What a difference it would have made if the series had been made in colour.Some of the locations,particularly in Griffith Park,or parts of Mullholland Drive,look absolutely spectacular on Google streetview but drab and sparse in 1950's black and white.Would it have cost much more to film it in colour?
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If you're from Great Britain the correct spelling of color is colour.
shareIt's hard to believe but, yes, it would have cost a lot more to film in color. Plus, there wasn't a big enough demand yet for color television since a part of the general public was still trying to catch up and buy their first TV set in 1955.
I appreciate B&W television. It gives a vintage show like HP a certain feel.
There were no color series produced until the 1963-64 season, except for the Wonderful World of Disney. Walt Disney started filming in color years before anyone else, because he knew eventually TV would be all color. Even though some series were filmed in color, there were no series broadcast in color until the 1964-65 season, and many series that started in black and white didn't switch to color until later. The Fugitive started in 1963 and didn't switch to color until 1966-67 for its final season. Bewitched started in 1964 and didn't switch to color until 1966-67 for its third season.
Black and white is an essential part of the film noir style, of which Highway Patrol is obviously an exemplar. The best example of how color ruined the noir style is Dragnet. The original run of the series was in black and white. When they brought it back mid-season in 1966-67, the color eliminated the noir aspect and made everything seem more palatable and less gritty. The bad guys looked less like criminals and more like actors. Color Dragnet seems less like a crime drama and more like a documentary. To the extent that Highway Patrol was even grittier and needed the noir touches more, color would have ruined everything.
Yes, there were some color TV series before 1963. Bonanza, for one.
"All necessary truth is its own evidence." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Cisco Kid, later episodes of The Adventures of Superman, and most notably, Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color among many others.
shareYup, holbrookp is right, Bonanza was the first series to be filmed in color from start to finish. Most shows ran at least the pilot in B&W. Some think color might have saved the Munsters, but that's a different debate
sharecolor started in 1950. Various shows, a nature show with Ivan Sanderson, The Cisco Kid etc
The first color tv was $1200-about $5000 in todays dollars
as late as 1965 many shows (I'm thinking Irwin Allen ran the first season of LOST IN SPACE in BW-i actually like the noir feel it had; When EVERYTHING went to color in 1966, the colors on LIS were way too garish. By season 3, the must have hired a color consultant. The show had gone stupid, but the colors were nice.
shareZIV, the company producing this show filmed many of their shows in color, even earlier than 1955. Science Fiction Theater, Cisco Kid, Boston Blackie,Wild Bill Hickok and I Led Three Lives all were filmed in color, though not broadcast that way. I'm fairly sure Highway Patrol was also. Haven't found any,but have color shows for all the others mentioned. If anyone has color shows for HP,please come forward. Email [email protected]. Thanks, Howard Roller.
shareIrwin Allen filmed the pilots of VOYAGE and footage for LOST IN SPACE in color, so they could be reused later when they went color
shareI love the retro vintage look of Highway Patrol in B/W.
shareBack in the early days of TV you could buy a piece of tinted glass or plexiglass in the right size to fit over your screen to imitate color.
I doubt if it worked very well.