I remember the early attempts at colorization that were smeary and splotchy. But I was amazed to see how great seasons 1 and 2 of Bewitched look in color. It looks so good that I thought I was going crazy, and found myself wondering is Bewitched has originally been filmed on color.
You can watch 20 second (or so) snippets of each show at the iTunes store.
Something else I noticed - season 1 has 36 episodes, and season 2 has 38! Was that because the show was only a half hour long? Did most sitcoms of yore have as many episodes? Seems like these days we’re lucky to get ~20 some episodes out of a season of anything.
Once upon a time a long time ago, TV seasons lasted a lot longer - in the back of my mind, 39 weeks is lodged, but I’m not sure why. It had nothing to do with the length of the program itself - the season started in September and ran until early June. Reruns were called “Summer Reruns” since no one ran new programs while everyone was off on vacation. A series that began in January was called a Mid-Season Replacement.
I don’t recall when the seasons got shorter and began at random times. [geezer mode] But it ain’t like the good ol’ days!![/gm]
There was originally a 13-week production schedule for most series; if ratings were satisfactory, they’d be renewed for a full season of 39 after the first 13 (at what was considered mid-season), and summer repeats would round it out to a full 52 weeks. This ensured a full broadcast schedule year-round.
I know Gilligan’s Island, which debuted in 1964, was on such a production schedule (there are interviews with Sherwood Schwartz on YouTube), but it was only a half-hour sitcom. IIRC, Star Trek, which came on just two years later, was limited to 26 episodes in its first season and fewer each subsequent season; it was, however, a full hour and filmed in color. I suspect rising production costs and changing advertising revenues had something to do with the change (by 1968, a pilot episode was no longer required to sell a series).
It wasn’t until the mid-70s, when shows began to be cancelled long before they had a chance to build a loyal following (look up Mad Marvin Antonowsky and Fred Silverman), that schedules became more random and erratic. The trend was interrupted somewhat in the '80s by Grant Tinker and Brandon Tartikoff, who were smart enough to give slow starters like Hill Street Blues and Cheers! more of a chance.