Analysis: Color TV helped military dictatorship to stay in power

“Green is the most prominent color”, recorded the leaf about the first official test of TV broadcasting in color in Brazil, which took place 50 years ago, on February 19, 1972. Not only the trees, said the report, stood out to viewers delighted with the novelty, but also the uniform of the military, who appeared in droves on the screen. Nothing more conducive. Color TV was another move by the dictatorship to stay in power.

It was not on a famous soap opera or on an important news program that olive green and other colors officially debuted on Brazilian TV, but at the Grape Festival in Caxias do Sul, hometown of the then Minister of Communications, Colonel Hygino Corsetti. His daughter, the queen of the party, appeared on the broadcast, as did President Emílio Garrastazu Médici, who, wearing a gray suit and red tie, greeted TV stars such as Jô Soares, Francisco Cuoco and Tônia Carrero.

Behind the patacoada was the government’s strategy of propagating the “economic miracle”, a period between the late 1960s and early 1970s, in which Brazil’s strong economic growth sustained the power of the dictatorship in its most violent phase. Launching color TV reinforced the image of a modern country, it was the face of the boastful Pra Frente, Brasil campaign.

Since 1967, the military pressured broadcasters to start broadcasting in color, already consolidated in the United States. Some tests had taken place, the first of them even before the 1964 coup.

Tupi, which inaugurated Brazilian television in 1950, was also a pioneer in color, with an experimental transmission of an American documentary to 22 sets, on May 1, 1963. On the 9th, who appeared in color on the screens was the President João Goulart, who spoke after the framing of the Brazilian flag.

Other tests were carried out, one of the most remarkable being the transmission, direct from Mexico, of the 1970 World Cup, to devices installed in auditoriums of Embratel, the state-owned telecommunications company. The transition to color, while also in the interest of TV networks, was technically complex and expensive.

The military regime, then, tired of waiting, imposed that the definitive test would be at the Caxias party, and the official start of transmissions, on March 31. On the anniversary of the coup, the revolution would begin, which would be slow, gradual and sure.

To give you an idea, Globo, which had more resources among TVs, would only stop having black and white programs in 1977. In addition, the number of color sets would only surpass that of the old ones in the country in 1992, Surviving the trick of covering the screen with a transparent plastic with bands of different colors to “color” the images roughly.

At the launch of the technology, the TVs had the support of Embratel and tax incentives for the purchase of equipment – ​​a camera cost US$ 150,000, six times the price used for black and white. On the other hand, they had to swallow the imposition of dates and the grape/olive event. Those who failed to meet deadlines and quotas for color programs were threatened with the cancellation of the channel.

It was more like the usual blow-by-bit thing: the military encouraged the growth of TV, a vehicle of national reach considered strategic, but they tried to control programming through censorship and other threats.

On the eight-year anniversary of the coup, the first Brazilian program recorded entirely in color aired, the episode “Meu Primeiro Baile”, from the Globo series “Caso Especial”, written by Janete Clair and directed by Daniel Filho. The character of Glória Menezes, beautiful, with a blue scarf, was enchanted by the charm of the heartthrob Francisco Cuoco, in a red shirt.

On other broadcasters, the colors appeared mainly on music specials. At Tupi, the colorful show was called “Mais Cor, Por Favor”, the slogan of Philco televisions, the program’s sponsor, and had a fashion show by couturier Clodovil and a show by Toquinho and Vinicius de Moraes, among others, as recorded by screenwriter Rixa , in the “TV Almanac”. A nice idea was to show “A Pantera Cor-de-Rosa” at the movie session, called “Tupicolor”.

The use and abuse of colors set the tone for this first moment, and the maximum symbol of the carnival universe were the auditorium programs at Chacrinha. So far, it made sense; the famous presenter, who threw cod in the audience, was pure party and anarchy.​

But the excitement with the colors went beyond the entertainment area, even reaching the always sober Cid Moreira, anchor of the “Jornal Nacional”, who went on the air with green, orange and even checkered jackets. It was necessary to frame him and dress him in pastel tones, even to prevent the color of his skin, very tanned by the habit of playing tennis, from “pop” in the video. In 1975, a professional was assigned to choose the clothes of all the announcers and reporters.​

Nothing could tarnish what would be called the Globo Quality Standard, which sought technical perfection and artistic excellence. “Quality TV” was what advertisers and the dictatorship of the “economic miracle” wanted. The colors reinforced the viewer’s feeling of being in front of the “real” and, through the screens, a national identity was created.

In the colorful programming, especially in the telenovelas, Brazilians recognized themselves, even though, in that simulacrum of reality, Brazil spoke “carioquês”, it was just beyond the south zone of Rio and the poorest of the characters always had a charming house, with curtains flowery.

But not everything was rosy for the dictatorship on TV, and for a simple reason: those who had the talent to produce quality programming were mostly from the left. And the colors highlighted the high-voltage love triangle between TV stations, the military and government opposition.

The complexity of the game of interests becomes evident with the first Brazilian soap opera in color, “O Bem-Amado”, shown by Globo in 1973. , was the most expensive television production until then, partly financed by television manufacturers interested in selling new sets.

Its author was Dias Gomes, who, in addition to being a renowned playwright, was active in the Communist Party. The soap opera told the story of the fictional Sucupira, whose mayor was the corrupt Odorico Paraguaçu, criticized for having invested a fortune in the construction of a cemetery that was never opened because no one died in the blessed city. Censorship vetoed the use of the word “coronel” for Odorico and “captain” in reference to the bandit Zeca Diabo, but the criticism of the dictatorship went much deeper.

The village on the coast of Bahia, which lived under authoritarianism and the commands and excesses of a dishonest politician, was nothing more than a microcosm of Brazil. In prime time and in color, the country of absurdities was mocked, which could inaugurate a cemetery without a dead person or a color TV with a minister’s daughter parading in the Grape Festival.