Television Obscurities

I didn’t even try to find a copy of this year’s TV Guide Magazine Fall Preview issue, which supposedly went on sale August 27th. I went straight to eBay for a copy. It didn’t make sense to drive back and forth to multiple stores over multiple days in the hopes of finding TV Guide Magazine for sale. The closest Barnes & Noble to me is the only place I’ve seen TV Guide Maga...

The 1966 Fall Preview issue of TV Guide magazine included a four-page ABC Opinion Poll in the national section asking readers to rate the network’s new and returning shows. There were 2,025 prizes: 25 General Electric 19-inc color television sets and 2,000 General Electric transistor radios. Readers were given three options for each show ranging from great to modest to bad. A...

A Year in TV Guide: 1966-1967 celebrates the 60th anniversary of the 1966-1967 television season through the pages of TV Guide magazine. Each week, I’ll examine the issue of TV Guide published exactly 60 years earlier. The goal is not simply to examine what was on television each week but rather what was being written about television.

Week #1
September ...

As you’d expect, there are tons of short-lived TV shows celebrating anniversaries this month. The networks have traditionally debuted their new fall shows in September, many of which went on to become one season wonders or survived only a few weeks. My master list contains more than 600 TV shows that premiered in September. I’ve chosen only a few dozen to commemorate this mon...

Here we are again at the start of a new television season for the broadcast networks and so far it appears only CBS has produced a fall preview special. I’ve looked for press releases, browsed television listings for multiple parts of the country, and done general searches but haven’t found any information for fall preview specials from the other networks. See below for detai...