What did broadcast color television look like in 1954 through 1957?

[jsowers]

If you want to see some good early color content, tune in to the Dinah Shore Chevy Show on the Jewish Life Channel, if you're lucky enough to have that on cable. It's on at 2pm and 4am every day. So far the shows I've seen have been from 1959-1961.

No Chevy commercials, but they do sometimes show the ending where she sings See the USA in Your Chevrolet, doing her trademark "umm-wah" kiss, and they show the latest Impala or Corvair. They're not too strict on timing on this channel, so allow some extra minutes before and after the show to get it all if you're recording it.

I am no expert on early color, having first seen color TV in 1969, but the color reproduction looks very good to my eyes, considering the age of the shows. You can tell they tried to be very colorful in their sets and costumes. The show I saw the other day with Dinah singing Deep Purple would be great for showing off an early color TV. It was the 12-6-59 episode with Carl Reiner, Mary Costa and Mahalia Jackson.

I do notice the black "blooming" areas around reflective things, which may be more a result of early videotape reproduction or it could be coming from the cameras.