In October, 2005, TV Guide discontinued
its traditional small-scale look and bumped up
the size of the magazine to a 8"x10.5" format to
match other magazines in the market. To
commemorate their upcoming larger look, the
magazine commissioned photographers to recreate
nine famous TV Guide covers using contemporary
actors to play the role of past TV greats.
The covers in the series (the last of the small
format) hit newsstands October 6th. They
included:
- Reba McEntire as Lucille Ball (from a set of
covers published on Oct. 13, 2001)
- The cast of "Scrubs" as the cast of "M*A*S*H"
(July 24, 1976)
- Charlie Sheen and John Cryer of "Two And A Half
Men" as "The Odd Couple" (Feb. 6, 1971)
- Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa as Major Nelson and
Jeannie in "I Dream of Jeannie" (Feb. 5, 1966)
- Homer Simpson as Fred Flintstone - as drawn by
Matt Groening (June 13, 1964)
- Jennifer Love-Hewitt as Sally Field in "The
Flying Nun" (Sept. 30, 1967)
- Dan Marino and Greg Gumbel as Crocket and Tubbs
from "Miami Vice" (July 27, 1985)
- The cast of the "Bernie Mac" show having some
"Good Times" (Dec. 14, 1974)
- Conan O'Brien as Buffalo Bob from "Howdy
Doody"(June 25, 1954)
The last major physical change in the TV Guide
magazine occurred February 7, 1981. This was
their last stapled issue. It featured Jane
Seymour in “East of Eden”. All the magazines
after that were bound with a hot glue process.
Personally, I prefer the staples.
By going larger, TV Guide abandoned their
prominent spot at the check out counter in
thousands of stores nationwide. Fear not,
because Justice, an independent full-sized
bimonthly crime magazine, took over the pockets
left empty by TV Guide with the debut of a their
downsized digest-sized January 2006 publication
on sale at newsstands as of December 14, 2005.
Short history of Ownership
In August of 1988, media mogul Rupert Murdoch
purchased TV Guide magazine (part of a package
deal), from its owner Walter Annenberg for a
price of $2.8 billion. It later sold to Gemstar.
In December 2007, Macrovision Corp. agreed to
acquire Gemstar-TV Guide International Inc., a
media, entertainment and technology company for
about $2.8 billion.
In October, 2008, the print edition of TV
Guide to Beverly Hills, California-based
investment firm OpenGate Capital. According to
SEC filings, OpenGate purchased the magazine for
$1, less than half the cost of a single copy of
the magazine.
TRIVIA NOTE:
On episode No.71 "The Cigar Store
Indian" on the sitcom SEINFELD/NBC/1990-98
George Costanza'a father Frank (Jerry Stiller)
was fanatical about collecting TV Guide
magazines from "the beginning." When Elaine
Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) took his copy of the
December 4-10th issue (Vol. 41 No. 31) with Al
Roker on the cover, Frank went berserk.
On the sitcom THE SIMPSONS/FOX/1989+ Homer Simpson
revealed his literary IQ saying "Well, I've
always been a firm believer in the three
R's...reading TV Guide...Umm, writing to TV
Guide...and renewing TV Guide."
Lucille Ball holds the record for appearing
on the cover of TV Guide Magazine the most times
(a total of 32 times). Runners up are Johnny
Carson and Elvis Presley. See also
NICKNAMES: "TV Guide"
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