www.missing-episodes.com - When Colour TVs Outnumbered B/W Sets

www.missing-episodes.com
« When Colour TVs Outnumbered B/W Sets »

Welcome Guest. Please Login or Register.
May 24, 2013, 9:23am

www.missing-episodes.com :: Active Forums :: Missing Episodes (General) (TV) :: When Colour TVs Outnumbered B/W Sets

Page 1 of 3 » Jump to page Go

Author

Topic: When Colour TVs Outnumbered B/W Sets (Read 1,206 times)

jgreen
Member

member is offline

Joined: Dec 2011
Gender: Male

Posts: 1,921

Re: Cuckoo Patrol
« Thread Started on Jul 12, 2012, 6:27pm »

Of course,that whole "they've all got colour tellies now so it's not worth preserving or showing b&w shows" had fairly disastrous consequences,too.

Link to Post - Back to Top IP:

Logged

Neil Megson
Member

member is offline

Joined: Feb 2012
Gender: Male

Posts: 111

Re: Cuckoo Patrol
« Reply #1 on Jul 13, 2012, 8:52am »

Jul 12, 2012, 6:27pm, jgreen wrote:

Of course,that whole "they've all got colour tellies now so it's not worth preserving or showing b&w shows" had fairly disastrous consequences,too.

A bit off-topic, but when did colour TVs outnumber b/w in the UK ? I'm guessing it took until the late 1970s... does anyone have an exact date ?

Link to Post - Back to Top IP:

Logged

richardmarple
Member

member is offline

Joined: Dec 2011
Gender: Male

Posts: 330

Re: Cuckoo Patrol
« Reply #2 on Jul 13, 2012, 11:30am »

I've heard that it was in 1977 that more colour TV licences were issued for the first time.

Link to Post - Back to Top IP:

Logged

markg
Member

member is offline

Joined: Sept 2011
Gender: Male

Posts: 188

Re: Cuckoo Patrol
« Reply #3 on Jul 13, 2012, 11:40am »

I went to see when B&W licenses were phased out.

They're not. They are still £49

Link to Post - Back to Top IP:

Logged

Simon B Kelly
Member

member is offline

Joined: May 2011
Gender: Male

Posts: 281

Re: Cuckoo Patrol
« Reply #4 on Jul 15, 2012, 4:55am »

It seems hard to believe that in 2009 there were still 28,000 homes that were still watching in B&W:
http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/about/media....-strong-NEWS22/

The last B&W tv's I've seen on sale were all 5" portables (I picked up a couple in Maplin at the time for £9.99 for use in my campervan) and that was about 5 years ago. I doubt there are any still being made now, The digital switchover will probably force the last remaining B&W users to upgrade to colour. I expect the B&W license to be abolished when the license fee comes under review again in 2016...

Link to Post - Back to Top IP:

Logged

jgreen
Member

member is offline

Joined: Dec 2011
Gender: Male

Posts: 1,921

Re: Cuckoo Patrol
« Reply #5 on Jul 15, 2012, 5:22pm »

I think that '77 sounds early for a majority of sets being in colour; remember that one licence covers a household,and most two-set families would only have one colour set,for a long time.There's an episode (in colour,I think) of 'On the Buses' where Stan and his family are doing everything they can to upgrade to colour.

Of course,the b&w licence is a blessing for those who are colour-blind.There are suggestions that it's up to 8% of men.

« Last Edit: Jul 15, 2012, 5:26pm by jgreen »

Link to Post - Back to Top IP:

Logged

richardmarple
Member

member is offline

Joined: Dec 2011
Gender: Male

Posts: 330

Re: Cuckoo Patrol
« Reply #6 on Jul 15, 2012, 6:38pm »

IIRC at one time the sight impared only needed a B&W licence even for a colour set.

I got a free B&W portable from Grattans in 2001 after placing a big order. I've still got it, but can only use it by connecting it to a video with an RF output.

It has a VHF/UHF Tuner & FM/MW radio, so I guess it could be used anywhere in Europe & possibly a few other places around the world.

The 2004 Maplins book has B&W sets, possibly the same as the one Simon bought.

Link to Post - Back to Top IP:

Logged

Dale Rumbold
Member

member is offline

[avatar]

Joined: Feb 2004
Gender: Male

Posts: 248
Location: Ipswich

Re: Cuckoo Patrol
« Reply #7 on Jul 15, 2012, 7:30pm »

Jul 15, 2012, 5:22pm, jgreen wrote:

Of course,the b&w licence is a blessing for those who are colour-blind.There are suggestions that it's up to 8% of men.

That's not what being colour-blind means, as (hopefully) you know!

Link to Post - Back to Top IP:

Logged

Dale Rumbold, Ipswich.

jgreen
Member

member is offline

Joined: Dec 2011
Gender: Male

Posts: 1,921

Re: Cuckoo Patrol
« Reply #8 on Jul 15, 2012, 9:25pm »

Hi,Dale,
I'm pretty sure that there are people who don't see in colour,but yep I get your point.I still think it's worth arguing that anyone with one eye gets a reduction...
Seriously,I had a quick look at discounts for the licence fee,and while blind people get one,I'm not sure about the deaf.
Returning reluctantly to the point,some films from that mid-sixties period look just weird in b&w because everything about them screams that they ought to be in colour.

Link to Post - Back to Top IP:

Logged

markg
Member

member is offline

Joined: Sept 2011
Gender: Male

Posts: 188

Re: Cuckoo Patrol
« Reply #9 on Jul 16, 2012, 9:06am »

The "Blind person" discount is 50p, or it was...

Link to Post - Back to Top IP:

Logged

robincarmody
Member

member is offline

Joined: Jan 2008
Gender: Male

Posts: 31

Re: Cuckoo Patrol
« Reply #10 on Jul 17, 2012, 12:05am »

Old editions of the Guinness Book of Records, a reliable source then, state that colour licences overtook b&w in 1976. Of course, this was a national figure and may not have applied where jgreen was living. I am by no means sure whether poorer areas would have been slower to go colour, though - remember that it had been the working class who had embraced TV as a mass medium first when ITV came along, and who would later be the early adopters of Sky (while the middle class did not take up BSB in the numbers they had hoped for). Those who were there tell me there was a good deal of snobbery among some 'Hyacinth Bucket' types about colour sets being a bit vulgar and too lifelike (see also Hitchens Minor on this matter). I suspect the 'On the Buses' citation might confirm this.

a propos 'Cuckoo Patrol' itself, what Matthew said. MFB indeed reviewed the film in 1967 - by which time cheap British B-movies, which had filled its 'Shorter Notices' section earlier in the decade, had more or less ceased to be made - but dated it to 1965. Alongside 'Blow-up' it would have seemed pre-war, but that's the 60s for you. I suppose something like 'Catch Us If You Can' captures a world about to explode into colour, but that's really a very long way from the standard pop exploitation flick and in some ways the b&w enhances the strangeness and distance of it - and rubbish like 'The Big Job' is still from a total b&w world and seems more natural in that form. And I can't imagine 'A Hard Day's Night' being anywhere near as good in colour.

« Last Edit: Jul 17, 2012, 12:14am by robincarmody »

Link to Post - Back to Top IP:

Logged

jgreen
Member

member is offline

Joined: Dec 2011
Gender: Male

Posts: 1,921

Re: Cuckoo Patrol
« Reply #11 on Jul 17, 2012, 8:20am »

Good points.
It'd be interesting to know the price of a colour set in terms of the national wage.Ditto VCRs.There's a big song and dance in a 'Terry and June' about borrowing one to record a programme for 'Sir',and worries about damaging it.
For some working-class families it must have been a question of being willing to buy on credit,or not.Being virtuous might have meant watching snooker in b&w for a few more years.
It must have helped sales a lot that big Hollywood movies had anticipated colour sets by 30 years,and TV had access to a back-catalogue of colour films to show.It might be interesting to compare,say viewing-figures for 'Gone With the Wind' before and after colour became the norm.

« Last Edit: Jul 17, 2012, 8:25am by jgreen »

Link to Post - Back to Top IP:

Logged

Neil Megson
Member

member is offline

Joined: Feb 2012
Gender: Male

Posts: 111

Re: Cuckoo Patrol
« Reply #12 on Jul 17, 2012, 8:54am »

Jul 17, 2012, 8:20am, jgreen wrote:

In the 1970s many (perhaps the majority) of homes in the UK preferred to rent their sets, rather than buy them (on credit or otherwise). One reason for this was that the average TV developed a fault at least once a year - rented TVs would be repaired free of charge by the company, or you might even get a replacement / upgrade if it couldn't be fixed.
No idea what the relative cost of b/w rental vs. colour was...

Link to Post - Back to Top IP:

Logged

jgreen
Member

member is offline

Joined: Dec 2011
Gender: Male

Posts: 1,921

Re: Cuckoo Patrol
« Reply #13 on Jul 17, 2012, 10:15am »

I remember one family had a coin-in-the-slot TV; picture would go off at intervals.We,of course,only had that problem "when the shilling went" and I'd accost passing strangers to ask if they had a shilling-piece for the electic meter in exchange for twelve pence in coins.
I never saw that represented on TV.

« Last Edit: Jul 17, 2012, 8:56pm by jgreen »

Link to Post - Back to Top IP:

Logged

markg
Member

member is offline

Joined: Sept 2011
Gender: Male

Posts: 188

Re: Cuckoo Patrol
« Reply #14 on Jul 17, 2012, 10:42am »

Remember:

TV cabinets. With doors that locked.

Link to Post - Back to Top IP:

Logged

Page 1 of 3 » Jump to page Go

Click Here To Make This Board Ad-Free