What was the 1st Christmas special broadcast in color?

[oldtvman]

I know Amahl and the night visitors was an early holiday special broadcast in living color. Does anyone know what the 1st holiday special to be colorcast was?

[bozey45]

Not sure this is what you want but in November 1954 The Colgate Comedy Hour became the first program to be shown in compatible color every week; it had various hosts. Their Christmas program that year would have been shown in color. I can find no other earlier listing of a color show involving Christmas.

[bozey45]

According tothe UCLA Film and Television Archives website Hallmark Hall of Fame's December 19, 1954 telecast was done live and in color for the first time as the first 'commercially sponsored television special to be done in color.' The previous 3 telecasts were b&w and done live. Hallmark apparantly donated a number of Hall of Fame kinescopes and tapes to UCLA for preservation. They have some interesting info about the Hallmark Hall of Fame telecasts over the years at that site with original air dates, cast, etc. So that Amahl program of Dec. 19, 1954 may well have been the first 'special' done in color for Christmas with the Colgate Comedy Hour being the first regular weekly program to have color at Christmas. December of 1953 I think would have been too early a date for color telecasting a special unless it was done closed circuit as a test. Thats what i could come up with, hope it helps.

[bozey45]

Boy, that really piqued my interest too. A further check shows there was a color special on NBC-TV December 22, 1953 titled "Season's Greetings", according to the info it was on film, NOT live, BUT, it did have within it the first color commercial done live within a tv program. The program featured among others, The Marx Brothers, Ezio Pinza, and Paul Winchell with Jerry Mahoney. But this was so early there were no color sets in use by the general public, only those sets in hands of execs at RCA and NBC; so it was basically an experimental color program.

[Steve D.]

I have on my list "Amahl and the Night Visitors" telecast, in color, live from New York on Sunday Dec. 20, 1953 at 5:00PM. Like "Season's Greetings" telecast 2 days later, this would have been viewed by NBC execs and engineers on both coasts, most likely on RCA Model 5 color receivers. Also telecast in color that week, Thurs. Dec. 24, 1953, "Dragnet" episode "The Big Little Jesus". The first network series program to be telecast on 16mm color film.

The next year, 1954, when commercial color sets were available, I show Max Liebman Presents "Babes in Toyland" NBC, Sat. Dec 18, 1954. This special was also restaged and telecast again, live, in color on Dec. 24th 1955

CBS's first color Christmas show, an episode of "The Shower of Stars" series of specials, "A Christmas Carol" Thurs. Dec. 23, 1954. This show was restaged and telecast live, in color, again in 1955 & 56.

-Steve D.

[bozey45]

yes, thanks, interesting info can be found on this early color telecasting. There is no telling how much was done behind the scenes off the air or even done in color closed circuit but shown to the public in glorious b&w. As a 9 year old in 1954 I remember hearing a color announcement made orally before some specials and seeing before some programs the 'color lady' as I called her then. My dad was an installer for Motorola from 1953-56 and they had the early Motorola color sets in the store in Montgomery Al when we lived there. I remember seeing a George Gobel Christmas special in color during that time, also some of those Color Spectaculars by Max Liebman. That first Motorola set looked really great as I remember. We loved seeing Howdy Doody in color when tint was added in 1955. We went to my dad's boss's house one night and saw "Heidi" in color I remember, a Max Liebman production I think in 1955. My interest in this goes back to that age. I got to where I could tell when a program was in color by the quality of the b&w video on a live program. Those TK-40'S AND 41's to me had a certain 'look', hard to describe but it was there.

[Pete Deksnis]

Originally Posted by bozey45

I got to where I could tell when a program was in color by the quality of the b&w video on a live program. Those TK-40'S AND 41's to me had a certain 'look', hard to describe but it was there.

Me too... As I saw it, there was a softness in the mono channel (probably from all the needed subcarrier filters?) and a general overall 'contrasty' look as though the brightness control on the TV could use a tweak upward.

[oldtvman]

you guys on this post are about the same age I am, and it's funny but as a kid nothing has left such lasting memories as seeing some of the early color broadcasts. I was a tv kind of kid anyway and color back then was almost inconceivable at that time.

[Steve D.]

Originally Posted by bozey45

yes, thanks, interesting info can be found on this early color telecasting. There is no telling how much was done behind the scenes off the air or even done in color closed circuit but shown to the public in glorious b&w. As a 9 year old in 1954 I remember hearing a color announcement made orally before some specials and seeing before some programs the 'color lady' as I called her then. My dad was an installer for Motorola from 1953-56 and they had the early Motorola color sets in the store in Montgomery Al when we lived there. I remember seeing a George Gobel Christmas special in color during that time, also some of those Color Spectaculars by Max Liebman. That first Motorola set looked really great as I remember. We loved seeing Howdy Doody in color when tint was added in 1955. We went to my dad's boss's house one night and saw "Heidi" in color I remember, a Max Liebman production I think in 1955. My interest in this goes back to that age. I got to where I could tell when a program was in color by the quality of the b&w video on a live program. Those TK-40'S AND 41's to me had a certain 'look', hard to describe but it was there.

Hey bozey,

Your memory serves you well for a guy in "our" age group. Max Liebman Presents "Heidi" starring Natalie Wood, Wally Cox. Telecast in color on NBC, Sat. Oct. 1, 1955. I'm sure it looked great on you Dad's boss' 19" Motorola color set. I agree with you and Pete on that special contrasty look of early color shows as seen on a b&w set. The range of shades of gray seemed greater. If that's possible.

-Steve D.

[Pete Deksnis]

SteveD: Just a stab in the dark here but methinks maybe the lower knee on the original I/O's in the first color cameras narrowed the gray scale...? Raising he knee in improved-for-color I/O's would I guess effectively lower the noise floor and result in better usable contrast although I further suspect still less than a b&w camera of the day. I'm open to input/correction here.

[old_tv_nut]

Originally Posted by Pete Deksnis

Me too... As I saw it, there was a softness in the mono channel (probably from all the needed subcarrier filters?) and a general overall 'contrasty' look as though the brightness control on the TV could use a tweak upward.

I clearly remember the difference in rendition between B&W programs and color programs on B&W sets too. [After I learned about the color subcarrier, I realized you could see it as crawling dots if you got up close to our 21" B&W set at home too.]

The big difference was that the color cameras were never deliberately operated above the knee of the image orthicon, while B&W cameras were practically always operated above the knee.

Operation above the knee compressed the highlights, giving a very approximate gamma correction, but at the same time it redistributed the electrons from the highlights to the surrounding areas - this had an effect like the early Xerox copiers, where edge contrast was emphasized, but large dark areas tended to get washed out. This would have been horrible in a color camera, because a bright colored object would get a dark halo of a complementary color. I remember seeing some cases where a woman's red dress did over-expose the red channel, causing a cyan halo that covered her face - not pretty!

So, the color cameras were operated below the knee, and a gamma correction circuit was used to complement the picture tube gamma. However, you didn't get the super edge contrast enhancement. Also, the cameras were just barely acceptable for noise, and full gamma correction would have made it intolerable - so the cameras had partial correction, and the black level would have to be pushed up a little to make sure the picture was not too dark. This was a tricky matter of taste, because it also washed out the shadows a bit. The noise itself would also be partially rectified and result in obscuring the shadows. The true linear contrast range of a TK-41 driving an original light-faced CRT with any light in the room at all was probably only 20:1, whereas modern video systems can reach contrast ratios of several hundred to one, and without the picture looking too dark.

So - the appearance of video made with TK-41s is enhanced on a modern display; and the appearance of a vintage TV set is enhanced by playing modern video.

[old_tv_nut]

Well, I waited long enough for someone to say the lady's red dress must have been "above the knee" - isn't anyone awake?

[Steve D.]

Originally Posted by old_tv_nut

Well, I waited long enough for someone to say the lady's red dress must have been "above the knee" - isn't anyone awake?

Hey Wayne,

It's a tough house out there. I'll give you a rim shot for the dress above the knee line. Thanks for the detailed explanation. I e-mailed Pete on this and also commented on the dot crawl, or fringing as I called it, and other video artifacts when viewing early color telecasts on b&w receivers. I keep forgetting that you are just one day younger then I am and remember those glory days of living color tv.

-Steve D.

[oldtvman]

I have a good idea, in order to settle this, we need to all find a 6 passenger time machine and go back and check it out. Now that you guys mention it I faintly do remember seeing some of the color broadcasts in b & w, and they did have a different appearance than the shows originated in B & W

[Pete Deksnis]

Originally Posted by old_tv_nut

Well, I waited long enough for someone to say the lady's red dress must have been "above the knee" - isn't anyone awake?

Ouch! Clearly thinkin too much techno-geek these days... so zoomed over to ABC just now and sure enough, Kelly was wearing a holiday red dress. Unfortunately though, couldn't get a 'knee' cap. link