Who here NEVER subscribed to TV Guide? What did you use?

(see subject)

A lot of people seem to have fond memories of the TV Guide from the
60s, 70s, and 80s. Like looking at the new Fall Preview. ;-) I don't
have these fond childhood memories.

My parents used the Freebie TV Week that came with the Sunday paper.

Anybody...

We get "TV Guide" (New Zealand version) from the shop every week rather
than a subscription, but before that we used to get a magazine called
"The Listener" - this has been around since before TV (hence the name)
and these days covers TV listings, radio listings (where appropriate)
as well as various articles covering entertainment, business and
current events. TV Guide is cheaper and doesn't have lots of pages we
have no interets in, so we switched.

We usually also get the daily newspaper which has that day's TV
listings in it, but the TV Guide lets you see what's coming next week
since it gets published just over a week before the date of the
listings.

mcardle...

Unfortunately, if I had TV Guide it would mostly have told me what great
shows would be on in Australia in about two years time.

David E. Milligan...

Sunday paper TV Week

Ubiquitous...

I used the Sunday paper schedule and bought TVguide occassionally.

heartbreak1980...

Same as you bro! Till Prevue Guide!

Vanya6724...

Where I grew up a subscription to TV Guide was a sign that you were
lower class and/or uneducated. If you got a Sunday newspaper, like
most college educated people did, why would you waste your money on TV
Guide?

Tony Calguire...

I never cared for TV Guide. My biggest complaint was the format... The
Minneapolis Star Tribune's TV Weekly always had a grid listing for just
about every daypart. TV Guide always had those half-hour by half-hour text
paragraph listings. I never liked those.

The newspaper TV magazines have always given readers reason to complain,
and whenever our newspapers would overhaul their TV mags, they would get a
deluge of hate mail from readers. But thinking back on it, they really did
the best they could. From what I've seen of other cities, the
Minneapolis and St. Paul papers still do a better job of it than a lot of
other metros. It has always been a challenge for them to cram more and
more new cable channels into that grid. But the Mpls paper still has a
grid listing for every daypart.

I think what has really hurt the newspaper TV listings is that the networks
change around their schedules too much on a whim, and the booklets, which
are printed several weeks in advance, can't keep up. And they don't print
enough synopses for episodes of high-profile primetime shows. I don't
think the Mpls guide ever has synopses for NBC's shows anymore.

One thing to keep in mind, whether it's your newspaper or your favorite TV
listings website, is that Tribune Media Services is, and has been, the only
company that actually puts together these TV listings.

Anim8rFSK...

Because the listings in the paper were woefully inadequate and
persistently wrong?

Vanya6724...

Not in the Washington Post they weren't.

jayembee...

I suspect the real explanation is that "a subscription to TV GUIDE
was a sign that you were lower class and/or uneducated" because
you obviously watched TV, and only lower class and/or uneducated
people watched TV. Those who got the Sunday newspaper were obviously

Robert Huff...

Not quite. Lots of people watched TV. Only lower class
people cared enough about it to spend extra money on a second
schedule, even if it is more accurate.

Robert Huff

higher class and/or educated, because they were reading the news.
But they would also have access to TV listings without announcing
to the public at large that they actually watched TV. Just like
those people who read PLAYBOY for the articles.

Vanya6724...

Yup, that seems about right. But I can't say I personally ever saw the
use in having a TV Guide at the time. Other than inane articles about
celebrities it didn't offer anything you couldn't get from the
supplement. This was of course before cable TV took off.

Anim8rFSK...

Again, you're assuming a supplement that actually had useful
information. I've never seen such a thing.

Vanya6724...

What on earth are you talking about? What else did you need to know
besides what time the show came on and what channel it was on? The TV
listings in newspapers gave you everything you needed.

Wayne Brown...

I liked having a brief summary of the episode's plot, the names of guest
stars, and an indication of whether it was a re-run. That information
often determined whether or not I watched a particular episode.

Of course, one could also look at a sub to TV GUIDE as a sign that
you were well-off enough to spend the money for a subscription fee
even though you could get a free guide in the Sunday paper.

Vanya6724...

That would be a sign that you had money, but no class, and were
probably in real-estate or something similarly unsavory.

Marlene Blanshay...

i only subscribed for a short time a few years ago, mainly because it
was really hard to find on newsstands in my neighbhorhood. TV guide was

Mark Nobles...

It didn't matter to you that it was $2.95 an issue on the newstand and
$0.25 an issue by subscription? Subscribe and you could have an extra
latte every week.

better even just a few years ago. Then I stopped subscribing because I
got the paper on saturdays which had weekly tv magazine. Now i just get
my tv listings on the internet.

Where did you grow up anyway?

Vanya6724...

DC. But in the 1970s TV Guide was a clear marking of class. I went to
a private school in Georgetown and I don't recall ever seeing a TV
guide in anyone's house.

et472...

But couldn't that be a reflection of their attitude (or pretended attitude)
towards TV?

They'd see it as a fairly lowly thing, and hence not worthy of getting
a magazine about it. If it came with the paper, they could pretend
that they had no interest, because they didn't have to go out of their
way to get it. "That trifle? They bring it with the paper even though
I keep asking the delivery boy to stop bringing it. And the maid keeps
forgetting to toss it out".

The image they'd want to project is that they are out going to the ballet
and classical music concerts and opera, and have no time for low brow
tv. At the very most, they'd only want to keep track of PBS, and since
they'd have money they'd be members and get the newsletter that told
them what was coming up there.

RidgemontRat77884...

We used the TV schedule that came with the newspaper, and sometimes TV
guide.

cloud dreamer...

So did we. TV Guide was never published in Newfoundland.

et472...

Is that because of the half hour difference? They decided it wasn't worth
publishing an extra edition for a relatively small population?

cloud dreamer...

That would be my guess. The time difference would have meant publishing
an issue just for the island and 1/2 million people mustn't have
justified the cost.

By the way, dd you know that TV guides from the 50s-80s are now traded
and bought as "collectibles"? Just check out ebay to see what I mean.

jayembee...

This is nothing new. They've been "collectibles" for at least the
last 30 years. Back in the early 70s, I got on the mailing list of
a mail-order dealer in New York who offered, among other things,
back issues of TV GUIDE.

For good or for ill, the primary criterion for collectibility of
TV GUIDE appears to be the cover subject.