The Hue of All Flesh

TV's latest cry is hue, so much so that 10% of U.S. households that have television now have color. Half of those sets were bought last year, and at the present sales rate, the percentage of TV homes with color will approach 25% by next spring, two-thirds by 1970. The only catch is that despite the $1.5 billion they splurged on color in 1965, and despite vast improvements in tuning control, purchasers have discovered that good reception is something that mere money still cannot buy--it takes practice and patience.

Purple Ghosts. The basic problem, generally ignored, is that an unantennaed color set can get no better picture than an unantennaed black-and-white. The fellow grown accustomed to the foibles of his old machine is in for a shock when the "snow" of yesteryear becomes varicolored "confetti," and the old "ghosts" start haunting in green and purple halos. If either form of interference clouded the old black-and-white picture, it will all but eclipse the new color image.

Only after these problems are corrected (sometimes at the price of a special "color-rated" antenna) can the viewer hope to find happiness with his color-control knobs. The INTENSITY knob (labeled COLOR on some sets) determines the quantity of color, the richness of the palette, so to speak; its adjustment is a matter of personal taste. It is the other knob, the TINT or HUE, that is crucial--it determines the tone.

The trick is to check it out on flesh col or. If TINT is turned too far in one direction, people on the screen are complexioned a passionate purple; too far the other way, and they turn a gaseous green. When flesh tints are finally adjusted, the viewer will find that other colors are as well. Even the networks calibrate their cameras by zeroing in on so-called "color girls," who stand in with their flesh for 20 minutes before shooting starts.

True-Blue Batman. Major trouble in color consistency is that there is no uniform standard used by all production studios on all cameras, so that there are as many transmission-tone variations as there are color girls. Often, as Huntley and Brinkley report, the audience just gets Chet tinted correctly (healthy suntan, hazel-brown eyes) when the producer cuts to David, who comes in as a lurid lavender. By the time Brinkley is attuned (pale pink skin, blue eyes), there is a switch to a remote Frank McGee looking sickly green at Cape Kennedy. Similarly, every break for a commercial or shift to another channel could require a readjustment. Given the errant ways of all flesh, a listener who wants realistic color can hardly afford to take his hands off the controls.

For the purist who demands nothing less than perfection, a good test pattern with which to start the morning is Barbara Walters, comely regular on the Today show. Her skin should be olive, her anchor desk light mahogany. The set is still performing 17 hours later if Johnny Carson signs off sunburned behind a light green desk. For fans who tune in late on thin-skinned shows, color Lassie strawberry blond and Batman's tights puce, his cape true blue.

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