Motorola once built a color television whose insides slid out of the front like a drawer, so a technician could service it while watching the picture. In 1974 the company sold its whole television business to Japan. This is why the set built to be fixed lost.

For decades the console television was furniture: a wood cabinet, a doily, the school pictures on top. Families financed it, and when it failed, a repairman came to the house. Then Japanese makers cut a color set from about 1,200 parts to 480, and the repair trade began to empty out long before cheap flat screens arrived.

You will learn:
• Why a 1970s console was repaired, not replaced
• How the Motorola Quasar put 94 percent of its parts on plug-in modules
• How the drugstore tube tester worked, and why people said it was rigged
• Why American sets needed five times as many service calls as Japanese sets in 1974
• How the service networks that protected American makers became a liability

If you ever smacked the cabinet to stop the picture rolling, or watched a new TV sit on top of the dead console, share what you remember in the comments.

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