1990s commercial spot countdown leaders

A selection of creative countdown "leaders" that were pulled from commercials sent to local TV stations in the 1990s. Interesting to think of the amount of time and effort that was required to create these, as they were never intended to be seen by anyone other ad agency and TV station personnel. These were captured from the original 1-inch tapes that were sent to stations.

[@JAnon__]

love how you included one from 2006 at the end there :3

[@shaneharrisnj3484]

Also, at 1:01, Sirius by The Allan Parsons Project, a GOAT song for an intro for a boring (yet, important) discussion for Fox network employees and affiliates.

[@nlo5401]

this is absolutely fantastic visual ref. thanks for the upload

[@Tubedroid2024]

0:13 ball jumpscare

[@JoshuaMemers]

Just looking for that one countdown where silhouettes are walking on a red background on the right bottom corner while there’s a Countdown on the left upper corner

[@Tubedroid2024]

7:17 ball jumpscare 2

[@jmvwaitsforfnremixv10]

Why does the screen turn black when it hits 2? I just wanted to see the 1! 😢

[@VPR2B]

That's been the industry standard doing back to the early days of movies. The idea is to give a bit of separation between the leader and the program content, since obviously the leader is not supposed to be seen in the end product. You may also notice a quick tone that usually appears on "2" -- that is referred to as the "2 pop," which was/is designed to check sync between video and audio.

[@bernat_jansa]

1 and 0 left the chat.

[@danamaderas3382]

2-pop has joined the chat.

[@bernat_jansa]

@@danamaderas3382 you’re 2 months late 😂

[@danamaderas3382]

A wild @2pop has appeared!

[@SammyRenard]

why do these all end at 2 seconds? o:

[@VPR2B]

This has a standard that was adopted for film many, many decades ago. The "2" is usually accompanied by a quick audio tone (referred to as the "2 pop") that was designed to check for sync between between picture and sound. For most of the leaders you see here, it's done merely for tradition. You can read a little more about film leader history here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_leader

[@sm64be]

Also, people weren't meant to see the countdowns, and there's a black screen for 1 and 0. It wouldn't look nice if there was a 2 second timer at the start of every film.

[@SammyRenard]

@@sm64be Huh, I was under the impression the countdown ended when it hit 0, not after it counted it too

[@chanyy6838]

If there is an analog horror video with a countdown leader like this and something scary appearing in the one frame with the number “2”, let me know in the replies.

[@jsbestoopid]

well theres suicide mouse

[@thetribeoffive5675]

Denver,co

[@user-gp3dm7bt7y]

1:07 fox teleconference