Color Crazy

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I love the 60s color. I find it wierd that TV seems to have (figuratively) gone back to black and white. The colors are dark and depressing

The show's a little before my time and I don't recall ever seeing it during its run in syndication, but when I saw the DVD I inexplicably had to have it. I expected to like the show (which I do) but I was not expecting the all-out visual assault. There were lots of colors overtaking TV at the time, but I don't recall seeing anything quite like this. For example, "Laugh-In" was a very colorful show, but the main colors each complemented one another (purple, orange, red, brown, etc.).

In "The Mothers-In-Law," there aren't any two colors that complement one another -- every piece of wardrobe and set dressing is a drastically different color (and don't get me started on Eve Arden's wretched crimson red lipstick and Dayglo hooker-blue eyeshadow!). It's like some nightmarish explosion in a paint store. I had the idea of turning off the color on my TV and instantly the show looked normal... which got me thinking that viewers who were behind the times with their b&w TVs actually benefited in this instance. And when you factor in how terrible the colors were on early color TVs (trying to find balance somewhere between lime green and maroon with those tint knobs was a daunting and often pointless feat), I surmise this show really looked awful in color during its day.