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Both of my RCA's of late 40's vintage did exactly this. One was cured with all new filter caps, the other ened up being a transformer replacement and cap replacement. The transformer was probably taken out by the shorted caps. I learned a lot of good lessons with the two RCA's. I will add that I never had this problem with other old sets with tube rectifiers. Now I have had a couple of sets to blow selenium rectifiers left and right.
I have played around with old TV's for over 20 years with a few long gaps of disinterest. When I was younger I ran across a lot of vintage sets that could be plugged right in without much power supply trouble. Most of the time I would power up a set and after a while some other (probably paper) cap would soon go out. I guess in the last few years the sheer age of the electrolytics is becoming way more apparent and I'm running into more trouble. Really I'm glad because it has allowed me to expand my troubleshooting abilities and general knowledge about how a given circuit works. For many years I was more of a tube or resistor changer that did a real good job of cleaning up chassis and cabinet for apearance. In the beginning I just preferred 50's sets for everyday use because you could still find a lot of working examples pretty cheap at thrift stores.
By the early 1980s most of America had achieved the attitude that color television was a birthright, kind of like kids look at remote control now. So at that time older black and white sets were hitting the curb and junk stores bigtime. Not long ago I tried to give a poor family a 19" color set for their son's room. The mother told me not to bother bringing the set because he had to have remote control. Really I don't know if it was the kid or the mother that decided that it would be better to have nothing than something that might be a bit inconvienient. Yes, the set had a turret tuner.
What cruel and unusual punishment it was when I was a kid having to get up to change a channel!! Just kidding. Actually I think we were perfectly happy with our 4 or 5 "air" channels, and also glad to own ONE family television. Color was icing on the cake. Have things changed THAT much?
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