Remote control, '50's-'60's

[Telecolor 3007]

Hello. Remote control for tv sets was introduced in U.S.A. in the '50's and more sets started to have it the '60's. But I do have one curiosity: how the knob for changing chanels (station) was moved? There was an electric motor, I know that, but at the old tv sets that I've seen in Romania you needed a lot of force to rotate it, more force that at mechanical timers of washing machines. Or did the sets that had this feature quited the clasic stuff and used some kind of varicap comuter?