# Was Cannon shot in 16mm or something? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 1, 2017, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-cannon-shot-in-16mm-or-something/803246 "2017-12-01T13:53:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Stan\_Shmenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/94ad74/32.png) [@Stan\_Shmenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stan_Shmenge)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2017, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-cannon-shot-in-16mm-or-something/803246/1 "2017-12-01T13:53:13Z")
Watching it on ME-TV and it looks really soft. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2017, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-cannon-shot-in-16mm-or-something/803246/2 "2017-12-01T16:07:26Z")
According to IMDB, it was shot on 35mm. Almost everything was in those days. It’s probably that they don’t have good quality masters. Probably faded prints. Given that, I didn’t know it was on ME. I’ll have to give it a look, see if it is still good after all these years, or whether I was too young to notice it was bad from the beginning. 🙂 Is Barnanby Jones out there, I wonder? I think they were back-to-back on CBS in the day. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2017, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-cannon-shot-in-16mm-or-something/803246/3 "2017-12-01T16:31:32Z")
You could be watching a 16mm print. I know for sure that _**Star Trek (TOS)**_ was filmed in 35mm but transferred to 16mm for airing in Canada. Why the CBC couldn’t handle 35mm prints, I don’t know. But it’s safe to assume other series had the same requirements, and possibly even for markets other than Canada. _ **TOS** _ was filmed in the late '60s and _ **Cannon** _ in the early '70s, so they weren’t that far apart in terms of time. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2017, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-cannon-shot-in-16mm-or-something/803246/4 "2017-12-01T16:58:46Z")
I totally misread that thread title. I thought it was a question about artillery. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2017, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-cannon-shot-in-16mm-or-something/803246/5 "2017-12-01T17:19:43Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > According to IMDB, it was shot on 35mm. Almost everything was in those days. > > It’s probably that they don’t have good quality masters. Probably faded prints. > > Given that, I didn’t know it was on ME. I’ll have to give it a look, see if it is still good after all these years, or whether I was too young to notice it was bad from the beginning. 🙂 Is Barnanby Jones out there, I wonder? I think they were back-to-back on CBS in the day. I think it airs at 2am. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2017, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-cannon-shot-in-16mm-or-something/803246/6 "2017-12-01T17:26:10Z")
I guess the film prints could be faded but I see a lot of cheap video on ME-TV. I’m guessing these weren’t remastered from film but just copies of the tapes that used to be distributed to local stations. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2017, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-cannon-shot-in-16mm-or-something/803246/7 "2017-12-01T18:13:46Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I’m guessing these weren’t remastered from film but just copies of the tapes that used to be distributed to local stations. This is what it looks like to me. ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2017, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-cannon-shot-in-16mm-or-something/803246/8 "2017-12-01T18:44:17Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > I totally misread that thread title. I thought it was a question about artillery. :smack: 16mm would make for a very small cannon 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2017, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-cannon-shot-in-16mm-or-something/803246/9 "2017-12-01T18:46:53Z")
You don’t need better resolution to see Cannon’s prodigious gut. ---
**Author:** ![caligulathegod](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/caligulathegod/32/9685_2.png) [@caligulathegod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caligulathegod)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2017, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-cannon-shot-in-16mm-or-something/803246/10 "2017-12-01T19:56:41Z")
Back in the day, they used to distribute syndicated shows to local stations on 16mm. Star Trek TOS always had that soft look when I was a kid in the 70s. Same with Batman. I never understood why Joker was blonde when the comics all had him as green haired. Turns out it was the 16mm [film chain](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_chain) they used to use. Film chain was a set up at TV stations where they would literally have a projector running film (usually 16mm) and a live TV camera broadcasting it. They also had slides, like the “Technical Difficulties, please stand by”. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2017, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-cannon-shot-in-16mm-or-something/803246/11 "2017-12-01T20:15:16Z")
> [@Knowed\_Out](#): > > You don’t need better resolution to see Cannon’s prodigious gut. This really shows how times have changed. In the 70s. Cannon was FAT. Notably, unquestionably fat. Late night TV show joke material. In 2017 Conrad would be middle of the road large. To shoot Cannon today with the same impact I’m not even sure Eddie Murphy’s Nutty Professor is large enough any more. You’d need some 450-500 lb dude with full dunlap, driving around in a full size van. And that is why widescreen was invented. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2017, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-cannon-shot-in-16mm-or-something/803246/12 "2017-12-01T23:16:18Z")
This thread is a QUINN MARTIN Production! (Sorry, I just had to say that.) ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2017, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-cannon-shot-in-16mm-or-something/803246/13 "2017-12-02T08:53:57Z")
> [@caligulathegod](#): > > Film chain was a set up at TV stations where they would literally have a projector running film (usually 16mm) and a live TV camera broadcasting it. They also had slides, like the “Technical Difficulties, please stand by”. It also made it easy for them to physically excise entire scenes so they could sell more commercial time. The clips would go into the trash. In the case of _ **TOS** _, they were sometimes rescued by enterprising fans and mounted in slide-projector frames for sale on a clandestine network (remember, this was \*\*long \*\*before the Internet). ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2017, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-cannon-shot-in-16mm-or-something/803246/14 "2017-12-02T09:42:38Z")
> [@caligulathegod](#): > > Back in the day, they used to distribute syndicated shows to local stations on 16mm. Star Trek TOS always had that soft look when I was a kid in the 70s. Same with Batman. I never understood why Joker was blonde when the comics all had him as green haired. Turns out it was the 16mm [film chain](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_chain) they used to use. Film chain was a set up at TV stations where they would literally have a projector running film (usually 16mm) and a live TV camera broadcasting it. They also had slides, like the “Technical Difficulties, please stand by”. Is this why Cheers looks so different from most of the other shows that were on at the time? ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2017, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-cannon-shot-in-16mm-or-something/803246/15 "2017-12-02T10:44:32Z")
> [@zoid](#): > > Is this why Cheers looks so different from most of the other shows that were on at the time? Does any station even use film chain any more? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2017, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-cannon-shot-in-16mm-or-something/803246/16 "2017-12-03T16:31:32Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > You could be watching a 16mm print. I know for sure that _**Star Trek (TOS)**_ was filmed in 35mm but transferred to 16mm for airing in Canada. Why the CBC couldn’t handle 35mm prints, I don’t know. But it’s safe to assume other series had the same requirements, and possibly even for markets other than Canada. When the AFI restored [_Lost Horizon_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Horizon_(1937_film)#Later_releases_and_remakes), one segment, they were down to “a 16mm television print found in Canada.” It is noticeably softer than the rest of the print. Still, it’s better than the seven minutes, in two parts, that are missing entirely. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2017, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-cannon-shot-in-16mm-or-something/803246/17 "2017-12-03T16:36:44Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > Still, it’s better than the seven minutes, in two parts, that are missing entirely. On my DVD, the missing segments have still frames with the rediscovered dialogue playing over them. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2017, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-cannon-shot-in-16mm-or-something/803246/18 "2017-12-08T16:28:11Z")
Nothing to add about the print quality, but one thing I’ve noticed. . . In the opening credits, you get to see Cannon’s bright blue eyes. And that’s about the only time you get to see them. I wonder how Cannon can see anything since it seems he walks around with his eyes closed, or squinting like Mr. McGoo. ---
**Author:** ![caligulathegod](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/caligulathegod/32/9685_2.png) [@caligulathegod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caligulathegod)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2017, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-cannon-shot-in-16mm-or-something/803246/19 "2017-12-09T03:44:57Z")
> [@zoid](#): > > Is this why Cheers looks so different from most of the other shows that were on at the time? Cheers looks weird because it’s a three camera show shot on 35mm film. Most three camera shows were shot on video. Three Camera is your typical sitcom setup, where they film it like a play in front of a live audience (usually) and just cut from camera to camera. It was invented by Desi Arnez. One Camera is more like a movie. Last time I remember seeing Film Chain was in the 80s. I was actually shocked when I saw it, because it brought back a lot of memories. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2017, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-cannon-shot-in-16mm-or-something/803246/20 "2017-12-09T04:55:57Z")
I just realized that Cannon (William Conrad) introduced Sinatra on his legendary Sinatra at the Sands album. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-cannon-shot-in-16mm-or-something/803246.md?page=2)