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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!mhuxn!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!hjuxa!petsd!moncol!john
From: john@moncol.UUCP (John Ruschmeyer)
Newsgroups: net.video
Subject: Re: old TVs
Message-ID: <174@moncol.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 16-Feb-86 23:06:11 EST
Article-I.D.: moncol.174
Posted: Sun Feb 16 23:06:11 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 18-Feb-86 03:48:55 EST
References: <1@<2ba5bd39> <5200004@clio> <439@unccvax.unccvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: john@moncol.UUCP (John Ruschmeyer)
Organization: Monmouth College, W. Long Branch, NJ
Lines: 29

In article <439@unccvax.unccvax.UUCP> dsi@unccvax.UUCP writes:
>
>     Are there *six* models of Predictas? And why are these sets always
>featured in Empty-V type of popular culture?  

I can't speak for how many models of the Predicta there are, but I do have
an opinion on why they are so representative of popular culture.

The Predicta was manufactured in the 1950's and was special in that it
tried to capture that rare quality of being a "vision of the future".
Thirty years later, we can look back and realize that the Predicta's vision
did not come to pass. Rather, it now has a certian quaint, futuristic
appearance- not unlike the visions of the 1980's seen in a 1930's Science
Fiction movie.

Of course, one man's quaint is another man's laughable. Next time you're at
the library, look through a few LIFE magazines from the late 1950's. It is
interesting to see an ad for a "portable" television which extolls the fact
that it only weighs 20+ pounds!


-- 
Name:		John Ruschmeyer
US Mail:	Monmouth College, W. Long Branch, NJ 07764
Phone:		(201) 571-3451
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Give an ape control of its environment and it will fill the world with bananas.