The overall response of a television receiver is displayed on the face of the cathode ray tube of the receiver involved by test apparatus which requires electrical connection only to the antenna terminals of the television receiver and the mounting of a small light sensor unit onto the face of the cathode ray tube. The test apparatus generates an amplitude modulated signal having a video carrier frequency corresponding to that of a selected television channel. The amplitude modulated video carrier frequency signal includes an envelope containing synchronizing pulses for operating the sweep circuits of the television receiver in a normal manner and which clamps the automatic gain control circuits of the receiver to a desired level and a video signal to produce a given brightness reference background on the tube face which is preferably gray or black. Periodically, the main video carrier is interrupted for the generation of a constant amplitude test carrier frequency signal. This test carrier frequency signal progressively varies in frequency during successive fields, so the test carrier frequencies will scan through the entire band of frequencies for the channel involved. The points in time at which the main video carrier is periodically interrupted is controlled so that the beam trace or traces produce a rectangle of light resulting from the video signal detected from the test carrier frequency. This rectangle of light appears opposite the light sensor unit. The brightness of the rectangle of light during each field is a measure of the overall response of the radio frequency and intermediate frequency tuned circuits in the receiver at the test carrier frequency involved. The light sensor output from each field is stored and then utilized to modulate the video carrier to produce a response curve on a curve display area of the cathode ray tube.