The TV is Dying

I think we'll be planning a funeral for our television set. It's around 8 years old, we bought it when we lived in Kansas. It keeps shutting itself off, and then eventually and unpredictably turning itself back on. Doesn't seem to matter if I unplug it for a while or leave it plugged in. It's been off twice today, first time for 2 hours, second time for 20 minutes. A few days ago it was off for almost a day, and we unplugged it for the night so it wouldn't come back on while we were asleep. It came on a couple hours after I plugged it back in the next morning. I guess it wouldn't bother me so much except that it keeps happening when I'm letting Sam watch his movie of the day. While I like limiting his TV watching, I hate the tantrum that I get when the TV shuts off in the middle of a show I said he could watch. I also don't want to buy a new TV because not only can we not afford one, but I think Sam would just break it. I'm crossing my fingers for this one to last until he learns to leave it alone.