# "smoke" effect in 60's TV **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 17, 2011, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoke-effect-in-60s-tv/585799 "2011-06-17T05:37:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2011, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoke-effect-in-60s-tv/585799/1 "2011-06-17T05:37:39Z")
Watching some old “Man from U.N.C.L.E.” episodes – good stuff! In the first series, aired in 1964, you often see a “smoke” or “poison gas” or “knockout gas” effect. The smoke is VERY thick, almost milky. But nowadays, you never see that kind of smoke. It seems to have gone entirely out of fashion. Howcum? Dangerous? Messy? Smells bad and actors hate it? How was it done, anyway? It looks almost like “liquid chalk” but rising through the air. It looks a little similar to the colored smoke in the movies “Modesty Blaise” and “Danger Diabolik,” but milky-white and (I think) a little thicker. Trinopus (why, yes, I am a fan of bad spy movies…) ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2011, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoke-effect-in-60s-tv/585799/2 "2011-06-17T10:11:37Z")
It looks like standard Dry Ice fog to me (which hugs the ground better than other fog machines). There are [health effects](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fog_machine#Adverse_Health_Effects)[associated](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatrical_smoke_and_fog#Carbon_dioxide)with using fog machines. ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2011, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoke-effect-in-60s-tv/585799/3 "2011-06-17T11:50:11Z")
From [Internet Movie Database](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058815/trivia) > [@](#): > > During the first season [of “I Dream of Jeannie”], in black and white, the smoke effect was usually a screen overlay of billowing smoke, sometimes combined with animation. Early color episodes used a purely animated smoke effect. Sometime later a live smoke pack, lifted out of the bottle on a wire, was used. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2011, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoke-effect-in-60s-tv/585799/4 "2011-06-17T21:04:40Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > It looks like standard Dry Ice fog to me (which hugs the ground better than other fog machines). There are [health effects](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fog_machine#Adverse_Health_Effects)[associated](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatrical_smoke_and_fog#Carbon_dioxide)with using fog machines. Hm… Might be… To my untrained eye, the smoke effect on U.N.C.L.E. looked much thicker, heavier, “chalkier” or “milkier.” Almost more liquid than gaseous. Dry ice fog is semi-transparent, but the stuff I’m thinking of is strongly opaque. Also, it lasts longer: dry ice fog dissipates very quickly. And, also, the stuff I’m thinking of comes in bright colors, and I can’t think of any way to dye dry ice fog. Or…maybe I’m wrong? Would dry ice fog behave differently if, say, collected in a bellows and squeezed out under pressure? Trinopus ---
**Author:** ![Capitaine\_Zombie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@Capitaine\_Zombie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capitaine_Zombie)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2011, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoke-effect-in-60s-tv/585799/5 "2011-06-18T20:57:13Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Hm… Might be… To my untrained eye, the smoke effect on U.N.C.L.E. looked much thicker, heavier, “chalkier” or “milkier.” Almost more liquid than gaseous. Dry ice fog is semi-transparent, but the stuff I’m thinking of is strongly opaque. Also, it lasts longer: dry ice fog dissipates very quickly. And, also, the stuff I’m thinking of comes in bright colors, and I can’t think of any way to dye dry ice fog. > > Or…maybe I’m wrong? Would dry ice fog behave differently if, say, collected in a bellows and squeezed out under pressure? > > Trinopus There are different fog machines. Some are just there to diffuse a little smoke which will underline the light directions and effects (often done when you want a Vermeer like “light from the window” thing). Some are real dense fogs. Over the years, what is legally possible to use has changed. One of the popular fog mixes was the A+B Fog, which is now totally illegal because of its alleged toxicity. You may have seen one of those early effects fog. Maybe try to post a link. ETA: I mean a vid link, youtube like. ---
**Author:** ![brossa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brossa/32/3040_2.png) [@brossa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brossa)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoke-effect-in-60s-tv/585799/6 "2011-06-19T23:16:48Z")
I bet it was smoke smoke, not ‘fog’ or smoke machine mist. Smoke bombs can be made with pigments that produce bright colors, or even dense white smoke, as seen [in](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iehOzdf4JPk&feature=related) [multiple](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfmFi4-1SCo&NR=1&feature=fvwp)[youtube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRx6Ui_GBwY&feature=related)[videos.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H-rseITdzU&feature=related) Being the product of combustion, I can’t imagine that it is fun to work in or around; you would to be upwind of the stuff if at all possible. ---
**Author:** ![Oglomott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oglomott/32/3543_2.png) [@Oglomott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oglomott)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoke-effect-in-60s-tv/585799/7 "2011-06-20T13:30:19Z")
Slight hijack, but in movies and TV, when there is a fire where you have people running around trying to escape the fire and smoke, is something other than “real” smoke used? After all, people in real fires often die from smoke inhalation, so I would guess they use maybe steam, or something safe for actors to work in and around that would produce no breathing danger. ---
**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoke-effect-in-60s-tv/585799/8 "2011-06-20T14:58:12Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > And, also, the stuff I’m thinking of comes in bright colors, and I can’t think of any way to dye dry ice fog. Could they have used directed coloured lighting to achieve that effect? ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoke-effect-in-60s-tv/585799/9 "2011-06-20T21:12:32Z")
**brossa** : by george, I think you’ve got it! The YouTube videos you linked to definitely seem to be the stuff. Back in the good old days, actors would let that stuff gush right into their faces (although I doubt that they inhaled it!) It was very effective, and that makes me think that it must have been done away with for safety reasons (as **Capitaine Zombie** suggests.) Thank y’all! Trinopus (slightly less ignorant now)