The World Beyond BetterMost => The Culture Tent => Topic started by: Phillip Dampier on June 27, 2007, 01:08:17 am
Title: Wide Wonderful World of Media - A Look Back At Television
Post by: Phillip Dampier on June 27, 2007, 01:08:17 am
If folks are enjoying the movie trailers, then this gives me an excuse to dump one of my hobbies in here - the collection of TV ID's, jingles, image songs, and promos. For a lot of people, this is going to bring back memories. But for many more, this is going to be very odd because they aired before you were even born.
Until the mass consolidation of media in this country, TV stations and networks spent a considerable amount of money each year on trying to convince viewers they were part of a community and that you were part of their family. Every September, as stations and networks rolled out new shows (of which the majority utterly failed and were usually gone before the snow started falling), they loved to have a special event night where they would showcase their stuff. And then during the TV season, most networks had a "theme" which they tied into their promos and ID's. The slogans were usually forgettable, with the exception of NBC's "Let's All Be There," CBS's "Looking Good Together," and arguably the most memorable and best campaign of all - ABC's "Still the One."
Our friends in Australia will recognize most of these, because Australian television networks Seven, Nine, and Ten (they apparently name networks after primary channel positions) have licensed all of them to use all on their networks. Outside of Canada, no country has television that more closely resembles what Americans cope with than Australia, and that includes the good and the bad.
So let's turn the clock back.... (And here are the four latest additions to the collection - just mouseover the top to view previews!:)
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media
Post by: David In Indy on June 27, 2007, 01:22:11 am
That sounds like a good idea Phillip. If they are from 1968 or later, I would remember them!
I LOVED those General Cinema trailers. They brought back a lot of memories for me. :D
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media - WPIX "11 Alive!"
Post by: Phillip Dampier on June 27, 2007, 01:26:54 am
Anyone who got cable television in the late 1970s or 1980s in the United States probably got "superstations" on their service. These are ordinary television stations in a community that were received off the air, uplinked to satellite (usually by a third party - without the permission of the station), and then rebroadcast by cable companies across the United States and often Canada. Superstations were not affiliated with any network, and were known as "independent" stations. Their programming was heavy on syndicated off-network shows (in other words, repeats of shows long off the networks where they started), sports, and movies. Most operated 24 hours a day, which was unusual for a TV station to do at the time.
Superstations were an important part of a cable system lineup, and brochures given to potential cable customers heavily emphasized the existence of superstations on cable.
The first superstation was WTBS Atlanta, which was uplinked by Ted Turner, who owned the station (and would later start CNN and other networks). His station aired movies, Atlanta Braves baseball, and lots of TV shows from a decade earlier. WTBS was the most commonly available superstation on cable, and has since become a cable network itself - TBS. It is also uniquely the only superstation that was provided nationwide by station ownership. All the others were put on satellite by third parties.
The superstations you received on cable was usually dictated by how relevant their programming was to your location, particularly when it came to sports programs. Additionally, time zones made a big difference - east coast cable systems rarely had west coast superstations because their "prime time" began when most folks on the east coast were headed to bed.
Superstations were also expensive to carry - royalty payments were set based on a percentage of revenue a cable system earned - far more pricey than the usual 5-25 cents per subscriber most cable networks charged.
Regardless, most cable systems carried at least three superstations, in this order of popularity:
WGN Chicago WPIX New York WOR/WWOR New York WSBK Boston WNEW/WNYW New York KTLA Los Angeles KTVT Dallas
Additionally, some limited regional distribution of TV stations via microwave or by limited contracts also made superstations out of relatively nearby signals. Denver stations were often carried by mountain west cable systems who had no access to any local network stations. Northern US cable systems often pick up and relay a CBC or CTV station from Canada, usually off the air.
Canadians typically see superstations from the United States as well as from major provincial cities across Canada. Canadians see American network programming via superstations on their own cable/satellite systems. Major American networks ABC, CBS, and NBC usually come from stations in Buffalo/Erie/Rochester or Detroit for the eastern time zones and from Seattle for the west coast.
The most unique superstation from the list had to be WPIX in New York. It's slogan, "11 Alive!" is well remembered by a lot of folks, along with the all-night lineup of syndicated sci-fi shows they used to carry. And there were some memorable ads too.
1) It uses the classic 11 Alive jingle and color scheme. 2) The news reader is THE VOICE of WPIX - he recorded virtually all of the station's promos. 3) Many cities used the same news theme as WPIX - It's the "Move Closer to Your World" theme package.
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media
Post by: Phillip Dampier on June 27, 2007, 01:33:00 am
Before computer graphics, there was always simple animation, as this movie opening from 1977 demonstrates (but it looks like it could have come from the early 1970s.)
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media
Post by: Phillip Dampier on June 27, 2007, 01:43:11 am
WPIX loved to show movies, and they had an opening for all of them.... The Sunday Morning Movie was really a misnomer. As the 1980s arrived, 99% of the movies shown during the Sunday Morning Movie were Abbott & Costello films which ran one after another, and then started again. The "computer graphics" era has arrived as well.
One other point - up until the mid-1980s, TV stations loved to use slides. They had PILES of them with station ID's, technical difficulty messages, slides showing what was coming up next or what was on right now. Slides were inexpensive and easier to deal with than trying to use tape or film for everything. You'll see WPIX using them for the "Coming Up" presentation until the mid-1980s.
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media
Post by: Phillip Dampier on June 27, 2007, 01:48:38 am
Sunday afternoon and the women are watching so they don't have to endure Sunday football, so it's time to drag out the romance movies. Notice too the cheesy promo for Rockford Files making it to syndication. They spared every expense in throwing the chyron with text right on top of it. The movie opening spiral was pre-produced with nothing in the middle of the screen. The station could add text in the "hole" as they needed.
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media
Post by: Phillip Dampier on June 27, 2007, 01:56:50 am
It's primetime and time for the 8 o'clock movie! These were usually the biggest, most recent titles Channel 11 would show, but also "blockbusters" from the 1970s. WPIX loved to put disaster movies in this timeslot. Be it, "What's this wire good for? It's good for startin' fires" Towering Inferno or the inevitable innocent child chasing after a beloved pet when the earthquake strikes southern California. The 10pm local news followed.
Notice the technical problem with the sound cutting off early. WPIX and WOR in New York were both notorious for having technical problems during the 1970s and 1980s. Shows could be interrupted, replaced with slides, sound would cut off early or be missing altogether - it was surprising to see this many problems on a station in a market the size of NY, but there they were.
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media
Post by: Phillip Dampier on June 27, 2007, 02:23:43 am
It's Christmas time on WPIX. First, a closing of their special Holiday Movie, followed by a pretty heavy Christmas message with an extra big dose of Jesus - I don't see something like this airing on a secular station any longer.
But even more known is the Amazing Yule Log! Every Christmas Eve, WPIX-TV would show nothing but the Yule Log, a film loop of a crackling fire. It became a big NY tradition. Usually, WPIX-FM provided the Christmas music (usually easy listening, mostly instrumentals) which played in the background. What you see below is an original film loop with the original sound. Once you hear it, you can understand why they decided to play music instead....
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media
Post by: David In Indy on June 27, 2007, 02:52:29 am
Phillip, these are wonderful!! I only watched a couple of them because I'm on dial-up and they take awhile to load. I can't wait to watch the rest of them! :D
I wonder if they have any old Indianapolis Media on YouTube??
Anyone remember the original NBC peacock from the 1960's? I do!! :)
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media
Post by: Phillip Dampier on June 27, 2007, 09:57:19 am
It's the Sunday Night Movie! And a spoken legal ID, which most stations never both with anymore - (a legal ID is the voicing of call letters and city of license).
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media
Post by: Phillip Dampier on June 27, 2007, 10:11:17 am
Most independent television stations had backwater news departments, if any. In fact, most unaffiliated stations usually counter-programmed something other than news to draw viewers who weren't interested. You'd get M*A*S*H instead of the local evening news. But some stations, especially in large cities, made an effort to program a later evening newscast one hour earlier than the network stations (that usually meant 10pm in the east and 9pm everywhere else in the country).
WPIX's news department created a network of independent stations and created their own ten o'clock national newscast under the banner of "Independent Network News." INN relied on WPIX crews for NY City footage (video material/stories), and local INN stations supplied some when news broke in their cities, and CNN provided much of the rest.
Newscasts in the 1970s and early 1980s were not as flashy as the ones we see today.
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media
Post by: Phillip Dampier on June 27, 2007, 10:15:13 am
The Special Monday Night Movie closing, plus another one of those slides, and a promo for Cahill, with John Wayne. The computer graphics were all over this opening, but stuff from that era always looked odd.
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media
Post by: loneleeb3 on June 27, 2007, 10:21:43 am
This is great! I remember when WTBS went 24hrs then became the Superstation! Prior to that is was Channel 17 WTCG. We got cable in 82 and got WGN from Chicago. I still remember the Empire carpet adds "588-2-300 Empire" LOL
Funny, we have 11 Alive here in Atlanta it's the NBC Affiliate. Our ABC affiliate is Channel 2 and it's the one that calls their news Action News. In the 70's channel 11 was the ABC affiliate and Channel 2 was the NBC affiliate then for some reason they switched.
I remember in the fall waiting for the stations to have their Saturday Morning Cartoon Previews. They would usually do it during primetime so by Saturday Morning I was up at 6am waiting with my bowl of Kabooms!
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media
Post by: Phillip Dampier on June 27, 2007, 12:21:51 pm
The 80s have arrived, and WPIX's look begins to change...
The 12:30 Movie (after the noon news), plus WPIX gets a new jingle, and a more animated way of telling you what's next!
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media
Post by: Phillip Dampier on June 27, 2007, 12:29:07 pm
Here's a short sampler of how WPIX used the "coming up next" graphics. The first one is the default. Then, the control room simply adds the name of the program for each show. No more looking through stacks of slides!
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media
Post by: Phillip Dampier on June 27, 2007, 12:34:18 pm
Remember when he had a Fairness Doctrine in the USA? Station management would air editorial messages during programming (fat chance that will happen on most stations these days - it cuts into ad revenue!). Viewers were invited to respond and the station was required to give equal time. Here's a look back to one that lived beyond the Reagan Administration's killing off of the Doctrine - from 1988!
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media
Post by: Phillip Dampier on June 27, 2007, 01:07:06 pm
Let's take a look at some of the image campaigns of WPIX - starting with a promotion set to run with the station's launch of Cheers reruns, and another celebrating their 40th anniversary:
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media
Post by: Phillip Dampier on June 27, 2007, 01:16:03 pm
And lastly before we leave WPIX, two higher tech graphics as the station began a new look that lasted until it left its independent status to join the WB Network (later CW).
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media
Post by: Cameron on June 27, 2007, 01:22:47 pm
Philip- Thank you for posting all of this!!!!! I grew up in NY, I remember all of this, the movies on Channel 11 and the news and I especially loved seeing the Crazy Eddie, Carvel and Mount Airie Lodge ads. I love seeing these things again. It's scary, Crazy Eddie and Mount Airie Lodge are so familiar, like I have been seeing them all this time, I guess they are ingrained in me.
Thank you again!!!!!!!
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media
Post by: Phillip Dampier on June 27, 2007, 02:36:31 pm
Thanks for the nice comments everyone. And stay tuned David and Cameron, because for David I think we'll find something he remembers and Cameron you'll love the WOR and WNEW stuff coming up down the road....
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media - Hello Rochester & The "Hello Campaign" Intro
Post by: Phillip Dampier on June 27, 2007, 02:52:04 pm
Hello (Your City Goes Here!)
The Hello News Image Campaign...
This one folks across the United States will probably remember, as will some of our friends in Australia. When a TV station wants to express to the community that it's the closest station to that community, or has the best coverage, or the best shows, it creates an "image campaign." These are usually extended-length jingles with lots of graphics and people all singing, dancing, or representing your town or city. The purpose is to try and excite you and consider that station #1.
One of the most successful image campaigns ever was from Gari Communications, and it was "localized" to dozens of cities across this country. Chances are, you lived or visited a city and saw this in action. The campaign even came with news themes to go with the local news.
Let's begin with the one used by my own local ABC station - WOKR. No video, unfortunately, but several "cuts" from the package for you to enjoy, along with a list of stations that ran this campaign in the 1980s.
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media - Hello South Carolina
Post by: Phillip Dampier on July 01, 2007, 11:25:52 pm
Hello South Carolina
Channel 5 Says Hello!
Here comes "Phase Two" of the Hello campaign. After a year of running the original "spots," stations were invited to buy Phase 2 of the campaign, with a new song, but still tied to the original campaign. It kept the image fresh and new for a new year of broadcasting, and many stations bought in.
Has it really been 27 years since I've seen it?? It doesn't seem like it's been that long. Those hairstyles have to go, don't they! :laugh:
That really brought back a lot of memories. I remember Channel 13 playing it all the time. Thanks so much for posting these Phillip! They are wonderful! I'm really enjoying them; even on dial-up! They are worth the time it takes to load. :D
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media - Hello Adelaide
Post by: Phillip Dampier on July 02, 2007, 05:20:26 pm
Hello Adelaide
Channel Seven Says Hello!
Here's proof of just how similar American and Australian television really is. The Seven Network had the Hello campaign running in several areas, including Adelaide.
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media - Hello NY, MD, SC, OH, IL, IN, MO, TN, KY....
Post by: Phillip Dampier on July 02, 2007, 06:06:03 pm
HELLO EVERYWHERE ELSE! The Hello Campaigns Without Video
Some two dozen cities/markets used the Hello image campaign. Unfortunately, video of all them isn't available at this point, so here are the other station songs for the places we didn't have video.
Some Cities Included:
Albany, NY Baltimore, MD (Check out this VERY uplifting version combined with the CBS "Reach for the Stars" image campaign) Charleston, SC Colorado Springs, CO Dayton, OH Myrtle Beach, SC (The "Grandstrand") Kansas City, MO Knoxville, TN Louisville, KY Phoenix, AZ Providence, RI Quad Cities, IO Rochester, NY San Diego, CA Sioux City, IO Southeast Texas Tulsa, OK Minneapolis-St.Paul, MN West Palm Beach, FL Wichita, KS
The audio player for this activates when you press the small play button in the upper left.
And finally, here are very high quality audio versions of the Hello campaign, past and present. The "Contemporary Duet" for WXIA-Atlanta is the hands-down standout. Very moving....
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media - WOR-TV New York
Post by: Phillip Dampier on July 02, 2007, 06:11:38 pm
By now, I think we've beaten the Hello image campaign to death. If you missed the Osmond's, scroll back to the Hello Utah thread for an additional clip.
Here is where we're heading next. The story of WOR-TV New York, and just who the heck is Joe Franklin.... Here is a taste.
This clip was recorded on black and white reel-to-reel videotape from the 1970s. It's a bit beat up.
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media - Update News
Post by: Phillip Dampier on July 03, 2007, 01:04:31 am
The Hello campaign section closed tonight with the insertion of two audio playlists containing the balance of the "city songs." See if you can find your city in the "Hello Everywhere Else" post found two replies up.
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media - WOR-TV/WWOR-TV New York -And- New Jersey!
Post by: Phillip Dampier on July 03, 2007, 01:42:59 am
Some Background on WOR-TV:
If you had cable television in the 70's and 80's in the USA, there is probably a fair chance WOR-TV was the second station from New York City found on your cable dial. While WPIX was the more popular choice of system operators, a large segment of Americans living east of the Mississippi had both to choose from.
WOR-TV was an RKO station, and competed heavily for viewers with WPIX and WNEW. WOR's schedule was heavy with tons of sports, movies, news, and even some talk shows. While WPIX spent a lot of time running sci-fi reruns and otherwise appealing for a younger audience, WOR's programming definitely slanted to an older audience, especially with a lot of their movies. Those of us with shiny new VCR's in the early and mid-1980s would definitely favor WPIX over WOR, especially overnight when you could record several hours of Star Trek, The Outer Limits, Space:1999, and other syndicated shows.
NY'ers generally saw WNEW as the best choice for light-hearted sitcoms, children's programs, and 30-minute shows -- WPIX as sci-fi off-network series and movie-heavy, and WOR big on hour long TV dramas, movies, British imports (especially from Thames TV) and loads of sports.
On WOR late night, you'd find two staples: Mr. Joe Franklin and movies, movies, movies.
The story of Joe Franklin is uniquely New York. Here was a man who could have been the Larry King of his day, only Franklin did more. Well known among the locals (and the diaspora of tri-staters who moved elsewhere and were pushed to sign up for cable in part just to watch this man), Franklin was part talk show, part variety show, part throwback to the earliest days of television.
Franklin's show ran for more than 40 years, mostly on the fuel provided by desperate-for-exposure washed-up talent that couldn't get on anywhere else. He was like the "Love Boat" of talk shows, and was an excellent barometer to know whether that star of a show you watched 20 years earlier was still alive, because if he or she was, they'd be on Franklin's couch soon enough.
Some of his shows were simply bizarre - with punk rockers sitting on the couch hobnobbing with Broadway types, classical musicians, and perhaps some Vaudeville kitsch-act he found usually doing Bar Mitzvahs. They'd do their five minutes of fame performing whatever, and then they'd sit and chat with Franklin and each other. It often was surreal, but Franklin had an incredibly loyal following (along with a lot of non-fans who could never figure out what the hell was so appealing about this guy.)
WOR went though turmoil from the 1970's into the 1980's. WOR's owner, RKO, was in trouble with the FCC and managed to get its license renewed only if it relocated its city of license to Secaucus, New Jersey (a whopping seven miles from where it was before). WOR-TV New York suddenly became WOR-TV Secaucus, but honestly in name only. Virtually everything important about the station remained in NY City, until "9 Broadcast Plaza" was built a few years later. To people in metro NY, it really made no difference. Whether in NY City, New Jersey, or Connecticut, you were still a part of metropolitan New York.
All this, along with the program philosophy of aiming old made them the least popular of the three independents, which made it surprising that WNEW didn't get more "superstation" status than it did.
RKO eventually put the station up for sale and MCA bought it and made huge changes. First, it became WWOR-TV. Second, most of the programming commonly found on WOR was gone, replaced with edgier stuff. One man would change the concept of talk TV forever, and he started on WWOR. Morton Downey, Jr. was a chain-smoking (on air as well) bully who ran a show so confrontational, it would later be ripped off by the likes of Jerry Springer. His studio audience was often filled with thugs, and occasionally furniture and fists could fly on the program. It was hardly enlightening television, but it was a spectacle and got a lot of attention nationwide.
WWOR's days as a superstation began to dwindle as syndicated exclusivity took its toll. This allowed local stations to block out the broadcast of programs that aired on stations outside of the area that they also had a contract to air. Programs often ended up replaced with a video screen saying "this show has been blocked." WWOR had a lot of shows affected, and the company that put them on satellite, Eastern Microwave, tried to keep the station running by replacing blocked shows with their own syndicated programs they bought on the cheap, such as Adam-12 and Emergency. But those shows were considered stale a decade before they showed up on the "WWOR EMI Service." When the WB and UPN networks started, the show was really over when WWOR affiliated with UPN (WPIX went with the WB). Today, with the merger of those two networks into the CW, WWOR lost again, stuck with the awful My Network TV network, which airs English language telenovelas and other ultra-cheap shows. Throughout its history, WOR always seemed to end up in last place, and that lives on.
They might do better with Joe Franklin reruns. :)
Over the next day or so, a WOR retrospective begins, with some things I'm sure you'll remember!
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media
Post by: Ellemeno on July 03, 2007, 03:56:22 pm
I'm the right age to recognize about 2/3 of the guests on that Joe Franklin montage. :)
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media - The First Music Videos? - WOR-TV
Post by: Phillip Dampier on July 07, 2007, 01:24:59 am
Television in the 1970s operated at a FAR slower pace than it does these days. There was no such thing as a "soundbite" back then, and news reports might accomodate more than a minute of straight talking from an interview subject before moving on. These days, you're lucky to get ten seconds of what someone had to say before they've moved on.
Even in NY City, which remains the nation's largest TV market, the 1970s offered the opportunity for taking some time to show viewers the lighter side, and not be worried about getting on and off the air as quickly as possible.
On Friday's WOR-TV's newscasts would close with several minutes of what might be called the first "music videos." Usually containing a montage of video clips from folks around the city mixed in with the news credits, these vignettes would run for up to four minutes! Just watching these and realizing they are part of a newscast probably makes most folks think these are incredibly long.
We start with 1976 - An Example of WOR-TV's "Folk Friday" News Close:
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media - WOR-TV 1978
Post by: Phillip Dampier on July 07, 2007, 01:39:09 am
Notes About This Clip:
- Apologies for the fluttery audio. This was originally a Betamax tape (the earliest Betamax videocassette recorders for home came out in the mid-1970s, long before VHS came alone), and one thing the earlier generation of tapes were known for is their penchant for quality variability. When you got a "squealing tape" that wasn't properly seated in its shell, it would squeal while playing or recording, and the vibrations that caused would literally shake the tape enough to create this kind of flutter effect.
- This was the last year WOR used actual film for its station ID's and many of its promotional and advertising clips. The ID music came from the mid 1970s and would be retired in 1979 for a whole new image campaign.
- "Straight Talk" the show that opens in this clip, came from an era when stations were required to air public service programming. This assures me that this clip came from first thing in the morning (probably on a weekend) when shows like this were typically buried. This is an ultra-low-budget presentation as well - akin to today's public access cable shows. The other thing at play here was quota hiring. Stations at this time in this country had one or two token black or other minority employees that almost never appeared prominently on the TV stations that hired them. Instead, they were given the task of hosting shows like "Straight Talk" or even worse as you'll see in the days ahead, special newscasts just for black audiences, usually called, "Black News." Segregation in pop culture well into the 1980s was readily apparent in all areas of the country, even in New York City.
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media - WOR-TV 1979
Post by: Phillip Dampier on July 07, 2007, 02:02:31 am
The year 1979 brought some significant changes to WOR's on-air look. This was the sci-fi era, what with Star Wars and the technological leaps in special effects that came with the late 1970s. WOR started to adopt these new "cool" things starting with their image campaign. Underwhelming, "More for You" as a station signature only lasted about a year. Their music and new logo didn't really work that well either, with the channel number spinning on the screen like some Death Star.
But this look is probably recognizable to those who got cable TV in the late 1970s and very early 1980s, as it featured prominently in their daily programming.
By the way, as with WPIX, WOR just loved to fulfill their public service requirements with the FCC by airing Editorials and Replies to Editorials. Anyone who has seen WOR in the 1980s will recognize these things, and we'll have several examples to share later on.
Channel 9, like many stations across the country, succumbed to the scourge that was "Bowling for Dollars." This virus infected at least one station in just about every large city in the country (and if that didn't, the equally frightening "Dialing for Dollars" complete with host pulling names and numbers out of a fish bowel and then calling them up on a rotary dial phone, on the air, to ask them for today's "phrase that pays" or at least the name of the bad movie they were showing that morning, did.)
Bowling for Dollars featured washed up station talent (often the last sports reporter that retired from the evening news) presiding over televised bowling tournaments, often at lanes built right at the TV studio or area mall or bowling alley! Typically adults competed with adults, and a special kiddie tournament would also be held. Prizes usually amounted to the low hundreds of dollars, and it was about as compelling as watching any bowling tournament, only these were amateurs. Channel 9 stuck this television atrocity in early prime time! Most stations ran this loser Sunday mornings once a week.
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media - WOR-TV: Joe Franklin Is Back
Post by: Phillip Dampier on July 07, 2007, 02:07:52 am
And now Joe Franklin will sell us paint. This is very typical of ads in the 1970s. An announcer in a suit holds up an extra large piece of cardboard and pitches the product. You got this with endless car dealer ads as well. And then Franklin says goodbye to his viewers for another night.
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media - WOR-TV & The Slide Show - 1976
Post by: Phillip Dampier on July 07, 2007, 02:20:23 am
We're jumping around a bit, but to illustrate some different traits of television of the 1970s, even in large cities.
First, as promised, another WOR-TV Editorial opening. Bet you can't wait to hear more about territorial limits for fishermen!
Second, most TV stations identified themselves every half hour with a slide. These days, you get a five second promotion for an upcoming show and in teeny tiny teensy tiny print, the station's callsign and location. Before the nineties, most stations were held to the FCC definition of running a "legal ID" at least every 30-60 minutes. Most stations had slides with the station logo, some image of something (news team, upcoming show, a giant channel number), and the station callsign and city of license. An announcer would come on and say something like "Channel 9 New York" or "WOR-TV New York." The same was true in most cities across the country.
WOR decided to do legal ID's for a time using some major art pieces being shown in a NY gallery! Artists were thrilled I'm sure.
Third, a lot of TV stations ran "news" first thing in the morning and the last thing at night before either signing off or going into an all-night movie marathon. But unlike today's news shows, back then, stations couldn't afford to light an entire studio and run a newscast (admittedly it took a lot more personnel back then than it does today). Instead, for 10-15 minutes, a station threw up a slide (yes a slide!) that simply said "News" and a studio announcer on a microphone would come on and read headlines and do the weather. Radio via TV I guess. Many stations had a slide saying "Weather" ready to go when the announcer got to the forecast. WOR-TV had the slideshow ready to go at night as well.
Remember folks, back in the 1970s you usually had three channels + PBS and if you were lucky, an independent station. That was it. So why go that extra mile.
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media - WOR-TV 1979 - Attack of the Number 9
Post by: Phillip Dampier on July 07, 2007, 02:31:35 am
Ahhh, the test of the Emergency Broadcast System (now the Emergency Alert System). "This is a test. For the next 60 second this station will conduct a test of the Emergency Broadcast System... this is only a test." Then a horrible bleep for a minute..... Everyone remembers these, and the whole thing turned out to be a pointless waste of time and energy. During 9/11, not a single NY station ever activated the EBS/EAS system, and you'd think THAT would have triggered something. The truth is, for these kinds of alerts, we don't need this system - the media frenzy with wall to wall coverage would make them redundant. The only remaining value for these kinds of alerts is to deliver local weather warnings, potential health hazards, and missing kids under the Amber Alert system.
And a message or so back, I alluded to the death star number 9. Well, here it is in this station ID. Attack of the giant numeral nine. It was not pleasant.
In my introduction to WOR, I made mention the station loved to run movies, and loved to target an older audience. Here is an excellent example of that at work. Everyone who has seen WOR in the 1980s will recognize the opening to Movie 9, right down to the artistic renditions of Hollywood stars and easy listening music.
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media - WOR-TV Nine All Night
Post by: Phillip Dampier on July 07, 2007, 02:43:42 am
By the beginning of 1980, WOR had changed the logo music and got a new slogan, ripping off Shakespeare: "As You Like It." The new music was less threatening than the last composition, and had some strings and, in a few versions, a strummed harp in the background.
Here is the station sign-on from 1980, with the decidedly low-tech "wipe" from the moving ID to a slide. Then, a quick cut in to a promo for Benny Hill, which they loved to run, and a somewhat neat way they drop the WOR logo into the promo, complete with sound effects.
But the star of this clip is 9 All Night, which WOR-TV broke up into "parts" which usually were individual movies. As I wrote in my earlier piece, what made superstations unique is that most of them stayed on the air 24 hours a day, while most stations in the rest of the country signed off at night. WOR usually ran movies all night long under the "9 All Night" premise. The opening for this was actually catchy, with a slower version of their ID and an electronic effect on someone's voice saying "Nine All Night" twice. You can see three buildings twinkled - the World Trade Center, the Empire State Building, and a third I don't recognize.
Too bad stations don't run anything beyond news and infomercials overnight anymore....
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media
Post by: Cameron on July 07, 2007, 02:46:48 am
OMG Philip- That was the news report on the day of my 13th birthday, and I was right there in NYC!!!! It was real cold that morning, but it got nicer, so it wasn't too bad when I walked home from school that day. :D
I remember Joe Franklin of course, but we didn't watch him to much, unfortunately, but I sure remember Martin Paints, we went there!!!!
Thank you for posting this stuff, and how wonderful that it was the news and weather on my birthday!!! ;D
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media
Post by: David In Indy on July 07, 2007, 04:21:39 am
Phillip, you're so cute!! :D
You've been working very hard on this "Wide Wonderful World of Media"! And while I LOVED the "Hello Indiana" video (and it brought back many memories for me) I'm learning so much about many other places too; all from a quick 30 second clip... including the country of Australia!! :D
Thanks so much for doing this for us! I'm loving it!! :D
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media
Post by: Phillip Dampier on July 07, 2007, 09:39:43 am
Thanks for the nice feedback, guys. You never know if people are looking at this unless they tell you they are. :)
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media - WOR-TV: The Nine Logo Conquers NYC
Post by: Phillip Dampier on July 07, 2007, 10:23:27 am
It's 1981, and this is the start of the major growth era for cable television in most cities. Most places had heard about cable television as a concept at least five years earlier, but actually bringing it to people was not as simple as just stringing cable. Every cable company needed to get a franchise with every town they wanted to serve. Some towns made the process simple - basically rubber stamping the application with little demanded of the company in return. But in more affluent areas and in bureaucracy-heavy cities, the franchise process would go on and on. Tonier suburbs insisted on extra contract clauses requiring cable lines to be buried underground or that any overhead construction in the middle of a right-of-way would not disturb the sanctity of the neighborhood. Most also wanted a higher percentage of cable revenue returned to the town as part of the franchise fee. Others wanted schools and community centers wired for cable for free, and some wanted the cable system to pay for and provide equipment and training for the "PEG" channels - Public Access, Educational Access, and Government Access channels. Cities, in particular, demanded the latter two.
The harder a bargain a town/city demanded, the longer it took for a franchise agreement to be hammered out. The result is that many cities ended up with multiple cable providers providing exclusive service in their town or city, and some towns literally took years to be wired for cable because of bureaucratic delays. So while your neighbor cross town had cable in 1978, you were still waiting in 1982.
In a city like Rochester, one cable system (ATC) provided service in the city itself. People's Cable (sounds Communist) served most of the ring suburbs around the city, including my own, and Warner Cable served some towns on the western side of our county, and Sammons Cable grabbed a number of rural towns in the Finger Lakes region (Sammons loved setting up low capacity cable systems in rural towns and was never a big player in the industry, but was often considered a good business bet because they served communities that often had to erect 50+ foot antenna towers just to receive snowy signals from distant cities.)
In very rural or mountainous areas, where TV reception was always difficult, the benefits of cable television would take a long time (if ever) to reach those regions. It wasn't a problem to wire a town or small city, because houses tended to be clustered together. But back then (and to this day), if you live in a sparsely populated area, chances are you never met the standard requirement for their to be at least x number of houses per mile willing to be cable customers. If you were the only house for a 1/4 mile in any direction, it was not economically feasible to wire you for cable, unless you paid that cost, which could easily be $10,000. Most people passed.
The best alternative, and one that began to become viable for rural America, was the big 10-12' satellite dish in the backyard. This was before DISH and DirecTV. Back then, you had an enormous C-band satellite dish which collected very weak satellite signals that were most commonly received by cable systems and broadcasters. Like a TV antenna, the dish rotated in an arc across the sky to receive multiple satellites, each delivering up to 24 channels of programming. Assuming no trees or other objects impeded the view of your dish, you could easily receive 300+ channels as early as 1981, although a large number of those channels were network feeds, syndicated programs being delivered to subscribing TV stations, news "backhaul" feeds (where you watch a reporter standing around waiting to do their report), etc. But many satellites featured cable networks being fed to cable systems, almost all unscrambled, which meant you could watch for free (in fact, HBO and other pay channels weren't scrambled either then, so you got to watch those for free as well). Channels 9 and 11 from NY (along with many others you probably didn't get on cable) were there as well.
By 1981, the glory years for WPIX and WOR as superstations had arrived. Cable was now available to millions of Americans, and of the clips we've seen thus far, most folks who had cable back then will find what comes next more familiar. WOR-TV adopted yet another new look, this one using computer graphics and a far more inviting look. But at around this time, the battle between RKO, WOR's owner, and the FCC was fully engaged, and it would be this era when New Yorkers one day woke up to see WOR-TV not coming from New York, but rather Secaucus, New Jersey!
First, it's holiday time circa 1981 - time for another workable movie presentation, followed by a bit-worn tape showing off WOR's new flashy ID, then the station management wishing everyone a happy Christmas, and then a promotion for the kind of movie that I always think of when it comes to Christmas... a low budget Godzilla film(?):
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media - WOR-TV 1982 - From Atop The Empire St Bldg
Post by: Phillip Dampier on July 07, 2007, 10:38:06 am
WOR-TV in the 1980s didn't follow most of the stations in NY who moved their transmitting antennas to the top of the World Trade Center (it was the tower with the long spike on the top). It stayed in the Empire State Building during part of the 1980s before finally moving to the WTC North Tower. The WTC site was higher than the Empire State Building, which afforded better coverage (the higher your transmitter antenna, the better the signal coverage). Unfortunately, when the North Tower fell, it virtually wiped out NYC television signals for anyone without cable (cable systems in 2001 received direct fiber feeds from the studios of most TV stations in the city, keeping them on cable systems even after the Towers were gone.) If you're interested in how broadcasters coped with 9/11, here is an extensive article: http://www.fybush.com/wtc-recovery.html
Here is the 1982 sign on for WOR, regretfully cut off towards the end of the national anthem. Notice more art, by the way. This time it's the Vatican Collection.
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media - WOR-TV 1983 4:30 Movie & Newsbreak
Post by: Phillip Dampier on July 07, 2007, 10:58:46 pm
Now a series of quick clips showing off the other movie segments WOR ran, along with newsbreaks, usually with Denise Richardson. Most folks should remember the new theme at least....
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media - WOR-TV 1982 - Eye of the Tiger
Post by: Phillip Dampier on July 08, 2007, 12:10:02 am
Here is another one of those great lengthy closes to the noon news, this time the "Eye of the Tiger" with scenes of disaffected New Yorkers walking down the street. Your bonus is a very clean copy of WOR's Station ID at the end, the last time the station would be licensed to New York City.
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media - WOR-TV 1983 - Movin On Down to Jersey
Post by: Phillip Dampier on July 08, 2007, 12:13:18 am
WOR moved its city of license to Secaucus, New Jersey in 1983 to appease the FCC. The station needed to re-do their ID's, and was already starting to suffer some money troubles, so they went on the cheap. But after that, if you watched WOR at all during the 1980s, you'll certainly remember Million Dollar Movie!
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media - WOR-TV 1985 - Computer Animation Arrives
Post by: Phillip Dampier on July 08, 2007, 12:20:13 am
By 1985, WOR adopted a look more recognizable by today's standards with some computer graphics for their movie openings. These aren't terribly different from what one might see on the air these days. WOR, like many TV stations, required a lot of labor in the control room to keep things running. Automated, computer controlled equipment really didn't become that common in TV stations until the 1990s. Technical problems were very common before then. In this clip, the ID slide stays on screen for several seconds, no doubt as station personnel try and get the tape for the movie opening cued up.
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media - WOR-TV 1986 - "A Sexual Identity Problem"
Post by: Phillip Dampier on July 08, 2007, 12:26:24 am
Here was one of the more bizarre promos for WOR in 1986 showcasing the reruns they loved to air.... You should be able to identify where most of these clips came from.
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media - WWOR-TV 1988 - Morton Downey, Jr.
Post by: Phillip Dampier on July 08, 2007, 12:50:20 am
No relation to Robert Downey by the way. WWOR ushered in the late 1980s by totally alienating the older viewers who watched the station for more than 20 years. Gone were the classic movies and older dramas. In came the confrontational, more working-class attitude programming, personafied by the man who started TV down the slippery slope towards Jerry Springer.
His name, Morton Downey, Jr. His attitude - a right wing populist who chain smoked on his show filled with thug-like audiences, with a whole lot of hollering and fist fights. You get a sense of where we're going just from the opening theme:
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media - WWOR-TV Morton Downey, Jr Long Form
Post by: Phillip Dampier on July 08, 2007, 12:54:36 am
To give you an even better sense of how ludicrous Morton Downey, Jr.'s show was, here is a lengthier segment of the show covering heavy metal music. An interesting bit of trivia - Downey died of lung cancer and recorded public service announcements retracting his earlier statements about protecting "smoker's rights."
The most interesting part of this whole clip in the opening sequence. If you watch it slow, you'll figure out what he stands for on just about everything.
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media - WWOR Lately - A Closing Clip
Post by: Phillip Dampier on July 08, 2007, 12:59:26 am
To close our retrospective, here is a clip of WWOR's news opening when they were a UPN station. It's been a long ride for the station, and unfortunately its biding its time these days with the crap shoveled at it from My Network TV... a godawful excuse for a network. BTW, Fox purchased the station and runs it as a secondary outlet, spending most of its effort on WNYW Channel 5.
BTW, check out the absolute decline in the quality of the news WWOR carries, just from the headlines. Absolute garbage non-news....
WOR moved its city of license to Secaucus, New Jersey in 1983 to appease the FCC. The station needed to re-do their ID's, and was already starting to suffer some money troubles, so they went on the cheap. But after that, if you watched WOR at all during the 1980s, you'll certainly remember Million Dollar Movie!
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media - A Look Back At Television
Post by: Phillip Dampier on August 03, 2007, 07:50:20 pm
As folks have been enjoying TV show openings, I thought this would probably fit more comfortably in The Culture Tent... as it is a form of pop culture. I'll also be restarting the updates this weekend.
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media - Bewitching Bonanza From Chevrolet!
Post by: Phillip Dampier on August 04, 2007, 01:38:34 am
Back in the 1950s and 1960s, it was very common to see your favorite TV stars shilling sponsors' products, usually playing off their characters in some way. Since many shows were often sponsored by a single company, the networks went all out for them. In fact, sponsors had much more power over the TV shows of the early days of television than they do now - even to the point of objecting to certain plotlines and characters.
ABC was the youngest of the three major networks of the time, having been formed after NBC and CBS had already been on the air for several years. For that reason, ABC had a tough time landing affiliates in medium-sized television markets which had only two television stations. Large cities weren't a problem, particularly with the failure of the DuMont Television Network (many of their affiliates either became independent stations or later signed with ABC).
ABC was derided all the way into the 1970s for having low ratings, not the best programming, and a news division that simply couldn't compete with NBC and CBS. But several shows on ABC would endure and remain familiar to viewers for many decades after leaving the air. Bewitched was one great example.
In 1965, Chevrolet commissioned several stars of popular network shows to sell their new cars. Oddly, shows like Bewitched (ABC) were featured right along side other shows like Bonanza (NBC), from another network!
Let's take a look, and pay extra attention to Agnes Moorhead and her hairstyle. Moorhead's fashion choices made her a favorite of drag shows even after Bewitched was run into the ground in syndication!
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media - A Look Back At Television
Post by: Ellemeno on August 04, 2007, 05:39:12 am
That was surreal.
Title: Re: Wide Wonderful World of Media - The 1940s & 1950s
Post by: Phillip Dampier on August 04, 2007, 09:35:24 pm
American television actually started in the late 1930s and early 1940s through test broadcasts in large cities like NY and Los Angeles, typically airing during the evening hours. But early television beared little resemblence to the television that would follow the Second World War. Television broadcasts had fewer lines of resolution, resulting in a blurrier picture. Most early broadcasts were live - usually spoken word interviews or news or telecasts of plays or other live performances which were suited to the heavy equipment required to capture the events.
With the advent of World War 2, television was put on hold in the United States -- radio would remain the most important medium with Americans into the 1950s anyway, and there was no sense utilizing resources for entertainment when there was a war to be won. The fact the country was still in a Depression made the technology unaffordable for most people anyway.
When the war ended, television began to make its impact. Many stations were owned and operated by the same networks that controlled radio: The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) and the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) were by far the largest. Mutual Broadcasting, which had importance in radio, stayed away from television. NBC at the time had two networks - the Red Network and the Blue Network. The Red Network featured a lot of entertainment programs, while the Blue Network had more sober current affairs and news programming. An antitrust action would force the split of the two networks into NBC and a new independent company, the American Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). ABC was the last of the big three networks to gain entrance to television, because it had to lease airtime on a number of stations that were part of the DuMont Network. And speaking of DuMont, did you know it was actually the first television network in America? Unfortunately, it didn't survive beyond the 1950s, being America's first network and first failed network!
By the 1950s, the large number of variety shows, usually aired live on the east coast, began to be supplemented with pre-recorded (read that filmed) sitcoms and a whole mess of westerns, which were very popular during this era. West coast viewers saw "kinescoped" versions of live shows.
kinescope: In September 1947, Kodak introduced the Eastman Television Recording Camera, in cooperation with DuMont Laboratories, Inc. and NBC, for recording images from a television screen under the trademark "Kinephoto". Even though their quality left much to be desired, kinescopes were initially the only way to nationally broadcast the live performances of early television from New York or other originating cities to stations not connected to the network. Television programs of all types, from prestigious dramas to regular news shows, were handled in this manner.
As television progressed, and the coaxial cable network carrying programs to the west coast was completed, CBS and NBC instituted a "hot kinescope" process in which shows were filmed (kinescoped) as they aired, rushed to film processing, and then reaired three hours later. CBS filmed the programs on the west coast through microwave links from the east coast, while NBC filmed on the east coast and then rebroadcast the film to the west. The use of this crude and expensive method of time-shifting meant that the television industry’s film consumption eventually surpassed that of all of the Hollywood studios combined.
Now let's take a look at some ways networks and stations identified themselves back then, starting with WNBT-TV New York (later WRCA and then WNBC) from the 1940s!
Title: NBC 1980: We're Gonna Run This Network In The Ground
Post by: Phillip Dampier on August 09, 2007, 11:10:47 pm
Pardon the jumping around in time. Instead of getting into a time rut, I thought it might be more interesting to visit different TV eras, even if somewhat out of place/time order.
The year 1980 was one that NBC wanted to forget. Viewers already had forgotten - they spent their time with ABC in 1980. Fred Silverman had been brought in as network president to try and pull NBC out of third place. A new campaign was launched to brand the network - "NBC Proud as a Peacock." There was little to be proud of in 1980, as most of their new shows utterly failed within weeks of premiering.
Outside of some returning favorites, like CHiPs and a few successful premieres, such as Facts of Life (a spinoff from Diff'rent Strokes), there wasn't much to see here, and viewers did move along.
Amusingly, the jingle company that recorded the campaign jingle for NBC had another version, which Don Imus of WNBC Radio got ahold of and promptly aired. It ripped NBC and Silverman for completely blowing it in 1980. Critics weren't happy either. The 1970s was dubbed the decade of "T&A" by critics who just dealt with a decade of increasingly trashy programming, big on cleavage and very light on plotlines and quality. But despite the crap, viewers still watched, whether it was Battle of the Network Stars or Charlie's Angels or Three's Company.
The most bizarre and spectacular failure for NBC in 1980 was the totally incomprehensible and impenetrable Pink Lady & Jeff. Viewers had no idea what to make of a show featuring Jeff, who looked like a porn star, and "Pink Lady," two Japanese young ladies who spoke practically no English whatsoever. It was one of those Plan 9 from Outer Space messes -- so bad it would be written up in TV history books.
Enjoy the NBC parody, an effort from WESH-TV Orlando to localize the Proud as a Peacock campaign with their own local staff, and a bunch of network promos. Notice the gradual change to NBC's logo, which spent most of the 1970s as a big letter "N." In 1980, the "N" was superimposed over the more familiar peacock logo that NBC first used back when color shows started on the network. It wasn't more than a year before the "N" completely disappeared, leaving the peacock logo that NBC still uses to this day.
And yes, that is the voice of "Shaggy," Casey Kasem, who was the on-air announcer for the network promos in 1980!
NBC "We're Loud" Audio Parody - 1980
Title: Re: NBC 1980 - Proud as a Peacock... sort of
Post by: Phillip Dampier on August 09, 2007, 11:16:20 pm
See how many of these shows you can remember. Don't worry if it's not too many - nobody else remembers them either!
Also notice how the "made for TV movie" was renamed, "Novels for Television." That's from the school of putting lipstick on a pig. And a Novel for Television about the holocaust made for a major popcorn viewing event I'm sure. Yikes.
Title: Re: NBC: We Hired Shaggy to Do Our Promos
Post by: Phillip Dampier on August 09, 2007, 11:20:35 pm
More from Kasey Casem, including Boomer, the dog show that slid into cancellation, the premiere of Facts of Life (why don't I remember Molly at all), the incomprehensible Pink Lady & Jeff (they should drug test whoever green-lit this one). Amazingly, Facts of Life was a midseason replacement for something else... and it was the show that would run for many, many seasons on NBC!
Title: Re: NBC in 1980 - The Games People Play
Post by: Phillip Dampier on August 09, 2007, 11:24:41 pm
Here is a promo without Shaggy - for Games People Play, one of those prime time game show/reality shows NBC used to love to air (anyone remember Real People?). Networks used to roll out their new shows the week after school started for a lot of folks in September, but occasionally tossed new stuff into late August... especially these kinds of low budget things.
Title: Re: Hee-Haw... Oh God No...
Post by: Phillip Dampier on August 09, 2007, 11:38:37 pm
Many local NBC affiliates got the rights to localize the NBC campaign theme and music to promote their own local programming. The abomination that was Hee-Haw ran for well over 20 years (!) thanks to the concept of syndication. It started in the late 1960s as a network show on CBS but was purged in 1971 during the great "Rural Purge of 71" when CBS canceled everything perceived as rural country programming, to be replaced with urban stuff like All in the Family. The producers of Hee Haw kept it going in syndication by giving it away to local TV stations who got to air it for free, if they ran the advertising the syndicator sold and included on the tape. The TV station got some time to sell their own local advertising, and that was pure gravy for them because the program cost them nothing.
Hee-Haw usually aired on most stations that carried it on Saturday nights usually somewhere between 5-8pm. Hee-Haw's greatest enemy and biggest competitor was... wait for it... The Lawrence Welk Show, which also ran in syndication usually at the same time on another local channel. It appealed to many of the same older viewers that Hee Haw did.
Unlike the bubbly champagne music of Mr. Welk, feminists loathed Hee-Haw for the incredibly skimpy outfits most of the women wore on the show. The skits were straight out of a cornfield. It was really sort of a poor man's Ole Opry, a Benny Hill reset in rural Arkansas. But the show was important for a lot of country artists who got plenty of exposure on the show and helped sell a lot of albums. And folks like Roy Clark and "Grandpa" were an absolute staple for the show.
Hee Haw appealed to traditional country music fans and kept a very loyal audience until the early 1990s when producers decided to tamper with their formula for longevity and changed the format to spotlight contemporary country artists. This completely alienated their regular viewers who fled in droves, and younger folks were never going to be turned on to a show their grandparents watched. By the time producers realized their mistake, it was too late. The final season of Hee Haw in 1993 was mostly a clip show of the "best of" performances from the last 20+ years. It was time to shut the barn door for the last time.
Here is how Channel 7 in Miami, then an NBC affiliate, sold the corn-fed fun:
Title: Re: Orlando is Also Proud As a Peacock!
Post by: Phillip Dampier on August 09, 2007, 11:43:57 pm
And here is WESH-TV, the NBC affiliate in Daytona Beach/Orlando, localizing the campaign to show off their local staff. You can date this one just from the wood paneling, ancient computers, and Wink Martindale on Tic Tac Dough!
Title: The Wonderful World of Color!
Post by: Phillip Dampier on August 28, 2007, 01:13:56 am
Before we get to the rise of the Tiffany Network, CBS - let's take a moment to celebrate the arrival of color television in the USA, which began in earnest in the 1960s. Although it would be nearly a decade before color televisions would be in the majority of American homes, the concept of color television literally changed television -- especially when it came to costumes, outfits, and set design. No more scenery and makeup designed for a black and white world.
NBC was the most aggressive network at adopting color for its network shows. CBS was in second, committing to launch many of its new shows for the 1965 television season in color. Shows like Hogan's Heroes had pilots shot in B&W, but premiered in living color for the tiny group of people who had color sets way back then.
Unfortunately, film stock from this period has a tendency to be unstable, which is why so many color shows from the period seem oddly darker, washed out, or pastel. In many cases, the color has lost... well, some color over the years.