For anyone this deep on the thread, check out this video (great presenter!) explaining TV spectrum allocation, NTSC, PAL, and the origin of 29.97 fps.

https://youtu.be/3GJUM6pCpew

Memories shattered. Yeah, you're right and I would have watched interlaced broadcast content.

I saw interlaced NTSC video in the digital days where the combing was much more obvious and always assumed it was only an NTSC thing!