What to watch on your early color set!

[Joel Cairo]

And there may be others buried in an archive somewhere, but at the moment, I'm only aware of **one** of those early CBS programs that still survives on color videotape... the 1961 Christmas episode, titled "Freddy & the Yuletide Doll", which co-stars Cara Williams.

-Kevin

[bozey45]

That's where I read that info, thanks; should have known it was Reitan's site.

[Eric H]

OK, NOW you can watch Superman on your CT-100 in full glorious color!

They released seasons 3 and 4 together in a single boxed set and it looks great.

[oldtvman]

The Lone Ranger and the Cisco Kid were both filmed in color

[oldtvman]

There are copies of the early color video of Mary Martin's Peter Pan available, with the old style NBC peacock and closing promo. This is I believe from around 1960

[daro]

Originally Posted by frenchy

In general the best shows to watch on these sets for me are ones that were in on the conversion to color, like Bonanza, Star Trek, etc. Shows that started out in black and white and then converted to color too. Star Trek, Bonanza and Batman especially since they really pumped up the sets, costumes and scenery with lots of great exaggerated color.

Bonanza was in colour from the very beginning & was used by NBC to sell of course RCA colour TV's.

Star Trek was also in colour with the exception of the then unscreened pilot "The Cage" in which parts are in B/W.

[Sandy G]

"I Dream of Jeannie" started out in B&W & then went to color. It had a fair amount of exaggerated colors, too. One of the ones that DIDN'T was the Andy Griffith Show- Seems like the inside of the jail & Andy's house was the same dull, blue-green non-color...

[vintagecollect]

...

[Carmine]

Bonanza was a great show.

[Steve Hoffman]

Originally Posted by vintagecollect

check my avatar, it a scene from colonel bleep, an early color cartoon for tv, 1956 & 1957 on my ctc5. Has anyone ever heard of this show?? Found it on bay cheap, anyone else have original 50'S COLOR TV SHOWS they like to watch?? What year did Bonanza start??, my wife complained of me wanting to watch it last week, then complained when I tried to change channels.

I used to watch Col. Bleep when I was a small lad watching Engineer Bill here in Los Angeles. A really weird cartoon if I remember but not as weird as Spunky & Tadpole... Anyone remember that gem?

[Steve D.]

(QUOTE) "What year did Bonanza start??, my wife complained of me wanting to watch it last week, then complained when I tried to change channels." (QUOTE)

Bonanza, in color, first aired Sept. 12, 1959 on NBC.
Some other 50's color series:
Laramie, Sept. 1959 on NBC
Northwest Passage, Sept. 1958 on NBC
Norby, a sit-com. Jan. 1955 on NBC
Life With Father, sit-com. 1954-55 on CBS

There were several color series and variety shows telecast in the 50's Live, and on film. The live color shows before video tape were usually shown on the West coast via b&w kinescope because of the time difference. Some, like Superman, The Cisco Kid and Science Fiction Theater were filmed in color but not telecast that way until the late '60's.

One time specials taped in color in the 50's such as the Fred Astaire specials, which still survive, are extremely rare. Most were erased and the tape was reused as an economy measure. Certainly a waste.

-Steve D.

[pallophotophone]

Originally Posted by Steve D.

All 156 episodes of the ZIV Television Production, "Cisco Kid" were shot in color starting in 1950. ZIV also shot the series "Science Fiction Theater" 1955-57 in color. This gave these series a much longer syndication run when color tv started to take off in the '60s.

-Steve D.

True , They were shot in color, but the distributed syndicated 16 mm prints used el cheapo Eastman color and are all now red as a beet. I've seen many prints of Cisco Kid- all faded. Maybe the negatives survive with good color.

[Joel Cairo]

Originally Posted by Steve Hoffman

I used to watch Col. Bleep when I was a small lad watching Engineer Bill here in Los Angeles. A really weird cartoon if I remember but not as weird as Spunky & Tadpole... Anyone remember that gem?

I just picked up a kid's show from the early 60s that had "Spunky & Tadpole" as the cartoons in it... first time I'd ever even **heard** of it. What an incredibly el-cheapo animation production!!

-Kevin

[holmesuser01]

I also collect 16mm films. I have 2-Cisco Kid prints on Kodachrome film stock. The shows are both from the 1952 season. The color is stunning.

Also have one-half of one Science Fiction Theatre also in Kodachrome. Also lovely color. The other half of this one is Eastman, and beet red, and vinegar.

I have several thousand 16mm prints from the 1950's to the mid-1980's.

[Sandy G]

What were some of those cheesy cartoons from the early-mid 1960s that featured an actual human mouth saying the words,somehow incorporated into the animation? Seems like they were produced in Japan, & had the "large eyes" this anime' stuff does...