Early Color Optimism

[Sandy G]

I remember reading somewhere that color was really considered a big bust in the late '50s-early '60s, because all the industry big shots had pumped each other up on How Big It was Gonna Be..Even Sarnoff was kinda worried -RCA's bankers were starting to grumble pretty loudly about all the money they'd dumped into color, & how meager the returns had been. The local affiliates didn't want to invest in color systems if there were no viewers to watch them, & the public didn't want to invest in an expensive, unreliable toy if there was nothing to watch on it...And, remember, back then there was little, if any "cable"-all TV was pretty much over-the-air signals, & color suffered at any distance from the transmitter. Plus, TVs didn't have much of the color & picture correcting circuitry we take for granted now. I also can't remember seeing a roundie back in the day that was "set up" like we do now-almost invariably they'd have convergence, focus, or some other issues. B&W programs ended up being sort of a purpledy-green. Looking back, its almost amazing color TV development went as well as it did...