We used a commercially available liquid crystal television display unit as a spatial optical phase-only modulator. To do this, we removed the integral polarizers from the unit and double passed the light under modulation through it. We found that it was possible to obtain continuous phase modulation from 0 to PI with essentially no change in the state of polarization of the output light and absorption changes of <2.5%. We wrote computer-generated phase-only holograms on the LCTV and reconstructed them optically.