Framed Face Opening



An opening sequence where the cast is shown with their faces in squares, circles, or other shapes. The main point is to help familiarize the viewers with the faces of the characters.

This is hardly ever seen these days, as you can get the same effect by just showing full shots of the cast in the credits, and many shows now don't even have an opening sequence at all, just running the credits in the first few minutes.

Compare Floating Head Syndrome.


 * America's Top 10: The opening sequence is consisted of a rotating blue, round neon frame, featuring a shot of Casey Kasem inside the frame.
 * Angie utilizes this during the first season. The cast pop in one at a time in a circle overlooking Philadelphia.
 * Archie: A seizure-inducing circle outline (representing a spotlight, perhaps) pans across to present the stars of the show.
 * Used in Australia Youre Standing In It as the opening for "The Average Family" sketches (in a parody of The Brady Bunch).
 * One season of Babylon 5 did this with characters' heads inside jump points.
 * The Big Valley: The first two seasons introduced the characters in soft-bordered ovals.
 * The Brady Bunch: The whole gang is seen in 9 segmented squares.
 * Buck Rogers in The Twenty Fifth Century
 * Pastiched in the vintage-style opening credits for the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Once More, With Feeling".
 * Cannon: The sequence in general revolves around a series of dots and circles, of which one is used as the O in the series logo with the title character inside. As it zooms up, the still image becomes a live shot of the main character, followed by a montage of that week's guest cast as the circle changes color.
 * Dallas: The more notable title sequence in the series consists of 3 vertical shots of each cast member.
 * Dynasty: A water fountain motif is used for this series' opening sequence. A segment of lines rise up and retract down to reveal each cast member inside a rectangular cut out.
 * Family Ties: The 1986-1989 sequence featured photographs of the Keaton family in picture frames.
 * Gilligans Island: The castaways are presented in a boat steering wheel, with the S.S. Minnow as its backdrop.
 * The Great Space Coaster: The opening sequence was tweaked by season 4 with the rainbow portal serving as a backdrop for presenting the Space Coaster gang (all of whom appear in a circle cut-out) and to introduce The Huggles.
 * Gunsmoke: The central characters were shown inside oval cut-outs which zoomed in over a shot of Dodge City. This was used from 1965 to 1974.
 * Happy Days: The cast is introduced over a spinning vinyl record playing on a jukebox.
 * The Hawaii Five O revival.
 * Hotel: This series has two sets of framed face montages. The main cast roster is shown inside a large oval mirror, while the guest stars are presented over a framed glass window motif.
 * Knight Rider: The first season featured a montage of the main characters played through K.I.T.T.'s monitor screen.
 * Lost in Space (the color episodes): Several shapes formulate and reveal each of the characters by two. This was used only during the 1967-1968 season.
 * Love American Style had several, like this example. Each intro featured stills of that week's cast inside a red-outlined heart motif.
 * The Love Boat: The guest cast for each episode was seen in a porthole motif (1978-1985) or a wave motif (1985-1986).
 * Lupin III (red jacket series): The first anime opening sequence featured a boxed iris-in of Lupin and the gang, each in alternating colors. The Japanese version showed both the characters' names and those of their respective seiyuu together; while the English dub simply credits the characters, not their voice actors.
 * Makin' It!: The characters of the show appear encircled in front of a disco ball.
 * Match Game: The '70s incarnation featured an opening sequence in which the celebrity panelists were keyed in over a rotating rounded rectangle.
 * Matt Houston: Each character appears in a static shot inside a box cutout over a black screen.
 * Mission Impossible (the original series): The opening sequence shows the characters in cut-out sections of letters from the word "MISSION." The letter O is book-ended for Peter Graves (Steven Hill in the first season) and Peter Lupus.
 * The Rat Patrol: The second season featured the characters inside rapid zooming ovals over various action shots of combat.
 * The Rookies: This one has the characters inside part of a canvas with their names taking up much of the border space as seen here. The inner part of the montage pulsates red throughout.
 * Search: Featured shots of the characters inside circles and some other elliptical shapes.
 * Star Search: The guest judges and contestants of the week were presented inside a star, ironically speaking.
 * The Streets Of San Francisco: this opening title sequence has Detectives Stone and Keller over a blocky splotch design. Said design was also used for the guest cast montage.
 * Many 80's Toku series have scenes in the opening where it freezeframes on one of the characters then shrinks the image into a box to show the character and actors' names below it: for example, here is the opening for Dengeki Sentai Changeman that does this.
 * Vega$ featured a montage of the cast "letterboxed" over stock footage of the Las Vegas strip.
 * Voyage to The Bottom of The Sea (the color episodes) featured stock footage of the two main characters as seen from a radar screen.