I recall a Southern outfit that had a name something like Four Rivers who sued Walmart for price dumping of TVs and actually prevailed. Has anyone heard of that and do you know if this company is still operating and what brands they make?

I remember that company, which was operating out of the old NAP factory near Knoxville, TN. There are some members down that way who may know its fate? I've been wondering myself. The last I heard, they had been assembling sets for (I think) Samsung. But I think the deal with that lawsuit didn't work out. The way I understood it, the congressman for that district got a bill in that would add a tariff on all sets imported, maybe just from China? The money from that tariff was to be distributed evenly among all the US TV manufacturers, and since Four Rivers (I think you have that name correct) was the only one left, they would get it all. That was going to keep them afloat. But at the last minute the bill got killed. This was a few years ago.

Interesting 2004 interview here:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart/interviews/hopson.html

jr

It was FIVE Rivers Electronic Innovations and they're gone. They operated out of a former Magnavox plant.

More recently there was a company in Tempe Arizona named Syntax-Brillian that made the Olevia brand. They too are now gone, absorbed by Emerson. No indication if Emerson builds sets in the Tempe plant. I don't have high confidence in modern Emerson (chinese) quality.

http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-123931936/five-rivers-electronics-burns.html
http://www.funtrivia.com/askft/Question61089.html
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/news/4249332?page=3
http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/1686826/emerson_radio_corp_acquires_assets_of_consumer_ele ctronics_brand_olevia/index.html
http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/2009/05/24/20090524biz-syntaxbrillian0524.html

But wait, there's more...if memory swerves, Sony was one of the first to have a plant in the US. Ontario Calif as I recall. They then bought the former Volkswagen factory in PA which they sold in 2008 to Hon Hai.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3640461
http://www.tgdaily.com/business-and-law-features/43842-sony-sells-us-tv-factory-to-hon-hai