Early tv techs faced color challenge

[Adam]

Was there really that much tube failure in the old days? I find most old sets don't really need many new tubes, when I repaired my 721TS, I mainly just replaced capacitors, a few wires with the insulation comming off, 3 toasted resistors, and only one tube, the 6K6 audio output, and it even worked ok with the super weak one that was in there. And I've been watching my little 1956 8" RCA in bed every night for a while now and many of the tubes in that set are original. I will say that color sets always seem to need more tubes replaced, particularly tubes in the color circuits are often bad - those 6GH8s are usually bad among others.