On September 28, 1951, color TVs went on sale for the first time. The CBS-manufactured devices started as slow sellers, but soon, of course, sets like them would become ubiquitous. For color TV's 60th anniversary, Life.com has rounded up images from the medium's history "to salute Americans caught in the act of doing the one thing they've always done very, very well." A few of the pictures:

The Atlantic Video channel also has a short clip of network television intros made in the 1960s to take advantage of color.

See the full LIFE gallery here.

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