Soap series/shows in the '50's
 

I'm intrested to find out more about the soap operas/tv shows that you, U.S.A.'s watched in the '50's and I want to find out which one of them where broadcated in colors.
May be you give some links.
By the way, in 1956, in Memphis TN area where any local televsions that could broadcast color movies?

No Soap was broadcast in color in the USA until the 1965-66 season.

I do not believe any station in Memphis broadcasted in color in 1956.

As the World Turns and The Guiding Light both premiered in the 50's and did not go into color until 1967. It has been believed, but not confirmed that TGL may have broadcast a color episode on the CBS color system.

Here's a link to see old and current soap opera (still on and cancelled from here and abroad) titles and some full episodes.

www.wost.org

You need a high speed connection to view the videos.

Not exactly a soap, but NBC broadcast a show each weekday from 12-1pm pst. called "Matinee Theater." This one hour program telecast live and in color consisted of both original teleplays and adaptations from known authors. The show was hosted by John Conti and aired from Hollywood from Oct. 1955 to June 1958.

As for color television in Memphis,Tenn. I would guess that at least the NBC affilate could broadcast their network color programs by the mid to late 50's.

Yeah- Seems like I've seen pictures of a certain Memphis resident by the name of Mr Presley who had a roundie or 2 at his home. I think he'd bought one for his mother in 1958-a color set was a Big Deal then.-Sandy G.

Once saw a picture of a TV console being delivered to Elvis' home (maybe in an AK thread?) and someone mentioned that that was a B&W model. Also that it was an RCA, which would make sense as Elvis was one of RCA records' biggest singers. And that he probably didn't even have to buy it, as RCA records probably got him one from RCA TV. Great publicity for RCA TV division.

I think, it's a RCA ctc-5, model Westcott:
http://www.memphisite.com/elvispics/grace1.JPG
http://www.elvis.com/graceland/vtour/default.asp
and select "living & music room".
The same set was just sold on ebay ( Item number: 6146899202) for $1,133.70.
Are there any early tv recordings available in color from the 1950s or 1960s on DVD?

See photo.

But weren't any tv series back than (whe'n I'm talking about soap opera I'm talking about tv series too).

Here is an intresting page of shows and tv series in the '50's

Ups! :wtf: I forgot to put the link. Here it is:
http://www.fiftiesweb.com/tv50.htm

And some more
http://www.fiftiesweb.com/western.htm :yes:
By the way, some rembers at what hour was broadcasted "I love Lucy" (on C.B.S.) in 1956 and 1957?
When that big scandal with Chales van Doren took place?

I think the big kerfuffle w/Van Doren was in '58. There was a movie made about that about 10 yrs ago, starring Ralph Fiennes as Van Doren. IIRC, it was called "Quiz Show". The only show I can remember being in color in the '50s was "The Amazing Adventures of Superman" in like 1957-59. By the time I watched it in the mid-late '60s, the quality of the prints had deteriorated, and about all you had left was Superman's red cape & Noel Neill's red hair. But boy, were they "RED" !! Seems like everything else was a dingy shade of blue-gray. However, it was a small, independent company that produced "Superman" & they may have cut corners in the film-developing process. And, of course, Walt Disney's "Wonderful World of Color" was just that. Disney & NBC/RCA were in cahoots w/each other, they had the money to spend on superior production values, & it showed. Besides, that show was pretty much a vehicle to tout RCA's fantastic new color TVs, so they pulled out all the stops to make it really somethin' special. Sunday nights-7 pm-right after church- couldn't wait to get home....-Sandy G.

@Sabdy G. I saw "Quiz Show". In fact I got it in tape (unfourtnely in parts, baecuse I hand something elese recorded on that tape). Firts, the only thing I've wanted to record from that movie where the old tvs!

...and the '58 Chrysler 300 at the begining right? :thmbsp:

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

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

The 50's
 

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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/

BBC Colour
 

Hey Hoffy,

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



-Steve

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

UK Colour
 

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

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.

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!

Those "delta" shadow masks where quite expensive. :sigh:

b&w commercials
 

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.

I know we had two PBS stations here in Pittsburgh, Channel 13 and Channel 16. Channel 16 used to broadcast the more obscure programs like Dr. Who and similar stuff while 13 was more mainstream. Channel 16 came only I guess sometime in the early 1960's as a black and white only station and continued in blakc and white untill about 1985/87 or so until something happened, I can't remember exactly, but the transmitter died and they were off the air for a while and then came back in color.