Color Televsion Turns 50

I grew up with black and white TVs. Well, to be truthful, we didn't have a television set until I was in my teens. About the only TV watching I got before then was driving to a friend of my Dad's house and watching Friday night "rasslin" on channel 2. I almost grew up only listening to radio.

We lived in the boonies and reception was marginal even with a 30 foot slip-up mast and antenna mounted atop the house. For some reason, the program I remember most is the Mickey Mouse Club. Since I was mainly interested in either hunting or fishing, I don't know why Mickey Mouse held my interest but there's a lot I don't remember about those times.

Anyway, I was reading today in TV Technology that last January 1 was the 50th anniversary of the first network transmission of a color program. Appropriately enough, it was the Rose parade in Pasadena. The article implies that that event was the beginning of the end for black and white sets. Maybe so but 50 years later, you can still buy one at Radio Shack or Target. People are still watching black and white sets so I guess color doesn't always matter.

Now we are entering another phase in the life of television--digital transmission, commonly called High Definition Television or HDTV. But in fifty years, there may not be a way to see color or black and white TV as we know it today because FCC rules specify that the transmission scheme, known as NTSC, will be phased out. The original timetable was May, 2006. Since there's not yet many high def TVs sitting in living rooms, I suspect the date will be more like May, 2026. But when the 100th anniversary of color television rolls around, there probably won't be much of a celebration because there won't be anything to celebrate.