The impact of early color

[oldtvman]

as a little kid , I could have cared less about the reliability issue, the fact that during the otherwise bland 50's something so marvelous as color television even existed was almost more than I could imagine. Some of those memories still remain with me today.

[2DualsNotEnough]

I remember watching Wonderful World Of Disney on my Grandparents Color Zenith Console TV in 65 or 66,when I was only 3 or 4,and thinking it was the most beautiful thing Id ever seen.My parents got a Zenith color console in 68,I think.My folks had to have a local guy who did tv repair on the side come and fix it at least once every few years,at $75 or more a pop.Ive had an RCA 27" since 89,and not one problem.
Jimmy

[Bill R]

I only had one family member that had color tv before the mid 60's. It was always neat to watch at their house during christmas, and sometimes a few ballgames. They lived in Caruthersville Mo. and we lived in Memphis TN, so not much chance to watch. We got our first color set in 1966. It was a small screen set and set on top of our big Curtis Mathes console set. By the time we got color the thrill was gone. It was like everybody else has a color set can't we get one now? That set was not very reliable, and was dead by 1971. We didn't get another color set until 1976. It was a Philco roundie that I bought from one of the local tv shops for $10.00. I still have it and it still worked last time I powerfed it up. I bought a new Magnavox star system set in 1978. That was our first new reliable set, and by then everything was in color.
So I totally missed early color, but from the people that I have talked to it was a real thrill even with the reliability issues.
Bill R

[oldtvman]

as a footnote, back then you scoured the TV guide looking for any of those little boxes up in the left hand corner of the program for the word "COLOR"

[yagosaga]

Originally Posted by oldtvman

as a footnote, back then you scoured the TV guide looking for any of those little boxes up in the left hand corner of the program for the word "COLOR"

Yes, it was the same with us. Here is a TV guide from 1968:
http://www.tvprogramme.net/60/1968/19680214.htm
and the (F) for "Farbe" ( = color) marked the broadcasts in color. As you can see there are only the Olympic games in color and a circus show. All other broadcasts were in black and white.
Here is a copy of an advertisement for one of the first color tv sets in Germany:
http://bs.cyty.com/menschen/e-etzold...abaT2000ad.pps
On page 7 the color tv set was advertised with the words "News reports, actual magazines and crime thrillers will be in black and white forever. Therefore this set is able to receive black and white broadcasts..."

Eckhard

[kbmuri]

An example of our |COLOR| boxes, same era.

[David Roper]

Does anybody know exactly when the switch occurred from designating color broadcasts to designating B&W? I was reading TV Guide by 1971 and it had already happened by then.

[bgadow]

There is a good little contest there somewhere-post a page from TV Guide and have people try to guess what part of the country it is from!

[dr.ido]

Did Russia clone CRTs like they cloned most other components or did they import them?

I've seen some very strange (to me) Russian valves and semiconductors, but never a Russian CRT.

On another note I was reading an article in a recent issue of Silicon Chip magazine about the 50th anniversary of TV in Australia the other day. It seems there were at least a few round sets B&W sets in Australia. AWA built some experimental sets in 1948 with round CRTs. According to the article the CRTs were locally made based on RCA designs. I don't know if any of these experimental sets survived. Certainly by the time TV actually started in 1956 rectangular CRTs were in use (well, they weren't as square as modern CRTs, but I wouldn't describe them as round).

Off topic, but on a sad note: Today a silver piece of crap karaoke system came through here bearing the Normende brand name. I remember some of their interesting, but rare (at least around here) TVs and Radios. I can't remember the last time I saw one though.

[yagosaga]

Hello,

we had discussed this topic already in the thread "The impact of early color". I think it would be best to continue this older thread than starting a new one.

Color television was one of the greatest milestone in human communication technology, and the amazing and overwhelming feelings when watching color television the first time can only be compared with the emotions accompanied by the next coming milestone of this dimension. This would be levitating and beaming people from one place to another like Scotty did in Star trek - not in science fiction but in reality.

Eckhard

[JohnAdams]

That would be Howdy Doody at the TV station in Jackson, MS on the 17"
RCA . The station had two of these sets in a viewing room that would seat about 30 people. I was hooked. My first Color TV was a used CTC-5 out of a bar in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

[jedo1507r]

Oh, my mom would smack the back of my head if I said I was throwing some piece of equipment out.

[sampson159]

our first color set was a philco ford from 1965-66. delivered on a saturday evening and we enjoyed that roundie all night! didn t work on sunday though.horizontal output tube.generally a good set-once a year it broke down.picture was extremely good! crt weakened and a new sylvania d-16 was purchased. this set had the best picture ever and to this day still operates without a service issue. okay,i did do some adjustments and cleaned the tuner a couple times. picture is still very good. i think this is the best ever made or any old zenith. early xl 100s are also very good reliable sets. i currently have a 27 toshiba that is 13 years old and has played non stop in that time. it is in my sons room and he doesn t shut it off. i still like the early color picture. the reds seem more saturated and pleasing to the eye. like technocolor. as television gets bigger and better, i think some of the excitement is gone. 106 " dlp projector in hd is nice,but i think i might would rather watch a good roundie.

[fujifrontier]

agreed

[Captain Video]

First color set in my home was also a Philco Ford ( a 1978 model ), when I was just 1 year old. Our first TV was also a Philco Ford, a big, 23 inch 1974 B/W model, that my father bought one year before he got married. Since he got color when I was only 1 year old, the big B/W set became my first bedroom TV ( I am a TV addicted ever since. Blame my parents ... only difference is that in those days there were good programs to watch ).

We still kept both Philcos until sometime around 1986. I now wish I still have them.