There's this great solution called "Sodium Silicate" - some refer to it as "liquid glass" - when it binds to glass, it practically turns into glass itself. It's a great practical joke or vector for revenge (mix it with some food coloring/vomit/feces/etc and splatter it on someone's windshield). I bought a 30 oz jar of it from a local pharmacy (they had to special order it) back when I was in high school for a mere six bucks. In the first 'test' of it, I used an eyedropper to put a small ammount on the mirror in the men's room at school, it dried and looked like a 2-inch drop of water that ran down and froze. I'd keep checking it everyday, and you could tell the janitors were using every fucking cleaner on it to try and remove it - finally they tried to scrape it off and ended up gouging out the glass itself. But anyway, that's a bit off the subject. I'd lay your teevee on it's back (so it doesn't run), and apply enough of it with a toothpick to fill the gap. Try and make it as flush as possible, or you'll have the picture distorted - you might even want to go over it after it dries with a mild abrasive (possibly a car wax) to make it flush. Suffice it to say, I've never actually done this, but in theory it should work (it works on regular glass) - but since the final result should be as close to perfect as possible - I'd call around town to a few 'windshield repair' places and ask them if they could do it for you first. I've heard of places that you can take your car to and they fix the windshield to where you can't even tell there was ever a chip. That'd probably be the easiest/best way to go.
Oh, and if you've considered buying a new tube itself - don't. They usually cost almost as much as the fucking tv did originally. When I was looking for a power supply for one of my sets online, I saw the price for a 27" tube (not even a flatscreen) - $600. Fuggitaboutit...
Sodium Silicate, eh? Oh the fun I could have with THAT stuff! I'm visualizing a spider-web pattern on someones windshield.
It is a great fun... My original intent... Worked wonders... Might be harder to acquire, as many of the finer (read: more fun) chemicals have been as of late...
