Ortho films were common as late as 1950. Panchro types were available as early as 1895 (based on the invention of tricolor technique around that time).

The famous Verichrome Pan, the commonest black and white film for American family photos as late as the 1980s, was called that to distinguish from the earlier Verichrome, which was an ortho film that was made from the 1930s until the early 1950s. "Verichrome" refers to "true color" to distinguish the film from the still earlier blue-sensitive stocks that were still familiar to photographers of the time.

Additionally, most Hollywood films shot before 1940 used ortho film -- the color response of which is responsible for the green tinted makeup that appears in the 1960s TV series The Munsters -- green was substituted for red on ortho films, because red lips, cheek blush, etc. recorded as unnaturally dark. Panchromatic films were available, but like many other things, cost was a big factor in film production, and panchro films generally cost more, in part because they couldn't be packaged and produced under red safelight, but had to be produced and handled in total darkness.

Possibly related to the cited (TV series?) scene, many microfilms were orthochromatic right up until the end of the film document storage era, and as noted in a comment, scientific film stocks often had no need for red sensitivity -- and even today, it's simpler to produce an ortho emulsion than a panchro type, because a single sensitizing dye (pinacryptol yellow, found in food coloring) can add green sensitivity to a basic blue-sensitive emulsion, but red sensitivity requires more expensive and harder to obtain specialty dyes.