Quote:
Originally Posted by vallieone
One question I do have in the early and infrequent color broadcasts int the 50's and early 60's did they even announce the following program is in color? Or did they flash the blood shot eye logo?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0Uzk244hnU |
NBC did in fact make an announcement before every color program: "The following program is brought to you in living color on NBC", with the network's signature color peacock (the original one, not that poor excuse for a peacock which shows before most NBC programs nowadays) showing on the TV screen. CBS had a similar announcement, with the letters "CBS" and the "eye" logo appearing on the screen. ABC showed its signature, a black ball with the letters "abc", and the announcement "The following is an ABC color presentation." I am most familiar with NBC's color announcement since I have been watching NBC-TV as long as I can remember, in b&w until the 1970s.
BTW: I was not aware of any kind of bloodshot CBS "eye" logo. Most if not all the CBS "eye" logos I ever saw (and still see today) on TV, including on the local station IDs in Cleveland, had the logo showing with no color spots or splotches whatsoever. I don't think CBS would so much as dream of showing its "eye" logo with any kind of stripes, smears, etc., let alone actually show such a mess on the air. I recall one time, however, in the late 1960s-early '70s (which I will never forget) when the local NBC station actually did show a real mess just before the station signed on. The station was showing all sorts of shapes, colors, etc. on the screen, with a loud "BOING!" in the sound. I don't know to this day whether the station's engineers actually intended to run such a mishmash, but it was a good thing they showed it before the station began its regular program schedule, rather than pulling this right smack in the middle of the broadcast day. There was yet another gaffe the Cleveland NBC affiliate pulled in the '70s (IIRC), in which the station inadvertently showed the ID slide for the NBC station in New York. Someone at the Cleveland NBC station probably brought up the network feed a bit too soon.
I have never seen this kind of mistake on either of the other network affiliates (ABC or CBS) before or since then, and I was very surprised to see it on NBC (the local NBC affiliate in Cleveland was owned and operated by the NBC television network at the time). My best guess is some master control engineer just made an honest mistake when the mishmash I described was shown, and actually broadcast. As I said, it was a good thing this happened before the actual telecasting schedule began, and not in the middle of the broadcast day or, heaven forbid, during a network program in prime time. Even today, with TV stations operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week, I have yet to see such gaffes, although if such mistakes are made during late-night hours most people wouldn't notice them. In fact, I have my doubts as to whether anyone much even sees the infomercials on TV after the last network program leaves the air. I sometimes think most TV stations are wasting money broadcasting those things; after all, how many people are up at three a. m. watching infomercials? I can understand folks wanting to see an early morning newscast, but infomercials?