There's a fascinating detail about 3CCD/3CMOS that's not mentioned in that article, namely that the sensors aren't actually in the same plane, but slightly offset in depth (probably because of the filter films between the prisms). Broadcast lenses are specifically corrected for being either 3CCD or 1CCD, the former having a back-focal distance that varies with wavelength, so that red is focused in the red's sensor plane and so on. You cannot reasonably use one kind of lens on the other kind of system. Almost all broadcast lenses that shore up on eBay are for 3CCD - so they're pretty useless for use with "normal" small-format cameras, even if their specs are otherwise enticing.
Yeah, they used telecentric lenses; for the prism block to work properly, you have to have each principal ray across the lens perpendicular to the filter. This puts very rough optical constraints on the lens; a typical video camera lens would have dozens of elements arranged in many groups, while an equivalent 'cine' lens might have half or fewer elements.
And on top of that, the lenses produced ugly images. Going to single chip designs was a big upgrade in image quality, mostly for optical reasons.
