Friday, June 19, 2009

1961 WCBS-TV Late Show Ad




Just thought I'd post this full page TV Guide ad for WCBS-TV's THE LATE SHOW as it's one of the oldest in my collection going back to 1961 which was a year before I was born. Note the start time.

7 comments:

  1. The other thing about these pre-1973 "Late Show" ads in TV Guide was that the (CBS eye) 2 look varied from ad to ad, with whatever fonts they had on hand. This contrasted with their on-air logo, which from c.1960 to 1973 was typeset in Grotesque No. 9. (The layout, however, was different in the c.1960-65 period from what it would be after 1965, when the CBS eye was set in the same size as the 2.)

    WCBS apparently had this film throughout the 1960's. By the 1970's, "Blood and Sand" had moved to WNEW-TV.

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  2. P.S. "Blood and Sand" was color, but prior to 1965 WCBS only showed it in B&W.

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  3. Interesting. How did they show it in black and white if it was a color film? Was it due to the fact that in 1961 people just didn't have color sets or color sets were not yet available?

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  4. Let us not forget that up to 1965, CBS had practically no interest in airing much of anything in color (save for annual network screenings of "The Wizard of Oz"), stemming back from the failure of their incompatible color TV system in the early 1950's, and their resentment of RCA's domination of the color broadcast equipment market.

    Let's also not forget that the lack of color sets in homes in New York was not a deterrent to WNBC-TV's airing color films in color, which they had done as early as 1958; nor to WOR-TV airing color films in color on their "Million Dollar Movie" beginning in 1960. However, WABC-TV at this point simply had no money to upgrade to color, per the financially parlous situation of parent network ABC then. (WNEW-TV, WPIX and WNTA-TV were practically colorless in this period.)

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  5. Great information. I really had no idea that color sets were available that early on. Wasn't it in 1966 that ABC mandated that all programs airing on the network go to color?

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  6. The 1966-67 season was when all prime-time shows on all networks started airing in color. ABC's daytime schedule, however, was B&W as late as 1967, while CBS was predominantly B&W in the daytime till then.

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  7. Thanks again for all the great information.

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