I miss seeing the test pattern in the early morning hours and I miss hearing the National Anthem played each night at the end of broadcasting. I miss seeing Dave Garroway on the Today Show and I miss the zany comics on the Steve Allen Show – Louis Nye, Tom Poston, and Bill Dana (Jose Jimenez).
I miss the Maxwell House commercials and the smell of hot tubes within the TV set. I miss the great Christmas specials with Perry Como, Andy Williams, and Bing Crosby. I miss Speedy Alka Seltzer, the Marlboro Man, Timex watches and John Cameron Swayze and Little Ricky on the Ozzie and Harriet Show. I miss Saturday morning cartoons, the Cisco Kid and Art Carney as Norton, and I also miss TV Guide.
Today, we have a button on our remotes called “Guide†(if you can find it), and one click on Guide reveals all the programs on the thousands of channels, when they are on and what the program is all about.
But way, way back many centuries ago, all we had as a tool to find out about upcoming TV shows was our trusty TV Guide. It came in the mail every Thursday before the broadcast week would begin that Friday.
The National TV Guide’s first issue was in April 1953. Some 1½ million copies were sold – it was an instant success. The first cover featured Lucile Ball’s newborn son, Desi, Jr. The initial over the counter cost was 15 cents a copy and a one year’s subscription was $5.
In each issue, there were usually two or three interesting articles about TV stars, new programs and other subjects, but every week, we scoured our TV guide for upcoming specials, circling each must-see segment.
TV Guide met its match when cable TV began broadcasting more programs than the small magazine could keep us with. No longer with just three major networks, the world of TV would change forever.
I think they still publish a magazine called TV Guide, it comes out twice a month, but it can never replace that small, weekly, pocket size treasure of information called TV Guide, and I miss it even today.