Attribute for <TABLE ...>
BGCOLOR = color expression

BGCOLOR sets the background color of the entire table. For example, this code creates a table with a background color of yellow:

this code	produces this
<TABLE BGCOLOR=YELLOW> <TR> <TD>lemons</TD> <TD>grapefruit</TD> </TR> <TR> <TD>bananas</TD> <TD>pineapple</TD> </TR> </TABLE>	lemons grapefruit bananas pineapple

You can also set the background colors of rows with <TR BGCOLOR="..."> and of individual cells with <TD BGCOLOR="...">.

Netscape and MSIE have different ways of displaying the background color. MSIE fills the entire table with the background color. Netscape only fills the cells, but not the spaces between the cells, resulting in an annoying block of individual colored cells:

MSIE
Netscape

You can kludge around the Netscape bug by enclosing the table in a one-cell outer table:

this code	produces this
<TABLE BGCOLOR="#CCCC99"><TR><TD> <TABLE> <TR> <TD>lemons</TD> <TD>grapefruit</TD> </TR> <TR> <TD>bananas</TD> <TD>pineapple</TD> </TR> </TABLE> </TD></TR></TABLE>	lemons grapefruit bananas pineapple