Early Color TV Series (pre-1966): compiling a list (1 Viewer)

[Mulroon14]

While most CBS sitcoms went color in the autumn of 1965 (except The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Munsters, and The Smothers Brothers Show), CBS dramas and hour series all remained in black and white. Daktari was the first hour color series on CBS (in January, 1966) as a mid season replacement for Rawhide. Variety shows The Ed Sullivan Show, The Danny Kaye Show, and The Red Skelton Hour regularly went color in autumn, 1965, while Jackie Gleason And His American Scene Magazine (taped in Miami) remained in black and white. Gunsmoke was the final prime time series to switch to color, with it's 12th season premier, Snap Decision, episode #410, on 9/17/66.

 

[Gary16]

Actually 1965 as that's the year most of their programs transitioned to color.

As I mentioned in an earlier post CBS did air color programming in the early-mid 50's but stopped shortly after the RCA system was approved by the FCC.

 

[Bob Furmanek]

Regarding all this speculation about color in the early 1950's, you should read the link I provided in post #49...

 

[LeoA]

How'd The Dick Van Dyke Show escape? Just not worth it for what they knew coming in was going to be their final season?

 

[Mulroon14]

Carl Reiner had decided to end The Dick Van Dyke Show after 5 seasons and Mary Tyler Moore and Dick Van Dyke were interested in migrating to movies. Because 60% of prime time was still black and white in the 1965-66 season, it was still the norm. The Munsters was knocked off by Batman in color; The Smothers Brothers Show was done in by Peyton Place.

 

[Bob Furmanek]

ZIV was a pioneer in producing color filmed shows for TV.

 

[Vic Pardo]

ZIV was a pioneer in producing color filmed shows for TV.

I'd love to know more about this guy, John Sinn. I've seen so many TV episodes from that era that were really good that all turned out be Ziv productions. How did they maintain such a high level of quality for so long?

 

[sjbradford]

Nope, those 5 Wagon Train S5 color episodes are only seen in B&W, mastered from 16mm by Timeless. Otherwise, you'd have to spring for a set of new transfers in color directly from Universal, and it won't be cheap, $5K per episode!

One of the Starz channels is showing The Virginian, and two of the season 5 color episodes are actually shown in color: “The Jenna Douglas Story” and “The Lizabeth Ann Calhoun Story”. Two others, “Kitty Albright” and “Amos Billings”, are shown in B&W. Another one, “The Lonnie Fallon Story”, is missing from the Starz streaming service, so I can’t tell if it’s in color or B&W.

The color episodes look terrific, and its fun to see the original opening in color (the season 7 color episodes had a different opening).

 

[Gary16]

One of the Starz channels is showing The Virginian, and two of the season 5 color episodes are actually shown in color: “The Jenna Douglas Story” and “The Lizabeth Ann Calhoun Story”. Two others, “Kitty Albright” and “Amos Billings”, are shown in B&W. Another one, “The Lonnie Fallon Story”, is missing from the Starz streaming service, so I can’t tell if it’s in color or B&W.

The color episodes look terrific, and its fun to see the original opening in color (the season 7 color episodes had a different opening).

Did you mean Wagon Train?

 

[jperez]

12 O'Clock High began in 1964 and was in B/W the first two seasons before switching to color in the abbreviated third and last season.

Also Danger Man could technically make the list, as the last two episodes -filmed in 1967 for the aborted fourth season- were in color.

 

[JohnHopper]

1960s b&w shows, produced pre-1965, that shifted to color during their run:
Dr. Kildare (1961-66)
Combat (1962-67)
The Fugitive (1963-67)
Daniel Boone (1964-70)
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964-68)
Peyton Place (1964-69)
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1964-68)
The Avengers (1961-69)


You should add these ones:
12 O'Clock High (1964-67)
The Wild Wild West (1965-69)
Lost in Space (1965-68)

 

[Gary16]

1960s b&w shows, produced pre-1965, that shifted to color during their run:
Dr. Kildare (1961-66)
Combat (1962-67)
The Fugitive (1963-67)
Daniel Boone (1964-70)
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964-68)
Peyton Place (1964-69)
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1964-68)
The Avengers (1961-69)


You should add these ones:
12 O'Clock High (1964-67)
The Wild Wild West (1965-69)
Lost in Space (1965-68)

Also The Joey Bishop Show (1961-65) (started in black and white, shifted to color and then back to black and white)

 

[Gary OS]

Also The Joey Bishop Show (1961-65) (started in black and white, shifted to color and then back to black and white)

As was discussed years ago at the release of The Fugitive, S4 - there were some shows that just worked better for many of us in b&w as opposed to color. I could go either way with The Joey Bishop Show, but I absolutely think The Fugitive worked far better without the color. Some of the shows, had they kept their original "feel" or direction to them, would have benefited from staying with b&w as well. Lost in Space and Wild, Wild West and possibly even Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (in it's first year the cold war theme was strong and worked well without color, imho).

Gary "just my two cents" O.

 

[Jeff Flugel]

As was discussed years ago at the release of The Fugitive, S4 - there were some shows that just worked better for many of us in b&w as opposed to color. I could go either way with The Joey Bishop Show, but I absolutely think The Fugitive worked far better without the color. Some of the shows, had they kept their original "feel" or direction to them, would have benefited from staying with b&w as well. Lost in Space and Wild, Wild West and possibly even Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (in it's first year the cold war theme was strong and worked well without color, imho).

Gary "just my two cents" O.

Always great to hear from you, Gary, and I agree with you in regards to most of the shows listed above being better suited to black-and-white (especially the noirish The Fugitive) - with one exception. Personally, I think The Wild Wild West (one of my all-time fave shows) really came into its own in its second color season and I wouldn't want to lose that show's great use of bold colors, which fit its far-out plots, larger-than-life villains, elaborate costumes and comic book action. I do like the first black-and-white season very much, but something about TWWW just works best in color, IMO.

On a side note...I also happen to prefer most 60s sitcoms to be in black-and-white, and am glad that all of The Dick Van Dyke Show, to take just one example, was filmed that way.

 

[JohnHopper]

Personally, I think The Wild Wild West (one of my all-time fave shows) really came into its own in its second color season and I wouldn't want to lose that show's great use of bold colors, which fit its far-out plots, larger-than-life villains, elaborate costumes and comic book action. I do like the first black-and-white season very much, but something about TWWW just works best in color, IMO.

I second your statement. Season 2 was the peak of the series. I always liked Count Manzeppi.

 

[sjbradford]

Did you mean Wagon Train?

Yes - thanks for catching that. I’ve been watching both and one slipped out instead of the other.

Starz has a few of the season five color episodes of Wagon Train (and of course, The Virginian is all in color).

 

[BobO'Link]

As was discussed years ago at the release of The Fugitive, S4 - there were some shows that just worked better for many of us in b&w as opposed to color. I could go either way with The Joey Bishop Show, but I absolutely think The Fugitive worked far better without the color. Some of the shows, had they kept their original "feel" or direction to them, would have benefited from staying with b&w as well. Lost in Space and Wild, Wild West and possibly even Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (in it's first year the cold war theme was strong and worked well without color, imho).

Gary "just my two cents" O.

I've not yet made my way through The Fugitive but can absolutely see where color wouldn't help, and can actually work against, this series. It has such a noir vibe that I can see color being more of a distraction and with a single color season it hits the "why bother" barrier. It, along with several other shows in their final season, was done solely for "That's what the network wants because they think viewership will decline if it's not." I've never understood that mandate. But we didn't get a color set until late 1968 so the "all color all programs" edict didn't affect our viewing habits at all. I do know that when I got the old BW set in my room I only had a few shows I'd give up privacy for to watch in color on the family set.

I'm with you on Lost in Space and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea as both shows changed direction, significantly in many instances, with that shift. I prefer the feel of those BW seasons. IIRC, both somewhat fell victim to The Batman Syndrome when the networks decided everything had to be over-the-top with garish colors.

On Wild, Wild West I'm somewhat on the fence. I like the BW season but also really like the color ones. I don't recall it really changing much other than the addition of color - but it's also been quite a few years since I last saw the BW season to know for sure.

 

[sjbradford]

I’m a big fan of The Fugitive, and the color doesn’t help, at least not the bright, primary color palette of 1960s TV. Perhaps if those episodes had been filmed five years later, when TV directors had discovered that color film needed to be filtered and processed differently, the color episodes of The Fugitive wouldn’t be so jarring.

The change in producers for the final color season of The Fugitive didn’t help either. Still, there are a number of good episodes, so it’s well worth watching.

 

[Vic Pardo]

Some of the shows, had they kept their original "feel" or direction to them, would have benefited from staying with b&w as well. Lost in Space and Wild, Wild West and possibly even Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (in it's first year the cold war theme was strong and worked well without color, imho).

Gary "just my two cents" O.

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea?! Oh, c'mon! The Lobster Man absolutely needed to be in color!

 

[BobO'Link]

^Yes, it did. But it's also the result of the change in direction of the series towards more monster-of-the-week and lighter stories rather than the mostly political intrigue/Cold War stories of season 1. Had it stayed BW I doubt you'd have even seen that episode go to production.