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Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea

O

oldiesfan6479

Riddle me this...

Season one/episode one of Voyage ("Eleven Days To Zero") originally aired
on 09/14/64 (Mon 7:30/6:30). I think the first season aired on ABC in B&W--
at least it's showing on Hulu in B&W.

MeTV aired this episode early today (12 AM ET/PT), and it was in color! It also
had a copyright of 1963. Can anyone shed more light on this--was it filmed
very early on (late '63), as a pilot sometimes would be? And did Irwin Allen
actually film all of the first season in color, or just this episode?

You may recall that Lucy filmed seasons two and three of The Lucy Show in color
(thinking ahead to syndication), but CBS aired them in B&W.
 
This could be a case of production being in color, for rerun purposes, and the networks in question at the time *not* being ready with color as yet.

However, that could not be the case with ABC in the case of "Voyage." They were color-ready in fall 1962. Seasons 1 & 2 of "The Flintstones" and the series "Top Cat," both Hanna-Barbera cartoons, in addition to the cartoon series "Calvin and the Colonel", were all produced in color, but shown on ABC during their B&W years.

Maybe "Voyage" was colorIZED n this case? I know that Season 1 of "Gilligan's Island" was, for TBS or whomever.

I saw CBS daytime reruns of "The Lucy Show" w/ 1963 date, in color later in the decade. Lucy knew what to do (after season 1, anyway)!

Maybe Hulu could not come up w/ color prints?

cd
 
cd637299 said:
This could be a case of production being in color, for rerun purposes, and the networks in question at the time *not* being ready with color as yet.

However, that could not be the case with ABC in the case of "Voyage." They were color-ready in fall 1962. Seasons 1 & 2 of "The Flintstones" and the series "Top Cat," both Hanna-Barbera cartoons, in addition to the cartoon series "Calvin and the Colonel", were all produced in color, but shown on ABC during their B&W years.

Maybe "Voyage" was colorIZED n this case? I know that Season 1 of "Gilligan's Island" was, for TBS or whomever.

I saw CBS daytime reruns of "The Lucy Show" w/ 1963 date, in color later in the decade. Lucy knew what to do (after season 1, anyway)!

Maybe Hulu could not come up w/ color prints?

cd
Click to expand...

I saw that episode of "Voyage" on Saturday night as well. It didn't have that "colorized" look. It looked crisp and the colors looked true-to-form. I'll bet that the show was originally filmed in color but not released as such, until now. (Or maybe, colorization techniques have improved substantially over the years!). Another show that comes to mind is "The Adventures Of Superman" which was filmed in color (in 1954+), after the first two seasons in black and white. However, it was not released to stations in color until 1965, 7 years after the show ceased production. Obviously, the producers of Superman knew that color was eventually going to be widespread in future years. It made the show more valuable for future syndication. Surprisingly however, most people today think very highly of the first two B&W seasons of Superman with its' Cine Noir (dark) look and sinister story lines. The color episodes seemed (IMHO) to mainly geared to a more younger audience.
 
It is interesting.

Many ABC shows were still in B&W, likely filmed that way, even after ABC adopted color. "Patty Duke", "Addams Family" and others (including "McHale's Navy", which was recently colorized), *coulda* been in color, but were not. (I am not sure what the first non-cartoon series was that ABC showed in color. Anyone?)

I did not know that about "Superman" not being available for TV stations in color until 1965!

cd
 
The last few seasons of the Lone Ranger are in color and, I believe, all the episodes of The Cisco Kid.

They started to colorize McHales Navy but stopped after the first season. Maybe ran out of money. They didn't look right anyway. Very poor job and they had the color movies to go by.
 
therealjm12 said:
The last few seasons of the Lone Ranger are in color and, I believe, all the episodes of The Cisco Kid.

They started to colorize McHales Navy but stopped after the first season. Maybe ran out of money. They didn't look right anyway. Very poor job and they had the color movies to go by.
Click to expand...

Remember when Ted Turner wanted to colorize everything? I can't recall the time period - sometime in the 90s, I think. I saw quite a few examples - mostly old films. Casablanca may have been one of them...can't recall, but I do remember that they all looked terrible.

I do wonder if current technology would bring us more realistic colorizing? On the other hand - it's considered heresy by many film purists to mess with classic films. And the generally cited reason for doing so (that younger people won't watch B&W) doesn't pull much weight, in my opinion. I don't know many young people that want to watch dated old movies anyway, even when they are in color.

As for the old B&W TV shows - why bother to colorize them? Most viewers who want to watch them are probably baby-boomers who saw them in B&W originally, in any case.

A couple of decades ago, I tried watching an old rerun episode of VTBOS. I thought it was almost laughably awful.
 
therealjm12 said:
They started to colorize McHales Navy but stopped after the first season. Maybe ran out of money. They didn't look right anyway. Very poor job and they had the color movies to go by.
Click to expand...

During the 1980s, Hal Roach Studios (the people who brought you Laurel & Hardy) acquired the rights to some black and white series, including McHale's Navy, for the purpose of colorising the series. In the late-1980s, an Australian company called Qintex bought Hal Roach Studios; however, that company went bankrupt, resulting in only one season of McHale's Navy being seen in color.

Hal Roach Studios still exist today, but under other owners.
 
azumanga said:
therealjm12 said:
They started to colorize McHales Navy but stopped after the first season. Maybe ran out of money. They didn't look right anyway. Very poor job and they had the color movies to go by.
Click to expand...

During the 1980s, Hal Roach Studios (the people who brought you Laurel & Hardy) acquired the rights to some black and white series, including McHale's Navy, for the purpose of colorising the series. In the late-1980s, an Australian company called Qintex bought Hal Roach Studios; however, that company went bankrupt, resulting in only one season of McHale's Navy being seen in color.

Hal Roach Studios still exist today, but under other owners.
Click to expand...

Was it Qintex that colorized the Laurel & Hardys?

cd
 
For a period of time 16mm syndicated prints of shows shot in color were sometimes made available to local
stations in color or b&w. The monochrome ones were a bit cheaper and the local station may
not have yet had color capability, or they didn't care.
 
to answer the original question...Yes the pilot was filmed in color in 1963, but when the series aired in 1964, ABC ran a B&W version since the first season was filmed that way- Season 2 was in color and thats when they redesigned the Seaview, changing the nose windows from 8 to 4, dropping the control room to the lower level and adding the flying sub. I guess I know entirely too much about this but I have been a fan since I was 8, and my dad would let me stay up on Monday night long enough to watch the show during the first season. Both versions of the pilot are available on the DVD sets.
Glad to know there are other fans out there.

Jeff
 
I can't think of any non-animated shows airing on ABC before
1963; I know that that year the 90-minute episodes of "Wagon
Train" and Jack Palance's short-lived "Greatest Show On Earth"
aired in color.
 
One area where colorization, whether it's called that or if it's just considered a part of digital remastering now, makes sense to me is to add color back into shows where most prints have faded. I remember reading somewhere that this was done with MASH and possibly other shows in the 90's.
 
Mark_Giardina said:
I stopped watching Voyage after the scripts started featuring rubber-suited monsters and other low-budget sci-fi episodes.
Click to expand...

Blame it on creater/producer Irwin Allen....notorious for using the camera tilting left and right while the cast members simulated the Seaview submarine tilting. That same effect was used in "Lost In Space." "Land Of The Giants" and the short lived "The Time Tunnel" used the same Irwin Allen continuity and cheap effects. He even tried a full-length film "The Swarm" in 1978 which was panned by critics for the same reason....and it was intended to scare the viewer. best scene was the Seaview darting up out of the ocean into the sky and resulting in a huge ker-splash...which was probably filmed in slow motion using a "toy" Seaview in a swimmimg pool. (ha-ha!)

" Cheapness (in the case of a monster movie) has nothing to do with the budget of the film (although it helps)........but,true cheapness is examplified by visible nylon strings attached to the jaw of a giant spider."

Frank Zappa
 
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