Hey guys,
Just read an article that says that two COLORIZED Dick Van Dyke episodes are being aired December 11th on CBS! Great news! Check out the article:
http://eclipsemagazine.com/cbs-schedules-the-dick-van-dyke-show-episodes-for-the-holidays/
That's great news! It will definitely be a treat to see this great show in color. It's one of my favorite shows, so I'm super excited! I'm afraid the link doesn't work, does it say which episodes are be colorized? Either way, great news!
shareThis link should work, at http://deadline.com/2016/11/cbs-the-dick-van-dyke-show-colorized-classic-episodes-holiday-frame-1201856353/
The episodes to be shown are "That's My Boy" and "Coast To Coast Bigmouth."
Thanks so much for posting another link to the article! Those are two of the series' best episodes- great choices in my opinion! It's funny though, I was sure one of the episodes would be "It May Look Like a Walnut" just because it's such a hugely popular episode. But I like the episodes they chose.
shareWell, it is, of course – and rightly so. But isn’t “Walnut” the only episode (or one of the very few episodes) that was actually “color tested” at the time? This clip I think is from the blu-ray (I own the series on dvd) but I have to say it looks pretty good for 1963. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfW3Hurm6tg
It’ll be interesting to see what the other 2 episodes look like though for sure.
That's very interesting, I didn't know they had color tested any episode. I think it looks pretty good! Now I want to see the whole episode in color lol!
I think I heard somewhere that had there been a sixth season, it most definitely would have been filmed in color, which makes sense, since by by 1966 b&w was pretty much on its way out. I always wondered what a sixth season in color would've looked like. Now we'll get to see. Super excited!
Well, if I remember correctly, there have been about 3 different stories told over the last 25 or so years as to why they didn’t shift to color – and any one of these tales makes perfect sense with a little thought. (The source on all 3 of these variations is Carl Reiner by the way.)
Reiner considered shifting from black-and-white to color as early as Season 3. So they tested the waters so to speak on “It May Look Like A Walnut.” The result was “okay” but not wonderful, so goes story 1.
Story #2 (which makes better sense because it gets down to the brass tacks) has it that the color test went peachy – until they got the bill and realized what going to color would actually cost per episode.
Story #3 runs along lines of “Well, by 1966 we had done 158 episodes and were riding high in the ratings – but the creative well was running dry. So we [or whomever] decided to end things on a high note.”
Bottom line: No matter what the color a dog turd is just that.
As I say, at least 2 of these do make good sense.
The “house in New Rochelle” interior set did actually make it to color, although it happened something close to 40 years after the show was cancelled. Take a look at this clip from 2004. If the set looks familiar, it should. They packed everything up and used it for this program. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORCPrkO_O2M
One show comes to mind what wouldn’t have worked at all in color and that’s The Addams family. This is actually what the set looked like in color. http://boingboing.net/2013/11/06/color-photos-of-the-original-a.html
Very interesting! I wonder which story is true? I've always heard that they had always intended on having only five seasons and going out on top, but that had there been, by any chance, a sixth season, it would have been in color, just because that was becoming the common thing on tv. B&W shows were switching to color left and right. It's funny, though, that three stories come from Carl Reiner!
Wow, that Addams Family set! Lol! I've never seen that in color. I agree with you completely! There's no way that would've worked well in color - not nearly as gothic looking!
Offhand I'd guess that early on the biggest horsefly in the ointment when it came to switching to color early was purely budgetary. (That makes the most sense, anyway.)
Otherwise, from what I see here you seem to be pretty well caught up, as the only thing you were unaware of seems to be the "Walnut" color test footage.
I agree, it probably all boiled down to the budgetary concerns that came along with transitioning to color at the time.
I loved seeing the "Walnut" clip, it was a real treat! Thanks again for posting that!
You're quite welcome. I enjoyed seeing that myself. Before the other evening I knew the "Walnut" color footage existed, but that was all.
It'll be interesting to see what the 2 newly-colorized versions look like for sure!