If you scored a new television this holiday season, either as a gift or from a sale, you’re probably figuring you’ll have no problems with it, that it’ll perform perfectly for you until technology overtakes it and you decide to dump it for an even cooler screen. But TVs didn’t used to be that reliable, at least not according to the TV Owners Guide that could be purchased for $1.98 from an ad in the back of Web of Evil #1 (November 1952)

How unreliable were they? So unreliable that a selling point for the book was that if you followed the advice inside, “You may actually have to call a repairman only once a year!”

Only once a year? As someone who’s never called a television repairman ever, it’s hard to imagine a time when needing only a single annual visit would be considered a wonder.

How bad were things for owners of TV sets in 1952? According to the ad, the book’s $1.98 price was “less than 1/2 the cost of a single service call.” And “you can save the $30-$60 service fees you are now paying, and you can save most of your $10-$15 repair bills.” Take inflation into account, and those ’50s TVs turn into a money sink.

So let’s all be very grateful we’re living in 2015 and not 1952. After all, you wouldn’t want to have to see this guy all the time …