1961 NBC "Tinted" Color Programming?
 

A Northwest broadcast historian, Craig Adams has uncovered some info that I have not heard of before, that some 1961 NBC "color" broadcasts were only "tinted".... He states:

"The only mention found was in a short article in "The Oregonian", August 23, 1961. It would be interesting to know if the person who released the information below was later chastised:

[MORE COLOR PLANNED] "NBC is gearing to not only expand the number of color series next Fall but also to inject some color into its black and white series. Scheduled tint filmings are three Joey segments and three Wagon Train episodes."

There were in fact six episodes of each that premiered in the tinted format in the 1961-62 season. Interesting enough, the tinted episodes repeated, were scene in back & white later in the season. An indication the ploy had not been successful. "

Anybody here have any info on these "tinted" programs? Did NBC use a sepia peacock?

jr

I think tinted means only CERTAIN episodes were shot in full color and the rest of the series were in black and white.

It don't make sense to use a bunch of expensive equipment to make a show appear in sepia tinted monochrome on color sets.

If NBC used this dodge at all to make certain programs appear to have been filmed in color, it was probably just a stopgap measure until the network completed its full-color conversion in the mid-1960s. I personally have no idea just when NBC actually began 100-percent colorcasting (aside from seeing their "Full-Color Network" promos), as my family did not even have color TV until some time in the '70s.

Never heard of this. Sounds like BS to me, but wouldn't put it past RCA/NBC...

This. The color filming and broadcast of only certain episodes of otherwise black & white series goes way back to the fifties, particularly by NBC. Likewise there are examples of the odder practice of black & white broadcast of color film in the color TV era by color-indifferent CBS. My Friend Flicka was filmed in color, yet broadcast in black & white in 1956-57. It wasn't until the following that season NBC broadcast the reruns in color.

As far as what happened in 1961-62, maybe the 'executive decision' to halt any more one-off color broadcasts of black & white shows was so sweeping that it ended up including reruns of episodes already filmed.

I should have posted more info, but I couldn't get the quote box to work on the little old Asus eee 700 that I was using at the time. Craig Adams went on to list specific programs that were "tinted"
He indicated that the '61-'62 Wed night NBC "color" schedule was as follows:
This seems to me to be pretty specific information from a reliable historian, indicating that the Wed night NBC "full color" lineup was not quite as advertised. :scratch2:

jr

One Hazel tv episode was shot in color in the 1962 season, it was about Hazel getting a new color tv to replace her old 10" Emerson table set. She paid what she was saving, and Mr. Baxter paid the difference for the color model.

And George bought a set similar to my CTC-10 only with a remote before the show ended.

I have this show on 16mm. Its faded pretty pink.

It's show #6, and is titled "What Shall We Watch Tonight?" 1-5 shot B/W, and 7-35 are B/W, also.

They didn't have the technology to colorize programs and movies like they do today. The word tint was used to refer to programs in color. I seen the majority of these shows and they are all in full color.

One way they could have done "tinted" B&W would be to play the B&W footage in a color telecine, and misadjust the color balance. Cut back on the blue, and increase the red a little, and you would get a tinted video stream. You could change the tint for various scenes, say yellowish for outdoor sunlit scenes, blueish for rainy days, pink for lovers kissing (this is terrestrial broadcast of course ;) ) and so on.

When I worked for an independent TV station... Remember those? No affiliation with a network of anykind?

Our home-made video switcher that we used for broadcast would hang up sometimes, and leave the chroma turned on while we were broadcasting a black and white film. We'd get some really interesting color artifacts, depending on the age of the camera tubes in our film chain.

There was a key on the switcher to kill chroma. It worked when it wanted to... Those were the days.

We eventually bought a brand new Grass Valley brand switcher, and we thought it would be installed overnight. Didnt happen that way, either.

I remember NBC going color, but I dont remember ever hearing of B/W shows being tinted for broadcast.

Interesting! do you recall the specific episodes mentioned in post 6 as being in full color ? or a more general recollection of the series?

jr

In this context, the word "tint" means programs shot and broadcast in color, as opposed to black and white, which is what these series mentioned above were usually done in. It was a chance for NBC to showcase color in some of their regular black and white series. It seems to me that the use of the word "tint" by the oiginal author of the newspaper article in 1961 was a poor choice of words.

I was going to mention George's new tv as well, but I didn't want to get too wordy. I didn't need many clues as to the actual make of the sets in the showroom, and the ones that Hazel and George ended up with. Most of the time I think George had a nice Zenith B&W console. Their stereo was a Zenith for the first couple of seasons. A shame about your 16mm film too, I found a Magnavox, Motorola, and Maytag YouTube entry, the Magnavox ads are washed out pink now as well. Motorola looked a tad better, and Maytag was tolerable. But then of course, they had no idea people would want to see these things 40 some years into the future!

When I got the film, it was brand new and beautiful.

Dats OK. I get wordy all the time.