What if TOS Season 1 was filmed in Black and White?

[TheSubCommander]

So, I am currently in the middle of an (original) The Outer Limits marathon. Of course, there are influences from that show on TOS, including some Trek actors like some themes possibly influencing Trek, Shatner, Nimoy, and Doohan having appeared, and some of the props being re-used. As a kid, my first TV I was allowed to have was a black and white TV, adn I remember seeing Star Trek TOS reruns on it, so I know what it looks like in Black and White. But after watching The Outer Limits recently, it occurred to me what if TOS Season 1 was filmed in Black and White? Would it have been as successful or would it have even survived to season 2? Many other shows started season 1 as a B&W, and transitioned to color, so Trek would have surely done the same, but do you think Trek would have survived cancellation, had season 1 been filmed in B&W?

 

[Christopher]

According to Inside Star Trek: The Real Story by Herbert F. Solow and Robert H. Justman, the main reason ST got renewed for a second and third season was because it was cited in a study as the main reason why people were buying color television sets. The patent for color TV was owned by RCA, the parent company of NBC, so the losses RCA was taking from the show's disappointing ratings were offset by the profits they made from the color TV sales it prompted.

If that account is true, then if TOS had been in black & white, its odds of getting a second season would've been lower. It might've cost a bit less to make, though, assuming black & white film was cheaper, so that could've saved enough to balance out the ratings. NBC did want to keep the show since they considered it classy and prestigious, and it got five Emmy nominations in 1967: for Best Dramatic Series, for Leonard Nimoy as Best Supporting Actor, and for its special and visual effects and sound editing. So it could have been renewed without color, but it would've been less likely.

 

[Green Shirt]

Its possible that knowing in advance the show would have been shot in b&w there could have been an attempt to make it more mysterious and noir-ish.

And we might have been forever spared the debate on what color the command shirts are.

 

[Christopher]

It was pretty noir-ish anyway, because its director of photography Jerry Finnerman was trained by film-noir cinematographers. You can see plenty of noir touches in his work -- the interplay of light and shadow, the use of slashes of light to highlight characters' eyes, the use of crosslighting on men to make them look more rugged and frontlighting and soft focus on women to soften them.

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

I've wondered similarly, too. I know as a kid, seeing the show in black and white did not diminish my enthusiasm for it one bit. I'm sure in earlier times, people reacted similarly to shows, as black and white was, well, the way it was.

Having said that, I was pretty thrilled when we got a color tv set, and suddenly, the Star Trek universe seemed to double in intrigue. To paraphrase a certain someone, it was like being blind all my life, suddenly being given sight.

So I really don't know the answer, except to say I loved it either way.

Call me crazy, but I'm actually interested in finding a way to duplicate the snowy tv picture of yore, to re-experience what so captivated me over (gulp) forty years ago...

 

[Silvercrest]

Its possible that knowing in advance the show would have been shot in b&w there could have been an attempt to make it more mysterious and noir-ish.

And we might have been forever spared the debate on what color the command shirts are.

And you'd be out of luck on a username and avatar.

 

[Christopher]

One other consideration: If the first season of TOS had been in black and white, then -- presuming the series had run for at least a couple more seasons and gotten into syndication -- the first season would probably have been shown a lot less in the syndication era. Lots of shows that jump from B&W to color would have their early, monochrome seasons skipped over in a lot of syndication packages. And it was syndication that really made TOS successful and paved the way for the rest of the franchise. So even if a B&W first season hadn't gotten the show cancelled in '67, it might've prevented the movies and the later shows from existing.

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

Its possible that knowing in advance the show would have been shot in b&w there could have been an attempt to make it more mysterious and noir-ish.

And we might have been forever spared the debate on what color the command shirts are.

And you'd be out of luck on a username and avatar.

Yeah, he'd just be our pal Gray Shirt...

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

One other consideration: If the first season of TOS had been in black and white, then -- presuming the series had run for at least a couple more seasons and gotten into syndication -- the first season would probably have been shown a lot less in the syndication era. Lots of shows that jump from B&W to color would have their early, monochrome seasons skipped over in a lot of syndication packages. And it was syndication that really made TOS successful and paved the way for the rest of the franchise. So even if a B&W first season hadn't gotten the show cancelled in '67, it might've prevented the movies and the later shows from existing.

Isn't history fascinating in its fragility?

 

[ZapBrannigan]

We had b&w TV in the early 1970s, and I was obsessed with Star Trek. The first time I saw what the show was meant to look like was on the front and back covers of The Making of Star Trek, with its color photos. It was extremely tantalizing. For some reason the little picture of Spock leaning over his hooded viewer made me crave a color TV. [If Spock had been a Vulcan woman, maybe played by Barbara Luna, I would have lost my mind.]

Then I got a look at one episode ("Operation: Annihilate!") on my neighbor's color TV-- a big wooden console model. And my then grandmother's house ("The Squire of Gothos"). Finally we got a color set and a gigantic golden roof antenna with a motorized rotor that changed my life.

What muddies the waters for me regarding a b&w season of Star Trek is that I'm also a Lost in Space fan, and that show's first season was its best. The stories were better, and Gene Polito's b&w cinematography was gorgeous. He did for b&w what Jerry Finnerman did for color: made it dramatic and striking.

Lost in Space demonstrates that when a well-made show starts out in b&w, its production design favors b&w, looks great that way, and has to be dramatically revised in a switch to color film. And there's a risk that the new look will be garish, because sets are designed a certain way for b&w.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

NBC did want to keep the show since they considered it classy and prestigious, and it got five Emmy nominations in 1967: for Best Dramatic Series, for Leonard Nimoy as Best Supporting Actor, and for its special and visual effects and sound editing. So it could have been renewed without color, but it would've been less likely.

Wait, so TOS was basically 1967 NBC's NuBSG?

 

[mos6507]

Were there any other shows that were lit the way TOS was, with a noirish sensibility, but in color? It seems to be an outlier. The garish colors were a common sight in 60s TV, but the techniques like the colored gels and the flags and things seem to be a TOS specialty.

 

[Christopher]

Were there any other shows that were lit the way TOS was, with a noirish sensibility, but in color? It seems to be an outlier.

Other Jerry Finnerman series, e.g. Moonlighting.

 

[Maurice]

Mission: Impossible looks very similar minus the colored gels.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Were there any other shows that were lit the way TOS was, with a noirish sensibility, but in color? It seems to be an outlier.

Other Jerry Finnerman series, e.g. Moonlighting.

But the two shows had dramatically different color palettes.

Even so, Moonlighting did have the odd scene here and there, like the surreal, romantic dance number between Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis that was set to the song "Big Man on Mulberry Street."

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

NBC did want to keep the show since they considered it classy and prestigious, and it got five Emmy nominations in 1967: for Best Dramatic Series, for Leonard Nimoy as Best Supporting Actor, and for its special and visual effects and sound editing. So it could have been renewed without color, but it would've been less likely.

Wait, so TOS was basically 1967 NBC's NuBSG?

Sorta. "Star Trek" was trying to push the boundaries of 1960s television. Not always necessarily in the show's stories. Rather, in the amount of skin that could be shown — mostly female skin, but skin nevertheless.

As science fiction series go for the 1960s, in terms of naturalism and actually trying to be science fiction, "Star Trek" was the nuBSG of the era.

 

[Mudd]

I watched every episode for the first two years in black and white. It was pretty good.

 

[Melakon]

By Fall 1966, I think most of NBC's existing programs had converted to color. The show was used to promote RCA sets, there would be a "simulated picture" of Kirk and Spock in RCA advertising, and I think in Sears catalogues, as RCA manufactured Sears' Silvertone brand. Our first color set was from Sears, for Christmas 1965 because I lobbied heavily for it.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. had started in black and white in '64-'65, and made a big deal about the switch promoting their second season, with Robert Vaughn announcing, "Don't miss our debut IN COLOR!"

If Star Trek had started a year earlier in black and white, it might have taken a similar approach. NBC promoted itself as the first full color network.

 

[Green Shirt]

Its possible that knowing in advance the show would have been shot in b&w there could have been an attempt to make it more mysterious and noir-ish.

And we might have been forever spared the debate on what color the command shirts are.

And you'd be out of luck on a username and avatar.

Yeah, he'd just be our pal Gray Shirt...

Yeah, but I can't makeup my mind if my name would be light gray shirt, or dark gray shirt.

BTW thanks for using the spelling "gray", rather than "grey".

 

[Albertese]

It's interesting how the photography had B&W sets in mind. As a teenager in the 90's the television I had in my bed room was an old small Montgomery Ward branded TV from the 60's or 70's that my grandma had years prior. I watched plenty of Trek. both TOS and TNG on that little black and white TV.

What's interesting is that the TOS always looked good in B&W and TNG didn't really. Very flat. Lacked the depth of value and dynamism of TOS when you pull out all the color. But TOS reads just as well as shows shot for B&W like The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits, even though it was made for color TV.

Just goes to show that they really had to think things through to make sure it looked good in both formats.

--Alex