When did CBS retire use of "in color" open logo? (3 Viewers)

[Matt Hough]

Keep in mind many people subscribed to TV Guide where color shows were indicated in the listings
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As to NBC, apparently they paid a firm a lot of money to come up with a new logo to replace the peacock logo:
View attachment 93279 which bore a striking resemblance to on the PBS affiliates in Nebraska used and produced for considerably less money.


As the new season under the N logo didn't do well - they reintroduced the Peacock logo.

NBC logo - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Back when TV Guide was a must-have accessory to watching television. I devoured it each week and mostly for the listings rather than the articles.

 

[MartinP.]

As to NBC, apparently they paid a firm a lot of money to come up with a new logo to replace the peacock logo:

I recall the amount of money they paid for the new logo was a topic for much humor. Chevy Chase on SNL's Weekend Update did a segment on this showing rejected logos. Very amusing. I tried finding a video of that, but no success so far.

 

[Martino]

Was a little curious myself - but I think you can no longer even buy a black and white TV - so there is no longer a need to display that something is in color on the screen - as you would be watching on a color display anyway....

When I looked it up, I fond the following:

Originally Answered: When did they stop making black and white TV? They declined in popularity through the 1980s when color sets were affordable enough for campers and students.

 

[B-ROLL]

Was a little curious myself - but I think you can no longer even buy a black and white TV - so there is no longer a need to display that something is in color on the screen - as you would be watching on a color display anyway....

When I looked it up, I fond the following:

Originally Answered: When did they stop making black and white TV? They declined in popularity through the 1980s when color sets were affordable enough for campers and students.

Pointing out that a show was in color had NOTHING to do with whether you had a B&W TV set - as everything would be in B&W on your set. It was for those who had a Color set and and wanted to get the best value. My mom still subscribes to TV Guide.

I believe they still use an Icon for B&W

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[Martino]

That makes more since - I guess it would be more accurate that no new shows are now recorded and broadcast in Black and White - so it doesn't matter what you watch them on. Of course, if they are re-broadcasting a show that was in Black and White, they will mention that - so you don' t assume that the color in your display is having issues...

 

[Harry-N]

The only cases of black & white announcements that I know of were when NBC showed A HARD DAYS NIGHT, they substituted a penguin for the peacock. And when M*A*S*H did its documentary episode, they had an announcer state that the show was in black & white.

Today, old black & white shows and movies are routinely shown on all sorts of television and cable stations, but there's never any announcements or bumpers or anything. In those old days, color was a big deal and the networks wanted you to know how "with-it" and sophisticated they were, even if you only had a black & white TV.

The last black & white TVs I recall were:

- Sony Watchman units that were only black & white. I still have it, but it only really works on its radio function since the digital switchover.
- A cheap portable TV given to us by a car dealer for buying a car. The TV crapped out after a couple of years. The car lasted longer.
- A 12" portable TV that we bought in a discount store around 1998 or 99.

 

[Rob_Ray]

During the handful of years when NBC had the rights to show THE WIZARD OF OZ, the NBC announcer would state the usual line, "The following program is brought to you in living color on NBC" with an added caveat, "the first portion only is in black and white."

 

[MartinP.]

The only cases of black & white announcements that I know of were when NBC showed A HARD DAYS NIGHT, they substituted a penguin for the peacock.

I'd like to see that!

 

[Harry-N]

 

[TallPaulInKy]

Since we have been discussing color TV (not just CBS as originally asked). The reason MBC came up with the Peacock and spent so much time promoting color tv in the beginning was because NBC was a branch of RCA which manufactured color televisions. I read someplace, RCA played some of the cost to air color shows on NBC to help develop a market for color sets.

 

[B-ROLL]

Since we have been discussing color TV (not just CBS as originally asked). The reason MBC came up with the Peacock and spent so much time promoting color tv in the beginning was because NBC was a branch of RCA which manufactured color televisions. I read someplace, RCA played some of the cost to air color shows on NBC to help develop a market for color sets.

That's what I was taught in school. I was told Bonanza was specifically produced in color for that purpose.

Color television - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

A CBS Color logo was on virtually all cameras CBS used - I believe until the 1980s.

Here is the closest I could find to the answer to the original question

CBS "In Color" ID's

Nickname: "CBS in Color", "CBS Presents this Program in Color" Logo: On a black background, we see a C dropping from the bottom of the screen. Then a B drops from the top of the screen, and then an S drops from the top of the screen. All the letters form "CBS" in its corporate font, and are all...

closinglogogroup.fandom.com

Nickname: "CBS in Color", "CBS Presents this Program in Color"

Logo: On a black background, we see a C dropping from the bottom of the screen. Then a B drops from the top of the screen, and then an S drops from the top of the screen. All the letters form "CBS" in its corporate font, and are all white. Afterward, a yellow CBS eye logo goes through "CBS", changing the letters from white to green for C, blue for B, and red for S, and the CBS eye logo appears next to "CBS".

Variant: There exists a black-and-white kinescoped version.

FX/SFX: Simple, but effective 2D animation.

Music/Sounds: A 3-note synth tune by Eric Siday (who also wrote the Screen Gems "S From Hell" music) as the letters drop, followed by synth warbling as the CBS eye spins through the letters, and finally a 3-note fanfare. An announcer will say (one of them is Hal Simms), "CBS presents this program in color!".

Availability: Extremely Rare. This logo has made a comeback when CBS started airing The Dick Van Dyke Show in color. Was also seen on The Beverly Hillbillies starting in Season 4, Gomer Pyle USMC starting in Season 2, and the first three seasons (1970-1973) of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. This was seen on programs from this era when they all went color. However, this made a comeback on The Price is Right and Kids Say the Darndest Things from 1997-2000. However, this logo can be found on Hogan's Heroes and The Carol Burnett Show on DVD.

 

[RolandL]

 

[The Obsolete Man]

View attachment 93441

Judging by Star Trek's placement, that was '67-'68?

Also, "The Full Color Network"? Hadn't everyone been full color since the beginning of the '66-'67 season? So that's an odd flex (as the kids would say).

 

[B-ROLL]

Judging by Star Trek's placement, that was '67-'68?

Also, "The Full Color Network"? Hadn't everyone been full color since the beginning of the '66-'67 season? So that's an odd flex (as the kids would say).

NET/PBS didn't fully go all-color until the 80s (many stations used commerical stations' cast off equipment which was not color) Many UHF stations weren't color. Also, Dark Shadows was taped in monochrome as ABC did not have the ability to convert all of their tape facilities to color. The first color episode aired August 11, 1967.

 

[MatthewA]

I think such a practice stopped when everything became a color show, didn't it?

Neither my mother nor my father had color TV in their homes until the 1970s. By that time, it was pointless to point it out, especially when the early years of color TV really reflected the Mod 1960s aesthetic.

Originally Answered: When did they stop making black and white TV? They declined in popularity through the 1980s when color sets were affordable enough for campers and students.

My mother used to have a B&W TV in the kitchen and the date on the back said January 1980.

 

[LeoA]

My childhood black & white CRT that I played videogames on until the mid 1990's, had I believe a 1984 manufacturing date on the back. Was about 11" or so and I believe was a Zenith tv.

Wish I still had that tv. Would love to connect an Atari 2600 to it again.

 

[Wiseguy]

I have a gut feeling that it DIDN'T go very far into the 1970's, if at all. If I recall correctly, the fall of 1965 brought the color bumpers on both ABC and CBS and it was ABC that did away with its dedicated "This is an ABC Color presentation" first, after just one season of use - 1965-66. In the fall of 1966, ABC used quicker, show-specific bumpers for the "In Color" designation.
View attachment 93209

CBS continued to use its "CBS presents this program in color" for another year or so, and then pretty much stopped it altogether. I'm not sure of the exact date, but I don't ever recall it on MARY TYLER MOORE.

I don't recall it on Mary Tyler Moore as well. It seems 1970 is a little late to be reminded that a program is in color.

However, Tom Snyder did use it when he was the host of The Late, Late Show in 1995.

 

[Wiseguy]

Today, old black & white shows and movies are routinely shown on all sorts of television and cable stations, but there's never any announcements or bumpers or anything. In those old days, color was a big deal and the networks wanted you to know how "with-it" and sophisticated they were, even if you only had a black & white TV.

There may be another consideration, as well. I recall seeing reruns of The Dick Van Dyke Show on a local station back in the 1980s. When the program started or returned from a commercial there would be a slight greenish tint on the episode until it disappeared. Apparently, at that point the station turned off the color. Likewise, when the program took a commercial break, the first couple of seconds of the commercial would be in black and white until the color was turned back on. Perhaps, in some cases, depending on the settings of the TV, there may be some cases where watching a black and white program in color would have a similar effect unless the color was turned off. In those cases, a "next in color" logo would alert the viewer to turn the color back on.

 

[Wiseguy]

Thanks to all of the experts on opening and closing logos who post here. I've become curious about the CBS "presents this program in color" logo. I have read that NBC discontinued use of the NBC "in living color" peacock on 12/31/1975, but I haven't determined or read how/when CBS retired the "in color" animation or how widespread the use was into the 1970s. I do see in various places that the logo was used with the Mary Tyler Moore show in the first three seasons (1970-73) - but I'm curious as to whether it was still in widespread use for the 1970-71 season and beyond, or retired at some point/season.

I seem to recall that the NBC color announcement was used on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show for awhile after its use in prime time was discontinued. The 1975 end date may refer to this Tonight Show usage. It seems rather late for typical prime-time use. The Decades reruns of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In show the NBC color logo for the first few seasons but disappears a couple of years before the series ended in 1973.

As far as the CBS logo is concerned, the logo can be seen on the Hogan's Heroes second-season DVD set released in 2005 (presumably it was on the first-season set after the pilot as well?). However it is not on The Wild Wild West DVD sets at all even though the first color season (released 2007) was the same as Hogan's Heroes' second season (1966-67). I'm sure some people here would know if it was on the original broadcasts of either series in 1966-67.

And, I really don't think it would have been seen on MTM as late as early 1973.

 

[RolandL]

NBC uses a similar logo now. They just don't say "in color".