Another image campaign for Today by the folks at 615 Music. This was one was used to promote the start of a new era for Today, without Katie Couric and with Meredith Vieira. Customized versions were done for a number of NBC stations, including those in Atlanta, Miami and San Diego. Interestingly enough, a version of this campaign was also created with the tagline: “It’s a new hour…of Today”. The decision to add a fourth hour was not yet announced, probably not even made, but they did commission the music to promote it. However, it wasn’t used to promote the fourth hour. For that, a new image campaign by 615 was commissioned.

A well known promo campaign used for a number of years: ‘America’s First Family’. Many local stations had their own version of this promo campaign for their own morning news. Today is actually the most profitable program on television, which is probably why it keeps expanding. During the use of this promo package, Today expendad to an extra hour. In 2000 Today added a third hour. In 2005 the America’s First Family-campaign was dropped in favor of “Live for Today” by country singer Phil Vassar and Randy Wachtler of 615 Music.

Before the third hour of Today, there was Later Today. They used a different theme, set and anchors, but had their own version of the promo above.

This is a campaign called ‘Start With Today’ and was used in many promos for NBC’s Today Show. The Today Show is created by Sylvester “Pat” Weaver who was vice president of NBC in charge of television and revolutionized the new medium. He created programs in which the sponsors could buy ad time as opposed to the old radio format in which sponsors owned shows, dictated their content and sometimes even their time slots. Weaver brought American television the Today and Tonight Show and proved that people would watch TV at all times of the day. This promo is composed by Kingsize Music.

Today debuted on January 14th 1952 and was first hosted by Dave Garroway and featured a chimpanzee, called J. Fred Muggs, as a sidekick. Like the current studio, the first set was streetside with people looking in. The first show had a relaxed, easy going style that made it popular with viewers. This open was used from 1985.

This is the third part of the four-part The Mission package and was used as a close to NBC’s Today Show in the 80s. This theme is more commonly known as “Scherzo for Today”. Although the theme starts out very different than Part I, keep listening to hear some samples that have been worked into this part. Since The Mission premiered in 1985 it has been used less and less. This theme was dropped altogether in 1990. A shorter version of this theme was used as the music used for the Tomorrow on Today promos.

This bright and sunny piece is perhaps one of the most famous themes used on the Today Show. It’s the second theme by Ray Ellis. It replaced the theme that Ellis composed earlier for the Today Show that was forced off the air by a lawsuit. This theme however was so popular with viewers that after The Mission premiered in 1985, this theme was brought back occasionally as the secondary theme. However, it will forever be closely associated with the 1970′s era of Today, with Tom Brokaw and Jane Pauley as anchors.

This jazzy theme by Ray Ellis was used on the Today Show for a number of years but ultimately forced off the air due to a plagiarism lawsuit. Publishers of the song “Day by Day” sued Ellis and NBC charging that the instrumental arrangement and harmonization of the Today Show theme is substantially similar to that of “Day by Day” and, more importantly, the differences in melody are relatively minor. The Court sided with “Day by Day” and NBC was forced to commission a new theme. It was later revealed that NBC had considerred using “Day by Day” as its theme. Here you can listen to the theme that was banned from television. It was at first only used as a long friday close, but starting in 1976 it was also used as an open.