Color broadcasting timeline

[holmesuser01]

Originally Posted by W.B.

The thing that finally tipped CBS to going color, by all accounts, was when Philips first developed the Plumbicon tube and introduced the Norelco PC-60 color studio camera in 1964-65. Here, the network could go color without giving any aid to the "hated" rival RCA which owned NBC. It was precisely because of this rivalry that, from the time CBS's own incompatible "field sequential" color system crashed and burned in 1951 up to that point, CBS only grudgingly and very sparingly, from 1954 through 1959, mounted occasional color productions - and, from 1959 through '65, hardly any (except for those colorcasts from early 1965 that were mentioned).

It was also in relation to CBS's "anybody but RCA" equipment replacement policy, that when the antiquated RCA TK-26 film chains (acquired in the mid-to-late 1950's and used for very infrequent color showings such as annual airings of The Wizard of Oz) came up for replacement in 1965-66, the "Eye Network" went with the General Electric PE-240 chains for their New York Broadcast Center and Hollywood Television City outposts. (Just can't tell whether it was the PE-240-A or PE-240-B variant - which of those two had the rounded, curved edges on the camera heads, as seen not only on Dennis Degan's photos from 1978, but also pics taken in the mid-to-late 1960's by Gordon Laubach seen here (alt. link here)?

Thank you, sir, for the link to those images. That really takes me back.

[John Hafer]

Hey W.B., thanks for posting. I always enjoy your comments on color broadcasting as it seems we both have similar interests.

Regarding early ABC colorcasting, as I mentioned in my previous post, ABC starting colorcasting in the fall of 1962. Back then, any and all ABC color was from film only as no live color facilities were available. ABC apparently did go with the GE PE-24 generation color film camera systems but AFAIK, these were not available until circa 1964. I am curious as to what they used in 1962 and how they broadcast their color film programming.

Attached are a couple of scans regarding the startup of ABC colorcasting in the fall of 1962. All are from c. from Broadcasting Magazine. The dates of the jpg images are the dates of the magazines.

[W3XWT]

After the U.S. started regularly scheduled color broadcasts, who was next? I recall reading that channel 12 in Havana bought some RCA color gear prior to 1958.

[zenithfan1]

I don't know exactly who was next but Japan was the third country to start regular color casts in 1960 I think.

[John Hafer]

Here is a link to some very good information on early ABC and CBS color broadcasting:

http://www.novia.net/~ereitan/studios.html

Scroll down and read "Studio 72" under CBS color studios, and under ABC color studios, scroll down and read "Hollywood Palace".

Interesting info about the first two years of ABC colorcasting and CBS colorcasting.

[alespn]

Reading old Broadcasting Magazines from the '50s, it appears that there was one main reason why CBS discontinued color broadcasting... money. CBS executives were quoted as saying they would only broadcast a show in color if the advertisers paid the extra costs involved in color broadcasting. NBC/RCA was using the color broadcasts more as a loss leader to get more color TV sets in homes. As time passed, color sales in the '50s weren't at the levels that would sustain advertising at the level CBS wanted, so they quit broadcasting color.

[bozey45]

The Red Skelton Show was done in color with his own RCA cameras as early as 1956 I believe; I remember the announcer saying "LIVE In Color....The Red Skelton Show" before just about all of his shows beginning that year. Some weeks that announcement was not made so I assume the show was in b&w. He had some of the earliest color equipment in Hollywood I remember reading. I think his own prodction company owned the equipment and not CBS in the beginning.

[Eric H]

The Australians were introduced to Color (excuse me I meant "Colour" ) TV in 1975, in a way that only the Aussies could do. (OK, maybe the British too)

Can you imaging this airing on U.S. Television in 1975???

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kR6ETsZnto8

"Where's the Poop Deck"?
"Under the Crows Nest".

[Steve D.]

Originally Posted by W3XWT

After the U.S. started regularly scheduled color broadcasts, who was next? I recall reading that channel 12 in Havana bought some RCA color gear prior to 1958.

W3XWT, Looks like you may be right.

Here's Wikipedia's take on Cuban color TV:
"Cuba in 1958 became the second country in the world to introduce color television broadcasting, with Havana's Channel 12 using the NTSC standard and RCA equipment. But the color transmissions ended when broadcasting stations were seized in the Cuban Revolution in 1959, and did not return until 1975, using equipment acquired from Japan's NEC Corporation, and SECAM equipment from the Soviet Union, adapted for the NTSC standard."

-Steve D.

[Einar72]

Japan and Europe thumbed their nose at our trade embargo. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimates American businesses have lost $1.2 billion in potential sales. I've seen equipment made by a Japanese competitor of my former biomedical electronic employer in film footage of a Cuban hospital.

It's really cool seeing all the old pre-embargo American cars still proudly maintained down there. I haven't seen any photos of TV's, however.

[cbenham]

Originally Posted by Eric H

The Australians were introduced to Color (excuse me I meant "Colour" ) TV in 1975, in a way that only the Aussies could do. (OK, maybe the British too)

Can you imaging this airing on U.S. Television in 1975???

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kR6ETsZnto8

"Where's the Poop Deck"?
"Under the Crows Nest".

This is really great. We all take ourselves waaaay too seriously in promoting our advancing technologies.

~the Cliff who demonstrates digital HDTV on a CBS Color Wheel set for friends.

[Charlie]

Wow... that intro to colour in Australia was hilarious! I doubt it would have received many good reviews in the States in '75.

[Aussie Bloke]

Haha you's caught onto the Aunty Jack Show take on the switchover to colour in Australia, hilarious and whacky isn't it? lol This ABC's (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) comedic switchover to colour around midnight on 1st March 1975. The characters seen are from a rather out there ABC comedy show called "The Aunty Jack Show" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Aunty_Jack_Show which ran from 1972 to 1974 and they had a spinoff in 1975 in colour called "Wollongong The Brave", and of course Aunty Jack is the butch lady with the moustache who has the famous line "I'll rip your bloody arms off". So anyone who is curious about that show and likes out there slapstick humour, search "Aunty Jack" on YouTube and you'll find plenty of clips. Also to mention, that show has pretty much put my hometown Wollongong on the map as the show was based in my area! A lot of our programs back then were real light hearted and we didn't take ourselves too seriously and even our soaps had a lot of comedy in them too .

[W.B.]

Originally Posted by John Hafer

Regarding early ABC colorcasting, as I mentioned in my previous post, ABC starting colorcasting in the fall of 1962. Back then, any and all ABC color was from film only as no live color facilities were available. ABC apparently did go with the GE PE-24 generation color film camera systems but AFAIK, these were not available until circa 1964. I am curious as to what they used in 1962 and how they broadcast their color film programming.

RCA TK-26's - practically the only game in town then - from Prospect & Talmadge. Around 1965 the ABC Television Center in New York, as you'd mentioned on another post in another thread, acquired RCA TK-27 chains, on top of the PE-24's that had been in Union City, NJ beginning some time in the 1963-64 season.

[W.B.]

Originally Posted by John Hafer

Here is a link to some very good information on early ABC and CBS color broadcasting:

http://www.novia.net/~ereitan/studios.html

Scroll down and read "Studio 72" under CBS color studios, and under ABC color studios, scroll down and read "Hollywood Palace".

Interesting info about the first two years of ABC colorcasting and CBS colorcasting.

Mr. Reitan, Z"L, made a little error when he mentioned how, in the mid-1960's Television City acquired "3-V" film chains from GE; I reckon they, just as the New York Broadcast Center, got the 4-V PE-240's.