Bewitched Original Run/Syndication Questions?

[Jack1000]

Hi Guys,

From what I understand, the original run of the first season of the series was in B & W with episodes running 25-26 minutes uncut. When the series went to syndication, all of the episodes were colorized. I heard that it was/is common practice for a TV station to cut out about a minute of footage even when a show goes on it's first syndication run. (and then, they just chop it down from that point.) Is this true with Bewitched when it was colorized and sold to syndicate?

Jack

[dlemond]

I absolutely remember being a kid in the 70s watching Bewitched in black and white.

And, of course, the color episodes too, but point being I don't think anything was colorized until the 80s and even then I don't remember any sitcom being shown colorized.

[Jack1000]

Originally Posted by dlemond

I absolutely remember being a kid in the 70s watching Bewitched in black and white.

And, of course, the color episodes too, but point being I don't think anything was colorized until the 80s and even then I don't remember any sitcom being shown colorized.

Maybe they did keep Season 1 at B&W for a time before its colorization. I am not sure about this.

Jack

[jamesanthony]

It was first syndicated in 1973 and the first 2 years were left in black and white. Colorization of those episodes is very, very recent because when they aired on Nick at Nite in the early 2000s they were still shown in black and white. All of the episodes were syndicated as one package until the mid 80s when the first 2 seasons were separated for cable and the color shows were sold to local broadcast channels.

BTW, the black and white era episodes have a different, more realistic feel to them. Once the show went to color in 1966 it gradually became more and more cartoonish.

[TV Guy]

The black-and-white episodes were colorized for Canadian television in the 90s. The colorized versions never aired in US broadcast syndication, although they did air for a time on Hallmark several years ago.

During the first syndication cycle in the 1970s, several minutes were edited out to allow for more commercials -- this is typical, and it is the rare series which is not edited for syndication. In the 1980s, the black-and-white episodes were removed from the second cycle of syndication, and the remaining color episodes had more time edited out.

[marvin g]

Why would anybody colorize anything?? What's the point??!!

[ThomasE]

I like the colorized shows. I love to compare them to the black and white versions. I am kinda used to the original black and white eps. I am buying both versions along with "Tabitha". I am soo looking forward to this release.

[mego73#2]

For a while the Black and White shows were shown more rarely than the color ones (same story for I Dream Of Jeannie). They were not colorized at least until the late 80's and judging by the quality of the colorization it was more like the 1990's (the colorization is too good to be a 1980's job).

I remember the black and white ones being shown in the 1970's but in a much rarer fashion than the color ones.

Bewitched reruns began to be shown on ABC weekday mornings in the ealry 1970's. The shows were cut 3-4 minutes in those showings.

When Bewitched went into syndication, they were most likely sent out uncut on 16mm film to local stations and some would cut the shows and some would not.

In the Eighties, the syndicator sent out Bewitched on preedited video masters. I think first they were cut to 24 minutes in the early 80's and then 22 minutes in the later 80's.

[comedyfreak]

For the record....I have never seen a colorized version of Bewitched until they came out with the season 1 dvd release. I've always seen the b&w syndicated ones as both a kid and adult. I think it was a few years ago I seen colorized versions advertised on ebay, this was back in 2000. The dealer that was selling them was in Canada.

[treky]

I never knew there were black and white episodes of it until N@N started showing it in the early 90s. (NOT the early 2000s, like another poster said on here!)

[treky]

Originally Posted by mego73#2

For a while the Black and White shows were shown more rarely than the color ones (same story for I Dream Of Jeannie). They were not colorized at least until the late 80's and judging by the quality of the colorization it was more like the 1990's (the colorization is too good to be a 1980's job).

I remember the black and white ones being shown in the 1970's but in a much rarer fashion than the color ones.

Bewitched reruns began to be shown on ABC weekday mornings in the ealry 1970's. The shows were cut 3-4 minutes in those showings.

When Bewitched went into syndication, they were most likely sent out uncut on 16mm film to local stations and some would cut the shows and some would not.

In the Eighties, the syndicator sent out Bewitched on preedited video masters. I think first they were cut to 24 minutes in the early 80's and then 22 minutes in the later 80's.

ABC started to show reruns on weekday mornings in the late 60s, not the early 70s; I remember when they started showing them; it was 1968 when I was in 4th grade.

[mego73#2]

I'm sure your right. The few 16mm with commercial ABC syndiction versions I have on tape are from the 70's