The Jetsons Made History For ABC TV On This Date

[Brian Damage]

September 23rd, 1962 - "The Jetsons" premiered on ABC-TV. It was the first program on the network to be carried in color

[Marvo301]

Well you couldn't very well show a program about the future in black and white could you? The Jetsons belonged in color!!

[MrCleveland]

I wish ABC would've had their own Animation Domination, that would've been cool!

But hey...one can always dream....

[TV Knowledge Fan]

...in 1962, but they came close during the 1961-'62 season. After the unexpected success of "THE FLINTSTONES" in its first season, the network loaded up on more prime-time cartoon series. In addition to "THE BUGS BUNNY SHOW" on Tuesday nights (which also premiered in the fall of '60) and "MATTY'S FUNDAY FUNNIES" on Saturdays (Mattel's sponsored anthology of "Harveytoons" [formerly the 1950-'59 Paramount theatrical cartoon library featuring Casper the Friendly Ghost, Baby Huey, Herman & Katnip, Little Audrey, etc., which previously appeared on late Sunday afternoons]- it became "MATTY'S FUNNIES WITH BEANY & CECIL" in mid-season), another Hanna-Barbera cartoon, "TOP CAT" {the "Sgt. Bilko" of alley cats}, appeared on Wednesday evenings, and "CALVIN AND THE COLONEL" [a slightly disguised animated version of "Amos 'n' Andy" as animals, featuring the voices of the stars of the original radio show, Gosden & Correll] on Tuesdays. That was five prime-time cartoons, stretched out over four nights. And that was a little too much for some viewers, as all of them- except "THE FLINTSTONES", went off at the end of that season....and so did CBS' "THE ALVIN SHOW" and NBC's "THE BULLWINKLE SHOW" {that moved to Sunday afternoons, ending up on Saturday afternoons before first-run episodes ended in 1964}.

However, ABC wanted another cartoon show to compete with "WALT DISNEY'S WONDERFUL WORLD OF COLOR" on Sundays for the fall of 1962 [Disney was already eating away at "DENNIS THE MENACE"'s loyal audience on CBS (the live-action sitcom, starring Jay North)].

To put this in the proper context, you have to understand that NBC was the first TV network to successfully telecast color programs on a somewhat regular basis in late 1953; RCA was their corporate parent, and their RCA Victor division manufactured...color TV sets. But early color models were somewhat imperfect, and VERY expensive (a typical "top of the line" model cost about $2500 in '54), and few people could afford color sets to see the network's somewhat limited schedule of weekly and daily color shows; they were the ONLY network to "push" color TV during the '50s and early '60s (and the weekly Disney series was a breakthrough of sorts for them). CBS did telecast a few color series and specials between 1954 and '59, but CBS founder [and chairman] William Paley eventually decided he wasn't going to help RCA sell more color TV sets, and suspended all color broadcasting until the fall of 1965.

ABC, on the other hand, was a financial basket case. During the '50s, and through the early '70s, they had fewer affiliates than the other two networks (usually the weaker ones that seemed to carry more than one network's programming in their area), and they just couldn't afford the technology to transmit color pictures....until September 1962, when they finally scraped enough cash together to be able to transmit TWO weekly color series on their network. Their first series in color was...."THE JETSONS", and they were counting on it to be viable counterprogramming to "WONDERFUL WORLD OF COLOR". The second- was "THE FLINTSTONES", which had previously been shown in black and white during its first two seasons. However, ABC was still financially limited to a point where few of their affiliates could telecast those shows in color {TV GUIDE used to print a disclaimer in several of their regional editions when describing ABC's limited selection of color series in the '60s- "Channel -- will not colorcast this program"}.

To make a long story short, "THE JETSONS" couldn't make a dent in Disney's ratings, and left prime-time after one season ["DENNIS THE MENACE", who was literally getting older {and "tired"}, was replaced by the more successful "MY FAVORITE MARTIAN" in the fall of '63]. Repeats, however, flourished on all three networks' Saturday morning schedules in the '60s and early '70s (although not at the same time).


NBC finally achieved 95% color programming in prime-time in the fall of 1965 (only "I DREAM OF JEANNIE" and "CONVOY" {a World War II naval drama, cancelled in mid-season} were in black and white)- CBS finally scheduled about half of their prime-time schedule in color that fall, while ABC managed to program about 40%. All three finally presented 100% color shows in prime-time in the fall of 1966.

[MrCleveland]

^I said "I wish"...

I knew there wasn't with Disney on NBC after leaving ABC and some animated shows following suit.

But...

[catlover79]

One of my dad's all-time favorite shows!!!

[tv star collector]

Originally Posted by andywily889

The history of ABC Tv is very interesting and the famous shows like THE BUGS BUNNY SHOW, THE ALVIN SHOW, THE FLINTSTONES and THE JETSONS. These all shows are showing in ABC TV. I really surprised to read this information. On first color edition for jetson in 1962 is also surprising.

THE ALVIN SHOW never aired on the ABC network. It ran on CBS in prime-time (Oct. 14, 1961-Sept. 12, 1962) and was rebroadcast on NBC on Saturday morning (Feb. 17, 1979-Sept. 1, 1979).

[TV Knowledge Fan]

...."THE ALVIN SHOW", even though it was filmed in color, was seen in black and white during its original CBS run, in prime-time (1961-'62) and Saturday morning repeats (1962-'65), due to the network's aversion to color programming at the time. When its 26 episodes entered syndication [through CBS Films] in the fall of 1965, color prints were finally utilized.
NBC repeated the original series during 1979, and its reception gave the network the idea to ultimately revive the "franchise" {under Ross Bagdasarian, Jr.} in a new series, "ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS", in 1981.