"HAZEL BUYS A COLOR TV" complete rare color NBC episode, November, 1961..

The reshot opening credit sequence matches the b&w original almost (but not quite) exactly...

What other shows have shot "special" color episodes? I know "Perry Mason" did, any others?

 

Burns and Allen filmed one episode in color, I believe the 1954 season premiere. I have looked for years to see this episode in color, but besides a brief clip on a CBS anniversary special several years ago, no such luck.

 

What other sitcom was shot in color as early as the 62-63 season? I can't recall any before 1965...not including "The Flintstones" and other animated series.

 

"The Dick Van Dyke Show" 65-66 season was in black and white...wasn't that the last on CBS?

 

KRAFT SUSPENSE THEATRE would share the timeslot with Perry Como's monthly specials and Music Halls, and it too ran in color (with Ed Herlihy's voice-overs for Kraft products!) and theme by Johnny Williams.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZXPAp2W0zE

Harry

 

Thanks, enjoying this now.

TVs were quite expensive back then. The price for a basic black and white TV set in 1965 comes out to somewhere around $1,500 in today's dough (which was cheaper than buying one in the 1950s). You'd want to get some years out of that investment. They kept making B&W sets for years, as color sets were much more (say around $2,800 in today's dollars). Part of the reason B&W sets remained so common into the 1970s.

 

Thanks for the link, Steve! Hazel was a family favorite in our home, though we didn't get our first color set until December of 1968, so I only have seen the color episodes in re-runs.

 

Sam Benedict shot one episode in color during the 1962-63 season. As for series shot in color, Calvin and the Colonel, which ran on ABC in 1961 was shot in color but ran in black and white.

 

No, it was a ton more lights. They also had to worry about different colors clashing, lab budgets, makeup, costumes, sets, and a ton of other issues. Famously, when Man from U.N.C.L.E.[/B] went color, I think the budget went up 10% while they cut other expenses 10%, so the total cost increase was about 20% per episode (astronomical in terms of 1960s money). A lot of 1960s shows were affected by the changeover to color in 1966. Trying to do it in 1962 was really difficult, unless you had a huge show -- Bonanza is a prime example -- where they could justify the expense with big ratings and lots of expensive commercials.

Back in 1962, they could shoot on Plus-X or Tri-X in B&W and get an ASA of like 320 or so. Color stocks were not even 1/4th as sensitive, like 5251 (rated at 50). Color was really, really difficult to do for television back in those days -- you basically had to overlight the crap out of it to get the prints to work on TV. They eventually solved with this low-contrast stocks and stuff in the 1970s, but it was harder and more expensive than it looked.

Yes, 1966 was the big switchover year. It was a tough pill for CBS to swallow, because they were still smarting over the FCC throwing out the CBS color wheel system in 1954 for the RCA "compatible color" system. The FCC's decision was right, but CBS lost millions of dollars over that one.

I agree, it was a long changeover from 1966 to the end of the decade. I can recall some local newscasts still being in B&W, because the stations were too poor or too cheap to buy new color TV cameras. The cost of retrofitting a B&W VTR to color also cost many thousands of dollars. Ironically, in some cases, some B&W broadcast 2" VTRs had enough bandwidth to record in color, even though it couldn't play back the tape.

I also agree, it was very cool being a little kid and seeing all the color sets lined up in a department store when a color show would come on. I think my family was the very last in our neighborhood to buy a color TV (circa 1971-1972), because my father was convinced "it hasn't been perfected yet."

 

The first season of Wild Wild West on CBS was black and white in '65-'66.

 

Interesting that this has the syndication style end credits. The original network end titles would have the Ford logo on the bottom third of the image . I wonder if the Ford Falcon ads were in color for this episode---too bad those ads and titles are not part of the DVD set, they’re a scream! I got to see many of these when I worked on the OCN's years ago.

Fun show that I remember in the late 70's on KTTV in the afternoon

 

When I was growing up in the 60s, my family made do with an RCA B&W set because my father thought color TV was a waste of money. One of the first things my mother did when my parents divorced in 1973 was buy a color TV (a Motorola Quasar set). The first show I saw in color on it was Match Game '73.

 

HAZEL was a case where the show switched networks but remained in color. Its fifth season (1965-1966) it moved over to CBS, where black & white was still the norm, but it aired in color that year.

As I recall CBS began switching to some color series in fall '65. Big guns like THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES, LUCY and RED SKELTON.

Back to SUSPENSE THEATRE, I remember the opening extremely well. I think I must have liked that scary music/animation, though I have no recollection of actually watching any of the shows. It was a 10:00 show in the East, so it was off to bedtime.

But my appreciation of John Williams' music must have begun with those opening titles and strange music.

The episode I linked to, "Leviathan Five" was one I DID remember, but my memory comes from it re-airing on Sunday afternoons in syndication. It was a title that aired a good deal in those late '60s/early '70s years when independent stations were starved for any product that was in color.

Harry

 

When the Joey Bishop Show went from NBC to CBS in the fall of 1964, it went back to black and white after the previous two seasons had been in color. Paley wasn't going to help NBC sell color TVs!

 

Everything was B&W for me until I moved away from home in 83 and bought my first color TV. I don't think my parents bought a color TV until their last B&W set broke in the late 80s.

 

My father was a VP loan officer at the local bank, so he "floor planned" the local Zenith and RCA dealers. We never wanted for the latest 6 foot long stereo console or color tv. I assume he got a good deal when he went shopping

 

I think HAZEL was the first sitcom to be regularly shot in color, starting with its second season.

I thought that one off color episode from the first season looks a little different than how the next three would look. I didn't watch it now, but saw some of it not too long ago on Antenna TV. I sort of remember Whitney being made up a little different (make-up too heavy) than how she usually looked in the rest of the seasons, though she still looked great. Whitney looked a lot like Kim Novak...