Early Westinghouse rectangular color set

[Rob]

I watched the movie "Casper" last night for the first time. There is a scene in this old castle type house (chapter 17 on the laser disc) where they show a vintage color TV operating with an early round cornered rectangular color tube. It is difficult to see the whole set because it is a dark scene but the picture looked darned good for a vintage color set. I am pretty certain the set is the Westinghouse shown here on the front cover of this 1957 magazine with the control panel laid horizontally across the top of the screen.

Rob

[Eric H]

Are you sure it was a real set and not a Harry Poster set with a new set in an old box?

.

[Rob]

Eric,

To tell you the truth...I'm not sure of anything these daze.

True it was properly synchronized for film.

Rob

[Charlie]

Yes, it was probably one of Harry's sets, but in any case, we always seem to spot that stuff in movies and hit the rewind button to go back and look! Anytime I see an old TV or radio in the background, I stop the movie to get a better look. It ends up pissing off everyone else watching the movie! I recall doing the same thing while watching Grumpy Old Men for the first time. There were a couple of old sets in that movie. Seems I remember one of them being turned into a fish tank!

I've always been a fan of the TV show Bewitched with Elizabeth Montgomery. One day while watching the movie National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, i noticed in a shot of the neighborhood that Samantha and Darrin's house was just down the street from the Griswalds. I had to back up the movie to get a better look and verify.

In any case, we spot this stuff in the background. It just goes to show that we still have good eyesight!

[Carmine]

Oddly enough, I was going to start a similar thread, but I might as well get this in before someone beats me to it...

The all time best use of a round-tube color set in a movie has to be "Nightmare on Elm Street, part 3 (?) Freddie's Dead 3-D". I'm not sure which number in the series, but it WAS in 3-D. Must have come out around 1992-ish. I know this, because it was my first date with a girl I dated for four miserable years.

Here I am, 20-years-old, on a date, and as soon as they show the set in the screen I say (out loud) "Cool! I've got one of those!"

The set was a Zenith console, the really weird looking design that uses a diagonally styled VHF/UHF tuner. The TV actually plays a role in the movie... The movie opens in the living room of an abandoned house. Against the wall is the Zenith, complete with smashed CRT. Suddenly things begin to spin, and the TV "repairs" itself, and starts displaying wild colors (ala deguasing coil) while the song "Innagoddadavi" begins to blare. I think the idea was to bring you back in time to the 60s when Freddie started killing li'l kids.

If anybody could do a screen capture, I'd love to see it again!


BTW, he reason you see so many old TVs in "Grumpy Old Men" was because Walter Mathau was supposed to be a retired TV repairman. I think all the sets are Zeniths, including one round color. Lots of Space Command remotes shown too.

[Rob]

Carmine,

I think I read your "Nightmare on Elem Street" story once before on another board. TV section in the Antique Radio Forum? Women just wouldn't understand would they. Thanx for sharing.

Rob

[Carmine]

If you were on that board, you might have heard it before. I don't think that board had much use for "modern" sets from the 60s, so I came over here!

CaptainMoody sent me!

FYI, some women at least try! My understanding wife puts up with (dare I say "likes"?) the '58 Space Command in the dining room, '63 roundie Zenith in the living room, '58 16" Zenith eyeball set in our bedroom, and '77 Space Command 19" set in the computer room. (Plus a ton of old radios, CRTS and other junk in the basement)!

[Rob]

Carmine,

Sounds like you were lucky enough to find a 'keeper'! They are out there but not common.

Rob

[Rob]

I put the movie back on and found the best image of that TV I thought might have been the early rectangular Westinghouse color set. It appears not to be by the control panel. I guess it is just a B&W set, don't know which model, which got 'Posterized' for the movies. This is the best I could do of a screen capture to show cabinet details.

Well we can still dream of these early color sets right!?


If anyone out there in TV land does recognize this as a real vintage color set please do tell!

Rob

[Steve D.]

Hi Rob,
I can't say what set is seen in the Casper movie.
It can be very confusing watching tv pictures as portrayed in films and tv shows. Over the years the process of photographing a tv image has been as basic as pointing a film camera at the tv screen with much flicker (film is 24 frames while tv is 30 frames per second). So special film cameras are used to match the speed and provide a steady image. Many times an old tv will have its chassis pulled and a new set with a brighter picture and better resolution will be custom fit into the vintage cabinet ala Harry Poster. Although many prop houses also provide these converted sets. In early video/film an image might be inserted by placing a blue card where the tv screen is and by chroma-key process (blue screen) the tv image is added in post production. Also in video a special effects generator might be used to insert the picture on the tv screen. Today all these effects are still used but more likely in features and film tv, 24 frame computer generated digital effects are utilized. Also many times I've seen beautiful old tv cabinets modified or have knobs and dials added or to enhance the old time look and often brand names are removed or masked to avoid the free product plug. And believe me I'm still looking for one of those 22" Westinghouse color sets!

[drh4683]

I have to through my 2 cents in about old tvs in movies. Lets say its 1968 in some movie. Over in the corner is a 1986 toshiba b/w 12" tv. Dont you hate that! The prop guys were way off on that one! Everyone thinks thats what tvs were like in 1968.... NO!!! Then again, how many people really care? The show wonder years is a perfect example of flawed incorrect props for the time period. The kitchen tv is some 1980s peice of junk b/w. Isnt the time period in that show around 1970 or so? I also remember seeing an incorrect era tv in forrest gump. It was in a bar and the bar tv was some 1979 magnavox and it was supposed to be 1972! One other, I was working on my 72 zenith color when I had it on. Friends was on and one of the characters in the show was filping the channels with a space command clicker He was tuning channels with a sc500 remote on a non sc 1958 bug eye zenith portable! Funny too, the tuner didnt turn no noise from the tv but the channels changed! Wonder if harry poster is converting ultrasonic remotes to infareds now Im always keeping an eye out for vintage tvs in newer movies. I must say, I find many to be wrong or those cannibalized harry poster color conversions.

[Steve D.]

Doug,
We went on at length about this when the show "American Dreams" premiered last fall. The show takes place in 1964 and the dad character owns a tv store that sells new mid-fifties tv's.

[Carmine]

This really drives me nuts too! Sometimes it would be so easy to get the correct era set for a film, and it would really improve the picture. I mean, is it REALLY that hard to find a 50s-60s era B&W set in working condition?? I've seen 80s TVs shown in movies set from the 50s... Ruins the mood.

I'm pretty sure that the kitchen set used in "The Wonder Years" was a 12" B&W Zenith from about 1977. I see these all the time on Ebay claiming they're from the 60s! I have one, and hate to call it "junk" as I love all things Zenith, but it certainly was wrong for the show.

On tonight's episode of "That 70's Show", (Red gets a BetaMax) I'm pretty sure I saw the wife use the same Chrome/Black Space Command that came with my '77 Zenith. On another episode, they show the front of the basement TV, It's the classic 17" Zenith B&W from the 60s.

As far as "American Dreams" goes... Bleh!!!! A waste of CRT life! I also enjoy all the 15-year-old 1950s cars without a spec of rust (in a snow-belt state!) And naturally, they're all brigthly colored converts and 2 dr hardtops!

[Jeffhs]

Carmine, I just read your post and just had to put my own two cents in. First, I didn't realize the kitchen TV in "The Wonder Years" was a 1977-ish Zenith b/w set. I watched the show all through its run on ABC in the '80s (I have the shows on tape as well) and could have sworn that set was one of those off-brand Japanese-made units with names no one ever heard of, like Orion, Kenco (actually made by Broadmoor and marketed by the now-defunct Kennedy and Cohen discount chain), etc. Guess I'll just have to go back to my tapes and look again. Maybe that set was a Zenith after all.

I like Zenith equipment of all kinds too. In the '70s my basement was full of Zenith TVs, radios, a couple Zenith stereo phonographs, countless Zenith radios . . . what can I say, I like Zenith every bit as you say you do. (Unfortunately, that collection went out with the trash when I moved in the early 1970s. The only Zenith gear I have now is a 1951 Zenith H511Y BC-only table radio, on top of the fridge in my apartment. Works, kinda, but I don't use it too much anymore because there isn't much worth listening to on AM these days.)

Kind regards,

Jeff

[Chad Hauris]

The TV in the bar at New Years Eve in Forrest Gump is an RCA CTC-36, which would have existed in 1972. There is also an RCA CTC-25 (or very similar) displaying the moon landing while Forrest is playing ping-pong. However the two sets that are incorrect in my opinion are a transistorized late 70's/early 80's panasonic color TV in Lieutenant Dan's apartment and a late 1970's RCA solid state set, that is shown in the apartment where Jenny walks out on the ledge. The TV that is displaying the AFVN in Vietnam also appears to be a late 1970's Panasonic b/w.

Also--I don't think the Wonder Years TV in the kitchen is a Zenith. The cabinet is too bulky and blocky. Zenith B/w TV's had rather sleek cabinets and a picture tube with rounded corners. To me, it appears to be an early 80's foreign-made color TV. (haven't seen that show, though, for years).