Ralph Carlson Blog

Black and White was a no-brainer

My family was an early adopter of television. We got our first set in 1949 after we moved to the farm my father managed. Our first set was a large mahogany cabinet with a small screen of maybe 12 inches across. It sat in the center of the living room where it was clearly visible to all. We  had one channel at first and we watched everything – even the test pattern.  Ten years later when color was introduced, my parents were having none of it. Initially there wasn’t much color broadcasting, just special shows here and there and it just seemed extravagant to pay all that money for a set that wasn’t any better than the old one 95% of the time. The color was funny too. I was invited to see color at a friend’s house and I wasn’t impressed. The color didn’t look real. Skin tones were always wrong. There were either too orange or too green. The other colors were either wishy-washy or garish and the color seemed to fuzz and blur around the images. [continue reading…]