September 23, 1962…”The Jetsons” Debuts As First Color For ABC
September 23, 1962…”The Jetsons” Debuts As First Color For ABC
This video clip is quite good, as Bill Hanna and Joseph Barbera reminisce about the show.
Here’s a little known fact…although this was ABC’s first color broadcast, the network’s facilities did not include any color equipment anywhere, and only a few of their affiliates could broadcast color. So, how did “The Jetsons” run in color on ABC?
Each week, ABC took a 35 and 16MM copy (master and safety) to NBC Burbank on Sunday afternoons. NBC would rack both and play them simultaneously (in case the 35MM film broke) down two AT&T lines to ABC New York for the east coast broadcast. They would do the same later each Sunday when they fed the signal to ABC Hollywood.
“The Flintstones” was produced in color and preceded this show by two years, but those first couple of years were broadcast in black and white. When “The Jetsons” debuted in color, the next week the Bedrock bunch made their color debut too, which also included NBC Burbank.
ABC’s first color ability came in late 1964 when they installed an RCA color film chain in New York. The network’s first live color ability came the next year when The Hollywood Palace got 4 RCA TK41s. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oDaHRbIDH8
A short documentary featuring the history of the Jetsons with rare commentary clips from Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera. This documentary is from the excellent J…
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My family didn’t own a color tv until 1973.
Back to the Future
Bing Crosby’s 1962 Xmas show with Mary Martin (now on DVD) has been mentioned as ABC’s first color special.
Next to Warner Brothers, Hanna Barbera had in my opinion the greatest orchestrations and soundtracks in animation.
I remember the opening of Disney’s “Wonderful World of Color” was pretty spectacular when you had never seen color TV before. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QjfFWfdrvE
First color show i ever saw was Shari Lewis.
Did they rerun both the Flinstones and Jetsons on Saturday morning pretty quickly? We got a color set in the fall of ’64, and I had been going with my mother on Saturday mornings to her job at General Electric. No one else was there and I could watch the color display televisions. I thought I remember both The Jetsons and Flintsones in color. I also remember turning to NBC and being disappointed that they would waste such a great thing as color on such a nothing show as Underdog.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-1cUdRGtp4
“Herro Jorge”
The Flintstones was the first color show we saw on our new R C A color set in 1962.
…several episodes of “Calvin & The Colonel” were also produced in color, but ABC canceled the series before the end of its sole season, 1961-62…
“Jane, stop this crazy thing!”