RCA built-in TV, 1960

[sampson159]

there was a built in roundie at the livingston grille in columbus ohio.closed up in the mid 90s and the roundie was still in the wall over the walk-in freezer.rca ctc11 set.my dad would cash his paycheck there and bring home the best cheeseburgers ever.food was wonderful and the middle big booth was the perfect place to view osu football.mercury keller tv was 2 blocks away and bob would have it serviced every 3 month by a tech.once the tech told us that a vent was installed up there from the freezer.it kept the area around 60-65 degrees at all times.not sure if this had any effect on the set but it had a fine picture on it.one crt replacement in the late 70s.it is now the nefertiti lodge.not sure if the set is still there.area is rundown and very dangerous.

[wa2ise]

2 doors down from my mom's house was a house where a friend lived, both of us kids in the 60's. His basement was done up late 50's real wood paneling, and had a built in black and white TV set. No idea what brand and model. We'd watch afternoon cartoons and such on it. And a bar, and such you'd expect for a late 50's man-cave. House came up for sale a few months ago, dropped in, the paneling and bar and man-cave just like it was in the 60's, but just a hole where the built in TV was. The releater's for sale sign is gone but I haven't seen anyone in the place yet.

[Jeffhs]

An episode of "The Odd Couple" '70s TV series, titled "Oscar's New Life", had a scene in which was shown a 3-screen TV installation in Oscar's new office, with the TVs in the wall hidden by a large (and no doubt very heavy) motorized door when not in use. The door was opened and closed by a switch on a rather complicated control panel.

Oscar was showing Felix the installation one day, and he pushed the button to reveal the screens. "Three major networks, plus educational television," Oscar said when the three screens became visible. Later on in the show (near the end), however, Oscar is shown watching a baseball game on a very small-screen portable battery-powered TV. Felix asks him why he is watching the game on that set and not on one of the TVs in the wall. The reason was the three TVs were now gone, with only the wiring hanging out from the CRT masks. "A tube blew out and the repairman had to take it all back to the shop," Oscar answered. "They took out the whole wall! . . . (TV repairmen) make a fortune, don't they?" Felix marveled.

Back in those days and with a complicated setup like that, I'm sure they did, and continued to make their fortunes until the end of the NTSC CRT TV era. However, with today's flat screens, the 21st century equivalent of the multi-TV wall installation in Oscar Madison's office would have four flat screens behind the door, rather than CRT sets. When one of the sets went bad they would be thrown out and replaced, so no more than one channel would be out of service at any given time. Makes a lot more sense to me than having to pull out four CRT sets, leaving the customer with no TV and four gaping holes in the wall.