Mad Men TVs

[jmdocs]

Last night's episode of "Mad Men" dealt with the assassination of JFK--and unsurprisingly, people spent a lot of time looking at TVs. Thought these pictures might be of interest. Wondered if any of these were anachronistic.

You'll note that some of them show the incredibly annoying Mad Men habit of giving every TV terrible reception, even though the show takes place in and around New York City.

I did notice that on one set--the combo with Frank McGee on the screen--they bothered to put the channel indicator on 4 for WNBC.

[Eric H]

I noticed the bad reception thing too, quite annoying that every set seemed to have Vertical Hold troubles.

One thing they got right was when Peter was in Harry's office and Harry got up to turn up the set, they had the picture fade in and out the way it really does (did) when you were using Rabbit Ears and moved around the room.

I'm pretty sure though that all the screen shots are faked.

[jmdocs]

Oh, and is this a Sylvania Halolight in Margaret Sterling's hotel room?

[David Roper]

Looks to me like all the sets are period correct, although the last one looks pretty beat up for a set that would have been quite a recent purchase.

[M3-SRT8]

I'm a huge Mad Men fan. True, the show does the 'fair reception' picture flip, static, thing a bit much. But, I don't mind. I kinda like it.

Most people today don't remember Bunny Ears and bad reception. Therefore, the Show takes it upon itself to render TVs that way.

LJB

[Old1625]

I remember those days of wrangling rabbit ears for better reception--then when I go to sit back down I've upset the apple cart--so to speak--and have to diddle with the "ears" again so that the picture is decent when I'm back in my chair.

Those were the days of the old Zenith, Gunsmoke with Chester Goode, and later the Lloyd Thaxton show. Merrily the picture rolled along.

[Carmine]

Originally Posted by jmdocs

Oh, and is this a Sylvania Halolight in Margaret Sterling's hotel room?

I have that set... It is a Halolight, can't remember its name right now.

Do you think when they set TV shows in 2009 they'll be sure and include lots of pixelation, drop outs and freeze frames? That's pretty much what TV looks like for me, and I'm in an urban area.

[Robert Grant]

The fourth one looks a little like a 1959 GE 21T2425 I had watched decades ago, though the knob panel under the channel selector looks different (and a little newer).

None of the sets look obviously post-1963, but it is a little too dark for me to tell.

About bad rabbit ears reception:
A TV show or movie will often alter image or sound to remind the viewer that the show is set in the past. It is not uncommon to see vintage color footage de-colorized and scratches added, or an old record player or radio that had decent fidelity portrayed with audio that's been fed through filters to sound like a telephone.
However, anywhere at ground level in Manhattan (with the possible exception of Central Park), rabbit ear reception would certainly be miserable (the signals could be strong, but you would have multipath problems up the wazoo).
In the other areas of the city, full of brick and brownstone row houses, rabbit ears wouldn't work so well either.
But I can assume that thousands of viewers in wood frame houses on Staten Island would have had excellent reception with rabbit ears.

My own personal experience in the day, two Detroit single family homes, both 15-20 miles from the transmitters: one was a brick-to-belt bungalow, set in first floor living room, no UHF tuner - all four VHFs came in perfectly in all weather conditions. The other was a two-story brick colonial with like houses seperated by narrow driveways, RCA CTC-38 with rabbit ears and loop on first floor - VHFs usually fine, household appliances would mess up channel 2, UHFs iffy. In windy weather, 7 could suffer some fading, and UHF was hopeless.

[Steve D.]

Amazing how emotional I still get when I watch a drama that portrays that infamous day. Looks like they went to the CBS/NBC archives and borrowed some aircheck tapes for replay on the sets. I have NBC's coverage from that day in my library.There were, I recall, many technical gliches that day in '63. Hasty network connections made for many sync problems as ATT's overworked techs tried to satisfy all the media demands for radio & TV feeds from all over the country. Talk about breaking news at a time when TV news coverage was still getting its legs. I am impressed with Mad Men's accuracy in it's depiction of that era. The correctness of the various TV's do add realism to the scenes. Don't recall any color sets. You'd think a large advertising agency would have one in the conference room. Stay tuned.

-Steve D.

[leadlike]

Great episode. I was glad to finally see Don Draper's tv in a closeup, as it has typically only been shown from the side. I guess he has a late 50's RCA 21"?

I've been surprised by the lack of color sets on this series. Peeking into the lives of some of the most highly paid businessmen at the time, I would think someone would invest in color, or some kind of custom combo. For this episode, I guess it wouldn't have been relevant as I can't imagine there being any live JFK coverage that was in color.

[Steve D.]

A little off topic here. But in response to the previous post. We had an RCA color tv in 1963. I recall very well when NBC New York threw to the local anchors at their Dallas affiliate WBAP-TV. The Dallas video was live in color. I have this on tape. I remember that at first there was picture and no sound and going back to New York, NBC's Frank McGee apoligized and explained they were having technical difficulties. They then threw it to Dallas again and had sound and no picture. Back to NBC. Finally they got it right and the color picture and sound synced up. WBAP provided live color cut ins several times and then for some reason went to B&W. I also recall on the next day NBC provided a concert of classical/patriotic music in honor of the president. This was a color telecast from Chicago. I recall no network color coverage involving network anchors.

-Steve D.

[jmdocs]

Based on the survivors we see today, I suspect if the show was set in Chicago they'd have color sets! I agree that it's odd that no one has color, though.

[wa2ise]

Originally Posted by jmdocs

I agree that it's odd that no one has color, though.

At least the show producers didn't make the vintage B&W sets have color video images pasted in.

[Eric H]

What with having stacks of cash in his desk drawer you might think Don Draper would spring for Color.

It's been mentioned more than once though that he grew up poor and it affects his spending habits.

His house seems pretty modest for someone of his means, then again he bought his "Ex" a house so maybe that put a dent in the budget.