Has there ever been a thought of Colorizing some series that were B&W and releasing in Color? (1 Viewer)

[John*Wells]

Mr. Ed. Season One of Gomer Pyle USMC Etc

 

[Joseph Bolus]

There have been *lots* of thoughts of doing that. And it has been done with "Bewitched" Season 1.

The technology available to do this -- as has been discussed in some threads on this forum -- is now *miles* better than back in the Ted Turner crayon days: Just look at the CBS prime time "Lucy" and "Dick Van Dyke" specials as proof.

To tell you the truth, I would love to see some of the late 50's Westerns like "Maverick" and "Cheyenne" cleaned-up and colorized. Due to the timeless nature of Westerns a whole new market could open up for those shows in syndication, optical media, and streaming. But I know that I'm very much in the minority on that opinion.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

Bewitched seasons 1 and 2 and I Dream of Jeannie season 1 were colorized.

In the past, season 1 of Gilligan's Island was colorized for syndication.

And, those color Lucy and DVD episodes have been released.

And let's not forget Legend's work on recolorizing a Doctor Who serial that was shot in color, wiped, and survived only in black and white.

So it's been done. But it's prohibitively expensive and not much interest is there.

 

[Randy Korstick]

I wouldn't say miles better but it has improved some but instead of looking like crayons it now looks like pastels. The new I love lucy being proof. Man her hair looks horrible.

 

[John*Wells]

There have been *lots* of thoughts of doing that. And it has been done with "Bewitched" Season 1.

The technology available to do this -- as has been discussed in some threads on this forum -- is now *miles* better than back in the Ted Turner crayon days: Just look at the CBS prime time "Lucy" and "Dick Van Dyke" specials as proof.

To tell you the truth, I would love to see some of the late 50's Westerns like "Maverick" and "Cheyenne" cleaned-up and colorized. Due to the timeless nature of Westerns a whole new market could open up for those shows in syndication, optical media, and streaming. But I know that I'm very much in the minority on that opinion.

At this time, I'm interested in Mister Ed. Before Alan Young passed away, he stated in an interview that there was talk of filming season 6 Eps in color. But the show was canceled before that occurred

 

[The Obsolete Man]

At this time, I'm interested in Mister Ed. Before Alan Young passed away, he stated in an interview that there was talk of filming season 6 Eps in color. But the show was canceled before that occurred

That wasn't the only show talking about color.

There were discussions of taking The Dick Van Dyke Show to color as early as the third season, but the cost was more than they wanted to pay. And the show ended right before everything went color in September '66.

Going by the dates Mr. Ed aired, if it had survived another season, it would have been forced to color since the '66-'67 season was when everything went color. So Alan Young's recollections are most likely right on the money since the show would have been going to color for season 7 and they may have wanted to get a jump on it and work out all the bugs with the last half of season 6.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

And let's not forget Legend's work on recolorizing a Doctor Who serial that was shot in color, wiped, and survived only in black and white.

Ah, but that's a totally different animal, though, and I think your facts are slightly wrong there. I think Legend films only ever did colourisation work on a single episode, not an entire serial. They did colourisation on episode 3 of "Planet of the Daleks". Then, the BBC combined that work with the Chroma Dot Recovery software they used to restore colour to other B/W episodes (those that have the chroma dots burnt-into the picture, that is). I think they basically took the best results from both processes to make the restored episode 3.

When it came time to do "The Mind of Evil" (which is the one serial that only existed in B/W), they were keen to employ Legend to re-colour episode one (since that was the only episode of the serial where the chroma dots were filtered out). However, Legend jacked-up their prices after doing "Planet", so the BBC had to employ Stuart Humphryes to hand-colour some key frames, and other UK technicians used software to do the colour restoration in-between the key frames.

Anyway, colourising (which is what the OP is talking about) and colour restoration (which was done for Doctor Who) are two different things, and apart from "Mind of Evil 1", would have had embedded colour data in the film print for the technicians to pull accurate colour data from. There would be no such colour information for a show that was shot on black-and-white film.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

It's been a while since I watched the restored episodes and the accompanying documentaries, so you're most likely way more correct than I was. And I'm glad I was wrong, because it led to you giving a much better and in depth explanation.

I do seem to remember the serial about the Dinosaurs from the Pertwee era included an episode or two with only chroma dot recovery. They didn't look all that great, IIRC, and B&W was the better option to watch.

 

[Avilos]

I have long thought it would be interesting to see some of the black and white George Reeves Superman episodes colorized. Even more since his appearance on I Love Lucy has been.

Many fans feel those early shows have a noir quality. So I would choose the more overtly Sci Fi and comic book style episodes instead. Superman On Earth and Panic in the Sky come to mind.

 

[Rick Thompson]

I wouldn't be interested in colorized episodes, though if it were the only format available I might buy and then adjust the TV to show b/w. I've done that on Season 4 episodes of The Fugitive, which were actually shot in color. It was better in b/w, but then Fugitive was always a b/w show, even when it was in color.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

I wouldn't be interested in colorized episodes, though if it were the only format available I might buy and then adjust the TV to show b/w. I've done that on Season 4 episodes of The Fugitive, which were actually shot in color. It was better in b/w, but then Fugitive was always a b/w show, even when it was in color.

Yeah, the colorized DVDs for Bewitched and Jeannie were easier to find, and turning off the color achieves virtually the same picture as the straight B/W versions (as was proven by a fellow poster here on a thread about Bewitched recently).

 

[Regulus]

Here's a few suggestions for some shows they could "Colorize".

The Twilight Zone (Original)

Route 66

The Lone Ranger

Annie Oakley

Naked City

Highway Patrol

Sea Hunt

Peter Gunn

I Led Three Lives

Harbor Command

Waterfront

Supercar

Fireball XL-5

The Adventures of Rin-Tin-Tin

Johnny Stacatto

Coronado 9


And of course, the "Jeff's Collie" and "Timmy and Lassie" Episodes of Lassie.


I could go on and on....

 

[MatthewA]

When will they release a monochrome version of All in the Family?

 

[Regulus]

Shows to be "Monochromized"

Star Trek (The Original Series)

Star Trek (The Animated Series)

Star Trek - the Next Generation

Star Trek - Deep Space Nine

Star Trek - Voyager

Star Trek - Enterprise

Battlestar Galactica (Original)

Battlestar Galactica (2004)

The Twilight Zone (1986)

The Twilight Zone (2002)

Night Gallery

Medical Center

Dr. Marcus Welby, MD

The FBI

Cannon

Barnaby Jones

Disney's Wonderful World of Color

Little House on the Prairie

The Dukes of Hazzard

Law & Order

Law & Order SVU

Law & Order - Criminal Intent

Hawaii Five-O

And of course, Seasons 12 -19 of Lassie

 

[Mark-P]

When will they release a monochrome version of All in the Family?

I wouldn't put it past them considering that it is now becoming a fad in the movies:
Mad Max Fury Road: Black & Chrome edition
Logan Noir
The Mist

 

[The Obsolete Man]

If you really want a monochrome All in the Family, just order the complete Till Death Us Do Part.

 

[Rick Thompson]

Shows to be "Monochromized"

Star Trek (The Original Series)

Star Trek (The Animated Series)

Star Trek - the Next Generation

Star Trek - Deep Space Nine

Star Trek - Voyager

Star Trek - Enterprise

Battlestar Galactica (Original)

Battlestar Galactica (2004)

The Twilight Zone (1986)

The Twilight Zone (2002)

Night Gallery

Medical Center

Dr. Marcus Welby, MD

The FBI

Cannon

Barnaby Jones

Disney's Wonderful World of Color

Little House on the Prairie

The Dukes of Hazzard

Law & Order

Law & Order SVU

Law & Order - Criminal Intent

Hawaii Five-O

And of course, Seasons 12 -19 of Lassie

You left out the original Hawaii Five-O! Who wouldn't want to see Hawaii in black and white?

 

[Regulus]

You left out the original Hawaii Five-O! Who wouldn't want to see Hawaii in black and white?

The version of HF-O I mentioned WAS the original.

Come to think about it, they could colorize Hawaiian Eye (I know, it wasn't filmed on location in Hawaii) along with it's "sister shows" 77 Sunset Strip, Surfside 6 and Bourbon Street Beat.

 

[BobO'Link]

If you really want a monochrome All in the Family, just order the complete Till Death Us Do Part.

I disagree. 'Till Death Us Do Part is a far superior program.

 

[FrankPitt]

I would LOVE to see a colorized version of the first season of Lost in Space!