It's my understanding that CBS's system wasn't compatible with black & white and it was too early to make a wholesale change. No one should hold a grudge about that!
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CBS to air colorized 'Dick Van Dyke Show' episodes
- Thread starter mvcg66b3r
- Start date
There's an old thread here somewhere about the color wars; Long story short, NBC winning out over CBS meant that RCA would manufacture most of the cameras, monitors, and other stuff needed to do color, and CBS wasn't about to pay them for the privilege. The other major TV camera manufacturer, Norelco, made color cameras that were at first pretty inferior to RCA's (Their B/W cameras were very good), and once Norelco developed a color camera that was good enough in CBS's eyes (sorry), they finally pulled the trigger on color.
Back to topic, I didn't see the colorized Van Dyke shows, but I do remember watching that reunion show they did, maybe, 10 years ago. The show indicated that Richie owned the Petrie's house, and it seemed like there were a lot of greens in the living room.
Back to topic, I didn't see the colorized Van Dyke shows, but I do remember watching that reunion show they did, maybe, 10 years ago. The show indicated that Richie owned the Petrie's house, and it seemed like there were a lot of greens in the living room.
I used the term "youngsters" and "under 40" to describe modern movie goers. I assume most Boomers have already seen every quality movie ever made and were familiar with their actors in their prime as well.
You didn't see the colorized Dick Van Dyke shows because they have not aired yet. December 11th, 8pm eastern/pacific.
But good history on the color wars. That was a wild time, though my family didn't buy color until friggin' 1969! By then, everything had transitioned.
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Opposite the last half hour of FNIA.
I'm afraid you were 2 years behind my clan, seatown.
But Corky, yes, good color history.ixnay
Maybe off topic.....
but with the colorization bug returning, has anyone thought to restore/create the 1st and 4th seasons of the Joey Bishop Show in color. I have never understood going from color for the 2nd and 3rd seasons back to B&W in the 4th. It obviously had to do with money, but having only the 2 middle seasons in color probably killed any chance it had to a second life in syndication rerun heaven. Not that the show was particularly good or funny, but 3 color seasons would have definitely given the show a chance to become a hit in later years.
but with the colorization bug returning, has anyone thought to restore/create the 1st and 4th seasons of the Joey Bishop Show in color. I have never understood going from color for the 2nd and 3rd seasons back to B&W in the 4th. It obviously had to do with money, but having only the 2 middle seasons in color probably killed any chance it had to a second life in syndication rerun heaven. Not that the show was particularly good or funny, but 3 color seasons would have definitely given the show a chance to become a hit in later years.
I think it would be interesting to restore shows that were originally shown in color but now only exist as B/W kinescopes, like the final seasons of "What's My Line?" and "I've Got A Secret", or pretty much the full run of "Hullabaloo". IIRC, the only full episode of that show that exists in color features Jerry and Gary Lewis offering up a scorching duet of "Help!", which can kindly be described as a cruel prank played on TV historians, amateur and otherwise.
The problem with B/W kinescopes is the picture quality. Even at best, the picture quality is poor.
True, no doubt. But many of these folks will come back again and again. It is just human nature. For example, when you choose a movie to watch do you go back to a movie your enjoyed previously? I think 9 out of 10 do.
I do this whenever the NFL starts assaulting my retinas with ten shades of pink.
The history on that is that the FCC actually approved the CBS Color System in the early 1950's. In fact a few CBS stations broadcast selected programs in that format for a short time. It was a rather ridiculous system that utilized a mechanical spinning wheel with color filters on it. A different number of scan lines and a different frame rate were used, so the broadcasts were not compatible with existing B&W sets.
When the Korean War broke out, David Sarnoff at RCA used his Washington connections to get the government to temporarily ban color broadcasting (allegedly because the materials were needed for the war effort). After the war ended the FCC did a 180 and went with RCA's all-electronic color system (which had the added advantage of being compatible with existing sets).
CBS felt as if Sarnoff had pulled a fast one on them, and the resentment lingered well into the 1960's.
The French SECAM color system was essentially an all-electronic variant of CBS' field-sequential system.
First, General Armstrong and then CBS, Sarnoff made lots of friends, didn't he?
I still remember the story in my fourth-grade reader about how he stayed on duty all night
at a Marconi ship-to-shore station, relaying messages from the Titanic sinking.
Only to find out years later that it was all B.S. That Marconi had shut-down the station that employed
him to clear the airwaves for rescuers.
Major, not General.
Sarnoff (David, not Bobby) was a general; Paley was a Colonel (bird or lite, I don't recall).
You're absolutely right! I was actually thinking of Sarnoff when I said it.
The BBC has done some amazing work with the digital restoration of kinescopes. They can restore them to
looking pretty much like videotape. And if the original kinescope was shot off of a color monitor they can even
identify color artifacts which they can use to restore the original color!
There was an earlier thread from 2014 about Live Feed, which is a company doing Kinescope restoration: http://www.radiodiscussions.com/showthread.php?669482-Technical-Clean-up-for-old-kinescopes and I had posted a link for them that I had found at http://www.kinescopes.com/livefeed.html and also their You Tube site at https://www.youtube.com/user/livefeedvideoimaging/videos. According to their site they've done some restoration for DVD sets, but I still haven't seen much else about them.
Also, here is another thread about the restoration of kinescopes and early color video tapes: http://www.radiodiscussions.com/showthread.php?577517-Question-About-Old-Kinescope
Also, here is another thread about the restoration of kinescopes and early color video tapes: http://www.radiodiscussions.com/showthread.php?577517-Question-About-Old-Kinescope
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Watched this last evening.
The technology sure has come a long way since the 80's. The color saturation was pretty impressive. Not a pale pastel watercolor like the early attempts.
They still can't get the faces quite right. Every white person there was exactly the same shade of peach. Not true to life.
The technology sure has come a long way since the 80's. The color saturation was pretty impressive. Not a pale pastel watercolor like the early attempts.
They still can't get the faces quite right. Every white person there was exactly the same shade of peach. Not true to life.
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