Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisW6ATV
I wonder if everyone over 65 (or whatever) grumbled and whined about color TV in its early days as some do today about HDTV. It would have been something like "the sets are too big and heavy", "they are WAY too expensive", "the picture is not as clear as my regular TV", "everyone I know with a color TV is always having to get it repaired" (you KNOW that would have been one of the biggest whines), "the color looks way too gaudy/bright" (that was MY complaint about almost every color TV I saw when I was a kid), etc. And, then when the first mentions of X-rays started, hoo boy, THAT must have been a big stink, and of course it even led to a specific law being passed.
The first time I remember seeing color TV for sure was about 1971 maybe, when I was 11. I went to a friend's house and saw The Flintstones, and I remember Fred's tie was orange and Dino the dinosaur was purple. In 1974, my mother and my aunt's family got together and bought my grandmother a 19" Hitachi color TV for Christmas, for over $400 (a massive amount of money in my family at the time). I would go over to her house and watch it a lot, and that is when I learned how to properly adjust a color TV ("Wow, this can be adjusted so colors look like they do in real life! The first thing to do is turn the color knob down eighty percent from where it was when it matched all the other color TVs I have ever seen!"). Five years later, I had earned enough to buy my own brand-new color set, and a VCR right after that.
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20+ years after color TV was introduced, there were still people who refused to own a color TV and it was because of some of the reasons you mentioned. Back in April, I obtained a brand new 22" B&W solid state Sylvania console from 1978 that was never sold by a TV dealer. He explained to us that even as recent as the late '70's-early '80's, there were still some people (usually senior citizens) who insisted on a B&W TV. He said that some people were afraid of the X-rays from a color TV and others claimed that color didn't "look right" or it hurt their eyes. I think Zenith probably made the last 22" B&W and '81 was the last year. I think 19" B&W's stayed around for a few more years.
I know a man in his early '70's who told me that his father wouldn't have a color TV if someone gave him one. After his father passed away in the early '80's, the family gave his Mother a color TV. She pitched such a fit about it and they ended up giving her back the 12" B&W TV just to keep her quiet.
And, I knew some older people as recent as the mid '90's who still had nothing but B&W TV.
I'm not making fun of these people as I would probably throw a fit if someone tried to sneak a new HDTV in on me. I don't watch that much TV and what I do watch is mostly older stuff and I can watch it on a B&W or color TV, just as long as it's adjusted properly. And, I certainly don't feel like I need to see every detail of a blade of grass or someone's nasal hairs. And, I'm only 33.