I remember, as a little girl, going with my dad to buy new TV tubes. The store also had a tube tester to ensure they were all in good working order. Televisions were a big ticket item for middle class families and would last 20 years; some even longer. The entirety of my time living at home, we only bought a new TV once and that was to "invest" in a color set. My folks let me put the "old" black and white TV in my bedroom. We got 4 channels and had to *(gasp)* walk across the room to turn the TV on and off or to change the channel.
My grandfather gave his old upright b & w set to my father after getting a color set. Soon my father followed suit and sent the set to the basement as a set for “the kids to watch”. That 17” b & w Sylvania upright was a beautiful piece of furniture! So much so, that I took it to college with me, and after my roommate & I got bunk beds to free up floor space in our doom room, we became a huge hit on the floor! Soon EVERYONE was in our room, and it was ‘party central’ constantly! It was a great set (although no remote)! I remember watching the entire first 3 seasons of SNL on that set. The sound and picture quality were both very crisp & sharp! After college, the set made its way back to the basement until my folks sold the family homestead in 1997, and the pristine working set was then given away to someone else. Now try and get 35+ years out of a TV set today!!!
@@stephendacey8761 very true. It was difficult to even find one during the ‘Great Cable-ization’ period of America. By the 2000’s, the commies convinced Congress to abandon terrestrial TV for satellite TV only, and then analog for digital, and made the government PAY for it! LOL! The government then gave everyone a free descrambler and $40 to watch TV with an old set (color or b&w)
I’m 40, and my experience wasn’t any different with the exception that we had a color TV always. But, we still didn’t have any remotes. I was the remote.
My dad was also a t.v. repair man in the early 50s. I remember going with him on a few service calls. The bulk of the repairs would be testing and replacing weak or defective tubes.
@@stephendacey8761 Exactly! I never realized how “scripted” reality TV was until a family member was on a show for two or three episodes. It’s all layed out for the contestants/participants to follow. Very fake.
I am 72 years old and had no idea they had that kind of stuff in 1960! We got our first color set around 1965 but never got one with a remote for many years after that. It used to be a $100 extra to get a remote.
I'm 72 years old as well. We got our first color tv in 1965...although, it was a used set. We were thrilled! We couldn't afford a new one and a remote was not even thought of in my family. The television sets they show in this video were for rich people.
We got our first color TV in the early 60's also, and I remember after it was delivered, we had to wait until a serviceman came to "set it up". Anyone else have to do that or was that a gimmick for the store to make extra $?
@@JohnBGood-kq3ul Our service man set-it-up because he wanted to show us how to use the features, such as how to adjust the color, tint, etc. It was such an event to see color tv for the first time and it opened up a whole new horizon..."In living color"!!
In the UK, we had a somewhat different approach to remote controls: You'd simply order your youngest son or daughter to get up and adjust the channel/volume/power on-off manually. The effect this had on me is that I'm so used to operating the controls _on_ a device that the only time I use remote controls is when I'm at a friends place. 🙂 I can say this: As a way of keeping activity up and weight down, it certainly has its merits! 😀
Back in the good old days your TV set had more than a picture tube. It had tubes that controlled horizontal, vertical, brightness , etc. Local drug stores sold TV tubes and had a tube tester. When your set’s picture went bad you took the suspect vacuum tubes with you and tested them on the tube tester. Then you picked a replacement from the ones stocked in the tube tester.
RCA had divisions in Indianapolis and Bloomington, Indiana. The company I worked for at the time molded the plastic trim bezels that went around the tube on the RCA console models. Eventually, consoles fell out of popularity. They packed up and moved what was left to Mexico in the 90s. Today, RCA exists as a brand name only.
As you probably know, RCA was sold to Thompson Electronics in 1989. The final nail for RCA was their foray into the CED video disk which was a major flop. Other money losers was the foray into mainframe computers and other products. I have an RCA branded antenna, probably made in China. Works well. Too bad there is nothing to watch on television in 2023.
It's always interesting to see early technology that slowly led up to the point we are at today. The evolution of electronics is wonderful in this video. Thanks!
Thanks for posting this. I’m obsessed with early television stuff. If you have any more, I would really love to know, please. I appreciate the fact that you take care of all of these wonderful films.
That "programmer with the magic memory" is actually a really cool idea. I can only imagine the amount of electromechanical complexity that would have gone into it - no ICs or processors back then!
It must have never sold well. I've never seen a television with it, not even in an antique shop. This film suggests the value is that you don't have to get out of your chair to change the channel but the real value is, having the TV turn automatically on so that you don't miss your show, when you've lost track of time. That I can see being worthwhile back then. I counted 24 buttons across the bottom so it handles a 12 hr out of the day. Cartoons probably started at 8am on Saturday mornings and the news was on at 11pm. So I wonder if you could decide on the 12 hr window of operation.
The first color program that I can remember was "Bonanza" with a map set ablaze, but only after "the following program is brought to in living color on NBC" followed by the peacock.
I remember the NBC announcement. The first show I remember in color was 'Family Affair' with its awesomely colorful beginning. After having watched in B&W for many years, to see the same things in color almost made one cry with delight!
Salesmen are brilliant ! Amazing how a limitation of the NTSC color system is turned into a feature, that being the _'TINT'_ control. Fantastic time capsule video here👍
Great video. I worked for RCA Canada in the 70’s. The Canadian company was set up as a smaller version of the US company, and made TV’s, picture tubes, cabinets and almost everything else in local Canadian plants. There was even a research centre modelled on the US R&D division. As others have pointed out, RCA made a variety of strategic, product and leadership mistakes in the 60’s and 70’s that lead to their demise. GE, at the time, appeared to be a brilliantly run conglomerate, took over RCA and sold off the pieces they didn’t want. Which was most of the company. The Japanese were the also the big overseas competitors at the time. The result is that today RCA survives in name only on low priced imported products. Fun to see what was then cutting edge tech.
@@oldradiosnphonographs- 27" RCA..it was a returned model they had marked down to get rid of..when the picture tube went out 4 or 5 years later..the only thing that worked was the phonograph and am-fm radio..it had it's fair share of cigarette burns on the top and rings from wet drinks placed on it.
@@cynthiaclarke3979 I assume your family kept it just for stereo use? Sylvania about 1968 or so made a TV with a slide projector built in! These must be extremely rare sets today. It would be cool to see Shango066 fix one of those!
When this film was made in 1960, there were very few color programs on TV at all, since only NBC was doing any color broadcasting. And also at that time, every time a new color show came on, or you changed channels, you had to adjust the color and tint all over again.
automatic "ducker" circuits and dynamic range compression didn't exist back then. One had to manually adjust the level on an audio mixer when the narration speech started
I'm absolutely amazed that this technology existed in the early 1960s. The first remote controlled TV set I ever observed was the first 5 minute plus scene on the "hippie" cult classic "Skiddo" with Carol Channing and Jackie Gleason, circa 1967/68. I was amazed and wanted one right away, until I saw the prices that remote controlled TV sets commanded. The first time I saw one in person was my new brother inlaw's set, in 1973. The style of the set was very modern, with a curved "mirrored" bottom base, and hip, space age design. I loved the remote, but as I was only 10 yrs old at the time, I rarely got to use it, unless I woke up before everyone else. As I recall, changing the channel was quite loud, with the manual switch on the set turning as the TV changed channels. My brother inlaw was pretty hip too, and he owned the first Atari, Pong game, as well as others, such as the WW1 fighter planes, and a few others I can't recall. This was circa 1977/78. The best my family could do was use the "clapper" until we finally purchased our own remote set around 1982. Thank you for this eye-opening glimpes into the super tech TV sets of the 1960s.
In the early sixties I had a B&W Zenith w/ simple non-electronic remote. The remote worked striking a barely audible chime, sometimes the ringing of my telephone would change the channel.
It’s worth remembering that RCA Victor not only made TVs and radios. RCA was one of the world’s biggest record companies who signed many great artists including Harry Belafonte, Henry Mancini, Paul Anka and Elvis Presley. In addition, they introduced the 45 rpm ‘single’ - an item which changed the world.
The programmable tuner is cool, but couldn't be used today - 6 minute commercial breaks means constant channel switching looking for something to watch.
We didn't have a remote control TV until 1974 or so , I remember when the first color TV come to our neighborhood only one family had it at first everyone else had black and white, today my 4 year old granddaughter tells me how to do something on my phone, I can only imagine what the next 100 years will bring.
Until sometime in the 1980s when we got a new color tv with remote control, I acted as the remote. My dad would have me sit near to change channel and volume.
That was fun to watch. That first color TV with the multi-function remote was really something. I read that most people used the one button to just turn off the picture, and they often would not keep holding it to turn off the whole set. So the TV would be “off” but really the set was left on and they would sometimes overheat and cause a fire. I have one of those hideaway Hillsborough TV’s…got it off eBay about 4 years ago. This is the first video I’ve seen of its commercial with the sound, so that was great. The one I have needs a new picture tube I was told, and I’m not sure what shape the chassis is in? The wood finish has some paint speckles on it but is generally in good shape. Very cool design. The last man kept saying shassis, hehe. Sometime in the early to mid 60s my family got a Magnavox entertainment center, with a big color picture tube and phonograph and AM/FM stereo radio. I do remember a man coming to the house to fix it occasionally. The remote for it had only two buttons, one to change the channel and one to change volume. When you pressed them they made a little burst of air sound, I think using ultrasonic frequencies. That’s all it did, not at all like that first remote that did everything. There was also a button on the TVs control panel you could press that would use a motor to change the channel selector and we kids would just push it and hold it so it would go ka-ching through every channel.
Wow, you guys must have been loaded! In about 1964 our rich cousins got a console TV like what you described except no remote. At the time it was 1/4 the price of a brand new Ford car. So TVs are comparatively far cheaper now than they were then.
When I was 5 years old, we had a Zenith about like that. A bit larger wooden cabinet with a speaker in the bottom. There wasn’t a remote control. The antenna was struck by lightning and the TV never worked well after that. We spent several hundred dollars trying to fix it, too. 📺
I witnessed the time when tv repair came to your house. I witnessed the death of the TV repair industry. I witnessed the repair of TV components, to the replacement of horizontal, vertical etc circuit boards. Bad resistor, throw a board at it.
Agree! I remember that as a child we had a black & white wood cabinet console tv, my father would wax that monstrosity to bring out the beauty of the natural wood! Now and then we would go to the tv repair shop for a new vacuum tube, back then I marveled at such “high tech”!
It took me a solid year and a half of begging/pleading/noodging my folks to finally get a color set in 1966. They bought a 25" Zenith in an "Italian Provincial" cabinet. (Their pamphlet showed the same set in a dozen different furniture styles.)
My family didn't get color until their 1970 RCA 25" console, which gave our orange cat, Maggie, cancer from the excess radiation that it emitted. She liked to sleep on the top of its cabinet.
It must have cost a fortune to inventory all those cabinet-style and equipment combinations. Then they had to do the same for console stereos. I never understood why they didn't sell the guts and cabinets separately, letting the dealers mix and match them. They could have designed them to have the same "custom fit" and it would have allowed carry-in service for customers willing to lug in a slide-out TV, receiver or turntable. Magnavox actually tried that with its consoles in the 1980s, but by that time they were in terminal decline. I suppose the "rack" systems of the 1990s were based on the same concept, but they didn't hide the components the way the consoles did.
@@pcno2832 They did that with some of the higher end stereos, like Fisher, Marantz, Pilot, Scott, etc. You could buy the style cabinet you wanted, then buy the components like the receiver, amp, turntable, and even add an open-reel tape deck if you wanted, and the types of speakers you wanted. The dealer would then assemble them and deliver it to your home. Very expensive compared to the mass-market brands like RCA, Zenith, etc. IIRC, I heard the RCA cabinets were made in North Carolina, then they were delivered flat-pack style to Bloomington Indiana, where they were assembled, and the electronics added, and then they were off to a dealer. They did have several different cabinet styles for the same (TV or stereo) chassis back then, but it wasn't something the dealer could easily swap for those brands, like you could for the higher end stereo systems.
Continuously variable volume control was a legitimate and important sales claim for remote control in this era as RCA provided a more expensive remote motor drive to turn the volume control as if you were to manually turn the control at the TV itself. The competition brands of the era often used a less expensive stepper relay in the remote control circuit to control volume in only 3 increments, a "low, medium, and high" and this relay was in series with the manual volume control on the TV, thus you really couldn't "dial in" that perfect volume with the remote as you could with RCA.
Ah, color tv back then! Much bulkier, and more expensive than we have now. With a much wider, stylistic array of real-wood-work-of-art cabinets, that qualify as unique and beautiful pieces of furniture, in the modern age. Each with it's own mesmerizing puzzle, of hand-wired, (lead-soldered) analog tube, complexities, is a brief age of the electron that hopefully will never disappear completely!
Back when women knew their place, a black eye would teach them not to think too big, when whites and blacks couldn't marry, and gays were bashed and everybody got away with it. Such a great time!
@@peterd9427 the one thing that drives me crazy about the “good ol days” next to the things you mentioned, (Could be just my modern millennial mindset) is when women were referred to Mrs husband’s first and last name. not to mention women couldn’t have credit cards or open a bank account. I think gays were also referred to as “Confirmed Bachelors?”
Back in '52, we had a Motorola. My dad drew a map of all of the tube's location and part number. If the tv didn't work, he'd look and the unlit tub was pulled out and he went to the store for a new one. Of course he checked the new and old tubes since a lot of stores had a tube checker for their customers.
As the previous commenter said, 63 years later. Kind of wonder what will be the next big leap in TV's and controllers. I remember my parents having one of those Heavy Tube TV's. It wasn't that particular brand in the video. Now most of us have 40-60 inch lightweight flat screens sitting on a desk somewhere in the house. Interesting to remember seeing the old commercials of technology of the past.
My grandparents back in the 60s or 70s had a TV with some kind of wireless mechanical remote that didn’t need batteries, you could kind of see though the mesh in the front and it looked like it had metal rods inside. It took some effort to press the buttons and they made a very loud CLICK with a little vibration to it. I think all it could do was on/off, volume and channel up/down.
Yes, the way these types of remotes worked was that those rods were different sizes, and when pressing different buttons, it made hammers strike the particular rod associated with that button for that function. Different rods produced different frequencies (pitches) of sound, often above the human hearing range, and the remote receiver inside the TV would recognize the frequency of the sound to activate that function- such as channel change, volume up or down, or on/off.
We weren't allowed to use our Zenith Space Command 300 remote control; my mother said she was worried we'd break it. Then one day, when my parents were away, my sister was using the remote and saw the car pull up, so she slammed it onto "Z" emblem that normally held it and it shattered into a million pieces. My mother acted angry, but she later admitted that she was glad to see it gone and only stopped us from using it because she couldn't stand the noise from the channels changing.
Continuously variable volume control was a legitimate and important sales claim for remote control in this era as it provided a more expensive remote motor drive to turn the volume control. The competition brands of the era often used a less expensive stepper relay in the remote control circuit to control volume in only 3 increments, a "low, medium, and high" which were relative to the actual position of the volume control at the TV set itself.
Oh man, RCA totally should've motorized the Hillsborough! Bob would've been like, WHUH-HO!! DUDE! And Bill would've been like, "This... is not designed with the serviceman in mind."
I emember how disappointed we were when the TV went "on the blink", then how glad we were when the TV repairman came to fix it, then how terrible we felt when he said he had to take the chassis to the shop for repair.
I still have a couple of those remote controls. A tiny hammer banged on a metal cylinder that was tuned like a bell for a certain high pitched sound frequency, and a microphone in the TV connected to some tuned circuits sensed which button was pressed. It was so wonderful, until my mother swept the floor. The broom made a series of sounds on the same frequencies, so the TV went crazy! True story! 🤣
@@theclearsounds3911 Thanks for your response! It’s been a long time since I’ve seen on of those remote controls. They made a ping noise when you pressed the buttons and there was motor that turned the tuner. Great memories!
@@Modeltnick Please forgive me for my long story. But, if you bought a TV used, and it had that kind of remote control, but the remote was missing, I discovered a way around it. For each function, if you went into your hardware junk box and dropped random washers into a glass baby food jar, you could recreate the same frequencies, and have yourself a free remote control! Very awkward changing the channels by shaking glass jars, though, but it worked!
In 80ties I had old RCA B&W set with remote. But it was older than shown here - the remote had one big square button and alowed to change channels in set with electric motor driving the manual knob forward. It was nice and fun to see how wheel with numbers turned by remote command. Communication from remote was with ultrasound about 25 kHz. All tube except remote ultrasonic with few transistors. All this was capable to use in mid 80ties, only picture tube was more worn then new. .
Today, a lot of municipalities have an electronic pickup day where you can throw out old TV’s and PC’s. The dumps don’t want all that non-recyclable electronics in there.
My aunt had a full blown color TV set with remote back around 1960, . The thing cost almost as much as a new car. Even then IF you had a color set. Very few programs were broadcast in color
RCA VICTOR. I remember when RCA meant something and it was built to last. They can make stuff to last a lot longer than it does but why would they. Imagine the money they would lose if you didn't have to buy it again in a few year's.
Lol you can turn the TV completely off with the remote control. Remarkable! 😂 I'm curious as to what percentage of TV shows were in color in 1960. Enjoyed this very much. 😁
many TV's had a mode, where it would turn off the sound and picture, but it would keep the tubes hot for an "instant on" the next time you wanted to watch it...sort of like a picture mute on a modern TV.
In my country Norway, TV was not even working here in 1960, they started broadcasting in the early 60's, 15 years behind USA.. but it was in black and white. The first color TV was introduced in the early 70's, without remote controls. We were way behind due to lack of infrastructure. Today we are a leader in technology, times have changed.
@@johnfalstaff2270Yes Tandberg started the production in 1958 for the Scandinavian market, and also Philips were big in the 60's. They were the 2 main leaders. .
@@bardo0007. My father purchased the first TV in January 1962. It was Hungarian made 17" screen sized "Orion AT403 Tisza". All lamps and kinescope tub inside were made by Tungsram. Very beautiful black&white clear picture and fantastic very resonant sound, despite it was a mono set. We had it until 1976. At the same time, my neighbors acquired beautiful television Lotos from Czechoslovakian electronic company Tesla. Also very good television.
Serviceman Bill is/was a charmin' fella. And if he did go that big service shop in the sky, wonder if he's smilin' down upon those restorin' and keepin' these old babies alive, today?
I remember some VCRs with cabled remotes, and a few stereo receivers. I don't remember any cabled remotes on TVs here in the USA, but they might have been around; most of the major TV makers were probably worried someone would use the remote in the tub.
11:03 Oh this actor with a gold ring and a metal watch😅. My colleague told me a story from the 90s when, while working as a CRT TV repairman, he accidentally discharged a high-voltage power capacitor with his gold ring🤣. After that he never wore rings in his life.
Watched a video yesterday about how RCA harassed Filo Farnesworth with legal actions for years in order to gain dominance in the 1930’s and 40’s when television was in its infancy. Now this video pops into my queue.
I was born in '59, so I went through the black and white and color TVs but this remote would have been a nightmare for parents with school-age children. They might have even made the Munsters look normal with this remote. Lol
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I remember, as a little girl, going with my dad to buy new TV tubes. The store also had a tube tester to ensure they were all in good working order. Televisions were a big ticket item for middle class families and would last 20 years; some even longer. The entirety of my time living at home, we only bought a new TV once and that was to "invest" in a color set. My folks let me put the "old" black and white TV in my bedroom. We got 4 channels and had to *(gasp)* walk across the room to turn the TV on and off or to change the channel.
My grandfather gave his old upright b & w set to my father after getting a color set. Soon my father followed suit and sent the set to the basement as a set for “the kids to watch”. That 17” b & w Sylvania upright was a beautiful piece of furniture! So much so, that I took it to college with me, and after my roommate & I got bunk beds to free up floor space in our doom room, we became a huge hit on the floor! Soon EVERYONE was in our room, and it was ‘party central’ constantly! It was a great set (although no remote)! I remember watching the entire first 3 seasons of SNL on that set. The sound and picture quality were both very crisp & sharp!
After college, the set made its way back to the basement until my folks sold the family homestead in 1997, and the pristine working set was then given away to someone else.
Now try and get 35+ years out of a TV set today!!!
I actually stopped watching B&W T.V. as late as 1987. People still watched B&W throughout the 80's. But, the 90's were color T.V.'s only.
Lol, I could have written the exact same reply as yours, word for word. 😁
@@stephendacey8761 very true. It was difficult to even find one during the ‘Great Cable-ization’ period of America. By the 2000’s, the commies convinced Congress to abandon terrestrial TV for satellite TV only, and then analog for digital, and made the government PAY for it! LOL! The government then gave everyone a free descrambler and $40 to watch TV with an old set (color or b&w)
I’m 40, and my experience wasn’t any different with the exception that we had a color TV always. But, we still didn’t have any remotes. I was the remote.
My Dad was a TV repairman from 1950 to 1981. RCA/Victor was his favorite brand to work on.
RCA/Victor later became JVC Victor Company of Japan
Zenith was my favorite brand to service.
My dad was also a t.v. repair man in the early 50s. I remember going with him on a few service calls. The bulk of the repairs would be testing and replacing weak or defective tubes.
I too repaired right from Valve , Transistor, IC's, and now SMD.
I would image he did. They were always breaking down.
Back when a television wasn't just a television, it was often furniture as well.
They were so big they had to be.
And QUITE heavy.
And they were considered durable goods, that could be serviced.
If not for the television it was block of junk on the floor.
The best ones let you store your whiskey in alpabetical order!
63 years later, and there’s STILL nothing to watch on TV!!!
Plenty of reality T.V. like Big Brother or life with The Osbornes, Kardashians, or Jenners, etc.
@@stephendacey8761 why watch other people live their life of privilege when you can live your own life?
@@larrypatterson5363 I never said I watched it. It's just on many channels.I wouldn't watch that made up trash.
@@stephendacey8761 Exactly! I never realized how “scripted” reality TV was until a family member was on a show for two or three episodes. It’s all layed out for the contestants/participants to follow. Very fake.
@@larrypatterson5363 Lots of things to watch on TV if you're a simpleton.
I am 72 years old and had no idea they had that kind of stuff in 1960! We got our first color set around 1965 but never got one with a remote for many years after that. It used to be a $100 extra to get a remote.
I'm 72 years old as well. We got our first color tv in 1965...although, it was a used set. We were thrilled! We couldn't afford a new one and a remote was not even thought of in my family. The television sets they show in this video were for rich people.
We got our first color TV in the early 60's also, and I remember after it was delivered, we had to wait until a serviceman came to "set it up". Anyone else have to do that or was that a gimmick for the store to make extra $?
@@JohnBGood-kq3ul Our service man set-it-up because he wanted to show us how to use the features, such as how to adjust the color, tint, etc. It was such an event to see color tv for the first time and it opened up a whole new horizon..."In living color"!!
In the UK, we had a somewhat different approach to remote controls: You'd simply order your youngest son or daughter to get up and adjust the channel/volume/power on-off manually. The effect this had on me is that I'm so used to operating the controls _on_ a device that the only time I use remote controls is when I'm at a friends place. 🙂
I can say this: As a way of keeping activity up and weight down, it certainly has its merits! 😀
Bet they didn't sell that many of them because I never saw one either.
I love these old documentaries. So much knowledge imparted simply and without dumbing it down.
Back in the good old days your TV set had more than a picture tube. It had tubes that controlled horizontal, vertical, brightness , etc.
Local drug stores sold TV tubes and had a tube tester. When your set’s picture went bad you took the suspect vacuum tubes with you and tested them on the tube tester. Then you picked a replacement from the ones stocked in the tube tester.
RCA had divisions in Indianapolis and Bloomington, Indiana. The company I worked for at the time molded the plastic trim bezels that went around the tube on the RCA console models. Eventually, consoles fell out of popularity. They packed up and moved what was left to Mexico in the 90s. Today, RCA exists as a brand name only.
As you probably know, RCA was sold to Thompson Electronics in 1989. The final nail for RCA was their foray into the CED video disk which was a major flop. Other money losers was the foray into mainframe computers and other products. I have an RCA branded antenna, probably made in China. Works well. Too bad there is nothing to watch on television in 2023.
@@kennixox262 I actually watch many of the same shows I saw back in the late-'50s - '60s. Retro-TV. The current stuff is pretty much garbage.
Yes, they were making tv's here in Indianapolis before there was a tv station here ...
I love that folding Hillsborough tv set. That is beautiful even for today. Love to get my hands on one to restore.
Magic memory-back when daily newspapers used to publish tv and radio guides!
I heard they weren't bought and paid for by the chicomms back then too.
Daily newspapers in the UK still list tv and radio programme schedules
They still do, just not in the Us it seems.
Magic memory …. Wow , I could sure use that function these days !
My goodness!! I'm watching this old promotion film on early color and black and white television on my tablet.
It's always interesting to see early technology that slowly led up to the point we are at today. The evolution of electronics is wonderful in this video. Thanks!
Thanks for posting this. I’m obsessed with early television stuff. If you have any more, I would really love to know, please. I appreciate the fact that you take care of all of these wonderful films.
Internet archive has a lot of such videos. Without ad and stupid subtitles from periscopfilm
That "programmer with the magic memory" is actually a really cool idea. I can only imagine the amount of electromechanical complexity that would have gone into it - no ICs or processors back then!
It must have never sold well. I've never seen a television with it, not even in an antique shop. This film suggests the value is that you don't have to get out of your chair to change the channel but the real value is, having the TV turn automatically on so that you don't miss your show, when you've lost track of time. That I can see being worthwhile back then.
I counted 24 buttons across the bottom so it handles a 12 hr out of the day. Cartoons probably started at 8am on Saturday mornings and the news was on at 11pm. So I wonder if you could decide on the 12 hr window of operation.
These videos are so much nicer than “match your mood” from Westinghouse, and “time out for trouble.”
The first color program that I can remember was "Bonanza" with a map set ablaze, but only after "the following program is brought to in living color on NBC" followed by the peacock.
I remember the NBC announcement. The first show I remember in color was 'Family Affair' with its awesomely colorful beginning. After having watched in B&W for many years, to see the same things in color almost made one cry with delight!
I remember that catch phrase.
I am sure you missed Zorro with Guy Williams.
Salesmen are brilliant ! Amazing how a limitation of the NTSC color system is turned into a feature, that being the _'TINT'_ control. Fantastic time capsule video here👍
It was used all the time tint was all over the place back then, you were constantly turning the tint control to get a viewable picture.
It woukd be rude to post "laughs in PAL" ;) :D
"NTSC" means "Never Twice the Same Colors."
Warms up gradually, better than instant on. Lasts longer.
Great video. I worked for RCA Canada in the 70’s. The Canadian company was set up as a smaller version of the US company, and made TV’s, picture tubes, cabinets and almost everything else in local Canadian plants. There was even a research centre modelled on the US R&D division. As others have pointed out, RCA made a variety of strategic, product and leadership mistakes in the 60’s and 70’s that lead to their demise. GE, at the time, appeared to be a brilliantly run conglomerate, took over RCA and sold off the pieces they didn’t want. Which was most of the company. The Japanese were the also the big overseas competitors at the time. The result is that today RCA survives in name only on low priced imported products. Fun to see what was then cutting edge tech.
We got our first color TV in 1967 and remembered it cost almost a thousand dollars for a 27 inch tv,am-fm and phonograph record player..
Was it a Sylvania, Zenith, or magnavox?
@@oldradiosnphonographs- 27" RCA..it was a returned model they had marked down to get rid of..when the picture tube went out 4 or 5 years later..the only thing that worked was the phonograph and am-fm radio..it had it's fair share of cigarette burns on the top and rings from wet drinks placed on it.
@@cynthiaclarke3979 I assume your family kept it just for stereo use? Sylvania about 1968 or so made a TV with a slide projector built in! These must be extremely rare sets today. It would be cool to see Shango066 fix one of those!
When this film was made in 1960, there were very few color programs on TV at all, since only NBC was doing any color broadcasting. And also at that time, every time a new color show came on, or you changed channels, you had to adjust the color and tint all over again.
I always liked how the music in these old films sounds like they can't control the volume going up and down.
automatic "ducker" circuits and dynamic range compression didn't exist back then. One had to manually adjust the level on an audio mixer when the narration speech started
Peri - I know I say this all the time.. but, TRULY, this is one of your all-time BEST!!!
I'm absolutely amazed that this technology existed in the early 1960s. The first remote controlled TV set I ever observed was the first 5 minute plus scene on the "hippie" cult classic "Skiddo" with Carol Channing and Jackie Gleason, circa 1967/68. I was amazed and wanted one right away, until I saw the prices that remote controlled TV sets commanded. The first time I saw one in person was my new brother inlaw's set, in 1973. The style of the set was very modern, with a curved "mirrored" bottom base, and hip, space age design. I loved the remote, but as I was only 10 yrs old at the time, I rarely got to use it, unless I woke up before everyone else. As I recall, changing the channel was quite loud, with the manual switch on the set turning as the TV changed channels. My brother inlaw was pretty hip too, and he owned the first Atari, Pong game, as well as others, such as the WW1 fighter planes, and a few others I can't recall. This was circa 1977/78. The best my family could do was use the "clapper" until we finally purchased our own remote set around 1982. Thank you for this eye-opening glimpes into the super tech TV sets of the 1960s.
In the early sixties I had a B&W Zenith w/ simple non-electronic remote. The remote worked striking a barely audible chime, sometimes the ringing of my telephone would change the channel.
It’s worth remembering that RCA Victor not only made TVs and radios. RCA was one of the world’s biggest record companies who signed many great artists including Harry Belafonte, Henry Mancini, Paul Anka and Elvis Presley. In addition, they introduced the 45 rpm ‘single’ - an item which changed the world.
I miss those days!
The programmable tuner is cool, but couldn't be used today - 6 minute commercial breaks means constant channel switching looking for something to watch.
I want one of those remotes! Something so retro you don’t see in ones today. Something we take for granted these days
Amazing Chanel 👏. I'm working electronic maintenance and I'm still repairing Tv tube and radio tube until now. Rca Company is really awesome 👌
We didn't have a remote control TV until 1974 or so , I remember when the first color TV come to our neighborhood only one family had it at first everyone else had black and white, today my 4 year old granddaughter tells me how to do something on my phone, I can only imagine what the next 100 years will bring.
Until sometime in the 1980s when we got a new color tv with remote control, I acted as the remote. My dad would have me sit near to change channel and volume.
That was fun to watch. That first color TV with the multi-function remote was really something. I read that most people used the one button to just turn off the picture, and they often would not keep holding it to turn off the whole set. So the TV would be “off” but really the set was left on and they would sometimes overheat and cause a fire.
I have one of those hideaway Hillsborough TV’s…got it off eBay about 4 years ago. This is the first video I’ve seen of its commercial with the sound, so that was great. The one I have needs a new picture tube I was told, and I’m not sure what shape the chassis is in? The wood finish has some paint speckles on it but is generally in good shape. Very cool design. The last man kept saying shassis, hehe.
Sometime in the early to mid 60s my family got a Magnavox entertainment center, with a big color picture tube and phonograph and AM/FM stereo radio. I do remember a man coming to the house to fix it occasionally. The remote for it had only two buttons, one to change the channel and one to change volume. When you pressed them they made a little burst of air sound, I think using ultrasonic frequencies. That’s all it did, not at all like that first remote that did everything. There was also a button on the TVs control panel you could press that would use a motor to change the channel selector and we kids would just push it and hold it so it would go ka-ching through every channel.
Wow, you guys must have been loaded! In about 1964 our rich cousins got a console TV like what you described except no remote. At the time it was 1/4 the price of a brand new Ford car. So TVs are comparatively far cheaper now than they were then.
When I was 5 years old, we had a Zenith about like that. A bit larger wooden cabinet with a speaker in the bottom. There wasn’t a remote control. The antenna was struck by lightning and the TV never worked well after that. We spent several hundred dollars trying to fix it, too. 📺
29:04 I remember that when Dad would use his electric shaver, the TV reception went all wonky.
We went wonky when the TV got turned off at 8pm because we had to go to bed for school in the morning..Friday and Saturday night was 10pm..
dads electric carving knife was a major wonk.
vacuum cleaners and hair dryers were the worst.
@@tubular618 Amen!
@@tubular618- Don't forget the mixer when it came time to bake a cake or real lumpy mashed potatoes..I missed home made cooking.
Wow. What a treasure of forgotten history! This blew me away.
Such a simpler time. Everything built to last!
until the picture tube blows.
Unlike today. Everything built to break.
@@stephendacey8761
Back then you would have a television repaired as opposed to today where people throw it out and buy a new one.
I witnessed the time when tv repair came to your house. I witnessed the death of the TV repair industry. I witnessed the repair of TV components, to the replacement of horizontal, vertical etc circuit boards. Bad resistor, throw a board at it.
@@lowerclassbrats77 yes! Replacement in my house was a stone cold dead issue. House call, repair cheaper.
that's it, i'm gonna start saving up for an rca victor!
Agree! I remember that as a child we had a black & white wood cabinet console tv, my father would wax that monstrosity to bring out the beauty of the natural wood! Now and then we would go to the tv repair shop for a new vacuum tube, back then I marveled at such “high tech”!
It took me a solid year and a half of begging/pleading/noodging my folks to finally get a color set in 1966. They bought a 25" Zenith in an "Italian Provincial" cabinet. (Their pamphlet showed the same set in a dozen different furniture styles.)
My family didn't get color until their 1970 RCA 25" console, which gave our orange cat, Maggie, cancer from the excess radiation that it emitted. She liked to sleep on the top of its cabinet.
It must have cost a fortune to inventory all those cabinet-style and equipment combinations. Then they had to do the same for console stereos. I never understood why they didn't sell the guts and cabinets separately, letting the dealers mix and match them. They could have designed them to have the same "custom fit" and it would have allowed carry-in service for customers willing to lug in a slide-out TV, receiver or turntable. Magnavox actually tried that with its consoles in the 1980s, but by that time they were in terminal decline. I suppose the "rack" systems of the 1990s were based on the same concept, but they didn't hide the components the way the consoles did.
That’s interesting I assume people have a “this TV works just fine.” Response.
@@pcno2832 They did that with some of the higher end stereos, like Fisher, Marantz, Pilot, Scott, etc. You could buy the style cabinet you wanted, then buy the components like the receiver, amp, turntable, and even add an open-reel tape deck if you wanted, and the types of speakers you wanted. The dealer would then assemble them and deliver it to your home. Very expensive compared to the mass-market brands like RCA, Zenith, etc. IIRC, I heard the RCA cabinets were made in North Carolina, then they were delivered flat-pack style to Bloomington Indiana, where they were assembled, and the electronics added, and then they were off to a dealer. They did have several different cabinet styles for the same (TV or stereo) chassis back then, but it wasn't something the dealer could easily swap for those brands, like you could for the higher end stereo systems.
Those capacitors were a giant leap forward in servicing TVs.
Continuously variable volume control was a legitimate and important sales claim for remote control in this era as RCA provided a more expensive remote motor drive to turn the volume control as if you were to manually turn the control at the TV itself. The competition brands of the era often used a less expensive stepper relay in the remote control circuit to control volume in only 3 increments, a "low, medium, and high" and this relay was in series with the manual volume control on the TV, thus you really couldn't "dial in" that perfect volume with the remote as you could with RCA.
Ah, color tv back then! Much bulkier, and more expensive than we have now.
With a much wider, stylistic array of real-wood-work-of-art cabinets, that qualify as unique and beautiful pieces of furniture, in the modern age.
Each with it's own mesmerizing puzzle, of hand-wired, (lead-soldered) analog tube, complexities, is a brief age of the electron that hopefully will never disappear completely!
I love the technical portion of this video. One can only imagine how long a basic electronic feature video will be for a modern day television.
Back when we made things and everything made sense.
Back when products were made in the U.S.A.
Back when women knew their place, a black eye would teach them not to think too big, when whites and blacks couldn't marry, and gays were bashed and everybody got away with it. Such a great time!
@@peterd9427 the one thing that drives me crazy about the “good ol days” next to the things you mentioned, (Could be just my modern millennial mindset) is when women were referred to Mrs husband’s first and last name. not to mention women couldn’t have credit cards or open a bank account. I think gays were also referred to as “Confirmed Bachelors?”
She looks so happy with that TV set 🤗
Back in '52, we had a Motorola. My dad drew a map of all of the tube's location and part number. If the tv didn't work, he'd look and the unlit tub was pulled out and he went to the store for a new one. Of course he checked the new and old tubes since a lot of stores had a tube checker for their customers.
They all got a great picture when they were new and the CRT was strong.
Sweet set ! I will take it , beautiful .
As the previous commenter said, 63 years later. Kind of wonder what will be the next big leap in TV's and controllers. I remember my parents having one of those Heavy Tube TV's. It wasn't that particular brand in the video. Now most of us have 40-60 inch lightweight flat screens sitting on a desk somewhere in the house.
Interesting to remember seeing the old commercials of technology of the past.
That sealed circuit board spelled the end of the tv serviceman job
I want a Hillsboro !”
My grandparents back in the 60s or 70s had a TV with some kind of wireless mechanical remote that didn’t need batteries, you could kind of see though the mesh in the front and it looked like it had metal rods inside. It took some effort to press the buttons and they made a very loud CLICK with a little vibration to it. I think all it could do was on/off, volume and channel up/down.
Yes, the way these types of remotes worked was that those rods were different sizes, and when pressing different buttons, it made hammers strike the particular rod associated with that button for that function. Different rods produced different frequencies (pitches) of sound, often above the human hearing range, and the remote receiver inside the TV would recognize the frequency of the sound to activate that function- such as channel change, volume up or down, or on/off.
@@oldradiotvsc9836 Cool! So it was ultrasonic I guess. Very clever.
We had one and we called it the clicker not remote
We weren't allowed to use our Zenith Space Command 300 remote control; my mother said she was worried we'd break it. Then one day, when my parents were away, my sister was using the remote and saw the car pull up, so she slammed it onto "Z" emblem that normally held it and it shattered into a million pieces. My mother acted angry, but she later admitted that she was glad to see it gone and only stopped us from using it because she couldn't stand the noise from the channels changing.
@@notyouraccount566 We still do.
WOW! Got a color TV, RCA Victor color TV. Everybody sing along...
"Continuously variable volume control!" While I know this and color itself was insane tech in 1960, this still provides a chuckle.
Continuously variable volume control was a legitimate and important sales claim for remote control in this era as it provided a more expensive remote motor drive to turn the volume control. The competition brands of the era often used a less expensive stepper relay in the remote control circuit to control volume in only 3 increments, a "low, medium, and high" which were relative to the actual position of the volume control at the TV set itself.
Zenith TV 📺 was the best 👌 👍 1 could ever get , we had good 👍 Luck with them !!!!
Perfect!
I’ve seen bits a pieces and clips of these info series they had
And just saw you listed these a few days ago!
Thank you
I just subscribed to!
16:52 oops, reversed the tuner and speaker connections.. LOL
Yes, interesting how he said speaker leads, but he was actually attaching antenna leads to the tuner.
We never even had a color TV until the mid-70s
That hideaway television set it the coolest.
Oh man, RCA totally should've motorized the Hillsborough! Bob would've been like, WHUH-HO!! DUDE!
And Bill would've been like, "This... is not designed with the serviceman in mind."
I emember how disappointed we were when the TV went "on the blink", then how glad we were when the TV repairman came to fix it, then how terrible we felt when he said he had to take the chassis to the shop for repair.
Thanks for a wonderful video. Fantastic commercials.
Earlier remote control worked off of a mechanical chime noise generator that made sounds that triggered the motor inside of the television set.
I still have a couple of those remote controls. A tiny hammer banged on a metal cylinder that was tuned like a bell for a certain high pitched sound frequency, and a microphone in the TV connected to some tuned circuits sensed which button was pressed. It was so wonderful, until my mother swept the floor. The broom made a series of sounds on the same frequencies, so the TV went crazy! True story! 🤣
@@theclearsounds3911 Thanks for your response! It’s been a long time since I’ve seen on of those remote controls. They made a ping noise when you pressed the buttons and there was motor that turned the tuner. Great memories!
@@Modeltnick Please forgive me for my long story. But, if you bought a TV used, and it had that kind of remote control, but the remote was missing, I discovered a way around it. For each function, if you went into your hardware junk box and dropped random washers into a glass baby food jar, you could recreate the same frequencies, and have yourself a free remote control! Very awkward changing the channels by shaking glass jars, though, but it worked!
@@theclearsounds3911 Very interesting! That system was short lived. Thanks!
In 80ties I had old RCA B&W set with remote. But it was older than shown here - the remote had one big square button and alowed to change channels in set with electric motor driving the manual knob forward. It was nice and fun to see how wheel with numbers turned by remote command. Communication from remote was with ultrasound about 25 kHz. All tube except remote ultrasonic with few transistors. All this was capable to use in mid 80ties, only picture tube was more worn then new. .
As a kid I was the Remote and told to get up and change the channels it was like that until the early 80s.
I was 5 years old. Color TV's were Expensive ..all the way through the 70's . $700.00 on UP.
A look back at 60's Television sets & the technology behind them.
Today, a lot of municipalities have an electronic pickup day where you can throw out old TV’s and PC’s. The dumps don’t want all that non-recyclable electronics in there.
My aunt had a full blown color TV set with remote back around 1960, . The thing cost almost as much as a new car. Even then IF you had a color set. Very few programs were broadcast in color
RCA VICTOR. I remember when RCA meant something and it was built to last. They can make stuff to last a lot longer than it does but why would they. Imagine the money they would lose if you didn't have to buy it again in a few year's.
Amazing technology from RCA even a woman could understand.
Bell Labs, IBM, RCA all had entire armies of engineers and scientists working on improving the technology we consider almost ancient today.
Nice. memories rewinder video
Lol you can turn the TV completely off with the remote control. Remarkable! 😂
I'm curious as to what percentage of TV shows were in color in 1960.
Enjoyed this very much. 😁
Not very many in color. BW tv 📺 outsold color into early 1970s. Only 2% of US homes 🏠 had a color tv in 1960
Only NBC had color at first, as I remember. I bought a 19 inch color set; my first one, in 1976.
Love the service guys. Today, we throw the tv set out. The service guys are all homeless.
many TV's had a mode, where it would turn off the sound and picture, but it would keep the tubes hot for an "instant on" the next time you wanted to watch it...sort of like a picture mute on a modern TV.
In my country Norway, TV was not even working here in 1960, they started broadcasting in the early 60's, 15 years behind USA.. but it was in black and white. The first color TV was introduced in the early 70's, without remote controls. We were way behind due to lack of infrastructure. Today we are a leader in technology, times have changed.
Who did make TVs in Norway by then? Tandberg?
@@johnfalstaff2270Yes Tandberg started the production in 1958 for the Scandinavian market, and also Philips were big in the 60's. They were the 2 main leaders. .
@@bardo0007. My father purchased the first TV in January 1962. It was Hungarian made 17" screen sized "Orion AT403 Tisza". All lamps and kinescope tub inside were made by Tungsram. Very beautiful black&white clear picture and fantastic very resonant sound, despite it was a mono set. We had it until 1976. At the same time, my neighbors acquired beautiful television Lotos from Czechoslovakian electronic company Tesla. Also very good television.
I’m sold. Does it come with Netflix?
....I'm going to get mine at Wally-World today!!
It's interesting that the service guy, talking to the salesman, was going on about how the new TV was basically making his job obsolete.
We never had a color tv nor a remote control. Had to get up to change channels or adjust the antenna rotator.
These weren't promos or ads. They were to educate the salesmen with selling points.
Wow , a button to turn off the TV! Magic !!
Born in 1960 I remember, tv was like a babysitter
I've never seen a TV as the one @7:40, although I follow quite a lot restoration channels...
Serviceman Bill is/was a charmin' fella. And if he did go that big service shop in the sky, wonder if he's smilin' down upon those restorin' and keepin' these old babies alive, today?
Bill was the presenter for Chevrolet from 1980-86 trucks
In heaven Bill is sitting and relaxing by actually watching TV instead of working on the blasted things.
Imagine having a full-time career repairing TV sets? Solder in new components onto a discreet circuit board and all good again.
Would someone ask the Hillsborough Housewife where she got those sparkly curtains? Those curtains are purtyyyy.
I love how at 7:52, the young housewife turns on her Hillsborough to watch the industrial foundry channel.
Remotes still had cables when I was a kid, which was odd because it was the 1980s.
I remember some VCRs with cabled remotes, and a few stereo receivers. I don't remember any cabled remotes on TVs here in the USA, but they might have been around; most of the major TV makers were probably worried someone would use the remote in the tub.
The remote control must have felt futuristic. Able to control something wirelessly in your own home.
She said it certainly is something she’s seen before. 😊
I remember the mechanical wire that used to press the buttons in to change channel 😆
I recall a round tube shape on a neighbor’s new color television, just a few years later.
Rca Hillsboro in stunning 13p resolution and a massive 6 inch screen.
Omg, that thing at 6:45 looks like a coffin!
Could you imagine a company giving this level of technical details with todays tech? It would be insane.
Isn't every apple presentation like this?
11:03 Oh this actor with a gold ring and a metal watch😅. My colleague told me a story from the 90s when, while working as a CRT TV repairman, he accidentally discharged a high-voltage power capacitor with his gold ring🤣. After that he never wore rings in his life.
Watched a video yesterday about how RCA harassed Filo Farnesworth with legal actions for years in order to gain dominance in the 1930’s and 40’s when television was in its infancy. Now this video pops into my queue.
I was born in '59, so I went through the black and white and color TVs but this remote would have been a nightmare for parents with school-age children.
They might have even made the Munsters look normal with this remote. Lol
Back in the day, where a TV could be watched, or heat a room also 😀