This episode premiered at 9:30 on Thursday, November 2, 1961 on NBC, presumably airing against short-lived network competitors Margie and The Investigators. Take the lack of competition and the fact it followed hit Dr. Kildare, and it is no wonder Hazel finished the season #4 in the ratings.
NBC was owned by TV manufacturer RCA at the time, and it made efforts to promote purchase of color sets. For context, this is a mere weeks after the NBC debut of Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, which had been an ABC program and black and white (under a different title; it would be odd to have a black-and-white show called Wonderful World of Color). Some of the rest of NBC's lineup, especially Westerns like Laramie and Bonanza, was already in color, and of course Hazel itself would transition in season two. About a year after this episode, NBC promoted a Color Week stunt in which B&W series like Dr. Kildare ran in color.
So what is the theme of this special episode? Well, naturally it's about Hazel Burke getting a new TV set, and not just any set, but a spiffy new color set! Yes, all the better to watch Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall, which aired Wednesdays at 9:00 in beautiful living color!
I'll get into the actual episode more next time, but for now enjoy some shots from the opening sequence. It's notable that the producers actually reshot this in color as well. Note that you get a glimpse of Don Defore's bandaged hand, which I referenced in this post about episode 4, in one shot! We were told it was injured catching a line drive hit by Hazel, but I still prefer to think George Baxter suffered an injury in an underground Muy Thai tournament.
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1 comment:
It was interesting to note how sponsors of television shows actually got involved in the changing times of technology. Like how credits were run with Chevrolet cars at the end of a show. It was more interesting than the way things are done now!
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