Show us your vintage color sets!

[jshorva65]

The Zenith model 5315 (chassis 24MC32) from the New York score proved to be in the worst shape of the three. It's in a badly-scratched cabinet with a faux finish which will be quite difficult to save. Something had obviously clobbered the back cover, also, as is fairly obvious from breaks in the Masonite and a large hole in the neck shield. I glued what was left of the shield back together with epoxy to protect the usable 21FBP22 inside while the set is in storage. That set will be put aside pending my decision to attempt saving the cabinet. For now, its p/n 95-2263 Chroma Injection transformer was transplanted into my Zenith model 5415 (also a 24MC32 chassis) shown here, since the original Chroma transformer was broken beyond repair before I acquired the set. This set's cabinet is in much better condition.

This set holds special significance for me, in the form of childhood memories. As I've posted here before, my grandparents owned several Zenith "roundie" sets years ago. Somewhere in photo albums at my parents' house are some photos of me at about my grandson's age, taken at my grandparents' house with one of their Zenith "roundie" sets clearly visible in the background. Next time my grandson visits, I'm sure there will be a snapshot taken of him either by me or my parents where this set will be in the background. Family tradition? As some already know, "Lost in Space" is my all-time favorite TV series. Since the first time I had seen one of the 54 color episodes of "Lost in Space" on a color set was at my grandparents' house on their Zenith roundie, my choice of DVD's to play for these pics was obvious. This was the third-season episode where the Robinsons finally return to Earth, only to discover that their having exceeded the speed of light has carried them back in time to 1947, to a small town in Michigan where no one has even seen a television yet except in a Popular Mechanics article.

One of my favorite features of this and similar Zenith sets is the "rear projection channel dial" where the dial lamp projects the image of the selected channel number into the indicator window at the center of the knob.