Re: First Family Color TV:

[whirlcool]

Did anyone click on any of the screens in my link to "animate" the color presentations? I thought there'd be a comment or two.

http://www.ev1.pair.com/colorTV/colorTVlogos.html

 

[kevinpreston8]

Our first color TV

was this Zenith, which I still have! We got it in '64/'65.

I remember seeing I Dream of Jeannie, Man from Uncle, Gilligan's Island on it. It was our "living room TV", our family evening TV. Cartoons and kids programs were still watched in the family room downstairs in black and white. However, mom would let us watch the Saturday cartoons upstairs as it was warmer in the mornings and carpeted!

Opening the door to make any color adjustments was forbidden!

Interestingly, it had no remote. Our Admiral BW downstairs DID have a remote, a bizarre "sonic" remote that was, not kidding, like 4 little tuning forks inside that would give on, off, step up volume and step up the rotating channel selector. So we were fine with the black and white when we had to be!!!

 

[whirlcool]

Remote Control Technology

The tuning fork method was also used in Zenith's "Space Command" remote control. I believe that the Space Command remotes actually came out in the late 50's. One disadvantage to this was that if something else made a noise similar to one of the tuning forks, it would activate one of the features on the television. For example our neighbor had one of these Zenith B&W sets with Space Command. Whenever the guy would get up out of his chair with his keys in his pocket the set would either change channels or turn off, or on. It didn't happen every time, just sometimes.
Speaking of Zenith. Out entire family was very loyal to that brand name. We had a Motorola 21" color set in the den for awhile, but never really liked the picture. It seems that the RCA XL 100 sets always appeared to have a green tint to them.
Our last Zenith was a 1996 model, the first year Samsung bought out Zenith. That set went through about 4 power supplies and finally met its demise in 2003 when it caught fire during the middle of the night while we were sleeping. One of the dogs woke us up, thank goodness. The den where the set is located has very high ceilings and the smoke alarms didn't go off as the sensor was in an adjacent hallway. The firemen finally put it out in the backyard. Fortunately, all it did was cover the walls in soot. We now have a Sony Wega 36" that we like very much.

 

[foraloysius]

In the Netherlands it wasn't until 1968 that Color TV was introduced (the B&W TV's still sold very well!). We got our first Color TV in 1971. It was a 26 inch Grundig, a German brand. The first show we saw was an Austrian series I think called "Der Kurier der Kaiserin", or translated "The Emperess' Messenger". Since this first TV many color TV's passed my parent's house. At the moment they have a wide screen 100Hz Aristona 28 inch (Philips derivate) and an LG 21 inch. And IIRC they also still have a portable Sharp TV.

 

[kevinpreston8]

Tuning fork remotes and others

Whirlcool---funny you mention that. If I screamed at the right pitch, it changed the channel! Could only get it to change forward, not back though, and never could hit a pitch to turn it off or on.

There was another bizarre remote technology. There were sets out for a while that had light sensitive "ports" at each corner of the screen. Your remote was essentially a flashlight. When you aimed it at a particular port, it would change channels, etc.

Interesting link here

 

[rinso]

My family got rid of their lemony Zenith Space Command black and white in 1964, replacing it with a Curtis-Mathes 21 inch round tube color set. It was then I learned two new words: Converge and Degauss. The picture the set got was awesome! I'm sure it was a faux RCA, but it had 3 IF stages instead of the 2 you'd get with lower end RCA sets. It was important if you owned one of these sets to keep a stock of 6GH8A tubes on hand, since they were used extensively. I also remember that the beautiful, well-finished walnut cabinet always smelled like maple pancake syrup.

 

[whirlcool]

That remote control video on the last link was great. Remote control fine tuning? Now THAT was special before the AFC circuitry came into play. What I thought was even stranger was that you had to turn on the remote control amplifier before you used the remote. I wonder how many people just left that on all the time?
Thanks for sharing that!

 

[goatfarmer]

Anyone remember Muntz TV's? That was our first one,about 1968 or sne show I remember in color,besides the Wizard of Oz,was HeeHaw.

kennyGF