A childhood belief about being watched

I was an active TV watcher as a kid. But, oddly, as a very small child, I was afraid of the set when it was switched off, especially if the room was darkened. I was somehow convinced that when the TV was off, it could watch ME. This was the era of big, ugly console TVs, and those huge cathode ray tubes that, when switched off, shrunk the picture down to a single raster line that would then slowly converge into a bright "dot" in the center of the screen. Maybe I thought that dot was an "eye" that could see me.

I also remember being freightened when technical difficulties would interrupt a program, and the sudden silence was broken by the repeated recorded sound of a stentorian basso voice proclaiming "PLEASE STAND BY!" I would almost pee my pants, and have to quickly change the channel.