What TV shows suffered in the switch from black and white to color?

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Joel1963, Nov 9, 2015.

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  1. It didn't last to be seen in color but "The Outer Limits" wouldn't have worked (the original of course) as the moody noirish cinematography gave the show a big unique look which has been referred to as science fiction gothic.
     
  2. Steve D.

    Steve D. Forum Resident

    The original Perry Mason w/Raymond Burr aired one episode in color. Feb, 27, 1966. "The Twice Told Twist."
     
    Last edited: Jul 4, 2017
  3. HGN2001

    HGN2001 Mystery picture member

  4. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    Sure it would have. There is such a thing as dark shows that were in color.
     
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  5. Perhaps. I think part of the vibe was the black and white aspect of the show. There were many early 60's shows where the lighting was serviceable and generic something that wouldn't have worked for TOL. The revival was in color so certainly the show could look good but it did abandon the asethic established by the original series for the most part.
     
  6. fr in sc

    fr in sc Forum Resident

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    Hanahan, SC
    "Twelve O'clock High" definitely suffered! Its final season, which was only the first half of the '66-67 season, was in color and I remember them showing one bit of WW2 combat footage repeatedly because there was practically zilch available in color compared to the B&W stuff.
    Edit---I should've read the thread before I posted this, as I see this was covered already. Ah, well....:doh:
     
  7. fr in sc

    fr in sc Forum Resident

    Location:
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    My family too! I remember how bugged my brother, sister and I were at seeing the NBC peacock in B&W for years and knowing we were missing out. When I bought the DVD's of the first seasons of Mannix and Mission: Impossible I wondered why they didn't hit me the same way and then realized I'd never seen them In Living Color before.
     
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  8. Ginger Ale

    Ginger Ale Snackophile

    Location:
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    Especially LIS...but the pain goes away if you convince yourself that it was really two different shows: serious space adventure, then space comedy.
     
  9. Johnny Rocker

    Johnny Rocker Well-Known Member

    Location:
    DFW
    Andy Griffith show, defo', Don Knots leaving, going to color, made it less "classic" looking. I reckon they were prepping for Mayberry RFD, or Petty Coat Junction. Heck they even had Jessy Duke and his sons pickin' and grinin', and crazy Earnest T. Bass runnin' round' towne. LOL!:cool:
     
  10. Yes, I know but I'm not referring to those (and those usually started n color). An example is Losr In Space where the lighting was moodier looking and she. It went to color was more garish, cartoony (in order to show off those eye popping color) and yes, it fit the mood of the writing and performances but it also impacted even those episodes that were semi-serious. Given how sometime generic the look of color show lighting was (there are examples where it was great, others not so much) and the extra time to deal with lighting for color vs. black and white, I don't think the noirish look of the show would have been successfully cared over and I suspect that the primitively visual effects by Wah Chang and others might not have been as convincing in color as well (plus the budget of the show would have to be more for these variables).
     
  11. Dillydipper

    Dillydipper Space-Age luddite

    Location:
    Central PA
    Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color - somehow it didn't "stand out" as much as before...
     
  12. bmasters9

    bmasters9 Forum Resident

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    Saw that one a time back from the 50th Anniversary DVD release, and you're right-- to me, it was a novelty to see that lone color Mason outing, but I didn't particularly care for the story; a good many of the outings in B/W were done far better.
     
  13. steelvelvet20

    steelvelvet20 Forum Resident

    Location:
    United Kingdom
    The avengers 60s UK TV series. I enjoy the black and white episodes, especially with Diana rigg. When they changed to colour, it somewhat spoiled it.
     
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  14. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    I can't think of any...back in the mid 60's when we finally got a COLOR TV I was thrilled to see my favorites in living COLOR!
     
  15. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    yea, like it was...LOL.
     
  16. Jay_Z

    Jay_Z Forum Resident

    Hogan's Heroes is an interesting case. Pilot was in B&W, series in color. It wasn't a particularly colorful show; lots of drab army uniforms and barracks, and seemingly every episode was set in a grungy winter.

    But the show wouldn't have been as good in B&W. Maybe it was the film stock. I thought it was a well filmed show, a good looking show. Interesting contrast with Combat!

    The Fugitive has been mentioned. There was one color Fugitive where Kimble is in a strange town and they do what I would call a neon noir. The use of color is unsettling and effective. Mostly The Fugitive did not use color all that effectively. See the title sequence, where they just tinted the old pictures. The finale was well filmed.

    I don't think any format was ever doomed to extinction by the advent of color, adjustments were just required.
     
  17. JozefK

    JozefK Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dixie
    Vic Morrow Interview: TV Color Blind

    Vic Morrow prefers his show, Combat! in black and white

    by Bob Lardine
    New York Sunday News
    October 31, 1965

    With the big swing to color on TV this year, it's surprising to run into an actor who hates the thought or red sunsets, green hills and blue skies on his show. Vic Morrow, unsmiling hero of ABC-TV's "Combat," glumly says: "I suppose our show will eventually go to color, but I hope not. I prefer the program in black and white. "Combat" is gutsy and raw, and comes across better in stark tones."​

    Contract Vic's sentiments on color to those of the stars below.

    LUCILLE BALL: "Color gives our series a great big shot in the arm. The program immediately has a new dimension."

    INGER STEVENS: "My TV marriage to William Windom tomorrow looks spectacular in color. It would have been drab in black and white. I'm thrilled our series switched to color."

    ANDY GRIFFITH: "There's no doubt about it. Color has given my show a needed lift."

    IRENE RYAN: "I figure color will boost the popularity of the 'Beverly Hillbillies' 100 per cent this season."

    But Vic shrugs off their comments "Color may be all right for them," says the dour, New York-born actor, "but it would hurt 'Combat.' If you remember, the newsreels during the last war accurately captured the harshness and cruelty of war because they were filmed in black and white. The same footage in color would have seemed artificial. It would have been a prettified picture of an unpretty situation."​
     
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  18. Malinky

    Malinky Almost a Gentleman.

    Location:
    U.K.
    I totally agree....the change to color made it much more `of the time`, it went from a straight forward comic spy thriller, to this `Far Out` psychedelic surrealistic trip.
     
  19. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    I vividly remember when in spring 1978, WNEW-TV (Channel 5) in New York was showing the first M:I season (with Steven Hill as first IMF leader Dan Briggs) - and TV Guide's listings actually had the (BW) bullet on some episodes, notwithstanding the show had been in color from Point Go.
     
  20. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    There is a school of thought that the first two seasons of Petticoat Junction (1963-65) in B&W were the better ones in overall quality, storylines, etc. - and once it went color (and a revolving door of Bradley girls with the lone exception of Linda Kaye Henning as Betty Jo), all that went out the window. And that was all before series star Bea Benaderet's death in '68.

    1965, as @Vidiot noted, was when Sullivan went color. Initially using Norelco PC-60's and then PC-70's, but by 1967 switched to Marconi Mark VII's. In fact it was that factor - Norelco's first Plumbicon color cameras - that made it easier for CBS to make the switch to color, in keeping with its "anybody but RCA" policy for buying new equipment. (In that vein, their Broadcast Center studios in New York and Television City in Hollywood had their respective telecine sections equipped, come 1966, with General Electric PE-240 film chains.)

    Bob Hope at NBC, and Jackie Gleason at CBS, continued putting out B&W product for as long as they could get away with it, and only went color when their respective networks forced their hands. Hope's first color special was Christmas 1965, and Gleason went color in September 1966.
     
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  21. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    I.I.N.M., ABC, at the studios on 53rd Street east of 10th Avenue where Dark Shadows was taped after going color, were using Norelco PC-60 or PC-70 color cameras. But if the cameras were "crude," the VT equipment used to record the shows would likely have been even more so. Does anyone know if the setup at the ABC studio where the show originated, at the outset of going color, had the infamous RCA TR-22 "television tape" recorders, whose kits for going hi-band were so unreliable it soured the network on RCA for awhile? And at what point would they have upgraded to newer hi-band Ampex quad VTR's (i.e. VR-2000) or equivalents thereof?
     
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  22. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    Not me, but I can say that I worked some occasional ABC Sports shows from 1973-1977, and even then the network was very anti-RCA. It wasn't because RCA owned NBC -- it was because they truly felt that RCA equipment was crappy. They were much more solidly with Norelco cameras and Ampex VTRs (and slo-mo machines), plus Grass Valley switchers. Those were state of the art for about 20 years.
     
  23. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    Yet, from what I've read on other sites, ABC had RCA TK-27 film chains in their New York Television Center (augmented in the later '70's by TK-28's), and TCR-100 cart machines. (As well as one studio having RCA TK-47's.) Still, given what you'd said, apparently the TR-22's left a bitter taste in ABC's mouth for years afterward.
     
  24. Manapua

    Manapua Forum Resident

    Location:
    Honolulu
    It looks like most of the shows that fit the thread's description have been dealt with so please indulge my color TV story. In the summer of '69, while away from home for two months, my parents got our first color TV. When I got home I was thrilled and immediately turned on the Spiderman cartoon. I was appalled that his costume was green and purple and skin tones on real people were similarly off color. I asked my mother why this was so and she simply said that's what they had been watching for several weeks. I flipped open the controls, fiddled with the contrast and hues and voila! Red and blue Spidey. I just could not believe the 'rents had no clue.
     
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  25. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    It's always horrible and sad for me to deal with friends and relatives who take all the knobs on their TV sets and yank them to 11. I'm quite a pest when I go over, see that everything is wrong, and then dive in and at least give the monitor some semblance of normal color and brightness again... and they usually don't like the picture.
     
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