Honestly, I do know better than to jumper a fuse. But here's the other side of the story...
I'm in the middle of a HUGE house/yard remodeling project right now, and I can hardly justify any spare time messing with this TV (one reason it's still in the garage). I've also got another Zenith with the exact same chassis and poor CRT that I haven't touched in years. The bad CRT set is near-mint condition with a beautiful danish-modern walnut cabinet. I've also got a Zenith roundie with VERY weak color (but great CRT). I figured this thing might donate a few 6KT8s to the cause of better color.
In other words, this poor sucker will eventually become a parts set.
(The cabinet is just fake wood.) To save time, I jumpered the fuse just to see where the smoke comes out of the wire, hopefully something simple and low-voltage.
But upon further thought, I should at least take some precautions with the HV stuff, if only to save the flyback. Rest assured I will before anything further.