Episode "The Big Christmas" which aired Christmas Eve 1953 was originally aired in color as part of NBC's color tv experimentation. It was rerun five years in a row. Sources claim that no color prints appear to still exist. If anybody's ever seen this episode in color, please post a reply. There may be hope of seeing it in color again.

Interesting that the series was briefly in color that early.

...NBC officially received the "go-ahead" by the FCC to begin "compatible color" telecasts. They began with "special episodes" of some of their prime-time series (it was a while before they began telecasting a handful of their daily and prime-time shows in color on a regular basis)- among the first was the Christmas Eve episode of "DRAGNET" {"The Big Little Jesus"}. This was a BIG DEAL to those who had access to RCA Victor color TV sets [manufactured by NBC's parent company] to see the episode in full color- and there were very few of them, as those sets cost around $1500 to $2500. Most viewers saw it in black and white. For the second "DRAGNET" series, Jack Webb dusted off the original script [which was also staged on the original radio show as well], slightly updating and refilming it as "The Christmas Story" {for "DRAGNET: 1968"} in December 1967, and that was repeated the following two Christmases as well.

As for the original 1953 color version, perhaps waiting in some vault to be rediscovered and "digitally restored"...who knows?


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