In the 1950s, a 17-inch screen was enough to get people excited. Sets like the Crosley Family Theatre promised “full-room vision” with what now feels like a modest display. A few years later, Philco introduced a 21-inch tube, and RCA followed with color televisions that pushed the boundaries even further. By the mid-60s, Magnavox and RCA were advertising color so vivid it “felt like you were there” — a big selling point for families tuning in to The Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday evenings.
The real shift in size came with projection TVs in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Brands like Advent, GE and TheaterVision started rolling out giant-screen sets that projected the picture onto a built-in rear screen that were full-on entertainment systems, often housed in oversized wood-grain cabinets that took up half the living room. The GE Widescreen 3000 promised “true colors big and beautiful” while TheaterVision touted six-foot screens and ceiling-mount options.
By the late 1980s, sets measuring 27 inches or more were considered big screen TVs — especially when built into sleek wood-look entertainment centers. During those years, the television often took up a central place in the home, with furniture arranged to match. Even with occasional fuzzy pictures or limited viewing angles, a giant TV set signaled a certain level of household status.
Below, we’ve gathered a collection of vintage photos and ads that show exactly what big screen TV meant through the decades and how television screens grew alongside American living rooms.
Old Crosley TV sets with 17″ screens (1950)
Crosley Family gives you full-room vision… with the new wide-angle Family Theatre Screen.
5 TV cabinet models: four with 17-inch rectangular tube screens, and one with a 19-inch round tube screen.
Philco TV 4016 with 21-inch picture tube (1958)
Fancy color Magnavox TV set from 1965
A big TV set from 1965
RCA Victor — for color so real you’ll think you are there! (1966)
New Hi-Lite Color Tube with Perma-Chrome
Something special has been added to RCA Victor’s new big-screen color TV. It’s RCA’s new rectangular Hi-Lite Tube with Perma-Chrome. And the way it works is beautiful to behold.
Ordinary rectangular tubes can produce distorted colors while they’re warming up. The Hi-Lite Tube with Perma-Chrome delivers uniform color purity the moment the picture comes on. And it keeps it there for as long as you keep on viewing.
See your RCA Victor dealer for a demonstration. You can’t miss his store. It’s the most colorful place in town.
See Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color, Sundays, NBC TV Network.
New General Electric color TV – it’s like being at the movies (1969)
Expensive big screen TVs from 1977
Advent’s VideoBeam television – Vintage projection TV (1978)
GE Widescreen 3000 TV: Big is beautiful (1981)
Big-screen TV doesn’t have to be fuzzy, dim, or distorted. With the new GE Widescreen 3000, you get America’s true colors big and beautiful.
The action comes at you in breath-taking, vivid color — the kind our GE VIR II color system is known for. This GE innovation uses a special VIR signal, sent out by most broadcasters, to automatically adjust the color for you. So flesh tones look realistic and natural.
And the GE Widescreen 3000 offers rear-screen projection, eliminating bulky lenses and projector consoles between you and the screen. So you get a bright, clear image on a compact, big-screen TV. In fact, with a picture this good, you may be one of the few people to call a charging, 270-lb. lineman beautiful.
TheaterVision vintage projection TV set (1982)
Own the best… Enjoy the one others copy at a price no one can copy: TheaterVision.
TheaterVision TVI-760 with random-access remote control is our patented one-piece design in giant screen color projection TV. Our handsome one-piece unit blends perfectly with your living space and gives you the finest quality picture available. It can be viewed in normal room lighting.
Five different models to choose from all with our space-saving design, including our exclusive overhead ceiling unit. They are available in four, five, or six-foot screens for any size room and for any size pocketbook.
Prices start as low as $995 — all with a full electronic warranty… TheaterVision. Manufacturing projection color giant TVs since 1972.
The little things to look for in a giant TV: Sony projection television (1983)
Retro 80s Mitsubishi projection television set (1983)
27-inch big screen TV (1987)
Big screen TV sets from Sears, all in wood-look cabinets (1988)
An old big screen TV in a wooden entertainment center (1998)
Massive big screen TVs you can buy today
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