TV Guide: Fifty Years of Television (Hardcover)

by TV Guide (Author), Mark Lasswell (Author) "Though they got their start in the 1930s as movie-matinee fodder, Warner Bros. cartoons-flying under the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies banners-will be forever cherished..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York City, Star Trek, Johnny Carson (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
The engine of American culture receives an affectionate and often perceptive overview in this retrospective from the nation's biggest weekly magazine. Classic shows from I Love Lucy and Howdy Doody to The Sopranos and Survivor are given lavishly illustrated spreads along with quirkier cult favorites like The Prisoner and I, Claudius. TV's milestone discoveries of politics (All in the Family), social realism (Hill Street Blues) and nihilism (Seinfeld) are duly noted, while through-the-years thematic comparison of news broadcasts, sit-com families and TV detectives-and even the antics Ozzy and Harriet and The Osbournes-remind us that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Excerpts from TV Guide back issues include essays by literati like Alistair Cooke (on the "one of a kind" Mash) and Jay McInerny (on Seinfeld, which he initially thought would fail because it was "way too good to be on TV"), as well as nuanced analyses of television's impact on political campaigns and the Vietnam War. Best of all are the funny and thoughtful capsule appreciations of individual shows: Bewitched is pegged as a 60s microcosm in which a clueless, gray-flannel-suited Darrin goes to the office while "back at home, everybody else was on acid;" while Hawaii Five-O's Jack Lord "looked like a film-noir refugee who had wandered onto the set of a beach-blanket movie." Leafing through this volume will provoke floods of nostalgia, followed by the unsettling realization of just how much our memories consist of the TV shows we have watched.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Adult/High School-This visual feast has a heaping helping of narrative about trend-setting programs and an interesting dollop of celebrity essays. YAs might find themselves surprised to realize that what they consider innovative programs today have parallels with shows of the past. The book is categorized by time slot: weekend, daytime, evening, prime time, and late night. Teens may read for pleasure, perhaps to test their parents' or grandparents' memory on the novel days of TV, or for information. The book is a plum for a report about American culture from the 1950s to the millennium. Also, the pages are stuffed with photos of TV Guide covers that are perfect for art and photography students learning design and layout. An index of every TV Guide cover is included, along with photographer. This coffee-table-sized book will be popular because of its balanced and colorful account of each decade.
Karen Sokol, Fairfax County Public Schools, VA
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Crown (October 29, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400046858
• ISBN-13: 978-1400046850
• Product Dimensions: 12 x 10.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #516,276 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Past Programming Brought to Life, May 24, 2006

By	Jan Peczkis "Scholar and Thinker" (Chicago IL, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This book and its photos stir up unforgettable memories: Mickey Mouse, Leave it to Beaver, Dennis the Menace, Get Smart, Ed Sullivan, Batman, Red Skelton, Jackie Gleason, Lawrence Welk, Bonanze, Flipper, Daktari, the JFK assassination, and much more. It also provides a useful TV Guide index covering the years 1953-2002.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A colorful guide to the box in the corner., September 21, 2004

By	Robin Benson - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is typical of those overpriced books that come out for buying in the festive season but the good news is that after December you can usually find them at a greatly reduced price. I got my copy via the Net at well below ten dollars.

Read the Book Description above to find out about the contents of this thick coffee table book. Most of the two hundred and fifty photos (all publicity shots) are one to a page with long captions and covers of the Guide, more than four hundred, pop up at relevant places. Other covers are shown on five spreads devoted to each decade and actually I would have preferred the book to have concentrated on the covers rather than the publicity photos, a lot of well known illustrators were used, like Jack Davis, Ronald Searle, Al Hirschfeld, LeRoy Neiman and Bob Peak to name a few.

I did like the way the material was divided into themes, Weekends, Daytime, Evenings, Prime Time and Late Night, rather presenting it all in strict historical order. The back of the book has an interesting complete list of covers from April 1953 to April 2002 but unfortunately it is set in a real tiny type (Day-lite Sans would be an appropriate font name).

If you can find this book at a low, low price it will certainly be worth buying.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a fun look at TV history!, April 17, 2003

By A Customer

I got this book for my TV buff husband for Christmas... he has been reading it ever since. The whole family has enjoyed reading it. This book is a must for any true TV buff... and what man isn't one! Looking for a great gift for a man in your life... this is a must, especially if he's a babyboomer or prior. Highly recommended for the money!