Recently, during a late spring cleaning, to my sheer and utter delight what should I happen upon but a forgotten box in the dark, neglectfully situated in the bitter back of the second shelf of a hallway closet; curiously and with no further such adieu, I inspected its contents and what I was about to unearth was one most serendipitous windfall of archaic accouterments; and in this selection; these sundries of yore - was a still quite intact and pristine copy of TV Guide Magazine. Immediately,I recounted this certain childhood fascination and how TV Guide would facilitate my weekly ritual of the middle 1970's - as there I'd be, journeying its pages over and over again in blissful abandon, so that I could once again be privy yet to this golden companion to all things televisual. I happily recalled the aspect of this tradition that appealed to me greatly, it was those astutely writ summations that accompanied each presentation on the program grid, that despite their economy of words, were each in their own rights momentous. And I have oft cited the TV guide's house critic and pioneer of its form - the late great Judith Crist (1922-2012) as being one of the key influences of my own writing.
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| Fillet of Soul... |
The first 'national' issue of TV Guide would come courtesy of Walter H. Annenberg and his Triangle Publications, on April 5,1953, and it would feature upon it's cover the newly born son of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, (aptly named Desi Arnaz Jr.) with a small caption of his glamorously gingered mum in the upper right corner. And as it happened, this was not to be the first and last time Lady Ball would grace the coveted cover - she was in fact the most prolific celebrity in the history of the magazine - having held the honors, nearly forty times would she appear in its half century existence. 1953 was simultaneously a watershed moment for television itself for it marked the year that the medium of television would lurch into the modern era.
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| 1988 and Oh, How The Mighty Had Fallen |
And TV Guide was certainly no small potatas, they were acclaimed for having the largest weekly circulation of any magazine in the entire world. It was also a happening gig for many a famous name - as it would be for such unlikely bedfellows as Al Hirschfield the New York Herald and Times caricature artist, as well as pop artist Andy Warhol who would himself silkscreen the March 5, 1966 edition that featured Agent 99 of Get Smart, the lovely Barbara Feldon. Novelists and Playwrights, such as Arthur Miller, Isaac Asamov and John Cheever were but a few of the noted scribes that would pen for the publication.
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| Who loved ya baby? Telly Savalas immortalized on a 1974 cover |
TV Guide would go the gamut with its many incarnations and makeovers, eventually media magnate Rupert Murdoch in 1988 would purchase the publication; consequently by that year had completely diminished in its meaning, (and why does that not surprise me) ? It's no mere coincidence that this would be the time I opted to cancel my weekly subscription to the goodish book, but 'twas all tickety-boo, in retrospect it really is all right that I didn't tune in for the fourth season of Growing Pains, and it's all relative, my forsaking the premiere of Rosanne, but I did in all fairness have some tresses that needed crimping - and I am sorry to you Cheers, when you would grace your, (and it was indeed a saving grace) presence on the wee little screen some six years earlier, you were truly inspired as Long as Shelley was in your ensemble. Payback's the ultimate of bitches, oh yes I am talking to you Ms. Alley - and that's for opening the box of Pandora - Veronica's Closet which was surely my mezuzah to bear, given the namesake and all the folk that insisted on their foray into bad office jokery who relentlessly used this reference at my expense. Alas, I was securely hoisted on my very own petards - the day I let my conscience be my TV Guide...