Uncreative Labs

Guest

Remember the nice wood console sets everyone used to have? When did we go from those to all the ugly black plastic boxes? They went from being an expensive and stylish item to being ugly and cheap, like disposable razors.
At least the black boxes seem to be going away finally, but they're being replaced by overpriced picture frames. Bring back the old wooden Zenith!

That's the end of my TV rant.

Joined: 22 Oct 2005 Posts: 61 Location: sunny AZ

They got ugly about the time that the insides became unrepairable. Why bother building a nice wood cabinet for a piece of junk that you have to throw out when it dies in a couple years?

Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Posts: 594 Location: Western NC

Quote:

They got ugly about the time that the insides became unrepairable. Why bother building a nice wood cabinet for a piece of junk that you have to throw out when it dies in a couple years?

Precisely. TV's used to be considered along the lines of "furniture" and had appealing designs, since they were the focus of "family entertainment". Radios also held this title, but they began to become disposable as soon as TV stole the glory (late 1940's/early 1950's---though many of the first 15 years of tabletop radios have a degree of style). Perhaps the first "shocking" design for TV was the Philco Predicta (c. 1958). By that time, TV was beginning to show some decline, and manufacturers wanted to hold to their market. By the late 1960's, most manufacturers had abandoned any degree of design, in favor of making (what were now mostly solid-state TV's) a cheaper consumer item for better profit margins...

If you're nostalgic:

http://antiqueradio.org/gallery.htm

Guest

japan lack sufficient wood to make decent cases.
and nice hardwoods in the use have gotten much more expensive.

my 1984 zenith was made in miccouri either kc or st louis.

Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2005 12:20 am

Mine its not ugly I it on now on the screen using a digital TV card DVT Very Happy

Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2006 7:35 am

I may be in the minority here, but for the longest time I never liked traditional console TV sets, probably because we never had one in our own household for me to cultivate fond memories of, they put the TV screen too close to the floor for my tastes, and I thought as a child that a "high-tech" electronic device like a TV set should be made of high-tech materials instead of something quaint like wood. Smile

That said, I don't like the look of a lot of sets. My foremost pet peeves are the models that curve the case to match the shape of the tube (which I do not like the look of) and that awful fake woodgrain on most plastic-cased sets of the '70s, '80s, and early '90s (which thankfully is less common nowadays).

Joined: 19 Oct 2004 Posts: 138 Location: Lynnwood,WA

If this is what you miss, you can have it.....EEEEEEEEEEEEEK!

I thought those old T.V.'s looked creepy as crap, and even worse with the old 70's and 80's Sesame Street skits on them (like the 10 Scanimation sketch, and anything with that horrendous beast above). We had one like that one (Zenith), it made me think of creepy owls for some reason.

I like the old Sony Trinitrons though, as long as you don't fry the rectifier......for reasons that would take a LOT of explianing to not make myself look TOO crazy.

Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2006 7:53 pm

creepingnet wrote:

If this is what you miss, you can have it.....EEEEEEEEEEEEEK!

I thought those old T.V.'s looked creepy as crap, and even worse with the old 70's and 80's Sesame Street skits on them (like the 10 Scanimation sketch, and anything with that horrendous beast above). We had one like that one (Zenith), it made me think of creepy owls for some reason.

You're right...that IS scary. Laughing

The dials look like crossed eyes and the speaker grate reminds me of teeth. What's happening on screen couldn't possibly help, either.

We used to have a '70s TV set from Sears that (going by memory) looked like this:

We always had cable, too.

Joined: 22 Oct 2005 Posts: 61 Location: sunny AZ

I remember visiting some friends in another town in the mid 70s, they had HBO by direct wireless link. In 1983 when I finally moved into my own "real" house I got cable...for a few years, then gave up on it.

The only neat looking TV we had was the upright Philco, probably from the mid 50s.

Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2006 4:13 am

Quote:

If this is what you miss, you can have it.....EEEEEEEEEEEEEK!

That's not a console, it's an ugly portable. This is a console: Smile

Joined: 22 Oct 2005 Posts: 61 Location: sunny AZ

this is a console