our first color set was a GE, but with a twist
By 1967 we were still a B&W family. I suppose our family could be characterized as upper middle class, my father was a dentist, etc. About half the families in the neighborhood had color by then (the USA hit 50% color ownership in the early 1970s). A 19 inch set cost about $500 back then, so it would be analogous to buying a $3000-5000 set today. My parents probably could afford it, but their priorities were that they themselves watched little TV (other than the news and "To Tell The Truth") and they encouraged us to spend time on homework, not tv.
As Allen/whirlcool suggested, the predominant color brands were RCA and Zenith. Some neighbors had a 21 or 23 inch Zenith cabinet model (with the round tube) and a Space Command remote that controlled not only volume and channels, but also color quality such as tint and intensity.
Our first color set was by accident. For years, Dad had been a not-so-active member of the Lions Club. I think he joined idealistically in the beginning and then became bored with it. Part of the problem may have been that he joined a chapter near his office, not near where we lived, so that the activities were benefiting the area around his office, but not his neighborhood. Anyway, he'd do the minimum service time needed per year to remain active, which usually meant working the club's Christmas tree lot each December (translation: PassatDoc worked the Christmas tree lot....).
Every year the chapter had a raffle. I'm guessing Dad bought $20 of tickets (probably his share of tickets to sell, but it was easier to buy his own share than to hawk them to others) and promptly forgot about it. He and I went to a minor league hockey game (San Diego Gulls) and when we return, mom said "We won a color tv!!"
Dad and I were incredulous and thought she was joking, like "who on earth would give US a color tv??" so she said, "go out to the garage and see for yourself." We went down (house built on a hill, garage at street level, 27 steps up the slope from street level to house, very common arrangement in hilly parts of San Diego) to the garage and peeked inside mom's Buick Sportwagon 400, and lo and behold, there was a tv AND matching cart. A 19" color table model GE set with a cart. The cart was nice because our den had built in bookcases that accommodated our existing 19" B&W set, but the color set was too deep to fit in the bookcase, so the cart avoided a furniture purchase.
We set it up and the first image I remember was the red and white checkerboard tablecloth of a Mrs Butterworth's Syrup ad. The set had an Automatic Color button but I found manual adjustments gave a better picture. The set didn't work well and had to be repaired several times. Finally in 1972 my parents bought a 19" or 21" inch table top Hitachi set (the first one they ever BOUGHT) for a reasonable $320 at a local discount store (the late, great Fedco) and the GE went to the dump.
The Hitachi, despite being mostly solid state, didn't hold out that much longer, by 1979 the picture was shot and we replaced it with a 19" MGA (as Mitsubishi was then known) which lasted until c. 1995-6. The replacement was a 25" Magnavox set (by now, tv's were square rather than rectangular) which just barely fit in the built-in wall cabinet (not the same house as the first tv and not the same bookcases). Anything larger would not have fit the cabinet, and even then we had to go shopping with a tape measure, as only some of the 25" models would fit.
This year, the Magnavox began making strange noises when turned OFF (but plugged in) so off it went to the e-waste county recycling program, and in its place now stands a 32" Vizio HDTV with WiFi, thank you Costco: only $350 on sale. I tried to find them a 37" set, but none of them had low enough vertical clearance to fit the cabinet. They love the set and are now using my Netflix account to watch movies, documentaries, etc.
So in 44 years, they've had five sets: 19" GE, 19" Hitachi, 19" MGA/Mitsubishi, 25" Magnavox, and now a 32" Vizio.
Allen, I do remember the GE PortaColor being a major price break, I believe it retailed for $199.98---the first color set under $200. When most other sets were $400+.
(I like the way she says "color")
