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This TV must have been one of the first mass-produced color sets. I say this because the set has a color indicator lamp on the front panel. I have seen only one other color set with a color indicator; that was in the '60s and the family's TV was made by Motorola, IIRC. I'm sure this feature was put on '60s color sets (I think some Zenith color sets of the '60s also had a color indicator) when color TV was new and the sets, of course, were expensive as anything (!).

As a side note, Philco had a tuning aid on its color consoles of the '60s, IIRC, in the form of a "magic eye" tube, not unlike the ones found on radios of the 1930s-'40s. (There was an article in a late 1960s issue of the now-defunct Popular Mechanics magazine describing this feature.) However, the tuning "eye" on Philco color sets was not round; rather, it was a horizontal display, mounted directly above the channel knob, which showed two segments when the picture required proper fine tuning. The segments moved horizontally as the fine-tuning knob was turned; when the two segments just met, the picture was properly tuned in. This was a necessary feature in early color sets because most people didn't know how to properly tune in a color picture; in fact, there were some folks (I knew several) who would watch an entire TV show broadcast in color in monochrome, unaware that a slight "twist of the wrist" (of the fine tuning knob) would cause the TV picture to change, as if by magic(!), from drab b&w to glorious full color. (VK member Sandy G. used to refer to this as "glorious lollipop color".) NBC-TV's color peacock could also be used as a tuning aid for color sets; when the bird's feathers were showing on a color set in b&w, the fine tuning was off, but when the TV was properly tuned, the peacock's feathers would show in full color. NBC used the peacock to promote its color shows, as it was the first U. S. television network to telecast 100-percent color programming; in fact, following most NBC shows of the '60s-'70s, the NBC "snake" logo, with the words "The full-color network", would often appear just before a commercial message or two, then the local affiliates would break away from the network for their own commercials and a station break before the next NBC program.

Automatic fine tuning (AFT), introduced in the late '60s-'70s, I believe (I could be off by a few years in either direction), took the guesswork out of fine-tuning color TV, so the fine-tuning aid I just mentioned was no longer necessary; of course, today's flat-panel TVs do not have such an aid or AFT, since these features are not needed on such sets. Just plug the set into AC power, connect the antenna or cable, turn the set on, select the channel, and enjoy the show.

How times have changed. Today's flat screens are so automatic (and television signals are so sophisticated, from a technical standpoint anyway) there is almost nothing for the viewer to do except, as I said, select the channel, adjust the volume, and enjoy the show. This is also shown in the simplicity of modern TV remotes (at least universal remotes); many of these remotes have very simplified controls, for channel selection, volume up and down, mute and, of course, the power button. Many controls on universal remotes are set and forget, except of course for favorite channel lists, et al. I don't remember the last time I ever had to reset the preset settings of my own Insignia 32-inch TV; in fact, there is only one button on the TV itself (the on-off button), with the rest of the controls located on the remote. This was not the best way, IMHO, to design these sets (I believe many if not most Insignia flat screens are built this way on purpose these days, probably to keep costs down), because if anything goes wrong with the remote (ncluding dead batteries), the set is practically unusable. Of course, a universal remote can be used in case the original one fails or if several devices, such as a VCR or DVD player, are connected to the set via HDMI inputs (I use an RCA universal remote with my Insignia TV and LG DVD player, using an external remote for my Panasonic VCR), but I still think this was a poor way to design these TVs. There should have been some way to operate most basic functions of these televisions if the remote fails or if the batteries go dead; such did exist in older TVs when remote controls themselves were new. Zenith, for example, designed its its 1960s remote color sets with a manual channel selector knob protruding from the back of the set, for use in case of failure or other malfunction of the motor drive system. Other color sets made during this time probably, almost certainly, had the same type of manual channel selector. There would have been no sense in failing to include this in remote TVs of the '50s-70s since, of course, failure of either the remote receiver within the TV or of the remote hand unit itself would render the set virtually unusable (the VHF channel selector probably could not be operated manually without stripping the drive gears).