Could a power surge have broken my televison?
Are sure you are getting power surges and not brown outs? With brown outs the lights will dim momentary before returning to normal brightness. With power surges other devices in your house would also be getting knocked out such as DVD recorder, microwave oven, VCR, etc. You might even see the lights go momentarily brighter. Anyway with regards to the TV a power surge would have taken out the switch mode power supply your TV would be dead. What you describe is vertical fold over a common fault with CRT TV’s. It could be a defective vertical drive IC or even a dried up electrolytic capacitor around the IC. A TV repairperson would need to look at it to locate the defective component in the vertical driver stage of the TV.
