"It probably WASN'T an RCA.You couldn't get one of their sets to run for a year if you threatened it with a gun."
Hmmm...things sure must have changed. I used to be in that business many years ago. Got out of the TV repair business a little over ten years ago. Our main TV is still the RCA I bought in 1987. And it still looks good too.
All the old names have "not been changed to protect the innocent"; Zenith is owned by a South Korean firm, and probably somebody resurrected Philco, Emerson, etc. But they really don't have any connection with the original concerns.