This Day in Pop Culture for September 12

1959: The First Color TV Show

NBC made the first coast-to-coast color broadcast on January 1, 1954 during its telecast of the Tournament of Roses Parade, but it wasn’t until five years later that a regular show was broadcast in color on a regular basis. The western Bonanza began airing on this day on NBC in 1959. The show’s Saturday night ratings were terrible and under normal circumstances would have been cancelled, but since it was the first series to be filmed and broadcast in color, NBC kept it going. In 1961 the show was moved to Sunday nights where its ratings soared. In 1964, Bona1940nza made the #1 spot and stayed there until 1967. In 1970, the show became the first to appear in the top five list for nine consecutive seasons.

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