Television Obscurities

Color television had its beginnings in the late 1940s alongside black and white television. It was not a commercially viable until the early 1950s. At that time, two competing color mechanisms were being championed separately by CBS and RCA (which at the time was affiliated with NBC). Eventually, CBS dropped their own color technology, which was incompatible with existing black and white sets. During the early 1960s color television grew at an amazing pace, especially on NBC, culminating in the color revolution of 1965.

Although experiments with color television had coincided with the development of commercial black and white television, it was not until the 1950s that attempts were made to successfully launch color television. On January 12th, 1950, the general public was introduced to color television for the very first time when CBS demonstrated its “field sequential” color system on eight television sets in the Walker Building, in Washington [1]. Faye Emerson was the main attraction in the demonstration, which had been ordered by the F.C.C.

The first commercial color broadcast took place at 4:35PM on Monday, June 25th, 1951, when CBS offered an hour-long program entitled “Premiere” to an ad-hoc network of five stations in New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington. Among those participating in the program were Arthur Godfrey, Ed Sullivan, Robert Alda, Faye Emerson, William S. Paley and Frank Stanton (the latter two board chairman and president of CBS, respectively) [2].

Thousands were able to watch the first color broadcast in auditoriums, department stores and hotels in the five cities, but the general public was left in the dark — literally. Because the CBS color system was incompatible with existing black and white television sets, for the hour the color special was on the air, viewers tuned to CBS in any of the five cities saw only a blank screen [3].

RCA demonstrated its “all-electronic” color system for the first time on October 9th, 1951. The test was also broadcast on WNBT, and because RCA’s system was compatible with existing black and white television sets, viewers were able to watch the demonstration (in black and white, of course) [4]. On October 16th, RCA sent a fifteen-minute color variety show to San Francisco and Los Angeles, the first transcontinental color transmission. However, word of the test was withheld until early December on orders from AT&T [5].

On October 25th, manufacturing of color television was put on hold at the request of Defense Mobilizer Charles E. Wilson and the National Production Authority due to scarcity of metals and the conflict in Korea [6]. The ban was lifted on March 27th, 1953 [7]. And on December 17th, the FCC approved color specifications from the National Television System Committee (NTSC) for a color system compatible with existing black and white sets [8]. Color television was officially here to stay.

For a variety of reasons, including a lack of adequate production facilities for color television sets, the expense involved in converting existing television stations to color transmissions, and the cost of color sets for the general public, the adoption of color television was slow. During the first six months of 1954, fewer than 8,500 color television sets were manufactured in the United States [9]. And for those households that owned a color set, only a small percentage of network broadcasts were even in color. During the entire 1954-1955 television season, for example, CBS only made nineteen color broadcasts [10].

By 1958, there were an estimated 350,000 color sets in the United States, the bulk of which were manufactured by RCA [11]. That number had jumped to 500,000 by early 1960 [12]. The more color sets in use, the more potential eyeballs for color programming — and more importantly, from the advertiser’s point of view, color commercials. Still, the only network actively pushing color programming was NBC, which had 179 affiliates broadcasting in color by February of 1961. NBC “color days,” which started in November of 1960, saw the bulk of an entire day’s worth of programming broadcast in color [13].

An April 1961 editorial in Television magazine entitled “The Time Has Come for Togetherness on Color” noted that in the seven years since the FCC approved color standards, the “black-and-white television system […] has passed the peak of its growth.” Color, on the other hand, “is still in the egg, and only skillful and expensive handling will get it out of the egg and on its feet.” The editorial called for “color activity at both the transmitting and receiving ends. People won’t buy color sets to see a majority of programs in the same shades of gray the old table top model in the corner delivers” [14].

However, even as NBC was increasing its color output, CBS was placing the impetus in the hands of the advertiser. In 1963, the network was broadcasting in color only if an advertiser would help pay for the added cost [15].

Two years later, another editorial in Television magazine declared that “the surge of interest in color in the past six months marks September 1965 as the date of the long-awaited color breakthrough” [16]. What led to this surge in interest? The battle for ratings. A preliminary study released in March of 1965 by ARB (and paid for by all three networks) led NBC to announce that its color programming would give it a 1.4 ratings-point advantage over ABC and CBS [17]. The study compared 4,600 color homes with 4,600 black-and-white homes. ABC and CBS cried foul, arguing that NBC had not checked the data.

According to ARB, the report was rushed to the networks before a final check could be performed because the networks could not wait. NBC acknowledged that there were some errors but insisted they were not significant [18]. In any event, the thought of NBC enjoying any sort of lead in the ratings simply because its programming was in color provided the impetus the other networks needed to jump headfirst into color broadcasting.

NBC planned to broadcast the vast majority of its primetime programming — all but two shows — in color at the start of the 1965-1966 season. Only Convoy (because of black and white stock footage) and I Dream of Jeannie (due to the cost of expensive special effects) would be aired in black and white [19]. Initially, both ABC and CBS planned to broadcast only a fraction of their schedules in color: ABC six and a half weekly hours and CBS only three programs per week [20], [21].

In May, CBS had upped its color quota to 28%, representing nine programs, including Lassie, My Favorite Martian, The Danny Kaye Show and Gilligan’s Island [22]. As for ABC, by adding The King Family and The Hollywood Palace to its color slate, the network hoped to have one-third of its schedule in color by September [23].

By June, the count stood at 50% for CBS and 33% for ABC and both networks claimed they would be all-color for the 1966-1967 season [24]. Color was on its way!

If 1965 was the watershed moment for color broadcasting, there was still the small problem of the viewing public not having color television sets. According to NBC, there were only 2,860,000 color households in the United States as of January 1st, 1965 (though that was up from 1,620,000 on January 1st, 1964) [25]. By July 1st, the number stood at 3,600,000 and on October 1st it was at 4,450,000 color sets [26], [27]. NBC’s figure for January 1st, 1966 stood at 5,220,000, an 85% gain over the January 1st, 1965 number but still only 9.7% of all television households [28].

Here are some additional figures, all from NBC’s quarterly color estimates:

Programs that had started prior to the 1965-1966 season, or premiered in black-and-white during it, were forced to convert to color at the start of the 1966-1967 season, when all three networks were broadcasting their entire prime time line-ups in color, aside from news specials and films originally shot in black-and-white (much of the daytime programming on ABC and CBS was still in black-and-white) [35].

Shows that had to convert from black-and-white to color included, among others: The Wild, Wild West on CBS, one season in black-and-white (1965-1966) and three seasons in color (1966-1969); Gilligan’s Island on CBS, one season in black-and-white (1964-1965) and two seasons in color (1965-1967); The Andy Griffith Show on CBS, five seasons in black-and-white (1960-1965) and three seasons in color (1965-1968); Twelve O’Clock High on ABC, two seasons in black-and-white (1964-1966) and one season in color (1966-1967); I Dream of Jeannie on NBC, one season in black-and-white (1965-1966) and four seasons in color (1966-1970); and Bewitched on ABC, two seasons in black-and-white (1964-1966) and six seasons in color (1966-1972).

Switching to color wasn’t as easy as flipping a switch. Jack Chertok, producer of My Favorite Martian, told Broadcasting magazine in August of 1965 that there would be problems with some of the special effects used in the series: “Many of them depend on wires which we’ve kept hidden from viewers by using black wires against a black background. Now we’ll have to use colors matching the colored backgrounds. It will be harder but it’s not at all impossible” [36].

For programs that were in color the networks went to great lengths to insure viewers were aware of the vibrant entertainment they could be watching. Shows that had formerly been broadcast in black & white were now promoted as “In Color!” and promotional spots often made mention of the color status.

All of NBC’s promotional spots for the new fall season, used during the summer of 1965, were in color, while CBS reserved color only for those programs which would be broadcast in color [37].

In January 1966, some 70% of the combined prime time programming from the three networks was in color; broken down, almost 100% of NBC’s schedule was in color, 51% of CBS’s schedule and 49% of ABC’s schedule [38]. NBC became the first all-color network when daytime game show Concentration switched to color on November 7th, 1966 [39]. In January of 1968, TVB found that households with color television sets were watching between 40 and 70 more minutes of television on a daily basis than households with black-and-white sets [40].

The rush to color began in earnest prior to the start of the 1965-1966 season and for the most part was completed by the time the 1966-1967 season rolled around. It was left to viewers to catch up with the networks and purchase color television sets in order or be stuck watching in crummy old black-and-white.

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Originally February 15th, 2005
Last Updated December 22nd, 2013