PBS: On the Edge of Black and White (1 Viewer)

[Nelson Au]

An interesting documentary aired this evening on PBS about the era of the 50's and the TV shows of the time. As the title suggests, it explores the TV shows of that time right before color became the standard and how they presented such ideal families then.

I was watching Lost, and I was recording the doc and saw a bit of it flipping back and forth. It was amazing to see old Wally (Tony Dow) looked! And Billy Mumy too!

They interviewed Stanley Livingston of My Three Sons, all the children from Lost in Space, the kids from The Adams Family and some others, and of course Eddie Haskell himself and others.

It looked to be an interesting discussion about the morals of the times portayed verses what TV portrays American society as reflected today.

 

[Marty M]

Was this a show on the national PBS schedule or just a local PBS station. I don't remember seeing this being advertised on our PBS station here in central Illinois. I would have loved to have seen this show. I was born in 1949 so I remember late 50s and early 60s TV show very well.

The TV shows in black and white seemed to epitomize the innocense of that time-period. B & W made the shows seem timeless. Once the shows starred being aired in color they looked "current" and not as innocent.

I hope to get a chance to watch this show. Here is a youtube link to a trailer for the show - YouTube - On the Edge of Black and White

 

[Nelson Au]

I think you're right, I took a look at the PBS website after I initially posted and I didn't see any mention of it. It must have been a local broadcast here in the SF Bay Area, which is too bad.

I have still to watch it in it's entirety, and as you said, it's a showcase for that iteration of TV shows and how later iterations reflected more reality. I liked what Billy Mumy said about some of the other shows like Leave it To Beaver, he said that he watched some recently and the writing in those shows really stood the test of time and was still good and entertaining.

Since there are so many classic TV show fans here, it's too bad many of you missed it.

 

[Ockeghem]

I believe this as well. There is something about b&w that truly is timeless. Roger Ebert has said this over the years as well (probably moreso about films, of course). Even with a show like Dark Shadows (in which both b&w and color were used), I will watch a b&w episode over a color one nine times out of ten, because it is for me somehow 'out of time.'

 

[Marty M]

The DVD of this show is available from the company that apparently produced the show - Orange Moon Films The price is $15.99 plus S & H. I am tempted to purchase this unless it becomes available on Netflix, soon.