Well, I didn't want to just ask "Why is/was the BBC behind tech-wise?" and come off anti-English...

Plus, I think as a culture we maybe are a bit behind England...not ideas-wise, maybe, but...

Well, they've got their "English Empire Exceptionalism" out of the way, it seems, and that sort of idea's still rampant in the US, that we can be the world police...or should be...

And maybe we'd be liked more if we ditched it?

(I dunno, I do feel that way, but I also didn't want to just rag on the BBC's tech.) :)

Three's Company is probably the most popular one isn't it? And all those reality game shows.

The US has plenty of solid original shows now though.

Who cares.

Just watch Peep Show, everything will solve itself.

@Putin

Yeah, I was just thinking of things that are currently popular.

@abgemacht, I've heard of several other shows that started out in the U.K. Two that come to mind are Whose Line Is It Anway and Coupling I think. I'm sure I've heard of others but don't remember the names at the moment.

@obi, in the U.S., as I'm sure you are aware, we've had a whole bunch of remake movies lately. I imagine the money people are happy to take a good idea and use it again, both in movies and TV. Doesn't necessarily mean there aren't good ideas in the U.S., we just aren't afraid to bring someone else's good idea back home.

And while we remake series from the past and present, we do have some great original programming. Shows like Burn Notice and Covert Affairs, White Collar and Chuck, and the ever original award winning Monk prove we can do original here as well.

America did make Seinfeld and Arrested Development.

...Really, guys, I just wanted t know hy the BBC was behind in terms of production values/camera technology! XD

The "idea" thing was just to avoid "obi's bashing the British" talk...

We have plenty of great entertainment ideas, sure...! LOL

At that time, the 1960's, most (if not all) European broadcasters were state-controlled and did not air commercials, I think. So maybe there was no outside pressure to urge the transition to colour.

Also there was an issue with the colour television transmission standard, the US are using a different colour standard (NTSC) than most of Europe (PAL), maybe it took some time to reach an agreement between the European countries.

That might explain the late introduction of colour; I am not sure if the UK is or was behind in camera technology. Regarding production value, it would not surprise me if in the 1960's European shows had a lower budget than American ones, but I know nothing much about it.

As a kid in the early 60's I did wonder why Stingray said it was in "colour" (well "videcolor" anyway*) when it was actually in black and white on our TV. I assume that adding colour to a broadcast which still carried the black and white signal, so that the same transmission could be received clearly by both existing black and white TVs and by colour capable TVs, was technically difficult.

In the mid-60's new frequencies were introduced along with a new picture format. Older VHF televisions used 405 line pictures whereas UHF televisions used 625 lines (NTSC was only 525 lines) and it was these transmissions that carried colour information. This was done (IIRC) by having a brightness signal for the black and white TVs and, at a higher modulation, the colour information. Black and white only TVs ignored the higher modulations whereas the colour TVs received and processed this along with the brightness information to generate the colour images.

* The opening credits to Stingray start in black and white and, after zooming in on the logo for "Videcolor" switch to colour (except in the UK in 1964!)

American appliances are light years ahead of their British counterparts, TV included. I ruined at least a dozen shirts in a British washer/dryer.

"American appliances are light years ahead of their British counterparts, TV included"

Lets be honest about this - the majority of the appliances that both our countries by are imported from China or similar... Back in the day that might've been a different story, but tech across the world is pretty much all within a year or each other in developed countries.

Eg: 3 TV was broadcast on mainstream channels in both the UK and US in 2010.

I think the relative advances of every kind of appliance is kind of indicative of what the culture cares most about. For instance, when I was in Japan, they had crazy high tech toilets.

I'm not joking, those things were insane. Heated seats, automatic air freshener disposal. a number of possibilities for checking your urine for diabetics, detailed analysis of how often you went and how much, etc.

In Germany, 30 years ago, the toilets in a hotel had a... well... a shelf, down inside but above the water level, so you could ... err ... examine ... what you'd produced before you flushed it away. I kid you not.

I stayed at a hotel in Austria that had a shelf toilet. Generally not a good idea. Shelf toilets were not built for giant American asses. I think the best part was seeing your crap just, well, sitting there.