My family never had one of these combination TV-Phonographs but, judging by these ads, they were all the rage in 1965. You could get them in black and white or even in color. ’65 was the last year that any shows of any significance were broadcast in black and white so obviously if you were upwardly mobile enough to get one of these in the first place, color would be the way to go. My family didn’t go color for another three years though so during that period I continued to enjoy everything from BATMAN and STAR TREK to HOLLYWOOD PALACE and HULLABALLOO in glorious black and white. Once we got our first color set in August of 1968, half of the fun was watching old shows and finding out if they were in color. I remember being surprised to find that THE MUNSTERS had never even been in color!
Anyway, in these days of Bradbury-esque plasma TV walls, it’s interesting to see just how far things have come in what amounts to a relatively short amount of time.
Color television only started in Brazil in 1972, but my parents bought our first color TV set in 1975. Somehow I miss the days when not everything was in color on television. I'm sure there must be some excellent TV shows in TV stations' archives, but they are seldom shown, if ever, just because they are in black and white. The first season of "Bewitched" was released in Brazil on DVD in its colorized version only. There seems to be a prejudice against black and white on Brazilian television.
ReplyDeleteAnd those $349 sets would have cost $2079 in 2005 dollars....
ReplyDeleteWe got our first color set in late 1965. I got to see the premiere of Batman [just after my 6th birthday] in COLOR.
ReplyDeleteI, too, was surprised to see that the Munsters were in Black and White. Oddly enough I think that was a good think for the Addams Family.
here's an odd bit of family trivia. We had color TV in 1965.
We didn't get a phone until 1969!!!
I lived in Momence, IL.