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The COLOR invasion of ABC, 1965-1966.

P

pqgeorge

All this talk about "Batman" (1/12/1966) got me to thinking about the invasion of COLOR shows on ABC that year. First, "McHale's Navy" was never filmed in color, but was computer enhanced for color in later years. However, there WERE two full-length Universal color movies, "McHale's Navy" and "McHale's Navy Joins The Air Force". They still had very strong ratings but Universal would not pay for the cost of going color that year. So, it was cancelled. "Combat" was in color for their last season as was "The Fugitive" in the 1966-1967 season (with a climatic ending episode that broke an all-time record of viewers for many years to come).

The cost of adding color, $10,000 per episode (in 1966 dollars).

Had United Artists spent a little more money, "The Patty Duke Show" was a shoe-in for another season FINALLY in color.... but UA nixed that idea citing extra costs for color. "Ozzie and Harriet" was in color on their last season. (The Disney Channel actually ran a few of the 1966 color episodes several years ago.) "The Addams Family", like "The Munsters" fell out of favor with TV audiences due to the monster invasion getting a little old and NO color. Though they still are favorites in the world of retro TV to this day. (I've got both seasons of "The Munsters" in my collection!)

And finally, the last show to actually go full-color on ABC was in 1968. It was "American Bandstand"! Dick Clark used to joke a lot about the fact that "AB" was probably the last show to go color on ABC.

The FIRST color show on ABC was "The Flintstones" in 1962! Though few affiliates were equipped for color, yet at that time.

73,<P ID="signature">______________
Peter Q. George (K1XRB)
Whitman, Massachusetts</P>
 
Peter George wrote:

> And finally, the last show to actually go full-color on ABC
> was in 1968. It was "American Bandstand"! Dick Clark used
> to joke a lot about the fact that "AB" was probably the last
> show to go color on ABC.

I once read a book called "The History Of 'American Bandstand'", which gave the date of the show's first network color broadcast as September 9th, 1967.

Indeed, "AB" was the last program on any commercial network (other than old movies) to be converted from black-and-white to color.

I used rhe term "network color broadcast" because the show for a time in the late fifties was locally colorcast in Philadelphia, but seen in black-and-white across the network.

Peter also recalls"

> The FIRST color show on ABC was "The Flintstones" in 1962!
> Though few affiliates were equipped for color, yet at that
> time.

Also in color that season (1962/63) on ABC's prime-time lineup was "The Jetsons".

This is a link to streaming video on Kris Trexler's website of the first (1962) version of the ABC Color logo. It's visually identical to the later (and better-known) version, only instead of the fanfare music, the music is softer, and there is no announcement that this was an ABC color program. No doubt, there was no announcement because some ABC affiliates could not transmit a network color program in color back then.

Oddly enough, I seem to recall seeing the original ABC Color logo around 1965 or 1966 at the end of network color programs, with the more famous version (with the music fanfare and the announcement) at the beginning.

Some on this board may recall that in 1965, ABC wanted to merge with ITT (International Telephone and Telegraph), but the merger was eventually shot down by the Justice Department on anti-trust grounds. Although ABC was profitable (barely) at the time, the network estimated that it would cost $25 million (a hefty sum in 1965) to complete converting the network and it's O&O television stations to color, a sum that would have put ABC back into the red without a merger. Hence, the ITT merger, which would have not only given ABC the capital to convert to color, but to give it the financial resources to fully compete with CBS and NBC.

I seem to recall ITT lent ABC the money to complete the conversion to color.
 
>
>
> Peter also recalls"
>
> > The FIRST color show on ABC was "The Flintstones" in 1962!
>
> > Though few affiliates were equipped for color, yet at that
>
> > time.
>
> Also in color that season (1962/63) on ABC's prime-time
> lineup was "The Jetsons".
>
> I've seen New York City TV Guide listings pre-fall 1962
that show WABC with "The Flintstones" in color, but below
the episode synopsis it says "Ch. 8 (WNHC/WTNH) will not
colorcast this program." I guess the ABC o&os were equipped
to carry "The Flintstones" in color as far back as the show's
beginning (1960). "The Jetsons" was colorcast on the full
ABC network from the very beginning (September 1962).

Does anyone know if WABC colorcast ABC's other pre-'62 primetime
cartoons: "The Bugs Bunny Show," "Top Cat," "Matty's Funday
Funnies/Beany and Cecil," and "Calvin and the Colonel"?

I've also posted listings from the North Carolina edition
of TV Guide for November 18, 1965. That day, the only
ABC program airing in color was Burl Ives' flop sitcom
"O.K. Crackerby!", replaced in January 1966 by another flop
sitcom, Red Buttons' "The Double Life of Henry Phyfe," which
also aired in color. The entire daytime schedule was in black
and white; the primetime shows in B&W were "Shindig," Donna Reed,
"Bewitched," "Peyton Place," and "The Long Hot Summer." I
also believe the closest thing to an all-color night on ABC
at the time was Sunday: "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea,"
"The FBI," and most movies.
>
>
>
>
>
<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by bpatrick on 01/10/06 08:40 PM.</FONT></P>
 
I know that "Beany and Cecil" (....a Bob Clampett cartooooooooooooon!) was in color from the start. I actually have a few episodes of that show at home, in color. It was a favorite of mine from WAY BACK. WABC-TV (Channel 7) in New York, being flagship station of ABC in the nation's largest market, would probably have had enough clout to convert to local color and possibly able to run some pre-recorded material by 1960 including some RARE network programming as well. It's safe to say that WABC would probably be able to run some of ABC's nighttime cartoon shows in color by at least '60 or '62. By, 1967... all of ABC's cartoon lineup "Super Saturday!" was in color. I watched some of the Saturday cartoon shows in color (on Channel 7, WNAC-TV in Boston) during the 1966-1967 season including "Milton The Monster" (remember THAT one!), "The Beatles", and "The NEW Casper Cartoon.... Shooooooooooooooow"!

As for outside of NYC, well.... Channel 8 (WNHC) was a "late bloomer" for color.


> Does anyone know if WABC colorcast ABC's other pre-'62
> primetime
> cartoons: "The Bugs Bunny Show," "Top Cat," "Matty's Funday
> Funnies/Beany and Cecil," and "Calvin and the Colonel"?
> <P ID="signature">______________
Peter Q. George (K1XRB)
Whitman, Massachusetts</P>
 
> I've also posted listings from the North Carolina edition
> of TV Guide for November 18, 1965. That day, the only
> ABC program airing in color was Burl Ives' flop sitcom
> "O.K. Crackerby!", replaced in January 1966 by another flop
> sitcom, Red Buttons' "The Double Life of Henry Phyfe," which
>
> also aired in color.

As I remember - at age 8 - the premiere episodes of some of the new shows were in black and white with a crawl on the screen saying "next week, this show will be broadcast in color." I didn't know why then, but it's obvious now - these were the pilot episodes, and were shot in B&W; between the time they were filmed and the order came through from the network, the decision had been made to switch to color.
 
I remember that in reruns that the 3rd season of The Farmer's Daughter on ABC during the 1965-1966 season that the first few episodes of that season when Katie and Glen were engaged were in black and white and starting with the episode when Katie and Glen got married they switched over to color.
 
Braves 2005 wrote:

> I remember that in reruns that the 3rd season of The
> "Farmer's Daughter" on ABC during the 1965-1966 season that
> the first few episodes of that season when Katie and Glen
> were engaged were in black and white and starting with the
> episode when Katie and Glen got married they switched over
> to color.

The funny thing is that I though Glen and Katy got engaged in the final episode of the 1964/65 season.

It would have been more logical back then for a returning network prime-time show to switch to color at the start of a season.
 
A Theory As To Why ABC Selected The Date They Began Converting To Color (Was: Re: The COLOR invasion of ABC, 1965-1966)

Since we're talking about color and ABC, all the posts got me to think as to why September, 1962 was selected as the date that some filmed programs on ABC started to appear in color.

I think that date may have been selected more than a year-and-a-half prior to that, at the beginning of 1961.

Why do I think ABC decided in early 1961 to begin colorcasting of film shows in September of 1962??

ABC's contract with Walt Disney for the company's weekly TV show expired in September of 1961. I suspect Disney made his decision on the future of his company's TV show early that year.

During the negotiations, ABC may have decided to start colorcasting of filmed programs in September of 1962 to try to keep Disney there, and to prevent Disney from moving the show to NBC, which already had a number of programs "in living color".

Disney probably decided that he wanted his show to be seen in color starting that year, and not wait until 1962 for his show to be colorcast.

I wonder what would have happened if ABC had installed equipment for network film colorcasting in-time for the start of the 1961/1962 television season. Could such a move have kept Disney on ABC?? And if so, how would that have affected the prime-time ratings battle of the era??
 
> As for outside of NYC, well.... Channel 8 (WNHC) was a "late
> bloomer" for color.

In a weird way, yes and no. I remember Ch 8 in the early 60s saying it started using color in the early 50s and that its cartoons were in color. In 61 or 62 the station stopped mentioning color. I do remembering TV Guide listings in CT saying Flintstones and Jetsons are in B&W on WNHC-8 and WATR-53.
 
> The FIRST color show on ABC was "The Flintstones" in 1962!
> Though few affiliates were equipped for color, yet at that
> time.
>
> 73,
>

Flintstones may very was the first ABC show to go color even though I read years ago in one of my trivia books it was actually The Jetsons. I think it was "Watching TV" However I lost that book back in the 80s.

True about American Bandstand being the last ABC show to go color, though as a local show, there was at least on attempt on the part of Philadelphia's WFIL-TV 6 to do a color verison of AB.

In the book that was a companion to one of American Bandstand's anniversary shows ( 1985 ? ), Dick Clark said something like WFIL was using this huge color camera to broadcast AB. It was only used once and the camera was huge. Since WFIL had only the one camera and the fact that its difficult to do a show like this with only one camera, I can see WFIL only doing this once.
 
> ...Dick Clark said something like WFIL was
> using this huge color camera to broadcast AB.
> It was only used once and the camera was huge.

Huge color camera? Gotta be a TK-41!
 
"The Addams Family", like
> "The Munsters" fell out of favor with TV audiences due to
> the monster invasion getting a little old and NO color.

It might just be me but I think others would agree that "The Addams Family" being in black and white added to the show's ambience. I know that really awesome independent station in Chicago is currently airing it, along with many other gems of yesteryear. I just wish it was airing regularly on cable, aside from the occasional weekday morning airing on TV Land.
 
> "The Addams Family", like
> > "The Munsters" fell out of favor with TV audiences due to
> > the monster invasion getting a little old and NO color.
>
> It might just be me but I think others would agree that "The
> Addams Family" being in black and white added to the show's
> ambience. I know that really awesome independent station in
> Chicago is currently airing it, along with many other gems
> of yesteryear. I just wish it was airing regularly on cable,
> aside from the occasional weekday morning airing on TV Land.
>
I agree. "The Addams Family" seems apropos only in black
and white. I don't know about cable, but the WB affiliate
in Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point, WTWB/20, runs it
Monday-Friday at 6:30 AM; I watch it before I leave for work.
And I think it's funnier now than I did when I was a kid.
 
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