Useful Notes / Switch to Color

Lisa: Arnold took over the paper route from Joey, he's saving up enough money to buy a color TV.
Oliver: A color TV?
Lisa: He's tired of looking at the world in black-and-white.
Oliver: Yes, I can see where that would be a big hangup for him.

— Green Acres

One defining moment of film and television history was the introduction of color. Its adoption was faster in some areas and slower in others; the last black-and-white theatrical animation from a major American studio was released in 1946, while black-and-white live-action content from those same studios at that time was still very prolific. Color TV broadcasting also took time to take off; although experiments in color television began as early as The '50s, it wouldn't be until the mid-sixties that color would become commonplace on American TV sets, and not until The '70s in most of the rest of the world.

The first of the major American networks to utilize color for its programs was CBS, mostly due to the employment of engineer Peter Carl Goldmark, who introduced an electro-mechanical system that had discs that included red, blue, and green filters that spun inside a television camera at 1,200 rpm. NBC, then owned by electronics company RCA, was the next to experiment with color television; however, at the time of these experiments, television sets were still built to receive black-and-white signals. The demand for color sets didn't arise until the 1960s, when color film was becoming more commonplace.

Although both CBS and NBC had some success with color systems, the overall transition from black-and-white to color for all of television was a gradual process that spanned from 1953 to 1968. The first national color broadcast was the 1954 Tournament of Roses Parade telecast on NBC, and the network also brought us the first weekly primetime series in color, starting with the sitcom The Marriage in the summer of 1954, and the anthology series Ford Theatre the following fall. The next to follow suit would be the western series Bonanza, in 1959.

Black-and-white television sets, however, were still common in most households across the country, mostly due to the high costs of color sets. Also, while NBC was enthusiastic about color due to its ownership by RCA, whose color TV system was now the NTSC standard, the other networks were dragging their feet into color broadcasting. CBS, despite broadcasting occasional color programming in the 1950's, was more than a little bitter that their electro-mechanical system lost over RCA's and wasn't too keen to encourage them; they quit broadcasting color programs altogether by 1960. ABC, while also not too hot at the idea of supporting a rival, didn't really had the budget to do much color broadcasting, although they did air The Flintstones and The Jetsons in color beginning in 1962. DuMont, meanwhile, was too busy dying to care about color television, although its TV manufacturing parent did produce a few color TV experiments, including the rather fascinating Vitascan system.

With this in mind, to help boost the demand for color sets, NBC decided that in 1965, most of its primetime lineup would switch to color^†(they billed themselves as "The Full Color Network", which was a bit inaccurate since a couple of their prime-time shows [I Dream of Jeannie and Convoy] and much of their daytime lineup were not in color); sure enough, CBS and ABC were quick to follow NBC's lead. A year later, all three of the major networks had made the complete switch to color for the 1966-67 television season, though NET (the precursor to PBS) was still airing mostly black-and-white programs, mostly because it relies on funding from the public; their first color broadcast was not until 1968.

During this time, each of the networks would display its own color identification disclaimer at the beginning of most of its programs:

• CBS had this logo, which featured a "jingle" by Eric Siday, who also did the music for the Screen Gems "S from Hell" and NET's final logo.
• NBC first created their iconic peacock logo to introduce their color programs. Its earliest appearances in 1956 were as a still logo. By the next year, it received its own animation and jingle, as you can see here. In 1962, the disclaimer received a new animation and jingle; that version was nicknamed the "Laramie Peacock" after the Western Series Laramie, where that new variant premiered.
• ABC featured this, a bunch of circles morphing into a colorful version of their famous circle logo.
• PBS predecessor National Educational Television (NET) featured this disclaimer of a 20 circles changing colour, with the words "In Color" sliding in from the right, but this featured no voice over or station identification. NET idents of the era featured red, yellow, and blue rectangles forming on screen, then flipping into the background to become the NET logo. By the time of PBS' launch in 1970, their content was more or less in colour for good, though they maintained having their logo or name in three different colours on station IDs until 1984.
• BBC2, the first TV station in Europe to switch to colour on the PAL standard (see below), featured an ident with the word "colour" below a rotating cube with each side displaying the BBC2 logo in each of the primary colours of light. BBC1 followed suit in 1969 with the "mirror globe" logo. The various presentation devices used by both BBC channels (idents, clocks, school program countdowns) were captioned "BBC[1/2] COLOUR" until 1974.
• The various ITV companies had their own colour idents. Many were just still idents with something along the lines of "colour presentation" mentioned somewhere, although some were more creative, such as ATV's "Colour Zoom" and Grampian's logo. White-on-blue and yellow-on-blue colour schemes were very popular, supposedly because those translated better to black-and-white.
• CBC used the rainbow butterfly ident (in both English & French versions) for its early colour programmes, starting from 1966.

The disclaimers eventually were phased out from programs, though they wouldn't completely disappear until 1972, when sales of color sets finally exceeded black-and-white sets, and research showed that half of all households in America had a color set in at least one room.^†NBC kept using the peacock for NBC-produced shows and specials until 1975, when it switched to the minimalist "N" logo.

During this time, the only television stations that continued to broadcast in black-and-white were various local UHF markets across the country. The last station convert to color, Pittsburgh PBS affiliate WQEX, didn't do so until 1986, and only because their black-and-white transmitter broke down the previous year and the parts to fix it were no longer made.

For instances in which this is done within a work as a storytelling trope (most famously in The Wizard of Oz), see Monochrome to Color.

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Shows that switched to color in their original run:

1957

• The Adventures Of Sir Lancelot (ITV, 1956-1957) - One season: 16 black-and white episodes, 14 colour episodes.

1961

• Laramie (NBC, 1959-1963) - Two black and white seasons, two color seasons, namesake of the NBC "Laramie Peacock" signifying a color program when the peacock first appeared preceding an episode of this show on January 2, 1962.
• Rocky and Bullwinkle (animated) - Came with a Channel Hop (from ABC to NBC) and a title change (from Rocky and His Friends to The Bullwinkle Show)
• Walt Disney Presents - Came with a Channel Hop (from ABC to NBC) and a title change (Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color). The first episode, "An Adventure in Color", lampshades the switch to color and the fact that only those with color TVs could see it that way.

1962

• The Flintstones (ABC, 1960-66, animated) - Two black-and-white seasons, four color seasons (All episodes were produced in color though).
• Hazel (NBC, 1961-65; CBS, 1965-66) - One black-and-white season, four color seasons ^note  The sixth episode of the series, "What'll We Watch Tonight?" was produced and aired in color in 1961 to promote sales of color TV sets.
• The Joey Bishop Show (NBC, 1961-64; CBS, 1964-65) - Two black-and-white seasons, two color seasons ^note  Like the above series, the third episode of this series, "A Windfall for Mom" was produced and aired in color. After two subsequent color seasons, the series reverted back to b&w for its fourth season on CBS.

1963

• Wagon Train (NBC, 1957-62; ABC, 1962-65) - Seven black-and-white seasons, one color season ^note With a twist: the series went to color in season 7, then switched back to b&w for the eighth and final season.

1965

• The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (ABC, 1952-66) - Thirteen black-and-white seasons, one color season
• The Andy Griffith Show (CBS, 1960-68) - Five black-and-white seasons, three color seasons
• The Beverly Hillbillies (CBS, 1962-71) - Three black-and-white seasons, six color seasons
• The Bugs Bunny Show: (ABC, 1960-62, animated) - Originally aired in primetime, reruns aired on Saturday mornings in black-and-white until Fall 1965.
• Daniel Boone (NBC, 1964-70) - One black-and-white season, five color seasons
• Dr. Kildare (NBC, 1961-66) - Four black-and-white seasons, one color season ^note A season two episode, "The Burning Sky", was also produced and aired in color as part of an NBC "color week" promotion in 1962.
• The Ed Sullivan Show (CBS, 1948-71) - Seventeen black-and-white seasons, six color seasons ^note A one-off color edition was broadcast on August 22, 1954 from Studio 72 instead of the usual Studio 50, which wasn't converted for color until 1965.
• The Farmer's Daughter (ABC, 1963-66) - Two black-and-white seasons, one color season
• Get Smart (NBC, 1965-69; CBS, 1969-70) - Pilot episode in black-and-white, rest of series in color
• Gilligan's Island (CBS, 1964-67) - One black-and-white season, two color seasons ^note The first season was eventually colorized for syndication.
• Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. (CBS, 1964-69) - One black-and-white season, four color seasons
• Hogan's Heroes (CBS, 1965-71) - Pilot episode in black-and-white, rest of series in color
• The Hollywood Palace (ABC, 1964-70) - Two black-and-white seasons, five color seasons
• Lassie (CBS, 1954-71; Syndication, 1971-73) - Eleven black-and-white seasons, eight color seasons
• The Lucy Show (CBS, 1962-68) - Three black-and-white seasons, three color seasons (though seasons 2-6 were produced in color)
• The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (NBC, 1964-68) - One black-and-white season, three color seasons
• My Favorite Martian (CBS, 1963-66) - Two black-and-white seasons, one color season ^note The show's producers admitted that the mandatory switch to color created many challenges and difficulties for the show's rather primitive special effects.
• My Three Sons (ABC, 1960-65; CBS, 1965-72) - Five black-and-white seasons, seven color seasons
• Petticoat Junction (CBS, 1963-70) - Two black-and-white seasons, five color seasons
• Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (ABC, 1964-68) - Pilot episode in color, rest of first season in black-and-white, seasons 2-4 in color

1966

• Bewitched (ABC, 1964-72) - Two black-and-white seasons, six color seasons
• Combat! (1962) (ABC, 1962-67) - Four black-and-white seasons, one color season
• Concentration (NBC, 1958-73) was produced in black and white except for the 1961 prime time series. The daytime series switched to color in November 1966.
• F Troop (ABC, 1965-67) - One black-and-white season, one color season ^note The switch to color was one of the reasons Warner Bros. ceased production of the show, citing that they didn't care for paying the extra expense of filming the show in color
• The Fugitive (ABC, 1963-67) - Three black-and-white seasons, one color season
• Gunsmoke (CBS, 1955-75) - 11 black-and-white seasons, nine color seasons
• I Dream of Jeannie (NBC, 1965-70) - One black-and-white season, four color seasons ^note Series creator Sidney Sheldon wanted to film in color from the beginning, but neither the network, nor distributor Screen Gems wanted to pay the extra expense, expecting the series to fail and not last past one season (since it was a near-copy of ABC's already-successful Bewitched). Sheldon offered to pay for the extra expense out of his own pocket, but Screen Gems advised him not to.
• I've Got a Secret (CBS, 1952-1967) 14 black-and-white seasons, one color season. ^note Like What's My Line?, the color shows are preserved only in black-and-white.
• Lost in Space (CBS, 1965-68) - One black-and-white season, two color seasons
• Password (CBS, 1962-67) - Four black-and-white seasons, one color season
• Peyton Place (ABC, 1964-69) - Two black-and-white seasons, three color seasons
• The Saint (ITV, 1962-1969) - Four black-and-white seasons, two colour seasons.^note The switch to colour was made to keep the show viable as an export to the US; ITV didn't switch to colour until 1969.
• Sally the Witch (the 1966-1967 series, animated) had its first 13 episodes air in black and white before switching to color.
• To Tell the Truth (CBS, 1956-1968) The prime-time series (1956-67) ran for 10 black-and-white seasons and one color season; the daytime series (1962-68) ran for four black-and-white seasons and two color seasons.
• Twelve O Clock High (ABC, 1964-67) - Two black-and-white seasons, one color season
• What's My Line? (CBS, 1950-1967) 16 black-and-white seasons, one color season. ^note Unfortunately, the color shows are preserved only in black-and-white.
• The Wild Wild West (CBS, 1965-69) - One black-and-white season, three color seasons

1967

• American Bandstand (ABC, 1957-1987; Syndication, 1987-88; USA Network, 1988-89) - Ten black-and-white seasons ^note (15 if we count the local run on WFIL-TV as Bandstand beginning in 1952, 17 if we count the early "videoclip" shows of 1950-52 before the more familiar dance show format was adopted), 22 color seasons. ^note The show briefly tried broadcasting in color in 1958, but that experiment proved short-lived due to ABC refusing to carry the color signal and WFIL-TV management being unsatisfied with the results. Due to the color TV cameras being larger than the B&W TV cameras, they could only fit one color camera in the crowded studio instead of three B&W cameras — the management felt the show lost something without the extra cameras.
• The Avengers (ITV, 1961-1969) - Four black-and-white seasons, two colour seasons. ^note The switch to colour was made to keep the show viable as an export to the US; ITV didn't switch to colour until 1969.
• The Black and White Minstrel Show (BBC, 1958-1978) - 9 black-and-white seasons, 11 colour seasons.
• Dark Shadows (ABC, 1966-1971) - 2 black-and-white seasons, 4 color seasons.
• Horizon (BBC, 1964-present) - Three and a half seasons in black-and-white, switched to colour midway through season 4.^note The first colour episode was "Koestler on Creativity", episode 7 of 17 in Season 4, broadcast 5 December 1967.
• The Secret Storm (CBS, 1954-1974) - 13 black-and-white seasons, 7 color seasons.
• Theatre 625 (BBC, 1964-1968) - 4 black-and-white seasons, 1 colour season.
• Wojeck (CBC, 1966-1968) - 1 black-and-white season, 1 color season

1968

• Danger Man (ITV, 1960-1968) - Three black-and-white seasons, one colour season.^note Season 4, the only one to be filmed in colour, was cut short after two episodes when lead actor Patrick McGoohan quit the show to make The Prisoner (1967). As a result, only 2 of the show's 86 episodes are in colour. The colour episodes were actually filmed in early 1966, but were not broadcast until January 1968, after most of the epsiodes of The Prisoner which were filmed later.
• Play School (BBC, 1964-1988) - Switched to colour in May 1968, temporarily reverted to black-and-white in November 1969^note BBC One switched to colour transmissions in November 1969, dramatically increasing the number of BBC programmes being made in colour; there were not enough colour studios available and adult programming was given priority of children's programming, returned to colour in 1970

1969

• Coronation Street (ITV, 1960-present) - Nine black-and-white seasons, 45 and counting colour seasons ^note Episodes broadcast between November 16, 1970 and Feburary 10, 1971 were transmitted in monochrome due to the Colour Strike.
• Crossroads (ITV, 1964-1988) - switched to colour in November 1969.
• Dad's Army (BBC, 1968-1977) - Two black-and-white seasons, seven colour seasons
• Dixon of Dock Green (BBC, 1955-1976) - 16 black-and-white seasons, 6 colour seasons.^note The vast majority of episodes, black-and-white and colour, no longer exist.
• Jackanory (BBC, 1965-1996) - Switched to broadcasting in colour in November 1969.
• Match Of The Day (BBC, 1964-present) - Switched to broadcasting in colour in November 1969.
• Mister Rogers' Neighborhood (PBS, 1968-2001) - One black-and-white season, 30 color seasons
• Nearest And Dearest (ITV, 1968-1973) - Seasons 1-2 in black-and-white, Seasons 3-4 in colour, Season 5 in black-and white (except episode 1), Seasons 6-7 in colour.^note Seven of the eight episodes of Season 5 (1970-71) were made and transmitted in monochrome due to the ITV Colour Strike.
• Out of the Unknown (BBC, 1965-1971) - Two black-and-white seasons, two colour seasons.^note The majority of episodes, black-and-white and colour, no longer exist. However all the surviving episodes that were filmed in colour, still exist in their original colour format.
• Panorama (BBC, 1953-present) - First colour episode broadcast in November 1969.^note The first colour episode was "The Army in Ulster", broadcast 17 November 1969.
• Please Sir! (ITV, 1968-1972) - One black-and-white season, three colour seasons.^note The final three episodes of Season 3 were made and transmitted in monochrome due to the ITV Colour Strike.

1970

• Blue Peter (BBC, 1958-present) - Switched to colour in September 1970.
• Callan (ITV, 1967-1972) - Two black-and-white seasons, two colour seasons.
• Doctor Who (BBC, 1963-present) - Six black-and-white seasons, 33 and counting colour seasons.^note Less than half of UK households had colour television at the time of the switch, so most viewers only experienced the first few colour years in monochrome. Additionally, owing to the BBC's policy of junking the master tapes after transmission, several episodes from 1970-74 only survived as black and white copies which were sold to countries that didn't have colour television yet. All of these have been restored to colour with modern technology.
• Steptoe and Son (BBC, 1962-1974) - Four black-and-white seasons, four colour seasons.
• Z Cars (BBC, 1962-1978) - Five black-and-white seasons, switched to colour midway through Season 6, seasons 7-12 all in colour.^note Many of the episodes are missing from the BBC archive, and some episodes that were filmed in colour exist only in black-and-white today.

1971

• Bless This House (ITV, 1971-1976) - The first seven episodes were made in black-and-white due to the ITV Colour Strike. The last five episodes of Series 1 and the next five series would all be made in colour.

1972

• Upstairs Downstairs (ITV, 1971-1975) - Half a season in black-and-white, four and a half colour seasons.^note The first 6 episodes of Season One were made in black and white due to the ITV Colour Strike; the first episode was later reshot in colour.

1974

• Country Calendar (TVNZ, 1966-present) - Switched to colour in 1974
• Number 96 (The 0-10 Network, 1972-1977) - Two and a half black-and-white seasons, three and a half colour seasons^note The switch to colour was made midway through Season 3

1975

• Hey Hey It's Saturday (Nine Network, 1971-1999) - Switched to colour in March 1975
• Here's Humphrey (Nine Network, 1965-2008) - Switched to colour in March 1975
• Mr. Squiggle (The ABC, 1959-1999) - Switched to colour in March 1975

1976

• Rush (The ABC, 1974-1976) - One black-and-white season, one colour season

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Exceptions:

• The Cisco Kid (1950-56, syndication) was filmed in color from the start, the very first TV show to do so. Color TV was still experimental in 1950, but producer Frederick Ziv made the bet that it would soon come, which obviously paid off and allowed the show a longer life in syndication than its black-and-white contemporaries.
• The Gene Autry Show is an interesting case. In the spring of 1951, CBS experimented with testing color film, an experiment that affected this show: the last two episodes of the first season were special episodes that were presented in color. Afterward, the show returned to black-and-white film at the beginning of the following season, and remained in that format until its final season in 1954, when the show switched back to color for the rest of its run.
• The Adventures of Superman (1952-58, syndication) was filmed in color starting in 1955, but was not broadcast as such until 1965. The earlier black-and-white episodes had Superman's actor George Reeves wear a brown and grey suit since it looked better in monochrome; the black-and-white prints of the color episodes required adjustment of the contrast so that Superman's suit would look like it did in the earlier seasons (otherwise the red and blue would have been almost indistinguishable from one another).
• The November 22, 1953 edition of The Colgate Comedy Hour was part of an experimental NTSC color broadcast.
• The fifth season premiere of The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show television series was broadcast in color on October 4, 1954. This was part of an experiment by their network, CBS, which had several of their shows air a special color edition that fall.
• Science Fiction Theatre (1955-1957, syndication) was filmed in color for the first season before downgrading to black-and-white for the second season. The producers had thought that color television would have expanded faster than it did.
• The Bill Cullen run of The Price Is Right (1956-1965) provides an inversion. The prime-time version on NBC was broadcast in color; however, when the series hopped over to ABC in 1963, it had to downgrade to black-and-white because that network didn't have the budget to convert for color broadcasting, despite Goodson and Todman's wishes to make it the first non-cartoon color show on their schedule. The daytime version was in black-and-white on both networks.
• Perry Mason (1957-1966) had one episode ("The Case of the Twice-Told Twist", aired February 27, 1966) produced and aired in color during its final season, probably in an attempt to boost its sagging ratings against Bonanza and The ABC Sunday Night Movie, both color offerings. The show would have gone full color the next season if it wasn't for CBS killing its ratings by pitching it against Bonanza.
• Wagon Train aired for most of its run in black-and-white, briefly switching to color on a few occasions:
  • During the fifth season (1961-1962), five episodes were broadcast in color at NBC's behest, to help promote RCA color sets.
  • The seventh season (1963-1964), the second on ABC, switched in color alongside an expansion to 90 minutes. Those changes were reverted the very next season; the downgrade, alongside a time slot change, was a major factor in its cancellation in 1965.
• A 15-minute test pilot for The Munsters was filmed for CBS in 1964 to pitch the series to the network, and among the many differences between it and the series proper (including different casting choices) was that the test pilot was filmed in color. While color worked well for the Fantastic Comedy premise, the series was ultimately filmed in black and white for two reasons:
  1. Executive Meddling. Apparently, the network felt the characters were "too ugly" for color television.
  2. The producers opted not to spend the extra expense on color film. Ironically, the competition from other colored shows, such as Batman and Bewitched, is what ended up killing The Munsters in the ratings.
• The reason The Patty Duke Show (1963-1966) was cancelled despite high ratings was that United Artists Television (UATV) objected to ABC's demand for a switch to color, claiming that it would have been too expensive to do so. Patty Duke suspected that UATV's claim was just a negotiation ploy to keep the show on ABC for another year.
• On the Buses (1969-1973) had its first two seasons made in black and white. The show switched to colour with its third season. The series returned to black and white for seven episodes of the fourth season due to a strike by technicians.
• The Joker's Wild (1972–1975) had its 1968 pilot produced in black and white. The latter two pilots and the series were produced in color.
• The 1965 NBC drama series Convoy was filmed and aired in black and white, as it heavily used newsreel and stock footage from the US Navy during World War II. However, airing in black and white against an increasingly colorized TV landscape didn't help in the ratings, especially going head to head with two more successful (and full color) military series on CBS (Hogan's Heroes & Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C.)
• The 1966 CBS summer replacement docu-series Wayne And Shuster Take an Affectionate Look At aired in black and white, as they taped the show at CBC in Toronto, Canada, which hadn't yet launched their color transmitter.
• Some of the last new black and white shows on American network TV were lower budget daytime game shows on ABC, namely Everybody's Talking and the early Bob Barker-hosted series The Family Game. These are often seen as the last black and white programs on American network television, with both ending their first runs on December 29th, 1967, without ever airing in colour. Incidentally, The Family Game replaced another short-lived black and white series on ABC's fall schedule, namely the talk show Dateline Hollywood.
• Skippy the Bush Kangaroo (1966-68), one of Australia's first globally popular TV shows, was filmed in colour, despite the fact that Australia didn't fully roll out colour television until 1975. This was for the purposes of the North American export market, which did already have colour broadcasting in the 1960s.
• The "Colour Strike" by ITV's technicians saw all of its programming being produced in monochrome from November 13, 1970 to February 8, 1971. In retaliation for a pay dispute, the technicians turned off the colour signal on the equipment, which meant ITV couldn't sell airtime at the higher colour rates and couldn't make full use of the shiny new colour equipment they had heavily invested into, though since most households had yet to get a colour TV at the time, the average viewer likely saw no difference.

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Other notes:

• By January 1947, all theatrical cartoons released by major American studios were in color. Despite this, earlier TV airings of them may have been in black-and-white.
  • The first color releases were Flowers and Trees (Disney/United Artists), Davy Jones' Locker (MGM), Honeymoon Hotel (1934) (Warner Bros.), Pastry Town Wedding (Van Beuren/RKO), Poor Cinderella (Paramount), Jolly Little Elves (Universal), Holiday Land (Columbia), and String Bean Jack (Terrytoons/Fox).
  • The last black-and-white releases were A Little Bird Told Me (Van Beuren/RKO), Mickey's Kangaroo (Disney/United Artists), Wanted: No Master (MGM), Silly Superstition (Universal), Ickle Meets Pickle (Terrytoons/Fox), Cartoons Ain't Human (Paramount), Puss 'N Booty (Warner Bros.), and The Schooner the Better (Columbia).
• All the major American studios released at least one black-and-white feature film per year until 1968, when the streak was broken. By then, nearly all the big TV networks made the switch to color.
  • Their last black-and-white releases were Son of Flubber (Disney), Dark Intruder (Universal), Mister Buddwing (MGM), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Warner Bros.), The Fortune Cookie (United Artists), The Vulture (Paramount), The Incident (Fox), and In Cold Blood (Columbia). Disney only released two black-and-white features prior to Son of Flubber: The Shaggy Dog and The Absent-Minded Professor.
• It wasn't difficult to buy plastic screens that allegedly "colorized" a black and white TV monitor before color television became common. These were either prismatic (to create reflective color tints on the screen), or were dyed in three color bands (typically blue for sky, sepia for flesh tones and backgrounds, and green for grass.) While not producing a true color image, they were much cheaper for curious TV owners.
• An infamous April Fools' Day prank by Sweden's then-only TV station in 1962 saw a "technical expert" demonstrate how to simulate a color broadcast on a black & white TV by stretching a fine meshed fabric (ideally nylon stockings) over the screen. The prank fooled many Swedish viewers, and is still widely remembered today. Sweden didn't get color television broadcasts until 1966. Norway reportedly saw a similar hoax around this time, with viewers told to turn off all of their household electronics but the television to free up enough power to generate a color image.
• The oldest surviving color videotape in the U.S. is of the dedication of the WRC-TV studios in Washington, D.C. on May 22, 1958. The footage begins in black-and-white as President Eisenhower's car arrives at the studio, then David Sarnoff of RCA begins his speech with a live switch to color. His speech is followed by one from Eisenhower, making him the first president to appear on color TV.
• The oldest surviving color videotape of an U.S. entertainment network program is of the TV special "An Evening with Fred Astaire", broadcast on NBC on October 17, 1958. Said videotape was used to rerun the special on January 26, 1959 and on CBS on December 20, 1964.
• Several British TV series and specials were produced in color before color television was introduced there in 1967 for the benefit of the American networks that were already broadcasting in color. Examples are The Adventures Of Sir Lancelot, The Saint, The Avengers (see above), The Prisoner (1967), Man in a Suitcase, The Champions (1968) and the Gerry Anderson "Supermarionation" shows from Stingray onwards.
  • 1967 was year zero for colour television in most of Europe, with the PAL and SECAM broadcasting systems finally being rolled out. Both systems were a response to the North American NTSC colour system's limitations, particularly the side effect of colour tones shifting when transmissions were affected by weather and distance. Also, Europe used 50Hz electrical transmission where North America used 60Hz.
  • That same year, France and Germany visibly promoted the switch to colour live.
  • The TV special "Aunty Jack Introduces Colour" promoted Australia's full transition to colour TV broadcasting in 1975, after several years of experimental broadcasts.
    • Interestingly, New Zealand began its colour transition the previous year, in order to roll it out in time for the 1974 Commonwealth Games.
• Israel's relationship with Color TV is especially Mind Screw-y:
  • Foreign-oriented programs were filmed in color since 1974 - the same year Neighboring Egypt and Jordan got color TV in, with Lebanon following a year later.
  • Israeli-made broadcasts for domestic release, however, were still black and white until 1980, bar two one-off events: Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's 1977 visit to Israel, and the 1979 Eurovision Song Contest in Jerusalem.
  • Even when it comes to non-Israeli made broadcasts, you were pretty much boned – the government viewed having a color TV as fueling social gaps, so it required the Broadcasting Authority (Israel didn't have multichannel TV until the 90's) to air everything in black and white.
  • However, since removing the actual color out of foreign-produced color programs was too much of a hassle, the decolorization was made by simply airing them without a burst phase – the part of the color transmission which tells the TV how to read the actual color signals – abusing a failsafe which forces the color TV into black-and-white mode if it doesn't recieve the burst phase to make sure background noise doesn't accidentally colorize a monochrome signal. Naturally, the market was instantly flooded with colorizing devices which generated a burst phase at the TV reciever's end.
  • Finally, the Government realized removing the burst phase actually helps fuel the social gaps it was meant to close, since nearly every color TV owner also bought the colorizer, which added to the TV's cost, and reintroduced color broadcasting for the third time – and permanently – in a gradual transition in 1980-83.
• Gidget originally aired at the time the switch to color was still being mandated, so although the series was a color series to begin with, Sally Field filmed opening bumpers to promote the show in color (and to this day she still remembers filming those bumpers).
• Although PBS or NET didn't necessarily have impressive or extravagant budgets to speak of, from the get-go, the producers of Sesame Street insisted not only that the show be videotaped (to give it the look of a live broadcast), but also that it be in color, to take advantage of all of the (then) latest technology at their disposal to make the show as interesting, eye-catching, and alluring as possible. Its very first episode opens with an "In color" disclaimer.
• During NBC coverage of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the first few cut-ins from Dallas-Fort Worth affiliate WBAP-TV 5 (now NBC O&O KXAS-TV) were aired in color, but the rest were aired in black and white to match the filmed reports and the network coverage from New York and Washington, D.C. It's been said that NBC killed the color feed out of embarrassment that an affiliate was doing color when the network wasn't, much to the anger of WBAP who was proud of its color capabilities, having started early in May 1954 and stuck with it even as other NBC affiliates gave up on it due to the often temperemental equipment used in early color broadcasts.
• From its 1977 debut onward, the Atari 2600 video game console featured a "TV Type" switch which was intended for players to change the game's visuals from the original color graphics to a monochrome high-contrast mode better suited for black & white TVs. Most early games have two such TV type modes, but the switch saw less usage as black & white TVs became less popular. By the mid-1980s, developers had largely stopped programming a black & white mode, though the switch remained on later 2600 models, and a handful of games use the "TV Type" switch for alternate game functionality or as a pause button.
• Black and white TVs continued to be manufactured and sold well into the 2000s, though over time, new models tended to get smaller and smaller, with many newer commercial CRT black and white TVs sold as portable travel units, often combined with a radio. In this way, they weren't positioned to color TV resistors, mainly travelers, as black and white CRT monitors were cheaper to produce.
  • In any event, the digital TV transition that began in 2006 made any black and white CRT TV obsolete as is, at least in markets that have completely shut off their analog transmitters. A digital converter box and requisite antenna will bring them back to life, though you may need an RF modulator, a VHF/UHF matching transformer, or actual physical modding to get a signal, depending on what ports the TV has, or lack thereof.
  • In Great Britain, where residents are required to pay an annual license fee to watch television, over 7,000 households still paid a license for a black & white TV in 2018. While this is partially due to the cheaper license fee (£49 a year compared to £149.50 for a colour television), many of the holdouts (there and abroad) genuinely prefer their monochrome TV and/or the picture quality for nostalgic, collecting, or convenience reasons. Some classic film buffs swear by a black & white TV as the optimal way to watch black & white programs. One man even unsuccessfully campaigned to pay the black & white license fee as he only watched his colour TV with the colour setting cranked to zero on purpose.
• A lot of local stations in the U.S. upgraded their equipment to color gradually, which led to an awkward transition phase where black-and-white broadcasts would occasionally switch to color for a commercial or a slide. A 1965 edition of WGN's Len Johnson and the News demonstrates this, with the Calgon commercial (on film) and the end title card (a slide) in color while the rest (including the live camera shot of Johnson) is in monochrome.
• Advertising time for color was more expensive than for black-and-white. Naturally, a lot of sponsors did not want to pay that premium (especially in the early days of color TV), which often led to color programs having commercial breaks in black-and-white.
• The parody series Police Squad! included an "In COLOR" announcement in its regular opening credits, despite the fact it broadcast in 1982, a decade after American networks had phased out these color bumpers. Of course, the complete pointlessness of this bumper was the joke.
• South Africa was a latecomer to TV broadcasting, going straight to colour when it made its first ever transmission in 1976, as the former apartheid regime had long regarded the TV medium as a threat to its values. However, the government relented under pressure from its own supporters, following the embarrassment of having to show the Apollo 11 moon landings with delayed film newsreels.

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