You must have heard your parents or older relatives joke about how they used to watch TV in only two colors– black and white. Not until the early 1950s did color TVs emerge in America; it’s just normal to wonder what shows were broadcasted then. In this article, we’ll talk about the first TV shows to be broadcast and how they came to be.
It was initially a battle
Just like many other groundbreaking inventions, different companies wanted to be credited for making the first color TV broadcast. In the late 1940s, RCA and CBS were the main companies competing to make it happen.
While the FCC approved CBS’ system, RCA’s system failed the test. After the approval in 1950, CBS began to pressure manufacturers to make color TVs. The manufacturers hesitated for fear of making black and white TVs obsolete.
The breakthrough was quite unexpected
While CBS was trying to popularize the color television, RCA was working on a system to produce color TVs without making black and white TVs useless. Well, RCA made the breakthrough on December 17, 1953.
On that date, their system was approved by the FCC. The system taped a program in red, green, and blue, then broadcast it to TVs. They also created adapters that allowed black and white TVs to remain in use for many years.
The pioneer shows on color TV
On the 25th of June, 1951, the first color TV broadcast was a variety show called ‘Premiere.’ This memorable show featured Arthur Godfrey, Robert Alda, Ed Sullivan, Sam Levenson, Faye Emerson, Isabel Bigley, and Garry Moore.
Although the colors weren’t as vivid as we have them on our TVs today, the program was a huge success. The show only got to Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Boston, and Baltimore and was aired between 4:35 and 5:34 p.m.
After the first show, what next?
Two days after the Premiere variety show, CBS started airing the first regular color TV series, called The World Is Yours! The series was about the animals and artifacts that the anchor, Ivan Sanderson, collected from his travels.
On the 11th of August in the same year, CBS aired the first baseball game in color. It was a game between the Boston Braves and Brooklyn Dodgers in New York- and the Boston Braves won the game.
Did black and white TVs automatically become scrapped?
Contrary to popular expectations and predictions, the success of color programming wasn’t followed by massive adoption of color TVs. In fact, throughout the 1950s, the sale of color TV was at a crawling speed.
However, they became more popular in the 1960s; in the 1970s, homes with color TVs were more than homes with black and white. Well, people still used black and white TV until the 1980s.
