Was that manual control really any worse than being forced to operate the TV while slumped in the armchair, though...?
On holiday with friends in Eire some 30 years ago now, we found a delightful old pub that looked for all the world unchanged since the 1920s - apart from the prices (thought the Guinness was of course, excellent) and the large colour TV high on the wall opposite the bar. At closing-time the landlord used his remote control to press the "off" switch from behind the counter: a long and careful reach at arm's-length with a billiards cue!
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I have no TV so have never mastered the arcane art of operating these things.
My work occasionally meant staying away in hotels for a week or so, where obviously I was unable to watch the telly in my room. That was no hardship, but unfortunately there was no radio! Or perhaps it was embedded in the TV set I could not drive. The work itself sometimes involved using very advanced industrial electronic measuring equipment, but that was easy compared to domestic appliances - and it came wit proper, printed instruction-manuals!
On one embarrassingly memorable stay, I was faced on the first evening with a TV and two somewhat different controllers, neither giving any clue as to what it did and how to make it do it. The ON/OFF button was the only obvious key on both.
I tried one, and the TV woke up but gave only "snow" and hissing noises no matter what button I pressed. I tried the other hand-set; with the same result. So I gave up and read a newspaper instead.
Later, I was reprimanded by the landlady. I knew with all other rooms booked she had put me in that normally occupied by her daughter, who was away at university. What I did not know was that the TV there was a master set for the whole house, and my attempts to watch it had only de-tuned the whole lot in the building, both for the broadcast and the satellite services!
I left well alone after that and am still unable to drive a modern telly, probably nearly 20 years after that incident.
my2cents 