Edward P. Ancona, 84; Helped Standardize Colors on Television

Edward P. Ancona Jr., 84, whose Emmy-winning technical work on the long-running NBC western “Bonanza” led to the standardization of colors on national TV, died Nov. 8 in Los Angeles.

“That’s why you don’t have a tomato face on one channel and a chartreuse face on another channel,” his wife of 61 years, Dorothy, said of his work in television color.

Ancona joined NBC in 1960 as a color consultant and retired in 1988 as director of tape and film post-production. He received his Emmy in 1965.

He also was an amateur musician, playing as a bassoonist with the Burbank Symphony for 36 years and later the Los Angeles Doctors Symphony Orchestra, with whom he was rehearsing shortly before he suffered a fatal heart attack.