Timeless Black and White TV Classics

[Julius Leonard Marx]

A few shows from the black and white era of television remain in circulation and continue to draw and entertain audiences: I Love Lucy (TVLand). The Andy Griffith Show (TVLand). Leave It To Beaver (TVLand). The Twilight Zone (SciFi). Gleason (Syn). Lawrence Welk (PBS). Dick Van Dyke (Syn). What's My Line (GSN). The writing and the acting is so good, you forget the sometimes primitive production values. Somehow these shows don't seem dated.

Thanks to Netflix, I've been checking out some other Black and White shows. Most did not hold up well. Some, while popular were clearly not that good to begin with (like Make Room for Daddy). Some were good but too much a product of the time (like The Defenders).

Here's my "Top 10" list of black and white timeless classic not seen much any more, but they could be and should be:

1. Maverick. Great "string" scripts in early seasons plus outstanding comedic work by James Garner and the others on the show.
2. Have Gun - Will Travel. The thinking man's Western. Again strong writing from people like Gene Roddenberry, Bruce Geller and others who went on to great careers.
3. Dragnet. Before it became self-parody in the late 60's. The original TV show (like the radio show) was gritty, film-noir. It's amazing what a small town LA was then.
4. Rocky and Bullwinkle. Prime-time cartoon for adults (decades before South Park). Ranks on the laugh meter with the great film comedies.
5. You Bet Your Life. Speaking of great film comedies: The one, the only Groucho.
6. The Adventures of Robin Hood. British import with a British rep company of fine actors. Scripts on universal themes by blacklisted Oscar-winning writers.
7. The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. The existentialist sitcom about not getting laid. Great characters and great character actors.
8. The Lone Ranger. In the early seasons, most scripts came from the radio with the radio show's incidental music. It was a formula show but by the time the formula came to television it had been polished to perfection and worked well.
9. The Untouchables. Recaptured the magic of the classic Warner Brothers gangster pictures.
10. Kukla, Fran and Ollie. Early TV's answer to TM. Be still. Be silent. Enjoy.

Honorable mention to: Jack Benny, George and Gracie, Wanted Dead of Alive, The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, Zorro and Amos n' Andy (a very funny show that got a bum rap).

Big disappointment: Gunsmoke. Is Matt really so stupid as to give the bad guy a chance to draw on him? Are we really not supposed to notice what Kitty really does for a living? How come no county sherrif or town marshall? Is fighting in the Long Branch really a federal offense? How come Matt leaves town so much and nothing happens while he's away? As soon as he gets back somebody breaks the law (sort of like meet Marcus Welby on the golf course and get a disease; run into Perry Mason in a restaurant and get arrested for murder).

Feel free to draw up your list.

 

[RicoGregg]

Some great shows in that list, needless to say.

For what it's worth, after their network runs, some shows had their titles changed for syndication.

Examples:

You Bet Your Life - Best of Groucho
Dragnet (1st version) - Badge 714
Gunsmoke - Marshall Dillon
The Andy Griffith Show - Andy of Mayberry

I know it won't happen, but I've always thought that there should be a cable channel that shows nothing but black & white shows. Maybe even new B & W shows could be made. Do you know how many movie directors want to make their films in black & white, but they always get overruled by the studio suits? A lot.

Here's a quick list of some forgotten B & W shows:

Trouble With Father (The Stu Erwin Show)
Life of Riley
How to Marry a Millionaire (w/ a very young and foxy Barbara Eden)
Roaring Twenties
Harrigan and Son (starring Pat O'Brian)
My Little Margie (available on DVD at Gale Storm's website)
Sky King
Fury
My Friend Flicka
The Betty Hutton Show (w/all due respect to the late, great Miss Hutton, this show was awful)
I Married Joan (starred Joan Davis & Jim Backus, sort of an I Love Lucy knockoff)
The Cara Williams Show
Pete & Gladys (starred Harry Morgan, later of MASH fame, don't remember who played Gladys)
December Bride
Mrs. G. Goes to College
My Sister Eileen
The Rebel (starring Nick Adams)
Suspense! (hosted by Boris Karloff)
Broken Arrow (starred Michael Ansara, at the time married to Barbara Eden. Lucky guy)
Rescue 8 (starred Jim Davis, later of Dallas)

There's others too numerous to mention.

Black and white forever!

 

[LKellerIII]

A few of those shows like Andy Griffith started in the early 60s when CBS ran NO color programming - only NBC had a few color shows back that far, and they were either westerns (Bonanza), a couple of dramas, or Disney's "Wonderful World of Color." Ironically, the Disney show often ran old black and white Disney movies, like Davy Crockett. I think NBC's "Huntley-Brinkley Report" was the only network news broadcast in color for a number of years.

For some reason - even on NBC - sitcoms were always shot in black and white until about 1966. CBS and ABC made the switch to color in that year, or maybe 67. So Griffith and some of the others were in color during their final year or two. The production values were no better than previously - shows were produced cheaply in those days - they were just in color all of a sudden. This was also true of Bewitched on ABC, and I Dream of Jeannie on NBC, among others. Dick Van Dyke ended its run a year or so before CBS went color.

Rocky and Bullwinkle - like all cartoons since the early 1940s - were shot in color but ran originally in black and white because their network did not broadcast in color. The same was true of the Flintstones during its first years, and the Warner Bros cartoons (Bugs Bunny, etc.) which ran in black and white on local TV until the mid or late 60s, despite the fact they were shot in color.

 

[bpatrick]

Pete & Gladys: Gladys was played by the very actress
whose name appears above this show on the list...
Cara Williams (CBS thought they had a second Lucy;
Cara was a redhead with a knack for playing scatterbrained
characters, but she was more interested in things like
interior decorating and becoming a world-class poker
player).

I don't recall ever reading that Boris Karloff hosted
Suspense. He did host another B&W gem, Thriller,
on NBC (1960-62).

ABC and CBS moved rather gradually into color for their
sitcoms. Andy Griffith, for example, went to color in 1965,
as did Lucy, Gomer Pyle, and perhaps a few of its other
strong sitcoms; some of the weaker ones, like The Smothers
Brothers Show, were in B&W. On ABC, I think The Farmer's
Daughter went to color in '65; I know that Ozzie And Harriet
was in color that year (its last) and perhaps The Donna Reed
Show as well. Bewitched didn't go to color until '66, when all
the sitcoms on all the networks were in color.

 

[mleach]

Either the Flintstones or the Jetson's were ABC's first color show even though in one of his books, Dick Clark made the claim that on a few occasions back in the late 50s/early 60s, American Bandstand did a few color shows but that didn't last because Philadelphia's WFIL-TV only had one color camera.

Back to the Flintstones, one thing I don't get. If the Flintstones was always shot in color even though in its early years it aired on ABC in B/W, why aren't those infamous Winston Cigarette ads done in color as well?
The only ones I have ever seen were in poor qulalty Black and white. The one with Fred and Barney taking a "Winston break" while the wives worked ( Not hard to find that online ) and the one with Fred going into a record store ( a much harder find ) leaving with a Winston.

Winston only sponsored The Flintstones I believe for that first year then the sponsor became Welchs. Those commercials were done in color even though the show itself I believe still aired in black and white on ABC.

Over the years I heard various stories why Winston dropped the Flintstones ranging from too many kids were watching the show, to the sucess of Marlboro and Newport, to even Hanna-Barbara didn't like the fact that a cigarette was the sponsor of one of its show. One thing is for sure, in the 50s Winston was the number one filter cigarette in America. In the early 60s Marlboro took that spot. Many to this day say the Flintstones were a factor in all of this.

Sorry to go off topic.

 

[Stanislav]

At the time "The Jetsons" and "The Flintstones" were the only color shows on ABC, it was because ABC as yet did not have color production facilities (live or tape) -- all they had was a color film chain. (Although, I wonder when "The Bugs Bunny Show" went color -- I know that it, too, was initially broadcast in B&W even though filmed in color.) They could have, in theory, broadcast any color filmed product, but none of their filmed shows were yet done in color, save for those cartoons. They could have also theoretically shown movies in color, but I would imagine given their budget at the time they probably didn't have access or rights to too many color movies to broadcast, if any.

As for the "Flintstones" Winston ads, it may well be that color prints of them did not survive or were junked. In that day, 16mm B&W prints and/or kinescopes of color shows were made for non-interconnected affiliates without color capabilities, or for overseas uses such as Armed Forces TV. (I have seen 2 or 3 such B&W copies of "The Bugs Bunny Show" which as mentioned above was produced in color.) Could be that one of those prints is all that survives of the Winston ads.

 

[Braves2005]

ABC and CBS moved rather gradually into color for their
sitcoms. Andy Griffith, for example, went to color in 1965,
as did Lucy, Gomer Pyle, and perhaps a few of its other
strong sitcoms; some of the weaker ones, like The Smothers
Brothers Show, were in B&W. On ABC, I think The Farmer's
Daughter went to color in '65; I know that Ozzie And Harriet
was in color that year (its last) and perhaps The Donna Reed
Show as well. Bewitched didn't go to color until '66, when all
the sitcoms on all the networks were in color.

Actually, The Donna Reed Show's last season in 1965-1966 was in black and white and also The Patty Duke Show's last season that year as well.

On a first season episode of Hazel (when the show was in black and white for that season) they aired an episode in color to sell RCA televisions (their sponsor at the time), and the storyline had Hazel wanting a color TV set.

 

[CrankyYankee]

"Maverick" had been running for some time on American Life TV and AOL's "In2TV", though it appears to be off now.
A while back I floated the notion of a "Black & White" channel as a place for the shows and programs mentioned in this thread. Possibly it's not a money-making enough venture for someone or some company to actually consider. My two cents is there are more than enough sports channels out there taking up bandwidth and transponders that space for these classics could and should be found.

 

[Braves2005]

I would like to see all these mentioned and I would add to that The Millionaire, December Bride, the black and white half hour and one hour episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and Stoney Burke, a western which starred Jack Lord in 1962-1963.

 

[Julius Leonard Marx]

NBC and CBS went full color at the start of the 1965-66 Season (although some pilot episodes had been shot in Black and White. One hold out was the first season of "I Dream of Jeannie" because of problems doing the special effects in color. ABC had some color shows and went full color the following year.

Irony: Walt Disney jumped from ABC to NBC because ABC wouldn't pay extra to do his show in color. Later, his company bought ABC.

Andy Griffith: Interesting how the color episodes seem much more dated than those in Black and White. Maybe B&W somehow contributes to a timeless quality.

Re: Other shows mentioned. I was anxious to see some of them and I had a chance to do so on DVD. A lot of the old shows don't hold up well. I sort of regretted revisiting them rather than leaving fond memories intact.

 

[jwk1979]

NBC and CBS went full color at the start of the 1965-66 Season (although some pilot episodes had been shot in Black and White. One hold out was the first season of "I Dream of Jeannie" because of problems doing the special effects in color. ABC had some color shows and went full color the following year.
/quote]The last season of "The Dick Van Dyke Show" was shot in black & white during the 1965-66 Season because Carl Reiner had said all along that this would be the last season of his show and both he or Dick Van Dyke had no intentions of coming back for another couple of years. I'm sure if they had stayed on the air for another two or three seasons after the 1965-66 season, Dick Van Dyke would have been filmed in color for that season.

 

[Corky Marlowe]

Actually, CBS didn't go full color (in prime time, anyway) till the fall of '66, and had no color shows till the fall of '65.
They were in a position to wait it out because they were number 1, and since RCA manufactured all of the equipment necessary to broadcast in color, CBS could have an attitude of "Why should we make you guys money?"

I have kind of a tangential question here...What were the first color and last black-and-white shows on the individual networks? I'm kind of fuzzy on NBC's first regularly scheduled color show, but I saw somewhere that "Concentration" was their last b/w show. For ABC, I've heard "The Jetsons" was the first in color, and "American Bandstand" was the last b/w. As far as CBS, I have no clue either way.

One more thing I just thought of...I remember my parents mentioning once that either the last or one of the last episodes of "Perry Mason" featured the first half of the show in b/w, and the second half in color. Anyone else know about this?

 

[Braves2005]

All 9 years of Perry Mason were in black and white except for the last episode (or close to the last episode) which was in color and guest starred Dick Clark in May 1966. You are right about that except that the episode was entirely in color. I remember seeing this episode on TBS many years ago and TBS considered this to be a "lost episode" so to speak.

Speaking of pilots that were shown in black and white, Get Smart's and Hogan's Heroes' first episodes were in black and white. I also forgot to mention that the first season of Wild Wild West (1965-1966) was in black and white.

Soap operas might fit into this as well. Dark Shadows was in black and white for about a couple of years until sometime around the spring of 1968. I thought I read somewhere also that the first few months of All My Children were shown in black and white when it first premiered in 1970.

 

[LKellerIII]

"One more thing I just thought of...I remember my parents mentioning once that either the last or one of the last episodes of "Perry Mason" featured the first half of the show in b/w, and the second half in color. Anyone else know about this?"

I don't think that half color, half B&W was true, but I can tell you that a few of the final original Perry Mason shows were shot entirely in color. I had never known that until recently, when I saw one of them on independent TV20 - locally here in the Bay Area. I'm also sure Perry ended its run before CBS broadcast in color, so they probably originally broadcast in B&W. Victor Buono was one of the guest stars, as a criminal boss type who had juvenile delinquent car thiefs working under him running a chop-chop. The whole show had an edgier feeling than most Mason shows - the background music was...hipper, I guess...somewhat jazz oriented. Aside from the color, it was quite different.

Somebody mentioned production values - I've noticed that when you watch some of the first color episodes of shows that were previously B&W, they actually look cheesier and cheaper in color - notice the fake backdrops on the first color 'I Dream of Jeannie' shows, for example. They probably looked OK in B&W, but they looked truly fake in full color.

RE: Pete & Gladys - I loved that show as a kid, especially Harry Morgan (Pete). It was one of the first TV spin-offs...from Spring Byington's 'December Bride'. Harry Morgan as Pete was Byington's dyspeptic next door neighbor who would stop by to complain about his ditzy wife Gladys. Gladys was never seen, though, and wasn't cast until the spin-off.

 

[Julius Leonard Marx]

One CBS episode was shot in color, originally shown as a special all color night. This was a stunt to promote the sale of color televisions. The idea was to get people to go to department stores or TV stores and see a wall of color TVs with all their favorite shows in color.

Department store promotion of color TVs was why NBC shot Bonanza in color, with lots of Lake Tahoe location footage, and showed it on Saturday nights (big shopping night).

Howdy Doody was one of the first regularly-scheduled shows in color, starting in the mid 50s (if not the first). Sarnoff figured Howdy had first sold a lot of black and white sets, so now he could sell color.

 

[tlyle]

It seems that when Andy Griffith went to color, Andy seem to phone in many of his performances.

 

[pqgeorge]

"One more thing I just thought of...I remember my parents mentioning once that either the last or one of the last episodes of "Perry Mason" featured the first half of the show in b/w, and the second half in color. Anyone else know about this?"

I don't think that half color, half B&W was true, but I can tell you that a few of the final original Perry Mason shows were shot entirely in color. I had never known that until recently, when I saw one of them on independent TV20 - locally here in the Bay Area. I'm also sure Perry ended its run before CBS broadcast in color, so they probably originally broadcast in B&W. Victor Buono was one of the guest stars, as a criminal boss type who had juvenile delinquent car thiefs working under him running a chop-chop. The whole show had an edgier feeling than most Mason shows - the background music was...hipper, I guess...somewhat jazz oriented. Aside from the color, it was quite different.

Somebody mentioned production values - I've noticed that when you watch some of the first color episodes of shows that were previously B&W, they actually look cheesier and cheaper in color - notice the fake backdrops on the first color 'I Dream of Jeannie' shows, for example. They probably looked OK in B&W, but they looked truly fake in full color.

RE: Pete & Gladys - I loved that show as a kid, especially Harry Morgan (Pete). It was one of the first TV spin-offs...from Spring Byington's 'December Bride'. Harry Morgan as Pete was Byington's dyspeptic next door neighbor who would stop by to complain about his ditzy wife Gladys. Gladys was never seen, though, and wasn't cast until the spin-off.

The only color episode of "Perry Mason" was "The Case Of The Twice Told Twist" that aired on February 27, 1966. Victor Buono and Kevin O'Neal (brother of Ryan O'Neal) were the guest stars. It was basically an experiment for CBS to try color on some of the more popular CBS shows at the time. Eventually CBS went all-color during the 1966-67 season. ABC followed suit in the "second season" of the 1966-67 season ("A Very Special Season On ABC"). Even "Dark Shadows" went color in May of 1967. "Bandstand" went color in the fall of 1967. "The Patty Duke Show" was slated to go color in the 66-67 season, but United Artists would not spend the extra $10,000 per show for color film processing. So, Patty, Ross, Cathy and the crew disappeared after the 65-66 season. It was still very popular in the ratings at the time of cancellation. I wish that "The Patty Duke Show" would be available on DVD.

 

[RicoGregg]

I don't recall ever reading that Boris Karloff hosted
Suspense. He did host another B&W gem, Thriller,
on NBC (1960-62).

bpatrick, I gladly stand corrected. I guess I've reached the old "memory's playing tricks on me" stage.

 

[RicoGregg]

Irony: Walt Disney jumped from ABC to NBC because ABC wouldn't pay extra to do his show in color. Later, his company bought ABC.

Further irony: ABC loaned Walt Disney $17 million to help him construct Disneyland. Part of the deal was exclusive rights for ABC to Disney programs. If Uncle Walt had defaulted on the loan, ABC conceivably could have ended up owning the Walt Disney company!

 

[Corky Marlowe]

It seems that when Andy Griffith went to color, Andy seem to phone in many of his performances.
The first color season of "The Andy Griffith Show" was kind of a perfect storm of bad stuff...Jim Nabors and Don Knotts were both gone, Howard McNear's screen time began to decrease even more due to his failing health, Jack Burns began his disastrous turn as new deputy Warren (a blotch on an otherwise fine resume), and as far as I know, no more appearances by Hal Smith as Otis. Also, wasn't there quite a bit of turnover in the writing staff? Yes, the color years were down from the b/w years, but I think the switch to color was just coincidental in that regard.