History Main / MonochromePast

* The ''Animation/{{Lamput}}'' episode "Origins" is a WholeEpisodeFlashback showing how Fat Doc and Slim Doc met as kids. The flashback parts are depicted in a deliberately muted color scheme, unlike the rest of the show which has typical cartoony, bright colors.

** [[https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8o4gy1?playlist=/x7zezf The two "Family Portrait" promos]] and [[https://www.facebook.com/ImmortalAMC/photos/pb.100080642775277.-2207520000/146189684723267 the accompanying picture]] are sepia-toned to reflect that Louis, Lestat and Claudia posed for the photograph in the early 20th century.

** [[https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8o4gy1 The two "Family Portrait" promos]] and [[https://www.facebook.com/ImmortalAMC/photos/pb.100080642775277.-2207520000/146189684723267 the accompanying picture]] are sepia-toned to reflect that Louis, Lestat and Claudia posed for the photograph in the early 20th century.

* ZigZagged in Film/Oppenheimer. The 1959 Secretary of Commerce Confirmation Hearing for Lewis Strauss, shot in black-and-white, lies in the farthest point of the movie's timeline, thereby making it a FlashForward to everything else. The only later event is a very short colored sequence of Oppenheimer receiving the Enrico Fermi award. However, several of the monochrome sequences are later showed from the colored perspective or continued in color.

** [[https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8o4gy1 The two "Family Portrait" promos]] and [[https://twitter.com/Immortal_AMC/status/1551298925558210561 the accompanying picture]] are sepia-toned to reflect that Louis, Lestat and Claudia posed for the photograph in the early 20th century.

* ''Series/{{Heroes}}''
** Done for flashbacks in the episode "Company Man". With an excellent LampshadeHanging/pun in the first such flashback:
-->'''Bennet:''' I'm comfortable with morally gray.
** And ''again'' in flashbacks during the Volume 4 episode "Cold Wars". Complete with a reprisal of above line.
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': When Castiel sends Sam and Dean back to 1861, it's brown and sepia.

* All flashbacks in ''Series/BabylonFive''.
* In the ''Series/WarOfTheWorlds1988'' episode "A Time to Reap", the scenes set in 1953 are in black and white -- despite the fact that the 1953 film whose time they are visiting ''was originally filmed in color''.
* The opening flashback scene of Toby's father being a gangster in 1952 in one of ''Series/TheWestWing'' Christmas episodes ("Noel").
* ''Series/{{Angel}}'' has a comic flashback to 1950s Italy, lasting some three seconds or so, in black and white, with Spike and Drusilla looking like they were in an Italian modernist movie.
* Parodied in the NoirEpisode of ''Series/{{Warehouse 13}}''; Pete thinks they must be in the past because everything's in black and white. Myka points out "No it's not time travel. The 1940s were in colour, [[DeadpanSnarker much like the rest of history]]."
* PlayedForLaughs in the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "The Crimson Horror". The episode already takes place in 1893 (and is a bit low in color like many past-set episodes). Partway into the story, the Doctor explains how things got to a certain point, and the flashback is shown in black-and-white with obvious film artifacts and comical old-timey music (all to portray events from within mere days before).
* ''{{Series/Legion|2017}}'': In "[[Recap/LegionS3E3Chapter22 Chapter 22]]", when Charles Xavier experiences a PTSD episode where he relives his memory of nearly being killed by a Nazi soldier while he was in the British army during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, the whole scene is in black-and-white.

* On ''Series/ThePretender'', flashbacks are all shown in black and white. Most are shown as Jarod watching DSA's (film records of everything he did at the Centre, some dating back to the early 1960's) on his laptop.
* Every memory fragment recalled by the AmnesiacHero of ''Series/{{Blindspot}}'' is depicted as a monochrome flashback.
* In one episode of ''Series/ChildrensHospital'', Dr. Maestro travels back to the 1940's, where everything is monochrome even to him. He refers to a nurse as a "black and white lady", only to have her ask him to hush up about her biracial lineage.

* Subverted in the opening of ''Series/LovecraftCountry''. Atticus--a Korean War veteran and science fiction fan--appears to be dreaming of his wartime experiences in the form of a 1950's war movie, but as RealDreamsAreWeirder things change from MonochromeToColor as he finds himself in a FlyingSaucer invasion movie instead.

* ''Series/TheFortyFourHundred'':
** In "Mommy's Bosses", the Main/{{Flashback}}s to October 2004 are in sepia tone.
** In "Try the Pie", the memories of Tom, Billy and Paul and Kathy Weir are shown in black and white.
* ''Series/StElsewhere'': In "Time Heals, Part 1", all of the 1935 sequences are shown in black and white. The first 1935 scene in "Time Heals, Part 2" begins in black and white but changes to full color when the six-year-old Donald Westphall sees Patrick O'Casey's blood on the floor as he is being brought into St. Eligius. From then onwards, each 1935 scene is in black and white for the first few seconds before changing to color.

* The flashbacks in ''Series/AnyDayNow'' are done like this, albeit with a frequent SplashOfColor for outfits, objects, etc.
* The 1989 miniseries ''Mother Love'' (starring Diana Rigg) has black-and-white flashbacks.