I've noticed something fairly odd when I rewatch older TV shows. Whenever there's an "indoor scene" the picture quality ranges from good to excellent, but when there's an "outdoor scene" it looks freaking terrible. Did they use two different types of cameras depending on the locations? Why? Shows were this can be seen (for example) are Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Fawlty Towers and Cheers.

I'll take a wild guess and say, that the portable cameras (even the really big and heavy ones) where probably vastly inferior to the stationary ones.

My guess would be lightning. Have you noticed what kind of lights a photographer uses inside his studio when they are going to take your picture? Similar lightning conditions are used in indoor studios, and it is a pain to have similar lightning conditions outside. With cameras getting better though, that problem can be reduced a bit.

For a time, British shows at least used videotape for studio and film for location shooting. I don't know about the U.S. ones.

Reminds me of an episode of "It's Gary Shandling's Show" where he went outside and tried to convince everyone they were still inside on a sound stage.

Lol, now we know where the inspirations to Matrix came from.

Watching them todsay it's also funny (and refreshing) how little politically correct some of those old shows were. Shows like Rising Damp and Love Thy Neighbours (70s British) could never have been made today.

It was great because he was outside at a soccer park with a road in the background and he kept saying, "Look at that car driving by! It looks so real!"

Was it a good show otherwise? Feeling kinda interested in it now

Yeah, it was brilliant. It was basically a show that made fun of shows. There was an episode where someone was trying to break into his house and he yelled, "He thinks he's so smart! He thinks he has us trapped! We're on a sound stage; he doesn't realize there isn't a wall here!"

Never heard of it. Man, this shit is old!

tinyE is older than that.

tinyE is 65532 years old. In four years he'll hit negative age.

I'll be 40 in a few weeks. Shut up F4LL0UT. :P

It really depended on the show and the time period it was made in. Early half hour sitcoms, which were often single-set, live-recorded shows, would use videotape primarily and might use film on those rare occasions when they ventured outside that set. Full hour dramas and action shows would frequently use film exclusively, at least until videotape cost and quality improved through the 80's into the 90's. Today, almost everything is digital and they actually apply different filters to make the image look more like film or videotape.