Panasonic 'SuperFlat' Sets

[Jeffhs]

I can't help wondering if the Panasonic and RCA so-called "flat" televisions of the '90s were ever mistaken for HD sets, due to their near-flat screens. I have a difficult time imagining how a standard CRT could be built with such a flat screen. The near-flat tubes must have been very difficult to manufacture, and may have been in short supply in case one had to be replaced during the life span of these sets, which couldn't have been very long since RCA TVs were going downhill fast by the beginning of the decade of the 1990s. I wouldn't have expected even an RCA TruFlat set to last more than three or four years at most -- like the life expectancy of today's flat screen HDTVs.