Out of curiosity… how many shows were broadcast in colour after this date? I’m assuming a lot of the repeated content would still be in black and white. Was it a gradual change over time?
Most shows were broadcast in colour after that date. Probably because a lot of imported shows, even those in re-runs, had been made in colour already for years so it just depended on the Australian broadcaster(s) buying colour prints or masters.
ABC still had a lot of children’s and schools programs in black-and-white, though. Play School apparently didn’t begin in colour until 1976, and shows like Adventure Island which were produced entirely in black and white were still getting re-runs but not for much longer.
Also a lot of Australian TV studios had been producing shows in colour well before C-Day so most Australian made shows were airing in colour from that point on.
Older Black and white movies I think still got a fair run after C-Day but mostly in late night or off-peak timeslots.
The sad thing is that a lot of Australian shows made in black and white never saw the light of the day much after C-Day, even as re-runs, because there was not perceived to be any value in them, resulting in so much of the master copies of older shows ending up in landfill or if they were lucky might have got saved but only to gather dust in someone’s storage, unable to be played.
Only a handful of TV stations missed the colour deadline, including commercial stations BKN7 Broken Hill, STV8 Mildura, ITQ8 Mount Isa, BTW3 Bunbury, GSW9 Southern Agricultural. NTD8 Darwin was still out of action following Cyclone Tracy and it wasn’t back on-air until October. The ABC completed its conversion of almost all transmitters to colour by mid-1976, with a few exceptions being remote sites like Alice Springs. By end of June 1976, ABC had still yet to convert studios in Darwin, Townsville and Rockhampton to colour but these stations broadcast most of their programming on relay from Brisbane.
Even when BTW/GSW turned on colour transmission later that year, its studios were still only equipped for B&W, so local programs like regional news were still made and aired in B&W.
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Thanks for that response. Great read.
I remember as a kid… in the early 90s watching reruns of Bewitched, Gilligan’s Island, I Dream of Jeannie and Get Smart, all would sometimes be broadcast in Black and White.
I would say some networks didn’t update their library’s.
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I don’t know about Get Smart, but I Dream Of Jeannie, Bewitched and Gilligan’s Island all began as B&W productions in the US, so any re-runs of their earlier seasons would have still been in B&W. Though, IIRC, the B&W seasons of Bewitched got colourised for DVD release but maybe not for TV.
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I do recall Getsmart being in black and white.
Also, Mr Ed, My Favourite Martian and The Munsters.
Another was Beverly Hillbillies (1999) on Seven in the afternoons. I think this was one of the last to be broadcast on free to air television in black and white.
Most here wouldn’t even know these shows. The shows are not from my generation but were all heavily repeated throughout the afternoon (on most channels) in the 90s.
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ITQ-8 didn’t convert to color until May 1975.
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I’m 29 and I remember Beverly Hillbillies and Mr Ed (vaguely for the latter) - as far as I remember Mr Ed was on after Lamb Chop’s Play Along in the mid 90s? (I was between 2-4 when Lamb Chop’s was on so it’s possible I’m remembering horribly wrong lol)
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Maybe. I think Lamb Chop’s Play Along was on the ABC while Mr Ed screened on 7.
both on 7
When ATN7 was running Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie in the 6pm slot as a lead in to news in the late '70s, I recall they only played the seasons that were shot in colour. I didn’t see the b&w episodes until those shows were rerun in early morning slots in the '80s. I remember being shocked to see the Darren and Samantha “just married” episodes and the Tony Nelson getting acquainted with Jeannie first season with the live action, jazz style instrumental theme.
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Same here. I remember being surprised by the earlier seasons of those shows.
The Addams Family was shown in B and W at 7pm at some stage IIRC on Nine to some success.
I think it was a summer filler one year while Sale Of The Century was on a break, but the show had developed a decent following when it aired at 5.00pm and/or 5.30pm around 1987/88. So much so that when Nine launched its expensive Live At 5 in 1988, Ten responded with re-runs of The Munsters (previously a Channel 7 program) in the same timeslot. The Munsters I think rated better than the glossy new Nine show?
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Any reason why the American spelling of colour was used?
I think it did some weeks but it probably wasn’t highlighted on the Graham Kennedy’s News Show weekly ratings wrap when Live at 5 was being out rated by a 1960s b&w sitcom.
I think it was noted here in the past that it had something to do with presentation graphics being produced in the US.
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It wasn’t just TV. A lot of our media, including newspapers and magazines, leaned towards the use of “color” for years. TV Week was always using words like “color” and “harbor” and listed Neighbours as “Neighbors”, but TV Times, being run by the ABC, still largely stuck with traditional English spelling of “colour”, etc.
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3 March 1975: This evening’s The Graham Kennedy Show attracts the attention of the Australian Broadcasting Control Board over “general vulgarity and poor taste” and the risk of Kennedy being banned from all TV stations.
Source: The Age
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Was this before or after his infamous ‘crow call’?
did you read the article? This was the crow call, among other things.
The crow call had been a thing he’d done subtly for some time but for some reason (or maybe deliberately?) it was more pronounced on this occasion.
He got banned from “live” TV but it was when Nine edited out his stinging editorial criticising the Minister for Media that triggered his resignation. He would continue to make guest appearances on various Nine programs and specials over the following years but it was 13 years before he was employed by Nine again.
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Some say Graham’s show was being beaten in the ratings by Ernie Sigley’s.