[Electronic M]

Perhaps there wasn't a dealer in your county?

You're in one way lucky being on the West Coast.... You're probably in Packard Bell country. The American made Packard Bell sets (not the rebadged Panasonic table sets of the late 60s onward).... At least the ones PB made (I've seen some GE C2s rebadged as Packard Bell Teledyne) are built like Zenith's....Same chassis solder pots and everything but PB sets didn't have the stupid Zenith Buzz-o-matic audio detector.

If you were to make me choose between 2 fully loaded remote all tube color roundy stereo combos in the same style cabinet one Packard Bell and the other Zenith, I'd take the Packard Bell almost hands down. Back then PB had this hinged upright doughnut chassis that the picture tube protruded through the center of. The hinge allowed it to swing out for service access to both sides. It's a better design for combos than the service saver bottom hatch. It's a LOT of effort to lift a 350lb combo up and turn it on it's side as you must on a Zenith, but not that hard to slide one away from the wall and swing the chassis out on a Packard Bell. I also like that all PB sets were remote ready so if you find a ruined remote set and a mint normal set you can easily make the mint one remote. The remotes were more rugged too all metal and if the hammer spring broke you can resolder it back together easily.
About the main leg up Zenith had was the belt driven 2G changer with the platter mounted clamshell 45 adapter...Best domestic changer of that decade besides the Glasser Steers GS77. Packard Bell used Gararrds which were kinda middle of the road IMO.

I consider Zenith the readily available nationally middle to upper end of consumer television, and have considered Setchel Carlson and REAL Packard Bell sets to be a step above, but MUCH more difficult to find. Kinda like comparing a race horse to a unicorn. Supposedly PBs are easy to find on the west coast, and I've had some luck finding them by me somehow. Setchel Carlson sets are almost as rare as PBs here and Setchel was made in basically the next major city west of me.