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Eye Catch - TV Tropes

  • ️Thu Apr 26 2007

Eye Catch (trope)

An eyecatch, or commercial bumper, is a short blurb displayed when a series goes to or comes back from commercial. Anime eyecatches tend to be either humorous, with a little musical sting played over them, or simple representative pictures with the series' name; they are often an opportunity for gratuitous Fanservice. Series that run for more than one quarter frequently will have several eyecatch styles over their run, sometimes with a small set of choices that rotate from episode to episode.

Saturday morning cartoons in North America frequently had one generic set of "we'll be back after these messages" Ad Bumpers per network, played at breaks for all of the series running on that network. Generally in the west, the term "bumper" applies more to this kind of EC, and bumpers are usually done by the broadcaster, rather than as part of the show itself. In the days of syndication, some syndicated cartoons would come with their own eyecatches, but these were typically rather generic (a still from the theme sequence and a voice saying, "We'll be right back" was usually the extent of it).

Examples

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Fan Works 

Live-Action TV 

  • Most British broadcasters use a static caption with the show's title and sometimes a superimposed channel logo, sometimes accompanied by a snatch of the theme tune, at the start and end of each break. In the past there were a few shows that used animated bumpers, notably The Prisoner (1967) with an animated pennyfarthing bike disassembling before the break and reassembling afterward. (These are not included in the main body of the remastered DVD episodes, but appear as extras.)

    As The BBC doesn't carry any adverts, this can cause issues when BBC programmes are repeated on commercial channels such as UK Gold, which do. Early on it was common to have eyecatches specific to the programme (usually a screencap with the programme title and channel logo) but more recently they tend to use generic eyecatches which just have the channel logo.

  • Live-action shows with network content warnings sometimes have additional Content Warnings in place of where an eyecatch would go. Not really an eyecatch, but they can "catch your eye" if you're fast forwarding through the commercials.
  • The Sci-Fi Channel used to have interesting eyecatches used on most shows they played. Normally they depicted something absurd or nonsensical, and then the Sci-Fi logo would fade out partially, leading the word "IF" behind.
  • Syndicated Reruns of programs will occasionally feature eyecatches with an announcer, usually one of the cast, saying that "(Show) will be right back." Then during the final commercial break, there will generally be another one, this time announcing that "(Show) is brought to you by the following sponsors."
  • 24 has its signature ticking clock both immediately before, and right after any commercial break.
  • Barney Miller occasionally does this by having a still photo of the 12th precinct◊ and an announcer saying Barney Miller will return after a commercial break.
  • Beakman's World had the famous catches with the robotic-voiced bumpers. BKN infamously overlaid them with their own Ad Bumpers when they ran the series in 2000. And the Netflix version also leaves them off, what with no commercials to be cutting to.
  • Better Off Ted has a fake ad for Veridian Dynamics (the show's fictional company) before the first commercial break. May be something of an inversion, as it looks so much like an authentic commercial for a generic faceless corporation that it's very easy to tune out (or skip over if you're watching via DVR.)
  • Caméra Café features playing around with the coffee machine and a coffee goblet sporting the series' title. The goblet can fill normally, it can topple, it can fall after the coffee, or something absurd can happen, like the goblet filling with concrete instead of coffee.
  • Dirty Jobs uses eyecatches based on the opening credits, with bugs, unidentified gooey stuff and squishy noises present.
  • Fringe uses X-ray pictures that form a code when put together.
  • Good Eats uses a rejoin eyecatch (the title card and a quick snippet of the theme) starting with the third-season episodes.
  • iZombie comes back from commercial with the scene represented as a comic book panel (with a humorous subtitle) before changing to live-action.
  • Early seasons of Kaamelott have short gags or scenes from the pilot episodes, showing the knights doing a Team Power Walk or fleeing, or Merlin misfiring a Fireball. One was original, though: King Arthur pulling Excalibur from the stone and stumbling into a pond as a result.
  • Showa era Kamen Rider shows have this. Shows from the Turn of the Millennium onward just directly cut to commercials with the unique exception of 2020-2021's Kamen Rider Saber, which employs them (along with an ending credits sequence, which was previously done a grand total of twice since 2000) to shorten the show's running time, facilitating filming around COVID-19 Pandemic restrictions.
  • Knight Rider episodes would shrink the picture to the corner of the screen, with the space being filled by a picture of KITT at night in the first season, and a clip of KITT racing through a desert for the other three seasons. Both versions would use a dramatic fanfare based on a segment of the theme music.
    • The second season opener instead uses a clip of KITT and Goliath charging at each other.
  • Mystery Science Theater 3000
    • The eyecatch usually displays the show's trademark "spaghetti ball" spinning for a few seconds before commercials, with an instrumental snippet of the Theme Tune.
    • Seasons 2 through the Joel episodes of season 5 would also have eyecatches featuring close-up shots of Gizmonic Institute.
    • Starting with Mike episodes of 5 and running through the end of the show's Comedy Central run, some of the eyecatches would be shots of various experiments in Deep 13, alongside the name of the movie being shown.
  • MythBusters shows their title as letters welded on a rusted steel plate (or sometimes cut out of one) with some action occurring either to or near it (like being shot with a BB gun or moved through their building, M5, on the front of a forklift), usually before and after each commercial break. They use one that reads "Warning: Science Content" sometimes, too. This all fits in with their theme, since they use similar plates reading "Busted," "Plausible," and "Confirmed" at the conclusion of each myth.
  • NCIS
    • Starting around the 2nd season or so, NCIS lets its viewers know when a commercial break is starting or ending with a grayscaled half-second snippet overlaid with a soft thump. It can also serve as a sneak peek and even potential (yet minor) spoiler, as 99.9% of the time, the eyecatch from the start of a segment will be a quick view of the end of that same segment (which will also serve as an eyecatch). Partially subverted in that these also happen right before the end credits.
    • The spinoff NCIS: Los Angeles is a bit more frenetic with its version of this, with several connected grayscaled snapshots of past and/or future events, with the sound of a camera taking a photograph.
    • A second spinoff, NCIS: New Orleans, uses a similar mechanic to the parent show, though styled differently: faces are color-cast in a shade of orange and the rest of the shot is grayed out. A musical sting featuring a tambourine accompanies the snippet.
    • NCIS: Hawaiʻi subverts this somewhat. The eye catch going into the commercial break is still there, but the flash-forward eye catch afterwards is not.
    • For NCIS: Sydney, an updated version of the parent show’s eye catch with a new sound and a glitchy transition effect is used
  • A very interesting example on Person of Interest. The show's premise involves a Machine that spies on everyone. When the show comes back from commercials, the Machine's point of view of many of the security cameras around New York (and often audio feeds, articles and other means of surveillance) are seen moving across the screen, the Machine then focuses on one of them, taking us into the scene.
    • When the first scene after commercials is a flashback, a similar screen is shown, with a timeline overlay of years (and sometimes months, days and hours) which then scroll back to the year the flashback takes place in. Sometimes, the Machine recaps data straight from the commercial too, in which case, this is an Subverted Trope.
      • The only exceptions to this as of Season 3 are in the Season 3 finale "Deus Ex Machina" and its precursor "A House Divided" where we are shown the Start of Darkness of Peter Collier often straight from the commercial. We just enter the scene as with any other TV show, except "2010" is featured prominently on the screen. It's pretty jarring, considering viewers are accustomed to hearing the incoherent slur of thousands of voices straight from the commercial.
  • The MTV reality show Run's House had one. It was basically a snippet of the opening sequence.
  • The Australian series Spellbinder used the "Logo in the corner" version for both entering and exiting the break—quite unusual on Aussie TV of the time. Usually, kids' shows would simply go to commercial, sometimes with an eyecatch that may have simply been a freeze-frame of the title card, and then they came out, the network would superimpose a card across the bottom of the screen showing the network logo, the name of the show, and the rating.
  • The Japanese Spider-Man series has eyecatches too, used as page images on the show's article here.
  • The different Star Trek series will sometimes have the logo shown with a background of empty space (TNG), the station (Deep Space Nine), space with nebulas, solar flares, etc. (Voyager), or the Cool Ship (Enterprise) while a snatch of the theme music plays. The remastered Star Trek: The Original Series got ones with various scenes from the show.
    • In a similar vein, Babylon 5 would invariably show a shot of the eponymous station, or whatever planet or ship the action was taking place on at the moment, when returning from commercial. (Which incidentally makes it very obvious where the commercial went when watching on DVD.)
  • Super Sentai has them, and the one for Gekisou Sentai Carranger was kept in the later episodes of Power Rangers Turbo — the Power Rangers one, of course, removed the Carranger name.
  • As a series about adult tokusatsu fandom, Tokusatsu GaGaGa also employs these albeit purely as scene transitions at random points in an episode. (The show aired on NHK which, like the BBC mentioned above, is a State Broadcaster that doesn't carry adverts.)
  • On Michael Moore's series TV Nation, commercial breaks were preceded by the results of humorous opinion polls. (The polling, done by the firm of Widgery and Associates, was legitimate, though the questions were preposterous.)
  • Many if not all Ultra Series shows, beginning with Return of Ultraman, use their logos this way.
  • Some Victorious and Big Time Rush episodes have Customized Eyecatches featuring their recent songs, but that depends if they're using their customized Credits Pushback ending credits.
  • The Wild Wild West had a unique method of doing this. The last frame of the sequence before the commercial (usually a cliffhanger) was transformed into a comics-style illustration (in the pilot and from sometime during season two onwards) or alternatively a black and white (in season one)/tinted color (in the first several season two episodes) and placed into one of five panels that resembled a comic strip, with each sequence being placed in a different panel.

Professional Wrestling 

  • CMLL cycles through the luchadors on its roster for its "Regresamos" and "Continuamos" spots, which often are the only exposure to the television audience those not on the current show get.

Video Games 

  • Asura's Wrath does this intenionally, with the Eyecathes being just like anime ones, and is episodic like a real anime.
  • Atelier Iris 2: The Azoth of Destiny had something similar to this when transitioning between Felt and Viese.
  • Detana!! TwinBee, TwinBee Yahoo! and Pop'n TwinBee have these, after every level is completed. Yahoo has great eyecatches, with one character per eyecatch (except TwinBee, oddly enough) saying "Yahho!" at the end.
  • Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice has more stages per "episode" than its predecessors. In keeping with the spirit of the series, this was Lampshaded by running eyecatches about halfway through the plot of each episode, using the battle close-ups of the cast. Instead of running fake commercials, they led into a brief skit featuring "Today's 10 Gents", a.k.a. the Diez Gentlemen.
  • The Pokémon remakes FireRed, LeafGreen, HeartGold, and SoulSilver featured eyecatches that would be displayed when the player entered certain locations, usually caves, forests, and special buildings. HeartGold and SoulSilver actually featured four different eyecatches for each area, which were displayed depending on the time of day.
  • Rusty has a different splash screen at the end of each level showing the game's title and Fanservice of the heroine.
  • Star Parodier has a humorous splash screen at the end of each Scene, accompanied by a Title Scream.
  • Being what it was, Tech Romancer had eyecatches for each Mecha's Story Mode between the dialogue and fight in each stage.
  • While Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL Clash! Duel Carnival! loads, the game shows the monster Gagaga Girl rendered in the game's "pixelated chibi" style. Once in a while however, it may show the anime's female lead Kotori Mizuki cosplaying as her instead. This may be a nod to the 92nd and 93rd episodes of the anime, during which Kotori actually dressed up as her during the local (obviously Duel Monsters-themed) School Festival.

Webcomics 

  • The now-defunct Life of Riley used to do this in a webcomic! This was one way they handled filler strips.

Web Original 

  • Atop the Fourth Wall, however, does have scheduled advertising in the form of a "mid-roll" ad. While other users tend to ignore the mid-roll (although the Nostalgia Critic sometimes lampshades it), Linkara has a set of specially prepared bumpers to put around it.
  • This live-actionized "anime" video by Corridor features a parodying expositional eyecatch, albeit without actual commercials.
  • In Epithet Erased, there are screens that pop up before and after ad-breaks, showing facts about various characters, complete with said character saying a variation of the show's name.
  • Being a Web Video, and thus not having scheduled advertising, France Five doesn't need eyecatches. It is, however, also a parody of Sentai, and since Toku shows usually feature one, so does this amateur series.
    • Episodes 2-4 have the camera turning around the Cel Shaded heroes in a "Super Sentai" Stance. In the "return" eyecatch, though, they screw it up and fall in a heap, save for Red Fromage who facepalms.
    • Episodes 5 and 6 have a very Animesque still frame of Zakaral confronting the France Five.

Western Animation 

  • One brand of animation where eyecatches are largely averted are with series made in France, for the simple reason they are not cut by commercial breaks when broadcasted in their country of origin. Attempts to put commercial breaks in twenty-minutes-long children cartoons or anime in the '80s resulted in very strong protests from the parents. As a general rule, the French have a much lower tolerance for advertising compared to other nations.
  • Most of the works of Mainframe Entertainment (as it was known before it got its name changed) made in the 90s and early 2000s had eye catches when going to and coming back from commercial. This includes ReBoot, Beast Wars, Weird-Ohs, Beast Machines, Shadow Raiders/War Planets, Action Man (2000) and Spider-Man: The New Animated Series.
  • The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin has one that had Teddy's voice saying "My friends and I, will be right back!"
  • The eyecatch for Æon Flux is a Visual Pun: a fly crawls closer and closer to a human eye seemingly without iris or pupil. The eyelashes close like a Venus Flytrap, imprisoning the fly, as the pupil of the eye rolls around to examine its catch.
  • In between each episode of Alma's Way, there's a short blurb with Alma dancing in front of a teal background and the show logo enlarging.
  • Aqua Teen Hunger Force: Early episodes would occasionally cut to the main logo or characters being in the alley from the intro before cutting back.
  • Archie's Weird Mysteries has these, with the voice of any of the main characters shown saying variations of "don't go away", and even the opposite "we're back".
  • Beavis and Butt-Head has eyecatches that either use "we'll be back after this" messages or fake "Coming up, this will happen to the protagonists" announcements.

    "Butt-Head pulls a muscle and Beavis pulls his finger, right after this."

  • Code Lyoko has five eyecatches in each episode, one for each member of the Five-Man Band, in variable order, with an animation of the Lyoko avatar, name and face of the character in the XANA logo. Interestingly three of these eyecatches (Jeremie's, Aelita's and Odd's) use their signature colors (light blue, pink and purple respectively) as a background while the remaining 2 (Ulrich and Yumi) use red and green respectively. While Yumi's signature color of black not being used makes sense as it would make the eyecatch unpleasant to look at and the use of green could count as subtle Ship Tease (since green is Ulrich's signature color), Ulrich having a red background is a bit confusing since red is the signature color of William Dunbar, Ulrich's rival for Yumi's affection.
  • Coming Attractions, the Show Within a Show from The Critic, features these, usually as a joke at the expense of host Jay Sherman.
  • Daria. The eyecatch is a slow-motion clip of something that happened earlier in the episode. A subversion occurred when Daria and Quinn pick up a hitchhiker. After they drop him off, Daria freaks out that he stole their money. Cue the eyecatch, only for it to cut halfway through and go back to the show, as Quinn explains that she gave him the money.
  • The Darkstalkers cartoon has these, one of Harry and his pals firing and another of Morrigan firing.
  • Dexter's Laboratory, and other rerun series have these for airings on Cartoon Network's Boomerang channel in the United States.
  • Family Guy: "Airport 07", parodying Will & Grace.
  • Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes has one with each member of the team making the team's symbol, a four in a circle.
  • "Garfield and Friends will be back after these messages. If I feel like it."
  • He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983) featured a handful of eyecatches featuring Orko. The image of him bursting out of the background would later be featured as a recurring merchandise element.
  • Inspector Gadget. Dr. Claw: "Inspector Gadget may return after these messages."note 
  • Jem had thirteen bumpers over the course of three seasons. Netflix lacks them but television reruns and the DVD sets don't. The first few were still images but after a while they became animated. Most are Jem doing something like singing or just moving around, Jem transforming back into Jerrica, or Jem with Rio (though a third season eyecatch is her in the middle of Rio and Riot).
  • KaBlam!. "Hey Ka-Blammoids, keep your hiner in the recliner! Still to come, [Insert short], [insert short], and more Action League NOW!! Right here on KaBlam!" After the commercials ended, the announcer would say "KaBlam!", while a picture of the logo would do something. Later seasons changed this to Henry trying to lift up the logo, it falls on him, and then June winks at the audience. Then the announcer would say "KaBlam!" again like previously, this was to start the next break.
  • The Mega Man (Ruby-Spears) cartoon used these for both going to and coming from commercials. These got some rather nice Art Evolution in the second season, going from flat colors and generic poses to gaining some quality shading and more dynamic action poses.
  • Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur (2023) features ones that take the appearance of record covers, playing chill instrumentals from the show's original soundtrack.
  • The Real Ghostbusters has a variety of these, all featuring the ghost from the GB logo doing something funny and then saying "TRG will return after these messages. / And now back to the RGB.". These include:
    • Getting caught whistling outside the "No ghosts" symbol, then jumping back where he's supposed to be.
    • Looking left, then ducking down as a bunch of ghosts run by.
    • Finding himself upside down, then correcting his position.
    • Getting caught trying to saw his way out of the logo's diagonal bar, then hiding the saw while blushing.
  • Rocky and Bullwinkle uses several elaborate clips in rotation:
    • Bullwinkle tries to pull a rabbit out of a hat but gets a lion or a rhinoceros, whereupon Rocky says to the audience, "Now here's something we hope you'll really like."
    • Rocky delivers an urgent message to a battlefield.
    • Swami Bullwinkle announces, "Eeny meeny, chili beany, the spirits are about to speak!" Rocky: "Are they friendly spirits?" Bullwinkle: "Friendly? Just listen!"
  • The Simpsons parodied this in their spin-off showcase episode:

    Announcer: Chief Wiggum, P.I. will return... right now!

  • Steven Universe does an eyecatch for its 100th episode 22-minute special; after each commercial break, a short animation of the Crystal Gems (including Bismuth) arriving onto a warp pad, with Steven running to them, then tripping and parlaying it into a pose. (It's repeated for both act breaks with a differently-colored background for each.)
  • In Stickin' Around, the camera zooms out of Frank watching Stanley fixing the TV. When the break is over, the eyecatch featured Stacy using Frank as an antenna.
  • The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! had episode-specific eyecatches for its first few weeks.

    Mario: Is he talking about us?

    Luigi: You better believe it!

    (jump sound effect followed by sound of power up emerging from [?] box)

  • Thomas & Friends used an interesting variation of this trope. Between episodes, a thirty-second sequence of engines and other vehicles with their names shown below would play, ending with either an image of the Fat Controller with the words "Next Story Coming Up Soon!" or an image of a different character with the episode's title. These sequences are referred to as "nameboards" by the show's fandom for lack of an official title, if any. The nameboards were used on UK television airings and videos for only the first two seasons, but were much more prominent on American videos and DVDs until HIT Entertainment began distributing the series.
  • Unusually, Totally Spies! uses an eyecatch into, but not out of, a break.
  • Transformers
    • The original cartoon had eyecatches before and after each break, each one showing off a different character's transformation and accompanied by the distinctive voice of Victor Caroli intoning, "The Transformers will return, after these messages". The VHS release of some episodes kept these, and added sound effects for flying, transforming, etc. With each season having their own unique set*
    • Transformers: Armada would have a scene of Optimus posing dramatically for going to commercial, and Megatron for coming back.
    • In fact, there's a whole list at the TF Wiki, covering both US and Japan.
  • When X-Men: The Animated Series was brought to Japan, in addition to new openings being made for it, new eyecatches were made as well. See for yourself.