Red Skelton in Color--1962

[vallieone]

Here is one of the earliest surviving CBS color video tape broadcasts of the Red Skelton Christmas Show from 1962. I will let the experts critique it but one thing I noticed is the set designers apparently were not prepared for a color broadcast since they did not go out of their way to use any eye popping color in the sets or costumes in the first half of the program. Even one of the title cards promoting the Red Skelton Show was in Black and White.

One question I do have in the early and infrequent color broadcasts int the 50's and early 60's did they even announce the following program is in color? Or did they flash the blood shot eye logo?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0Uzk244hnU

[marcel]

Differences in colors can also be seen in the broadcast. The color cameras were also not very good then, so you had less color reproduction. With the arrival of the Plumbicon tubes in the cameras, the colors have become much better later, the plumbicons came in 1963. After that, the program makers must have paid more attention to colors in broadcasts. The Plumbicon tube was invented in my country by Philips. In those TV years it was a great invention that cameras worldwide were equipped with these Plumbicon tubes. Then perhaps more attention to the colors in the decors.

[consoleguy67]

NBC was definitely the color leader at the time.

[edison64]

I've seen this broadcast several times before, and one thing I think that people don't realize is this is actually not videotape, it's a kinescope copy that is to say, it's a picture of a picture on a CRT. Also I can't help wonder if it wasn't shot with some of the early Norelco cameras, being that it was CBS, it has The Telltale green ghosting on some of the images, that's a dead giveaway that it was from a Norelco. All in all though, this is still a very good show and does display very well. And it makes me wish I could go back again when TV was good.

[vallieone]

I'm just a layperson but I disagree that this is a kinescope copy. I can clearly see banding on santa's red suit. This show was taped using either the TK-40A or TK-41's. Television City did not get the Plumbicon P-60's until 1965.

Televison city also taped Cinderella in color in 1965. Not sure what cameras were used for that broadcast.

[dtvmcdonald]

There was absolutely nothing wrong with the color from TK41s. On a properly
adjusted TV or monitor they really were not very different from today so long as there was enough light. Where I lived we had live color shows every day, starting in 1955.
I was in the studio audience for some kiddie's shows ... the colors on the
visible monitor (15GP22) were quite accurate ... nobody expected otherwise. I was even then old enough to adjust my uncle's CT-100 so that they were just as good (he had lots of signal, being one mile from the transmitter.)

All Plumbicons were noted for was no halos in too-low light. And, of course, that they were easier to adjust to get right!

[old_tv_nut]

Originally Posted by dtvmcdonald

There was absolutely nothing wrong with the color from TK41s. On a properly
adjusted TV or monitor they really were not very different from today so long as there was enough light. Where I lived we had live color shows every day, starting in 1955.
I was in the studio audience for some kiddie's shows ... the colors on the
visible monitor (15GP22) were quite accurate ... nobody expected otherwise. I was even then old enough to adjust my uncle's CT-100 so that they were just as good (he had lots of signal, being one mile from the transmitter.)

All Plumbicons were noted for was no halos in too-low light. And, of course, that they were easier to adjust to get right!

The main video improvement of Plumbicon cameras compared to the TK-41 image orthicons was not color but much lower noise level and greater light sensitivity.
They also did not produce dark halos around over-exposed objects like the image orthicons could. (The halos did not come from low light levels, but from highlights exposed "over the knee" of the orthicon transfer function.)

I also agree that this is not a color kinescope. It has none of the typical color/transfer function distortions of color kinescopes. It must have been quad tape originally, as you can see occasional head switching transients. But it has obviously been through many generations of equipment, and appears to have been heavily processed for noise removal, as motion appears more smeared than you would expect from the cameras. Of course, it was also deinterlaced for coding and posting to you tube, which may have contributed some to the smear. It's too bad the color is degraded, as it certainly was much better than this coming out of the cameras, even if CBS didn't have the full skill of NBC in adjusting them, or the tape generations affected it.

[Steve D.]

Originally Posted by edison64

I've seen this broadcast several times before, and one thing I think that people don't realize is this is actually not videotape, it's a kinescope copy that is to say, it's a picture of a picture on a CRT. Also I can't help wonder if it wasn't shot with some of the early Norelco cameras, being that it was CBS, it has The Telltale green ghosting on some of the images, that's a dead giveaway that it was from a Norelco. All in all though, this is still a very good show and does display very well. And it makes me wish I could go back again when TV was good.

This was definitely color video tape. Edited in post production. No telling how many dubs down this peticular version is. CBS was using Skelton's own production co. TK-41 color cameras he leased out.

[Steve D.]

Originally Posted by vallieone

I'm just a layperson but I disagree that this is a kinescope copy. I can clearly see banding on santa's red suit. This show was taped using either the TK-40A or TK-41's. Television City did not get the Plumbicon P-60's until 1965.

Televison city also taped Cinderella in color in 1965. Not sure what cameras were used for that broadcast.

The 1965 CBS version was taped at TV City in Los Angeles and RCA TK-41 cameras were used in the production.

[vallieone]

Yup a TK-41 I just found this picture

CINDERELLA_cast_phQ-305x210.jpg

[KentTeffeteller]

Using Red Skelton's Red-io-Tape remote trucks. Equipped with RCA TK-41 color cameras.

[kf4rca]

Was it low band color or high band color? HBC didn't come out till about '65 with the VR2000.
Low band color didn't look very good but it was color. When I started in TV, there were still a few LBC spots coming from ad agencies that hadn't converted over to HBC. (All the spots, at that time, were manual reel to reel playback.)
RCA came out with the 70C that had auto-band select on the control panel in about the late '60's.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by vallieone

One question I do have in the early and infrequent color broadcasts int the 50's and early 60's did they even announce the following program is in color? Or did they flash the blood shot eye logo?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0Uzk244hnU

NBC did in fact make an announcement before every color program: "The following program is brought to you in living color on NBC", with the network's signature color peacock (the original one, not that poor excuse for a peacock which shows before most NBC programs nowadays) showing on the TV screen. CBS had a similar announcement, with the letters "CBS" and the "eye" logo appearing on the screen. ABC showed its signature, a black ball with the letters "abc", and the announcement "The following is an ABC color presentation." I am most familiar with NBC's color announcement since I have been watching NBC-TV as long as I can remember, in b&w until the 1970s.

BTW: I was not aware of any kind of bloodshot CBS "eye" logo. Most if not all the CBS "eye" logos I ever saw (and still see today) on TV, including on the local station IDs in Cleveland, had the logo showing with no color spots or splotches whatsoever. I don't think CBS would so much as dream of showing its "eye" logo with any kind of stripes, smears, etc., let alone actually show such a mess on the air. I recall one time, however, in the late 1960s-early '70s (which I will never forget) when the local NBC station actually did show a real mess just before the station signed on. The station was showing all sorts of shapes, colors, etc. on the screen, with a loud "BOING!" in the sound. I don't know to this day whether the station's engineers actually intended to run such a mishmash, but it was a good thing they showed it before the station began its regular program schedule, rather than pulling this right smack in the middle of the broadcast day. There was yet another gaffe the Cleveland NBC affiliate pulled in the '70s (IIRC), in which the station inadvertently showed the ID slide for the NBC station in New York. Someone at the Cleveland NBC station probably brought up the network feed a bit too soon.

I have never seen this kind of mistake on either of the other network affiliates (ABC or CBS) before or since then, and I was very surprised to see it on NBC (the local NBC affiliate in Cleveland was owned and operated by the NBC television network at the time). My best guess is some master control engineer just made an honest mistake when the mishmash I described was shown, and actually broadcast. As I said, it was a good thing this happened before the actual telecasting schedule began, and not in the middle of the broadcast day or, heaven forbid, during a network program in prime time. Even today, with TV stations operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week, I have yet to see such gaffes, although if such mistakes are made during late-night hours most people wouldn't notice them. In fact, I have my doubts as to whether anyone much even sees the infomercials on TV after the last network program leaves the air. I sometimes think most TV stations are wasting money broadcasting those things; after all, how many people are up at three a. m. watching infomercials? I can understand folks wanting to see an early morning newscast, but infomercials?

[old_tv_nut]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isBV9mN-0fM

CBS field sequential color ID card at 00:07
The "bloodshot eye" at 01:27 and 01:38
CBS Presents This Program In Color at 02:14

[Steve D.]

NBC used the color chimes logo prior to the Peacock. And even earlier NBC had a slide w/a color announcement.