The last dial-tune TV sets

[crt89]

Does anyone know what year the last dial TVs were made? I remember my Sears catalog in the early 90s had one 19" dial set I think LXI brand.

Interestingly, my grandparents built their house and moved in early 1995. My grandmother's brother lived with them and she bought a TV for his room and wanted a basic set that he could work easily. I remember her saying they bought a dial TV set and it was so cheap that they returned it and got a remote set instead. It may have also had to do with them having cable TV, can't remember exactly. They wound up with a 19" Zenith remote for his room and a 25" Zenith remote for the living room. The 19" had the buttons on the right side of the screen instead of at the bottom which I thought was a little unusual. I don't recall what happened to the 19" but the 25" burned up one day and produced a terrible smell while my grandpa was watching the news one evening. I think it was replaced by a Philips Magnavox. Both of those Zeniths are long gone, they have had a few flat panel TVs since.

It seemed odd to me there were dial TV sets in 1995 because in 1993 was the mandate for closed caption ready units, unless these dial TVs could read closed caption. Or maybe the one she got was just a leftover one that had been sitting from prior years.