Color TV in 1962

Here we go, then. Another April 1st and the entire intarweb reveals its complete and utter lack of a sense of humor. Sigh.

There was a pretty good joke in Sweden back in 1962, just as color television was being introduced in the country. ([Here’s a link to the Swedish Wikipedia entry.](http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aprilskämt# Nylonstrumpan_.C3.B6ver_TV:n)) In complete dead pan, viewers were informed that the state-run TV company had purchased new equipment that would allow people with black-and-white TV sets to view color programming by simply threading a pair of nylon tights over their screens.

According to my mother, my grandfather completely bought it, even though he would never admit it.

UPDATE: Thanks to the power of teh intarwebs and the groovy people at Swedish Television, here’s a link to the actual broadcast. It requires RealPlayer and will obviously only make any kind of sense if you happen to speak Swedish.

If you happen to have RealPlayer and speak Swedish, it’s pretty damn amazing, though. The guy doing the presentation is unbelievably sincere, and throws out a fantastic amount of almost-believable technobabble. Good job.