Later on they had tubes for the TV, you did the same thing, Take the back off, found a tube that wasn't on (they glowed or lit up somehow and that is how the amateur technician could tell) find the replacement, go home, put in in, put the back on, and resume watching TV. You did have to be careful though, the TV could give you a pretty good jolt if not careful. and there were a few tubes that do the same thing if handled wrong.
"Technicians" in those days went from being a Radio Repairman to being a TV Repairman, the only thing required was a different sign. I knew one TV repairman who showed me a little trick, and I have seen him do it on a number of occasions, re-soldeirng the contacts on the picture tube and it would then work, the heat buildup would cause them to corrode, the soldering gun touched to the contacts would bring it back to life.
I often fixed our radio or TV by removing all the tubes, heading for the drug store, testing the tubes,, finding the bad one, getting a new one, putting it all back together, and it worked. Basically, the same thing that the Repairman did, only this way, just for the price of the tube. Repairman had tube testers, so did drug stores.
There had to be millions of these testers out there, every drug store and a number of other stores had one. The guy with the machine would make the rounds every week refilling them.
I wonder where they all went?
