| Field | Basic television operation |
| Went Obsolete | With the proliferation of infrared-based remote controls in the 1980s. The first successful TV remote control was made by Zenith, in 1956. It used high-frequency sound to control the TV. |
| Made Obsolete By | The wireless remote control and eventual replacement of older sets |
| Knowledge Assumed | Not much. All you needed was the ability to rotate the tuner knobs. It was helpful to be familiar with your local TV channels, but was not necessary as you could quickly find them by trial and error. Some sets in the early 1980s used manually programmable push-button tuning, but didn't yet work with a remote control. |
| When useful | Whenever the program currently playing on your TV was not the one you wanted to watch. Needless to say, channel-surfing did not yet exist unless one was wealthy and had an expensive TV with a remote controlled TV-tuner motor. One also had to get up off the couch to turn the TV on or off, adjust the volume, and deal with V-hold and antenna alignment. Life was much harder then. |
