I see RCA had flying spot earlier in mid 50's [TK-25] but abandoned it for awful vidicon camera.
http://www.oldradio.com/archives/hardware/TV/RCA-TV.htm

I looked at a few vintage color videotapes of old Carol Burnett Shows from the 1967-71 period at the Paley Center for Media over the weekend - and the quality of the presentation of bumper slides and ad billboards pretty much screamed PE-24/240. So it seems Reitan may've erred when he asserted that CBS's Television City complex used 3V GE chains.

a brochure and catalog data for this ge color early cameras
 

we have brochures and catalog sheets fro these early ge color cameras... scary the turret looks like the the one I am missing for my tk41.

I know that KCOP channel 13 here in Los Angeles used GE color equipment. The station began broadcasting color film segments of their travel shows by Bill Burrud and others in 1962 and eventually had live color later. I know that they used GE's PE-250 cameras, but they might have also had the IO cameras initially.

There is a Petula Clark clip, supposedly from the Lloyd Thaxton dance show on YouTube (the clip with quad head banding), that has a moment when a camera intrudes on a scene from the left. The handles near the bottom of the camera look suspiciously like those on the PE-25. The Lloyd Thaxton show was done live on KCOP in the afternoons as I recall. KCOP had a really nice animated color announcement logo by the way.

Of course, the PE-250 was also used in ABC's Vine Street studio where they did the Joey Bishop late-night show and the Dating Game with Jim Lange.

The control room had a floor-to-ceiling window facing the main lobby. One afternoon they had a PE-250 in the shop next to the control room with its side open and scope probes hanging inside. No one was there. I guess they had gone on break. There were various manuals open and I remember seeing a vectorscope with the color-bar vectors just rolling unsynchronized on the display. It's funny what you remember after all those years.

The PE-250 was also used in New York on ABC's Dick Cavett Show.

I seem to remember seeing in pictures that it was actually PE-350's used on The Dick Cavett Show - and also, on The $10,000 / $20,000 Pyramid for most of its ABC run (both shows were taped at Studio TV-15 a.k.a. the Elysee Theatre on West 58th Street; and I read somewhere that in the last year of the latter's run, the GE's were replaced with RCA TK-47's). From what I could tell and have read, the PE-350's in New York seemed to work better than the PE-250's at Vine Street.

Two of the New York City TV stations used PE-250's, both beginning in 1967: WPIX (Ch. 11) and WOR-TV (Ch. 9).

Can you link me to this clip please, I really would love to see it.

When it comes to New York TV, you are the experts. I have never been there, I'm ashamed to admit. I grew up in the L.A. area. Maybe sometime I'll get there.

It would have been fun to see New York City television in person at that time (or now). But we used to go into Hollywood and visit the various stations at about the time Steve Allen was doing his Westinghouse show on Vine Street. It was a fun time also.

I hope this works...I haven't tried inserting a web address yet.

It's the URL for the Petula Clark clip. The subtle camera intrusion happens at approximately 1:04. See what kind of camera you think it is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eO7CR...eature=related

The other segment of this show is at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOAHE...eature=related

I seem to remember reading that when KHJ-TV added live studio color around 1967 (the last to the party, apparently), they went with Norelco PC-70's - which were also used by KTTV and KABC-TV. KNXT, I seem to recall, had Marconi Mark VII color cameras, and KNBC had RCA TK-41's (of course!). KTLA had both TK-41's and PC-70's. (If I'm mistaken on any of the above, feel free to set us all straight.)

As for the "intrusion" at the 1:04 mark, the bottom looks more to me like a boom mic stand than a camera pedestal.

That would be a good shootout: TK-41 vs PC-70

Which one would win ? TK-41 I think

I would take a PC-70 any day. TK-41 only for fun as a toy today. Folks that had PC-60's or 70's never looked back.

How about KMEX channel 34 and KLXA channel 40?

Upgrade kit for PE-250 to PE-350
 

There have been some discussions on this thread whether a station or network was using either GE PE-250 or PE-350 cameras. GE came out with a "retrofit" kit to update any PE-250s' to PE-350s' so given the improvements of the PE-350, unless the station or network was under financial stress with budgets, or unless they were soon planning on selling off their PE-250s' I would assume many did upgade their models to PE-350s' (see attached ad for upgrade kit).

Wasn't it also possible, besides these upgrades of PE-250 cameras to PE-350 status, that some stations upgraded their Norelco PC-60's to PC-70's in a similar manner (that is, via retrofit kits)? Many cameras with "round applied handles" like the PC-60 had a center belt with metal Norelco logo plates as were on the PC-70's, and looked as they did in very early ads (March 1966) for the PC-70 when it was first introduced.

That's what I'm wondering too.

GE PE-240 4V film island cameras at CBS NY Broadcast Center
 

See next post. With pix attached.

TL