Posted by jayembee on 01/04/07 06:51

"Jim Burgan" <jimbo700@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

>>> I'm just glad that it's coming and I'm glad season 2 and the
>>> rest were filmed in color.
>>
>> On the second point: I'm not. I think the B&W of the first season
>> looks much better than the color in the second. For one thing, it
>> hides the polyester look of Jim West's outfit.
>
> You may be right but I grew up in the 50's and 60's and I hated
> B&W television. We didn't get out first color TV until 1969 or
> 1970 and I hate B&W

I also grew up in the 50s and 60s, and my family didn't get a color
TV until 1974 or 1975. As I kid, I had no special feeling one way
or the other about color. Well, to a point. If a show was filmed
in color, I was aching to see it in color (I still remember the
first time I saw a STAR TREK episode in color). But I never had
a feeling that either color or B&W was inherently better than the
other.

The older I got, the better my appreciation for the artistry of
B&W, and I *tend* to prefer B&W to color. I still don't think
either one is inherently better than the other -- it depends mostly
on how the director and D.P. use whichever one they're using.

> Back to WWW, the first season was very well produced and the
> cinematography was great. The lighting was also great (if not
> excessive) for B&W. Season 1 would be an excellent candidate for
> colorization. The new digital colorizing is amazing, although
> it's too late at this point.

Sorry, but you'll never convince me of that. I *will* admit that
the more recent colorization process yields better results than
previous ones, based on the examples I've seen. And even the
early 90s colorization of Disney's ZORRO doesn't look awful, but
while I've seen a *lot* of examples of colorized films and TV
shows, I've *never* seen one that I thought was superior to the
original B&W.

> The new colorized version of "Miracle on 34th St" also looks
> fabulous (not the 80's version done by Ted turner's company).

Nope, can't agree. It looks barely acceptable. But the other week,
my wife and I had seen both versions (colorized and B&W) -- they
aired back-to-back on AMC -- and we both felt the B&W looked far
better.

-- jayembee

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