That 1958 RCA CTC7 may well have been the first color TV with no knobs or dials on the front panel, but one must bear in mind that functions such as volume up/down, hue, color level, contrast, etc. were being adjusted by potentiometers driven by electric motors, which in turn operated on command from a tube-powered (and also quite complicated) remote receiver, by the control buttons themselves on the front of the set or by commands from the remote. The VHF tuner also was driven by a rather noisy motor (as in all power-tuning schemes of that era), and only changed channels up or down (no favorite-channel or scan functions, as all TVs made in the last ten years or so offer as standard equipment).
Today's pushbutton color sets, which are the rule rather than the exception these days (except for those cheap 5" monochrome portables with AM and FM radio one can get in a drug store or discount store for under $30, which still use continuous tuners), OTOH, carry out the commands from the remote or from the front panel buttons completely electronically; there are no motors to be found anywhere in these sets.
Note as well that RCA's G2000 limited-edition color console had completely electronic VHF tuning, which eliminated the detented tuner (and that annoying clunk-clunk noise it made when it was rotated by hand or by a power-tuning motor). However, the G2000 still had one small, very quiet motor driving the UHF tuner, so this one didn't quite do away with mechanical power tuning.
That particular version of the CTC7 must have been extremely expensive (in 1958 dollars; I hate to think what such a set would cost in today's money), meaning that only the very well-to-do could afford it; but then again, color TV was always very expensive through the '60s, '70s and even the '80s. One could not touch a color television in 1965, for example, for less than $800-1,000.
All of which reminds me. That white French Provincial RCA three-way console a lot of us here on AK do not seem to like (because of the cabinet style) is being sold for $550, which is close to what the set might have cost new. Is it really ethical to try to sell something like that (the set must be 35 years old or more) for a price so close to what it might have sold for when it was new? Go figure.
