Soap series/shows in the '50's - Page 2 - Videokarma.org TV - Video

Telecolor 3007 · #16 02-10-2005, 02:16 PM

That "Chrysler" beats any new "Mercedes" or "B.M.W."

Telecolor 3007 · #17 02-13-2005, 02:45 PM

No more info about shows in the '50's?

Steve D. · #18 02-13-2005, 04:26 PM

Telecolor,

I'm afraid there was next to no color daytime programs in the 50's. Other then Matinee Theater there was a couple of game shows in the late 50's. "Haggis Baggis" & "Truth or Consequences" aired in color on NBC. Some large local stations broadcast live & film color programs during the day.

As an example of color broadcasts in the 50's, here in Los Angeles the week of Jan. 14, 1956, there were only 3 shows total telecast in color. two on NBC and one on CBS. This was before videotape so there may have been some additional color shows on the East coast that were telecast in b&w in L.A. because they were kinescoped for delayed broadcast.

In 1958, after color videotape was introduced, there were, for example, the week of June 7th, in Los Angeles, 19 shows total telecast in color either live, on videotape or film. 18 on NBC or its local affliate and 1 on local station KTLA.

Also in Los Angeles on any given week in 1959 there averaged 16 shows in color. All on NBC or its local affliate.

Source: TV Guide

"I Love Lucy" (in b&w) aired originally on Mondays 9:00-9:30pm on CBS from Oct. 1951 - June 1957.

-Steve

Sandy G · #19 02-13-2005, 05:49 PM

Yeah, it was a vicious circle-Color TVs were VERY expensive, but paled in comparison to what a station had to lay out for broadcast equipment. If your town had only 5 or 6 color sets in it, it made no sense for the local TV stations to drop a wad into cameras, extra people, etc, etc. Color TVs started coming down in price a bit by the early '60s, people began buying them, & the local stations started investing in color equipment, so the people would have something to watch on their new toys. Then in fall '65, the critical mass had been achieved, & most of yr network shows were in color. At least on NBC.-Sandy G.

Steve Hoffman · #20 02-13-2005, 05:55 PM

CBS dragged their feet until the 1966 season to go 100% color; the last holdout.

Big Dave · #21 02-13-2005, 08:44 PM

I do recall seeing (in reruns) some CBS primetime shows in color prior to 1967. Sources I have seen put CBS daytime all color at the end of 1967. Since so few daytime episodes survive from that period, and the fact that some sources may not be accurate, it's hard to determine exactly when CBS daytime went all color. I do know that Concentration was the last NBC show to go into color. ABC daytime started colorcasts in 1968. As I understand, many ABC affiliates couldn't broadcast color until the early 70's. Unfortunately, most early CBS color daytime programs only survive as BW kinescopes.

Sandy G · #22 02-13-2005, 08:52 PM

Yeah, CBS & Paley were still sore about the debacle over Whose Color System Is Best from the early '50s, that's why they didn't embrace color earlier on. And ABC was perennially the "poor Relation" who couldn't afford color right off the bat. Here's one for ya-Remember "The Avengers"? It was in color over here-wonder if it was in Jolly Olde as well? I didn't think they got "colour" in England til '71 or so? Hmmmmm...-Sandy G.

Steve Hoffman · #23 02-13-2005, 09:57 PM

Sandy,

Regarding England, I know that the Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour was broadcast on the BBC in colo(u)r in 1967 so they must have had it by then...

ABC TV USA demanded that The Avengers be shot in color for the second (filmed) season. They financed some of the show...

Here is more than you would ever want to know about THE AVENGERS!

http://theavengers.tv/forever/

Steve D. · #24 02-13-2005, 10:20 PM

Hey Hoffy,

Good call on The Avengers. Both the BBC and ITV began broadcasting in bloomin' livin' colour in 1967.

-Steve

Steve Hoffman · #25 02-13-2005, 10:38 PM

I wonder how many colour sets were in use that year in England? Not many, I'll bet..

Steve D. · #26 02-13-2005, 11:08 PM

With apologies to Telecolor for straying from his thread.....Even though colour was introduced in 1967, by 1972 only 17% of British households had colour sets.

Here is a brief history of colour tv in the U.K.

http://www.htw.info/colour.html

-Steve

bgadow · #27 02-14-2005, 09:11 AM

I'll have to dig out my TV Guides...mostly 60s/70s but I have one or two from the 50s. I do know that up into the mid 70s they list the news on our then only local station (primarily a CBS affiliate) as being in bw. I guess it was one thing to broadcast color, another to put the money out for a color camera. In the early 80s, as a cub scout, we were on the Labor Day Telethon at the station at which time they had RCA color cameras.

Steve Hoffman · #28 02-14-2005, 12:02 PM

A few days ago I was watching an Ed Sullivan Show 2" video tape from late 1967 and some of the commercials on it were still in BLACK & WHITE. That really surprised me!

Telecolor 3007 · #29 02-14-2005, 03:57 PM

Those "delta" shadow masks where quite expensive.

David Roper · #30 02-14-2005, 04:18 PM

Match Game was always in color, even the original version in the early 60s on NBC. But sponsors had to pay a premium for live commercials in color. For a non-color plug Gene Rayburn had to walk over to another area of the studio where there was a black & white camera just for the black & white commercial plugs!

A tiny list of early color shows would include the very first one ever: a TV version of the Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy radio sitcom The Marriage which was broadcast live in color (so sadly nothing of it remains) for all of seven weeks in July-August 1954. Susan Strasberg played one of their two kids. Then there's Norby with David Wayne in the title role and Jack Warden playing his neighbor. That ran on NBC January-April 1955 and was filmed, though no trace of it has ever turned up that I'm aware of. Then there's My Friend Flicka which was re- run on NBC in color ca. 1957-58 after being first run on CBS in black & white! Similarly even after Desilu started filming The Lucy Show in color CBS continued to broadcast it in black & white. For two years. With that example it should be obvious that syndicated shows like Superman and Cisco Kid aren't great examples to cite because it's hardly certain that the owners of the first color sets were actually seeing those shows in color. But it was common for a while in the mid fifties to see special one-time-only color episodes being done of otherwise black & white shows. It was far easier to do so with a live series, but some filmed programs got the one-off color treatment too.