Back in the day, a woman could not say the word "lover" on broadcast TV. Men or women, either one, could not utter the words "toilet paper" or "pregnant." Moreover, the typical tv mom and pop slept in single beds.
In the pre-cable and satellite TV era, analogue -over the air- reception was all there was. After the mid-1950s, there were only three TV networks and -basically- just three programming choices at a time. Keep in mind, as well, that a station usually signed off the air at around midnight, to return to broadcasting at 5 am or so. There would be nothing to watch, except for a test pattern, during the early hours of the morning...
BROUGHT TO YOU IN LIVING COLOR
The CBS network, in a consortium with the Crosley Company, had developed a mechanically-operated format for color television, with the first color broadcast taking place in June 1951. However, there were only twenty-five associated television sets in existence.
A circa-1951 set using the experimental CBS-Crosley Company "field
sequential" color television format. This was a mechanical method of
colorcasting using a series of rotating "color wheels." It was eventually bested by a fully-electronic format color television system perfected by NBC-RCA.
Photo from http://www.earlytelevision.org
The drawback with the CBS-Crosley system was that it was completely incompatible with the existing black and white broadcast medium. At the same time, NBC and co-company RCA had been working on their own color television format, which was electronic in format and "backwards compatible" with black and white broadcasting.
The two systems duked it out until December 1953, when the NBC system was officially sanctioned as the National Television System Committee (NTSC) standard by the Federal Communications Commission. The first large network, coast-to-coast "colorcast" was done in January 1954, with NBC's coverage of the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade.
The NBC "Color Chimes" logo was in use between 1954 and 1957.
Graphic from http://www.ev1.pair.com
In the late '50s and early '60s, a "living color" program was quite a big event, usually reserved for specials and "spectaculars." If you went to someone's home and saw that they had a color set...you were duly impressed!
For many years, the price of a new color television, at the shopping mall May Company, Gimbels or Foley's, was quite prohibitive. The first sets to roll off the assembly line in 1954 went for a whopping $1,000 each! The price tag of a "big screen" 21-inch color set in 1956 had come down to $795....and $695 by 1962. By 1966, a 25-inch color set could be acquired for only $450.
RCA's earliest mass-production color television receiver, the CT-100. It
was first marketed in April 1954 and carried a hefty price tag of $1,000!
Drawing from the Radio Corporation of America
It took a while to truly perfect the medium, and there was also a bit of resistance from the buying public. As an example, we might mention an urban legend that circulated in the early '60s which said that, after buying one of the new-fangled color sets, a family would need to reserve a bedroom in their home for the trusty tv repairman.
Through all the high prices and pitfalls, color tv finally began to catch on. "Bonanza," NBC's western-themed soap opera, became the first major, regularly-scheduled, in-color TV series on September 12, 1959. For the next three years, NBC was the only network to sporadically "colorcast" television programs.
ABC added a few color shows to their prime time line up in September 1962. CBS, who had been the most reluctant to adopt the NBC-developed "compatible color" system, finally gave in and began to colorcast a few prime time shows in September 1965. In September 1966, the three networks began colorcasting their entire prime-time schedules.
In the days before the famous NBC Peacock, color programming on
the network was preceded by this panel. Unfortunately, due to the
technological limitations of the 1950s, multi-hued recordings of the early color shows could not be made. All that remain are black and white "kinescope" film recordings.
Still photo from The Dinah Shore Chevy Show
In May 1956, the NBC Peacock made its debut. At first, it was simply
a still frame shot. This progressed to a fully-animated version in
September 1957.
Graphic from the National Broadcasting Company (See Media Fair
Use Rationale at end of article)
By 1968, the three networks had converted all prime time and daytime content to color. However, some commercials would still be in black and white. Below is a link to You Tube, where 1960s, "In Living Color" announcements -used by ABC, CBS and NBC- may be seen.
REMOTELY SPEAKING
The first successful television remote control, the Zenith "Space Command," was introduced in 1956. Primitive by today's standards, it used ultrasonic sound, from a tuning fork, to automatically turn the set on or off, change the channel or adjust the volume.
These remote controls did not require one to point directly at a particular spot on the television set in order to work. In fact, one could click a button on the trusty Space Command device as far away as another room in the house...it would still work. Furthermore "clicker" -type remote controls did not require batteries.
The first practical (sans cable) television remote control, similar to the
one on the left, came on the market in 1956. A later color tv version is
seen on the right.
Photo 1 from http://www.cedmagic.com
Photo 2 from Wikipedia / Jim Rees
By 1965, Zenith had perfected a "Space Commander" for color sets that would also adjust the picture's hue. These analogue-type controllers were made obsolete by the introduction of infa-red remotes, in the early 1980s.
