Yesterday I brought home 2 console t.v.s, one's a CC2, but the other has me stumped. It's a Rutherford. I haven't found one of these before. It's a late
70's console with the typical cheesy cabinet of the time, and the cabinet shows some water damage on the top and right side. It is a working set,
though so I'll keep it to use in my workroom. On the back of the set it says it was made in Athens, TX. so could there be some connection with Curtes Mathes? Thanks in advance for any and all info.

i remember those from the big 80s. same as a curtis mathes. here in columbus,most rental places used rutherford exclusively. i believe curtis mathes may had a top of the line cabinet available. the rutherfors were usually pressed wood and vinyl. okay sets. rare to find one here these days.

Here is the Wikipedia page on CM.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_Mathes

The sets were made in Athens, TX.

Dave A

I've been by the old CM plant in Athens many times (my sister lives near there). Were the Rutherfords made by them?

I recently junked a circa 1980 model Rutherford TV/stereo combination. It looked just like a CM set from the same time period. The stereo was on top of the TV and the whole top lifted up. The cabinet was a junky particleboard and vinyl job. The chassis was an NEC; just like what's in the CM branded sets. The tuner was a standard VHF/UHF rotary tuner. The CRT was an inline type like what was used in early '80's RCA sets.

It had the name of some rent-to-own place stamped on the back and the people that gave it to me claimed they gave around $1200 for it.

I junked the set because the CRT was toast and the chassis had other problems.

I used to get a lot of these CM sets from the mid '70's through the early '80's and I was not at all impressed with them. Most of them had weak/toasted CRT's and they were cheap built. Someone could have gotten a TOTL Zenith or RCA for what some of those CM sets cost. I think the longer than usual warranty is what sold a lot of people on the CM sets.

OTOH, I was given a mid '60's CM color set (years ago) that was in a quality cabinet and the chassis was an RCA clone.