This Show Went in Reverse

[Adamantium]

I noticed that seasons 2 and 3 of "The Joey Bishop Show" were in color. However, once it moved from NBC to CBS for the 4th and last season, it was in black and white. I've never seen the 1st season, so I don't know if it was B&W or color.

Just something that interested me.

[jehobden]

Season 1, like season 1 of NBC sitcom Hazel, was in B&W. NBC stepped up its color programming a bit in 1962, switching these two shows and premiering The Virginian in color that year. Anything to help sell those RCA color sets. I think that the Joey Bishop DVD collection has the original pilot included from 1961, so that would be in B&W. Joey apparently hated the first season, which had a different cast and was set in LA instead of NYC, so he's never let it be syndicated, except perhaps for this original pilot.

[jehobden]

To expand on my previous post, the pilot included on Joey Bishop season 2 is from an ep of The Danny Thomas Show, "Everything Happens to Me", which introduced Joey Barnes and his family, most of the cast which continued through season 1, though he had a mom and dad in the pilot, and I think his mom was widowed in season 1, which means the show was already dropping cast members before it premiered. Joey's character was pretty wimpy, IMO, in comparison to his character in season 2 and beyond. Joe Flynn, who's always fun to watch, IMO, played his boss in the pilot, then briefly played his brother-in-law in season 1.

[TV Knowledge Fan]

...and they wound up "owning" part of it, plus the fact that they WEREN'T showing ANY color series at that time, they insisted that Joey film that season in BLACK & WHITE...which killed ANY chances to put the show into syndication the following year {"HALF the shows in black & white and HALF in color? Are you crazy??"}. CBS just dumped the show after the '64-'65 season, and Joey still remembers that to this day, in silent pain.

[TV_on_the_Porch]

I'm sure it was salt in the wound when he learned that Lucy had been filming her black & white CBS show in color since 1963 (that couldn't have been common knowledge at the time?).

[someguy23475]

CBS was very stubborn about switching to color after their failed experiment with their "mechanical color system" back in the early 50s. Around 1955-56, NBC began to produce regular series in color, and by the early 60s, most of their lineup was color. CBS finally threw in the towel in the fall of 1965, when NBC was full color (except for I Dream of Jeannie and the daytime Concentration), and ABC, the lowest viewed and smallest revenue of the three, slowly began to convert. I don't know why Joey Bishop could have thrown in some dough so CBS would film in color, even if they still aired it in B&W.

[TV Knowledge Fan]

.....CBS did present SOME color series and specials in the 1957-'58 season {primarily "THE RED SKELTON SHOW"}. But by the fall of 1958, Bill Paley, "Mr. CBS", was determined NOT to let rival RCA sell more of their color TV sets so viewers could catch CBS' few color offerings [evoking bitter memories of his failing "Hytron" manufacturing deal to market TV sets under the "CBS-Columbia" brand; that division folded in 1961]. So, an unofficial edict not to schedule ANY color shows on the network lasted for seven years. Lucille Ball and her Desilu executives, however, knew the future of television was going to be ALL color. This is why she began filming "THE LUCY SHOW" in color in the fall of 1963, and merely waited until CBS began showing full-color repeats of those '63-'65 episodes in the spring of 1966 {she officially made her color "debut" in the fall of '65}. She was successful enough to do this- Joey Bishop was not. He had NBC's (and his sponsors) blessings to film his shows in color from '62 through '64, because the network was pushing color TV AND corporate parent RCA's color sets. His "second-class" treatment at CBS [they bought his show merely to please co-owner Danny Thomas, who was leaving the network after seven years] was proof of their intentions NOT to schedule his series for a long run...and that meant black and white episodes.

[bencasey]

The story I heard is that after the show was cancelled there was a party that a CBS exec was at and they saw William Bendix there. The CBS guy said he looked terrible and someone told him he had 2 months to live. CBS had scheduled his show for the fall and was in a bind. The exec went up to Joey Bishop and asked him if he could reassemble his cast and do another season of the show and that's how the 4th season came about.

[Jude The Obscure]

glad to know I wasn't the only person who was puzzled by the color switch. I enjoyed the reruns on TV Land several years back.

[Bob's TV Treasures]

Probably the only series that began in black and white, went color for
two seasons, and ended in black and white.

[Jude The Obscure]

For some reason, I enjoyed the last CBS season a lot more, despite the black and white edict. Truly a curiosity in TV sitcom history--it may take a company like Shout! or MPI to get the complete series (well, seasons 2-4) in a release.

[jehobden]

Originally Posted by someguy23475

CBS was very stubborn about switching to color after their failed experiment with their "mechanical color system" back in the early 50s. Around 1955-56, NBC began to produce regular series in color, and by the early 60s, most of their lineup was color. CBS finally threw in the towel in the fall of 1965, when NBC was full color (except for I Dream of Jeannie and the daytime Concentration), and ABC, the lowest viewed and smallest revenue of the three, slowly began to convert. I don't know why Joey Bishop could have thrown in some dough so CBS would film in color, even if they still aired it in B&W.

Great synopsis of the CBS vs. NBC battle here. NBC did have a few more shows on its network in B&W past fall 1965. According to what I have seen in reference books and old TV Guide issues and microfilms, Today went color on 9/13/65 (concurrent with the fall tv season), but Huntley-Brinkley stayed B&W until 11/15/65. Two NBC daytime soaps stayed in B&W into 1966, Another World going to color on 6/20/66 and The Doctors doing that on 10/17/66 (coincidentally the premiere date of The Hollywood Squares).

Also there was one more NBC primetime program in B&W fall 1965, Convoy, which starred John Gavin and Linden Chiles but only lasted 13 weeks. I have read that since it was set during WWII, it likely had to use a lot of old B&W stock footage that would have been out-of-sync with a color show. It was replaced in January 1966 with The Sammy Davis, Jr. Show, which was in color but not really any more successful than Convoy had been and likely much more expensive. As you pointed out in your post, Concentration was still in B&W, and it was the last NBC show to go to color on 11/7/66.

[jehobden]

Originally Posted by Bob's TV Treasures

Probably the only series that began in black and white, went color for
two seasons, and ended in black and white.

This may be the only series to go from B&W to color for exactly 2 years then back to B&W, but it wasn't the only series to go B&W/color/B&W. Wagon Train did this too, since ABC had it in color, along with another new series that year, The Greatest Show on Earth, for the 1963-64 season, but then had it go back to B&W for its last season 1964-65. The original version of The Price Is Right hosted by Bill Cullen also went from B&W to color on NBC, but NBC cancelled it in 1963, so the show moved to ABC, where it went back to B&W for its last two years.

[Jude The Obscure]

Wow--that's great trivia there, jehobden!

I wish someone would just obtain this series and release the whole run!

[jehobden]

Originally Posted by someguy23475

CBS was very stubborn about switching to color after their failed experiment with their "mechanical color system" back in the early 50s. Around 1955-56, NBC began to produce regular series in color, and by the early 60s, most of their lineup was color. CBS finally threw in the towel in the fall of 1965, when NBC was full color (except for I Dream of Jeannie and the daytime Concentration), and ABC, the lowest viewed and smallest revenue of the three, slowly began to convert. I don't know why Joey Bishop could have thrown in some dough so CBS would film in color, even if they still aired it in B&W.

Joey apparently didn't make much money from his sitcom in reruns, at least at first. The following is a quote from a TV Guide 1968 cover profile of Joey while he was making his ABC nighttime talk show that competed directly against Carson's TONIGHT SHOW:

"He was still wincing in the aftermath of four years in a situation comedy series so banal that it never earned anticipated financial dividends from syndicated reruns."

I imagine his sitcom has had more exposure in the 20+ years since TV Land started showing reruns of it in 1998 than it had in the 30+ years before then. THE BRADY BUNCH BOOK (1990), when writing about the career of Mary Treen, stated that all prints of Joey's sitcom had been destroyed, "reportedly at the behest of Bishop himself". I thought maybe the un-syndicated Season 1 episodes had been destroyed, but fortunately no episodes have been destroyed, at least as far as I know.

There is that legend about Vaughn Meador's appearance on Joey's sitcom being destroyed in the aftermath of the JFK assassination, since his appearance was filmed before the assassination but was to be aired afterward. If this is true, it's certainly a shame.