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Anachronism?? Was Color TV really so common in 1966?

posted 11 years ago by BethelAbba
25 replies | jump to latest

I was born in 1964. Our first Color TV was in 1972. Before that, all we had was Black & White. (I actually watched Neil Armstrong landing on the moon in Black & White, I was 5 at the time and I do remember it.)

That said --- the greasers are watching Mickey Mouse in color at Ponyboy & Sodapop's house. Wouldn't this be an error? In 1966 a Color TV would have been quite expensive... and with their parents being dead... I'm just saying it doesn't add up.

anyone else's thoughts here?

Love is all you Need: God is Love. The Beatles musta been onto something...

[–] strntz 9 years ago

Not an anachronism.

Color TV started in earnest in 1954, but didn't really catch on in any real numbers until about 1960. Dad bought our first color TV in 1959, an Admiral using the RCA CTC 9 chassis. (For nostalgia reasons, I still have the cabinet to dad's old Admiral although the chassis and CRT were long discarded)

By 1965 though color TV exploded. Millions were sold from the mid 60s through 1975 when most people by then had one.

A typical RCA 21" round picture tube TV in 1966 (CTC16 IIRC) would have been around $650, a lot of money for a middle class family but still doable.

I read the book once (that was enough) and saw the movie once (once too many) but don't recall if we know what the parents did for a living before their demise. With any type of skilled labor, Mr. Curtis could have easily bought a color TV, particularly when most TV/Appliance stores offered in house payments.

Is very bad to steal Jobu's rum. Is very bad.

[–] melchior6 8 years ago

I agree color TV was not that common in 1966. and the last people you would expect to possess one would be people of scant economical means like the greasers. For the record, we didn't get our first color TV until 1975, and I am from a middle class family.

[–] millsey72 (10387) 2 years ago

Whats a black & white TV?

[–] strntz (12485) 2 years ago

A television built for diversity sir.

[–] millsey72 (10387) 2 years ago

So its a TV that can show both black and white people?

[–] strntz (12485) 2 years ago

Yes. And at the same time!!!

[–] millsey72 (10387) 2 years ago

Ok that makes sense because that was right around the time of the civil rights movement, so finally blacks were allowed to be shown on TV with whites I guess

[–] [deleted] 2 years ago

Like Strazdamonas pointed out, they would have been around, but there would have been very little color programming. This was a couple of years before the networks really started making the switch to color.

Also, they would have been very expensive at the time. Maybe they stole one from the house of one of the Soc kids.

[–] whynotwriteme (7725) 2 years ago

It was a house full of teenagers led by a 20 year old kid after the parents died. They had poor priorities. Instead of buying healthy food and decent clothes, he got them a color TV.

[–] strntz (12485) 2 years ago

They were more expensive certainly but by 1965 they really started to drop in price and became affordable to most families.

As far as programming, even sitcoms started switching to color so by 1965 there was color programming every night (most daytime shows including soaps were still B&W until about 66-67)

When dad bought our first color TV in 1959, it cost him nearly a grand, and the only programming in color was on NBC and only on Sunday nights (Walt Disney show and Bonanza IIRC).

[–] [deleted] 2 years ago

Looking it up, a color TV in 65 would have cost around four hundred dollars which would have been over three thousand in today's dollars. Not quite as pricey as I thought, but I think to an average family it would've been seen as still somewhat expensive.

Color shows were more common than I thought, I saw after looking it up, but it was still only one or two shows a night. I don't think most families were spending the money yet by '65. I still think it would have been more of a soc thing at that time, more common in well off families, not in the poor neighborhoods like the greasers'.

My parents actually were talking about this and they were surprised that they had a color TV in the movie. My mom had one neighbor with color TV around that time that they used to visit sometimes to watch a color show.

You had one back in '59 though, so maybe you came from one of those soc neighbohoods! Or maybe your dad just really wanted a color TV.

I'd say it's unlikely they would have had one, but wouldn't call it a total anachornism.

[–] strntz (12485) 2 years ago

We were decidedly middle class, but my dad was into electronics among other things. He bought a Fisher X-1000 integrated tube amp when those things were pricey, but I still own it (and other one I bought on ebay 25 years ago) and use one or the other almost daily. The Fisher: https://www.radiomuseum.org/images/radio/fisher_radio_new/stereo_master_control_amplifier_x_1475023.jpg

I couldn't find a picture of the '59 Admiral color TV on line but what's left of the cabinet is still in my mom's basement if you would like to see a picture of it. It's missing the picture tube and chassis as we had used parts out of it in the late 1970s when dad retired it. Mom is 98 and still living at home, but I know the time is coming soon when we will have to sell the house and scrap the old Admiral. I used to watch Jonny Quest on that thing about 60 years ago. It will hurt to junk it, but I'm going to keep one of the escutcheons from the front.

[–] [deleted] 2 years ago

Yeah, those old TVs could be pretty cool looking. The cabinets were made to look like a nice piece of furniture. My Dad got one in the mid seventies that we had all the way to around '90.

Reading up on the history of color TV was kind of interesting. Some shows like Superman made in the fifties were filmed in color, looking ahead to a time when more people would have color TVs. Smart move. They were still showing that on the local UHF station when I was a little kid back in the late 70s/early 80s.

[–] millsey72 (10387) 2 years ago

The moon had a TV on it when Neil Armstrong landed on it?

[–] punkrockgirl (1270) a year ago

Hm, that's a good question. My assumption would be that the cartoon in particular was aired in color but that didn't mean most of the programming was.