Season one of the Hazel show (1961) has one color episode that features a lot of vintage TV's.

First up is the Baxter family set that looks like a Zenith Space Command, later you get to see Hazels 10" Emerson, still later they take a trip to the appliance store where there are more old (new then) sets, Hazel buys a color set that you don't get to see but towards the end of the episode Mr Baxter returns to the store and buys an RCA CTC 10 or 11?

What a blast from the past I forgot about...

I'm Cowtowing....


mmm... Whitney Blake... :drool:

I have the DVD set of Hazel too and that is one my favorite episodes because of the vintage TV"s. I think RCA was one of the shows sponsors. I remember seeing a old Ad from about 1964 for RCA Color TV that featured Shirley Booth (Hazel) & Don DeFore (Mr. Baxter).

Whitney Blake (Mrs. Baxter) was a LOOKER. Her daughter is Meredith Baxter.

I laugh at the part where they go to the Appliance Store and Hazel is wearing her fancy coat that wreaks of Moth Balls and Mr. Baxter has to roll down the window in the car.

wow, I have that EXACT model CTC-11 that they bought. Thanks for posting that, Eric.
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=58144&d=1187575543

wow, I have that EXACT model CTC-11 that they bought. Thanks for posting that, Eric.


Who knows Jordan, you're close to L.A., you might have the exact set that was used on the show! :scratch2:

THAT would be too cool!

really neat ,, wow

That's a great episode, which I haven't seen! However, one of my best customers was Don DeFore. He was a great guy, and was not the typical actor. Earned a good living and invested well, but very down-to earth. No limousine for him... He drove a gold '77 Ford Granada, which he loaned to me when my water pump belt busted on Mandeville Canyon Road on the way to work on his TV.

He always had Zeniths at home, the last one being a 20" wood-cased cube style monitor from the early 90s.

Charles

I have the DVD set of Hazel too and that is one my favorite episodes because of the vintage TV"s. I think RCA was one of the shows sponsors. I remember seeing a old Ad from about 1964 for RCA Color TV that featured Shirley Booth (Hazel) & Don DeFore (Mr. Baxter).

Is it this one?

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c49/Hawkwind02054/OldColorTV/OldColorTVAds/RCA_Color_TV_5_1964.jpg

I always thought that NBC was full color in Prime Time from 1959 but I guess that didn't happen until the Fall of 1965...

YEP. That's the one. Nice set.

That's a great episode, which I haven't seen! However, one of my best customers was Don DeFore. He was a great guy, and was not the typical actor. Earned a good living and invested well, but very down-to earth. No limousine for him... He drove a gold '77 Ford Granada, which he loaned to me when my water pump belt busted on Mandeville Canyon Road on the way to work on his TV.

He always had Zeniths at home, the last one being a 20" wood-cased cube style monitor from the early 90s.

Charles

I hope you got a picture with him or driving his car. I bet he was kind enough to have let you do so. I would bet he was much like the character he played.
It's really neat to know of and imagine such a happening.
Could you tell us what TV's he had?

I meant to ask if you could remember the specific models or the year of them?
Did he have any old TV's?

I wouldn't be surprised if it was the exact set. Could have been sold at one of those auctions they have ever so often.
I hope somebody can find the missing knob.
Is that a remote set?

John

wow, I have that EXACT model CTC-11 that they bought. Thanks for posting that, Eric.
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=58144&d=1187575543

It looks like it has a small hole under the lower four knobs. Is that a remote sensor hole?

After looking at Hazel's set again I see it must be a remote as it has no channel selector knob.

I looked closer and now I wonder if that blur over Don Defore's right hand could be the remote control?

Sorry for the extra posts,
John

as far as i know my set does not have remote capability. the channel selector is just a strange one.

After looking at Hazel's set again I see it must be a remote as it has no channel selector knob.

That set could well have been one of RCA's top-of-the-line color consoles for 1965 with remote, power tuning, the whole nine yards. Those TVs did not have manual channel selectors on the front panel, although most if not all motor-driven power-tuning systems (not just on RCA TVs) did have a manual selector on the back of the set in case the motor drive failed for any reason.

BTW, NBC was telecasting nationwide in full color by the mid-'60s. I well remember the announcement they used just before a color program began and while the peacock was fluffing its feathers: "The following program is brought to you in living color on NBC." The network also had localized versions of that announcement for its owned stations in New York, Chicago, Cleveland (at that time), Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles, to be used when those stations were telecasting local programming in color (I mean actual locally-produced programming such as NBC-owned [at the time] WKYC-TV's acclaimed Montage series in Cleveland and public-affairs shows the likes of Open Lines, decades before infomercials). Many color TVs of that period also had color indicator lamps on the front panel near the channel selector, which illuminated when the station to which the set was tuned was telecasting a color program--not unlike stereo indicator lights on stereo FM radios (the small red lamp on the panel of the Zenith MJ1035 in my avatar is the stereo indicator). There were several variations of the color indicator as far as front-panel appearance went; some sets, particularly Motorola, had the color light behind a multi-color lens, while RCA had its color indicator mounted (on some roundies of the '50s) so that it illuminated the three color controls on the set's front panel when a color program was on. I don't recall when that started or ended, but it must have been in the '50s as my 1964 Sears Silvertone 21" roundie, a CTC12 clone, did not have such an indicator.

That color episode of Hazel was titled What'll we Watch Tonight?" It was first telecast Nov. 2, 1961. Hazel was sponsored by Ford Motor Co. Here's a tidbit on the episode from the IMDB database:
"This episode about Hazel getting a color TV was the only color episode of the program during it's first season, reportedly filmed in color to promote RCA TVS."

-Steve D.

I hope you got a picture with him or driving his car. I bet he was kind enough to have let you do so. I would bet he was much like the character he played.
It's really neat to know of and imagine such a happening.
Could you tell us what TV's he had?

I didn't get a picture of the car, but I did get his autograph on a picture of him for my collection of TV repair celebrity customers. And yes, he was probably the world's nicest man in the acting business. Most aren't that cordial. The other "true down-to-earth" TV personality I knew, who stood out from the rest, was Martha Raye. She had a CTC-44 console on legs, and a Sony KX-2501.

I think the first set I worked on for Don & Marion DeFore was a Chromacolor II 25" metal table model which was set in the wall, then later the one I mentioned from the early 90s. I think he & his wife had a 19" Zenith plastic table model from the late 70s in the bedroom. No vintage or antique sets, though.

Charles

We watched Hazel faithfuly. Thanks for all the memories!
Dan

I used to watch Hazel back in the 70's, I really haven't seen it since then until the DVD's came out.

I have the same Emerson as Hazel, 45+ years later it's in better shape than hers was then!

The one thing I laugh about in that episode is Don DeFore has a line where he say's something like " You can't just throw TV's out like used cleaning tissue"

I think Martha Raye would have been a great person to meet. I wish I had met her before another young man did a few years ago. I heard her on The Howard Stern Show and she had a much younger husband. I know many dislike that show but I found that sometimes there were great people as guests who hould share much more personal things than I would expect.

Being a big fan of many older TV shows has me thinking it would have been incredible to meet the stars. However, I would have been disappointed by the less than cordials.
Thanks for the memories!
John

I didn't get a picture of the car, but I did get his autograph on a picture of him for my collection of TV repair celebrity customers. And yes, he was probably the world's nicest man in the acting business. Most aren't that cordial. The other "true down-to-earth" TV personality I knew, who stood out from the rest, was Martha Raye. She had a CTC-44 console on legs, and a Sony KX-2501.

I think the first set I worked on for Don & Marion DeFore was a Chromacolor II 25" metal table model which was set in the wall, then later the one I mentioned from the early 90s. I think he & his wife had a 19" Zenith plastic table model from the late 70s in the bedroom. No vintage or antique sets, though.

Charles

I vaguely remember a TV show, maybe an ep of Hazel, where her employer bought a color TV for her use, and the punch line was that she turned out to be colorblind...

I think you've confused Hazel with Mr. Ed.

What great pictures! I have always wanted to know what those TV's were.

I remember watching that episode but you couldn't see what kind of TV's they were then on a B&W. My early years were growing up in Arlington, Va. My uncle who was in congress had a CTC9 and I remember watching a Hazel episode on it in 1964. I remember the vivid color and that was a really big deal back then!

A lot of TVs were fake props in early TV shows (early-mid 50s), I guess due to sponsorship. I Love Lucy had all fake sets, except for one Westinghouse console that showed up for a couple of episodes. By the 60s however, most TVs seemed to be real. Then in the 70s, I saw a lot of B&W TV sets with color pictures inserted :o

Charles

There were several variations of the color indicator as far as front-panel appearance went; some sets, particularly Motorola, had the color light behind a multi-color lens, while RCA had its color indicator mounted (on some roundies of the '50s) so that it illuminated the three color controls on the set's front panel when a color program was on. I don't recall when that started or ended, but it must have been in the '50s as my 1964 Sears Silvertone 21" roundie, a CTC12 clone, did not have such an indicator.[/QUOTE]

I have had or possess every RCA color set to 1966. I worked on them for over 30 years. Which ones had a color indicator of which I have never seen before?? And where was it? Motorola had a little star on the tuner panel but never paid any attention to it if it did work.

There were several variations of the color indicator as far as front-panel appearance went; some sets, particularly Motorola, had the color light behind a multi-color lens, while RCA had its color indicator mounted (on some roundies of the '50s) so that it illuminated the three color controls on the set's front panel when a color program was on. I don't recall when that started or ended, but it must have been in the '50s as my 1964 Sears Silvertone 21" roundie, a CTC12 clone, did not have such an indicator.

I have had or possess every RCA color set to 1966. I worked on them for over 30 years. Which ones had a color indicator of which I have never seen before?? And where was it? Motorola had a little star on the tuner panel but never paid any attention to it if it did work.[/QUOTE]

All I was trying to say was that every '50s-'60s color set with a color indicator had the lamp mounted slightly differently and/or in a different location on the TV. I am really not sure which of RCA's color roundies of the '50s had an indicator that illuminated the color controls when a color show was on; I remember reading that somewhere years ago (I don't recall where at the moment). RCA probably didn't use that type of color indicator very long, perhaps one model year or less. They probably put the color lamp on the front panel in later sets, perhaps because the lamp that illuminated the color controls was too difficult to see (if anyone ever paid much attention to these indicators, which I seriously doubt; after all, one didn't need an indicator lamp to tell when a color show was on--the color picture itself was the indicator, and NBC, until 1976, continued to announce that its shows were being presented in living color while the peacock opened its feathers; CBS had a similar announcement before its color shows, as did ABC).

The "star" you mention on the tuner cluster of early Motorola color TVs was what I was referring to when I mentioned Motorola having its color indicator behind a multicolor lens. Other manufacturers mounted the indicator in different places on the control cluster, although Zenith never used a color indicator on their sets that I was ever aware of. The color lamp disappeared when all three major networks were telecasting in full color, I would guess around 1972-73.

You're saying that color sets had a light like a stereo light on a receiver to tell you that it was a color program. No such animal on any RCA or Zenith that I ever saw or went to school for. It would be a useless item that would cause another manufacturing step that would make the set cost more in manufacturing. Possibly another manufacturer may have done this for a selling point like AFC but this was never a common practice and I don't recall seeing this on any set that I ever serviced. Motorola is one brand that I didn't see often around here and may have had a "color indicator" but if it did, was not used but 1 or 2 years if that was what it was and that was on a tube model.

Are you sure you don't have this confused with that tuning eye Philco used in the late 60's?

If anyone knows of this feature on any RCA or Zenith, I would like to know about it. I have examples of pretty much every RCA and Zenith color sets to 1966 and they don't have it.

I know that Magnavox had a color indicator lamp on their color sets until at least '66 or so... And I think Motorola did too, but it may have been a tuning indicator; I'm not sure.

All the color sets had a badge of some sort, with RCA using a rainbow prismic rectangular thing during the 60s that said New Vista Color. I think the only RCA color sets not displaying some kind of color badge were the CT-100 through CTC-4.

None of the RCAs lit up. However, all TVs with doors had a jewel lamp somewhere outside the doors to show if the TV was on by law.

Charles

I know that Magnavox had a color indicator lamp on their color sets until at least '66 or so... And I think Motorola did too, but it may have been a tuning indicator; I'm not sure.

All the color sets had a badge of some sort, with RCA using a rainbow prismic rectangular thing during the 60s that said New Vista Color. I think the only RCA color sets not displaying some kind of color badge were the CT-100 through CTC-4.

None of the RCAs lit up. However, all TVs with doors had a jewel lamp somewhere outside the doors to show if the TV was on by law.

Charles

Hi Charles,

The RCA CTC-4, CTC-5 door models had no exterior jewel lamps. They did have a lighted channel indicator.

-Steve D.

I can find a neon lamp in the schematic of one Motorola chassis. It is in the plate circuit of the first chroma IF, which cuts off when the color killer operates.
I can't find anything similar in RCA chassis, except that the CTC-10 appears to have a pair of NE-2s that are used to limit the amplitude of a flyback pulse used for blanking. This pulse also appears to be used to gate the color killer, but it doesn't appear that the lamps would go on or off with color killer action.

Last year when that Hoffman rectangular color console showed up it was mentioned that they used an indicator that lit up the controls. I think maybe that was what Jeff remembers? That sounds like a great gimmick-I haven't read of anyone else doing it. I do have a Motorola from '69, cheap all-tube model, and it has the indicator. Nothing special to it. I seem to recall mine was burnt out and that I replaced it when I had it apart. Personally I love gimmicks like that but I agree there was no real practical reason for them. The various tuning indicators in use in the late 60s were a good throwback to the great radios of the 30s.

Hi Charles,

The RCA CTC-4, CTC-5 door models had no exterior jewel lamps. They did have a lighted channel indicator.

-Steve D.

Now that you mention it, I don't remember it either on the RCAs of the 50s. However, they did have them in the 60s and 70s (except CTC-47 which had the black translucent doors :) ), and in all the late 40s & early 50s consoles with doors. I wonder if that law was still in force, as I read about it originally regarding 1930s console radios. Maybe it changed.

Charles

Most all consoles that had doors had that little "ON" indicator light.

What I was talking about was the comment that RCA color sets had a light that would illuminate the color controls when a color program was on. --Never heard of it or ever saw one and no one ever made one. Just wanting to know where he got his info from.

...color sets had a light that would illuminate the color controls when a color program was on.

In theory, that would be easily done. Take the color killer control line, and use that to drive a circuit that turns the indicator off when the color killer asserts itself because of no color burst signal present. But you could tell if the show's in color just by looking at the CRT...

What I was talking about was the comment that RCA color sets had a light that would illuminate the color controls when a color program was on. --Never heard of it or ever saw one and no one ever made one.


Definitely I don't think RCA ever had that. However, I might recall that some remote RCAs (CTC-16?) had some sort of lamp near the color & tint controls, maybe a halo around the remote mic, which would light up green when the TV was powered on by the switch but off by remote. I honestly don't remember clearly. But it rings a loud bell!

Charles

...the CTC-10 appears to have a pair of NE-2s that are used to limit the amplitude of a flyback pulse used for blanking. This pulse also appears to be used to gate the color killer, but it doesn't appear that the lamps would go on or off with color killer action.Those lamps are under the chassis and do glow steadily. The early CTC10 chassis used only one NE2.

You may applaud whenever you wish to acknowledge my schematic cold-reading talent! :D

You may applaud whenever you wish to acknowledge my schematic cold-reading talent! :DMusta been developed during those early years you spent in that underground bunker at Zenith:scratch2:

School was 50/50 tubes and transistors, but work (1966 at Motorola) was all transistors from that point on.