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At the risk of preaching to the choir here: The term "muntzing" means something. Old Earl apparently went around through his factory, and carried a pair of wire cutters. He'd lean over the shoulders of his engineers, second-guess them, and snip out components in the prototype chasses that he felt could be done without. He would usually go a step too far, and admit that the last component was essential.
We all may have antique sets with five picture IF stages--many of these sets being dual channel. Most of Earl Muntz's sets were intercarrier--and had only two IF stages.
Muntz was a businessman. And an innovative one at that. And realized the no-brainer that money was the bottom line. And also realized that at least 90% of the TV watching public lived within an area where the TV signals could make your fillings ache--thus the dumbed-down TV set design that worked perfectly well in the CA coastal area--as well as other population-dense areas such as Chicago, DC, NYC, Boston, etc...The only time the buyer of such an inexpensive set would run into trouble was if he bought a color TV and took the old Muntz B&W to his country villa way out of town... uh-oh....
With such marketing technique Earl Muntz made sets at a price that made people leap out like lemmings to buy.
While I used to curse him as I tweaked an old Muntz set I once had I now know what matters, and tip my hat to him.
Money is always the bottom line in business. Just the way it is....
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