MovieChat Forums > Red Planet Mars (1952) Discussion > Didja notice the residential TV set?

Didja notice the residential TV set?

posted 9 years ago by scorpiomensan
8 replies | jump to latest

It was above the fireplace mantle and was a FLAT SCREEN model, almost identical to those we now have in 2015.

The only real difference between the one shown in the movie and our current ones, is that the movie one wasn't a color set.

[–] hobnob53 9 years ago

I know, that is pretty interesting considering the source. But how do we know it wasn't a color set? The film's in b&w but that doesn't mean the TV is. They even have a live broadcast from Moscow, which infers satellite TV.

Based on a few clues dropped into this film it appears to take place in the near-future year of 1956. So its flat screen prediction was off by 50-plus years, which I guess makes it even more impressive.

[–] jsl151-328-987124 9 years ago

FlatScreen TVs were 20 years in the future for nearly 40 years.
George Pals' 'The Time Machine' had one for sale in 1966.
(In the store window. 'Latest Tubeless TV'.)

Just as Fusion Reactors are 50 years in the future since 1945.
Now that it is 2015 we probably have 25 years to go for those.

[–] bruce-129 8 years ago

there were no color broadcasts, so how would there be a color set ?

[–] hobnob53 8 years ago

there were no color broadcasts, so how would there be a color set ?

Okay, a couple of things:

(1) The film takes place sometime in the future, apparently in 1956, so who's to say in 1952 that there might not have been color broadcasts by then?

(2) In fact, there were a couple of network color broadcasts made beginning in 1954, two years after this film was made. NBC aired the first live color broadcast on January 1, 1954, transmitting the Tournament of Roses Parade nationwide in color. NBC broadcast two other shows in color later that year. There were also some syndicated series filmed in color, though usually run in b&w, in the 50s (Adventures of Superman, The Lone Ranger, a couple of others), although there were some local channels that did begin broadcasting in color in the mid-to-late 50s.

(3) This movie is science fiction. If they could posit life on Mars, a system of Martian canals, a "hydrogen valve" and all the rest, they could certainly claim color TV, which by 1952 had long been in the works...even though, it bears reminding everybody, the film doesn't say whether the TV is in color or b&w. In fact, until the OP suggested it, it never occurred to me that this might be a color TV.

(4) I came back to add that my family first got a color TV set in 1960, when there were still virtually no color programs being broadcast. Color televisions had been on the market since 1954. So the fact that there were few color broadcasts has nothing whatsoever to do with whether there could be color sets.

[–] jsl151-328-987124 9 years ago

How do you know it wasn't color?
(Unless you think their world was in Black and White
as seen in the classic installment of 'Calvin and Hobbes'.)

Also...

An odd trick of memory...
You think you remember the scene with the big TV
but your mind substitutes a wide-screen HD display
when it is actually the 3:4 ratio of that era.

[–] scorpiomensan 9 years ago

Good points, well stated.

[–] Holloway_Harris 8 years ago

Just saw this on the Comet channel. That TV over the fireplace was pretty cool! I also liked the controls built right into the table or chair near where Graves was sitting. No more lost remote control!

[–] huwdj (4562) 7 years ago

I noticed the TV controls built in to the furniture and immediately wondered about the cables that must be snaking under the carpet - which is a bit silly really but there you go.