And those 1981 tv sets were not designed to run the guns nearly as hot
or with as high or output. Look how much brighter tv sets get today.
Add the smaller gun assemblies, and the planned design life of ~20,000
hours, ~7 years 'normal' use, and one can see why the newer tv sets
tubes do not seem to last as long.

People also did not watch nearly as much tv in the 1980s as they do
today. Most people did not have cable. Most people received maybe 5
stations at the most, nbc,cbs,abc,pbs, and an independent. Those would
commonly go off the air at 11pm or midnight.