View Full Version : Can anyone identify this television?


dodgethesnai
02-16-2020, 01:43 PM
https://i.imgur.com/hKwhQDA.png

Sorry for the low quality image, but I am hoping that someone here will be able to help me identify the model of this television, or at the very least a manufacturer.

For context, this is the television owned by the character Brodie Bruce in the 1995 Kevin Smith film, "Mallrats." It's possible that it is nothing but a movie prop, but I doubt they would create a custom prop when they could just use a real TV. If it is a real television model, it would most likely have been manufactured in the late 80's or early 90's.

The details are hard to make out in this photo, but when I examine it at a higher resolution on blu-ray with the brightness up, it looks like most if not all the controls are situated at the top, above the monitor. There's a small white button in the top left corner (possibly the power button). Moving to the right, there appear to be five square buttons in a row (some of them pressed in), followed by a red digital channel display, showing channel "3". Using other items in the room for scale, the monitor appears relatively small, probably somewhere between 15 and 17 inches wide. There are markings on the top that might be manufacturer logos, but they are too blurry to read, even in high definition. The image on the screen may have been super-imposed during post production of the film, but we can reasonably assume that this television would be color, not b&w).

Help! Can anyone identify this television??

mr_rye89
02-16-2020, 07:59 PM
One of those RCA Selectavision TVs maybe?

dodgethesnai
02-16-2020, 09:37 PM
It sure does resemble some RCA models, though I can't find any pics of anything else quite like it. It's strange because all the controls run along the top, above the monitor. Most TV's from that era that I've seen have the controls either beneath the monitor or on a side panel.

joe111671
02-17-2020, 07:28 PM
It looks like a Panasonic to me, that badge on the upper left could definitely be the Color Pilot icon. This picture isn't mine but I had a set similar to this long ago and the remote popped in along the top where the buttons are on your picture, then it became the front control panel. The one sitting on top I'm pretty sure is not the one for that set.

Eric H
02-17-2020, 10:31 PM
I lightened it a bit. That Orange button might be a helpful clue.

dishdude
02-17-2020, 11:42 PM
Panasonic.

dodgethesnai
02-19-2020, 10:24 PM
I lightened it a bit. That Orange button might be a helpful clue.

The orange "button" (toward the top right) is actually a red digital channel display. It can be seen clearly on the hi-res blu-ray quality image, which unfortunately I don't have a screenshot of. Definitely a clue.

dishdude
02-19-2020, 10:42 PM
Top left looks like the ColorPilot logo Panasonic used in the 80's.

dishdude
02-19-2020, 10:48 PM
delete

Eric H
02-20-2020, 05:15 PM
The logo under the screen is about the right size to be Panasonic, definitely too long to be RCA.

mgross0
04-06-2020, 11:31 AM
It looks like a Panasonic, maybe a compufocus or one of those omnivision sets with the vcr built into the top left of the control panel.