This paper recounts the adventures of the two National Television System Committees (NTSC's) in preparing monochrome and color television service for the American public. The first NTSC had the active encouragement of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Building on the important prior work of the Television Standards and Allocations Committees of the trade association of the time, the Radio Manufacturers Association, it was able to complete its task of setting up the system standards for black-and-white television in less than nine months, from July 1940 to March 1941. These standards, with narrower tolerances but otherwise unchanged, now serve as the basis for the compatible color service now universally broadcast to the American people. The second NTSC had a rougher road to follow. The FCC, having approved an incompatible color system over strong-and strongly resented-objections of the industry's engineers, did not welcome the formation of the second NTSC. The second NTSC had, in addition to these political and institutional pressures, a very difficult technical task, one thought by many at the time to be flatly impossible: to impose high-quality color on the black and white system without injuring reception on black-and-white receivers. Combining and refining the work of many contributors, the second NTSC cogitated and tested from early 1950 to mid-1953 until it had the system we now enjoy-one that has been adopted in its essentials throughout the World. One aim of the paper is to reveal the constructive forces that led to these successes, and the near misses with defeat that were encountered on the way.
