GMA Network “I Wanna Be The Best” station ID (lost station ID of the Filipino television network; 1999)

A low-quality picture of the ident which was shown back then on the ALTA Productions website.

Status: Lost

In the early 1990s all the way to the 2000s, competition between Philippine TV stations ABS-CBN and GMA Network was at its peak, popularly coined by Pinoys as “network war.”

There have been some major events that intensified the rivalry of the two stations, and one of them is by mocking or teasing each other by racing to be the first to break the news or show exclusive footage (ex: Rico Yan’s death), the ironic coincidences of their schedule (ex: ABS-CBN was given the right to air Richard Gomez’s wedding to Lucy Torres on April 28, 1998 in Ormoc, Leyte and during the airtime, GMA aired a documentary revisiting the victims of the Ormoc tragedy), and lastly, via network commercials or station IDs.

GMA mocked ABS-CBN’s Sarimanok twice: the first one which includes the Sarimanok morphing into GMA’s logo (known to people as the “I Wanna Be The Best” ID, particularly as the Sarimanok said that specific phrase in the ID, it was also known as the “Chicken ID”) and a second one which includes the Sarimanok trampled by a big foot.

Background

ABS-CBN was revived in 1986 after it was closed down 14 years prior by then-President Ferdinand Marcos. Under Federico “Freddie” Garcia (who was also a former GMA-7 manager), the network prevailed in 1989, making GMA a second-placer. This is technically where the “network war” started.

In 1993, ABS-CBN resurrected the Maranao Sarimanok symbol, which was also the network’s symbol in 1966 to introduce the color television, akin to the NBC’s peacock. The Sarimanok was relaunched in a one-minute ad celebrating the network’s 40 years in the television industry. It was also included in the now-nostalgic station ID of ABS-CBN, also launched in the same year, which mainly shows the CGI Sarimanok. The station ID won the two gold medals at the 1994 New York Film Festival.

ABS-CBN’s Sarimanok became an official mascot of the network during the 1990s. A promo dubbed as ABS-CBN Sarimanok Milyung-milyong Pasasalamat Raffle Premyo was launched, with the promo becoming incredibly popular to Pinoys at that time.

Meanwhile, GMA embodied a rainbow satellite in its logo starting 1992, which signified the network’s expansion internationally. GMA’s mascot was ”The GMA Man” or “The Rainbow Man”, which was shown in its station ID. However, it was not as popular as ABS-CBN’s.

“I Wanna Be The Best”

This is what is said to be shown at the end of the ident (without the TV background)

In the summer of 1999, a station ID was made mocking ABS-CBN’s Sarimanok. Made by ALTA Productions, the station ID follows a rip-off Sarimanok chicken and a genie who grants wishes. The background was the sky background also used in the network's ID but inverted. The Sarimanok said the following: “I wanna be the biggest. I wanna be the strongest. I wanna be the best.” The Sarimanok and the genie then transformed into the rainbow logo of GMA and the GMA word respectively. The voiceover then said, “Ang manok ay naging the best nga!” (The chicken turned out to be the best indeed!) Along with the logo, the tagline "Where Summer Belongs." was shown.

The one who voiced the Sarimanok was said to be the one who also dubbed Wootan from Mojacko according to eyewitnesses, which aired in the network at the same year.

Aftermath & Availability

GMA again mocked ABS-CBN in the later months of 1999 as a few days after ABS-CBN’s chairman Eugenio Lopez Jr. died, ABS-CBN came up with a plug titled “Paalam, Kapitan” (Goodbye, Captain). In GMA’s fashion, it aired “Paalam, Eugene” (Goodbye, Eugene) referring to the Ghostfighter character Eugene, which was popular at that time.

The station ID was recollected by several eyewitnesses. It was also mentioned on a PEP.ph post about network wars. Footage was lost until a low-quality pixelated picture was found by PHTV archivist JACOBSHLTR on an ALTA Productions website via Wayback Machine. At some point, a full resolution of the picture was available along the promo being playable, however with the revamped of the website, it was deleted and unfortunately wasn’t archived.

The picture was the only footage of the ID as of today.