Ms. Maisel on prime using tk40's
 

Oh, Hell, Yeah ! always wanted me one-AND the Houston Fearless to go w/it..But it looks to be a good 2' taller than my basement... An' I doubt the "War Dept" would let me store it in our living room..

And... they left the RCA "meatball" on them - even the one at the Paley Center.

TK-41s, I think - note vent louvers on the viewfinders.

This is about the only TV-related thing they got right in the series (which is awesome, btw). They've got a Predicta years before it existed, late-60s Zenith B&W sets with color pictures, and in the Playboy After Dark episode this season a whole bank of color roundies that even a cursory look will reveal to be roundie bezels on painted plywood.

The series is set in 1958, just about the time Predictas started being sold so they are not far off. My thought is that someone living in NYC in an apartment that big would own an RCA CTC-7.

It was probably easier to get a Predicta as a prop than a CTC-7.

They have a mid-50s RCA console as the main TV, that is time-appropriate, and shows B&W images.

But the Predicta was sold to hotels in 1959 and wasn't available to consumers until 1960, they use it in the daughter's apartment and I don't think you ever see it turned on.

But the biggest gaffes are the Checker cabs. Most have side marker lights which weren't mandated until model year 1969. Sorry for slightly hijacking this thread.

1968. Lincoln was one of the few cars that wasn't too badly uglified by the side marker lights, they kinda redesigned the front & rear ends of their cars a bit, & incorporated 'em into the overall front & rear ends. VW also did a better job on the lowly Beetle than most..

But I wonder if those cameras are in working condition.

I think it's pretty sure they are not working.

Talley lights (and perhaps retrofit viewfinder monitors) are working. But three completely working TK-41s would require several racks of support circuits. Plus all the power for them. Plus someone who knows the setup procedure. Plus maintenace of everything. A modern production is not likely to tolerate the hour or more setup time these cameras originally needed, nor the interruptions when things fail.

Edit: even the retrofit viewfinders are not needed, as modern CGI can do a very convincing job of faking them.

At least they have the thick old cable attached, so they made some effort to be authentic (or rented them from someone who keeps them fairly authentic).

They should have contacted me I'd have rented out a couple of my sets for realism.

I already have a set in Malamut museum in California

Did everyone working as production staff back in the day really all wear grey suits, white shirts and black ties?

If TK41's were more plentiful, it might make an interesting project to replace each of the 3 tubes with modern monochrome CCD cameras all locked together.

Suits and ties were not uncommon, I believe, but it struck me that these guys had such identical ones.

Silicon sensors have quite different spectral response compared to image orthicons, so optical filtering would need to be changed also.