Color television was still in its infancy when ST premiered in 1966. Some shows still filmed in Black and White. Would ST have been as dynamic if the studio/producers decided to cut costs by filming in B/W?
Star Trek in Black and White?
- Thread starter Spock's Barber
- Start date
My first viewings of Star Trek when I was in elementary school in the early 70's was with a black and white portable TV.
Finally seeing it in color was a tremendous improvement.
Of course in black and white there was never the argument over what color the Captain's shirt was.
Finally seeing it in color was a tremendous improvement.
Of course in black and white there was never the argument over what color the Captain's shirt was.
I think the writing was on the wall well by third season. It was the less-than-accurate ratings that led to production cost cuts in the first place, wasn't it?
Compare ST to Lost in Space (Ugh!). LIS was bad in Black and White and even worse in color. At least the ST cinematographers didn't make a joke out of using different colors to 'paint' a scene. Anyone remember the infamous LIS episode "The Great Vegetable Rebellion" or whatever it was called? Maybe it is better if you didn't see it.
My father didn't spring for a color TV until about 1975, but he got us a huge roof antenna to go with it. I had been peering intently at the snowy, barely-there, b&w Star Trek, and suddenly it was crystal clear and in color. That blew me away like a whole new show.
The 1986(?) VHS release of "The Cage" with b&w segments illustrates how the show lights up whenever it switches to color.
Lost in Space started with a b&w season, and although it was photographed with deep, dramatic beauty by Gene Polito, just being in b&w hurt the show significantly in syndication. At least I that read somewhere recently. I don't know the Nielsen figures.
The 1986(?) VHS release of "The Cage" with b&w segments illustrates how the show lights up whenever it switches to color.
Lost in Space started with a b&w season, and although it was photographed with deep, dramatic beauty by Gene Polito, just being in b&w hurt the show significantly in syndication. At least I that read somewhere recently. I don't know the Nielsen figures.
I watched the first run of Star Trek in B&W- didn't see any of it in color until years later - I think it looks good in both formats.
IIRC the show had a person walking around with a special viewer which showed every thing in monochrome so they could make sure the sets and scenes looked good to the vast majority of viewers who had not gotten the colors sets yet.
IIRC the show had a person walking around with a special viewer which showed every thing in monochrome so they could make sure the sets and scenes looked good to the vast majority of viewers who had not gotten the colors sets yet.
IIRC, Solow and Justman wrote that the bean counters at NBC admitted later that they made a mistake in canceling ST based on their misinterpretation of the Nielsens.
I never heard that. I think they shot 35mm test footage in color and then checked out how it looked in b&w prints of that film.
I don't think the network "misunderstood the Nielsens". The ratings were the ratings, and it's untrue that NBC didn't use demographics, either. I know people want to believe the show was an unrecognized success, but in terms of prime time audience, it simply was not.
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Not really. CBS was experimenting with color as early as 1951, and some regular shows were being broadcast in color by 1958. NBC's prime-time schedule went all-color in the fall of 1966 (the season Star Trek premiered) and the other two networks followed a year later.
Of course, at the time, most households still had only black-and-white TV.
This.
Fifty-years later and people are still trying to twist the numbers and hang onto incorrect stories to somehow claim Star Trek was a success in its first run.
It wasn't. People just need to accept it.
Totally disagree about the ugh and the relative effectiveness of the 1st season's choice of filming in black and white. While I'm fairly certain that the rationale was cost, just like the premiere year of I Dream Of Jeannie, even though all the networks were on the cusp of having color being de rigueur for all new shows, it is widely agreed that beyond the growing Dr. Smith-centric plots and silliness that definitely didn't reach its true fruition until the 2nd season, the lack of color was integral in the perception of the show's initial serious tone, more realistic depiction of scenarios germane to the family's survival, and perhaps as well, the integrity of the greater level of the presentation of the cast as an ensemble.
It was probably inevitable that color would appear in season 2, pretty much accompanied hand-in-glove by the profusion of a fantasy orientation and the triumph of the Smith-Will-Robot troika. I would agree that the vividness of the color lent itself to the impression made by the themes, but I think it's more than a little of an exaggeration to suggest the choices made were necessarily garish and that they had much to do with the definition of the show in the last two seasons in light of the plots' substance, which was mitigated slightly by the space borne setting decision made for the last season.
I wouldn't attribute the infamy of the Vegetable Rebellion and Guy Williams and June Lockhart being kicked off the episode because they couldn't contain themselves for the palette rationale either. Stanley Adams was encased in an only slightly overly orange colored carrot suit and I personally find that Dr. Smith made an enchanting celery stalk. Obviously there was a certain something about the episode as TV Guide rated it #76 in a 1997 list of the Greatest TV Episodes Ever (City on the Edge of Forever was #92)
Be glad that you didn't get to see the prospective 4th season, which if Irwin Allen had gotten his way may very well have featured a purple llama.
I was lucky enough to have color TV when STAR TREK premiered, and since it aired on Thursdays, I didn't have to watch on our weekend-getaway cabin where black & white was all that was available. Once it switched to Fridays for the second year, I was often stuck watching images like this:
(I realize that these are first-season images, but you get the idea.)
Harry
(I realize that these are first-season images, but you get the idea.)
Harry
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