A cold-cathode flat panel display using thin-film-transistor (TFT) anode circuit is disclosed. Associated with each pixel element is a TFT circuit comprising first and second transistors electrically cascaded and a capacitor in communication with an output of the first device and an input of the second transistor used to selectively address pixel elements in the display and hold pixels in their selected states for the frame time. Cold cathode sources are used to emit electrons that are drawn to selected pixel elements that include phosphor areas, which emit light of a known wavelength when struck by the emitted electrons.