. . .but not Elvis-style.

A flying buddy was cleaning out his garage and found an old TV. He brought it to the flying field we both fly out of, which at the time didn't have any close neighbors. He very generously let me take the first shot.

In the movies, of course, it goes kablooey, like a small explosion, with the SMOKE, and the FLAMES, and the SHATTERING, and the GLA-VENNN.(Sorry, "Simpsons" reference there.)

In actuality, it just sorta broke like a piece of glass. No smoke, no flames, no kablooey at all. No glaven whatsoever.

Of course, when you shot it, it wasn't plugged in and wasn't showing "Oprah."

If you're close enough, you can hear the imploding "pop" sound as the vacuum inside is filled with inrushing air.

No, I don't know this from shooting one. I know this from an unfortunate incident involving a video game I was trying to move down some stairs without a back on it.

And let's not talk about why I'm paranoid about grounding them thoroughly before working on them...

I saw a show (briefly) talking about UL listing or consumer testings. They have improved the design of TVs so they do not explode (I mean glass shooting out of it). Early TVs would cover you with glass at 6 feet if something hit it.

You should have had it plugged in.

When we had an old (1950s) TV out behind the garage, dad always warned me not to break it or the yoke would come flying out and impale me.

I worked in a computer shop once, this was before PCs, so we had gobs of bad tubes taken from dumb terminals. Boss needed space, so he sent a couple of us to toss 'em in the Dumpster, with instructions to break 'em. We'd slam-dunk them in, then duck like a mortar crew. Nice blasts!

Bahaha, I needed that today.