Are extended warranties necessary on plasmas?

Most catastrophic failures will occur very soon after purchase. The mfr's warranty is more than enough to cover this. Extended warranties on electronics are a complete waste of $$$.

I'm really enjoying the 37" plasma I recently bought for the bedroom...

yeah, plasma should not need anything that manufactures shouldn't take care of in a reasonable time frame. After that, you're likely looking at long term product failure, probably after a warranty. Yeah, theyre' pushing a sale here.
Really, the older CRT's NEEDED and extended warranty, that included yearly maintainance, but not your set! You should be good as it is.
That said, you can clearly see by this, and that internet sales affect also, that it's very very difficult for an electronics store to make profit selling gear! I've personally tried to stear clear of selling electronics by themseleves, and sell what really counts, which is service, consulting,etc. In this case, I'd sell a calibration and installation of the set,with a one year warranty on the work, and just figure to make a few bucks on the Plasma...that's if I were selling it. The warranty? I don't think you need it, no.

My Panasonic failed just a few days before the 1 year warrantee expired. Close call! But, although I had bought the thing on the internet, the local service center fixed it (replacement board) quickly and with no complaints.

Most extended warranties are a big money maker for the issuer, and therefore, a ripoff for the consumer. However, if I were to consider one, it would be for a plasma. That is because a failure of the panel, whether catastrophic, or more than a few pixels gone bad, means the set is a goner. The bulk of the expense is in the panel.

I have actually know a few people whose sets died from a panel failure that occurred well into the life of the set. But, I understand this is not so much of a problem these days as it was earlier on. On balance, I would be in the no extended warranty camp, unless the dealer was offering a very good price.

The comments above are "on the money". Extended warranties are almost always a complete waste of money - and virtually pure profit to the seller of the warranty.

I have a colleague that used to work for Good Guys (before they went bankrupt), and he has told me that the sales staff were under intense pressure to sell extended warranties with TV's -- even to the point that they might tell the customer that they wouldn't sell the TV without the extra warranty.

You'd be far better off to simply put the cost of the extended warranty into a certificate-of-deposit and let it earn interest against the day that you might need the money to pay for repairs.