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Whenever I see a piano on TV or in a movie I always try to see what brand it is. Most of the time, the name is obscured or the angles don't allow easy identification.

I've never been a big TV watcher, but during Mrs. Retsacnal's cancer battle we discovered the Hallmark Channel. Every movie has a happy ending, and we definitely needed that. Anyway, I still occasionally watch them, and tonight I'm watching Sound of Christmas, in which a music school features prominently (a plot line that looms large in my reason for watching). Quite a few pianos, and as usual the names on the fallboards are illusive.

Then, all of a sudden, an upright and it's exposed name were so "out there" that it could have been a product placement! I've never seen a Petrof in person, but now I've seen one on TV.

In the old days the BBC would not allow any brand to show on anything. Even a can of soup would have the name blacked out. Pianos were ordered with no name on the fallboard and they would ensure that no camera angle betrayed the make. My father used to try to work out the maker by various features. Most of them were Hamburg Steinways.

They still are, except on TV where Yamaha seems to rule the roost. Fazioli was used during the summer on the Proms Extra program last year on TV - and its logo was prominently shown on the screen.

These days, it seems the BBC too has succumbed to brand placement. In the weekday drive-time 'In Tune' program on BBC Radio 3, the presenter keeps referring to "our studio Steinway" (without having to say "other brands are available" ), and guest pianists are often encouraged to talk about their favourite brands (often Fazioli) without being challenged about their choices, and told that 'other brands are available'.......

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00018bd

It's one extreme or the other.

If there's a product placement deal, they have to make sure you see the name.

Absent such a deal, the production company would have to secure the rights to use a trademarked name. That's a whole lot of hassle and paperwork for something that doesn't make the show any better. So, it's far more cost effective to just get rid of the name, even if they have to do it in post production as a CGI effect. (Shooting in a shopping mall is a real nightmare for rights and clearances, trademarked names and signage everywhere you look.)

The movie about Florence Foster Jenkins shows scenes of her practicing with her pianist .The piano is a Bechstein grand .
I also have seen other pianos such as an upright Knight in other movies and I once
thought I saw a Steinways grand in a movie .

One of the Iron Man movies by Marvel prominently displayed a Bluthner grand piano in the mansion of the protagonist... it was later destroyed. The destroyed piano was a fake; I was told as much by the people who rented out the Bluthner.

There was a white Bösendorfer that made quite a few appearances on BBC programs, but with the name obscured. It was before the side logo was standard.

The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson featured a Bösendorfer for many years.

The Bechstein in the Florence Foster movie did not somehow look like
the older Bechstein grands I have seen .I also saw an upright Bechstein in a German movie with English subtitles about a German housewife and her friends. The movie was set in the early 1940 s during the 2nd world war .The piano looked like an old Broadwood piano we once had .It could I suppose have been an authentic Bechstein.
In one scene the heroine sings while her father accompanies her on the piano .I remember it was Christmas eve .

Recently, I was very surprised to watch a TV commercial for Yamaha pianos ! It was on black Friday, and showed a young girl playing a new upright, likely a U3, while her parents watched on.

There was a Woody Allen movie within the last 5-10 years that featured a white Sojin baby grand. Surprising that they used the name, and more so because the story was set in the 1930's, about 50 years before the piano was built. Daewoo closed the Sojin factory in 1991, long before the movie was made, too.

Schroeder plays a Charles Schulz Pollman.

That's interesting! I'd love to see more TV commercials for pianos. I know the musical instrument industry seems to be struggling in general. I wonder why instrument manufacturers don't advertise more on TV and radio? That might encourage and spark more interest and drive more sales. More kids might take up interest in learning to play the piano, the organ, guitars, etc.

That was the movie "Cafe Society", set in the late 1930's. Sojin was introduced to the American public in 1964.

There were a lot of piano moments on Frazier. Frazier Piano

'The Children Act', recently released, starring Emma Thompson - it's like an advert for Fazioli.
Ridiculous.

Anyone know what make the piano is in the movie Casablanca .

The piano in Casablanca is a Tom Thumb piano, which I believe were made by Kohler & Campbell, but sold under many names.

In The Pianist, the main character's piano is a Bechstein. It's even mentioned. When the Jewish family in Nazi-occupied Warsaw are trying to raise money, the pianist's sister protests at the paltry amount they are offered for the piano, and points out its "a Bechstein."

I believe a Perzina piano also made an appearance.

In "Grand Piano" it's a Bosendorfer Imperial, and the number of keys is even part of the conversation between the killer and the pianist.

There were two picture pianos, both Tom Thumbs, one for Paris, the other for Casablanca. Both sold at different auctions for big bucks. The piano on the sound track is a full size upright, played off camera. Dooley Wilson was a drummer, not a pianist, but he faked the movements quite well. Warner's bought them from Hollywood Piano in Burbank.