When I was a kid we sat literally inches from the screen. This was because of a TV show called Winky Dink and You: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winky_Dink_and

When I was a kid we sat literally inches from the screen. This was because of a TV show called Winky Dink and You: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winky_Dink_and_You https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winky_Dink_and_You You would go to the store and buy a special kit with a vinyl sheet that stuck to the TV screen and special crayons you could use to write on that sheet and interact with the characters in the show. I think what saved us was parental wrath. All the kids in the neighborhood discovered that you didn't need the special vinyl sheet, and in fact you could use ordinary household crayons to write directly on the TV screen! And that was the end of Winky Dink.