Eventually, televisions were sent to their room. And they were getting bigger all the time. In the early '90s, 19-inch screen models were the hottest sellers, according to the Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association. But even as television's cultural grip tightened, its image slipped. A Gallup survey in the early '90s found that 49 percent of Americans said they watched too much.
Designers help clients maintain the fiction.
Most of her clients don't want a TV in the living room, she says. Mitchell agrees it's partly a gender issue. Men like technology. Every guy has to have a subwoofer. Guys like that stuff.