Re: Why did folk always unplug the telly at night?
I work in the hotel business, and actually remotes didn't become common until the late 80s, and you could still buy remote-less sets well into the 90s. I remember the thinking among many hotel owners was that remotes were easily stolen by guests believing they could use them on their home TV. So, hotels didn't want to use them until the replacement costs got low enough that they could afford to loose a few. Even then, many hotels used rather clumsy lock down devices to try to keep the remote in the room.
When remotes became common, the older hotels had to bypass the switch between the beds and put a cover plate over the wall box because the sets would have to be re-programmed every time they lost power. I remember staying at one hotel that you could see the outline of the box through the wallpaper. I felt it and realized they didn't bother to put a protective plate over it, they just papered over an open box!
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