Searchinfg for Childhood TV's/Favorite TV's from the past?
 

I thought this might be a good thread to help members find special sets from their childhood or from their past.
There is nothing I enjoy more than locating a certain model TV for someone that has been searching for months or years, (I spent 19 years searching for a specific model, before finding it at an estate sale in 1996!)
You can count on two hands the "keepers" that I have. When I say keeper I mean Mint, perfectly working museum quality televisions. For me, the enjoyment is being able to use them, and have them look as new. (I'm not into hoarding or collecting just to collect)
Thanks to members here on the forum, and countless estate sales, I have pretty much everything that I had been searching for.
So I thought it's time to give back, and try to find sets for anyone here that happens to be looking!
So get busy and start a list! When a request shows up, I will see if I have the item. If not, I will be on the lookout. Maybe others can do the same and offer up unrestored or unneeded items from their collections, or from sightings at antique stores, etc when the need arises as well.

I've been looking for a nice combo unit with doors over the TV. I figure this would be nice in my living room so that I can have two vintage TV sets without it looking too much like a vintage appliance store, that is until I wanted to show my vintage TV friends.

Zeniths are my favorite, and top-of-the-line SC ones even more so. My girlfriend has even admired a similar set.

I would never want to pester someone for a set like that, just make sure they knew I wanted it if they ever parted with it. I know there are some you hate for doing that.

I'd trade, pay cash, maybe even haul some huge-ass Magnavox console up the stairs of an estate sale, among other items. I could try to throw a few bucks worth of modern-junk repair work your way. Recommend you for some vintage work to others. Try to sell some of your sets to Harry Poster. None of this really as a trade for the TV, just part of being a friend.

Of course, it is the end of January, record cold and I have bronchitis at the moment. Work takes up most of my day. I'd need to borrow a truck, since that kind of set doesn't just get tossed in the back of a car. But if the situation were so urgent (unknown to me) to get rid of it that it needed to be offered free on Craigslist for any fishtanker to ruin, I'd cash in some favors and get there the same day.

But if this means you'll have to call my cell phone twice in a week, don't trouble yourself. Craigslist postings are no doubt easier.

So let me know if you see anything that matches that earlier description, ok?

Thanks. :thmbsp:

Huh? Alrighty then!

I've come up with a few sets that I remember from my childhood that I'm always on the lookout for.

1. Truetone early '70's hybrid 12" portable color set in a black metal cabinet. Made by Midland. My Dad bought this TV for $75 from a lady to use in the camper and in his bedroom. It went bye-bye in around '87 or '88 when no shop would fix it because it had tubes.

2. Early '60's RCA B&W portable with knobs on top of the case. Looks very close to the "sweet 16" that's on Doug's website. This was the first B&W TV I ever fixed in the early '90's.

3. Any early '70's 19" Zenith color 4 tube hybrid.

4. A late run GE Portacolor.

5. '74 or '75 19" Zenith solid state space command set with the fold down chassis. This set had the motorized varactor tuner with the vertical row of channel numbers. This was the first color set I fixed (blown vert. out fuse).

Like Carmine said, I'd never pester anyone for their sets. My list is based on sets that might become available to me in the future. I'm always running ads in the paper and getting the word out to people. One of the joys of this hobby is not knowing from day to day what is going to come along.

I think a lot of the problem in finding old sets is that we all live too far apart from one another. Over the last two years I've junked 2 of those mid-70s ss space command Zeniths, I offered them for free up here but no one wanted to pick them up.

Of the first few sets I used to have back in the 80s, the only one for which I have thought about tracking another one down is the very first set I ever had that I got from my grandfather when I was 7 years old, which was a late 60s 16" Zenith b/w tabletop. I have several 60s b/w Zeniths, not that exact model, although the 1960 17" SC 300 I have is similar and nicer (It has a metal cabinet instead of plastic, and the other one didn't have the remote). I've picked up a few of my favorites in the last few years, that remote controlled CTC-10 "Winnewood" I picked up last year is easily one of my top 5 favorite sets of all time.

Yes, location is the biggest factor. The only set on my list that would probably be economical to ship would be the portacolor and there's a good chance that it would even get busted to heck and back during shipment. I see several interesting sets on epay that go cheap; but, none of in MS.

I've ranted about this set before here, but... My dad got hoodwinked into buying a Sears color mini-console about 1964 or '65... It was AWFUL ! He wisely bought the service contract w/it, Sears lost BIG money on that one. It was some weird screen size, 17-18" or somesuch, not quite a roundie, but not really "square", either. It was a Japanese-made set, prolly Toshiba, but it was before the Japanese had figgered out Quality Control. We sold it after the Porta-Colors came out, got one of those, it was a trouper, on 18/7, don't think it skipped a beat, til we replaced it w/a largish Trinitron about '72 or '73. The only one of those Sears hermaphrodites I've ever seen, Sonny Clutter had a restored one for sale a year or 2 back. They must have about ALL been POS, I wouldn't think many have survived. I'd still like to have one, kinda the old "moth-to-a-flame" business, I guess...

If I ran across a Hitachi CWA-200; a 12" color solid state portable from '70, I'd get it. It was a basic model with a black plastic case and no remote. It was our first color TV, and I remember going to Fedco with my mother to pick it up. I was only 3, but that was an exciting day! She bought it, but it wouldn't fit in the trunk of our new '69 Dodge Dart. So we had to go home and get her old car; a '58 German Opel which had a much deeper trunk... Returned to Fedco and brought the set home. Then my Grandma read my mother the riot act for buying a new TV when we "already had a perfectly good TV"... A GE B&W console with a weak tube.

Charles

Ok, Radiotvnut I have a 1972 Zenith 19" 4-tube hybrid in working condition. Are you interested? It's free if you want it.
Adam, Sandy and Charles, I will keep a lookout for those models as well.

Most of my family's TVs were nothing I would ever want to have again. The first one I can remember was a late 70's 15", or 17" Sony Trinitron that they had in England back before we moved to the US. My dad bought it after he heard how reliable Sonys were. Their previous (and first) color set was an English brand and was nothing but trouble. Apparently they sold it when the CRT was getting weak after only a few years. The Sony was a lemon and went through several tuners before the factory service center fixed some underlying problem. We gave it to my grandmother when we left England and she used it until she died. The last time I saw it there were some small areas with bad purity near the edges, but it was otherwise good.

Our first TV in the US was a 19" Sanyo with touch sensitive buttons which never gave us any trouble.

The TVs I have a sentimental attachment to are actually some of the old tube sets I took apart as a kid. The most memorable ones were RCA color portables. At the time they were just old junk and generally beyond my ability to repair. I did fix up a CTC-22 which I liked and saved for a while, but the CRT was weak and blurry. I ended up giving that one away, but I'm sure it's long gone now.

I can also remember a very modern looking 19" RCA tube set. It looked like an XL-100, but it was mostly tube. It had the same audio module as an XL-100. I was surprised at how good the picture was for a tube set, but it had an intermittent problem that I never solved. I scrapped that one because I didn't want it and there was no market for tube TVs at that time (early 90's).

I can also remember a few sets that I passed up on and regretted it. One was a 19" tube color set at a school yard sale. It was something like $0.50 and I was going to buy it, but my mom talked me out of it because it was so old (at the time I was making good money on XL-100s and Chromacolor IIs). I can't remember the brand, but I remember it looked like the cabinet was almost too small for the CRT. It might have been an RCA.

There was another 19" tube color portable at a church yard sale that I was going to take at the end when everything was free, but the guy talked me out of it because he said it had been out in the rain. He gave me a B/W Sears which he insisted was color. I felt kind of cheated when I got home and confirmed that it was just B/W.

My first set was an all tube RCA 15" B&W with a woodgrain plastic cabinet that came on a woodgrain and metal roll around cart. Rotary controls for VHF and UHF. Had a dandy picture too. Wish I had her back.

The 2 most important sets in my childhood were 23v color GE sets, transformer chassis...our main tv was probably a 'KE' chassis; I had a table model for awhile when I was about 12 or so which was maybe a chassis or 2 older. Those were not great sets, but I'd still like to have one. I had a couple in the early 90s but haven't seen another in years. But, yes, distance is a problem. If one showed up in Michigan it might as well show up on the moon. I would love to have that Hoffman out west but it's just not practical and I sure can't afford the shipping.

I have plenty of sets looking for homes, but nobody is all that close to me.

Doug found a shipper that's reasonable, so if you really want a set from somewhere else in the country,(Ebay, Craigslist) why not? These oldies we enjoy are not going to be any easier to find in the future.

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/att...2&d=1139183021
My father's mom had a TV just like this Admiral I got off ebay back in 2000. We inherited it when I was in first grade, in 1960, and became the kids' bedroom TV.
It started failing from time to time (probably the wax caps) and sometime in the mid 70's it got tossed.
The one off ebay got all the wax caps replaced. And works (assuming the movers didn't break it when it went into storage..)...

Hi Guys!

i'll pitch in,

Looking for a 10 or 11 inch B&W portable, Curtis-Mathes, all tube, heated like hell, circa 1963-1964. As compact as a B&W Portacolor.

Was my grandparents TV in Tiburon, country house in the SFO Bay Area.

Spent endless hours on the roof to adjust the antenna's direction to get the most channels without ghosts because of all the horrid hills in the area.
Would show Gramps the new channels acquired when he came home from work, was proud as hell.

Became a "I Love Lucy" fan (9AM weekdays) after successfully receiving KTVU Ch-2 (Stockton-Sacramento) without echoes. I was 10...

Have never seen a C-M small screen on E-Bay for the last 10 years...

I miss that set!

Best Regards

jhalphen

love to find a sylvania d-16 slide control 25 console. also a e-48 solid state superset with a 25vdmp22. loved those sets!

I'd like to find a 21" B/W RCA Super tabletop set in the metal cabinet with the painted wood grain finish from c.1958. I had one in my room as a kid and I always liked it. I liked the way the controls were all on the top of the set
behind a door. I still have the t.v. stand I had it on as well as my old pair of rabbit ears.

Dumont-First with the finest in television.:yes:

I was always interested in finding one of those steel cabinet 18" zenith compact color sets with space command 300. The one id like to find is a 1970 model. I think its one of the only color sets zenith made with the 300 remote control. Very unique set.

If I could find that and a mint 29JC20 with space command 400, Id have all I ever wanted from a TV collection point of view.

I think if we all work hard at searching estate sales, (and maybe some horse swapping between members as well) this list could be doable..
With that said, the only problem might be shipping, but even that's being looked into as I speak.
Between the AK Pony Express and a couple new inexpensive shipping companies, I think this just might work out.

I have been looking for a RCA ctc22b set in the white cabinet with silver trim.

Bill R

How about a 1971 Philcomatic portable with faux woodgrain finish?

Was that an 18" hybrid color set? I had one years ago that was a motel set. I'll keep an eye out for one (as well as everything else that has been mentioned so far).

I would love to find one of these solid state GE sets in a more conservative color than the Bicentennial model depicted here. I need parts for one I am restoring. It is one of my favorite 1970s 12" B&W sets.

Iv'e been looking for a ctc-38 RCA that I had when I was 12 or 13. Got it from the neighbor accross the street. My dad and I replaced all the tubes at a Thriftys down the road. I miss that set, it was a console, and produced a decent picture.

I have a 1968 CTC 38A that has issues....just a raster right now.

Cool, thanks....I think it was, on both accounts. Here is a pic of the console version of it. Not sure if this pic has a larger CRT.

I have a Philco table set, '72-73ish I believe. Fake woodgrain cabinet and "Days Inn" stamped on top. Works good still. Yours free if interested.

Mine would be a Curtis Mathes color console (tv only, no radio or TT) from the mid 70s.

Wow! Thanks...! Do you have a photo so I can be sure?

PS. Your '75 Quasar is still working wonderfully.....

My camera is m.i.a. right now. Doug previously had the set, and has a pic of it I believe.

Cool....I'll see if he has....thanks.

I still have ( in working condition, although cosmetically it's really beat up ) the 1986 14 inch Sharp TV I have since new ( I was 9 at the time ). It's a color set, in fact, my mother bought two of those on the same day, one was to be used with the VCR ( Panasonic - I saved it from being dumped ) she had bought just a few days before ( our first VCR - cost a hell of a fortune back then ), and the other was to be my bedroom set. My Sharp is still with me, but it's twin is on a TV repair shop, awaiting parts that probably will never appear ( it's among some tens or hundreds of TVs, VCRs, DVDs, microwave stoves and other appliances; besides, Sharp of Brazil closed it's doors some years ago ).

Those two Sharps were bought to take the place of a 1978 20 inch color Philco Ford. That Philco Ford was given to a relative, and later got dumped.

The first TV of my childhood, the one that actually was my first bedroom TV, and that I would like to find today, is a 1974 some 20 inch black and white Philco Ford. It's a huge wooden table model set, not particularly attractive in my opinion ( I am a big fan of early-mid fifties TV sets ) but for nostalgic, among other reasons, I would like to find one. This particular set ended dumped after it spent some years on a warehouse on the back of my grandmother's house. It was still in mint cosmetic condition when it was dumped.

It's kind of ironic that today I have many sets, that are way much older and rarer than this one, but haven't stumbled across this TV, that was a very common to find TV until some 25 years ago.

Mine would be the RCA 19" console. I believe a CTC-19? That was our first color set. Flyback burned up in 1977, and my Uncle who was a TV dealer, set my parents up with a Zenith, and didn't repair the RCA. Would LOVE to find a working one now.

I've been wanting to find what I think was a 13 inch B&W tv. It was orange and I remember it being roundish on all sides. After my Grandaddy died we inherited his motorhome. My Dad drove it across the country and we parked it out in the driveway. I used to spend most nights out there just watching my Grandaddy's TV. Not sure what kind it was, but to this day if I think B&W portable, that is what pops up in my mind. This was around '78 or so.

I found MY "1st" TV long ago...My parents got me one of those ubiquitous 5" Sonys for Christmas 1963, IIRC. I remember my dad took me into General Products on Gay Street in Knoxville in late '63 & showed me those little guys..They were something like 300 bux, IIRC, but I begged & begged for one. Well, Christmas came, I had the croup, the crud, or something, I was too sick to walk into the living room to see it, they had it plugged in & on under the tree. I remember saying "That's nice", & then my dad carried me back to bed. I had that little guy til the summer they went to the Moon, it gave up the ghost then. Doesn't sound like much, but that little TV suffered the tortures of the damnded..& like a Timex, it "Took a Lickin', & kept on Tickin'"...Now, I have one sitting up on my mantle about 10' away. They are pretty common finds on You-Know-Where, & most of the time, they seem to still work...

Was it this one?
This is only a 9"

There are a couple of otherwise uninteresting sets from my childhood that I'd grab if I saw them today.

The first would be a Toshiba 14" "blackstripe" monitor style set from the mid 80s. It was from when monitor style sets were a new idea, but otherwise it was pretty basic. No remote, no AV inputs. The only reason it is significant to me is that my parents bought it go with my Tandy Color Computer. I spent countless hours in front of it typing in BASIC code. When my parents split it went to my mothers house as her only TV. As far as I know it was dumped or given away when she married some whackjob who considered TV (and pretty much everything else) evil and they moved out to the middle of nowhere.

Then there was a 9" Kriesler B&W set. It was given to me by a neighbour when I was 10 years old complete with a pair of pliers to change channels. It was the first TV that was completely mine (the Toshiba was often used by the rest of the family as a second set). I don't know what happened to that one. I think it evetually died and was dumped. I probably took it apart, but I didn't have the skills back then to actually fix it.

Radiophile, here's a pic of the Philco.

Did yours have the built in UHF tuner?

VinylHanger, I have a couple orange 12" bw sets, both are tube chassis Philco-Ford. The better of the 2 works well.