Depth perception of HD TV vs B&W

Factual Questions
1

Close to 20 years ago, I remember sitting on the couch watching an old episode of The Twilight Zone in black & white with my Dad on broadcast TV. I remember sitting there amazed at how clean the picture was, and how the image had such an incredible sense of depth.

Last night I watched A Christmas Vacation on DVD with an HD TV and again noticed that same clean, deep visual sensation, almost 3D in a way.

How is it that a broadcast show, viewed 20 years ago on a very plain TV was able to achieve that quality? I remember at the time viewing it and wanting to ask my Dad what was up, but unable to put it into words.

Any ideas? I seem to recall this a few times with B&W viewing.

2

In the second season of The Twilight Zone some episodes were shot on video instead of on film. Was the episode you saw one of these? They were; Twenty-Two, Static, The Whole Truth, The Lateness of the Hour, Night of the Meek, and Long Distance Call.

These have a different quality and depth of field that make them look quite distinctive from the others.

3

Here’s “The Whole Truth” (in Spanish) for the posters who are wondering about the effect. They used videotape as a cost cutting measure. I watched it a while back on a regular CRT TV and the effect was noticeable on it as well.