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My parents had a 19" Sears color set that they bought around 1975 (their first color set!), and it lasted until 1991 with only ONE repair, a scratchy volume control that I replaced myself while I was still in high school. I think the chassis was actually a Toshiba, rebranded by Sears. Finally the CRT gave out, but the set didn't owe them a thing after ~16 years of daily use.
I worked in TV shops for a few years in the mid to late 80's, and the ones I remember seeing a lot of were:
Zeniths--Burned up 9-160 modules on the newer ones (we rebuilt the boards in-house), or open 4-legged caps on the older vertical chassis sets. Remember changing a few HV triplers, as well.
GE--Constant problems with the "griplets" used instead of plated-through holes on the double-sided PC boards.
RCA--Poor soldering particularly on the varactor tuner cans. And more than a few bad flybacks.
Sony--The usual "chain reaction" horizontal/power supply failure. The 2 SG613 GCS thyristors, plus the smaller one in the low voltage PS.
Magnavox/Sylvania/Philips--4 legged cap would go open, causing the HV to go to 50-60 kV. Usually arced right through the CRT neck into the yoke windings, neatly cutting the neck off the tube.
Sharp--Hardly a week would go by without one of these things on the bench. Poor flyback design would arc internally, sometimes burning through the case near the focus/G2 pots. Usually took out Horiz output, and PS regulator SCR. Sets apparently caused several home fires, and manufacturer provided new flybacks and a dozen other parts as a "meltdown kit" for free on certain models.
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