50th Anniversary of Rudolph on a CTC-11

[IsthmusTV]

Hi all,

Last night, CBS aired the classic "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer" on its 50th anniversary. I was four in 1964, and I have vague recollections of seeing it for the first time when I was four or five on my family's tired Motorola B&W set. I thought it would be fun to watch the anniversary broadcast on a period appropriate color set, the way it was meant to be seen.

I used a DTV box to feed my Blonder-Tongue agile modulator. The set is my mainly recapped CTC-11. The screen shots aren't the best. I found it hard to get shots that weren't blurred from motion. Enjoy!

[BigDavesTV]

Great pictures! You and I are apparently the same age (me, June 1960). I always liked this Rudolph every Christmas, we had a 21" Sears Silvertone Medalist B&W Blonde Console, until I was 11 (1971), before we got color!

[IsthmusTV]

Originally Posted by BigDavesTV

Great pictures! You and I are apparently the same age (me, June 1960). I always liked this Rudolph every Christmas, we had a 21" Sears Silvertone Medalist B&W Blonde Console, until I was 11 (1971), before we got color!

Thanks. Yes, I was born in July of 1960. My family didn't get color until 1975! It was an all solid state Zenith Chroma Color II. But I know know I saw Rudolph in color before then at a friend's house

-Clark

[Rod Beauvex]

Very nice. Pictures seem fairly sharp.

[Sandy G]

Oh, yeah... I'M in Love... Beautiful picture !

[Kevin Kuehn]

Very cool! That Bumble the Abominable Snowman used to scare the wits out of me when I was a little tike. I'm actually the same age as the show.

[Tom S]

Hey Kevin, I watched it on my CTC10. Looks Great. Now if I could find a tube for my 11. I use the 10 daily. Love it. You ever need a hand let me know.

[jsowers]

Beautiful screen shots there. I watched it on a flat screen too, I'm sorry to say. I took time out of a busy night baking cookies for a Christmas party just to watch it. I wish they had done something special for the 50th anniversary.

I still have my family's first color TV, a GE 21" from 1969 in my living room. I had the party today and one person actually asked me if that was my main TV that I watched. Sadly, I haven't powered it up in years. I know I should use it and I still have analog cable, so I can still use the tuner to get the local stations. But something in me doesn't want to see it die.

I have fond memories of watching Rudolph on that TV. It was originally sponsored by GE and the elves in the show were also in the GE commercials. It was a first class job all around. For the show to still be broadcast after 50 years is nothing short of amazing in this day and time.

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by jsowers

I still have my family's first color TV, a GE 21" from 1969 in my living room. I had the party today and one person actually asked me if that was my main TV that I watched. Sadly, I haven't powered it up in years. I know I should use it and I still have analog cable, so I can still use the tuner to get the local stations. But something in me doesn't want to see it die.

If a VCR can tune more than the local channels, then you can tune the TV to the RF out channel of the VCR, connect the VCR RF out to the TV, and watch all the analog channels you can get on the TV through VCR...It also adds remote channel control if you have a newer VCR. I do this with all my vintage sets, and can attest to how well it works.
It should not be too hard to fix that set if the CRT and flyback are still good. Since GE liked to use as few parts as they could that means there is less to go wrong, troubleshoot, and replace...

[Ampico-kid]

Originally Posted by jsowers

I have fond memories of watching Rudolph on that TV. It was originally sponsored by GE and the elves in the show were also in the GE commercials. It was a first class job all around. For the show to still be broadcast after 50 years is nothing short of amazing in this day and time.

Watching Rudolph has been a yearly event for me since it first started airing in the mid 1960's. But the version you all see today has been altered from the original broadcast.

About 7 years ago a fellow by the name of Rick Goldschmidt was selling an all original DVD version, including commercials and deleted/altered sequences, just as first broadcast on Sunday Dec.6, 1964. I was lucky enough to purchase one of those copies. It was part of the General Electric Fantasy Hour and consequently all of the commercials were for GE home appliances. The Elves used in the Rudolph story served double duty and also appeared in the GE commercials. Interestingly, although Rudolph was in color, the GE commercials were in black and white.

We had just gotten our Zenith color TV (chassis 25MC33) about 2 weeks before Rudolph first aired. With a beautiful new color TV in our house, we had plenty of company to watch the premiere of Rudolf. That was certainly a Christmas to remember. Bob

[Kamakiri]

Did anyone notice or feel that the coloring in Santa's workshop was more purplish or pinkish than in previous broadcasts? My wife thinks so, I say she's crazy. But after all, look who she married

And we watched it on the flat screen, so I can't blame the TV

[oldtvman]

Keep in mind when this first aired in 1964 CBS was still broadcasting most shows in B-W. I bought our first color set in 1963 and NBC was the big player in Christmas specials in color

[damen]

Nice!!! A true classic.

[consoleguy67]

Originally Posted by oldtvman

Keep in mind when this first aired in 1964 CBS was still broadcasting most shows in B-W. I bought our first color set in 1963 and NBC was the big player in Christmas specials in color

The show originally aired on NBC.

[Eric H]

The Puppets for Rudolph and Santa turned up on The Antiques Road Show back in 2006, since then they've been restored and go on tour from time to time.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/fts...200501A42.html

http://www.today.com/id/22086568/ns/.../#.VIpYHcksbVw