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Old 21st Nov 2017, 8:45 pm   #1
Colourstar
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Default 1973 Colour TV showroom

The other night I was watching an episode of the 1973 ATV comedy 'The Kids from 47a'. All good fun and in the story 'The One Eyed Monster' the family's black & white set breaks down, resulting in a trip to a tv showroom to try and rent a colour set (with hilarious consequences). The showroom sequence is shot on location videotape so is very clear, with most of the main colour tvs of the period shown working on display. Some sets are showing the test card, whilst others are on an ITV commercial break, capturing the animated 'exploding' ATV ident between adverts. It was obviously a real showroom in a large store probably somewhere in Birmingham.

In the original sequence it's possible to spot BRC 8500, Philips G8, Pye CT205, GEC single standard (showing the inter-advert ATV 'eyes'), Decca Bradford, Hitachi and Panasonic TC85G on a stand.

I'm not sure how clear these screen grabs will be, but here we go...

Steve
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Old 21st Nov 2017, 8:45 pm   #2
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Default Re: 1973 Colour TV showroom

Last two....

The dvd is highly recommended by the way!
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Old 21st Nov 2017, 9:03 pm   #3
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Default Re: 1973 Colour TV showroom

Lovely! Nostalgic!

Steve
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Old 21st Nov 2017, 9:10 pm   #4
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Default Re: 1973 Colour TV showroom

Just noticed on picture 6 that there is a card on the dark radiogram in the foreground which appears to read 'Currys Plus', so it must have been a branch of that chain.

I love how colourful the showroom looks, even the display for the b&w portables is dayglo. All the excitement of the colour boom era!

Steve
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Old 21st Nov 2017, 9:14 pm   #5
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Default Re: 1973 Colour TV showroom

Fascinating to look at the prices too: £239 would back then have been a month's salary for a typical office worker. Probably equivalent to nearly £2000 today!

No wonder rental was popular.
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Old 21st Nov 2017, 9:36 pm   #6
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Default Re: 1973 Colour TV showroom

Brilliant post Steve, some nicely captured screen grabs there
By the way have a look above the black and white portable stand on pic 7 'rrys' of the Currys logo.

Marc.
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Old 21st Nov 2017, 11:14 pm   #7
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Default Re: 1973 Colour TV showroom

What a fantastic collection of pictures, Steve! The GEC in the first picture is the same 2000 DST that I have been restoring this year (it's still not finished!) so that was a surprise to see.
The 70's was just so colourful, grey and beige were just not allowed anywhere
Thanks for posting!
Cheers
Nick
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Old 21st Nov 2017, 11:41 pm   #8
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Default Re: 1973 Colour TV showroom

I am not covinced that this is a curry's shop as currys did not do rental
untill a bit later then it was done under the name of carousel colour hire. The shop in the pic clearly displays a rental sign. The rental side of Currys quickley disappered after the Dixions take over . some of the set that had been on rental where sold . I purchased a sanyo ctv porable for a relative caravan.
regards Derrick
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Old 21st Nov 2017, 11:52 pm   #9
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Default Re: 1973 Colour TV showroom

At the top of the last (7th) photo, the bottom of part of the letters of part of a sign can be seen that seems to read "rrys Televis", consistent with "Currys Television".
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Old 22nd Nov 2017, 1:22 am   #10
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Default Re: 1973 Colour TV showroom

A male showroom manager. At Granada I don't recall any, the position was advertised as "Manageress" as I recall.
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Old 22nd Nov 2017, 2:23 am   #11
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Default Re: 1973 Colour TV showroom

The showroom manager is Ivan Beavis aka Harry Hewitt from Coronation Street.
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Old 22nd Nov 2017, 8:25 am   #12
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Default Re: 1973 Colour TV showroom

Quote:
Originally Posted by 1955APREN View Post
I am not covinced that this is a curry's shop as currys did not do rental
untill a bit later then it was done under the name of carousel colour hire. The shop in the pic clearly displays a rental sign. The rental side of Currys quickley disappered after the Dixions take over . some of the set that had been on rental where sold . I purchased a sanyo ctv porable for a relative caravan.
regards Derrick
In that case, it's either an early example of 'product placement' (unlikely, I think), or a mix of genuine commercial signage and set dressing.
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Old 22nd Nov 2017, 8:51 am   #13
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Default Re: 1973 Colour TV showroom

It's certainly a window into a different time! However, I would like to see the full segment as video before I can tell whether it's studio or location. Shooting on location at that time needed a 12 ton truck plus another 7.5 ton VTR unit, a whole host of support tenders carrying G101 camera cable (monstrous), lighting and other kit. The TV cameras were huge - I mean, HUGE such as EMI 2001 or Marconi MkVII. It would be several years before viable, quality 'portable' cameras would appear such as the Ikegamis, RCA TK76 etc. The usual arrangement was to shoot an exterior on film and then cut to a studio re-creation of the interior. The exterior would be shot on 16 mm film and that first picture looks like it could be film. If you look at things such as 'Dad's Army', you will see this method of working all the time. The shift from film to video is obvious in terms of picture 'look' (not always 'quality') and seeing the whole thing would give the game away. Following through that door with an EMI 2001 or a Marconi MkVII would have been an interesting exercise!

I'm pretty certain it's a studio recreation - the style looks like an art department idea of what it should look like rather than what it was really like. Close, but at the end of the day a re-creation. I could be wrong (as ever) but the technology to shoot on video on location something such as that wasn't really there at that time. The studio set ruled and the TVs would have gone to the studio - much easier to do!

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Old 22nd Nov 2017, 12:18 pm   #14
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Default Re: 1973 Colour TV showroom

I think it's real, although the shop has obviously been dressed, but if the clip of the store front is on video then I would suspect the rest would have been video on location too.

A number of productions in the early 70's were experimenting with outside broadcasts instead of film. I think "Bless This House" was all video. There is one "night time" outdoor scene in "Bless This House" where you can tell that the actors are wincing and being dazzled by the bright lighting needed, even though it supposed to be the dead of night.
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Old 22nd Nov 2017, 12:57 pm   #15
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Default Re: 1973 Colour TV showroom

The decider will be whether the first picture is film - and as a still it does look like film. It's much easier to tell when it's moving!

I still think that it's highly unlikely to be shot inside an actual shop - the logistics would just be too daunting at that time. Even a Marconi MkVIII (a relatively small camera first manufactured in 1970) would still need tremendous supporting infra-structure to be used in this way - at least by the standards of today. The VTR would be a quadruplex and huge, installed in its own truck with air-con, air supplies and support kit. Then there's the OB truck itself, lighting gear, camera tender - the list goes on (and on).

For scenes where there's a 'production line' going (such as a series) then OB was indeed sometimes being used for production on location using OB resources, but it wasn't at all common. Serial productions from theatres (eg 'The Good Old Days' were certainly using OB, but a lowly comedy and a 'one-off' scene seems to be unlikely. The cost involved (and the disruption) would not have warranted the massive incursion of kit and people. There are exceptions that I can think of, things such as 'Freewheelers' (Southern) and 'The Flaxton Boys' (Yorkshire), but these were rather different productions and not just one scene in one episode in a budget comedy.

The decider is that first exterior shot - film or video, and it looks like film from the still. Could be wrong, of course, never say never!

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Paul M
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Old 22nd Nov 2017, 1:28 pm   #16
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Default Re: 1973 Colour TV showroom

Nice Grundig.

Lawrence.
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Old 22nd Nov 2017, 2:36 pm   #17
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Default Re: 1973 Colour TV showroom

The BBC used portable OB cameras when making the Dr Who story The Sontaran Experiment in 1974.
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Old 22nd Nov 2017, 3:09 pm   #18
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Default Re: 1973 Colour TV showroom

Portable cameras (of a sort) existed by 1974 but they weren't portable as we understand them today (eg Marconi MkVIIIP introduced in 1974)! They still needed an OB truck to run them and a VT truck to record them (at least for decent quality, broadcast video - not low band U Matic). All 'quality' broadcast 'portables' at that time had back-packs/suit-case intermediate electronics units and a conventional CCU/PSU rack-mounted base units back at the truck. 'Dr Who' did indeed try out the idea quite early, but only with a full OB to run the 'portables' from.

The first 'one piece' reasonable quality 3 tube broadcast cameras were the TK76 (1976) and Ikegami HL77 (1977, if memory serves), but even those needed external recorders and the support of an OB truck for Electronic Field Production (EFP). Things changed dramatically during the mid to late 70s, but at the beginning of the decade things were still 'heavyweight', meaning that a budget conscious scene for one comedy episode would still be shot film for location exteriors and studio for interiors. Even regular, popular BBC comedies were shot this way, eg 'Porridge', 'The Good Life' etc. It would take a long time for electronic to become the normal shooting method for this kind of programme throughout.

It wasn't really until the advent of true broadcast quality video lightweight production equipment in the late 70s that the economics of on-location video as a regular thing made sense. There are many instances of this being used later in the decade, but in 1973 at ATV for a single episode of a low-budget comedy would it have made sense? I am not convinced, but as ever, given proof I'm very happy to be proved wrong!

Best regards,

Paul M
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Old 22nd Nov 2017, 6:45 pm   #19
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Default Re: 1973 Colour TV showroom

Re: 1973 colour tv showroom.

hello all,
I would like to confirm that this particular scene was shot at the Currys superstore in Martineau Way, Birmingham city centre, which was just a stones throw away from the ATV studios in Broad Street. I was there that very day. As this was the largest Currys store in the country at the time it had a small workshop upstairs where I (18 years old) at the time and my boss Tom repaired small items (radios, record players etc) brought in by customers plus all brown goods faulty stock. We were actually employed by the then Currys service arm Belcher Electronic Services Ltd.
What you are seeing in the pictures is what was called the colour tv lounge- specially designed area with soft lighting to demonstrate colour sets to customers. It appears much brighter here because of the studio type lighting used for the scene where the actor is sitting at a desk and the young lad is asking to rent a tv set. Currys did not do rentals at this time so any posters showing this were props from ATV. As far as I can remember there there were 2 cameras in use. These were the large colour cameras of the day mentioned above. The cables from these ran the length of the shop out to the OB truck parked in Union Street. Cables from this went up the side of the building to the flat roof where a microwave link was set up back to the studio where the scenes would have been recorded proberly on Ampex 2 inch VTR. I was given a guided tour of the truck on my lunch break by one of the techs which was fascinating as I had never seen any of the broadcast side of the industry before. Hope this has been of interest.

Best wishes Alan.
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Old 22nd Nov 2017, 7:31 pm   #20
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Default Re: 1973 Colour TV showroom

Quote:
Originally Posted by PaulM View Post
Portable cameras (of a sort) existed by 1974 but they weren't portable as we understand them today (eg Marconi MkVIIIP introduced in 1974)! They still needed an OB truck to run them and a VT truck to record them (at least for decent quality, broadcast video - not low band U Matic). All 'quality' broadcast 'portables' at that time had back-packs/suit-case intermediate electronics units and a conventional CCU/PSU rack-mounted base units back at the truck. 'Dr Who' did indeed try out the idea quite early, but only with a full OB to run the 'portables' from.

The first 'one piece' reasonable quality 3 tube broadcast cameras were the TK76 (1976) and Ikegami HL77 (1977, if memory serves), but even those needed external recorders and the support of an OB truck for Electronic Field Production (EFP). Things changed dramatically during the mid to late 70s, but at the beginning of the decade things were still 'heavyweight', meaning that a budget conscious scene for one comedy episode would still be shot film for location exteriors and studio for interiors. Even regular, popular BBC comedies were shot this way, eg 'Porridge', 'The Good Life' etc. It would take a long time for electronic to become the normal shooting method for this kind of programme throughout.

It wasn't really until the advent of true broadcast quality video lightweight production equipment in the late 70s that the economics of on-location video as a regular thing made sense. There are many instances of this being used later in the decade, but in 1973 at ATV for a single episode of a low-budget comedy would it have made sense? I am not convinced, but as ever, given proof I'm very happy to be proved wrong!

Best regards,

Paul M
Thanks for all that, I'm fairly sure you are right, the set designer probably had a good eye for detail.
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