April 3rd, 1953 - "TV Guide" was published for the first time. The cover was a photo of Lucille Ball's infant Desiderio Alberto Arnaz IV

:cool: :D

Nice!


I would love to have an original copy of that.

Every now and then a copy appears on Ebay for a reasonable price. About 10 years ago I bought an original "Issue 1" from a seller on Ebay for undr $200, and the magazine was in almost near mint condition except for one staple was kind of rusty (not bad) and someone had marked a few TV shows they wanted to watch with a pen. Besides that, all complete, no mailing label.

Every now and then a copy appears on Ebay for a reasonable price. About 10 years ago I bought an original "Issue 1" from a seller on Ebay for undr $200, and the magazine was in almost near mint condition except for one staple was kind of rusty (not bad) and someone had marked a few TV shows they wanted to watch with a pen. Besides that, all complete, no mailing label.



Nice!

...was originally intended to be an "exclusive" for another magazine. A TV GUIDE representative met with Desi in his office a few weeks before the premiere issue, practically begging him for a picture of Desi, Jr., telling him it would help the magazine's initial circulation. Arnaz officially told the man that he'd already promised "another magazine" the exclusive rights for his son's picture. However, he had a number of different "proofs" from the photo session (which yielded the picture) scattered on his desk. Desi informed the rep that he was going out for a brief smoke, strongly hinting that when he returned, if one of those "proofs" were missing from his desk, he wouldn't notice. The rep took the hint....and that's why the picture wound up on the cover of the magazine. And it did help TV GUIDE to become the national magazine it once was.

Today, it's a pale imitation of ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY (with some of its ex-staffers working for the magazine), featuring "programming grids", "Hollywood fluff", "fan magazine/tabloid mentality" stories, and self-promotion for key Fox TV series [News Corp., Fox's "overlord", still owns a majority stake in the publication after almost 22 years]. "TV Guide" is more of a "brand name" these days, anyway, with their cable channel (which, also owned by News Corp., is about as effective as the magazine is) and online website. I stopped buying it years ago. I only thumb through it on occasion....


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...was originally intended to be an "exclusive" for another magazine. A TV GUIDE representative met with Desi in his office a few weeks before the premiere issue, practically begging him for a picture of Desi, Jr., telling him it would help the magazine's initial circulation. Arnaz officially told the man that he'd already promised "another magazine" the exclusive rights for his son's picture. However, he had a number of different "proofs" from the photo session (which yielded the picture) scattered on his desk. Desi informed the rep that he was going out for a brief smoke, strongly hinting that when he returned, if one of those "proofs" were missing from his desk, he wouldn't notice. The rep took the hint....and that's why the picture wound up on the cover of the magazine. And it did help TV GUIDE to become the national magazine it once was


This is certainly news to me, Where did you hear about it?

...I read about that in a book concerning the history of Desilu, 'zone'- I believe it was the one by Coyne Steven Sanders and Tom Gilbert....

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