Modern TVs

How big did the TV screens on the TV sets in the 1950's get?

What was the range of sizes?

Public Comments

1. not very maybe 20" most were round
2. 25" was the monster.
3. 19 inches would have been big in those days.
4. 20'
5. Yeah, 19 inches was the big one in the 50's, technology made them 25 inches during the '60's up until the mid 80's when the 27 inch TV sets finally arrived...Then in '87 the first 30 inch, then the 32 inch in '88 and finally the first 35 inch appeared in 1990...they stopped at 40 inches in '92 because of the weight and the fact they couldn't build a larger CRT because the Vacuum would cause the CRT bell to collapse.... That was the reason there was a slow progression of bell sizes from 25 inch to 27 inch....took a long time to overcome a simple 2 inch step for almost 20 years....
6. In The UK the sizes were ...from early 50s 9ins then 12in 14 , 17, 21, then from early 60s 19, 23, . It was considered that to have a TV as big as 21 then your lounge room should be exceptionally large !! Larger sizes demanded bigger and better vacuum pumps to create a hard enough vacuum . Cheers Pete
7. 19" would have been real big in the 50s. Our first color set in 1965 was either 19" or 21" - I don't remember - and it seemed mammoth at the time. I remember seeing a friend's 25" set around 1984 and thinking it was enormous!