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

Yupp... I've given up on that unless I will be forced to watch. Usually, I hear "after you left we just set it to 'vivid' and it looks great".

 

TV Guide used to do this kind of thing a lot. I was a fan of the magazine, still have all those old issues along with hundreds of out-of-town issues. In Aug 1972, they switched from a "C" bullet to indicate a color show, to a "BW" bullet to indicate one in black and white. Somehow during the conversion, there were dozens of shows that had the wrong designation. You could think that maybe the station elected to show it in B&W for some reason, but those episodes were always listed that way in any TV Guide edition you picked up. Examples:

Three B&W "Gilligan's Island" episodes never had the B&W bullet whenever they were listed, including the first episode
Three "Dick Van Dyke" episodes never had it
At least three "Green Acres" episodes were always listed in B&W despite the fact the show was always in color
At least two "Petticoat Junction" episodes were always listed in B&W despite the fact the B&W episodes were never syndicated
At least six B&W "Bewitched" episodes didn't have the B&W symbol; and about six-eight color episodes were always listed as being in B&W
"Hogan's Heroes" always had one episode from the first season (outside of the pilot) that was listed in B&W
"Get Smart" had one episode from the first season listed in B&W; oddly enough, the pilot, which was in B&W, never carried the B&W bullet
One "Mod Squad" episode was listed in B&W, despite the fact the show was always in color
For many years, the entire first season of "I Dream of Jeannie" never carried the B&W symbol (this was corrected in the later '70s); a couple of color episodes did carry the B&W symbol
A couple of color "My Three Sons" episodes from the CBS years were always listed as B&W in syndication

There were others, but you get the idea. Some of these errors (such as the "Dick Van Dyke" example) seemed to be corrected by the early '80s, but some never were.

I'm not sure if it's just a mistake in their computer system when the conversion from "C" to "BW" took place, or maybe some data-entry operator was just having a little fun - but there you go! Surprising nobody picked up on these errors sooner and get them to correct their listings. One of the interesting quirks of reading back issues!

 

And if you think that was bad, you should have seen some of their movie listings. One such listing (again from WNEW) had a film as being made in 1056!! When they meant 1956.

 

Come on over to my house! I prefer to let someone at the controls who knows what they're doing, especially with all this fancy HDR and Dolby Vision stuff that I have...

 

Oh, I just hire a guy. I just used an ISF-certified technician yesterday to create a LUT for a LUT box for my setup in my home studio. I would bet that there's an ISF person in your area who can adjust your set:

Imaging Science – Advanced HDTV Calibration

 

The show became so horrible. Mayberry even looked like a ghost town, where no extras were around - it was empty everywhere. New characters were introduced and accepted as having always been there.
It just got really bad, I don't even have the words for it. I just own the first five seasons on DVD, and none further. To me, the show completely lost all its charm that it had before, and it wasn't just about Don Knotts leaving;
in fact, while he was a pretty essential character, my favorite episode is Man In A Hurry, where for once he's not his agitated self. I didn't find him the best part of the show, really.
Andy changed quite a bit after he left, the whole show went down the toilet, and I'd day coincidence re: Knotts (who ironically left the show for his seemingly promising movie career after Andy said that HE was quitting the show).
Sheldon Leonard left too, if I recall - to do Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.

 

Bewitched.

 

And the original actress as Lois Lane too; she was much better. I agree, a shame how it went so far downhill for the color episodes.

 

The Beverly Hillbillies. I almost forgot that. Starting with the 4th season, they couldn't show the full exterior anymore because of the owner of that mansion had his address published in TV Guide or somewhere and he withdrew their right to use it.
But that's not why - the show just became dumber and dumber. Oh there's some good ones still in that season, and the fifth season too (and they should release the fifth season at least); but it declined rapidly in quality as it went on, esp. with new characters like Shorty Kellems taking place, and Drysdale becoming even more of a comic book character, etc. Their going to England was the dumbest idea and the beginning of the real downfall of the show.
(BTW, you could also see, esp. now in better transfers, like on my DVD copy of the 4th season - I can just imagine on Blu-Ray - you can see how Buddy's fake mustache doesn't even match in color! It totally looks the fake that it is).

 

I'm more old-school and remember the days of . They used to spell it out like that before they switched to the [c] designation.

 

Bumping this up-- I have the CBS condensed all-in-one that has both the B/W first 5, and the color last 3; I got it because my mother really enjoys The Andy Griffith Show, and when I put it in for my mother and father, they enjoyed it all the way through, even the color shows from 1965 to the end in 1968.

 

I watched the color episodes of TAGS in the spring on Amazon and while not nearly as good as the b&w episodes even the worst of Andy was better than some show’s best.

 

They were all before my time and so the only shows I've seen that would qualify would have been as a young kid on Nick at Nite. Bewitched is probably the biggest offender. The Munsters movies probably would have worked better in b&w like the show as well.

 

back in 1965 I was thrilled when my favorite shows started moving to color!
LOST IN SPACE! the colors, The ROBOT, the space suits, the props...it was so cool on my parents large consul TV screen...

 

but I feel the color really made them look even more out of place! LOL...

 

I don't know that color caused the problem with The Andy Griffith Show--I think that the show had matured and was in its twilight before fading into the sunset.

 

The fact that the moment the show went to color was also the moment it lost Don Knotts as a major factor in the series. Attempts to replace Knotts with the likes of Jack Burns resulted in some really poor episodes.

 

agreed...he paled against Barney...but then again who could have replaced Barney? NOBODY!

 

it was over when Don left! done...

 

yea, I remember that in TV Guide...those were the days...

 

I also think a lot of the original creative team behind the scenes left that season as well. Losing staff and bringing in new teams, losing a major star and replacing with “Warren,” and an aging sitcom by that point results in less than stellar shows which give the color shows their reputation. Again, I will say the worst of Andy is better than the best of many other shows.

 

The Avengers.
Doctor Who.

 

remember back in the 60's COLOR TV was BIG and exciting...sorta like STEREO records...ppl could not wait to hear and see them...but many homes still were with B&W due to the prices...

 

My dad was dead-set against getting a color TV in the 60s because he thought it would be a waste of money. One of the first things my mom bought when my parents divorced in the early 70s was a color TV. The first show I watched on it was Match Game '73.

 

smart Mom!