1950 Zenith "Porthole" TV's The Honeymooners

Here are a few of my favorite Honeymooners clips from the "Lost Episodes" series playing on two restored 1950 Zenith TV's

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• The
• Honeymooners
• vintage
• TV
• 1950
• Zenith
• Porthole

[wurly1100]

Picture Tubes in the 40's and early 50's were round, Most companies used a rectangular bezel in front of the screen which visually cut off the corners. A few companies like Zenith made circular bezels. I believe zenith made this "Porthole" style from 1948-51 or 52.

[JoshSitar]

For someone who is both a Honeymooners nerd and a technical/electronics nerd, this clip is cool. And, might I add, those televisions look like they're made of Bakelite.

[EmmetEarwax]

The oldest tv set I can recall was a small B&W one with channel 1 on the dial.

[joesphx19]

My earliest memory of tv was maybe 1956 and that was the tv my parents had, the one on the left. My mother used to watch in the afternoons. In our area we only had two networks, NBC and CBS. They did not broadcast all day either. Can you imagine today having only two channels not 500 or no tv for most of the day and certainly no broadcasts after about 11pm? We actually went outside, talked to our family members and friends, no texting. Our internet was an old encyclopedia, the manual kind!

[noaa555]

Well I will say I was born in 1975 however watched a lot of the re-run Honeymooners on a 1970 RCA model that my parents wouldn't depart from until 1995. I have always been interested in vintage electronics and have now restored a 1953 Seeburg G jukebox and working on a 1954 Seeburg R model. I guess I've caught the collectors disease. Lol! I just love this kind of stuff!

[inkey2]

@nakamichiguy yeah, we were near a big city....a suburb of boston. We got 3 stations well,,,,,and later at night we could actually get some out of state stations a bit fuzzy but viewable. We had a two story house with a TV antenna in the attic so that helped a lot compared to just the old "rabbit ear" antenna on the top of the TV. Some of my favorite shows were 77 Sunset Strip, Surfside 6, Hawiian eye, Munsters, Man from Uncle, Zorro, wonderfuorld of disney

[nakamichiguy]

Amazing TVs! Beautiful. Impossible to imagine watching anything modern on those, what with all the wide shots and detailed sets. A football game would be reduced to black and gray specks! Must have been absolutely amazing to see 'radio with pictures' back then.

[nakamichiguy]

@inkey2 Three stations? If you were a big city slicker maybe! I believe my hometown of El Paso didn't get their third station until the late-60s. I was a kid in the late 70s when their fourth signed on, a low-wattage UHF dump called KCIK, later KFOX. Our PBS affiliate signed on in the early 80s. Thems were lean times I tells ya! ;-)

[Johnnyboy792]

People don't remember how exciting it was to have a TV in their home for the first time. Thanks for putting us in the moment with this great time warp :0) !

[MrThorndawg]

cool -the tv on the right just like mine is know a fish tank- and it was not easy!!!

[MrThorndawg]

so cool!! thanks for this -sadly the tv on the right is know my fish tank!

[KingFahtah]

@inkey2 That reminds me abit of the b&w tv cassette radio combos they sold in the 70s. Good way to sell more headache medicine