When did TV manufacturers stop using model names on TV sets?

[Jeffhs]

I was looking at a couple of Zenith and RCA TV brochures in .pdf format (my thanks to Doug, drh4683, for uploading them to Mediafire.com) from 1967, '71 and '73 the other day. Found that most of the sets had names such as "The Asbury," "The Ventura," "The Evans," etc. I know Zenith and RCA, et al. gave a lot of their TVs model names as well as model numbers in the '60s-'70s, but I wonder when and why the practice of assigning model names to these sets was stopped. Also, I wonder if these two manufacturers, being the largest American makers of television sets at the time, had a patent or a copyright on this practice. I ask this because I don't remember seeing any other major manufacturer of TVs (Motorola, GE, et al.) with named sets. I remember that Zenith for some time in the '60s-'70s was naming its console color televisions after Chicago suburbs--because the company was headquartered in Chicago at the time, of course. I would think that, as large as the Chicago area is (must have dozens of suburbs), the company wouldn't have run out of model names for their TVs for years if not decades.

Too bad that tradition ended when it did. I would have been interested to see what model names Zenith and RCA could have come up with nowadays if the companies hadn't left our shores 20+ years ago to go to Korea and elsewhere on the Pacific Rim.

[AUdubon5425]

I would guess that the names were more for the brochure/advertising than anything else. Knowing my Mother, she picked our CTC-40 off a showroom floor and not from a brochure, probably like the majority of people shopped. No one ever called the set "The Lundberg."

[Sandy G]

What's the point when they're nothing but big, ugly grey plastic boxes ?

[kx250rider]

The last named sets I can think of, would be series names and not individual model names. Such as RCA naming their high end sets "Pro Scan", and Panasonic's "Prism", and Zenith's "Inteq" line. Sony had their XBR, Profeel, and Watchman lines, and so on. But the last individual model names that I can think of, would be RCA & Zenith in the late 1970s or early 80s with wood consoles.

Charles

[kx250rider]

Remember in the 80s when car mfrs started doing away with car names? Dodge 400 & 600, and the Pontiac 1000, 3000, and 6000 cars... They did that for awhile, then went back to names. Now the car makers are going with letter initials... Cadillac SRX, CTS, STS, and Honda CRV, and so on.

Charles

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

What's the point when they're nothing but big, ugly grey plastic boxes ?

You have a point, Sandy, and I agree with you. These days it wouldn't make much sense to put model names on TV's in black plastic cubes, even sets with RCA or Zenith stamped on the cabinets--the reason being that there is no more RCA, Zenith, Magnavox . . . as we knew these brands back in the day. Every one of these once-proud TV manufacturers has left the US for the Pacific Rim, now making sets that often don't last longer than the warranty period...unless you are lucky and happen to get a set that lasts years, as my RCA CTC185 set has (after the tuner grounds were resoldered). The brands are simply marketing symbols nowadays; televisions with "RCA" in block letters just below the CRT (the company's logo since 1968) are made by TCE (Thomson Consumer Electronics), sets with "Magnavox" or "Philips-Magnavox" are now manufactured by North American Philips (NAP), at least they used to be . . .

And so it goes. However, I did not even stop to think that other television manufacturers were giving their sets model names well into the '80s. RCA's "Dimensia" line, Sony's "XBR" premium series of flat-panel HD televisions, etc. were these companies' attempts at doing the same thing Zenith and RCA had done for decades with model names for their TVs, but again, they are simply marketing symbols in the 21st century. Even RCA's "XL-100" feature name, which was coined in the early 1970s when that series of TVs was introduced, meant "eXtendedLife 100(percent solid state)" and actually meant something when the line was new (all-solid-state TV's were still in their infancy then), means nothing anymore today. My RCA CTC185 19" table set has "XL-100 Commercial SKIP" in white letters at the upper left-hand corner of the CRT mask, but I'm convinced that the label is just a carryover from the last days of the original XL-100 series since RCA does not use it on its new FP sets; probably stopped putting it on their CRT sets as well a few months before the end of the analog CRT era and about a year (more or less) before the DTV transition.

In any event, XL-100 is no longer used on Thomson-built RCA FP televisions; it is probably just as well, as the name has outlived its usefulness--after all, all televisions made today by every manufacturer are 100 percent solid state, so RCA (Thomson) sets are by no means unique today--and haven't been for years.

RCA could not have used this name, however, on some of its so-called "all-solid-state" sets of 1968-'69, as many of these sets still used a tube as the high voltage rectifier. That it is a one- or two-volt tube is beside the point. The point is that it is a vacuum tube, and any TV using such a tube in this position (even if the rest of the set is all-transistor) is definitely not all-solid-state. In fact, technically speaking, no pre-flat-panel solid-state TV is "all" (as in 100-percent) solid-state, due to the CRT. The term would make sense, however, when describing flat-panel televisions as these are completely solid-state, even down to the display, which these days uses (in RCA/Thomson sets anyway) energy-saving LEDs. I don't know if Panasonic uses these in its premium "Viera" line of flat panels, but it is a logical step beyond plasma and LCD displays, and would put Panasonic in direct (and, I believe, very fierce) competition with RCA/TTE as these are, to the best of my knowledge at this time, the only two well-built and reliable brands of flat-panels available today.

[ChrisW6ATV]

I think the last three I bought were "The Taipei", The Seoul", and just recently "The Tijuana" (Samsung LED-backlit set).

[Adam]

Zenith made the Avanti cabinet up till 1980 or so, GE had the Portacolor up through the early 80s, and names for whole lines of sets like "system3" and "xl100" continued up through I think the early 90s or so.

[radiotvnut]

I've seen the XL100 name on some RCA sets as late as 2001.

[Blast]

I think the OP is referred to the 'elegant' names that adorned, and were as individual as each model.

Who came up with all those names, anyway? I'm looking at a '76 Zenith brochure right now (the Bi-Centennial offerings) and seeing these 'elegant' names like "The Surfside", "The Greenbrier", "The Plaza"...

Not sure how much longer than '76 they used those descriptions, either. Like Sandy said, it's hard to describe butt ugly black and grey boxes.

I suppose the "cutesy" names ran out when, really, 'elegance' was slowly replaced by 'attitute'. Which is the phase we are currently in.

[wa2ise]

In the 1980s RCA came out with the "Dimensia" line of TVs, VCRs and such. Then someone at a trade show, where they first presented this line, asked "Isn't Dimensia the medical term for when you lose your marbles?"...

[Don Lindsly]

It is costly to invent, research and register model names like Falcon, Aspire, Predicta etc. There seems to be no cost to use numbers like 6000, 2000 etc. and little cost to use made up words like Prius and Lexus. Anything to take cost out. It the end, it's about the money.

[jr_tech]

Originally Posted by Don Lindsly

It is costly to invent, research and register model names like Falcon, Aspire, Predicta etc. There seems to be no cost to use numbers like 6000, 2000 etc. and little cost to use made up words like Prius and Lexus. Anything to take cost out. It the end, it's about the money.

I guess that I have to question the cost vs benefit of using the "elegant" names... were customers in that time period actually lured into buying what were perhaps more expensive models because they had fancy names like "Asbury," and " Ventura,"? What purpose did the "elegant" names serve?
jr

[freakaftr8]

Don't forget Proscan, Wega, Bravia, Vierra, etc.. It seems that naming television sets are still used even today, but commonly referred as a group of televisions, not just one.

[KentTeffeteller]

And later on, we'll have the Crappia series and the new POS 650 line sets soon at your Junky TV dealer! See these horrible new sets and marvel at their fragile design and short lifespan. A division of POS Electronics Corporation.