Color Television was disappointing when first introduced?

[bgadow]

When displaying a bw picture I don't think any early color set could look as good as a middle-of-the-road monochrome set. BW tv really was close to perfected by the mid-50s & was still new to most people. There are 2 things I can think of that would have sold a bunch of color sets. One, if everything was being broadcast in color (even if it was just everything on NBC) & two if the price was more in line with bw sets. Faced with a difference of $200 for a decent bw set or $600 for a similiar color set-thats a stretch. If you could get one for $400 or even like $375 it would sell a lot of sets. I don't think many folks in the middle class were obsessed with getting color in the 50s or early 60s. Later one peer pressure sold some sets. I know my folks & their friends/relatives were living paycheck to paycheck when they were in their 20s, and we are talking about the late 60s. Most of them had color consoles & I think this was part of keeping up with the Joneses. Now, folks like my grandfather, who could have bought 2 or 3 color sets if he wanted to, were too frugal to make the investment. He replaced a cheap 60s bw set with a cheap 70s bw set before finally going color about 1982.