues playing over the logo.
- Numerous other alternate versions of the theme have been used over the years.
- Whistle then Marching Band
- Cricket bat then Baseball Organ and faint applause
- Electric Guitar (containing the 'Shush!')
- Mexican Style then Olé chant (Used on the album Songs in the Key of Springfield)
- Vegas style then slot machine (Used on the album Songs in the Key of Springfield)
- Renaissance [contains the 'Shush'] (Used on the album Songs in the Key of Springfield)
- First Saxophone (contains the 'Shush!')
- Saxophone on the Beach (contains the 'Shush!')
- Third Saxophone
- Christmassy (contains the 'Shush!' with Alex Trebek saying Merry Christmas)
- Similar Renaissance (contains the 'Shush!')
- A Semitone Lower
- Acapella
- The first time the logo can be seen within the episode was in You Kent Always Say What You Want, where after being interrupted by the 20th Century Fox TV logo when saying 'The truth is-', Homer on a white screen whispers to the fourth wall, "OK. What I was going to say was-," before the 'shush' interruption and the end credits.
- On The Longest Daycare, the background is pitch black. The audience (including the shush lady), is on a teal outline. The rest of the logo continues as normal, despite the fact that the jingle was replaced by a drum roll. The finished logo looks like the print logo.
- Some episodes use either a sound bite from the episode, or use a quote from a character in that episode that plays alongside the jingle and shush or replacing the jingle and shush.
- These kind of variants are possibly inspired by the 'Deedle-Dee Tag' of Deedle-Dee Productions, as heard in nearly every episode of Mike Judge's animated comedy King of the Hill.
- I'm sorry.
- Shut up. (Overtakes the shush)
- Didgeridoo (No shush or music)
- Loud Gunshot
- Jamming.
- Music first then (Gunshot) You too, Gracie music dude! Gaw!
- Homer, we're out of vodka. (No music)
- Don't tell me to shush, you stupid lady.
- Silence! (Replaces shush)
- (Gunshot) (Thud) (Three More Gunshots) (No music or shush)
- Ooh, I hear this really sucks.
- Oh, why'd you have to shush? You ruined the whole show!
- You hit her pretty hard there, Rick. (also used in the Latin American dub as Homer Simpson)
- Worst episode ever.
- Oh, yeah. (As said in Waiting for Duffman)
- Moochie-moochie.
- Tappa-Tappa-Tappa.
- Devuelvame mi dinero! (Used in the Latin American dub only)
- Y esta porqueria mirando mi programa de television. (Used in the Latin American dub only)
- Repeating Tri-tone
- Shut up, Updike!
- Why, you ill-mannered sack of crap.
- Mukluk.
- (Basic laughter) En Français. (French laughter) (No music or shush)
- Raspy Cough
- Pokémon? Pokémon? Where the pokey and the man and the thing with the guy comes out... (overran into the 20th Century Fox TV logo)
- Whassup? (No shush)
- This has been a Gracie Films presentation. (Before the logo proceeds)
- Simpson! (Overtakes the shush)
- Oh, shush yourself.
- Badabing, badaboom. And we're done. (No music or shush)
- Plácido Domingo's Soprano Voice (No music or shush)
- Might be some wrong words there, but uh, pretty much nailed it. (No music or shush)
- ...But folk singers never say, "Take it, naked bacon". (No music or shush)
- Penelope vocalizing (No music or shush)
- Soon you will be... (Before the logo proceeds)
- L'Chaim (No shush)
- Whale call (No shush)
- Simon Cowell laughing (No shush)
- ...but I did say stop. (No shush)
- Well, why couldn't you've say that a minute ago? Don't take any of my ideas. (No shush, then 5-note jingle)
- Shush me again, and I'll take your head clean off.
- Oh, grow up!
- I'm in hell. (No Shush)
- The Outlands (No shush or music)
- Tribal Drums (No shush or music)
- Brandine and Cletus scatting (No shush or music)
- Not the second, or the... (Before the logo proceeds)
- Marge's shush
- Peter Griffin from Family Guy sings the jingle: And now the show is over now.
- Sammy Hagar laughing (No shush or music)
- I'm out of here.
- ...departed! (No shush)
- Throne of God
- Plopper Squealing
- Dog howl (Overtakes the shush)
- These kind of variants are possibly inspired by the 'Deedle-Dee Tag' of Deedle-Dee Productions, as heard in nearly every episode of Mike Judge's animated comedy King of the Hill.
- Homer has the most dialogue in the variants he has been heard in:
- Ringing bicycle bell then giggling (No shush or music)
- You're cut too, Shushy!
- Larry Flynt is right! You guys stink!
- Don't shush me, you rich bastard!
- Save me, Jebus!
- Baby made a boom-boom.
- Oh, boy! Buffalo testicles!
- Cobras!
- Screaming (overran into the 20th Century Fox TV logo which was then re-used in Treehouse of Horror XV, XXII and XXIII).
- Do you guys know 'Funkytown'? (No music or shush)
- Hey, shush yourself! (Reruns only)
- Excellent! (No shush)
- Jeez, sorry Dave. (No shush)
- And if I'm dead, avenge my death! (Reruns only) (No shush)
- Are we going to New York, or... (Before the logo proceeds)
- Usher, will you stop that person who's shushing? (No music)
- Doo doo, doo doo doo. Waiting on the pants. Oh, Bart! Not culottes! Aww. (No shush and music; overran into the 20th Century Fox Television logo; aired in the East Coast and Central versions)
- Laughter fades. Someone called Uber. (Aired in the West Coast and Mountain versions)
- In Treehouse of Horror episodes, there is a pipe organ that plays the jingle after a lady screaming.
- The first visual variation of this logo was in Last Tap Dance in Springfield, where after the "Shhh!", we hear Vicki Valentine saying "Tappa, tappa, tappa" while the logo's main animation slides up to the top half of the screen, while the bottom half has an animated black-and-white scene of a cat rubbing its eyes (with fake prop arms from off screen) and smiling afterwards (this was in an old Vicki Valentine movie that Lisa was watching during the episode). There wasn't a second visual variant for nearly 17 seasons, 16 years and 11 months until the episode "Looking for Mr. Goodbart"; In that episode, the second visual variant replaces the audience and the "Shush lady" with several different species of Peekimon. The Peekimon are heard mumbling. After the green Peekimon shushes (who is the Peekimon that replaced the "Shush lady"), an extra Peekimon pops out in the background:
The first Gracie Films visual variant from Last Tap Dance in Springfield.
The first Gracie Films visual variant from Last Tap Dance in Springfield, as it looks on FXX.
The second Gracie Films visual variant from Looking for Mr. Goodbart. They're not people, they're Peekimon!
- In two episodes, the jingle is played at the start of the logo and then a sound is heard. In All Singing, All Dancing, Snake Jailbird shoots his gun to stop the music like in the ending credits and says, "You too, Gracie music dude! Gaw!" and in Elementary School Musical, a cow moo is heard at the very end of the jingle.
- On Simpsons episodes starting with Season 2, there is a shorter version of the logo without the murmuring. Earlier Season 2 episodes carried the normal logo. The exceptions of the logo were the episodes "When Flanders Failed", "Stark Raving Dad", "A Star is Burns", "You Only Move Twice", "The Homer They Fall", "Burns, Baby Burns, :Bart After Dark", "A Milhouse Divided", "She of Little Faith" and Season 7 episodes (up to The Day the Violence Died) use the normal logo instead.
- From the DVD release of Season 15 to 17, the 2009-present logo was plastered over the original logo along with the 2007 logo of 20th Century Fox Television.
- On FXX reruns from 2014-present and local syndication prints from 2015-present of pre-2009 episodes, the 2009-present logo was plastered over the original logo along with the 2013 bylineless 20th Television logo with the 2008 TTV theme.
There is a list of variants on this site, but unfortunately, they haven't been updated since the end of Season 21.
The CLG Wiki also has a page with lists most sound variants of the logo.
- Other Variants:
- An even shorter version is found on the short-lived Phenom, which cuts off the first two notes along with the murmuring and "Shhh!", Also The Background Music Is Slightly High Tone.
- On the webisodes of The Critic, the logo is in the center of the screen, is brighter and blue, and is still. This variant uses the end theme of the show. A silent version also appears on the digital re-release of The Simpsons Arcade Game which is only re-released on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network.
It is often speculated that the main chorus of the 1990 song entitled "King of Wishful Thinking" by the British pop band Go West can be heard in this song. This has been fervently denied by some members of the successful pop band, though others have expressed their displeasure.
The company's production office is located in the Sidney Poitier Building on the Sony Pictures Studios lot in Culver City, California.
References in The Simpsons
- Homer once claimed in his first ramble that he created Gracie Films.[1]
- In the episode Moho House, the fourth wall is broken when the Gracie Films logo appears at the end of Homer's flip book to Marge. This is the second episode to have the Gracie Films logo play within the episode; the first was "You Kent Always Say What You Want".
Animation Production Manager/Coordinator for Gracie Films
- Ken Tsumura (1993-1995)
- Joel Kuwahara (1995-1998)
- Richard K. Chung (1999-2001)
In Charge of Production at Gracie Films
- Richard Sakai (for feature films only, 1987-1994)
- Michael Stanislavsky (1989-1991)
- Michael P. Schoenbrun (1991-1993)
Vice President of Gracie Films
- Denise Sirkot (1993-1997)
Notable TV series and films
- The Tracey Ullman Show (1987-1990)
- Broadcast News (1987)
- Big (1988)
- Say Anything (1989)
- The Simpsons (1989-present)
- War of the Roses (1989)
- Sibs (1991-1992)
- Phenom (1993-1994)
- The Critic (1994-1995)
- I'll Do Anything (1994)
- Jerry Maguire (1996)
- The Daytrippers (1996)
- Bottle Rocket (1996)
- As Good as It Gets (1997)
- Riding in Cars with Boys (2001)
- What About Joan? (2001-2002)
- Spanglish (2004)
- The Simpsons Movie (2007)
