Color broadcasting timeline

[W.B.]

The thing that finally tipped CBS to going color, by all accounts, was when Philips first developed the Plumbicon tube and introduced the Norelco PC-60 color studio camera in 1964-65. Here, the network could go color without giving any aid to the "hated" rival RCA which owned NBC. It was precisely because of this rivalry that, from the time CBS's own incompatible "field sequential" color system crashed and burned in 1951 up to that point, CBS only grudgingly and very sparingly, from 1954 through 1959, mounted occasional color productions - and, from 1959 through '65, hardly any (except for those colorcasts from early 1965 that were mentioned).

It was also in relation to CBS's "anybody but RCA" equipment replacement policy, that when the antiquated RCA TK-26 film chains (acquired in the mid-to-late 1950's and used for very infrequent color showings such as annual airings of The Wizard of Oz) came up for replacement in 1965-66, the "Eye Network" went with the General Electric PE-240 chains for their New York Broadcast Center and Hollywood Television City outposts. (Just can't tell whether it was the PE-240-A or PE-240-B variant - which of those two had the rounded, curved edges on the camera heads, as seen not only on Dennis Degan's photos from 1978, but also pics taken in the mid-to-late 1960's by Gordon Laubach seen here (alt. link here)?

[holmesuser01]

Originally Posted by W.B.

The thing that finally tipped CBS to going color, by all accounts, was when Philips first developed the Plumbicon tube and introduced the Norelco PC-60 color studio camera in 1964-65. Here, the network could go color without giving any aid to the "hated" rival RCA which owned NBC. It was precisely because of this rivalry that, from the time CBS's own incompatible "field sequential" color system crashed and burned in 1951 up to that point, CBS only grudgingly and very sparingly, from 1954 through 1959, mounted occasional color productions - and, from 1959 through '65, hardly any (except for those colorcasts from early 1965 that were mentioned).

It was also in relation to CBS's "anybody but RCA" equipment replacement policy, that when the antiquated RCA TK-26 film chains (acquired in the mid-to-late 1950's and used for very infrequent color showings such as annual airings of The Wizard of Oz) came up for replacement in 1965-66, the "Eye Network" went with the General Electric PE-240 chains for their New York Broadcast Center and Hollywood Television City outposts. (Just can't tell whether it was the PE-240-A or PE-240-B variant - which of those two had the rounded, curved edges on the camera heads, as seen not only on Dennis Degan's photos from 1978, but also pics taken in the mid-to-late 1960's by Gordon Laubach seen here (alt. link here)?

Thank you, sir, for the link to those images. That really takes me back.

[John Hafer]

Hey W.B., thanks for posting. I always enjoy your comments on color broadcasting as it seems we both have similar interests.

Regarding early ABC colorcasting, as I mentioned in my previous post, ABC starting colorcasting in the fall of 1962. Back then, any and all ABC color was from film only as no live color facilities were available. ABC apparently did go with the GE PE-24 generation color film camera systems but AFAIK, these were not available until circa 1964. I am curious as to what they used in 1962 and how they broadcast their color film programming.

Attached are a couple of scans regarding the startup of ABC colorcasting in the fall of 1962. All are from c. from Broadcasting Magazine. The dates of the jpg images are the dates of the magazines.

[W.B.]

Originally Posted by John Hafer

Regarding early ABC colorcasting, as I mentioned in my previous post, ABC starting colorcasting in the fall of 1962. Back then, any and all ABC color was from film only as no live color facilities were available. ABC apparently did go with the GE PE-24 generation color film camera systems but AFAIK, these were not available until circa 1964. I am curious as to what they used in 1962 and how they broadcast their color film programming.

RCA TK-26's - practically the only game in town then - from Prospect & Talmadge. Around 1965 the ABC Television Center in New York, as you'd mentioned on another post in another thread, acquired RCA TK-27 chains, on top of the PE-24's that had been in Union City, NJ beginning some time in the 1963-64 season.

[alespn]

Reading old Broadcasting Magazines from the '50s, it appears that there was one main reason why CBS discontinued color broadcasting... money. CBS executives were quoted as saying they would only broadcast a show in color if the advertisers paid the extra costs involved in color broadcasting. NBC/RCA was using the color broadcasts more as a loss leader to get more color TV sets in homes. As time passed, color sales in the '50s weren't at the levels that would sustain advertising at the level CBS wanted, so they quit broadcasting color.

[bozey45]

The Red Skelton Show was done in color with his own RCA cameras as early as 1956 I believe; I remember the announcer saying "LIVE In Color....The Red Skelton Show" before just about all of his shows beginning that year. Some weeks that announcement was not made so I assume the show was in b&w. He had some of the earliest color equipment in Hollywood I remember reading. I think his own prodction company owned the equipment and not CBS in the beginning.