I bought the GP loco and caboose when it came out. I don't remember buying the red TV, I think I just used an old B&W TV. I tried it on a simple, well-connected circle of track and still had the same mediocre results as everyone else. It went on the shelf pretty soon after that.
But I noticed in this post that the engine has dual motors. For some reason I had always thought that it had only one motor. So yes, it would be worthwhile to dig it out of the box and run it as a conventional classic.