This day in history

[RoadKingLarry]

July 20, 1969.

[230RN]

I remember a friend invited us (Wife1, new baby) over to his house to watch the landing "On my color television."

He had to specify "color television" as an inducement because color TVs were still pretty rare in those days.  And if you had one, it was bragging points to mention it.

Kind of funny in retrospect because the video of Armstrong coming down the ladder and stepping on the moon was all in black-and-white anyway.

But we enjoyed it.

Terry, 230RN

[HankB]

I saw the Apollo 11 liftoff live as I was in Florida with my folks on a family vacation. Some cousins owned a hotel in Winterhaven and we watched the liftoff on TV and then went outside and - way, WAY off in the distance - saw the rocket exhaust rise. It was a bright orange color. With binoculars I could see a little black speck at the apex of the exhaust flame. Or, at least, that's what I told myself.

[WLJ]

I remember a friend invited us (Wife1, new baby) over to his house to watch the landing "On my color television."

He had to specify "color television" as an inducement because color TVs were still pretty rare in those days.  And if you had one, it was bragging points to mention it.

Kind of funny in retrospect because the video of Armstrong coming down the ladder and stepping on the moon was all in black-and-white anyway.

But we enjoyed it.

Terry, 230RN

Remember as a kid watching Lost in Space on my grandmother's B&W TV and then a notice came up that said "In Black and White"* Even as a kid I was like "no *expletive deleted*it".

*They did that so that people with early color TVs wouldn't think there was something wrong with their $$$$$$ color TV

[230RN]

Remember as a kid watching Lost in Space on my grandmother's B&W TV and then a notice came up that said "In Black and White"* Even as a kid I was like "no *expletive deleted*it".

*They did that so that people with early color TVs wouldn't think there was something wrong with their $$$$$$ color TV

Yes, I rememner that now.  Thanks for reminding me.

[K Frame]

AND THEY WERE ALL WHITE!!!!!

[K Frame]

Have any of you ever seen color photographs of the sets of the old black and white TV shows?

There was an entire science to selecting color schemes that would contrast well on the black and white screen...

The Addams Family? Mauves, bright pinks, reds, purples... George Reeves Superman uniform looked like something someone would wear out for an alternate lifestyle night on the town.

Ah! Here we go...

[WLJ]

And the flip side of that is that many of the early in color shows went completely overboard on colors to highlight they were in color. Note how many 60s shows have strong bold colors for almost everything.

[K Frame]

I literally can't remember the last time I watched a 1960s era TV show.... or even a movie from the 1960s.

[WLJ]

Interesting link on shows that switched to color from B&W during their run. Of note is two shows that actually switched back to B&W

The Following Program is Brought To You in Living Color…
https://www.tvshowgraphs.com/blog/brought-to-you-in-color

[K Frame]

Neat site!

[Tuco]

And the flip side of that is that many of the early in color shows went completely overboard on colors to highlight they were in color. Note how many 60s shows have strong bold colors for almost everything.

Gilligan's Island. First season was B&W and the last two were full, bright, oversaturated biggerthanliving color.

[HankB]

We had a B&W console TV at home - the good thing is that I could repair it; I'd pull the tubes from in back, ride down to Walgreens on my bicycle, and test them on the tube-tester machine. When I found one or more bad ones, I'd find the replacements in the bottom of the cabinet, pay for them, and go home and fix the set. I was a TV repairman in grammar school!

I remember at a cousin's place I finally got to see Star Trek:TOS in color for the first time. I was impressed.

I literally can't remember the last time I watched a 1960s era TV show.... or even a movie from the 1960s.

TV shows are one thing, but the '60s had plenty of great movies - ZULU, Spartacus, Lawrence of Arabia, The Great Escape, Exodus, several 007 movies . . . and the '50s gave usForbidden Planet, Ben-Hur, The Ten Commandments, Mister Roberts, and other goodies. I find myself dipping into my collection every few years to watch a classic rather than today's crap.

[WLJ]

We had a B&W console TV at home - the good thing is that I could repair it; I'd pull the tubes from in back, ride down to Walgreens on my bicycle, and test them on the tube-tester machine. When I found one or more bad ones, I'd find the replacements in the bottom of the cabinet, pay for them, and go home and fix the set. I was a TV repairman in grammar school!

One of my first jobs was at a convenient type store in the early 80s and we still had one of those tube testers in the store. Once in awhile someone would come in with tubes to test. As time went on replacement tubes became harder and harder to find and the number of tubes in the cabinet became thinner and thinner. Every once in awhile a company would send a guy to check on it. IIRC at some point they just stopped coming and the tester just sat there. End of an era.

[JTHunter]

Remember as a kid watching Lost in Space on my grandmother's B&W TV and then a notice came up that said "In Black and White".

Do you remember that about halfway through the shows run they went to color?  That's when we got to see how red June Lockheart's and Bill Mumy's hair really was.